The premise of this book is that traditional language used to describe Christian beliefs no longer makes sense to people living in the twenty-first ceThe premise of this book is that traditional language used to describe Christian beliefs no longer makes sense to people living in the twenty-first century. Early in the book the author posits twelve "theses" which will be addressed, and after making the case for their deconstruction he will provide alternative understandings compatible with current knowledge of the universe, our world, and life in it. In Chapter 4 of the book the twelve theses are clearly stated, and I have decided to copy them below verbatim.
1. God. Understanding God in theistic terms as a being supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to the world, and capable of intervening in the world with miraculous power is no longer believable. Most God talk in liturgy and conversation has thus become meaningless. What we must do is find the meaning to which the word God points. 2. Jesus the Christ. If God can no longer be thought of in theistic terms, then conceiving of Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity has also become a bankrupt concept. Can we place the experience of the Christ into words that have meaning? 3. Original Sin. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which we human beings have fallen into original sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense. We have to find a new way to tell the old story. 4. The Virgin Birth. The virgin birth understood as literal biology is totally unbelievable. Far from being a bulwark in defense of the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth actually destroys that divinity. 5. Miracles. In a post-Newtonian world, supernatural invasions of the natural order performed by God or an incarnate Jesus are simply not viable explanations of what actually happened. Miracles do not ever imply magic. 6. Atonement Theology. Atonement theology, especially in its most bizarre substitutionary form, presents us with a God who is barbaric, a Jesus who is a victim, and it turns human beings into little more than guilt-filled creatures. The phrase "Jesus died for my sins" is not just dangerous, it is absurd. Atonement theology is a concept that we must escape. 7. Easter. The Easter event gave birth to the Christian movement and continues to transform it, but that does not mean that Easter was the physical resuscitation of Jesus' deceased body back into human history. The earliest biblical records state that God raised him, into what we need to ask. The reality of the experience of resurrection must be separated from its later mythological explanations. 8. The Ascension. The biblical story of Jesus' ascension assumes a three-tiered universe, a concept that was dismissed some 500 years ago. If Jesus' ascension was a literal event of history, it is beyond the capacity of our 21st century minds to accept it or believe it. Does the Ascension have any other meaning, or must we defend 1st century astrophysics? 9. Ethics. The ability to define and to separate good from evil can no longer be achieved with appeals to ancient codes such as the Ten Commandments, or even the Sermon on the Mount. Contemporary moral standards must be hammered out in the juxtaposition between life-affirming moral principles and external situations. No modern person has any choice but to be a situationist. 10. Prayer. Prayer understood as a request made to an external theistic deity to act in human history is little more than an hysterical attempt to turn the holy into the service of the human. Most of our prayer definitions arise out of the past and are thus dependent on an understanding of God that no longer exists. Let us instead think of prayer as the practice of the presence of God, the act of embracing transcendence and the discipline of sharing with another the gifts of living, loving, and being. 11. Life After Death. If we are to talk about eternal life with any degree of intellectual integrity we must explore it as a dimension of transcendent reality and infinite love. A reality in love that, when experienced, let us share in the eternal. 12. Universalism. We are called by this new faith into radical connectedness. Judgment is not a human responsibility. Discrimination against any human being on the basis of that which is a given is always evil, and does not serve the Christian goal of offering abundant life to all. Any structure in either the secular world or the institutional church that diminishes the humanity of any child of God on an external basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation must be opposed publicly and vigorously. There can be no reason in the Church of tomorrow for excusing or even forgiving discriminatory practices. Sacred tradition must never again provide a cover to justify discriminatory evil. The call to universalism must be the message of Christianity.
Can a new Christianity be forged on the basis of these twelve theses? Can a living, vital, and real faith that is true to the experience of the past while dismissing the explanations of the past be born anew in this generation? I believe it can. And so to engage in this task I issue this call to the Christian world to transform its holy words of yesterday into believable words of today. If we fail in this task there is little reason to think that Christianity as presently understood and constituted will survive this century. It is my conviction that we must move beyond theology, beyond creeds, beyond human perceptions, to catch a new vision of the Christ. This book will be my attempt to do just that.
I think the author delivered on this stated goal and has provided interpretations of those religious words worthy of consideration by anyone who has difficulty accepting traditional Christian theological language but wishes to continue being a part of a church community....more
This second book of the Deptford Trilogy is centered on the son of one of the major characters from the first book of the Trilogy, The Fifth Business,This second book of the Deptford Trilogy is centered on the son of one of the major characters from the first book of the Trilogy, The Fifth Business, and follows him as he tries to find psychological peace through Jungian analysis. The first two-thirds of the book are a diary kept by the protagonist during his treatment while the final third narrates what happens after a year’s worth of therapy.
Much of the book consists of reporting the dialog between the protagonist and a Swiss Jungian therapy doctor, and as such provides a sampling of how Jung’s theories of the unconscious mind work in practice. Dreams and myth are explored as a way to eventually arrive at a self who is “the archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the psyche.” The Jungian analysis as portrayed in this book includes creating oneself first as an anima, then a persona, and finally one's own archetype which in this story ended up being a manticore.
Through the dialog with the doctor much of the protagonist’s past relationships with his parents is reviewed thus covering much of the material previously described in the first book of the series. The narrator of the first book was a friend of the protagonist’s father and maybe a lover of his mother prior to her marriage to his father. The protagonist’s sexual history is explored and the role his father played in it are explored. His unrequited youthful love of the girl who got away is told, as well as his frustration with his manipulative sister. A teacher and law professor also play important roles in his life.
After a year of analysis the protagonists meets by coincidence his father’s (and mother’s possible lover) from the previous book as well as the characters that are part of a traveling magic show. Thus the conclusion of the previous book is explored including the puzzled meaning of “the woman he knew and the woman that he didn’t know." There are three different interpretations given. The book concludes with a crawl into and out of a cave which I presume symbolically represents some kind of rebirth.
I found the book to be puzzling, strange, and not very enjoyable....more
This book is an interesting history of the Atlantic slave trade with particular in-depth focus on the infamous British (originally Dutch) slave ship ZThis book is an interesting history of the Atlantic slave trade with particular in-depth focus on the infamous British (originally Dutch) slave ship Zorg (a.k.a Zong). The ship was the site of the mass killing of 132 enslaved Africans by the crew in November of 1781. The stated reason for the killing was to conserve water.
The slave trade is a grim subject and the Zorg story particularly painful, but remembering the history is one way to honor its victims. The Zorg massacre would have not been recorded in history except for the fact that the ship owners made an insurance claim to cover the loss of the slaves. The insurers refused to pay and the resulting 1783 court case (Greyson v Gilbert) found in favor to the slavers.
The case may have died at that point and disappeared from history except for the fact that somebody who attended the trial wrote an anonymous letter about the case that was published in the newspaper. There again that article may not have caught anybody's attention except that Olaudah Equiano read the article and brought it to the attention of Granville Sharp who worked to have the crew prosecuted for murder.
The murder charge was not allowed, but the insurers did appeal the ruling of the first trial. This book devotes two chapters to that hearing. The arguments quoted in the book were eloquent and pointed, but in the end it was the fact that some of the killings had taken place after a substantial rain, and the fact that that information had not been introduced in the first trial caused the judge to rule for a retrial. The slavers apparently gave up on the case at that point since there’s no record of a retrial, so the slavers didn’t get the payment they sought.
The book follows how the legacy of the case of the Zorg subsequently led to a series of actions on the part of abolitionist such that after many years the slave trade was outlawed by Britain. Then there was the American Civil War and eventually most countries outlawed the practice of slavery.
Of particular interest in this book is the Epilog in which the author does some detective sleuthing and determines the identity of the person who wrote the anonymous letter. I was impressed with the amount of detail that could be retrieved from happenings so long ago, but the combination of financial records and trial transcripts make for good historical research.
I had access to a prepublication ebook edition of this book using the NetGalley Reader.
P.S. Note "message 2" below where I describe some more from this book....more
This book provides a critical look at "progress," something that most of us assume to be a good thing. A second look is taken at the ways progress is This book provides a critical look at "progress," something that most of us assume to be a good thing. A second look is taken at the ways progress is measured and the book explains how progress isn’t always as positive as perceived depending on the measured parameters. The book also shows how thus far in history progress has always depended on a parasitic, extractive, and expanding mode of operation. This kind of progress has culminated today with economist who assume exponential growth can continue forever on a finite earth. The book's conclusion is that we have no choice but to change future progress into a direction that is in equilibrium with the regenerative capacity of the earth.
The author provides a history of human civilization by beginning with the time "before progress" when human life was fully embedded within the natural environment. Then the book's narrative describes the era from 3000 BCE to 1400 CE as a time when human life and progress was tied up in the realm of the theological and mythical, and the parasitism was contiguous and regional. Agents then were city-states, kingdoms, and empires.
Next the time from 1400 to 1900 is explored with progress described as secular and rational, and the parasitism is described as disparate and maritime and often was in the form of colonialism. Agents of this era were kingdoms, nation-states, and empires.
Finally the book addresses the time period from 1900 to the present and describes progress as economic and ideological with parasitism networked and based on fossil fuel. Agents of this time are nation-states, corporations, and ideological coalitions. The discussion of ideologies includes Keynesianism, Communism, and Neoliberalism, and particular emphasis is placed on identifying Neoliberalism as an ideology that is just as theoretical and removed from reality as the other ideologies because on its expectation that unending compounded growth is possible on a finite earth.
The author tries to end the book with a note of optimism by offering an optimistic chapter titled "After Progress." Unfortunately, it is more of a hopeful vision than a recipe on how to change from parasitic economies to commensalistic ones. He acknowledges that we can't return to the conditions that existed prior to parasitic growth, and we'll need to find solutions to fit current conditions.
...we have to reconcile the necessities of the moment with those of the past and the conditions of the future. There is no one single model for how best to organize a society since what's best will depend on local ecologies and circumstances. The Anthropocene is likely to be an epoch of re-diversifying human cultures and societies even as coastlines shift, deserts expand and climate zones climb latitudes. What I am most concerned with is that the faulty relationship between human systems and ecological systems at the heart of the last 5,000 years. A relationship built on expansion and exploitation should be forever destroyed. Freedom from parasitism will ensure long-term survival of some sort.
The final chapter of the book is titled "Meaning Beyond Progress" in which the author explores several philosophies of life that will find meaning "in deferring the fulfillment of certain present impulses in the interest of future balance." Wise individuals arriving at such a state of mind is conceivable, but one must wonder about the widespread adoption of such thinking to achieve needed change.
I will conclude this review with the following excerpt near the end of the book which can serve as a sort of summary conclusion:
For 5 millennia, progress has offered a paradise of tomorrow, a new frontier that would finally bring everlasting joy, peace and contentment, not revealing that someone else's paradise had to be destroyed to open that frontier. In order to have any future, or any worth enduring, we need a new conception of our place in our ongoing history. We might not build paradise but at least we may craft branching slivers of peace and contentment, arteries coursing through the world along which joy, life, and beauty may still pass.
I had access to a prepublication ebook edition of this book using the NetGalley Reader....more
I first noticed this book soon after it was published in 2012. I don't consciously spend a lot of time thinking about dislike of "positive thinking," I first noticed this book soon after it was published in 2012. I don't consciously spend a lot of time thinking about dislike of "positive thinking," but apparently I do have some inclinations in that direction because it was the subtitle of the book that caught my attention. Thus when I recently came across this book again I decided that I needed to explore what the author had to say.
Indeed the first chapter of the book contrasted positive thinking mass rallies with that of Stoicism, and between those two choices I found myself preferring Stoicism. But after that beginning the book spends less time criticizing positive thinking and instead turns to examining various philosophical approaches to life. Thus it is a philosophy book.
The book delves into various philosophical and psychological traditions such as Buddhism in addition to Stoicism to illustrate how these schools of thought offer alternative perspectives on happiness that emphasize acceptance and resilience. This leads to the suggestion that facing and accepting uncomfortable realities, rather than trying to eliminate them, can lead to a more fulfilling life.
This book is written with enough humor to make the philosophy palatable to me as a naive philosopher. For example, it frequently returns to the example of purposefully trying to not think of a white bear. The harder one tries to not think about it the more vivid the image appears in the mind. This is an example of how trying to think only positive thoughts can be ironically counterproductive....more
The following excerpt from the book provides a succinct summary of the problem addressed by this book, that of surpassing the conservative/liberal divThe following excerpt from the book provides a succinct summary of the problem addressed by this book, that of surpassing the conservative/liberal divide to achieve the changes required to evolve into a future of abundance instead of scarcity.
We are used to understanding the battle lines of American politics as cleaving liberals who believe in a strong active government from conservatives who doubt it. The truth is far more complicated. Liberals speak as if they believe in government then pass policy after policy hamstringing what it can actually do. Conservatives talk as if they want small state but support a national security and surveillance apparatus of terrifying scope and power. Both sides are attached to a rhetoric of government that is routinely betrayed by their actions. The big government small government divide is often more a sentiment than substance. Neither side focuses on what scholars call state capacity — the capacity of state government to achieve its goals.
The message of this book is directed primarily at political liberals challenging them to practice what they preach. The authors are saying that liberal politics has made it impossible to make meaningful progress on existential problems of our time—problems such as housing shortage, achieving carbon neutrality to avoid climate catastrophe, facilitating scientific research and progress, and construction of high speed rail. It's true that many conservatives show minimal concern for many of these issues, but liberals have made themselves even more of an obstacle by creating endless bureaucratic roadblocks.
Thus many red States have constructed more alternative power and transmission improvements than most blue States even though their politicians lack concern about carbon neutrality. Many blue States have the greatest housing shortages and the highest unhoused population rates even though their politicians claim to be very concerned about low income housing. A case in point, Houston which has no zoning laws has the one of the lowest per capita unhoused population rates of any major city in the United States. (Google search indicates that Atlanta has a lower rate.)
The authors of this book are calling for our nation to switch from politics controlled by scarcity and instead evolve into a politics of abundance. This can be done if we begin to ask the correct questions and then find their solutions.
… we face an existential binary for our own time, abundance or scarcity? Abundance reorients politics around a fresh provocation, can we solve our problems with supply? Many valuable questions bloom from this deceptively simple prompt: • If there are not enough homes, can we make more? If not, why not? • If there's not enough clean energy, can we make more? If not, why not? • If the government is repeatedly failing to complete major projects on time and on budget, then what is going wrong and how do we fix it? • If the rate of scientific progress is slowing, how can we help scientists do their best work? • If we need new technologies to solve our important problems, how do we pull these inventions from the future and distribute them in the present?
Here's a link to an article from The Atlantic saying red and purple states are trending in the same direction as costal red states regarding codes and laws which restrict construction of housing: https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/a......more
This novel begins with the following purported quotation that explains the. meaning the the book's title.
Those roles which, being neither those of her
This novel begins with the following purported quotation that explains the. meaning the the book's title.
Those roles which, being neither those of hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were none the less essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement were called the Fifth Business in drama and Opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business.
The author gives a credit for this quote, but this accreditation was later found to be bogus. Apparently, Davies is the type of author who likes to mislead the reader.
As one would expect from this beginning the book's protagonist does indeed fit the above definition, and as the story develops there are characters to fill the roles of hero, heroine, confidante, and villain if the reader looks for it.
The story is narrated in the form of a letter written to show that the narrator lived a worthwhile life. He begins when he was ten years old with a ducked snowball thrown and intended for him instead hits a pregnant woman who subsequently gives birth to a premature baby boy. The boy grows up to be a character in the story, and the mother unfortunately appears to devolve into a diminished mental condition in the years after the snowball incident. But our narrator protagonist learns to appreciate this woman's blessedness as a saint capable of performing miracles.
Of course the boy who threw the snowball grows up to be the rich villain of sorts. The story culminates in the end with a meeting of the three principle characters, the villain, the protagonist, and the baby who survived premature birth who is now an adult. Shortly after this meeting the villain dies of either murder or suicide, but ... (view spoiler)[ we readers have evidence to be pretty sure that it's murder. (hide spoiler)]
The book's ending reminds the reader of the "fifth business" issue. The question of "Who killed Boy Staunton?" is shouted out at a public fortune teller show and the spooky fortune teller voice responds that he was killed by himself, the woman he knew, the woman he did not know, the man who granted his inmost wish, and by "the inevitable fifth, who was keeper of his conscience and keeper of the stone." I discussed this conclusion with eleven other readers of this book at a book group meeting and no definitive conclusion was achieved regarding the identity of the characters to fill all these roles.
This book is the first edition of a trilogy. The Manticore is the next book in the series.
The Wikipedia article on this book says that "The book's characters act in roles that roughly correspond to Jungian archetypes according to Davies's belief in the predominance of spirit over the things of the world." This caused me to see what Wikipedia had to say about Jungian archetypes. I decided reference to such a term was not helpful for me, but the reference to, "... Davies's belief in the predominance of spirit over the things of the world," was descriptive of this book's protagonist and narrator. He was fascinated by miracles and saints.
Certain statistical tests performed on DNA sequences can detect historical genetic bottlenecks and how much time has passed since their occurrence. GeCertain statistical tests performed on DNA sequences can detect historical genetic bottlenecks and how much time has passed since their occurrence. Geneticists from these tests together with the findings of archaeologists have surmised that approximately 74,000 years ago the human population from which we today are descended was reduced to “only about 1,000 to 10,000 breeding pairs.”
Prior to that time humans lived in many parts of the Africa, Europe, and Asia, but they had not yet reached Australia or the Americas. Most of the human population were archaic members of our species, Homo sapiens, however Europe was still dominated by Neanderthals. Due to this broad distribution of human beings it is believed that the population prior to this bottleneck was significantly larger.
It’s interesting to note that DNA variability found in genes of human lice and of our gut bacterium Helicobacter pylori which causes ulcers also experienced bottlenecks at this same time. This sort of bottleneck is also true for other animals including tigers and pandas.
Geologists in their study of the earth’s crust on both land and sea floor have concluded that the largest volcanic eruption in the past 28 million years occurred at about this same time at Mount Toba located in northern Sumatra. The eruption was approximately 1,000 times more powerful than the 1815 Tambora or 1883 Krakatoa volcanos and 3,000 times as powerful as the 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption. We know the earth’s climate was greatly affected by these more recent eruptions, so we can safely assume that the earth’s climate 74,000 years ago significantly deteriorated for a period of time and was a likely the cause of the population bottlenecks.
To support the above conclusions this book contains much history and scientific information related to volcanos, genetics, human evolution and mass extinctions. This book ends up being a general review of science....more
This short memoir from Melinda French Gates provides her perspective on navigating transitions in life and as suggested by the title, what to do on "tThis short memoir from Melinda French Gates provides her perspective on navigating transitions in life and as suggested by the title, what to do on "the next day” after a big transition. She draws on her own experiences with transitions including leaving home to attend college, becoming a parent, the death of a close friend, and stepping away from the Gates Foundation.
Recently turning age sixty is also mentioned which is a transition many of us have already experienced, but the really big transition I was wondering about was how she was going to address her divorce from her famous ex-husband. Indeed she discussed it with as much candidness as she had shared her other transitions by admitting to feelings of uncertainty but eventually evolving on to a point where the decision was made.
She admits that she knows that she’s been blessed with many positive resources which make her life’s transitions perhaps more possible than they may be for others. Nevertheless she comes across in her writing as being just as human as the rest of us, and readers contemplating their own transitions can find lessons in this book that may inspire resilience and hope....more
This memoir begins with the author telling the story of her being arrested and spending time in jail and prison. She was seventy-seven years old at thThis memoir begins with the author telling the story of her being arrested and spending time in jail and prison. She was seventy-seven years old at the time, a retired social worker, and not the sort of person one would normally expect to find in that predicament.
The reason for her arrest isn't clearly stated but it apparently had something to do with being a negligent caretaker of her husband's health. Her husband had been in failing health and insisted on not going to the hospital. After he eventually ended up either at a hospital or nursing home his condition was such that it led to the resulting charges and arrest. The state of bedsores on the husband's body was part of the issue in contention.
Early in the book the author discusses the indignities of being an older woman with her own age and health issues dealing with the limitations and restrictions of prison life. She didn't have money to buy stuff, let alone post a bail bond or hire a lawyer. Her musings then wander into the subject of her Mennonite background that perhaps contributed to her decision to honor her husband's refusal to go the hospital. In order to conjure a survivor's spirit within herself she recalls the story of her 18th century progenitor Jacob Hochstetler who survived being taken captive during the French-Indian War.
Much of the rest of the book is a review of her academic and professional experiences as a social worker including a chapter on the subject of suicide. Her husband's brother had ended his own life, and that experience is the initiating focus of that chapter.
There's also a chapter discussing the death of the author's brother. Since the author and her brother are cousins of mine I was familiar with this story, as I was with many of her other stories.
Reader's who want to know the conclusion of the criminal charges against her will need the read the rest of the book thoroughly to pick up on the scattered miscellaneous references to pretrial negotiations and trial conclusion. Near the end of the book there is a short comment about how it was resolved (which would be a spoiler if I included it here).
The stated purpose of this book is to offer an example of endurance and perseverance in the face of life's obstacles and difficulties....more
This book explores the irony that many of the most desirable, challenging, and fulfilling jobs are also some of the most exploitive occupations. The pThis book explores the irony that many of the most desirable, challenging, and fulfilling jobs are also some of the most exploitive occupations. The popular image of many of these jobs is that they should be a labor of love—the sort of work done out of passion instead of pay.
This book contains chapters that focus in on the following types of work: mother/housewife, domestic work, teaching, retail work, nonprofit work, artist, interns, adjunct professor, technology and sports. In each of these chapters the author highlights the experience of certain individuals while also discussing the overall view of the history, trends and current conditions within that particular profession.
The book challenges the idea that certain types of work, like those in caregiving, arts, or non-profits, are not "real" work and therefore deserving of less pay and respect. This myth allows employers to extract more labor from employees while paying them less, leading to burnout, exhaustion, and a feeling of being undervalued. The book highlights how this phenomenon disproportionately affects women, people of color, and those in marginalized communities, who are often funneled into these "labor of love" jobs.
The book does emphasize the importance of collective action and worker organizing as a means to challenge these exploitative practices and reclaim power. Ultimately, the book calls for a reimagining of the relationship between work and love, one that prioritizes fair compensation, healthy boundaries, and the recognition of the inherent value of all types of labor....more
The goal of this non-fiction book is to raise awareness of wrongful convictions, and in so doing help prevent more of them in the future. It contains The goal of this non-fiction book is to raise awareness of wrongful convictions, and in so doing help prevent more of them in the future. It contains many examples of wrongful convictions and in the Preface the authors indicate that their first challenge was to limit their selection to only ten cases, and to limit their descriptions to about 10,000 words each in order have a book of reasonable length.
Each story is a tragedy of justice, and they’re especially difficult to read because the reader knows that each story actually happened. The stories told by this book “bring to light systemic flaws in the justice system’s infrastructure that cause untold tens of thousands of innocent souls to interminably languish in prison.”
The following excerpt from the Preface provides a good overview summary of the stories contained in this book.
The twenty-three defendants caught in the web of these ten wrongful convictions needlessly spent decades in prison until the truth of their innocence finally emerged and set them free. Four landed on death row, two of whom came within days of execution, while one was tragically executed. … Often, the real killers were under the nose of the police from the outset of the crime and in two cases they were the star witnesses for the prosecution. ... Perjury by police and civilian witnesses was pervasive in these stories. These convictions were not caused by unintentional mistakes by local law enforcement or misidentification by well-meaning eyewitnesses or honest but erroneous forensic analysis. No, they were rooted in law enforcement misconduct and chicanery, men and women hell-bent on clearing cases or gaining a conviction through a wide variety of illicit means—subordination of perjury, secret deals with criminals in exchange for their fabricated testimony, coercing witnesses into false testimony or suspects to falsely confess, use of discredited or inept forensic analysts, suppression of exculpatory evidence from the defense, or other acts that obstructed justice ... .
One can only hope that books such as this will contribute to a future with improved behavior and adherence to professional ethics on the part law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges....more
Spoon River Anthology (1915) is a collection of short free verse poems by Edgar Lee Masters. The poems collectively narrate the epitaphs of the resideSpoon River Anthology (1915) is a collection of short free verse poems by Edgar Lee Masters. The poems collectively narrate the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town named after the Spoon River, which ran near Masters's home town of Lewistown, Illinois. The collection includes 212 separate characters, in all providing 244 accounts of their lives, losses, and manners of death. Many of the poems contain cross-references that create a candid tapestry of the community.
The following link is to an AI prepared summary of the meeting of a book group that I'm a member of that discussed this book. I decided including this summary of our discussion was better than any review I could write. https://greatbookskcdiscussion.blogsp......more
All through this first person narrative by a ninety-two-year-old woman, this novel's readers are led to believe she's simply residing in an out-of-theAll through this first person narrative by a ninety-two-year-old woman, this novel's readers are led to believe she's simply residing in an out-of-the-way hotel in Egypt because it's a peaceful and semi-isolated place to live through the Pandemic. Unfortunately her peace is being disturbed by her battle of wits with an eight-year-old boy that got started when the boy essentially blackmailed her into paying for an improved hotel room for him and his mother.
This blackmail started because our old lady protagonist was caught planting false evidence in a hotel room that was not her own. She sees it as her duty to intervene into the lives of others by helping to end other people's marriages when she decides their relationship should end. Our old lady protagonist tells us that her own ideal marriage ended years ago when her husband died, and their one daughter also died at about the same time.
It is clear that this old lady protagonist is a busybody with an unhealthy need to interfere in the lives of others. But as the story progresses there are hints of unreliability in her narration, we learn that she's on antipsychotic medicine, and her actions reveal evidence of criminal psychopathy. Things keep getting worse and worse until the end of the story when the reader of this book will wonder, "What the heck did I just read?"
I was tempted to give this book two stars because I didn't like it. But I gave it three because it is so different that I have to give the author credit for stringing me along all the way to the very end....more
The subtitle of this book is descriptive of the contents, but titling this book “History of the World …” is a bit of hyperbole. I suppose it can be deThe subtitle of this book is descriptive of the contents, but titling this book “History of the World …” is a bit of hyperbole. I suppose it can be defended on the basis that the sociological reactions to the six sited plagues are probably typical examples of the way humans have reacted to disease outbreaks throughout all of history.
The author examines the history of the sociological responses to the six plagues: cholera, sleeping sickness, influenza, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19. This book focuses on class and racial inequalities as well as the injustices of confinement.
The 19th century saw at least five major cholera pandemics. Broad Street cholera outbreak in London (1854) is famous example of how the importance of sanitation and clean water were important and controlling the spread of cholera. The toll of cholera suffered by the slaves in the American South was particularly hard, and some authorities placed blame on the supposed innate weaknesses of the slaves while overlooking their poor living conditions.
On the subject of sleeping sickness this book examines the work of Robert Koch in East Africa and in particular how he experimented on native Africans in large numbers as if they were Guinea pigs (i.e. laboratory animals). Robert Koch is credited with numerous advances in medical science, and in the case of his investigation of sleeping sickness he was operating with a mentality typical of the colonial era.
When examining flue pandemics the book starts with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and quickly branches off to the writings of Virginia Woolf and other authors of the time in which they describe their experiences with sickness.
With Ebola the book describes how the disease was used to stigmatized Sub-Saharan Africa. With HIV/AIDS the book features the experiences of prisoners and tells of several prisoners who were activists on the issue.
In the discussion of Covid-19 the book branches into a number of directions including the stories of a couple women that the author interviewed in Europe. The author also turned this part of the book's narrative into a mini-memoir and told of her own experiences getting married in Europe during the later days of the pandemic.
It's worth noting that the author, Edna Bonhomme, is Haitian American currently living in Berlin, Germany working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science. She is working there on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....more
This historical novel is based on a true story of a woman living in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War who secretly helped a Union officer recThis historical novel is based on a true story of a woman living in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War who secretly helped a Union officer recover from battle injuries and managed to transport him from behind Confederate lines to the Union Army Arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
This is fictionalize version of the story that is filled with more excitement, close calls, and romance than the original nonfiction version, but of course that's the way we readers want it to be. There is an Author's Note at the end of the book that describes the original historical story for which I'm always thankful when an author provides that information about their historical novel.
I was attracted to this story because of the story's time and place, Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley, because I have previously read the Scruples On The Line trilogy which had some of its characters living in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War. I was curious to see how another novelist portrayed that era of American history.
Overall I found The Jackal's Mistress to be a well written novel and was leaning toward giving it four stars, but it had too much gun play and sex for my taste (I'm an old fogey)....more
This novel reads much as a biography of August Engelhardt though it is filled with plenty of fictional filler material to make it interesting and at tThis novel reads much as a biography of August Engelhardt though it is filled with plenty of fictional filler material to make it interesting and at times humorous to read.
Engelhardt was a German who in the early 1900s established an utopian colony of cocoivores (coconut eaters) on Kabakon island in the then-German (now Papua New Guinean) Bismarck Archipelago in the South Pacific. He was also an advocate for nudism and as described in this fable-like account was a bony, scrawny, and bearded idealist who often suffered poor health probably caused by lack of complete nutrition in his diet.
Things did not go particularly well at his colony. German officials became alarmed at the arrival of poorly financed people who had no plans other than to sit in the sun.
...an appalling, almost pagan sight; the heavily emaciated young people loitered listlessly in the shadows of shredded tarps, the ends of which blew back and forth; some were buck-naked; it smelled vaguely of human feces that hadn't been carried completely out to sea by the daily tide; others had fallen asleep, exhausted, while reading anarchist treatises; still others spooned white, slimy meat from halved coconuts into mouths rimmed by unkempt beards.
The above can serve as a sample of the author's writing style which isn't exactly detailed but does throw around a lot of words to impart images of a host of atmospheric conditions....more
This is a book of short essays, some about aging as hinted by the title, but there are many about common everyday subjects that could apply to anyone This is a book of short essays, some about aging as hinted by the title, but there are many about common everyday subjects that could apply to anyone at any age. Rather than try to describe the book further I've decided to simply copy a number of short excerpts from the book. The quotes as I've shown them do not include their surrounding context as found in the book, so in someways it may not provide an accurate reflection of the author's narrative. But these are the excerpts I found interesting.
I look forward to my next birthday because while 79 is getting up there, 80 has gravitas.
You know you're old when you email a friend about a change in your blood pressure because you know she will be just as interested as you are.
Falling. There's that long, slow moment you know you are falling, a split second of curiosity and excitement. What is going to happen? Followed, alas, by landing.
Mortality keeps life interesting.
I don't believe in heaven, I said, but I know she's there.
I don't reprimand myself for wasting what's left of my life in bed. It's hard work to be conscious of every moment. Besides, napping is not a waste of time.
My memory is full of holes.
Somebody had the brilliant idea of giving these wasps colored construction paper and my God the nests they made look like beautiful misshapen rainbows.
Doing nothing is not meditation. You are not emptying your mind. You are letting it wander around from one thing to another.
Filled with anxiety about one thing or another, one loved one or another, the planet itself.
One day I will be dead as a doornail and what will that be like? Well I'll be dead so all I can do is try to think about what I think about that
If you could map my mind, it would resemble the zigzagging dog prints in an inch of snow.
I adopted "fuck this shit" as my motto during the Trump administration and find it applies to something new every day.
Time is a mystery. It disappears, comes back, disappears again, all the while it's still here.
Most of my memories are freestanding. Think of them as dots, like punctuation, or maybe exclamation points.
You can't change the past, but if you can face it.