High - A Journey Across the Himalaya through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China (Erika Fatland, 2023)

 (570 pages)

Author took a journey through the areas mentioned in the title; it was divided into two segments, each lasting months.

I like travel books - they give a feel for geography and history told against a story line of things the traveler is encountering, difficulties along the way, etc.

These areas are generally unfamiliar to me. As she moves east, even less familiar.  Lots of visits to Buddhist temples (after starting more with Hindu-Muslim mix, mostly Hindu, then Hindu-Buddhist mix).

Discussions of India-China borderlands are interesting, also India-Pakistan - fraught areas, as is well-known. Kashmir.

Discussions of Chinese control in these areas - after some intermittent resistance, now it's mostly well-controlled.  Social media monitored more closely than in modern-day Great Britain! In the short "acknowledgements" section at the end of the book the author mentions the risks that folks took in speaking with her, including on dangerous topics; she obscured their names and locations in the telling. This atmosphere won't be changing anytime soon.

Lots of Chinese tourists in various areas - as the country has gotten wealthier, they are on the move.

Some of the areas are incredibly obscure.  Shamans with lots of power.  Menstruating women sent off to a hut for days; poor conditions, unhealthy to the point of causing some deaths.  Changing, but many still stuck with this.

Dealing with altitude. She visits Mt. Everest base camp, an interesting perspective from a person not attempting the summit.

Pretty amazing to imagine throughout; I don't foresee visiting any of these places; so it's nice to at least get an armchair experience.

Gates of Fire (The Battle of Thermopylae) (Steven Pressfield, 1998)

(384 pages)

Greek survivor at Thermopylae is asked by Xerxes, seeking understanding about the courage of the Spartans, to tell the story of the battle as he understood it.  A Persian historian records the tale.

A good job of moving back and forth in time. Weaving in early childhood experiences of the survivor (and his sister), his incorporation into Spartan ways.

I wasn't as interested in the battle sequences though no doubt they are rendered effectively.

This kind of fighting - no drones; no gunfire from a distance.  

Descriptions of the Spartan training.  Their superiority. Selection of the 300; their known fate.

I appreciated that the author typically presented the Persians, even their auxiliaries, as courageous fighters. 

Ending phases of the book are remarkably good.  The speeches of King Leonidas and others on the final morning of the battle. The type of brotherhood of these men in arms; echoes of similar stories from wars throughout history; very effective. A relationship unlike any other.

This is an idealized presentation of Sparta as I understand things - though that's OK, the focus here is military matters and it seems Sparta very much excelled there.

Courage of the Spartan women is presented, an interesting angle that I hadn't previously seen; how their support mattered.

Good discussions of courage and fear; "there are rooms we must not enter" - courage doesn't mean absence of fear.

Well worth reading.

The Pioneers (David McCullough, 2019)

 (258 pages)

Quick read, enjoyable, McCullough writes engagingly.

This is a story about the Northwest Territory - which became five states with which I'm quite familiar (WI, IL, IN, MI, OH) - I don't know much about this history.  

For one thing I didn't realize the scale of the Ohio River - looking at it on the map was useful.

Also didn't realize how this followed close on the heels of the Revolutionary War; lots of veterans involved.  First settlers head for Ohio in 1787. Founding of Marietta, Ohio.  

Author kind of obsessed with the education and anti-slavery planks of the founding documents; somewhat though much less interested in the fate of the local natives.

The stories about clearing the land, building settlements, dealing with Indians, etc. seemed more familiar.  Mad Anthony Wayne's expedition ended the Indian threat (if that's the way to describe it).

Rapid growth, a lot of change is seen - flatboats, keelboats eventually steam power. Crossing the Alleghenies very difficult; early travelers sometimes had to take apart their wagons and carry the pieces through a rough spot or two (along with the cargo).

Story is told via diaries and letters that I don't think were previously plumbed to such depth.  It's an effective way to tell the story - we see things through the eyes of selected founders and their descendants. One was a doctor who moonlighted as a naturalist (Hildreth). Reminded of the approach in Holland's excellent book about WWII in Italy (though not as compelling as that instance). 

Rabbit, Run (John Updike, 1960)

 (325 pages)

Updike is well thought of, I think.  This novel (and a couple companion pieces) are considered to be among his best, I think. 

But I only made it a little over halfway.  Maybe missed something great. But I don't like this kind of book.  Protagonist was a successful high school basketball player, later unhappy with his wife, acting immature, mostly interacting with unappealing folks.

Destiny of the Republic - A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (Candice Millard, 2011)

(308 pages)

Book club selection per Nicole.

An era of US history I don't know much about. Garfield was elected in 1880 and assassinated shortly thereafter.  The author focuses on four people - 

1. James Garfield - author presents him as a great guy; not running for president (or at least effectively demure about it) but becomes nominee after an impasse.  Great orator, family guy, has a farm in Ohio, ancestors carved out life on the farm.  Civil War veteran with success despite no experience. 

2. The assassin - Guiteau or somesuch name - pretty much mentally ill, not very interesting. Minimal or zero security for US presidents at this era.

3. Alexander Graham Bell - had achieved great success with the telephone, now thought to apply related principles to create a device to locate the bullet embedded in Garfield. Probably on a useful track but this was difficult to pull off.  I was interested in the descriptions of Bell's creative process - in a way it reminded me of Mandelstam's (per the book immediately prior).  Inventive outbursts, keep going while the flame is burning!

4. Lister (of antiseptic medicine fame) and Bliss (Garfield's doctor) - avatars for the then state-of-the-art medical practices.  US doctors generally uninterested in Lister's ideas at this phase.  Bliss poking his fingers into the wound - guess what, lots of infection! Not that long ago.

Medical treatment in DC in the summertime - intense heat - a group try to create a sort of air-conditioning system.  Includes John Wesley Powell.

Insanity defense in the assassin's trial.  England's McNaughton rule.

Hope Against Hope (Nadezhda Mandelstam, 1970)

(401 pages; dense but worthwhile and I took my time)

As with Kolyma Tales, Solzhenitsyn, etc. - I find so interesting the stories of folks struggling against, or at least to survive, the Soviet regime.  This one had all sorts of compelling elements.

The author is the surviving spouse of a Russian poet (Josip Mandelstam) who quickly fell out of favor with the regime, was arrested in 1934, then again in 1937; he died in a transit camp in Siberia (Vladivostok area, perhaps enroute to Kolyma).  

A favorite part of the book was her descriptions of the poet's creative process - helps imagine how this might work (since it never happens for/to me!) Josip didn't write down poetry and work on drafts - she would notice when he was concentrating in a certain way, often with lips moving, then eventually he would start writing - not a finished product but very far along - not good to try to interrupt him in this situation.

Some items - 

1.  Like the linked Kolyma stories - the author uses a spare, unsensational approach to a situation that could support a lot of drama - it's effective.

2. The author and her husband were around through the 1920s so there's a lot of perspective on a decade where I normally haven't seen much. Idealism in the early days. True believers and fellow travelers even then.

3. The idea that the revolution had launched a new era, scientific, inevitable - many liked this idea, or at least big chunks of it.  Also Stalin as strong man following difficult-chaotic times (similar appeal for Mussolini, Hitler, perhaps even FDR in a way) - this has a certain popularity. 

4. But the totalitarian, terror aspects go from unpleasant "necessity" to dominance. The 1930s - when a car pulling up to a residence, the sound of an elevator coming up - instant fear. Lubianka, black cars, interrogations.

5. Some of it echoes recent US approach (even if ours is comparatively lame). Dismissing ideas as "bourgeois" sounds like recent era of dismissing ideas as "whiteness" (or pick any of the 2010-2024 cancel-words).  These words inspire fear, for a while.

6. The poet and the author both work in the world of words, and see how language control is an essential tool of overall control. The progressive left pushes for language control now, areas such as trans, CRT.  Endless examples, just saw a Mt Holyoke tweet - faculty are expected to report misgendering.  As with Soviets, two elements - take over the language, require reporting.

7.  They were closely connected to Anna Akhmatova, another holdout but she survived.

8. Interactions with other famous 20th century Russians - Pasternak, Bulgakov, 

9. Author's efforts to save copies of her husband's work.  Sometimes using memory for items too dangerous to write down. Handwritten extra copies stored in separate locations, dangerous.

10. Poet got off lucky in 1934, merely banished to live at least 100 kilometers from Moscow.  Plenty were in similar straits, making housing difficult to find; they were called "105ers").  Couldn't be published, couldn't get jobs - living in poverty.

11. Author (though not the poet) was around for the famous "thaw" - when Khrushchev denounced Stalin in 1953 - some improvement though short-lived. Still required to speak of the crazy days as historically necessary. Poet was somewhat rehabilitated in this phase.

12. The day-to-day fear - this part hard to imagine - most everyone one encountered was quite probably an informer - especially when younger poetry enthusiasts would show up and exhibit intense interest - they never trusted these folks.

A lot to think about from these awful times.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein, 1966)

(388 pages)

This ended up being an enjoyable read.

Residents of the Moon (called "Luna") mostly arrive via transport (think England -> Australia) or are descended from transportees; they work to supply grain to Earth; many freedoms as a practical matter but things are controlled by a Warden.  Lots of discussion of the way family structures evolved on the Moon.

Protagonist (Mannie) is a computer technician who services the main computer on the Moon; he decides to start "talking" to this computer ("Mike") and it turns out they strike up a friendship.  Mannie kind of accidentally gets tied up in a revolutionary plot (with Wyoming and the Professor), he successfully enlists Mike to help.

Some of this is interesting from the perspective of current AI discussions - how far can a computer go, how to set it up to perform this level of functionality, etc.

The revolution part was kind of annoying in that it sounds pretty much Leninist - the masses of the Moon's population viewed as not slightly interested in a revolt, they needed to be coaxed into action by better-knowing elites who manipulated them in the direction desired by the elites, constantly lying, propaganda etc. The justification for revolution is that the Moon's resources will be exhausted in a few decades under the system imposed from Earth. So that makes the actions of the elite revolutionaries feel less evil.

And fortunately in this case the revolutionary elites were made up of just a few folks who could have been philosopher-kings.

Story construction is pretty interesting throughout; the things the revolutionaries accomplish seem implausible but that's fine in service of a story; and they had Mike!

I liked the finish, how things ended up with Mike.

The Savage Storm - The Battle for Italy 1943 (James Holland, 2023)

(476 pages)

I've been lucky to run across quite a few WWII histories that are very high quality - but this one is a definite favorite - the author was completely effective in knitting an overview of the military strategy and key battles with many contemporary excerpts from diaries, letters and the like; these latter gathered from grunts and officers in American, British, German, and Italian armies; also Italian citizens, Ernie Pyle, etc.  

I'll let the author explain - 

"I have been studying the long and terrible Second World War for some years now, but nothing has moved me in quite such a profound way as researching and writing this book.  Perhaps it's because, for the first time, I've used mostly contemporary sources:  diaries, letters, signals and memoranda, and photographs taken in a split second.  Rather than hearing the memories of those times fifty, sixty or even seventy years on, my cast of very real characters have drawn from the testimonies they recorded at the time. I have deliberately tried to avoid any forward projection and to write purely in the moments, hours and days in which the events described were taking place.  None of those writing diaries and letters knew when Rome would fall. None of them knew when the war would end.  I have found it difficult not to be swept up in their experiences, their suffering, their anxieties, their fears and it has been impossible not to care about their fates." (p. 474)

I was definitely swept up.  It also helped that Irvin Bormann and Vernon Hohenberger were literally there for big chunks of the 1943 timeline covered in this book - Irvin's diaries and Hohenberger's memoir include items that are 100% on point with descriptions here; makes it much more personal.

Some things I have a better grasp of -

--The Allies attacked Sicily earlier in 1943 with overwhelming force and encountered weak Italian resistance in many cases.  Plenty of landing craft available to bring all the stuff that a mechanized army needs, especially when the strategy is to overwhelm the enemy with aircraft and artillery to reduce the expenditure of soldiers' lives.

--Italy in this second half of 1943 was not like this.  Resources were diverted to preparations for Normandy and for the war in the Pacific.  Sicilian success perhaps gave too much confidence; the politicians and high command were promising "Rome by Christmas" and no one could back off this push even though it pretty quickly became evident that there soon was no basis for achieving this goal.

--Landing craft in particular were key - I didn't think about how new large-scale amphibious assault was (not a thing in WWI) - these craft just didn't exist in sufficient numbers to bring all the stuff needed. As manufacturing ramps up, many diverted to Pacific and Normandy.

--And to some extent the lack of mechanized support and artillery didn't matter - horrific winter weather and isolated mountainous terrain made aircraft and tanks and shelling less effective. 

--Italy surrendered in September 1943, and the German army took over - much tougher resistance than encountered in Sicily.  Hitler very concerned about this southern approach to Germany.

--The mountains were just made for defense; and the Germans were expert at exploiting this. Whereas an attacking force might be assumed to need a 3:1 numbers advantage, it probably was higher here. Divisions were pulled out of the line (Normandy), soldiers were expected to keep going way beyond normal tours.

--Yet the decision was made to keep going.  Which meant the infantry had such a terrible time of it here.  

--Mark Clark takes a lot of grief, but this author pins the blame higher up the chain, thinks Clark did well under the circumstances.

--I hadn't read much about the Salerno landing - difficult, interesting.

--The civilian suffering - the mechanized, heavy shelling approach had very different consequences in populated Italy as compared to the North African deserts. The sad stories here, wow.

This book wraps up at year-end, so author doesn't get to Anzio, Rapido River crossing; Irvin Bormann DOW on February 1, 1944 so we don't get battles in his final month. Irvin does mention seeing a big battle down in a valley in the December 15-17, 1943 time frame; that could well have been for San Pietro (p. 440).

Random Acts of Medicine (Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham, 2023)

(244 pages)

Had seen great reviews on this but did not find it all that useful - that's not really a knock on the book, but Taleb and Kahneman (just read within the last few weeks/months) cover a lot of similar concepts in a way that I found more helpful.

Jena is "Freakanomics" podcast host; I don't listen to these but I know they are highly regarded.

Some of the studies have been in the news - how ADHD diagnoses fall on the very youngest boys in a class; the effect on cardiac patient care if an incident happens when the big guns are off at a conference.  Also look at things like the effect of a provider's birthday on care, whether it's better to have a younger or older doctor in hospitalist (get younger unless older consistently handles high volume) or surgery (probably the older) settings, etc.

But studies are notoriously difficult to construct so have limits; no clear takeaway here, I think we best continue to rely on referrals.  But there are items to keep in mind.

   

The Spy and the Traitor (Ben Macintyre, 2019)

 (335 pages)

Book club selection by POC.

Story of Oleg Gordiansky, KGB agent who rose through the ranks but started working with British intelligence - this continues for years, including during London postings. Gordiansky disaffected by building of Berlin Wall, crushing of Prague Spring (1968); seems to have acted out of ideological conviction, not for money, perhaps other motivations as this is hard to sort out.  

Lots of important information revealed, some quite helpful as Thatcher and Reagan governments deal with a declining Soviet Union and then Gorbachev.

The author can make all of this quite interesting; for example, the story of the escape from Moscow is quite good (playing Finlandia for a fellow in the trunk!)  Several close calls; Aldrich Ames appears. Sneaky rendezvous tactics.

Downside - to me, this was just another spy tale; very little to be learned and I think could have been told effectively with far less detail.  Does help illuminate the stresses under which these folks operate.  

More than Enough (Mike Piper, 2023)

Another book discussing how to handle assets later in life once it seems that you aren't at risk of outliving your savings. Good discussion but pretty much nothing new compared to other stuff I've read in recent years.

Similar to Die With Zero.

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011)

(418 pages)

Had heard a lot about this book but didn't check it out until PJr loan of his copy.

Starts with useful discussion of "System 1" and "System 2".

System 1 - efficiency! Once it finds a cause, it likes to rely on it.  Operating continuously, establishing what's normal, alert to threats. Evolution.

Taleb's "The Black Swan" has similarities - efficiency. Useful if not essential for day to day, but prone to error.  Narrative fallacy - we love stories. 

System 2 - the "stop and think" element, though lazy; likes to rely on S1; interaction between S1 and S2 can be hard to sort out despite many clear cases.

Plenty of other good ideas, too many for me to keep track of. 

Base rates - keep in mind as a control on both systems.

Regression effects - complex.

WYSIATI - an easy mistake, I try to get better at trying to think about what is not visible or evident in a given situation.

He cites a definition of intuition that is interesting - essentially it's a cue that retrieves something from memory - persons with vast relevant experience will have more items stored in memory that can be retrieved with the proper cue - we call it intuition but it's really memory.  Makes sense.

But emphasizes trusting rules/algorithms and not intuition/hunches.  Hmm.

The "hot hand" fallacy in sports. I still don't buy it, which probably proves one of his points.

The discussion about the difference between lived experience and remembered experience is interesting, illuminating, not solvable but useful:

"Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me." (p 390)

That quote seemed absolutely Proustian.

Extensive reliance on experiments and studies.  Sufficiently robust?  Replicable? Me doubtful but not smart enough to draw a conclusion.  

The book is highly useful no matter.

Sicily '43 - The First Assault on Fortress Europe (James Holland, 2020)

(499 pages)

I'd never read much about this - it sort of falls into a gap between all the activity in North Africa and then larger Italian mainland campaign.

Summer 1943; largest amphibious landing to that point, by a long shot.  So there was lots of learning to be done.

Success seems inevitable in hindsight.  But terribly difficult. Very difficult to storm beaches even with materiel advantages.

Nighttime paratrooper drops - disaster.  Little effect on outcome, however.  Lots to learn, somewhat helpful at Normandy.

Italian troops just not ready - or inspired- in any sense - offered little resistance.

Hermann Goering division touted by name but cobbled together and not very effective.

German balancing needs on eastern front - Kursk battle going on right at this time (July 1943).  Hitler worried about "southern flank" and does move men and material from the east.

German reinforcements arrive - higher quality. Many very difficult local situations, lots of casualties, seems discouraging in a fight whose outcome both sides could readily foresee.  Germans fall back to the NE corner of the island, then they do a good job falling back into the "toe" of the Italian "boot".  And surviving to make difficult fighting for the Allies as they push up into Italy (the author's next book).

This author does a good job weaving individual narratives within the overall story line.  Also history of Sicily, including mafioso development (the Fascists had mostly subdued them and many emigrated to America; the Allies found them useful including in the postwar period, reinvigorating them).  I hadn't known much about Sicily before this other than classical tales, Arab pirates, lingering poverty.

Times Remembered - Algona: 1854-2004 (2003)

(163 pages)

This was a gift from my parents received shortly after the book was released.

It isn't a history book per se; it includes numerous vignettes extending across the named years. 

Useful reminder of conditions being pretty primitive in northern Iowa in the pre-Civil War period. I see that the railroad ("The Milwaukee Railroad" - same line on which I commuted from Glenview to downtown Chicago in the early 1980s) first reached Algona in 1870.

Carnegie library.

For my taste, a bit too much of the content is one-pagers about various retail establishments - maybe this is what the Algona Upper Des Moines was familiar with?  Hutzell's, Hub, Chrischilles, etc.

Easy read, worth the brief time required.

Death Be Not Proud (John Gunther, 1949)

The title is from a well-known John Donne poem.

Author's son dies of a brain tumor after a 15-month illness. The son is very bright. The parents are very devoted.  They pursue all sorts of medical angles (they have money and connections and use them).

Very solemn topic and this was universally considered well-written.  But I didn't get into it. Maybe because it's kind of an uncomfortable thing and the kid seemed too-good-to-be-true?  Not sure. 

I think perhaps the novelists are more captivating with this (easy example the death of the Proust narrator's grandmother).