September Booknotes

 

“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin 

 

Fiction: Anthem by Noah Hawley

This is a dark novel about a downward spiraling, post-Covid United States. A suicide epidemic is spreading through memes only teens understand and our country is on the verge of a civil war. The apocalypse has begun, and it is up to three teenagers to save it all. However, this is definitely an adult book!

This novel is many things - a cautionary tale, a dystopian tale, a thriller, and a fantasy. Hawley uses historical and current events to create a frightful world. He includes an opioid epidemic, a God-King former President, a super-creepy, Jeffrey Epstein-like character, climate change disasters, the insurrection, political polarization, children committing group suicides, and a woman being confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. Could all this really happen?

Hawley is a master of using ubiquitous cultural references, like an Amazon truck. We see these trucks in our neighborhoods everyday. In this novel even an Amazon truck and its contents have a role to play in the protagonists’ attempt to save their world. I will never look at an Amazon truck (nor a clown!) the same again!

In “Anthem” Hawley challenges us to examine our lives, our country, and our future.

 

Two Books – One Author, Non-fiction: Medical History

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine and The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris

Focusing on the tumultuous period from 1850 to 1875, “The Butchering Art” introduces us to Dr. Lister and his contemporaries. The author takes the reader through grimy medical schools, dreary hospitals, deadhouses, where surgeons studied anatomy, and the graveyards they occasionally ransacked for cadavers.

In a time when surgeons were known for their speed and brute force, Dr. Lister, a Quaker, claimed that germs were the source of all infections and that was why patients would survive the surgeries and then die from infections. He was one of the first to recommend all doctors wash their hands, operating table, and surgical instruments. Dr. Lister also advanced the use of antiseptics. A fascinating book!

In the second book, “The Facemaker”, the author focuses on the time period after Dr. Lister – World War I. This is a well-written narrative history of the brutality of WWI, the damage it did to mens' bodies, and how one pioneering plastic surgeon, Dr. Gilles, reconstructed the faces of soldiers.

Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners – artists, dentists, and surgeons -whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. In the early 1900s, losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a disfigured monster. Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also gave them hope for the future.

If you like Mary Roach’s books, you will probably enjoy these two by Lindsey Fitzharris!

NOTE: Suggested reading to follow “The Facemaker” – “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo

This is a fictionalized account of a WWI soldier who suffered a horrendous facial wound. It is also the best anti-war book I have ever read!

 

Book Club – International Fiction 

“Memoirs of a Life Cut Short” by Ričardas Gavelis (translated from Lithuanian)

In fourteen letters from beyond the grave to his friend Tomas, protagonist Leonas talks about his life from his earliest days up until his last as a Lithuanian living under Soviet rule. Through Leonas’ life we can understand the development of a regular, ordinary person living in a totalitarian society and its effects upon the human psyche.

Leonas is a man alone who desperately wants to belong but he is obstructed by his own innocence and decency. He struggles to resolve the tension between his moral integrity and the imposition of a political ideology. Leonas soon realizes that it is impossible to change the system or to extract himself from it.

A timely read as our nation appears to be moving towards (ultra)nationalism. The simple question “What could an intelligent person admire in a Soviet-like system?” - seems as urgent as ever. Hopefully we are paying attention. Otherwise, just like Leonas, who quotes Hamlet, we all may fall victims to that simple phrase, “the rest is silence.”

 

TANDEM READ: Non-Fiction

“They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency” by Malcolm W. Nance

“Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission” by Mark Leibovich

I had to alternate reading these two books so I wouldn’t become too depressed! “They Want to Kill Americans” is straight-up facts about white supremacist groups in our country, how they recruit and their infiltration into the Republication party. I learned more about Proud Boys and their ilk then I could ever imagine – and, yes, their membership exploded after Trump’s “stand back, and stand by” comment during the 2020 presidential debates (and then there’s the January 6, 2021 insurrection!) If you want to learn about conspiratorial and terrorist groups in our country, this book is a primer. It is the “Dragnet” version of events, just the facts - necessary for Americans to understand how these groups impact our political environment.

 

* Trump Rally in Youngstown, Ohio on September 17, 2022.

 On the other hand, “Thank You for Your Servitude” is the “Bill Bryson” version of events. The author, Leibovich, hones in on the “accomplices” – the politicians who warned against Trump in 2015 but then (flip-flop!) became his prime enablers. He mercilessly lampoons the full cast of careerist, sycophants, opportunist, and power-hungry-wannabes in the Republican Party who aided and abetted, or stood by passively as Trump used whatever means possible to maintain power. The sarcasm and snark he uses when describing them seems the perfect tone for people who willingly abandoned honor, dignity, and reputation.

Parts are hilarious, and I laughed aloud until I realized it’s not funny - it's our reality!

 

Non-Fiction (I think!)

“The Bigfoot Book: The Encyclopedia of Sasquatch, Yeti and Cryptid Primates” by Nick Redfern

 

I read this in an effort to decompress after reading the previous two books – if only the Proud Boys, QAnon and their ilk were simply “sightings” like Bigfoot!

Last month I read about the long history of UFO sightings so this month I decided to read about more earthly sightings – Bigfoot. This is a fun collection of interviews, anecdotes, books and movies focused on Bigfoot and other big, hairy creatures that people have reported seeing. Again, just like the UFO sightings, people have reported seeing Bigfoot creatures around the world and throughout history. Why? Unfortunately that question remains unanswered.

However, the encyclopedia format of “The Bigfoot Book” makes for leisurely reading as you can pick it up, read a little and then put it down. It is far from comprehensive, but it should serve as an introduction to many of the "Bigfoot" sightings and cases from around the world.

  

Non-fiction: History

“Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880-1922” by Dominic A. Pacyga

 

I requested this book through Interlibrary Loan so that I could learn more about the historical context of my Great-Grandparents’ lives.

This book explores the lives of Polish immigrants, like my ancestors, in Chicago’s Polish neighborhoods and the stockyards, factories, and steel mills in which they worked. Poles forged communities in their neighborhoods in an attempt to preserve the customs of their homeland through churches, schools, and saloons as they tried to recreate the feel of an Eastern European village within a large city. Thus, Poles were able to preserve their folk beliefs and family customs for awhile but in time, the economic hardships of industrialization forced them to reach out to their non-Polish neighbors. And this led, in large part, to the organization of labor unions in Chicago’s steel and meatpacking industries.

I found this an excellent reference for my genealogical studies and extremely interesting reading!

 

Non-fiction: “Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding” by Daniel E. Lieberman

Almost all Americans know that exercise promotes health, and they should exercise, yet 70% of adults report they never exercise. Why?

“Exercised” is a look at the natural history of physical activity and why exercise is both necessary and unnatural. The author has studied hunter/gatherer people who never “exercise” yet are physically active throughout the day. They are in excellent health. Plus, he includes numerous studies about exercise and health (aging, obesity, cancer, heart disease, etc.)

The book’s mantra is - we never evolved to exercise for the sake of health and fitness. Which explains why most people feel they must force themselves to be physically active!

While this is an extensively researched study of the effects of physical activity and the human body, the author does provide some simple advice:

• Make exercise necessary and fun.
• Do mostly cardio, but also some weights.
• Some is better than none.
• Keep it up as you age.

An extremely informative book for all humans!

 

AUDIOBOOK Fiction: Cozy Mystery

“A Deadly Bone to Pick” (Molly Madison #1) by Peggy Rothschild

I like dogs, I like mysteries and this book has both! Molly Madison has just moved from Massachusetts to a seaside town in California. She left her old life as a police officer and then a private investigator following the death of her husband. In her new home, Molly begins a dog day care and training business. She and her golden retriever, Harlow, take Noodle, a rollicking Saint Berdoodle, under their wings and get more than they bargain for when Noodle finds a severed hand on the beach.

Who could have committed this murder? And why are the police suspicious of her? It's up to Molly and her loyal dogs to solve the case!

There is a lot of emphasis on dog training, which I find interesting, but it might become tedious for non-dog people. Still this cozy mystery is just right for bedtime reading.