The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco, 1980)

Book club selection (via PJr/PJ).

As the years go by, I can see that I will spend more of my reading on re-reading prior books that I found useful.  While this re-read was prompted by book club, I could also have seen myself re-reading it on its own merits.

Discussion from initial read is here.

Enjoyed it more this time around.  I have a better sense of the history, partly because of books like this.  Also, the book is pretty complex - so even though I didn't recall all that many details, it ultimately was helpful to have some familiarity going in (from the prior read).

Eco's "Afterword" is quite interesting.

Guns, Germs and Steel - the Fate of Human Societies (Jared Diamond, 1999)

[Something unusual:  I was reading two books within about a month of each other; both featuring the same cover artwork (second book linked here).]

Diamond's book has gotten a lot of attention so I'm glad I worked through it.  There are lots of very interesting ideas.  But his basic premise seems a little tired - he knocks himself out explaining that different levels of what we call "progress" among different civilizations are not due to intrinsic differences among the peoples.  I'm not sure there's a big audience out there promoting that viewpoint anymore?  Would have been a hot topic decades ago.  Now he just sounds a little boring flogging the "inequality" language.  But whatever.  When he sticks to basic ideas, there is a lot to learn.

Interesting stuff:

1.  Lots of information about the locus of useful plants.  Guess what:  a civilization can make more progress if it is blessed with useful plants.

2.  Same in regard to domesticable animals.  This part is really interesting to me, I had never read much about it.  The list of domesticable animals is pretty short.  Living in proximity to these of course led to disease/immunity implications as Europeans encountered new worlds.(Germs)

3.  He reiterates something I've read elsewhere:  plants and animals travel much better along lines of latitude than they do along lines of longitude.  Seems obvious once you focus on it.  This resulted in diffusion of plants and animals (and, of course, ideas) from China to Portugal.  Much harder for movement North to South America, or north to south in Africa.  Harder than I had realized.

4.  Big game has survived in Africa but has generally been wiped out everywhere else - and pretty shortly after humans showed up in those areas.  The theory:  humans and big game evolved together in Africa.  As humans showed up elsewhere, they found big game with all the savvy of dodo birds (and same outcome).

5.  Hunter-gatherer societies - limited fertility - I hadn't thought about their need to space out children a few years - would not want to be carrying >1.  And how accumulating "stuff" was just a useless idea.

6.  Agriculture, water projects, government, religion, armies, specialization - fascinating. (Guns, Steel)

7.  Like this author, scope is a little too ambitious here - can he really know enough about all the areas and time frames he discusses?

But all in all:  valuable, recommended.

" . . . the official religions and patriotic fervor of many states make their troops willing to fight suicidally.  The latter willingness is one so strongly programmed into us citizens of modern states, by our schools and churches and governments, that we forget what a radical break it marks with previous human history."

The Brewer's Tale - A History of the World According to Beer (William Bostwick, 2014)

I enjoy beer mightily.  As POC 'n NOC know, so this book was a gift from them.

I'm pretty sure there's never been a better time to be a fan of beer.  Quality and variety are both far superior to anything I knew even 10 or 20 years ago (and, it seems, times prior to that).

The author goes through something of a beer tour across time and geography - so the book is pretty ambitious in that sense.  Starts with Babylonians and works up to contemporary.  Interesting throughout, though some of the pieces are more interesting than others.  I will keep the book handy as a reference as I run across various beer styles - useful information but too much detail to remember.

Among other topics:  the beginnings and spread of using hops; "Trappist" definition; world war devastation in Belgium (the breweries there don't have quite the continuity I would have expected); IPAs; porters; saisons; Prohibition and its beneficial effect on the largest U.S. breweries.

The author had the idea to make his own attempt at brewing various of the styles he discussed; that idea could have been dropped.

My Struggle (Book One) (Karl Ove Knausgaard, 2009)

This is the first book of a multi-book series that has created a huge buzz.  The author - Norwegian - writes in great detail about early experiences.  The focus in Book One is on his relationship with his alcoholic father.  But much more ground is covered.

I've read that the percentage of folks in Norway that have read Knausgaard's work is incredibly high, and further that his life has changed for the worse due to resentment by characters in the book who are readily identifiable in the relatively small communities about which he writes.

Lots of comparisons to Proust among the reviewers; even direct references in this Book One.

My tentative conclusion:  (1) Book One is good-not-great, clearly worthwhile however; (2) I think I will read Book Two and see how it goes; (3) depending on how Book Two works out I will either keep going, or drop the project and re-read Proust (which I will do soon in any event).

I realize it's quite early to judge - based on just one book - but so far I don't think the comparison to Proust stands up well.  Part of this may be simply that discussions of things that occurred in the 1980s or 1990s inevitably sound less interesting or exotic than discussions of things from early 20th century?

Alcohol definitely an issue for these folks.

I read that the Mein Kampf-style title for the book was chosen deliberately though I don't recall why.

Owning the Earth - The Transforming History of Land Ownership (Andro Linklater, 2013)

In the end I didn't find this very useful.  The author simply is trying to do too much - there's no way he can be expert about all of the subjects covered.  Also suspect because he is pretty open about his policy orientation - while I of course prefer openness, in this case it supports the impression that the author is applying policy preferences as gap-fillers as he comments on just about everything under the sun.

The author tells us that the genesis of the book is his effort to explain the financial "crisis" circa 2008 - as he looked for explanations he kept coming back to the importance of land ownership - then the arc of the book changed and he indicates that he wrote a different book than intended.

It's certainly not startling to assert that land ownership policies are important.  He tries to address the topic across the globe and across the centuries, inevitably supplemented by observations about social and political systems - to repeat, there's just no way he can be sufficiently knowledgeable to knit all these pieces together.

So I read pretty closely for a hundred pages or so - and there are plenty of interesting ideas floating around.  Government policy matters immensely, but it needs to take into account local history, etc.  Nothing startling here.

Reminded me of Dierdre McCloskey in describing why there was nothing inevitable about the economic progress of northern Europe (including England), though he comes from a different ideological perspective.  China, Middle East - examples of areas more advanced than Europe, but failed to advance.

Seems to adopt the standard narrative on lots of issues . . .  The Road to Serfdom tellingly described as a "savage hymn"; also throws in some standard-issue CEO bashing (not sure how it fit the story line, but then again he did start from 2008 perspective - of course with no mention that government policy might have had a role).  The selfishness and greed memes become tiresome.

Interesting discussion comparing serfs (eastern Europe) and peasants (western Europe) with analogous discussions regarding other geographies.  I'd like to come back to this part of the discussion.

History of the Conquest of Peru (William H. Prescott, 1847)

Much enjoyed Prescott's write-up of the conquest of Mexico; had forgotten to follow up on this second key work until recent NOC-POC Peru trip led to discussions.  I'd prefer the Mexico book over the Peru book if pressed - but both are quite delightful.  The only downside on the Peru book is that so much of the story line is devoted to infighting among the Spanish conquerors - including several of the quite vigorous Pizarro brothers.

My favorite part of the book was the descriptions of the Inca empire prior to arrival of the Spaniards - if accurate, these folks were ridiculously well organized.  Roads, food system, religious, etc.  Yet they never figured out the wheel; very primitive writing.  As discussed in this book, and also here - Peru such a unique environment - so many micro-climates at such a low latitude - they could grow pretty much anything.

Pizarro benefited from lucky timing - arriving during a period of heightened imperial infighting - similar to Cortez in this respect.

But the courage, or madness, of the tiny group of adventurers is simply breathtaking.  Also borrowed from Cortez:  the bold abduction of the emperor.  The room full of gold.

How quickly the system fell apart once the emperor was taken; how quickly and permanently the changes wrought via the Spaniards reduced the country.

And how little long-term benefit to Spain - the ongoing myth that it was enriched - visible to Prescott - ". . . the wealth thus suddenly acquired, by diverting them from the slow but surer and more permanent sources of national prosperity, has in the end glided from their grasp, and left them among the poorest of the nations of Christendom."  Exploiting colonies wasn't a great strategy except for a handful of insiders, as discussed here.

Rampant inflation.

Charles V needing cash for wars - influx of precious metals helped in short run.

A younger Pizarro brother makes an incredible journey into the Amazon.

Definitely stranger than fiction.

Lina & Serge - The Love & Wars of Lina Prokofiev (Simon Morrison, 2013)

A very interesting and personal (due to access to family correspondence) look at what happened to Lina Prokofiev - and also of great interest from a general-historical perspective as her experiences unfold across the big events of the 20th century, with a focus on Russia.

(Also the story is made more interesting to us as we learn more about, and increasingly like, Prokofiev's music; for example Alexander Nevsky (performed with MusicFest in 2013), plus his second piano concerto performed with Phoenix Symphony by the 2013 Van Cliburn winner while I was in the midst of this book.)

Lina's mother was Russian; her father was Spanish; she tended to identify with the Russian side due to a grandmother.  The parents were actor/singer types of mediocre stature; ended up in U.S. to do performances, so Lina mostly grew up here, mostly in NY.  She aspired to be a singer - nice soprano voice but not quite enough.  Family was well-connected in Russian emigre circles.  She meets the talented Serge Prokofiev - somewhat struggling to break through notwithstanding his talent - and fell in love with him.  Serge seemed to behave mostly like a jerk throughout; she follows him to Europe; he finally agrees to marry after a number of years (once she's pregnant).

1930s - for propaganda purposes, Stalin wants Russian artists to come home (many had fled in aftermath of Bolshevik revolution) - Serge and Lina are enticed to return with promises of special treatment, honors, artistic freedom, etc.  Misgivings; they are tailed while in Paris during this time; but Serge felt the opportunity would be better in the Soviet Union, especially based on a Potemkin tour, I'll call it, arranged while they were considering their decision.

Once there - not possible to defect.  Some relatively good times early and they did live with special privileges; this fluctuates as Serge moves in and out of favor; Lina's singing career doesn't take off though they do perform together some; she is suspect to the authorities because of friendships with foreigners via embassies.  Tense, difficult, quite unimaginable.

Serge falls in love with a younger woman; is evacuated from Moscow as Hitler invades; Lina left behind to cope, with their two sons.  She was able to get excused after a day or so from the amazing tasks performed by the citizen teams digging tank traps on Moscow periphery - in favor of a desk job - but endured the bombing and food shortages (all as discussed here).  After the war - she's sent to the gulag for a 10-year sentence (or a "tenner" as these were called in Solzhenitsyn's book).  Just an amazing story, and she must have been a really tough individual.  Eventually released after Stalin dies.

Sad and sad.  Compelling throughout.  What folks like this lived through = just unbelievable.

Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler, 1940)

Book club selection (via Lon).

I wasn't at all familiar with author Raymond Chandler or what I think was his favorite character - private detective Philip Marlowe.  In this novel,  Marlowe is witness to a murder at the story's outset; he then interacts with various police and other characters; eventually sorts out the story.

Plot line was pretty disjointed, but Chandler's writing is quite good.  He often comes up with unexpected phrase twists that are simultaneously communicative and funny.

As I understand it, Chandler was a pioneer in this genre.  Lots of things seemed cliched reading this in 2014 but I guess that label doesn't fairly apply to the pioneer of the style.

I didn't really care about any of the characters.  The book didn't really make me feel anything, or teach me anything.  I'm the wrong audience for what I'll call a well-written, entertaining page-turner - there simply are too many other books I want to read, and too little time to get to them.

The Daughters of Mars (Thomas Keneally, 2012)

Had seen favorable reviews when this was published in 2012.  And I liked it.  Two sisters are raised in Australian back country; older one goes to Sydney to work; they aren't terribly close.  But both volunteer for service during WWI recruitment drive.

So essentially this provides a very different take on WWI - perspective of Australian nurses who train in Egypt, serve on a hospital ship off Gallipoli (and then on the nearby island of Lemnos), and then make their way up to France.  The older sister (Naomi) ends up working in an Australian-run hospital in northern France, while the younger sister (Sally) works closer to the front (including stints at clearing stations).  They are in service all the way up to the end (including "Spanish" flu outbreak (which was quite interestingly discussed here)).

Not too much detail about medical stuff, but it does help give an idea about the challenges of 1915-era medical efforts running up against industrial killing.  Amazing to think of the doctors and nurses that faced this stuff endlessly, year in and year out.

The two sisters are pretty strong characters, but I didn't think the author romanticized what this was all about.

Medical personnel were critical players here, but quite naturally they tend to be overlooked by the historians and novelists in favor of other aspects of the war (though Hemingway did address the topic quite famously here).

Making this book all the more worthwhile.

Perilous Question - Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832 (Antonia Fraser, 2013)

Interesting, worthwhile, but not terribly compelling.

Things were dicey across Europe in 1832 - not all that long since French Revolution; unrest in France in 1830 leads to Louis Philippe; 1832 saw Parisians manning the barricades as described in this pretty famous book.  Unrest elsewhere on the Continent.

And in typically stable Britain - lots of forces in play.  Much attention focused on the need to Reform the electoral rules for House of Commons.  The famed "rotten boroughs" - places that perhaps were populated hundreds of years back are still entitled to elect one or two Members, while rapidly growing industrial centers in some cases had no representation at all.

Duke of Wellington - highly successful military leader (as described here) and effective conservative political leader - uninterested in any such Reform.

A new King - William IV - gives cause for hope of Reform.  But his conservative (and German) wife seems to slow his role.

Charles Grey becomes prime minister and is the key figure in pushing the Reform project.  (And his success causes great popularity; a new tea is introduced which to this day is named "Earl Grey".)

Growing influence of trade unions (Birmingham a key example).  The "people" are fired up - fear of violence is a driving force, interestingly enough.  Lots of changes going on - leading to actions such as destruction of machines believed to be taking away jobs.

House of Commons - led by Grey - approves Reform.  House of Lords - not accountable electorally - blocks it.  William IV finally agrees to appoint enough additional peers to tip the vote - which obviates the need for such drastic action.

Lots of echoes to current times here.  Passage of Reform in 1832 typically cited, apparently justifiably, as a good example of England's ability to evolve - and avoid France-style revolutions.  (Though note that following Reform, very few males still can vote and, of course, no females.  One step at a time.)

Armor and Blood - The Battle of Kursk - The Turning Point of World War II (Dennis E. Showalter, 2013)

". . . Kursk's defining event:  the tank battle at Prokhorovka.  All the elements of myth were at hand.  Prokhorovka offered a head-on, stand-up grapple between the elite troops of the world's best armies, on a three-mile front that left no room for fancy maneuvers or for air and artillery to make much difference.  The drama is heightened by a a familiar image of both sides attacking simultaneously - an encounter battle in the literal sense, suggesting predators in rut.  Like Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Prokhovoka offered an emotional turning point;  afterward, nothing was ever the same.  Afterward, the tide of war rolled only one way - toward Berlin." 

Wow.  And really, just the word "Kursk" connotes epic; mythic; amazing.  

But I didn't love this book - supposedly lots of new detail (based on recently-opened Russian archives) - but that doesn't guarantee a good story line.  (Or maybe someone with my low level of military know-how is better suited for something like this, which I much enjoyed).  

Still - it was much worth paging through this book.  Reinforced just how truly awesome this particular battle really was (using the word "awe" in its original sense).  Reading the preparations for the battle, and then the day-by-day developments - how could these combatants lock up like this (both at the individual and macro levels), and then somehow sustain the intensity?

Tigers were amazingly effective.  Germans controlling the air for the most part - Stukas doing damage.  But Germany was already grievously over-stretched, while Russia had made great advances since the staggeringly weak (presumably purge-abetted) performance during Barbarossa.  Exhausting, deadly battles all day long; moving and repairing equipment - and shifting formations - and digging in - by night.  Russians dig in their tanks - just the turrets showing - mobility often pointless against Tigers etc. anyway.  Incredible physical demands even considered in isolation from the endless pounding - absolutely amazing what these folks endured.  Psychological demands (if that's the right terminology) perhaps even worse?

Author introduces the key players in both armies - Model, Hoth, Manstein; Vatutin, Khrushchev.  Interesting, but they didn't really come to life.

Despite all the problems - and the incredible setback at Stalingrad - German army came close to pulling off a victory here.  (Though not clear that it would made a big difference given overall trend lines).  Nazis worried about Allied progress in North Africa - and Sicily invasion - going on roughly in parallel with Kursk (as discussed in this just-finished book).  

An Army at Dawn - the War in North Africa,1942-1943 (Rick Atkinson, 2002)

This is the first volume in Rick Atkinson's quite excellent trilogy covering US role in World War II.  For whatever reason, I read it last among the three books (volume two discussed here; volume three discussed here).  Would have been useful to have read the three works in the correct order - mostly to gather the background on key personalities plus understand how some of the initial maneuverings related to later efforts - but each of the three works also stands quite nicely on its own.  All highly recommended.

I had read a bit about the US efforts in North Africa as part of larger histories; also did some reading about the British experience there (for example, this book).  But very much ignorant for the most part.  So this was quite valuable.

A few ideas:

1.  The incredible amount of preparation required for the US military to participate effectively.  The lack of sophistication resulting in severe setbacks.  Reminiscent of WWI.  (And I don't have the slightest criticism of this - seems quite fine that the country didn't maintain a large standing military presence in the run-up to either of the world wars.)

2.  I need to better understand Hitler's thinking in relation to the Vichy regime.

3.  Such an awkward situation with the French military in North Africa - protecting this territory against the Allies was part of the Vichy government's deal with Hitler.  Weird that in the early going the Allies fought battles (sometimes pitched, sometimes desultory) with the French in North Africa!  While trying to work with the "Free French."  Casablanca-style intrigues.

4.  Rommel, Kesselring.  Manpower and materiel shortages plaguing German army (along with Italian ineffectiveness).  German troubles in Stalingrad and Kursk; Italy wavering; Hitler limited in ability to allocate resources to North Africa even while pulling some divisions away from Russia.

5.  The Allied politicians - Roosevelt and Churchill primarily. England pushing to prioritize the Mediterranean operation.  Eisenhower's maturation in an incredibly challenging job.  Titching between British and US military folk at all levels.

6. Difficulties with ambitious amphibious landings - large, but significantly smaller scale than would be undertaken in Italy and Normandy.

7.  Kasserine Pass.

8.  Quite a bit of focus on a division (34th) with heavy representation from Southwest Iowa (including a leader from Red Oak).

9.  The story of Count Stauffenberg's injuries in North Africa at the hands of strafing fighters; he uses his recuperation period to work on the assassination plot involving the briefcase under the conference room table (recounted in the recent Tom Cruise movie (Valkyrie)).

10.  The goums and their penchant for collecting Nazi ears for bounties (fake submissions suspected, however).  I need to re-read Irvin Bormann's diary on this topic.

11.  As in the other two volumes:  plenty of references and connections to wars fought in these areas going back to classical times.  (In this case:  a focus on Carthage.)

12.  Patton was pulled away from the final stages to focus on plans for invading Sicily (leading into volume two).

Borrowed from PJr.

The Rule of the Clan (Mark S. Weiner, 2013)

Saw some favorable references, but this wasn't very interesting.  At least it was pretty short.

The author addresses the difference between traditional clan-based governance systems and the modern liberal state.  I think he's obviously correct in noting that the modern liberal state - with its emphasis on individual rights - can't function without a strong central government.  But he seems to fear that the government (U.S.) in its current iteration can't be scaled back without risk that we'll devolve into something more along the lines of a clan-based system.

Which is pretty ridiculous.  To surpass clan systems, the state does need to be strong - but primarily in matters such as protection of individual rights (property and otherwise), police force, military, etc.  And no doubt some involvement in infrastructure etc.  But the current U.S. system veers far toward usurping individual rights.  So that was kind of an off-target sideshow for the author.

Somewhat interesting discussions about clan systems in various setting - Scotland, Iceland, the middle east, etc.  Concepts of honor and shame.  Subjugation of the individual - especially if you happen to be female.  Why clan systems tend to work in the absence of a centralized state - participants obtain protection in an anarchic setting plus strong group identification - but at the expense of individual liberties.

An unexpected and completely immediate overlap with a just-read book:  as the author describes the transition from clan to state in Britain, who should he cite (at p. 147) but Edwin of Northumbria, a central figure in this piece of historical fiction.  The author discusses the role of religion in assisting the transition from clan to modern state (centralization) - also a theme in the linked work.  Big Religion and Big State work well together!

Author notes the tendency to glamorize those old-timey clan systems - the feeling of inclusiveness can seem attractive as the modern liberal state can leave folks feeling disconnected.  Yet in the end, folks with a choice tend to migrate out of clan-ism.

Clan systems aren't going away.  They are dramatically different than our (U.S.) society - which should make us humble when intervening in middle east situations.  But we seem to remain un-humble.

Isaac's Storm - A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (Erik Larson, 1999)

Book club selection (via NOC).

Recounts a hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas in 1900.  Story primarily built around the character of Isaac Cline, lead representative in Galveston of the federal government's still-young weather bureau.

A few thoughts:

1.  First part of the book did an interesting job of putting the storm in context.  Gave some basics on hurricane formation plus some history of the manner in which scientific understanding had advanced as to these matters.  I liked this.

2.  Author emphasized the limits of human knowledge of complex weather systems in 1900, and that much uncertainty remains to this day.  Seems relevant to everyone's favorite cause du jour (climate change, formerly known as global warming).

3.  Galveston as an up-and-coming city; economy based on port activities.  Topography seemed risky for flooding, but boosters and others convinced themselves otherwise.  Sounded a bit like the "rain follows the plow" rhetoric employed by Plains States boosters back in the day.

4.  Isaac not a terribly sympathetic character; some conflicts with his weatherman-brother (Joseph), etc.

5.  Author did a good job taking the reader to the scene of the hurricane and letting us imagine how that might have felt.  And the difficult scenes in the storm's aftermath.

6.  Still - as the author points out, source material was very scarce.  So there's an element of "winging it" here.

7.  Galveston didn't recover.  Houston bloomed with the oil industry.

8.  Weather forecasting bureaucracy was a mess - shockingly, key government workers seemed primarily interested in keeping their jobs and enlarging their personal prestige.  For example:  adamantly ignoring folks in Cuba who were pretty experienced in observing these kinds of stories.

Hild (Nicola Griffith, 2013)

Historical fiction - what I'd call a "romp".  Like this.  A category I rarely read.  But I quite enjoyed this, blew through it quite quickly at the gym.  Maybe I should spend more time with this genre?

The author somehow became aware of a figure from 7th-century Britain - St. Hilda of Whitby - limited information available, so the author decided to build a full tale around the scanty record.  I read that this now will become a three-part work.  This first novel covers Hild from her earliest memories (three years old) to her early 20s.  

Hild's mother (Breguswith) positions her as a seer - the "light of the world" - and Hild delivers.  Bright, perceptive, courageous - she becomes seer for her crafty uncle (Edwin of Northumbria) who is a minor king but rapidly consolidating power over larger territories.

Hild grows up with Cian; Begu becomes her "gemaecce" and Gwladus her accommodating body servant; Hild is increasingly adept at seeing patterns everywhere.  Also at cultivating information networks.  So she has better quality information than others, and superior skills at putting pieces together.  In short: highly valuable to someone like Edwin.

So did this give me some insights into 7th century Northumbria?  And if so, are they worth anything?  I think it's "yes" and "yes".  Author is not a historian, but seems to have done enough checking around such that the reader gets a feel for time/place (if only the author's version).  What became England was a bevy of shifting alliances - England was not unique.  Clan behavior.  The importance of trade.  Kings who travel from place to place within their domain(s) - lest allegiance of locals wanes.

Roman ruins.  Old gods - including Woden - giving way to Christianity.  But always with political overtones. Hild is baptized - but not out of any sense of piety.  Edwin believed church backing would help him increase and consolidate his power base (well, that has been a pretty typical strategy before and after the 7th century.)  Priests hanging around - from Ireland or coming over from mainland Europe.  Irish priest - Fursey - teaches Hild to read and write (on Edwin's orders); also emphasizes the value of literacy as the power struggles continue and become more sophisticated. 

I may well go on to read the next two novels if/as they become available.