The Complete Professor Challenger Stories (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I'm a big fan of The Lost World - recently re-read it because of connection to a book club selection.

Hadn't previously seen other Professor Challenger stories.  This volume was a birthday gift from Charlie . . . who had received it from Carol.

The Poison Belt - the earth passes through an area of space that threatens to wipe out human life.

The Land of Mist - this is just pretty weird - ACD was into the occult stuff (as was the case for many of his era).

The Disintegration Machine - short, just what it sounds like, the inventor is trying to sell it to a hostile foreign power.

When the World Screamed - Challenger leads a deep dig.

Generally the same characters as in The Lost World.  Bickering with Summerlee.  Lord John Roxton.  Malone.

Sword of Honor (Evelyn Waugh, 1952-1961)

(764 pages)

This is a trilogy:  Men at Arms; Officers and Gentlemen; and Unconditional Surrender.  Released in stages; it somewhat parallels the author's World War II experiences.

Enthusiastic reviews everywhere; yet (or perhaps because of this) initially I was a bit disappointed because I think I was expecting stirring descriptions of military actions.  It isn't that at all, but certainly that doesn't weaken the book.

Mostly it's about England and WWII and all the stuff that went on as folks tried to figure out how to approach an impossibly complex situation.

Protagonist is Guy Crouchback - a Catholic from a declining Brit aristocratic family; he lived on a family villa in Italy for quite a while after a failed marriage - so a bit of an outside observer of Britain though entirely a part of it. He's observing 1930s events in Europe and decides to try to enter the military even though he's pretty old.

Stories of training and the characters he meets. We get to know his family, and his ex-wife (who gets to know Trimmer).  Finally sent to Africa with his unit - participates in a minor battle in Dakar - he gets in some trouble there (bottle of whiskey to Apthorpe) but also gets under the patronage of a one-eyed old-timey general.  

Spends time in Crete - this is the closest to military action.  Then time in Yugoslavia - sorting out the difficulties there - trying to help individuals (his father's advice) but it tends to backfire in the mess there.

Muddles abound.  But I think that's pretty accurate in a war of this scale.

In the end, I liked this book a great deal.

The Complete Essays of Montaigne (Books II-III) (Michel de Montaigne) (completed 1588)

My approach to Montaigne's Essays seems pretty typical - read them in bits and pieces over an extended period of time. Otherwise: too much to absorb.

The Essays are divided into three Books - I posted on Book I and the first half of Book II back in 2010, now have completed all three Books (except for just skipping around in the lengthy Apology for Raymond Semond).   

There's too much content to attempt to usefully summarize. 

I see that I dogeared a bunch of the essay "on husbanding your will" - written later in the author's life so perhaps especially congenial to me?  The notion of "starting carefully" - be wary what you start and how you start it - much easier to manage at the early stage rather than later.  You initially own a project, and then eventually it owns you.

Lots of discussion about the value of getting to know oneself - a high-value pursuit, invest your energy here.  Don't worry so much about judging others!  Best part is you will start seeing how little you know, how often you are swayed by priors.

As I wrote in 2010 - (1) much seems obvious, yet it is written in a way that's fresh and useful; and (2) somehow readers always see themselves in Montaigne's writings (even readers coming from disparate viewpoints and widely differing points in history).  Nobody can quite figure out how he achieves this.

Pretty clear that it continues to be well worth working through these. 

Ship Fever: Stories (Andrea Barrett, 1996)

(256 pages)

Book club selection (via Emily; session held (via Zoom) May 23, 2021).  (Debbers, in Phoenix, joined from 706.)

Collection of short stories; science themes; I liked it.  Here are my discussion notes on the eight stories:

1 - Mendel & his nemesis; Tati & his nemesis; Richard the husband not very flattering portrayal; Euro assistant romanced by wife.  Tati had a letter from Mendel, it's given to Richard.  Unflattering portrayal of 70s students.

2 - Linnaeus - forgetful/slipping old man in sleigh, stops in house; recalls Apostles sent to the far reaches, so many with a bad ending (was this what happened?  I think yes.)  One shows up at the house.  Sounds like his immediate family wasn't very heartwarming.  

3 - littoral zone - a couple goes on a summer project, their marriages are broken.  not sure if this is finished, or if another story will come back to it?  Not very interesting.

4 - Rare Bird - Sarah Anne disappears with Mrs. Pearce.  Interested in whether swallows winter underwater.  Correspond with Linnaeus.  Brother's wife and child die, he goes to America; Sarah Anne's letters found later.

5 - Soroche - Zaga marries wealthy/older Joel, gets sick in Peru, widowed, loses $$.  Siblings unhappy with her, as are stepchildren.  Doctor that she meets in Peru makes a comparison - Fuegians who went back to England didn't fit in either place.  That's the interesting angle, even Willa Cather wrote about it.  

6 - Birds with No Feet - Alec tracks Wallace . . . who is way more successful.  Wallace publishes, gets sponsors, does an article about natural selection.  Alec travels cheap; excels at finding specimens; early batch lost in ship fire.  Alec eventually not comfortable "back home" - he "went native."  Gifted at finding stuff, not so much at coming up with any unifying theories.

7 - The Marburg Sisters - two messed-up kids, not interesting

8 - Ship Fever - longest - quite interesting - dr. who can't get traction goes to an island where Irish emigrants are quarantined; his childhood sweetheart volunteers (her husband is on the ground in Ireland writing articles); he hangs out with immigrant Nora.  Made this come alive in an interesting way.  Minor criticism - usual unthinking unflattering references to business, making a profit, wealthy folk.

Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov (Pevear and Volokhonsky, 2000)

(454 pages)

Chekhov as a master story writer - consistently wonderful here.

Some overlap with this recently-read collection, but not too much.  

The translators made a big splash originally, but seem to have fallen out of favor.  I have no way to judge.  Their translations are very readable, if that's worth anything.  Don't know how true to the tone of the original.

Wide variety of characters from so many walks of Russian life and from many geographic areas.

His ability set a scene; little descriptions of nature packed with so much; etc.

I'll be paging through this from time to time - a lot to absorb. 

Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future (James Shapiro, 2020)

(320 pages)

Book club selection (via Lon; session held (via Zoom) April 18, 2021).

Interesting; provoked a very good discussion; but I didn't like the book itself.  This fellow comes across as another unthinking member of the herd of reactionaries that formed in the wake of DJT's 2016 election - book written too soon thereafter to permit recovery or perspective.  (I'm not a Trump voter, but can make the minimal mental effort required to think about why the guy attracted a lot of votes - not happening in this book!)

Here were my conversation ntoes:

great book if you're looking for a display of the mindset of blue checkmark Twitter - otherwise meh.  

The discussion of Julius Caesar/Trump in the park - earnestly asserting the play was "not satiric" - genuine LOL.  Closes the book with same tortured apologia.  

on the day after DJT's election - oh no, we woke up to a divided nation!  (what if HRC had won?  clearly assumes no division!)

Seemingly without a trace of recognition, goes on (after discovering a divided country in Nov 2016) to describe in detail situations where the country could easily be considered far more divided.

• We had an actual Civil War

• 19th century New York - talk about immigrant stress - the numbers are astonishing - and it was Catholics, Jews, Irish, Eastern Europeans yuck

• Talk about income inequality - far worse in those days

the idea that reading the Bible and Shakespeare is essential to getting more out of art and literature - this book underscores - (Lincoln/Booth chapter, at least)

but this poor guy . . . jamming every word choice and analysis into Orthodox SJW Theology.

Ch 1 - Julius Caesar - authoritarianism very much in the eye of the beholder!

Ch 2 - Othello - I the author am more woke than JQA!

Ch 3 - Romeo & Juliet (U.S. Grant) - gee a military guy cross-dressing as a woman was questioned in those days - those narrow-minded white males, feeling threatened, I'm more woke than them.

Ch 4 - NYC Astor battles.  more interesting in terms of 19th century NY; unfortunately tried to convert it into a modern income inequality/class war tale

Ch 5 - Booth, Lincoln - interesting to think that Shakespeare influence may in large part result from nothing else on most bookshelves (Bible; Milton; Plutarch).  this was the most interesting of the chapters - not trying to make a social justice point.

Ch 6 - Caliban - back to SJW cant, this time immigration.  Smug descriptions of 19th century views; vague "inclusive" language - how would you like immigration to be handled? Open borders?  If not - what rules (and how to not be "racist" if use country boundaries in setting numbers)?  

Ch - Taming of the Shrew - huh?

Ch - Romeo & Juliet, Harvey W - huh?

Persuasion (Jane Austen, 1817)

(236 pages)

Austen's last completed novel; I see that it was published posthumously by her brother.

So she's a later-in-life writer.  The two main characters are a bit later-in-life also.  Anne Elliott was persuaded at a young age to not marry a Captain Wentworth - who had not then proven himself at sea. It turns out that being resolutely unpersuadeable isn't always a virtue.

Anne Elliott is part (a peripheral part) of a noble family quite a bit down on its finances.  Interactions with relatives in varying circumstances, including a seaside trip.

Wonderfully written, enjoyable.  I do feel that the characters tend to be rather black and white, but OK.

Remembrance of Things Past - Within a Budding Grove (Marcel Proust, 1919)

(553 pages)

Continuing my leisurely re-read of Remembrance of Things Past (Volume 1 re-read mentioned here; original discussion here and here).  

Narrator has reached adolescence in this volume; lots of time at Balbec.

Thinking about the discussions about how we observe things and take them into memory, and what happens once in memory.

In my mid-60s - there's no doubt now that most of my life is over - all that remains of all those earlier years is what I've retained in memory.  So I think about how that works differently, though still not very effectively.

Sometimes I hear folks say that it's a mistake to spend time "living in the past" - I think it's a mistake not to.  (I suppose it can be done to the diminution of enjoyment of the present, but that would be a different problem.)

I plan to keep sifting through these books over the coming years.  Looking forward to Volume 3 though not sure how quickly I'll be taking it up.

The Triumph of Christianity - How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World (Bart D. Ehrman, 2018)

(294 pages)

Book club selection (via me; session held (via Zoom) February 21, 2021).

Re-read of a book first read in 2019, here's what I wrote then.

Notes from this time:

• Be honest - most or all probably wondering why I picked this.  Kind of disjointed; in part the author seems to be rationalizing his own spiritual journey.
• I didn't pick it to support a particular religion, or the idea that religions end up being very convenient for secular purposes.
• The selection is for my usual reasons.  Best way to process current news cycle is to ignore the current news cycle as much as possible, while learning as much as possible about history.  Then things that seem unprecedently difficult or dangerous turn out to be anything but. 
• When looking for books on history, I'm looking for ones that offer up a few ideas I wasn't previously seeing.  For its shortcomings, this book fits the bill.
• For better or worse, western civ is dominated by Christianity.  Other parts of the world deeply affected.  Seems useful to know how that happened, and how some of the key elements got launched.
• Jesus was a loser.  Jews were losers.  Jesus's followers were losers.  Provincial dorks.  No money.  No military (unlike say Islam).  Nothing written down, no "orthodoxy."  No central authority.  How did this possibly grow from a few dozen to many millions (with little growth in first century or two)?  
• Paganism as just "living" - something everyone did (except the Jews).  Relatively unstructured.
• Christianity as radical in so many ways

            --incorporating ethics into religion

            --even if lip service too often - unprecedented idea that each individual is equal before God

            --exclusivity - zero sum game - for the first time, a convert to the new religion means one less member of the old religion.  Threatening to the older religion.

            --hellfire!  Heaven!  Ups the stakes immensely.  Pascal's wager makes sense.

            --perceive a Duty to "save" third parties

• Old religions constantly adding new deities - minimizes conflict.  Monotheism + exclusivity + heaven/hell + duty to save + doctrinal debates = recipe for all sorts of religious conflict.
• Constantine - Rome - centralized authority.  What a path it set the church on.
• Nicene creed - 325 A.D.   The whole point was "one God" - now are there three?  Heretics - three persons in one God!  Etc.
• Challenges where a charismatic founder (see also Muhammed) writes down nothing and provides little or no structure. What are presented as sacred writings were prepared by others decades, hundreds of years later.
• No grand synthesis.  Some ideas.  Hopefully useful as you process western art, literature; think about religion as part of private and public life.

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)

(367 pages)

My first time reading a Jane Austen work - much liked it.  Her ability to write dialogue!  Scene-setting invariably economical, interesting. I should have picked up her works long ago.

Always enjoyed the Greer Garson - Laurence Olivier movie version of this story, which somewhat tracks the book.

Elizabeth Bennet the lead character; her mother and her sisters (save one) are quite a bit less attractive characters than in the movie version.  Prideful Darcy.  Elopement with Wickham.  Bingley.  Mr. Collins (the heir).  

I just like following the plot and enjoying the writing, but I can see why there's lots of critical analysis about how the book illustrates changes in society, role of women, economics, inheritance issues, etc.  But written early - 1813 - situation with Napoleon not even resolved.  

Lamy of Santa Fe (Paul Horgan, 1975)

(354 pages) 

(Amazon sent me some sort of special edition - high school yearbook size - printed a few years back by the Southwest Indian Foundation (whatever that is).  This permitted the photos to be much larger and of course way more compelling than normal.)

This book is a delight.

Willa Cather of course used Lamy's life as the source material for "Death Comes to the Archbishop," a book I very much enjoy (and occasionally re-read).  This actual biography might even be better.  I first read it in the 1990s (before keeping notes on stuff I read). Horgan won a Pulitzer for this.  It's remarkable how much the novel tracks the history.

PJ and I visited this area in the 1990s and can't wait to go back.  Historically unique, geographically blessed.

Lamy as the first archbishop in Santa Fe - appointed shortly after New Mexico is acquired via conquest from Mexico.  It's 1851 when Lamy arrives in Santa Fe - relatively "modern" in so many parts of the US - yet Santa Fe as so backward in those days.  Long isolated even from its former bishop way down in Durango; much more Mexican than American, but distinct from both.

The scenes prior to reaching New Mexico are compelling.  Lamy (with lifelong companion Machebeuf) in France.  Working in "forest parishes" in Ohio - mid-19th century yet primitive in many ways.  His passage down the Mississippi enroute to Santa Fe - slaves.

Gives a feel for the challenges of travel - to Santa Fe - but even moreso as he goes to Mexico, back to Europe, and through his huge diocese.   

The state of the local clergy upon his arrival - so few, so unsupervised - Cather not exaggerating those stories.

I'd guess this kind of book is out of fashion these days - centered around US imperialism, white conquest, etc. - not sure - I'd also wager that it remains highly useful as a way of learning about, thinking about the Southwest.  

Highly recommended.

The Great Influenza - The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (John M. Barry, 2004)

(546 pages)

Book club selection (via PJ; session held (via Zoom) January 10, 2021).

Timely re-read of a very good book first read in 2013, here's what I wrote then.

Notes from this time:

• Consistently states that masks do not work.  2018 updated afterword misses the mark on work from home. Feels there is a last mile problem. Otherwise, seems pretty accurate.
• Interesting that no one can come up with a cure for influenza.
• We run into Jon Snow on page 27.
• Woodrow Wilson, propaganda, getting the country into war, and then total war.
• The press as an accomplice of government.
• Armies and plagues; the extent to which World War I drove the outcome here. Troop movements within the US and around the world. The need to suppress information. Spanish flu!
• India with 20 million deaths, yet barely a ripple of notice.

Arch of Triumph (Erich Maria Remarque, 1945)

(535 pages)

Protagonist (Ravic) is a skilled German surgeon who lost citizenship in Nazi times; he's illegally performing surgeries for two well-known (but not as talented) Paris surgeons.  Can't get citizenship elsewhere.  Action occurs between the wars.  He meets various other stateless folks; it's an interesting/effective take on the way they lived.  Occasional deportations.  He lives in a hotel that caters to folks like this.  Encounters an actress.  I always enjoy Remarque's stuff, though didn't like this as much as All Quiet on the Western Front or Three Comrades.  

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Patrick Keefe, 2019)

(464 pages)

Book club selection (via POC; session held (via Zoom) November 22, 2020).

specific discussion about a common situation - boundaries are determined by conquest, power

within the boundaries are groups that may or may not get along well.  active favoritism of group in power over another.  throughout history - restrictions on Jews in Christian countries; restrictions on Christians in Islamic countries.  many examples.  Blacks in U.S.

not feasible to unmix the populations, though tried very hard to do this following WWI and WWII.  but property ownership, tradition, where to go anyway.

then how does disadvantaged group react?  at some point negotiation seems insufficient, and violence starts.  and hunger strikes.  it's a power relationship.  

and it leads to progress, right?  (despite the awfulness)  this only applies in democracies with a free press - good luck trying this elsewhere

~20-year cycle - a generation forgets the horrors, then a subsequent generation repeats it

endless and unhelpful tendency to glamorize those coming from the left.  Che, Castro - bigots, totalitarians in their own right - still on T-shirts and posters, somehow!

IRA in the same light.  the sisters.

outright criminal acts in service of the cause - somehow considered excusable by way too many

at outset I worried about author's tendency to use language like today - anyone from the right is a reactionary, those on the left are sympathetic if not cool.  but ended up very well balanced

really helpful look at the toll from a macro level, and on the individual level

Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury, 1957)

(239 pp)

Didn't know Bradbury wrote this kind of thing; suggested by (borrowed from) Paul Jr; another book that I wouldn't necessarily seek out, but much enjoyed.

Bradbury is building stories out of his Ohio childhood.

A reason for the recommendation - and it turns out to be correct - is that Bradbury had an ear for a life very much like mine as I grew up in the 50s and 60s.  There are some differences - he's a decade or two earlier, and lives in the town proper - but there were many-many times while reading that I would have a memory, typically quite pleasant, of something long-forgotten.

As usual - I liked some stories more than others - that's not a problem.  A little dramatic with the "ravine" angle.  Perhaps a little overly hero-worship-ish with the grandparents - but that's kind of how we felt, too. Ideas about getting older; about kids getting wiser (and perhaps correspondingly sadder).

Kids sitting around listening to the grown-ups converse in the evenings - Bradbury describes it as the "soundtrack" of childhood in those days - I thought that was very observant.  (And find myself using the phrase.)