December Booknotes

 

“While we read a novel, we are insane - bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren't there, we hear their voices... Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.” - Ursula K. Le Guin

I went “insane” this month and read only novels!

 

Fiction: Mystery, Crime

BLACK BEACONS MURDER SERIES (also known as DCI Evan Warlow) by Rhys Dylan

I started reading this series in August. By September, I exhausted the titles in the public library’s collection and then had to purchase the rest of the series. This month I read books 11 through 14.  

In each successive book, the characters have retained their likeability and sense of humor. Even though the books contain a lot of Welsh language and place names, most phrases are translated. Plus, the settings, traditions, and landscapes in rural Wales also add an interesting, somewhat “exotic” atmosphere.

#11 The Light Remains - When a revered sports legend falls victim to a brutal home invasion, a nation is shaken to its core. Outrage swells and the press and powers that be demand answers.

#12 A Matter of Evidence - A man, recently released from prison after a 20-year wrongful conviction, is discovered dead, igniting a storm of doubt and suspicion. As long-buried secrets claw their way to the surface, the line between truth and deception blurs.

#13 The Last Throw - DCI Evan Warlow confronts what initially appears to be a straightforward case, only to find himself ensnared in a web of deceit. And when a routine press assignment also exposes a team member to a malevolent scheme, chaos begins to spiral.

#14 Dragon’s Breath - A man wanders lost on a freezing night in the Black mountains of Wales. Despite the valiant efforts of the rescue services, he does not survive. Is this an accident? Or murder?

This series has a good balance of forensic evidence, basic police work, and intuition. Each book can stand alone but the characters’ personalities are enriched from one book to the next, just as members of professional “teams” do over the course of their working lives. As soon as book #15 is published, I will order it – I can’t wait!

 

Audiobook Fiction: Mystery, Crime

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

*NOTE: I listened (free with my public library card) to this book on the Libby app.

Don’t go into this expecting a straightforward mystery. It has a farcical feel to it as well as unexplained motives, and things that must have been happening behind the scenes that I wasn’t quite sure of…

A diverse group is gathered at Burton Makepeace, a crumbling manor house, for a murder mystery weekend. We are introduced to each carefully crafted character one at a time and they will eventually be trapped together in the manor house. My favorite was Lady Milton. She is hilarious, I chuckled every time I read her chapters. However, there are a few characters who are less funny - the vicar who's lost his faith and his ability to speak, and the veteran who's lost his leg and his interest in life.

The protagonist, a private detective, Jackson Brodie, is investigating the theft of a renaissance painting from the home of a recently deceased woman. During that investigation, he discovers similar thefts have occurred previously. In each case, the housekeeper/caregiver was the primary suspect but neither the woman nor the art was ever found. Several years ago, Lady Milton was also a victim. She suffered the loss of her last remaining painting of any value, a Turner. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it. Oh, and a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace. Somehow this all comes together.

“God Almighty, Jackson thought. Neither of them could open their mouths without a cliché falling out.”

It’s a good thing there’s so much humor, because Atkinson takes her time setting up the premise of this book. The plot isn’t nearly as strong as the humor and characters. But, boy, did I enjoy listening to this book! The audiobook reader, Jason Isaacs, was fantastic!

 

Fiction: Short Stories

Float Up, Sing Down by Laird Hunt

I read Zorrie by the same author, so I decided to give this collection of short stories a read. While Zorrie makes an appearance in this book, it isn’t focused on her.

Float Up, Sing Down is the story of a single day (1982) in a small-town Indiana community through a series of interrelated short stories, each focusing on a different character. There aren't many secrets in a small town where everybody has known each other since they were kids.

“God’s country. Or God’s cousin’s country anyway. Maybe God’s nephew. No need to get grandiose.”

I thoroughly enjoy the simplicity of Hunt’s writing and exploring the rich inner lives of these ordinary people. Each story and history were so different, but I loved the way they subtly wove together so you got a clear picture their relationships with one another and of their community.

Imagine if you could get inside 14 different people's heads, all on the same day, all in the same town, and how many different concurrent experiences, thoughts, feelings, and memories would occur! That's this book.

 

Fiction: Graphic Novel

Here by Richard McGuire

NOTE: There is a movie based on this graphic novel. I have not seen it yet. I want to watch it just to see how anyone was able to bring this book to the movie screen!

Here is a stunning visual experience! It takes a single spot and examines it over the course of human history. From a prehistoric forest; the hunting grounds of Native Americans; America’s colonial days; contemporary family living; and then on into the future. We see this single spot seemingly unchained from the flow of time and instead as if it is all occurring at once. McGuire shows how we are not just merely an inconsequential speck in the cosmos, but an integral part of history. Despite our differences across time, we all share the same emotional experiences and, ultimately, death. We all love, laugh, cry, and we all die, and yet time marches on.

“Life has a flair for rhyming events,” Benjamin Franklin tells his grandson – indeed it does!

 

Fiction: Science Fiction

The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff

First published in 1939, as the world was careening towards the Second World War, The Hopkins Manuscript is now considered a classic novel. Reissued in 2023 due to the popularity of the award-winning Netflix movie Don’t Look Up, it tells the story of how a small English village prepares for the end of the world.  

The foreword is written from the perspective of an academic society 1,000 years in the future commenting on the manuscript as a historical document. The remainder of the book is the narrative of Edgar Hopkins – author of The Hopkins Manuscript. He wrote about life just before, during and after a catastrophe in which the Moon collides with Earth.

When his story starts, Hopkins is an unmarried, retired teacher who breeds poultry in Hampshire. He is a middle-class, small-minded snob living a lonely life.  He looks down his nose at “the lower classes” and then rages with jealously at more successful peers. He idolizes an aristocracy that is unaware and uninterested in his existence. As a result, Edgar’s best friends are chickens.

But his life begins to change when the news comes that the moon is going to crash into the Earth. Hopkins works with his fellow villagers to prepare for the great cataclysm, and he discovers that he likes many of them.

After the great cataclysm, class boundaries and social conventions are destroyed. Hopkins then slowly begins to develop close relationships. He begins to find a fulfillment in helping others. Hopkins admits that the happiest days of his life were immediately after the great cataclysm, working within the small, self-sufficient egalitarian society of local survivors. However, as the national infrastructure recovers and a governmental hierarchy regains control of the country it appeals to the survivors to fulfill their duty “to the state.” Now the survivors’ lives become even more precarious. The great cataclysm was terrifying, but it wasn’t what destroys the western world. That lesson is even more revelatory considering the times we're in now.

“The strange thing is this. Political upstarts, fanatics devoid of all powers of reason and common sense, greedy for wealth and power, their only claim to attention a loud voice and endless cascades of words. These nasty creatures swoop down upon peaceful, hardworking communities.”

While published before World War II, this book is so prophetic of how the British coped and tried to pull together while their country was being bombed. The Hopkins Manuscript is speculative but also a timely and powerful warning from the past that captures human nature in all its complexity.

 

Also, by R. C. Sherriff but a totally different genre!

Audiobook Fiction: Drama, World War I, Classic

Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff

*NOTE: I listened to this on the Hoopla app (public library). It was produced in February 2024 by L. A. Theater Works and is 1 hour and 47 minutes long.

Set in British trenches during the First World War, this play deals with the horror and futility of trench warfare.

It’s March 1918, and in the trenches of northern France, a group of British officers, led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope, ready themselves for a major German attack while facing their worst fears.

Author, R.C. Sherriff drew on his own experiences in World War I to create the play, which premiered in 1928 starring a young Laurence Olivier.  Sherriff had trouble getting it produced because theater managers thought no one would see a play that did not have a leading lady, and no one wanted to see a play about war. However, after Journey's End’s first performance, the audience sat in stunned silence and then gave a standing ovation.  It is now considered one of the preeminent works about the horrors of war.

Journey's End is worthwhile listening. I learned about it from an excellent World War I, 3-part series, Long Shadow (BBC documentary) which is available on Amazon Prime Video.

Booknotes: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

  

“History is not there for you to like or dislike, it is there for you to learn from it. And if it offends you, even better, because then you are less likely to repeat it. History is not yours to erase or destroy.”- U.S. Army Ret. Lt. Col. Allen West.

Nonfiction: History, Politics, War

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer

If I were to recommend only one book on Nazi Germany this would be it. This worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was published in 1959 and was written by foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, and then spent five and a half years sifting through massive documentation. There are 32 pages of citations, a 10-page bibliography, and an index. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind. Official casualty sources estimate World War II battle deaths at nearly 15 million military personnel and civilian deaths at over 38 million.

Shirer reveals Hitler as intelligent and determined, but also delusional and a pathological sociopath. How did a man like that become a world leader?  On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party. Under Hitler, the Nazi Party grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany as a totalitarian state from 1933 to 1945.

It is all here – Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920’s, the appeasement of the European powers during the 1930’s, the ruthlessness of the Hitler-Stalin pact and then the war itself with, for a time, Britain and Churchill standing alone. Enveloping all this are the hatreds of Hitler and the Nazi party - their hatred of the Jews; the Slavic and Russian peoples; democratic values (what we would now call human rights); and their hatred of the Versailles Treaty. Versailles was never the humiliation it was made out to be. As Shirer points out this “stab in the back” myth was also propagated by the Weimar Republic as well which unwittingly set up Hitler and the Nazis for success.

“And the German people? … some 90% voted approval of Hitler’s usurpation of complete power.”

Hitler knew how to rally German nationalistic fervor and dubious impulses of most of the German people. Shirer uses many of Hitler’s speeches and the people’s reaction to them to illustrate how the German people adored their beloved leader. I was struck by how a people could swallow his words so whole-heartedly – words that are so diametrically opposed to the best values of the Western World. The speeches are filled with hatred for Jews and ridicule for the leaders of the Western World. Hitler’s reply to President Roosevelt in 1939 before the war – though successfully manipulative – is haunting in retrospect.

Hitler consolidated his political ambitions with the full cooperation of German military power. Hitler demanded personal fealty from staff and purged any party or military members who he perceived as challengers. Eventually the Nazi salute took the place of the military salute “as a sign of the Army’s unshakable allegiance to the Fuehrer and of the closest unity between Army and Party.”

Hitler also worked with wealthy German industrialists to create “labor serfdom” to support the rich at the expense of the workers. Hitler’s “Charter of Labor” (20 Jan 1934), states that: “The employer became the ‘leader of the enterprise’, the employees the ‘following.’” Hitler decided early in his regime “not to permit any rise in the hourly wage rates.”

“Deprived of his trade unions, collective bargaining, and the right to strike, the German worker in the Third Reich became an industrial serf, bound to his master, the employer, much as medieval peasants had been bound to the lord of the manor.”

Hitler also consolidated his political aims with the educational system through compulsory participation in the Hitler Youth. There were specific organizations for each age group. Teens were required to work for six months either on a farm or in a factory. When parents of teen girls complained their young daughters were returning home pregnant, they were told it was for the “good of the Reich” and they should be “proud” of their Aryan grandchild since the child would “build up the master race.”

At age 10, children were required to swear to the oath of allegiance:

“In the presence of this blood banner, which represents our Fuehrer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”

In “The New Order” according to Hitler: Jews and Slavic people were Untermenschen – subhumans. To Hitler they had no right to live, except for some of the Slavs because they were needed to toil in the fields and mines as slaves of their German masters.

Millions of decent, innocent men and women were driven into forced labor, millions were tortured and tormented in concentration camps, and millions more still, of whom there were 4 ½ million Jews alone, were massacred in cold blood or deliberately starved to death and their remains treated with the utmost disrespect.

Hitler boasted that The Third Reich would last a thousand years. It lasted only 12. But those 12 years contained some of the most catastrophic events Western civilization has ever known!

No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich.

If you want to understand how World War II and the Holocaust could have ever possibly happened, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is the definitive book on Nazi Germany.  It is a classic work well worth the effort to read and contemplate. Shirer presents a clear picture of the rise of Hitler, his philosophy, the rise of the Nationalist Socialist Party, and the Nazification of Germany. He describes accurately life in the Third Reich, from the gradual increase of a totalitarian state to the escalation to war - on both Western and Eastern Fronts – to the loss of momentum, and, finally, the inevitable destruction of the Nazi regime.

Which leaves us with the question: Can a Hitler-type leader come to power again?

*NOTE: I watched these movies after reading this book and recommend as extremely worthwhile viewing. Both are excellent award-winning movies:

November Booknotes

 

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." - Haruki Murakami

Nonfiction: History, Psychology

The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America by Matthew Bowman

Wow! This book is not just another UFO tale. The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill provides thoughtful analysis and an expansive overview of this couple and the era they lived in. If you think this book is just about one couple’s alleged alien abduction, think again!

In 1961, Betty and Barney Hill saw something in the sky as they drove along a lonely New Hampshire highway. Later, through Betty’s dreams and the couple’s hypnotism sessions with a psychiatrist, they believed they had been taken aboard a spacecraft and given medical examinations by small gray creatures with large eyes. They reported their “memories” to government authorities. However, there is no physical evidence of their recounted “memories.” Once their story became public, the Hills became famous as the first Americans to claim that they experienced an alien abduction thus providing the template for nearly every alien encounter in American popular culture.

The Hills, an inter-racial couple who lived in New Hampshire, were civil rights activists, supporters of liberal politics, and Unitarians. Betty was a social worker, and Barney, a World War II veteran, was a postal worker, prominent NAACP speaker and on a national committee to pass the Civil Rights Act. They were educated and socially engaged people. When their story of abduction was repeatedly ignored or discounted by authorities, they lost faith in the scientific establishment, the American government, and the success of the civil rights movement.

Sadly, Barney Hill died at age 46 from a stroke. Betty then doubled down on her belief in alien abduction. After Barney’s death, she was driving down a highway and once again she saw a UFO. She pulled to the side of the road, got out of the car and yelled at the UFO that Barney was dead. She then attempted to direct the UFO to the cemetery by pointing to the location.  She believed they visited his grave. Betty also repeatedly invited fellow UFO believers to join her nightly to see “her” UFOs. However, they did not see what Betty saw.

Actor James Earl Jones bought the rights to their story including the audio tapes of their hypnosis sessions. His 1975 made-for-TV movie (available on YouTube), The UFO Incident, focuses on the psychological stress of being an inter-racial couple in 1960s America. Betty claimed to be “color blind” while Barney tried to hide how anxious he was about being attacked for being a black man with a white woman. Unknown to Betty, he had a gun in the trunk of their car “just in case.”

Carl Sagan also highlighted Betty and Barney Hill’s story on an episode of his TV series “Cosmos.” (available on YouTube) He famously said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill is much more than a UFO story. It is a “gripping account of an alien abduction and its connections to the breakdown of American society in the 1960s. Historian Matthew Bowman examines the Hills’ story not only as a foundational piece of UFO folklore but also as a microcosm of 1960s America. He exposes the promise and fallout of the idealistic reforms of the 1960s and how the myth of political consensus has given way to the cynicism and conspiratorialism and the paranoia and illusion of American life today.”

 

Nonfiction: Psychology

Brothers, Sisters, Strangers: Sibling Estrangement and the Road to Reconciliation by Fern Schumer Chapman

Last month I read The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family, which dealt with family estrangement due to cult involvement and The Sociopath Next Door which discussed how sociopathic behaviors may also lead to family estrangements. While cults and sociopathic behaviors can be legitimate reasons for family estrangements, this month I wanted to learn about “normal” or “run-of-the-mill” estrangements.

"Whenever I tell people that I am working on a book about sibling estrangement, they sit up a little straighter and lean in, as if I've tapped into a dark secret." – the author

First, estrangement is intentional. Someone intentionally separates or removes him/herself from another. They experience feelings of alienation, a lack of affection, and may even display unfriendliness or hostility. Lack of connection or communication is normal in families due to living great distances apart with little opportunity for physical contact and/or sporadic communication because of diverse and divergent lifestyles. However, estrangement is someone intentionally avoiding any contact whatsoever with a family member or members for several years or forever.

This book relates the story of the estrangement between the author and her brother. They grew up in a household where the brother – the “favorite” - was given the expectation and funding to become a doctor by their father (which the son did not want). The author was basically ignored by the father. Estrangement is common when there is a “favorite” child who is given more attention, more material objects, and financial help, while the other siblings do not receive the same treatment. The author loved and looked up to her brother throughout their childhood but as a young adult her brother dropped out of college and transferred his feelings about his father’s unrealistic expectations to the author who, he thought, had it “easier.” He cut off all contact with his father and sister for four decades until their now-widowed mother begged the author to reach out to him. She did and the book tells the story of their reconciliation.

Brothers, Sisters, Strangers focuses on three main themes: Chapman’s familial story; stories she collected from her social media site for estranged siblings; and general themes of estrangement taken from collected works on the subject. If someone is experiencing estrangement, I think this book would be encouraging just by letting him/her know they are not alone! Many of the vignettes shared did not have “happy endings.” But for those who attempted to reconcile and failed, they felt satisfied with their efforts and knowing they did what they could.

I found Brothers, Sisters, Strangers an easy introduction to the family estrangement topic. However, it doesn’t really offer a concrete path to reconciling this complicated and difficult situation. In fact, the author and her brother both utilized professional help. It is important to remember that sometimes the question of “why” is never answered and accepting that may entail work with a professional therapist.

 

Narrative Nonfiction: True Crime

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

I first read this book decades ago. Recently I heard someone say that they didn’t like In Cold Blood because the killers were “humanized.” I did not remember that aspect of the book, so I decided to reread it.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

This book is a true masterpiece of the nonfiction narrative. The narration is remarkable! Capote develops the characters to significant degrees but doesn’t sacrifice the intense suspense from beginning to end. What is truly intriguing about In Cold Blood is that we know who committed the crime, but we must try to figure out the “why.” Even the psychiatrists who attempted to unlock the “reasoning” behind the crime leave us with ambiguous and pathetic explanations. Capote details the killers’ childhoods, families, and significant life events prior to the killings. Perhaps this is why some people think the killers were “humanized.” Personally, I found those details intriguing and, yes, they do reveal that the killers were indeed humans, with overwhelming and tragic imperfections.

This was an awesome reread.

Our public library has a DVD of the movie version (1967), so I checked it out half expecting the movie to be a poor adaptation of the book. I was pleasantly surprised! This was the first time I watched In Cold Blood, and it is an excellent adaptation. Robert Blake (1923-2023) portrays one of the killers while John Forsythe (1918-2010) portrays the detective tasked with solving the crime. It was nominated for four Academy Awards including best original music score by Quincy Jones.(1933-2024)

 

Nonfiction: Natural History, Science

The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction by Gísli Pálsson

The author, Gísli Pálsson, is a professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland.

Pálsson recounts how, in the spring of 1858, two Victorian ornithologists, John Wolley and Alfred Newton, engaged in a frustrating and fruitless effort to find living great auks in Iceland. Before returning home to England, the pair “became anthropologists” and spent several weeks interviewing people familiar with the birds, especially fishermen who, in 1844, captured and killed two auks believed to be “the last of their kind.”

Pálsson tells four intertwined stories. The first relates how great auks lived and became extinct. The second story traces how Wolley and Nelson set out to find great auks. The third, and most effective, story is his telling how Wolley and Nelson “rebooted” their plans and shifted from finding great auks to finding facts about their fate.

The final story is related to two other ornithologists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, who electrified the scientific world with their theory of natural selection. Wolley and Newton realized the importance of one aspect of this theory, that extinction and evolution were inextricably linked. While species may adapt over time to changes in their natural environment, it was also true that species may become extinct due to man’s changes in their natural environment such as hunting, deforestation, and introduction of non-native species.

Thus, they launched the concept of “human-caused, unnatural extinction as a scientific and political object and making it a central aspect of our modern environmental discourse” It was this acknowledgment of man’s role in the extinction of species that formed the basis of our hunting and conservation laws.

After reading this book, I was reminded of how many people today refuse to believe that man has any impact upon our climate. Just as people in the 1800s refused to accept the evidence of over hunting the great auks brought about their extinction, today people refuse to believe that man’s burning of fossil fuels plays an integral role in the greenhouse effect leading to climate change.

The Last of Its Kind is the history of man’s initial realization that his actions could either bring about extinction or prevent the extinction of species. It opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction and reminds us of our duty to exercise stewardship over our natural resources.

 

Fiction: Historical Fiction

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller

Publisher’s Description: “In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure as a miner in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year and he might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next.

But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements.

Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor salves his loneliness, sparking a chain of surprising events that will bring Sven into a family of fellow castoffs and determine the course of the rest of his life.”

Initially I thought this would be like Old Jules (Swiss pioneer in the 1880s Nebraska sandhills), the story of a man creating a new life in a hostile environment, but it was so much more! Sven is a compelling narrator, and his story is unlike any others I've read. He brings a vibrancy to the harsh and freezing landscape populated by characters that are interesting, complex, and delightful. Plus, there are dogs, too. It is a wonderful adventure of the human spirit in a harsh landscape.

As Sven wraps up his tale at the age of 62, he tells us "I have seen enough to know that nothing is likely, but everything is possible."

I thoroughly enjoyed this very well-written narrative full of friendship, love, and wonder.

 

Fiction: Mystery

A Murder of Quality by John Le Carré

Miss Brimley, the editor of a small newspaper, received a letter from a worried reader: "I'm not mad. And I know my husband is trying to kill me." But the letter had arrived too late: its author, the wife of a teacher at the distinguished Carne School, was already dead.

Miss Brimley asks her old friend, George Smiley, to investigate. George Smiley went to Carne to listen, ask questions, and think. And to uncover, layer by layer, the complex network of skeletons and hatreds that comprised that little English institution.

“Smiley quickly noticed that he had one quality rare among small men: the quality of openness.”

A Murder of Quality is a British mystery set in a small coastal town famous for its decrepit yet proud boarding school, steeped in its traditions – a typical “British village” mystery.  It was just the quick distraction I needed from current events.

 

Books by the Beach Book Club International Literature: Memoir

One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya)

*A New York Times Notable Book* *A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice* *A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year*

Publishers Description: “In this vivid and compelling debut memoir, Wainaina takes us through his school days, his mother's religious period, his failed attempt to study in South Africa as a computer programmer, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya. The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood.

Throughout, reading is his refuge and his solace. And when, in 2002, a writing prize comes through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been beckoning all along. A series of fascinating international reporting assignments follow. Finally, he circles back to a Kenya in the throes of post election violence and finds he is not the only one questioning the old certainties.”

“I start to understand why so little good literature is produced in Kenya. The talent is wasted writing donor-funded edutainment and awareness-raising brochures for seven thousand dollars a job. Do not complicate, and you will be paid very well.”

I found this book to be a struggle. The writing style for the first part of the book is hard to follow. Wainaina describes his early years, through his childlike imagination, visual interpretations of his surroundings, and stream of consciousness - his childish mind jumping from one thought to another. I found reading these chapters challenging.

After Chapter 28 (there are 33 chapters), I finally “got into” the book. When Wainaina is older there is a linear narrative. I much preferred the second part of the book.

The success of this book, for me, was the author's unique view on what it is to be a Kenyan, an African.  He describes how to navigate in a country with many languages, cultural traditions, and how tribalism creeps into Kenyan politics and daily life.

“Kenya has become the Tribes…for others to belong among us, they have to behave like us. We do not need to examine ourselves. We need to tame the tribes.”

Wainaina fulfilled his title - One Day I Will Write About This Place. He shared his unique perspective of Africa as an African. For that reason, I “forgive” him for the first 27 chapters and appreciate how he brought a continent to life that I will probably only learn about from reading. Although it initially took some effort, this book was worth reading.

 

Nonfiction: History, War

Women Warriors: An Unexpected History by Pamela D. Toler

For the purposes of this book, Toler focuses on women “in the theater of war, near the front lines, giving orders, planning operations and making command decisions, ... they wield a sword, fire a weapon, drop a bomb, or throw rocks down the wall of a besieged city. They get their hands dirty.” 

Women Warriors helps you to understand that the concept of women warriors is not a rare occurrence all! “These are the stories of women throughout history and around the world who commanded from the rear and those who fought in the front lines, those who fought because they wanted to, because they had to, or because they could. Considering the ways in which their presence has been erased from history, Toler concludes that women have always fought: not in spite of being women but because they are women.”

Toler is careful to include the complete history of women warriors not just the “winners” but also the “losers.” She explains each warrior’s impact during her lifetime and includes information on how important women are to every culture regardless of what role they play. From cunning rulers such as with Tomyris in 530 BCE leading the Massagetae against the Persians and winning to the women warriors in the African country of Dahomey in the 1700’s, the author makes the point that just like men, women did extraordinary things.

Joan of Arc, Molly Pitcher, Boudica, and Mulan are all well-known but Maria Vasilyevna Oktiabrskaya also deserves to be recorded in history. Maria’s husband, a Red Army soldier, was killed during World War II. She then sold all her possessions and raised enough money to buy a tank for the Red Army on the condition that she was allowed to drive it into battle. After training, Maria successfully drove the tank into battles and even repaired the tank while under fire from the Nazi Army. This widow’s “mite” was mighty!

Then there’s Mika Etchebehere who was a commander during the Spanish Civil War. The men she led described her with pride as “a female captain with more balls than all the male captains in the world.” (A compliment best taken in the spirit in which it was given.)

This was an interesting book about little known history.

“Opponents of allowing women in combat often invoke the image of a mother or daughter coming home in a body bag as if it were an argument against the use of women in combat in its own right, and as if the death of a mother in combat is inherently more horrifying than the death of a father … The horror of women in body bags is not the horror of a dead woman. It’s that the woman was a warrior, that she is not a victim … To accept women as warriors means a challenge to patriarchy at its most fundamental level.”

Still reading ... The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

This is taking some time, but it is excellent reading! I am a little over half-way through and will probably need a separate blog post to share notes on this volume. Until next time …something to contemplate:  At age 10, German children were required to swear the following oath of allegiance:

“In the presence of this blood banner, which represents our Fuehrer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”

October Booknotes

 

"One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us." – Cassandra Clare

 

Book by the Beach Book Club - International Fiction: (Romania)

Ciuleandra by Liviu Rebreanu, Gabi Regh (Translator)

NOTE: Ciuleandra is the first book made into a movie with sound in Romanian (1930).

The story begins with Puiu murdering his young wife. Then his father, Polycarp Faranga, a well-respected judge, discovers what has happened and takes charge.  After informing the chief of police of the crime, he arranges for Puiu to be taken to a sanatorium, where he will be kept and ‘observed’ for some time, before being found unable to stand trial due to temporary insanity.  However, these plans hit a couple of snags.  The first is the absence of the friendly doctor he expected to be at the sanatorium. And the second is the growing suspicion that there’s more to the idea of Puiu’s madness than just a cover-up story…

Most of the book is set in the sanatorium.  Puiu is technically a “prisoner”, but, because he is rich, he is treated like a respected guest.  He’s allowed daily visits, a police guard/servant, newspapers, and good food.  What the heck? He is a self-confessed murderer and yet he receives comfortable treatment!!!

Soon Puiu’s seemingly easy life soon becomes far more unsettling. Left to his own devices, and plenty of time to reflect on his actions, Puiu begins to wonder if there really is something wrong with him.

Ciuleandra is a slow-burning story of a man consumed by his own conscience. Rebreanu has created an ingenious form of punishment for his sins.   

 

Nonfiction: Memoir

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku

Eddie Jaku was born Abraham Jakubowicz in Germany in 1920. In World War Two, Jaku was imprisoned by the fascist Nazi government in Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps and was a slave laborer. In 1945, he was sent on a 'death march' but escaped. Finally, he was rescued by Allied soldiers. In 1950 he moved to Australia. In 2013 Jaku was awarded the Order of Australia medal (OAM) in recognition of his tireless work to benefit the Australian Jewish community. Jaku died in 2021 at age 101.

NOTE: Jaku presented a 12-minute TED talk when he was 99 years old.

“MY DEAR NEW FRIEND” – these are his opening words. They speak volumes to the character of this man.

Jaku wrote this memoir when he was 100 years old. Born a German Jew, he survived the entirety of the Holocaust as a slave laborer in concentration camps. He endured 28 degrees below zero temperatures with no blanket, no coat, rough, wooden shoes, and unimaginable starvation. The surroundings, the nauseating stench of decaying human life and the moral choices of people living in fear is told through Jaku’s eyes – the eyes of a survivor.

“If enough people had stood up then, on Kristallnacht, and said, ‘Enough! What are you doing? What is wrong with you?’ then the course of history would have been different. But they did not. They were scared. They were weak. And their weakness allowed them to be manipulated into hatred.”

Raised by a loving family, Jaku’s parents did not survive the Holocaust but their choices for their son made a great difference. When Jews were kicked out of German schools, Jaku’s father, who fought in the German army during World War I, obtained false (Christian) identity papers for his son so he would receive an education. Jaku’s college degree in mechanical engineering then saved him from the gas chambers as the Nazis recognized his “value” as a slave in their armament factories.

I know Jaku probably doesn’t tell half of the horrors he experienced and even his sons didn't know what he went through until many decades later. But he eventually came to a time in his life when he could tell his story. “It took many years to realize that as long as I still held fear and pain in my heart, I would not truly be free.”

There is so much to learn from his story and his attitude. Jaku’s story encourages me to hopeful.

“It is never too late to be kind, polite, and a loving human being … Your efforts today will affect people you will never know. It is your choice whether that effect is positive or negative. You can choose every day, every minute, to act in a way that may uplift a stranger, or else drag them down. The choice is easy. And it is yours to make.”

 

Nonfiction: History, Politics, Sociology

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them and Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future by Jason F. Stanley - an author of five books, Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and an honorary professor at the Kyiv School of Economics.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about fascism. Wanting to deepen my understanding, I read How Fascism Works which provides a fascinating breakdown of fascist ideology.  Publisher’s Description: “Nations don't have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism's roots have been present in the United States for more than a century.

Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics--the language and beliefs that separate people into an "us" and a "them."

He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics:

• which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation's past;
• propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves;
•  anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts;
• law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals;
• and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare.

These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership.”

If you think you haven’t heard fascist rhetoric in our country think again. Trump’s inflammatory language puts him a world apart from any major-party nominee in modern American memory. And it’s getting worse. His speeches echo fascist rhetoric. Trump’s rhetoric is part of his effort to re-educate Americans to see violence as justified, patriotic, and even morally righteous.

Trump and his advisors took exception to being called out for deploying fascist rhetoric, resorting to threats that simply strengthened the case against them. As the Washington Post reported, Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung had this to say about those (like me) who make such comparisons: “their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.”

“Some people think he’s trolling, but we know that the worst regimes in history, people also thought they were joking. It wouldn’t be fascism without that feature.”

If you’re politically aware and want to be better educated generally about fascism, I recommend this book… which led me to read –

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.

NOTE: *As a Floridian, I have first-hand knowledge of Governor DeSantis’s “don’t say gay,” and “war on woke” policies. He has used an appeal to “freedom” to punish critics, wage a war on LBGTQ people, misrepresent the history of slavery, and impose a new version of McCarthyism on higher education. I read this book to deepen my understanding of how fascism is rooted in educational systems.

Erasing History is a fast paced and engaging crash course on how far right politics erase critical parts of history to benefit themselves and create a very narrow view of our past. They erase all other perspectives of history except for the one they choose.  They object to the historical perspectives of anyone else because they (Far-right, Christian Nationalist Americans) believe that any perspective other theirs is trying “to make students ashamed of their own history.”

** Personal Note: History relates events and how people responded to them in the past. Feelings like “being ashamed” are just that, feelings. How you choose to respond to facts is up to you. I choose to learn from the past to avoid mistakes and build on successes. History holds shame only for those who refuse to learn from it.

There are five major themes in fascist education:

1. National greatness
2. National purity
3. National innocence
4. Strict gender roles
5. Vilification of the left

Using different examples of educational systems in history like Nazi Germany; England's colonial schools in Kenya; and Russian schools, Stanley then puts them into perspective with Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, MAGA, and Putin. He also provides a clear understanding of what fascists movements do to education and why. It's scary, and it's happening right now all over the world. If we elect fascists, we have only ourselves and our ignorance of history to blame.

“Fascist politics invokes a pure mythic past tragically destroyed. Depending on how the nation is defined, the mythic past may be religiously pure, racially pure, culturally pure, or all of the above.”

As I read these two books, I wondered who else is reading them. Obviously, I read them, and I assume other curious readers will read them as well. But the people who ought to be confronted with Stanley’s arguments and his historical analysis will never read these books (and may try to get them banned!) because they are not interested in widening their perspective. Critical thinking and a shared understanding of history’s role is abhorrent to fascists. Their goal is to control people through manipulation, disinformation, and fear of the "Other.” Without an education that encourages reading and research on all perspectives of history, we are doomed to repeat the worst aspects.

 

Nonfiction: Psychology, Sociology, Politics

The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook

In 2021, 15 percent of Americans agreed that the government, media, and financial institutions were controlled by Satan worshipping pedophiles. By 2023 that number was 25 percent. QAnon like many cults starts out for many as a journey to self-actualization through collective action. People want to feel a part of something important. Who wouldn’t want to save kids from being sex trafficked through a D.C. pizza parlor? Never mind that the story is totally fake, they believe anyway.

QAnon is a Right-wing cult that also believes:

• Princess Diana is still alive.
• John F Kennedy Jr is still alive and he's going to be Trump's Vice President.
• The online retailer Wayfair is selling furniture with missing children locked inside.

QAnon like other cults ruins lives and rips families apart. In The Quiet Damage lives of five families QAnon left devastated are explored.

Cook treats each of these stories and families with incredible care and empathy; each person's backstory is lovingly captured, their personalities, passions, and accomplishments fleshed out. The QAnon believers range in location, age, and race but there are a number of common themes and situations - a jarring emotional or physical shock; feelings of loneliness or abandonment; the isolation and fear caused by the COVID-19 pandemic - that highlight just how alluring the QAnon movement was to them. The emotional, mental, and physical toll this had on the loved ones around these individuals was heart-wrenching and devastating; for some families, there was no resolution.

EXCELLENT BOOK! This is an eye-opening book. I really felt for the families affected by QAnon and found their stories captivating. The only thing that would have made this book better is keeping each family’s story as a single, complete section. Instead, the author broke them into multiple sections which sometimes made it hard to keep them straight. The Quiet Damage is not a scholarly review of research about cults but is rather the real-life experiences of people who lived and are living with the impacts of this cult. I highly recommend this book!

 

Nonfiction: Biography

Running with Raven: The Amazing Story of One Man, His Passion, and the Community He Inspired by Laura Lee Huttenbach

NOTE: *You must watch this Runner’s World video (4 ½ minutes) to understand why he is so amazing!

I first learned about Raven during the COVID pandemic when he received special dispensation to run on Miami beach when it was closed. Why? Because Robert "Raven" Kraft made a New Year's Resolution in 1975 to run eight miles every day on Miami Beach. And thanks to Miami’s mayor, he hasn't missed a day, since!

Raven is quirky. He runs wearing a black rubber glove and black clothing. He reminds me of Johnny Cash, and he looks like he walked off a 1970s film set, perhaps a movie like “Billy Jack”. While young, Raven was “fast” but now age, spinal stenosis, and scoliosis have stooped his posture but his dedication to running, albeit at a slow pace, has not wavered.

Raven is so human, and humane. He encourages people to run with him and keeps detailed lists of everyone who completes an eight-mile run with him. If you complete the eight-mile run, you get a nickname. He is incredibly accepting and kind to all people, including the homeless and street people of Miami.

Initially Raven ran alone or with just a couple of people, then his streak started getting media attention. Now a few thousand people have run with him. Running with Raven includes biographical sketches of several runners, and they describe how their relationship with Raven has impacted their lives. Raven is a unique, positive force in the world simply by running and being.

The writing in Running with Raven isn’t outstanding, but his story is truly heart-warming. It is people like Raven that remind me that hope, peace, and kindness still exist.

 

Fiction: Mystery (DI Winter Meadows series)

The Silent Quarry by Cheryl Rees-Price

DI Winter Meadows has returned to the village where thirty years earlier the murder of one girl and the serious injuries of a second girl proved a devastating event for a small village.
Winter went to school with both girls and had a crush on Gwen, the girl who survived. Gwen had no memories of what happened that day, and the person responsible was never found.
Gwen, now married with two adolescent children, began having flashbacks to the day of the murder. Nothing consistent, a brief image at best, but the possibility of further memories may put her life at risk. Winter Meadows re-opens the case, hoping to discover who killed Bethan and attacked Gwen. Several suspects are unhappy about further investigation into the case and may not want Gwen to remember.

I was interested in this one because of the Welsh setting and because it is the first in the DI Winter Meadows series. It was “okay.” But much of the dialogue of the Inspector and the other police officers, particularly during the formal interviews, just didn't seem credible. The basic plot was part police procedural and part romance, I am not into romance. While the writing was good, I'm not anxious to read any more by this author.

Instead, I read four more from my current favorite, DCI Evan Warlow in the Black Beacons series. I am addicted to this series!

Nonfiction: Psychology, Sociology, Mental Health, Crime

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

The author asks, “Why have a conscience?” She argues that being truly human entails having one and warns us about the four percent of people who are sociopaths. This is a chilling book. I have met people who fit her description. One need not be a serial killer to be a sociopath. One needs only to be immune to caring about the humanity of others.

“Sociopathy is the inability to process emotional experience, including love and caring, except when such experience can be calculated as a coldly intellectual task.”

Sociopaths usually exhibit the following:

• lack of - guilt, remorse, empathy, conscience
• inability to form emotional attachments to others
• constant lying and unreliability
• using people easily
• chronic boredom
• ignoring social norms
• inability to accept responsibility
• devoting themselves to winning, “domination for the sake of domination”
• desire for pity. - “I am sure that if the devil existed, he would want us to feel very sorry for him.”

The desire for pity was the behavior that stood out most clearly. It reminded me of an abusive husband who, after hitting his wife, puts his head in his hands, cries, and begs for “help” to stop being abusive. (!?) His wife feels pity for him because of his seemingly contrite behavior, so she does not hold him accountable for his actions and he hits her again, again, and again in the future. Her husband is a sociopath.

“If … you find yourself often pitying someone who consistently hurts you or other people, and who actively campaigns for your sympathy, the chances are close to 100 percent that you are dealing with a sociopath.”

What if you suspect there is a sociopath in your life? The author recommends “The Rule of Three:” “When considering a new relationship of any kind, practice the Rule of Threes regarding the claims and promises a person makes, and the responsibilities he or she has. Make the Rule of Threes your personal policy.

One lie, one broken promise, or a single neglected responsibility may be a misunderstanding. Two may involve a serious mistake. But three says you’re dealing with a liar, and deceit is the linchpin of conscienceless behavior. Cut your losses and get out as soon as you can.”

 

Audiobook Fiction: Realistic, Contemporary, Mystery

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

“What does anyone’s life mean?”

Publisher’s Description: “It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known - unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.”

“Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

This isn’t a romance! In fact, Tell Me Everything covers some dark and difficult ground including death and suicide. But the homey, yet realistic, narration drew me into the story and the lives of the characters. I listened intently to their stories even though many of them were heartbreaking and tragic. Strout writes in a such way that I was lifted out of that darkness into a new realization of what it means to be loved, to be remembered, and to have your life recorded.

I adored this book!