"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team (Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller, 2016)

Book club selection (via POC; session held July 17, 2016).

Authors are well-known baseball statistics guys, including stints with Baseball Prospectus.  A situation arises during one of their regular podcasts - almost like a dare - they agree to take on responsibilities with an independent league team, the Sonoma Stompers.  The idea was that they would have authority to select players and implement cutting-edge strategies based on statistical analysis.

That was the idea.  They find out that institutional inertia is powerful.

Interesting, useful; I pay lots of attention to baseball for so many years now (55 and counting), and had plenty of new insights based on reading this.

And our reading group has a couple guys who have lived the life, and had interesting things to say about all this.

Some thoughts:

1.  Sonoma is a town we know from vacations (just there in April as a matter of fact); team stadium just a couple blocks north of the town square; adds to the enjoyment of the book.

2.  Good job of explaining the gap between the independent leagues and affiliated ball - these players really are on the cusp, pretty much without exception.  In plenty of cases, deciding whether to play one more season for near-zero chance of advancing, or give up the dream and get a "real" job.

3.  The authors' interactions with the first manager (Feh) - very interesting - how  instincts, clubhouse experiences matter.  The stat guys won't anticipate that seemingly innocuous decisions will have a big morale effect, at least based on how players still tend to approach the game in 2016.

4.  Some interesting details about how the authors unearth players with unrecognized potential.

5.  But all in all, the authors had less control than one would expect based on the book blurbs.  Harder to initiate changes than they expected.

5.  One problem with the story:  sample size is too small to judge effectiveness.  One season, and a very short one at that.  The book publicity oversold what was going on here.  Which was a minor shame, since the book stands up quite well anyway.

6.  Unusual things - one of the players comes out; Jose Canseco signs for a short stint.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)

My first Thomas Hardy novel; I expect to read more.

This was his final novel; some speculate he was discouraged by adverse reaction to it, though I don't find that terribly plausible (unburdened by any knowledge on this topic, however).

The book appears on "best novel" lists; it also appears on "most depressing novel" lists - both rankings make sense.

It made me rather unhappy quite regularly, yet tugged me along.  I'd recommend it, although initially I felt otherwise.  The characters are interesting, complicated - no one-dimensional villains.

Themes:  difficulty of lower classes to access higher education; class distinctions; difficulties with the institution of marriage as then in force; the Church; smothering effect of these.  In 1895 - controversial.  But very thoughtful and sympathetic; perhaps even "ethical," I'd say.  Modern, but not modern (1895, after all).

Sue Bridehead - clear-thinking, delightful heroine, but fragile, and endures too much.

Jude Fawley - always working uphill. Working class with dreams of academia (or clergy); makes a living, such as it was, by working as a stonemason.  From childhood, loves the town of Christminster as a place of dreams or opportunities.

Jude's schoolmaster for a brief period in early childhood - Philottson - moves to Christminster at beginning of the novel - later re-enters the story - also shows quite a bit of capacity for independent thinking but is duly punished.

Arabella - a survivor!

Father Time - one of the grimmest characters I've ever encountered.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

The Lost - A Search for Six of Six Million (Daniel Mendelsohn, 2006)

Wasn't really looking for *another* Holocaust book.  But PJ was recommending this pretty strongly, so I thought I'd be a good sport and take it up.

Very glad that I did - some perspectives that I found quite unique.


The author is a professional writer - NY Review of Books, NYT magazine, that sort of thing - and became deeply interested in history even as a child, he thinks due to influence of his grandfather.  Family origins in Bolechow, Poland; many emigrate as things get tough; six stay behind and disappear as Germany takes over following Hitler turning on Stalin in 1941.  Limited and not always consistent information is available about how the six were liquidated, but author decides to search for more.

Travels to Bolechow; then Australia, Israel, Scandinavia.  Reconnects (or connects) with photographer brother who seems to do very nice work (wish the photos had been given more prominence in the book).

Author uses a meandering storytelling style - takes some patience - 503 pages - but well worth it.  Interactions with survivors; some pretty amazing coincidences enable information to be discovered; very powerful as author descends into the kestl.

Particularly useful to me - he pulls together threads I'm pursuing - family history research; weaves Old Testament stories (particularly Cain & Abel, Noah, Abraham), along with interpretations from two Torah commentators, into his narrative; Jewish history in eastern Europe; stories of the Polish borderlands (Galicia), last flickering remnants of the old Habsburg days; plenty of tension among Poles, Ukrainians and Jews but at least they could live together and function for the most part (other than the occasional outbursts, which were awful enough).  Jews now all gone.

The awful episodes during the several Aktions, including at Dom Katolick. Hidden in a teacher's house.  Polish boy makes the mistake(?) of falling for a Jewish girl.  Uncle Shmiel loses his permit to run his truck.  Stuff that happened with Jews under 1930s German diktats (with plenty of local collaboration) - wow.  Ukrainians take advantage.

Searching for the personal detail that prevents - ok, only delays - a person (pretty much every person, ultimately) from being entirely, utterly forgotten.  Searching for how it might have felt (not just how it happened).

Author states that his grandfather was renowned for his storytelling ability, and he tries to describe his grandfather's method; then describes his dilemma about how to shape the story he is learning about in his researches . . . of course he's signalling that he will be using his grandfather's method to tell this tale.  Which he does, very effectively.

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

An Autobiography - or - The Story of my Experiments with Truth (M.K. Gandhi; written 1925-1929)

An interesting and useful look at Gandhi in his earlier years, by Gandhi.

I'm always suspicious of autobiographies - by definition the author cannot be unbiased - but there is so much going on in this one - glimpses into both the author and late 19th/early 20th century India.

I think he is pretty honest in using the term "experiments" (if that's an accurate translation) - clearly inquisitive, innovative, more than willing to try atypical approaches.

Some threads:

1.  Marriage - at a very young age.  Wife pretty much uneducated.  He spends quite a bit of time away (England, South Africa, etc.).  Later decides to abstain from knowing his wife (Brahmacharya).

2.  Diet - avoiding meat, milk.  Lots of fruits and nuts. Experimenting to the point of putting his health at risk.

3.  Medicine - again, accepting or not accepting medical advice - taking risks - to the point of jeopardizing his health.

4.  Child-rearing experiments; often separate from his own.

5.  Education - clearly a bright student; progresses through India, then onto England.  Educational experiments in Ashrams.

6.  Important years in England - I had forgotten about this if I ever knew it.

7.  Difficulties in establishing a law practice in India; accepts an opportunity in South Africa.  Builds relationships there; gains experience in dealing with mistreatment of Indian population (starting with getting thrown off a train).

8.  Religion, and more religion - gaining some familiarity with Christianity (starting in England); deeper understanding Hindu principles.

9.  Devoted to living simply; third-class train travel; sanitation; encouraging folks to clean up!

10.  Boer War - organizes ambulance corps - believed in working within the system and respecting the government (at least up to a point).

11.  Development of Satyagraha principle, starting in South Africa.

12.  Getting involved in Congress party.

13.  Very interesting issues in connecting with Muslim (Musselman) leadership; made me think of how poorly all this worked out, per discussion in this book.

14.  Early confrontations, let's call them, with British authorities in India.

15.  More experiments - in self-sufficiency - spinning wheels.

Not saying all these ideas played out well - but the guy clearly had immense leadership and imaginative capabilities.

Gift from Dharma, much enjoyed, lots to think about.