Category: Book Reviews

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Can We Talk About Israel? by Daniel Sokatch

Why I Read This Book

This book, Can We Talk About Israel?, is subtitled, A Guide for the Curious, Confused and Conflicted, which is a good summary of most folks position and feelings about Israel.  We received two copies of this book as part of the pre-tour preparation of our now cancelled two week visit to Israel with side trips to Jordan and Egypt. What is it they say?  Timing is everything.  Also as part of that preparation Señora and I watched two Wondrium courses that I can whole-heartedly recommend:

    • The World of Biblical Israel taught by a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Cynthia R. Chapman, Th.D. Using the Bible as a framework Chapman ties in historical and archeological records to support its narrative.  She also points out when they do not support the Biblical story.  She also ties together the varied religious influences, including non-Abrahamic religions, that influenced those who wrote the Bible. I learned a great deal about the Babylonian exile of the Jews, a subject of which I had only sketchy knowledge.
    • The Holy Land Revealed taught by Jodi Magness, Ph.D. Using mainly the Bible and the works of the Roman historian Josephus as source materials,  Magness explores various archeological sites around the Holy Land and their significance to the Biblical narrative.

Not a Book Review

This is not so much a review of this recently published book, but more of a recommendation of something to read if you are indeed curious, confused or conflicted about Israel. Sokatch has a very accessible Continue reading “Can We Talk About Israel? by Daniel Sokatch”

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Uncle Johnny – POW

I am going to pull this story out separately as the 3.141592 early readers of my posting: YouTube Playlists: USS Carr and Paul Henry Carr probably missed the addendum I made after a comment from my cousin Perry.

As related earlier, I was digitizing VCRs that another cousin had that relate to my uncle Paul Henry Carr and his namesake ship, the missile frigate USS Carr, FFG-52.

One of the videos I had not seen Continue reading “Uncle Johnny – POW”

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Banned Books, Burned Books

“But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn’t anger me.” ~~ Mark Twain in a letter to Mrs. F. G. Whitmore, 7 February 1907

I recently finished watching a truly excellent and very timely course from Wondrium, Banned Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works taught by Maureen Corrigan, Ph.D. Ms. Corrigan is a professor at Georgetown University, a book critic for NPR, a contributor to several of the most prominent newspapers of the country, has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, an author in her own right, and on and on.  She is unquestionably Continue reading “Banned Books, Burned Books”

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I Want To Live by Helen Imagene (Jean) Jones Felfe

This was an easy book to read.  This was a hard book to read.

It was an easy book to read as it was well written.  The first part of the book started off a little slow for me, but persevere, it picks up quickly.  After reading the whole book those initial chapters almost seem written in a different style.  Perhaps that was intentional.  Once I got into the meat of the memoir I found it to be a real page turner.  It was an easy book to read as there was Continue reading “I Want To Live by Helen Imagene (Jean) Jones Felfe”

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Reconsidering JFK – A Wondrium Course

If you are of my generation or older you remember the day President John F. Kennedy was shot, 22 November 1963.  I was in 6th grade at an elementary school in Toms River, New Jersey. It was the first time in my educational career that I had had a male teacher.  He was a very tall, skinny man who I remember mainly because he was male and his reaction to the Kennedy news.  When they announced over the loudspeaker that the President had been assassinated, this man cried.  However, when I raised my hand after Continue reading “Reconsidering JFK – A Wondrium Course”

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The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende

Peru has been in the news frequently as of late.  They are on their fifth or sixth president in about as many years.  There are riots in the street in which several folks have died.  The left wing president who attempted to take “executive” control of the country was impeached and has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.  For the first time in its history, Peru has a woman President, but it would surprise me if she stayed in office long. All of which started me thinking about this novel again, which will be clearer as to why if you are brave enough to trudge on.

I actually finished this novel three or four months ago in the Spanish language edition, La casa de los espíritus.  It took me a bit to get through it.  First it is 552 pages.  Secondly when I read a Spanish novel Continue reading “The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende”

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A Light in the Attic poems and drawings by Shel Siverstein

I found this little gem of a book while perusing Señora‘s bookshelves for something to read as I was “reigning” on my throne.  This book has been out a while, my issue lists the publishing date as 1981, but it has been so popular that there has been several special editions published since then.

While it is a book of poems with accompanying line drawings aimed at children, I found it very entertaining with more than a few that talked to me as an adult… or perhaps my inner child.  One such example would be the following poem:

REFLECTION

Each time I see the Upside-Down Man
Standing in the water,
I look at him and start to laugh.
Although I shouldn’t oughtter,
For maybe in another world
Another time
Another town,
Maybe HE is right side up
And I am upside down.

Perhaps this poem spoke to me Continue reading “A Light in the Attic poems and drawings by Shel Siverstein”

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Factfulness by Hans Rosling

The subtitle of this book is: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.

Read on for a link to the Factfulness quiz.

First a couple of confessions, this is not a book I would normally have read, and it is definitely not one I would have picked off a bookstore shelf.   I have a few charities that I have on automatic pay, including the Fistula Foundation,  a wonderful charity that does good work, and is well managed.  I discovered this charity in an opinion piece by the former New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof. I do not remember the name, but an individual donated copies of this book to the Fistula Foundation along with the money to distribute them.  Being a regular donor they sent me a copy. After reading the first few pages, I became very interested in the book.

My second confession may confound folks who know me as I am betting Continue reading “Factfulness by Hans Rosling”

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Maus by Art Spiegelman

  Graphic novels are not something I typically read. The closest I have come as an adult would be several books compiling the work of various newspaper cartoonists.  What piqued my curiosity on this book is that a school board in Tennessee banned this book from the eighth grade curriculum. While a graphic novel, honors received include: The Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and National Book Critics Circle Award. The New Yorker called it “the first masterpiece in comic book history.” The very conservative Wall Street Journal described it as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.”

This is not an easy book to read due to the theme.  It deals with the treatment of the Jews in Poland by the Germans and Poles at the beginning of the World War II.  The main character and his wife end up at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Partly through ingenuity, but mostly Continue reading “Maus by Art Spiegelman”

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Amazing St. Louis by Charlie Brennan

This book is subtitled, 250 Years of Great Tales and Curiosities, which sums up this book perfectly.  If you live in St. Louis, have lived in St. Louis, know people in St. Louis or just have a general interest in St. Louis, you will find this book enjoyable.

Because it is a series of very short articles, it makes the perfect night stand book or a book for the bath room. I read the whole book over a period of time while visiting the throne room.

    • Did you know – that halitosis became a thing thanks to a St. Louis company
    • Did you know – that using flake to refer to a person started in St. Louis, thanks to Cardinal baseball player
    • Did you know – that Reddi-wip was invented by a businessman from St. Louis
    • Did you know – that if Colorado Springs had not gotten the Air Force Academy the next choice was Alton, IL, a town just up the river from St. Louis
    • Did you know – that a St. Louis doctor was  suspected of being Jack the Ripper
    • Did you know – that a St. Louisian, William Sherman, forever changed the face of warfare
    • Did you know – two brothers, both World Heavy Weight Champions, are from St. Louis
    • Did you know – Darth Vader got his start in St. Louis
    • Did you know – that there is a good argument for the first skyscraper being built in St. Louis
    • Did you know – that the movie Animal House was co-written by a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and may have been, in part, based on a fraternity there

Available from Amazon–  Amazing St. Louis

Also available as a used book from Abebooks – used copy Amazing St. Louis