Nonfiction: History, Economics, Politics, Social Movements
Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present by Fareed Zakaria
I love it when I read a book that gets my brain a-going! While reading Age of Revolutions I learned:
- First, in the seventeenth-century Netherlands, a fascinating series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in the world—and created politics as we know it today. The Dutch started the revolutionary move away from monarchy towards the world we know now. Their revolution encompassed freedom of religion, liberal representative democratic government, individual rights, global trade and formed the basis for future democratic revolutions.
- Second, the French Revolution, was an explosive era that left us with the political terms “Right” and “Left.” The French Revolution was a failure and still has lessons to teach us today about how to handle the chaos that frequently follows dramatic change.
- Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Great Britain and the United States to global dominance and created the modern world. We typically refer to the 1776 “American Revolution” but after reading this book, I will be using the term “War of Independence.” Why? Because in the true sense of revolution the only thing that changed in the American colonies was that the government became independent from England. Our economics stayed the same, so did slavery, as well as only white, male landowners having suffrage. The real revolution came later after the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s. Our real revolution encompassed greater individual rights, expanded civil and social rights, created new economic systems and included diverse demographic changes.
“Liberalism’s great strength throughout history has been to free people from arbitrary constraints. Its great weakness has been the inability to fill the void when the old structures crumble.” That’s about where we are today, with old structures collapsing on every side and no fresh solutions in view. “Trump’s hour-long campaign speeches could be boiled down to four lines: The Chinese are taking away your factories. The Mexicans are taking away your jobs. The Muslims are trying to kill you. I will beat them all and make American great again.” His pessimistic message is not a viable solution!
“This is not just the story of Donald Trump in 2016; it is also the story of William Jennings Bryan, whom we’ve already met, in 1896. During the Gilded Age, populists like Bryan surged to prominence. They challenged the laissez-faire orthodoxy and appealed to America’s working class, a segment of society that was reeling from seismic shocks produced by the Industrial Revolution and a fast-globalizing American economy… Human beings can absorb only so much change so fast. The old politics, inherited from a prior era, often cannot keep pace… Change in society must take place organically; when forced too fast, the ensuing disruption, chaos, and backlash can often break civilization itself.”
Nonfiction: Psychology, Sociology, Politics
Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Public Health Threat by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
Since May 2020, the authors, Derek Beres, Matthew Remski and Julian Walker, have used their Conspirituality podcast to expose countless facets of the intersection of alt-health practitioners with far-right conspiracy trolls. I have not listened to their podcast, I don’t “TikTok” nor am I on social media all day. However, as a former yoga teacher, I explored and wrote about Pastel QAnon and whether yoga is a religion or physical exercise. I chose to read this book because I have seen how some yoga teachers create a “following” and I have heard many yoga students say they can’t practice on their own – they MUST practice with their “guru.” Are these good things or something else?
The book is broken down into five sections of varying lengths. After an introduction in which the authors establish their credentials as members of the wellness community, they explain what conspirituality is: “An online religion that fuses two faith claims: 1) The world is possessed by evil forces, and 2) those who see this clearly are called to foster, in themselves and others, a new spiritual paradigm.” Then they spotlight the telltale signs of cult dynamics and expose how influencers encourage their followers to oppose mainstream health advice as a form of spiritual quest.
The third section profiled ten conspiritualists ranging from COVID deniers to yogis who believed you could meditate your way out of a cancer diagnosis. This book discusses in detail many of the social media advocates and enablers who are using fear-based political agendas to manipulate the human desire for spiritual fulfillment. This part of the book was infuriating!
The fourth section shared three stories from people who had been directly impacted by conspirituality in their life. One man lost his wife to alternative medicine treatments for breast cancer, two siblings escaped a cult centered on conspiracy thinking, and one man's relationship with his father was lost to conspiracy.
The final section of the book contains extensive notes with citations and an index.
Books by the Beach Book Club: International Fiction (Hungary)
The End of a Family Story by Péter Nádas
*Nádas is one of the few Hungarian authors whose books are translated to English.
This novel is narrated by a little boy, Peter Simon, and his Jewish grandfather. Peter’s mother is dead, and his father is “away” working. Peter is living with his grandparents during the 1950's in communist Hungary.
Peter’s grandfather tells the family history to Peter, passing on his knowledge of thousands of years of Jewish history as his grandfather had passed on to him. Grandfather married a Catholic woman, which he explains is his way of saying, “No.” to all the suffering endured by his Jewish ancestors. The current family tragedy is that Peter’s father, Grandfather’s son, turned his back on all religion and became a highly ranked communist official. Ultimately Peter’s father is accused of being a traitor.
Throughout the book Peter struggles to understand how the family’s Jewish, Catholic and nonreligious/communist values fit into their current situation. Consequently, Peter spends a lot of time in his own imaginary world which means his narration moves back and forth in time and is difficult to follow.
Nonfiction: Memior, Holocaust
The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz by Sara Leibovits, Eti Elboim, translated from Hebrew by Esther Frumkin
This is the story of 16-year-old Sara Hershkovits Leibovits, who, in 1944, was living with her family in Komjat, Czechoslovakia. Sara, along with her parents, siblings and tens of thousands of other Jews were rounded up and sent to in Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp in Poland. Sara’s mother and siblings were immediately exterminated upon arrival in Auschwitz. Sara was sent to work in the women’s camp sorting clothing the Nazi’s had taken from their victims while her father who was forced to work outside the gas chambers. Although they were separated, occasionally he was able to send Sara messages of hope.
Sara later married another Holocaust survivor, they immigrated to Israel and had three daughters. Her youngest daughter, Eti Elboim, provides context through the eyes of a second-generation survivor. It is evident that the scars of the Holocaust are passed down to generations of survivor's families, each learning to cope in their own way.
Alternating chapters between Sara’s retelling and Eti’s description of the impact her mother’s history has had on her life, I can only hope readers understand that their experience also impacts us. Attempting to comment on The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz any more in a meaningful way is futile: the words of this memoir are so poignant that they must speak to each individual reader. Yes, there are many fine books about the Holocaust, but this book is unique – it is personal and deeply moving.
Langham & Dupre Mystery Series
I continued to read 3 more books in this series I discovered last month. One thing stands out - there is a lot of drinking in this series: Earl Gray tea, Gin and Tonics, as well as scotch and whiskey – every time someone arrives, they are offered a drink, at all times of the day! Plus, somehow characters can drink 1 – 3 pints of “bitter” at a pub for lunch and then stay awake the rest of the day!
Murder Take Three #4 – “Private Investigator Donald Langham discovers that truth is stranger than fiction when he investigates a murder on an American movie set.”
Murder Takes a Turn #5 – “When Langham's literary agent receives a cryptic letter inviting him to spend the weekend at the grand Cornish home of successful novelist Denbigh Connaught, Charles Elder seems reluctant to attend. Accompanying his agent to Connaught House, Langham and his wife Maria discover that Charles is not the only one to have received a letter. When a body is discovered in Connaught's study, the ensuing investigation uncovers dark secrets that haunt the past of each and every guest.”
Murder Served Cold #6 – “The theft of a painting takes crime-writer sleuth Donald Langham to a country house full of dark secrets. Langham and Ralph Ryland take on the case and soon uncover seething animosities, jealousy, secrets and deception, before events take a shocking turn...”
Fiction: Dystopia
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I loved Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, so I decided to read another one of his books. Never Let Me Go takes place in a dystopian version of late 1990s England, where the lives of ordinary citizens are prolonged through a state-sanctioned program of human cloning. The clones, referred to as “students”, grow up in special institutions away from the outside world. As young adults, they begin to donate their vital organs. All “donors” receive care from designated “carers,” clones who have not yet begun the donation process. The clones continue to donate organs until they “complete,” which is a euphemism for death after the donation of three or four organs. However, this is not immediately apparent…
Instead, we learn about Kathy H., a 31-year-old “carer.” As the narrator, Kathy explains that she wants to revisit her memories of Tommy and Ruth, two friends who grew up with her at Hailsham School. At the school, there were “guardians” instead of teachers. And, although the students learn vaguely about the donation program, their guardians shield them from a full understanding of their future. The guardians also collected the students’ artwork.
“We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.”
After completing their schooling, Kathy moves with Ruth and Tommy to a transitional housing facility known as the Cottages before they are selected to be either a donor or a carer. There they are exposed to a rumor that that Hailsham couples in love may have a deferral from the donation process. But is the rumor true?
Eventually Tommy is scheduled for his fourth “donation.” Kathy is assigned to be Tommy’s carer, and they are in love. So, they travel to ask a former “guardian” for a love deferral …
Fiction: Mystery, Suspense
The Old You by Louise Voss
When I began reading this book, I presumed that it would be a memoir-like, fictional account of a family dealing with the aftermath of a diagnosis of dementia. Wrong!
Publisher’s Description: “Nail-bitingly modern domestic noir - A tense, Hitchcockian psychological thriller … Lynn Naismith gave up the job she loved when she married Ed, the love of her life, but it was worth it for the happy years they enjoyed together. Now, ten years on, Ed has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and things start to happen; things more sinister than missing keys and lost words. As some memories are forgotten, others, long buried, begin to surface... and Lynn's perfect world begins to crumble. But is it Ed s mind playing tricks, or hers...?”
Nonfiction: History, Politics, Science
Stuff They Don't Want You to Know by Ben Bowlin, Matt Frederick, Noel Brown
This is another book based on a podcast which I have not listened to. It was on the library shelf next to Conspirituality. It looked interesting, so I checked it out and read it. Here is what the publishers have to say about it: “In times of chaos and uncertainty, when trust is low and economic disparity is high, when political institutions are crumbling and cultural animosities are building, conspiracy theories find fertile ground. Many are wild, most are untrue, a few are hard to ignore, but all of them share one vital trait: there’s a seed of truth at their center. That seed carries the sordid, conspiracy-riddled history of our institutions and corporations woven into its DNA.”
This book explains today’s conspiracies “—from chem trails and biological testing to the secrets of lobbying and the indisputable evidence of UFOs. Written in a smart, witty, and conversational style, elevated with amazing illustrations, Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know is a vital book in understanding the nature of conspiracy and using truth as a powerful weapon against ignorance, misinformation, and lies.”
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