J's Pages

Micro review: "Harry Dresden has PTSD." As would anyone after the events of the previous Dresden Files novel. But is that really what I want to read when I want to escape into a book for a while? Turns out my answer is ambiguous. While I want the characters in this series to have a "happily ever after", I also enjoy that the characters have grown and changed over the span of time. So in the end, I was satisfied with the book even if there was a part of me that would have liked a magic reset somewhere along the way.

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// posted by John @ 6:25 PM 0 Comments

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// posted by John @ 5:55 PM 0 Comments

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// posted by John @ 5:30 PM 0 Comments

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// posted by John @ 4:48 PM 0 Comments

This is another history book I picked up on my trip to Syracuse, NY. My great-great-grandparents didn't live in Baldwinsville itself, but farmed in one of the outlying hamlets. It's a nice little glimpse on places they might have seen and how they might have lived.

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// posted by John @ 6:09 PM 0 Comments

This book is one of the many volumes of local history published by Arcadia Publishing. (My wife calls them "the sepia books".) It's a collection of photos of the city of Syracuse, NY from the Onondaga Historical Association's collection. I picked it up earlier this month as I too a trip to visit my ancestral lands. I don't know how many of these buildings and places my multi-great grandparents actually saw in their life, but it's fun to peruse and imagine.

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// posted by John @ 5:56 PM 0 Comments

I recently listened to an interview with Dr. Rohl on the Humble Skeptic podcast, and wanted to read his book, Exodus: Myth or History? to dig a bit deeper. Unfortunately, that book was not in the local library systems and the asking price for the paper copy was way out of my price range. However, SPL did have a copy of this earlier book by Dr. Rohl, which covers a lot of the stuff he talked about. 

In Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest, Dr. Rohl challenges the standard chronology of ancient Egypt and ancient Israel that had been established by scholars. He describes how that chronology is based on four key anchor points, then explains why he thinks three of those four are erroneous. Next Dr. Rohl establishes the basis for revising that chronology, based on linguistic and archaeological evidence. Finally, he presents archaeological discoveries that, now dated with the new chronology, fit in with historical accounts from the Bible of Solomon, Saul, David, Moses, and Joseph. (This is the part that grabbed my interest when I listened to the podcast.) 

Not being that much into history, many details presented in the book went over my head. But the gist of his logic and arguments were fairly well presented. In the discussion, Dr. Rohl pointed out a number of assumptions that went into establishing the old chronology. Then, as he presented his new chronology and the physical evidence of the Biblical narrative, I noticed that he was making his own educated guesses. Having played historian with researching my family tree, I recognize that those guesses are a legitimate tool in trying to piece together history. 

All in all, I enjoyed reading the book. I recognize I'm very willing to accept Dr. Rohl's conclusions, as they would corroborate my own beliefs. But the book also offered a picture of how people were living "back in Bible times". Go check it out.

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// posted by John @ 10:42 AM 0 Comments

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// posted by John @ 5:41 PM 0 Comments

First read in July of 2006.

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// posted by John @ 5:31 PM 0 Comments

I have been meaning to find a book on gender and read up on it. I've heard a lot of people talk about the multitude of genders, but I've never really heard a good explanation of what those genders are. While convalescing from an illness, I had a chance to peek at this little book. Alok Vaid-Menon offers their take on gender. While they painted a moving picture of a person trying to be forced into the gender binary, the book didn't answer any of my questions of the mechanics of gender. But I'm glad I was able to check it out.

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// posted by John @ 4:53 PM 0 Comments

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// posted by John @ 6:27 PM 0 Comments

First read in February 2004.

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// posted by John @ 6:21 PM 0 Comments

This book interweaves three themes. The first is the story of a pet starling that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had for a bit over three years. The second is information about starlings and their place in the American birding and scientific communities. The third is an account of the author's pet staring that she obtained to help her understand Mozart's relationship with his pet. While I found the whole book interesting, I really didn't get into the Mozart sections. I'm musically unsophisticated, so I didn't connect with or appreciate Ms. Haupt's attempts to delve into Mozart's creative mind. The starling bits, on the other hand, I found fascinating. I always enjoyed science books when I was a kid.¹ Reading the starling portions of the book was a flashback to that, as I got brief lessons in starling biology & development, the behavior of scientists & ecologists toward an invasive species, and the connection between bird song & language. Finally, I also found Ms. Haupt's account of raising a starling interesting. That, for me, was like reading about a foreign culture. I'm not a pet person. But the story of Carmen the starling and her relationship to the household had a kind of beauty that evoked the affection that the family feels for her. Overall, the book is well written.² If you have any interest in pets, birds, or Mozart, I would invite you to check this book out. 

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1 That enjoyment, alas, never pushed me enough to embrace the work of observation and record keeping that a career in science requires.
2 It made me take a second look at the book cover and put Ms. Haupt's Crow Planet on my to read list.  

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// posted by John @ 10:53 AM 0 Comments

[It's been a while since I read a book. I watch too much TV these days. It took a vacation to get me to finish a book, and even then, I only cracked it after watching a movie on the plane.]

To Live is the life story of Fugui, an old farmer who recounts his tale to a young scholar who is doing research in his village. Fugui is born and raised in a well to do family in China in the early part of the 20th Century. Things go bad and the family loses its modest fortune. Fugui learns to make a living as a tenant farmer. The story tells how he and his family fare as the events that changed China affect him and his community. I'm familiar enough with traditional Chinese culture and modern Chinese history that everything made sense to me. I could also understand the contentment that Fugui displays at the beginning and end of the book. As an American reader, I wasn't satisfied with it, but don't let that stop you from checking it out.  

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// posted by John @ 3:35 PM 0 Comments

Follow the Devil / Follow the Light is the story of a walk through hell. Joe Muggeridge comes home to his Seattle apartment, only to find a demon waiting for him. The demon, Morte Magari, pressures/lures Joe into hell to see his deceased sister Nora. What follows is a journey where Joe encounters the sins and illusions of our modern society, both played out in hell and reflected in his own life. What he is slow to notice, however, is how the grace and power of God also pervades the adventure. 

I enjoyed the book. It reminded me of some of C.S. Lewis' stuff and, of course, Dante's Inferno. While Follow the Devil / Follow the Light isn't quite as good as those classics, I did appreciated a vision of hell that illustrated our current era and culture. I saw myself in more than one of Joe Muggeridge's failings, but also had that constant reminder of heavenly love and forgiveness. 

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// posted by John @ 5:43 PM 0 Comments

George Herbert Walker Bush was the last American president from the "Greatest Generation" and, according to Jon Meacham, the "last gentleman." Mr. Meacham presents a portrait of George Bush as a man born to wealth and privilege, and raised to compete, succeed, but also to serve his community--be that be his immediate neighbors or the entire world. 

Mr. Meacham starts by presenting Bush's ancestors, showcasing how they were driven to work hard and win the things they wanted. George faithfully followed his family's values, earning respect and admiration from the people around him. When America entered the Second World War, Bush enlisted and served. Afterwards, he chose not to seek an easy road, working for relatives and relying on family wealth and connections, but rather opted to seek his own fortunes in the oil industry and later in politics. (Granted, the Bush family fortune and connections did make that a lot easier than it would have been for someone coming from a background of poverty.) Even when things didn't go the way as planned--such as the 1980 Republican presidential nomination--Bush adapted and endeavored to succeed in the opportunities that followed. 

Mr. Meacham argues that during his presidency, Bush was misrepresented. He recounts his reserved personality and patient actions were contrasted to the more flamboyant presidency of Ronald Reagan, and that Bush was portrayed as being a weaker leader. Mr. Meacham then goes on to show how Bush endeavored to reach his goals and conduct his presidency in the way that he intended, rather than bowing to other pressures. That part rang true, as I remember agreeing with the media narrative during those years that Mr. Bush was rather ineffective, but how I grew to respect him more as I compared him to subsequent presidents. (and subsequent Bushes) 

All in all, I found Destiny and Power to be a good and enjoyable account of George Bush and 20th Century American history. Check it out. 

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// posted by John @ 8:06 AM 0 Comments

This book has a great title. It is such a good distillation of the book's message that I was tempted to just type, "Yep!" for my review and leave it at that. You see, there are many things that are blamed for the homelessness crisis in America. Mr. Colburn and Mr. Aldern have taken a look at each of them, crunched the numbers from available studies, and offered their findings. The puzzling thing is that the usual suspects in homelessness--addictions, mental health, rates of poverty--don't seem to cause an equal level of homelessness across the country. One by one, the authors whittle away the causes until they are left with the availability of affordable housing. 

The book is definitely worth checking out if you're at all interested in homelessness. The book isn't so academic as to put you to sleep, but it does offer data to back up their opinions. As a worker in an emergency shelter, it gave me a better grasp of the overall system and some of what my guests and I are up against as we're trying to get them housed.

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// posted by John @ 11:34 AM 0 Comments