Paging All Bookworms! discussion

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Brief Cases (The Dresden Files #15.1) by Jim Butcher
4 ★

A collection of 12 stories from the Dresden universe. What is great about these novellas is that they don’t all feature Harry. The reader gets to learn more about other characters and find out what is going on in their lives. We get to see that Harry is actually a pretty good teacher in “AAAA Wizardry”. “Gentleman” John Marcone gets his own adventure in “Even Hand” and Molly has her first quest as Winter Lady in “Cold Case”. I really loved seeing Waldo Butters again in “Day One”. Seeing him finally wield the sword as a Knight and face his fears was heartwarming. He’s probably one of my favorite characters. “Jury Duty” has Harry summoned to..well..jury duty. He is so upset about it and it’s a great everyday thing for him to do. But, nothing is ever normal for Harry. He is always trying to right the wrongs, even when it involves mortals. My favorite story in the novella is “Zoo Day”. Harry takes is daughter, Maggie, and Mouse to the zoo. The story is told in 3 parts, 1 from each characters perspective. They all have their own demons to fight and Maggie takes it on head first even though she’s scared. She is definitely Harry’s daughter. Mouse tells his story and I feel like he has spent way too much time with Harry. His sarcasm is hilarious.

The Day the World Came To Town – Jim DeFede – 4****
This is the story of what happened in Gander, Newfoundland, when, as a result of the 9/11 attacks in America, some 40 jumbo jets landed in the space of a few hours, flooding the town of 10,000 with some 6,600 passengers and crew members. It’s an uplifting story, especially now in these unsettled times. Reminding me that there is kindness in this world, that there are people who rise to the occasion and behave selflessly to help others in distress, without thought to remuneration or reward.
My full review HERE

Tariq Ali, The Book of Saladin [1998] 367 pages

This is the second book of the Islam Quintet, which is not a single story in multiple volumes but five separate historical novels about the history of the Islamic world and its relationship to the Christian West. In The Book of Saladin Tariq Ali takes us back about three centuries before the time of the first book and presents the life of the Sultan Salah-ud-Din, known to the West as Saladin.

I remember when I was first learning to read my favorite books were the Landmark series of histories, which like most children's history books were more like historical novels than nonfiction, and one that I particularly remember was about Richard the Lionheart. Later on, I read other books about the Crusades. All were written by Christian, or at least Western, authors, and even when they made an attempt to be "objective" they were all presented from the perspective of the Crusaders and the attempt to control the "Holy Land". Here the same events are presented as the struggle of the inhabitants of the Middle East to defend their lands against a barbarian invasion from the West and regain the cities which were under foreign occupation, particularly of course al-Kuds (Jerusalem).

In an author's note at the beginning, Ali tells us that all the important male characters except the narrator and the old retainer Shadhi are historical; the female characters are all fictional, since the historical sources don't include women. He also gives a little background for those who are unfamiliar with the situation; the novel begins in 1181, just over a century since the First Crusade had occupied Jerusalem and the coastal cities of the Levant. The Moslems are divided between the Sunni Caliphate in Baghdad and the Shiite Fatimid Caliphate in Cairo, both weak, and the major cities are all ruled by separate and rival dynasties.

There are many similarities with the first novel, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree; in the first novel, al-Andalus had been conquered by the Christians because of the divisions among the Moslem leaders, just as had happened in the Middle East; in both books there is an emphasis on the barbarity, brutality and ignorance of the Christians and much mention of books, libraries and scholarship among the Moslems. From time to time in the second book there is discussion of various Arab amd Jewish philosophers and skeptics, many of them from al-Andalus. The most famous of all Jewish philosophers, here called by the Arab name Musa ibn Maymun, but better known to the West as Moses Maimonides, is an important secondary character and begins the action of the novel by suggesting the narrator as a scribe to take down the memoirs of Saladin. Many of the major characters in both novels are religious skeptics, which may be an anachronism reflecting Ali's own views, as undoubtedly is the feminism of the women in both books.

In this book, however, the outcome is different; Saladin, a Kurdish warrior in the service of one of the Sultans, conquers first Fatimid Egypt where he becomes the Sultan, then returns to capture all the major Islamic cities and unify them under his leadership. He then drives the Christians out of Jerusalem (which despite many later Crusades they were never able to retake until the British imperialist conquests of the nineteenth century) and most of the coastal cities which the exception of Tyre. At the end of the novel, it is the divisions of the Christians between Philip of France and Richard the Lionheart which cause the failure of the third crusade, shortly before Saladin's death.

Author Post:
For those interested in page challenges, these are right up your street: both of my books are ~600 Kindle pages ... if you count pages that way. I of course realize that the first question the Pulitzer prize committee asks is NOT "How many pages does it have?" Free on Amazon Prime borrow and KindleUnlimited.

I wrote the first two books of a humorous historical fiction series about Egypt: 54 and 53-52. Cleopatra is in it, but she's only 15 at the start and it's 6 yrs before Caesar sets foot in Egypt, so there's no velvety romancing. It's not "young Cleopatra" either: she's merely the one in charge. The books are about the lives of peasants, sailors, scribes, and priestess just trying to get by and being drafted by the crown for missions. There are no bigger-than-life heroic figures ... even Caesar himself (deep in Gaul) is a harried administrator.

Not "Game of Thrones", more like "Scrubs."

52 BC:
While Cleopatra wrestles with economic/diplomatic issues, two talented scribes take a 4000 mile round-trip journey up and down the Nile, from Alexandria to Meroe in Kush and back: crocodiles, bandits, scorpions, pirates, and behind the scenes temple machinations. There's a lot going on in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment.

54-53 BC:
Cleopatra tries to sway Roman politics by meddling, and grasps at straws trying to get the empire her father bankrupted back on its feet. She re-instates state sponsored tomb robbing and much of the story takes place in Thebes and the Valley of Kings. Take a tour of some of the tombs, as well as witnessing the possible origins of organized tourism, fast-food franchises, sports betting ... and the chicken dance.

Don't commit. "Look Inside" butchers my indentation. Download clean .pdf's of the same text from my webpage. See if you like them ... pass them around.

Cleopatra 54 BC: When Your Father Leaves You The Family Business ~or~ Who Let The Scribes Out?
Cleopatra 53-52 BC: Gold Is Where You Find It ~or~ Supersize Me!

Virgil Wander – Leif Enger – 4****
I love character-driven novels and this one perfectly fits the bill. I love Enger’s way with words, the way he paints the landscape and draws his characters who so perfectly fit the scenario he gives us. There is a spirituality, or mysticism about Enger’s story-telling that captures my attention as well. Enger’s town is small, but the people in it are larger than life. There are moments of humor and tenderness, and some evil and tragedy as well. However, the overall feeling is one of hope and resilience and of looking forward to the future, whatever it may bring.
My full review HERE

Peter Handke, Kindergeschichte [1981] 137 pages [in German, Open Library]

I was uncertain from the ambiguous title (child's story) what sort of work this would be, maybe a story written for children; actually, it meant the story of a child, but that's not actually the case either. It is the story of a father and his emotions and attitudes relative to his child. Although it is more connected than most of Handke's work (without anything resembling an actual plot), it has its share of strangeness. The two main characters are called "The Grownup" and "The Child" ("Der Erwachsene" and "Das Kind"); since the German noun for child is neuter, he uses the neuter pronoun "es" throughout and we never find out whether it is a son or a daughter. Other characters are called "The Wife", "The Friend", "The Teacher" and so forth; there are no names used in the novel. It takes place in the "Country of Origin" and the "Foreign Country", specifically a "World City"; all we are actually told is that the former is German-speaking and the latter is not. There are mentions of the Grownup's "Work" -- I assume as a writer, but it is not specified. One of the child's schools is "for a particular people (Volk)" and has "an old tradition"; I assumed it was Jewish (they don't like Germans) but that is never made explicit either. Bringing this book in connection with his diary I read recently, Das Gewicht der Welt: ein Journal, it may be about Handke himself and his daughter (referred to as A. in the diary) and the places would be Austria and Paris, but that is just a guess; the abstract generality is certainly part of his intention here. The book could be taken as much as a memoir as a novel.

He begins by telling us that the Grownup when he was young expected to have three things, a wife, a child, and a work. The novel opens with the birth of the child. The father takes on the responsibility of most of the care for the child; his wife is frequently absent for her job and they eventually separate. The book is written in the third person (with occasional lapses, designed to seem accidental, into the first person) but entirely from the internal perspective of the father. We get his reactions to his child and see the child's behavior and emotions as he percieves them. The duration of the novel is about ten years, then it simply stops without any real ending.

Kiss Me, Kill Me (Lucy Kincaid #2) by Allison Brennan
4 ★

I really like how this book points out the dangers in something that many young college kids do all the time: parties in isolated areas with drugs. Also, there is an online party site involved that goes way beyond just parties. Having current issues makes a book more relatable and entertaining.
Many of our favorite people are back for this story and we get to meet a new FBI agent. FBI Agent Suzanne Madeaux is a veteran agent who doesn’t like Sean, but takes to Lucy real quick. She acknowledges Lucy’s intelligence and knowledge. Although I feel like she tried to charge someone too quickly for the murders, I liked her and hope so see her in a future book.
Sean and Lucy’s relationship is still moving along nicely, but Patrick may be their undoing. He knows Sean’s background with girls and doesn’t want Lucy to get hurt. I get this from a sibling point of view, but I really think everyone needs to stop treating Lucy like she’s still a teenager. Lucy still has issues from her past drama and Sean is good for her.
Overall I enjoyed the story. The characters were good and the topic was intriguing. I thought I knew who the killer was and was glad that I was wrong. I did figure it out before it was revealed, though. This is a first for me with an Allison Brennan book.

A Rule Against Murder – Louise Penny – 3.5***
Book four in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series, set in and around Three Pines, Quebec. This time he’s pressed into service when a murder occurs at an isolated resort where he and his wife are celebrating their wedding anniversary. I love Gamache and the deliberate way he goes about investigating cases.
My full review HERE

Olga Tokarczuk, Les livres de Jacob [2014, Fr. tr. 2015] 944 pages [in French, Kindle]

Considered by many to be Tokarczuk's most important work to date, The Books of Jacob is a historical novel about the East European Jewish communities in the second half of the eighteenth century. There is apparently an English translation in progress, scheduled for publication next March, but for now my choices were to read it in French, or in German, or to learn Polish (which I'm probably too old for). Since the French version was about half the price of the German, and I'm already overweighted with difficult German books (reading Peter Handke), I opted for the French.

The book opens with a kind of misdirection; it describes in detail the somewhat mysterious-seeming journey of a Catholic priest and bibliophile, Benedykt Chmielowski, to the village of Rohatyn where he is "Dean" in 1752. It ultimately transpires that he is seeking Rabbi Elisha Shorr, to find a rare book he is seeking. When he gets the book home and has the title page translated for him (he doesn't know Hebrew), it turns out not to be the Zohar as he expected, but a different work called The Book of Jacob (which we hear nothing more about). Although Chmielowski reappears from time to time throughout the novel, he is actually not one of the important characters (although the author had a particular interest in him as the "first Polish Encyclopedist"). The novel then turns to the family of Rabbi Shorr, who is preparing the wedding of one of his sons. There is an elderly woman, Ienta, a relative of Elisha, who has unwisely chosen to make the long journey to attend the wedding and arrives at the point of death. At this point I started taking notes, because there are many characters with complicated relations to one another. The book then moves back in time, usually no more than three or four years except in the case of Ienta, to tell the stories of the various guests up to the time of the wedding.

Naturally, all the stories are set against a background of persecution and pogroms, which force all the characters to move from place to place frequently. (Tockarczuk has been strongly criticized by conservative politicians in Poland for her exposure of both historical and contemporary anti-Semitism in Poland, which they consider to be insulting to "traditional Polish values.") However the real theme of the book turns out to be something else -- the Messianic sects which arose about that time. The Shorr family and their close friends are Sabbataians, that is they consider Tseve Sabbatai as the promised Messiah. About a hundred pages into the book, we first meet Jakob Frank, another candidate for Messiah who eventually becomes one of the major characters of the novel.

(I'm not sure if I should worry about "spoilers" in a novel where the events are nearly all historical, although perhaps, to judge by myself, it's not a history most people are familiar with. In any case, if you worry about that you should stop here.)

The novel from this point on follows the wanderings of Jakob and his followers through the Ottoman territories, then into Poland. This part of the book to be honest drags; Tokarczuk has obviously done a lot of research and like many authors writing their first historical novel she puts it all into the text, including much detail that is repetitious and doesn't advance the plot. When the Frankists settle for a while in Iwanie, where they form a (consumer) communist society similar to the Reformation Christian sects, it is interesting for a bit, although the details of clothing, carriages and climate are still overwhelming. Persecuted by the orthodox Jewish communities, they seek protection from the Christians, and eventually make the mistake of converting and accepting baptism. The scenes of the disputations with the Jewish scholars and the mass baptisms aginst the background of a plague are among the most interesting in the novel and it picks up the pace somewhat. Of course, by transforming themselves from a Jewish heresy with some protection from the Christians into a Christian heresy they jump from the frying pan into the fire, and Jakob is sentenced to life imprisonment in a monastery at Czestochowa. His teachings here are at their most bizarre, and the Frankists illustrate virtually every feature that a cult could have. Eventually he is liberated by the invading Russian troops and establishes the cult headquarters in Austria, first at Brünn (modern Brno) and later in Offenbach-sur-le-Main. Here they come into contact with the Aufklärung and are perhaps influenced by the Masons. (At the end, with the aristocrats becoming hysterical about the French Revolution, they are as suspected of "Jacobinism" as they were earlier of "heresy".)

At each step, the cult picks up new adherents, and the novel picks up new characters, most of them probably historical, who are important for a time and then disappear, but often reappear later on. About the middle of the novel, they are mostly baptized and become known by different names, and at this point I gave up on trying to keep them all straight. When the last chapter becomes a list of characters and what happened to them, their children, and their grandchildren over the next forty or fifty years after the death of Jakob in 1792, for the most part I didn't know who was being talked about (or really care.)

One odd aspect of the novel are the occasional returns to the story of Ienta, the old woman who doesn't die but becomes a kind of paranormal presence; I thought this was an attempt at introducing "magical realism" into a basically historical novel, but from the Afterword I learned it was based on a story told by survivors of the Holocaust in Poland, which actually had no connection with the Frankists.

To sum up, while this novel was based on interesting events which I hadn't known about, it was certainly not written in an interesting way (unlike Tokarczuk's other novels). I did learn a bit about Kabbalism and the syncretistic ideas current in the Jewish communities on the eve of the Enlightenment and Jewish emancipation. It also gave a good account of how cults are born, develop, and fade away; as I had already concluded reading about the Mormon sect of Warren Jeffs, the real essence of a cult is not the religious ideas but the obedience to the living "prophet". In fact, the religious ideas become limited to the early followers, while for the younger people what is important is the day to day practices which they don't comprehend the reasons for, and of course the financial aspects and the inevitable internal politics.

If this review seems a little too negative, I have to admit that I didn't read the novel under the best circumstances; because of the current plague I had to lay it aside for long periods to read and review other books as part of my "work-at-home", and for my online groups. If I had read it continuously in three or four weeks rather than spread out over four months I might for example have remembered better who all the many characters were and which Christian names corresponded to which Jewish names. I think it would still have dragged in too many places, however.

Finders Keepers – Stephen King – 3***
Book two in the Bill Hodges trilogy, featuring the former detective, now a PI, and his team of misfits and amateurs. King is a master crafter of the suspense genre. He keeps the reader turning pages while offering complex characters and motivations.
My full review HERE

Ismail Kadare, The File on H [1991, tr. 1997] 202 pages

A broad comedy set in the Albania of King Zog, the novel deals with the misadventures of two Irish-American Homeric scholars who are seeking to solve the Homeric question by studying the Albanian oral epic tradition (obviously modeled after the actual research in the Balkans of Parry and Lord) and who are of course suspected by the local bureaucrats as being spies. The comic elements include an incompetent informer named Dull whose silly reports are considered as great style by the governor and the erotic fantasies of the governor's wife. It was funny in places but on the whole I wasn't that impressed. There is also a ridiculous jealousy between the Serbs and Albanians over whose epics are the most genuine, and the townspeople's fear of the newly invented tape recorder. A somewhat entertaining novel but definitely not one of Kadare's best.

Get Shorty – Elmore Leonard – 3***
This was just plain fun. I’d never seen the movie (starring John Travolta as Chili, and Gene Hackman as Harry), so had no real idea what to expect, other than a wild ride. And Leonard definitely delivers that.
My full review HERE

Stoic Six Pack 9: The Presocratics [2016] 182 pages [Kindle]

Every once and a while I read a number of articles (for instance on one of Shakespeare's plays or something else I'm reading or watching) and group them together as a "book" for my Goodreads goals. This is the same sort of thing, only pre-made by someone else (the editor is anonymous) and sold for ninety-nine cents on the Kindle store. It's part of a series of "Stoic Six Packs", collections of six articles on various topics in ancient Greek philosophy; the selections are in the public domain and all very outdated, but I read anything I can find on the presocratics, who are a particular interest of mine. This "book" contained one real gem that was worth the price; the other four were misfires.

Four, not five? To begin with, one selection wasn't here at all. I was looking forward from the contents to reading what George Grote, one of the better-known classicists of the nineteenth century had to say about the presocratics. There was a title page saying "The Presocratics/by George Grote". However, the next page begins with an "abstract" of Plato's Republic, which was essentially just a paraphrase of the arguments of the dialogue, with no commentary whatsoever; I'm not even sure whether it was by Grote, though that doesn't really matter. It was the sort of thing a high school student might read as a crib, of no real interest to anyone else. It made no mention of the presocratics, except insofar as some characters in the dialogue are "Sophists" who are sometimes lumped with the presocratics. There was nothing even about them as actual existing thinkers, just a paraphrase of what their characters say in the dialogue. I assume it was an accident by the person who put this together and included the wrong file.

The first article chronologically was called "The Pre-Socratics" by Benjamin Cocker, apparently a chapter in a book called Christianity and Greek Philosophy published in 1871. It was totally worthless. Cocker begins with the premise that everyone, always and everywhere, is born with an "intuition" that there is a unique, incorporeal God who created the universe; he considers it "proven" that the Greeks (contrary to everything we know about their early religion) believed in this unique, incorporeal God. Since the presocratics don't explicitly deny that there is such a God (because the idea never occurred to them, obviously), we are entitled to assume that it was the real basis of their system, and that they were talking about how God created the world from water, the Infinite, air, fire, etc. He tells us nothing specific that everyone doesn't know about their systems, and bases himself on hints in the late, Latin writings of Cicero, ignoring all the earlier Greek sources that contradict his theory. In short, Christian special pleading which should not have been included.

The next two selections were actually both chapters from the same book by John Marshall, A Short History of Greek Philosophy, published in 1891. The first chapter is "The School of Miletus: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Herclitus"; the second is "The Eleatics: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus". They were both fairly standard short treatments of the subject as it was understood at the time, and the book was probably a textbook. (Note that the Six Pack has nothing at all about the Atomists.)

Next is a 1903 article by William Arthur Heidel, called "The Logic of the Pre-Socratic Philosophy", from Studies in Logical Theory. This dealt with the general presuppositions of the earliest Greek philosophers had some interesting ideas about their evolution. Unfortunately it was based on a very schematic use of the subject, predicate, copula formula which made it difficult to understand.

Finally, the gem: another article by Heidel, from 1921, called "Anaximander's Book, the Earliest Known Geographical Treatise". Most treatments of the presocratics are based on Aristotle and the doxographic tradition, which consider the philosophies purely from a cosmological and metaphysical viewpoint. Heidel on the other hand has collected the references to Anaximander in particular from ancient works on geography. One thing we know about Anaximander is that he is credited with making the first map of the world; he is also credited (obviously incorrectly) with the invention of the sundial, but he may well have been the first to use it for astronomical -- and geographical -- theory. He is also credited with astronomical discoveries such as the obliquity of the zodiac. The Suda -- still referred to as "Suidas" in 1921 -- in its article on Anaximander credits him as having written not just one book On Physics but several others: A Tour of the Earth, The Sphere, and so forth. The writers of the sixth century did not use titles, and these are all conventional titles added in the catalogs of the later libraries such as the Museum at Alexandria; some of them may be titles of parts of the same book which existed as separate manuscripts in the library. Tour of the Earth is a title given to all early books which combine history and geography. Many of the titles attributed to Anaximander are also books attributed to his younger colleague Hecataeus, who may have been mainly concerned with improving the theories of Anaximander. The conclusion Heidel comes to is very interesting: the cosmic theory of Anaximander, and the fragments about the evolution of life in the sea, are an introduction to a longer book concerned with the history/geography of the world. He suggests that with Anaximenes and Hecataeus, this complex is divided into specialized studies of cosmology and geography, so that Anaximenes is known only for his cosmic theory and Hecataeus is a geographer not considered in the doxographical tradition as a philosopher.

This view of Anaximander -- which may also explain the little we know about Thales -- seems very plausible, and I don't really understand why none of the more recent books and articles on the presocratics consider the idea or the testimonia from the geographical tradition; perhaps they are still too focused on Aristotle and the doxographers. In reading this, I thought about two analogies (not in Heidel). One is the way the book of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus serve as an introduction to the law code of the Torah. The other, even closer, if modern example, is the first adult book I ever read: H.G. Wells' Outline of History, which begins with chapters on astronomy and the evolution of life as an introduction to the actual human history of the world.

French Pressed – Cleo Coyle – 3***
This is book six in the Coffeehouse Mystery series, and I’m really enjoying them. I do think that Clare’s insistence on investigating on her own is a bit over-the-top, but it wouldn’t be a cozy mystery without an intrusive amateur sleuth. This episode really delves into foodie culture which had me salivating in places. Not a fan of the cliff-hanger ending, but that’s a pet peeve of mine. Still, I found it deliciously entertaining – a perfect “escape” read.
My full review HERE

Magic Lessons (Practical Magic Prequel) by Alice Hoffman

There is quite a bit of information packed into this delightful book. It follows Marie Owens life from birth into adulthood. The reader gets a better understanding of why the Owens family is cursed. Marie Owens had a very tragic life full of ups and downs. One can understand why she became so bitter toward men. The characters are relatable and well written. The author obviously did a great deal of research for this book. The timeline works great and the descriptions of Salem and the events that transpire are right on level for that time period.
If you like books with strong female leads, this is your type of book. Marie and her daughter, Faith, remain true to themselves and never back down when facing adversity. Faith is extremely stubborn and did upset me a few times. There is a period of time when Marie and Faith are separated and Faith never seems to get over it, even though they were separated for a good reason.
The author also throws in some interesting information about herbs and teas and what they are used for. It’s like getting a look into Marie’s Grimoire.
(Advanced Readers Copy courtesy of NetGalley)

Tariq Ali, The Stone Woman [2000] 274 pages

The third book in the Islam Quintet is set in 1899, in the last decades of the tottering Ottoman Empire. It deals with the family of an Ottoman nobleman, Iskander Pasha, of ultimately Albanian descent. (When I read this I was startled to realize that this novel is set in approximately the same time and place as Kadare's Palace of Dreams which I read a few weeks earlier, because there is no resemblance at all between the imaginary Empire of Kadare and the realistic Empire of Ali.) The first person narrator is Iskander's daughter Nilofer, who ran away to marry a Greek schoolteacher when she was thirteen and has just returned nine years later with her young son Orhan to the family's summer palace a short journey from Istanbul. A few days after her return, her father suffers a stroke which deprives him of speech. The other siblings also return, the oldest Salman who was also estranged from his father and has been a diamond merchant in Alexandria, the younger brother Halil who is a general, and the older married sister Zeynep. Iskander's brother Memed and his lover the Baron have also returned from Berlin, and near the end of the book the other brother Kemel, a seagoing merchant, also arrives. The "stone woman" of the title is a rock, perhaps originally a pagan statue, to which the family members confess their secrets in chapters which are not in the voice of Nilofer; this is a structural device to let the reader know things that would not be otherwise revealed without flashbacks.

The narrative seems focused at first on the domestic and romantic history of the family, but as the book progresses we learn of a conspiracy against the Sultan. In the beginning, the political discussions seem somewhat detached from the plot of the book, but later they are illustrated by events in the plot. I thought that structurally this book was weaker than the first two books. There is much discussion of the coming collapse of the Empire, the need to modernize and eliminate the influence of the "beards", the Islamic clergy who are considered responsible by the characters for the decline of the Empire and its weakness in the face of the British, French, Germans and Russians. Note that the characters more anti-clerical than anti-religious, although there is somediscussion of Auguste Comte's positivist philosophy. I was surprised and somewhat disappointed that Ali, as a Marxist, has not tried to illustrate the economic causes which underlay the decline, but perhaps he has simply chosen to show us the ideas of the opponents of the Sultan at the time. There are forebodings of the Armenian massacre in the village of the servant Petrossian. We also see the influence of Western events through a journal Iskander wrote in Paris during the Commune.

One of the blurbs on the back compares the three first books to Mahfouz' Cairo Trilogy; if we leave aside the fact that Ali is not as accomplished a writer as Mahfouz, I think there are resemblances. I would say this is a worthwhile book and series to read.

Rise & Shine Benedict Stone – Phaedra Patrick – 3.5***
This is a charming novel of one man’s awakening. Patrick has crafted a sort of modern fairy tale, with a cast of eccentric characters, a romantic quest, the mythology of gems, and a happy ending (of course). It was a delightful, heart-warming read.
My full review HERE

Ann Moyal, Platypus: The Extraordinary Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the World [2001] 226 pages

Platypus is a popular account of the discovery of the Platypus by European science in 1798 (it was of course well-known to the aboriginal population) and the controversies it caused among scientists. Moyal explains how biologists were confused by the combination of mammalian traits such as fur and a four-chambered heart with a bill that they thought was birdlike (actually this was an artifact due to the hardening of the "bill" in prepared specimens; the actual organ in the living animal is very flexible and cartiliginous) and a reproductive apparatus similar to reptiles (the uterus, bladder and anus end in a common orifice, the cloaca, which accounts for the term "monotreme" meaning "single orifice" now used for the order Monotremata). At first they were unsure where it fit in the "chain of being", whether to consider it as a reptile, bird or mammal, or as a separate class of its own (together with the echidna, which has a similar combination of features.) Later, there was a controversy when the mammary glands were discovered over whether they were actually milk-producing for suckling the young or for some other purpose, since there is no actual teat or nipple. There was also controversy over whether it was viviparous (bringing forth live young) like mammals, oviparous (egg-laying) like most reptiles and all birds, or oviviviparous (hatching the egg internally) like some reptiles.

Much of the problem in solving these questions, according to Moyal (who is Australian) was the contempt of British and European scientists for the amateur Australian naturalists who were actually producing factual descriptions, but were diffident about theory, leaving that to the mother country (not to mention for the aboriginal population who knew the truth that the platypus laid eggs but were considered "unreliable" witnesses.)

There is much about the role of Richard Owens, who became the expert on the monotremata and marsupials in the middle of the nineteenth century; Moyal describes him as an expert on reconstructing extinct species from fragmentary fossils (he was called the British Cuvier) but out of his depth in theory, and a rigid Anglican who was part of the establishment. She describes him in his later life as arrogant, and as the most hated scientist in England, with a habit of taking credit for other researchers' discoveries. This is corroborated by the descriptions I have read of him in other books on the history of biology; I have a biography of him on my TBR list, which I hope to get to next year after I retire. Owens denied as long as possible that the mammary glands were real and argued for oviviviparity. (Many of those who considered it a mammal insisted it must be viviparous, but Owen knew that could not be the case given the primitiveness of the uterus; but he could not accept that it was actually oviparous, which was mainly the view of those who considered it a reptile or bird.)

Moyal also shows the role the platypus played in Darwin's thinking about evolution and the debates over the theory. Darwin described Owen as the one opponent he actively disliked. Lyell, whom Darwin respected highly and was particularly concerned to convince, initially opposed his theory as "progressive", i.e. as claiming that there was a progression from lower to higher forms, as was the case with Lamarck and other previous evolutionists, and used the platypus as a counterexample; Darwin wrote back that his theory did not assume a necessary "progress" from less to more complex, but only that species became more fit for their environments, which could involve becoming less as well as more complex.
Nevertheless, after professional (and Darwinian) scientists proved by field studies that the platypus in fact laid eggs, the monotremata were considered as a link in the development from reptiles through marsupials to placental mammals (correct) which had simply not evolved further (not correct). In the 1980s it was discovered that the platypus had a system of electrolocation unique in the animal kingdom (some fishes have electric organs but they work in an entirely different way) which shows that the platypus had a long evolution, which simply went in a different direction than other mammals.

I was expecting to read that like so many unique animals the platypus was endangered, but that is apparently not the case; they still thrive in their native habitat and are a protected species throughout, although pollution of rivers creates a certain danger.

To the Bright Edge Of the World – Eowyn Ivey – 4.5****
This is a marvelous adventure story, and an engaging look at personal growth. Both these lead characters experience heartache and difficulties and yet both persevere in reaching their goals despite obstacles, naysayers and setbacks. I loved the use of diary entries and letters to tell this bifurcated story. The book is full of Native Alaskan people’s culture, traditions, and stories. There are several very strong Native characters. I love magical realism and Ivey seamlessly weaves these elements into her story.
My full review HERE

A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes #3) by Sabaa Tahir
4 ★

Helene Aquilla, The Blood Shrike, fights to protect the Emperor and her sister against the Commandant. Laia of Serra continues her quest to stop the Nightbringer. And Elias Veturius adjusts to being the Soul Catcher even as his humanity disappears.

The previous books have been violent, but the violence in this one is easier to accept because there is a war going on. The author’s descriptions are very vivid. The characters have grown up over the course of the 3 books, but they are still teenagers and act like it sometimes.
There are a few surprises, one really big one, and a few rather sad turn of events. The deaths in this one are not as devastating as they have been in the other books. Many of your main characters make it through (not saying who :-) )

Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2) by Gail Carriger
3 ★

Sophronia starts off her second year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality with high hopes. She has enjoyed learning the secrets to being a spy and hopes the lessons continue to be fun. When the school decides to make a trip to London, Sophronia can’t help by wonder why and soon finds a conspiracy happening.

I really like how Sophronia is able to decipher all the little clues she sees around the school. Little things that usually go unnoticed. I also like how the author plays out Sophronia’s thinking so that the reader can see what she sees and how she figures things out.
All of Sophronia’s friends are back and more than willing to help her. She even gets some help from a professor. My favorite scene in the book is when Sophronia infiltrates a local vampire hive to rescue one of her friends. The whole scene is full of action and hilarious antics to take attention away from Sophronia. It was a fun scene.
Sophronia has a new admirer as well, Lord Mercey. I’m looking forward to seeing how that and her friendship with Soap pan out.

Toni Morrison, Paradise [1997] 318 pages

Toni Morrison's novels Beloved, Jazz and Paradise form a sort of trilogy about the history of Black women from slavery to the present, and it has also been described as similar to Dante's trilogy of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Paradise could only be described as Paradise with a heavy dose of irony, however. The novel is set in the all-Black town of Ruby, Oklahoma, obviously a twisted parody of Nora Zeale Hurston's Eatonville. The older inhabitants consider Ruby (and its predecessor, Haven) as having been a kind of Paradise in the past, a safe place without whites or light-skinned Blacks, where their ancestors all worked hard, helped each other when necessary, and lived in a direct connection with God. The novel gradually exposes this nostalgic "history" as a myth. In the present, there is now conflict with the younger generation, influenced by the civil rights movement, as well as among some of the founding families, encouraged by the feud between the Baptist and Methodist preachers (another echo of Hurston's novels.)

The novel opens with the sentence, "They shoot the white girl first." We see a group of men from Ruby invade a building a little outside the town known as "The Convent" (formerly a Catholic boarding school for Native American girls)to try to kill the women who live there. The time is apparently about 1975. Then we get flashbacks about each of the five women who were living there and their personal histories: Mavis, Grace (Gigi), Seneca, Pallas, and the earliest, Consolata (Connie), who remained from when it was a school. All are mentally or emotionally disturbed victims of abuse (as is the case with many of the women who live in Ruby itself.) The chapters also give some of the history of Ruby and Haven, and two figures from town, Patricia (who is writing a history of the town) and Lone get their own chapters. The final chapter is named for a little girl whose funeral is described in it, but it is mainly an epilogue about what came after the attack.

Like the other two novels in the "trilogy" and most of Morrison's novels, this is very complex and hard to pin down to one theme.

=======================

Toni Morrison, The Dancing Mind: Speech upon Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on the Sixth of November, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Six [2007] 17 pages

Although this is printed as a book I can't really bring myself to list it separately, since the title is almost as long as the book. It's what the subtitle says, a short speech she gave when she got an award. There are two anecdotes.

The Bookish Life Of Nina Hill – Abbi Waxman – 3***
I was predisposed to like this book because it focused on a bookworm. However, while I liked Nina and the other characters, I somehow didn’t really connect to the book. Perhaps I’m just too far past that young-adult / new-adult phase in my life to really immerse myself in the angst of dating, or the romantic missteps we’ve all made in a new relationship. In any case, I still enjoyed it, as I enjoy mind candy (and candy of the edible kind as well), but it just doesn’t stay with me for long, or really satisfy my hunger.
My full review HERE

Kendrick Frazier, ed. Science Under Siege: Defending Science, Exposing Pseudoscience [2009] 370 pages
John Grant, Denying Science: Conspiracy Theories, Media Distortions, and the War Against Reality [2011] 374 pages

These two books are a kind of book I usually don't read. I prefer reading books on evolutionary biology rather than books which try to refute the creationists; books on philosophy (and philosophy of science) rather than "atheist" books which try to refute religion; and generally speaking, books which present the science rather than concentrating on answering anti-scientific views which I simply can't take seriously as "live hypotheses" worthy of discussion in the first place. I even dislike the chapters of that sort in popular science books, which I feel usually waste space the author could have used to include more of the science. (It doesn't help that they often make simplistic claims about philosophy which strike anyone trained in philosophy much the way pseudoscience strikes those trained in the sciences; a fault in both these books as well.) Generally, I don't think most people who choose to believe antiscientific religious nonsense (which usually has a political rather than a purely religious origin) can be convinced by reasonable arguments about scientific method anyway -- even if you could get them to read books which aren't from their own perspective.

However, I was subjected last week to a long harangue by a woman who, rather than giving us (the Library I work at and our clerks and pages) credit for trying to provide as much service as possible in a way that is safe for our patrons (and at some risk to ourselves; librarians have died of COVID-19), attacked us for giving in to a "conspiracy" by the "Democrat Party" to (of course) "destroy America", telling me that no one she knows has gotten COVID-19 and she thinks the people "allegedly" dying in New York for example are dying of other things and being claimed as COVID-19 "to get money from the government." She also told me that she has been crushing flowers to make her own "quinine" which can cure COVID-19 "as President Trump says." (Not sure how "quinine" could cure something that was a just a hoax to begin with. . .) Another clerk was cornered by a patron in the lobby who also argued for over half an hour that COVID-19 was a hoax, that people were being diagnosed with it because it's "profitable to charge them for ventilators", and then claimed to have evidence that it was manufactured by a biological warfare plant in China. (Again, if it is a hoax, what was being manufactured in China. . .?) Of course as city employees at work we can't argue politics, so we're forced to listen to this crap without answering it. As a result I decided to check out these two books on the anti-science movements.

The book edited by Frazier is an anthology of articles by various authors from the Skeptical Inquirer. This magazine and its parent organization originally specialized in debunking "claims of the paranormal" such as ESP, ghosts and the like; and there are a few chapters devoted here to that sort of thing, which is more humorous than dangerous, apart from soaking the gullible out of money. Later on, it began answering the more serious sorts of anti-science propaganda, such as Intelligent Design creation-"science", the antivaxers, the AIDS denialists, and most dangerous of all the climate-change denialists. The COVID-19 denialists of course were not around when the book was published, but they clearly follow the same model and use the same strategies. The articles here more or less divide into two groups, general "philosophical" or methodological arguments which I wasn't impressed by, and specific arguments refuting specific claims, which were very useful and interesting.

Denying Science on the other hand, although it seems equally miscellaneous, is by a single author, John Grant, who has also written other books on the same subject (Bogus Science, Discarded Science and Corrupted Science, among others). It is not clear what Grant's scientific credentials, if any, are; the author bio on the flap mentions only that he has won two Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and "other international literary awards." This is not a small point, given that Grant's arguments often hinge on showing that various figures in the anti-science movement do not have appropriate scientific credentials in the areas they are writing about. The book covers many of the same subjects as the Frazier book, but focuses mainly on Intelligent Design and the climate-change denialists. He describes the many organizations with scientific sounding names set up (initially by the Tobacco Industry, and later (with many of the same people) by Exxon-Mobile and the Koch brothers) to promote the idea that there is scientific controversy on questions such as the danger of tobacco smoke, evolution, and anthropogenic global warming, all of which in fact are supported by an overwhelming consensus of all the legitimate scientists in the fields in question. It's interesting that a book with a title mentioning "conspiracy theories" basically describes real conspiracies -- which is the problem with the idea that "conspiracy theories" are a single class of loony theories. Of course what the title refers to are the claims of the anti-science advocates that vaccination and global warming for example are "conspiracies to destroy America", as the woman I listened to on the phone believes about COVID-19.

Neither book has any real analysis of the political basis of these movements, which they tend to attribute to "magical thinking" and other personal deficiencies. At most there is a preference for liberalism over the far-right, although to their credit the authors occasionally expose a Democratic politician as well. The Grant book also points out that while the explicit attacks on science come largely from the far-right, the liberal academic penchant for "postmodernist" relativism disarms defenders of real science by claiming that science is just another ideology as false as any other (a claim used by anti-science writers in the developing world, especially the Islamic countries, to claim science is "colonialist".) However, like the postmodernists, he tries to refute the anti-science groups by showing their affiliations to the far-right and the corporations rather than by taking on their arguments in a detailed way. In the end, it is just the liberal theme of "good" people (scientists) vs "bad" people (and greedy corporations) with no understanding of the structural issues.

To sum up, both books have some valuable information about the anti-science movement as an organized political force, and some arguments against specific lies. However, if someone confused about these issues asked me for recommendations, I would be much more likely to recommend books on evolutionary biology or climate science rather than these.