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Book a Week 2017 - BW4: The shape of culture: past, present, and future


Robin M
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Happy Sunday my lovelies!  This is the beginning of week 4 in our quest to read 52 books. Welcome back to all our readers, to those just joining in and all who are following our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the [/size]52 Books blog to link to your reviews. The link is also below in my signature.[/size]
 
 
52 Books Blog - The Shape of Culture:  Does where or when  you were  born really matter or is it who you are born to that shapes you?  How much does the culture of family, your community, your town play into your thoughts, ideas and speech?
 
The south is ingrained in my soul.  I’ve lived in California now for more than half my life but I’ll always be a southerner at heart.  I’m a bundle of contradictions, my speech riddled with hey and howdy and y’all along with like and awesome and dude.
 
When I was in the fifth grade, we moved to California.  Culture shock.  I’d left behind friendly voices,  the refrain of “Y’all come back now, ya hear† and chit chat at the check-out counter, exchanging it for bored clerks who ignored me while they chatted among themselves.   The kids all looked at me funny and asked why I talked so weird, their speech peppered with you guys and you know’s and here you go. “What guys and no, I don’t know and where am I going?â€
 
I didn’t know I had an accent and that I talked with a twang, dropping my g’s both comin’ and goin’.  About a year after we moved, one of my sister’s friends called.  On my gosh, is that what I sounded like? Just imagine Hee Haw and you’ll get it because it just doesn’t translate to paper.  I was so happy when we moved south to Georgia,  back to the land of y’all and hey and friendly smiles.  No one was a stranger,  the ever present gnats at dusk making everyone think you were waving at them.
 
Football and bowling, stealing the other school’s mascot, cruising through Sonic and playing video games at the arcade.  Pigging out on Krystal’s mini burgers and Church’s fried chicken. All sounds a little like American Graffiti.  Carefree high school days.
 
I’ve been in California over 30 years now and the minute I hear anyone talking with a southern drawl, I slip right back into it seamlessly. There are times I have to concentrate, speaking precisely, reminding myself not to forget those g’s at the end of ing and that not everyone likes to be called hon or sugar.
 
And Lord a mercy, when I’m plumb tuckered out and I still have to fix supper; when I’d ruther rest my feet and sit a spell, and have my son fetch me a drink, I sit back and wonder why the gal at the café annoyed me so much when she called me hon. 
 
 
So…What does this have to do with books, you ask?  This week your mission is to learn more about local and/or popular culture.  You can even let a friend choose a book for you. Either of which would satisfy a couple spots on the bingo card.  There are a wide variety of books to choose from. Check out Goodreads list of Popular Culture Books or Ideas.Ted.com Guide to Reading the World or watch Ann Morgan's My Year Reading Books from Every Country.
 
Happy exploring!
 
   
 
What are you reading this Week 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Link  to week 3 

Edited by Robin M
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This week I dropped everything to read Karen Moning's last book in her Fever Series - Feversong.  Lot of emotion with this one of fear, joy, horror, sorrow, love and loss.  However, she left a little nugget at the end that could possibly continue other characters stories.   

 

Many books still in progress including K.M. Weiland's Conquering Writer's block which after reading the first two chapters and getting serious kick in the butt, changed some habits that were interfering with writing.  

 

 

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I'm hoping to read Amethyst Dreams by Phyllis Whitney. She was one of my favourite authors growing up. I doubt I read this one back then.

 

 

Oooh no, Aquamarine. I trying to take this a month at a time. At least it's just one e!!! :lol:

 

Oh yeah, Phyllis Whitney! I read her a lot growing up, too. I've never read Amethyst Dreams, I'll check it out. That would cover my "author who uses a pen name" square for my Bingo, too.  :D

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Hi. I'm still climbing Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary. I expect to reach the top this week. I'm also reading what I assume will count for my flufferton bingo square, Pomfret Towers by Angela Thirkell, thanks to Aggieamy. I'm finding it quite amusing so far.

 

As the main character falls in love at first sight: "In that flash of ecstasy she suddenly knew what all poetry, all music, all sculpture, except things like winged Assyrian Bulls, or the very broken pieces in the British museum, meant."

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 Four hundred pages down, three hundred more to go in By Gaslight.  I am enjoying this book for the most part although I found myself annoyed this morning over a trivial matter.  As with many complex stories, we have lives being woven together over time.  Most of the tale takes place in London in 1885.  Flashbacks return us to the American Civil War or to the pre-war early childhoods of the two main characters.  It was not difficult to keep it straight until this morning.  The section is labeled "1862 Virginia ". The first paragraph opens "Thirty-two years later in the shadow of a new kind of war..." and then goes on to mention bombs being dropped from aeroplanes into trenches. 1862 plus 32 does not bring us to 1903, the year of the Wright Brothers' first flight. Maybe I had not have enough coffee. Duh!  Add 32 to 1885 and now I understand. 

 

Yes, there is jumping back and forth as the story unwinds in this novel.  Those of you who need a more straight forward narrative have been warned.

 

Allow me to share a poem from the 11th century Andalusian/Jewish poet Solomon ibn Gabirol:

 

Winter wrote with rains and showers for ink,

     with lightning for a pen and a hand of cloud,

a letter on the ground in blue and violet,

     a work no artisan could match with all his skill.

So when earth was longing for the sky,

     she wove upon her flower beds

     something like the stars.

 

 

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I can related to Robin's culture shock story. I've lived in CA my whole life with a brief break - 22 years in SoCal and 19 years in NoCal.  The 4 years in between I lived in Cambridge, MA.  Now, that may not seem like as much of a shift to some of you - there's the whole Cambridge/Berkeley thing - but oh man, it was.  So many things I took for granted - the sun! hiking! the beach! bare skin! gardening! being outdoors year round! were totally unheard of. And about 98% of the other students were from northeast or midwestern colleges. There was definitely a culture shock.  I hadn't been a particularly extreme Californian - not a valley girl or surfer or anything - but man, I found myself suddenly as the sole representative of all things green/organic/outdoors/earthy. It was a weird experience.

 

As far as popular culture books, I have quite a few on hold - Hillbilly Elegy, Born a Crime, A Colony in a Nation, Tears We Cannot Stop, Evicted and Strangers in their Own Land. Hopefully one or more of those will come in in the near future.

 

I finished a couple of things this week: Ultraviolet, which is a good YA novel for older teens, I'm handing it off to dd after finishing it last night. It's about a girl with synesthesia, which my dd has in a very mild form (number-color synesthesia) so I know she'll be fascinated. It's also all about a girl trying to figure out who she is. I enjoyed it.

 

I also read Night of the Iguana for my "Night in the Title" square. I'm not a huge fan of Tennessee Williams, I think he gets his women characters terribly wrong, way too influenced by Freud. But I like this play more than I expected to, especially the 3rd act. He does The Dark Night of the Soul better than most.

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Just finished Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleve. I enjoyed it. It's a great story and an easy read. Very page-turning. I'm not sure it's a book that will really stick with me. It didn't challenge me at all and it was somewhat similar to other WWII era novels with a London setting. But I definitely enjoyed reading it. 

 

I also finished My Brother Sam is Dead to discuss with my 8th grade. We are reading Johnny Tremain next, which I need to start soon. 

 

I think I will also read Grit next. I got it off the "hot book" shelf at the library. They are more popular selections but can only be checked out for 2 weeks with no renewals. Usually you have 3 weeks with up to 3 renewals. And I'm reading through the stories in Echoes of Sherlock

 

 

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Hmmm... I've already got a full plate of books.  Not sure if I can cram in another book this week, but I already own The Namesake (dd had it as assigned reading in high school...).  It takes place in my area.  We have a lot of Indian immigrants in my town.  In high school, virtually all dd's friends were either Indian- or Chinese-American.

 

ETA: I just finish a book about local past culture last week, which I guess would have counted.. but, well, I already read it.  I'm not timing things well. :tongue_smilie:

Edited by Matryoshka
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My favorite poet is T.S. Eliot, something that I have mentioned before on these BaW threads; I have also admitted that I have been obsessed with The Four Quartets for decades. Around age 19 or 20, I thought that I'd move on to The Waste Land when I "grew up".  Apparently I never have...

 

This morning I enjoyed listening to a discussion of The Four Quartets on the BBC Radio 4 program "In Our Time".  I learned something that I am rather embarrassed to say I did not know previously.  The title of the third poem in the cycle is "The Dry Salvages" which refers to rocks off Cape Ann, MA, that Eliot sailed around as a child--and I suspect that our Nan knows well.

 

An article for those who want a vicarious kayak paddle around some isolated rocks:

 

https://windagainstcurrent.com/2013/07/25/the-dry-salvages/

Edited by Jane in NC
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As far as popular culture books, I have quite a few on hold - Hillbilly Elegy, Born a Crime, A Colony in a Nation, Tears We Cannot Stop, Evicted and Strangers in their Own Land. Hopefully one or more of those will come in in the near future.

 

 

In the same vein, I'd recommend White Rage by Carol Anderson. I thought I knew a fair amount about the history of civil rights but I was wrong. So many topics that are popping up today have their roots in Reconstruction and Jim Crow America. It's not an easy read emotionally even though it's a short, well written book.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26073085-white-rage?from_search=true

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I finshed several books this week:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/7123063-ver-wink-die-suiderkruis

Is South African fiction about a 2 young people from a different classe ignoring their love for each other :)

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6179017-contrapunt

I picked the book as I liked the historical fiction about the wife of Thomas Cook from this author very much.

Music topic + this author would me give some nice reading time I hoped.

Unfortunetly the book did not connect with me, perhap because I'm not familiair enough with the Goldberg Variations.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7376274-anna

Is a biography about a very famous Dutch Children author (a little bit comparable with Astrid Lindgren: everybody knows her)

I doubt many parents had an idea about the life she lived. Definetly not 'the nice madam that loves little children so much' (she disliked children). Very interesting, but a little desillusional too.

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52 Books Blog - The Shape of Culture:  Does where or when  you were  born really matter or is it who you are born to that shapes you?  How much does the culture of family, your community, your town play into your thoughts, ideas and speech?

...

 

I enjoyed reading about the impact of the South on you and your life, Robin, as well as your experiences as a Californian in Boston, Rose.  I'm at the other end of the spectrum in that my life as a young person consisted of move after move, often from one country to another, and the attending of  fifteen schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  People still can't figure out my accent!  For me, home was my family and a few pieces of furniture that traveled with us.

***

 

Congratulations, Heather, on your new black belt!

***

 

And a currently free book (today only) that sounds intriguing ~  Eleanor Roosevelt's Book of Common Sense Etiquette by Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

"In an era of incivility, discover a timeless guide to good manners from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

“The basis of all good human behavior is kindness,†says Eleanor Roosevelt in this classic handbook, first published in 1962 as a “modern book of etiquette for modern Americans.†As a politician, diplomat, and activist, as well as the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Roosevelt knew that thoughtful, civil behavior was essential to peaceful, productive relationships. In this etiquette guide, she teaches that decorum is not about strict adherence to formal rules; it is about approaching all social situations with consideration for others. She advises, “If ever you find yourself in a situation in which following a formal rule would be manifestly unkind, forget it, and be kind instead.â€

 

Drawing from her personal and professional experiences, Roosevelt covers a broad range of topics, including business dealings and family affairs, writing letters and receiving guests, and entertaining at home and traveling abroad. Beginning with the necessity of good manners between husband and wife, she considers the importance of courtesy in society at large and the role all Americans play as ambassadors of democracy while visiting foreign countries. In an era of incivility, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Book of Common Sense Etiquette is more relevant than ever."

 

Regards,

Kareni

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As Early Modern is our school focus this year, I finished The Dream of Enlightenment:  The Rise of Modern Philosophy by Anthony Gottlieb today.  This is a short book about the major Enlightenment thinkers (chapters devoted to Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Liebnitz, Hume, and a roundup of Rousseau and Voltaire) and their push-and-pull struggles with the mind, science, and religion.  Did I enjoy this book so much because he quoted Monty Python?  Maybe.  Mainly I enjoyed the struggles Gottlieb laid out...he put context to the times and the arguments between these thinkers in a way few overviews have done, and rounded them up to our time (including influence or not of any or all of them to today’s thinking, and why or why not).  This was a good companion book to The Age of Genius, a book I recently read about how the religious wars, philosophical debates and political upheavals (with or without religion as their source) ground through the 17th century Europe.  It’s a trifecta if you pick up Edward Dolnick’s The Clockwork Universe, which lays out scientific advancements (and the beginnings of the Royal Society) and you’ve got yourself covered for this time period, I think... 


Here’s a quote from the Gottlieb book to give you a feel for his (imho) approachable language:

(Diderot and D'Alembert, etc.) were asking difficult questions where no questions should be asked. But in their own view, the philosophes sought merely to press questions that seemed reasonable and necessary, and to do so with a sense of the limits of the human intellect. “The Age of Trying to Be More Reasonable†would therefore be a more accurate, though less snappy, name for their times. What united the philosophes was a distaste for undue deference to tradition, intellectual orthodoxy, scripture or religious dogma, because these things had proved to be impediments to knowledge and to the well-being of mankind."

 

 

I have not read Gottlieb's The Dream of Reason, which covers the Ancients>Renaissance thinking, but I liked this book so much I will stick this on the TBRS(ooner) list.

 

But first!  I have Georgette Heyer, The Sunne in Splendour, and maybe even a re-read of Middlemarch to wander through.  Who was it in the last thread, VC? Jane?, who gave the side-eye to any fiction written after 1950?  Maybe that's been my problem :tongue_smilie:

 

ETA oh yeah I have Strangers in Their Own Land:  Anger and Mourning on the American Right started too...so much for fluff...

Edited by fastweedpuller
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Hope no one minds if I repost my Ove post from this morning - I'm still curious about the questions I asked, if anyone knows... ;).  Probably should remember not to post things on Sunday mornings just before the thread flipped over. 

 

I finished Ein Mann namens Ove/A Man Called Ove today.  That was indeed quite an enjoyable read.  The only niggly complaint I'd have is that the author has apparently never met a cat - he must think they're dogs that meow.  A cat that will follow you around and behave itself?  Sit in the car without a carrier and not walk across the windshield or puking/peeing/pooping all over (I had a cat that used to do all three *in the carrier* on a 1/2 mile ride to the vet...), but sit quietly where you put it??  And that otherwise just followed him placidly around - any cat I've ever met, if I brought it in a car to a strange place, it would wander off and I'd never see it again, except maybe after hours of pleading and offering treats, and if I brought it into a cafe it would be sitting on the counter and sniffing - and possibly stepping in - everyone's food, not sitting on a stool politely...)  But other than the incredibly dog-like cat, which was fun anyway, I really enjoyed it.  My dh is an engineer who likes to escape to his shed and work (and do acts of kindness) with his hands; while he's not quite as grumpy as Ove (though he has his moments), I could kind of relate.

 

Some questions on translation... I read in review on Goodreads a complaint by someone that they didn't like it because he was abusive to the cat and kicked it.  Did they really translate it that way?  The only times I recall him doing anything to the cat was when he threw his wooden shoe at it and missed by a mile, and he pushed the cat out of the way once - was that translated as 'kick' in English??  The word in German was 'stups' which translates to 'nudge'.  I have nudged many a cat out of the way (they love to lie in the most annoying places...)  I of course have no idea what the original Swedish was, but 'nudge' seems much more likely in the context of the character and the situation.

 

And he kept correcting a certain grammatical point - in German it was a confusion between the dative and genitive cases, which doesn't even seem like a mistake I've heard much in German.  Whatever it was in Swedish must have been a common error (like I/me confusion in English).  Curious what grammatical error it got switched to in English, and what it was...  just 'cause I'm a grammar nerd, and translation choices are interesting.  :D

 

I also wondered a bit about the number of English names.  Jimmy?  Patrick?  Were they supposed to be Swedish, or from somewhere else?  If I'd read it in English, I might have thought they Anglicized some weird Swedish name (they do things like that in some translations...), but they really stick out in German, so I'm thinking they must be as written...?  Maybe there's a trend to naming kids English names in Sweden??

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My culture shock was almost the opposite of yours Robin, and I got over it fairly quickly. Though I'm a Floridian through and through it wasn't always that way. I came here from New Jersey at age 13 kicking and screaming, figuratively of course. I swore that as soon as I was 18 I was moving back to Jersey. Five years later I had sand in my shoes. That's a term used to mean that you have Florida in your heart. Sand is notoriously hard to get out of your shoes once it gets in, and Florida is hard to get out of your heart once it gets in. 

 

However, when we first arrived I stuck out like a sore thumb at school. Although Florida has people from all over, and this area especially due to the space program, most of the people I eventually made friends with came from other southern states. I said yous (never yous guys - it was either you guys or yous but not yous guys) and Flah-rida. I swore I would never say y'all and now I know the difference between y'all and all y'all.   :lol:  In Jersey everyone we knew was either Catholic or Jewish, unless they were Black. Baptist was the Black religion. That's how insular my world was up there. The first time I met a white Baptist I was very surprised. 

 

I thought we moved to the South but we didn't. After college my first teaching job was in South Georgia and by moving north to Georgia I felt like I moved further south. Five years later (3 in Atlanta) with more culture shock, and I was ready to come home to Florida. Though I'll always have a bit of Yankee in me, I'm quick to complain about those northerners (often from NY or NJ) who can't stop telling everyone how much better things were back home. I'm a full fledged Floridian and if I have my way I'll live here for the rest of my life here. I occasionally miss some of the food, but that's all. Most of my extended family eventually moved here, so I have cousins and aunts nearby.  I'll take our hot, humid nine-month summers over a northern winter any day. 

Edited by Lady Florida.
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My favorite poet is T.S. Eliot, something that I have mentioned before on these BaW threads; I have also admitted that I have been obsessed with The Four Quartets for decades. Around age 19 or 20, I thought that I'd move on to The Waste Land when I "grew up".  Apparently I never have...

 

This morning I enjoyed listening to a discussion of The Four Quartets on the BBC Radio 4 program "In Our Time".  I learned something that I am rather embarrassed to say I did not know previously.  The title of the third poem in the cycle is "The Dry Salvages" which refers to rocks off Cape Ann, MA, that Eliot sailed around as a child--and I suspect that our Nan knows well.

 

But I imagine you've dared to eat a peach, rolled your trousers (white flannel or not) and walked along the beach. And with your proximity to the water I suspect you may have even hear the mermaids singing each to each, whether you felt they were singing to you or not ;)

 

I'm subscribed to that BBC podcast series, In Our Time, and downloaded The Four Quartets entry to listen to awhile ago. I have yet to do so, thank you for reminding me.

 

I'm venturing beyond my usual for my next read with either Uprooted or Beauty. Both of these veer into the realm of fantasy which has never been a genre I've explored in much depth. The GR challenge is encouraging me to widen my reading lens. 

 

As far as roots, I grew up in Canada. I moved to the US about 20 years ago. My initial impression was one of largesse. Everything was bigger here, cereal boxes, grocery stores, voices, personalities. I've only been back to Canada twice in the past 20 years and it felt so different. I remember looking at it through the eyes of an outsider, which was a peculiar feeling.

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In other news (no pun intended) I finished News of the World today. I loved it! It made me want to read a bit more about children who were captured by Native American tribes, and the trouble they had adjusting when they were returned to their biological families. I also want to read another book of hers, The Color of Lightning. There's an historical character, Britt Johnson, who makes a brief appearance in News of the World. The Color of Lightning tells his story as historical fiction.

 

Still plugging away at:

 

Doctor Thorne - I should finish it this week.

Alexander Hamilton - I've been listening to the musical soundtrack and was inspired to pick it back up again.

Norwegian Wood - I should finish this one this week too.

Infidel - audio book. I like listening to an author read his or her own book, but her accent is fairly thick and I have to really pay attention. I didn't have this problem with Trevor Noah's book but maybe that's because I'm used to hearing him on The Daily Show. 

 

Once I finish at least one of the above books I plan to start my book club's current book - The Marriage of Opposites.

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My favorite poet is T.S. Eliot, something that I have mentioned before on these BaW threads; I have also admitted that I have been obsessed with The Four Quartets for decades. Around age 19 or 20, I thought that I'd move on to The Waste Land when I "grew up".  Apparently I never have...

 

This morning I enjoyed listening to a discussion of The Four Quartets on the BBC Radio 4 program "In Our Time".  I learned something that I am rather embarrassed to say I did not know previously.  The title of the third poem in the cycle is "The Dry Salvages" which refers to rocks off Cape Ann, MA, that Eliot sailed around as a child--and I suspect that our Nan knows well.

 

An article for those who want a vicarious kayak paddle around some isolated rocks:

 

https://windagainstcurrent.com/2013/07/25/the-dry-salvages/

 

TS Eliot is my favorite, too. I wrote a term paper on The Hollow Men in 12th grade, and memorized the whole thing!

 

I can't get over loving The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:

 

For I have known them all already, known them all: 
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; 
I know the voices dying with a dying fall 
Beneath the music from a farther room. 
               So how should I presume? 
 
And I have known the eyes already, known them all— 
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, 
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, 
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, 
Then how should I begin 
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? 
               And how should I presume? 
 
And I have known the arms already, known them all— 
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare 
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) 
Is it perfume from a dress 
That makes me so digress? 
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. 
               And should I then presume? 
               And how should I begin? 

 

. . . 

 

I grow old ... I grow old ... 
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. 
 
Shall I part my hair behind?   Do I dare to eat a peach? 
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. 
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. 
 
I do not think that they will sing to me. 
 

In the same vein, I'd recommend White Rage by Carol Anderson. I thought I knew a fair amount about the history of civil rights but I was wrong. So many topics that are popping up today have their roots in Reconstruction and Jim Crow America. It's not an easy read emotionally even though it's a short, well written book.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26073085-white-rage?from_search=true

 

Thank you, that does fit the theme. I'm putting that one on my list.

 

As Early Modern is our school focus this year, I finished The Dream of Enlightenment:  The Rise of Modern Philosophy by Anthony Gottlieb today.  This is a short book about the major Enlightenment thinkers (chapters devoted to Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Liebnitz, Hume, and a roundup of Rousseau and Voltaire) and their push-and-pull struggles with the mind, science, and religion.  Did I enjoy this book so much because he quoted Monty Python?  Maybe.  Mainly I enjoyed the struggles Gottlieb laid out...he put context to the times and the arguments between these thinkers in a way few overviews have done, and rounded them up to our time (including influence or not of any or all of them to today’s thinking, and why or why not).  This was a good companion book to The Age of Genius, a book I recently read about how the religious wars, philosophical debates and political upheavals (with or without religion as their source) ground through the 17th century Europe.  It’s a trifecta if you pick up Edward Dolnick’s The Clockwork Universe, which lays out scientific advancements (and the beginnings of the Royal Society) and you’ve got yourself covered for this time period, I think... 

Here’s a quote from the Gottlieb book to give you a feel for his (imho) approachable language:

(Diderot and D'Alembert, etc.) were asking difficult questions where no questions should be asked. But in their own view, the philosophes sought merely to press questions that seemed reasonable and necessary, and to do so with a sense of the limits of the human intellect. “The Age of Trying to Be More Reasonable†would therefore be a more accurate, though less snappy, name for their times. What united the philosophes was a distaste for undue deference to tradition, intellectual orthodoxy, scripture or religious dogma, because these things had proved to be impediments to knowledge and to the well-being of mankind."

 

 

I have not read Gottlieb's The Dream of Reason, which covers the Ancients>Renaissance thinking, but I liked this book so much I will stick this on the TBRS(ooner) list.

 

But first!  I have Georgette Heyer, The Sunne in Splendour, and maybe even a re-read of Middlemarch to wander through.  Who was it in the last thread, VC? Jane?, who gave the side-eye to any fiction written after 1950?  Maybe that's been my problem :tongue_smilie:

 

ETA oh yeah I have Strangers in Their Own Land:  Anger and Mourning on the American Right started too...so much for fluff...

 

Your review inspired me to put  Gottlieb's books on my list! Shannon and I read The Clockwork Universe when she did a history of science course in 8th. It was great, and very readable.  These sound great too.

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But I imagine you've dared to eat a peach, rolled your trousers (white flannel or not) and walked along the beach. And with your proximity to the water I suspect you may have even hear the mermaids singing each to each, whether you felt they were singing to you or not ;)

 

 

 

Hah! We were posting at the same time.  :001_wub:

 

 

In other news (no pun intended) I finished News of the World today. I loved it! It made me want to read a bit more about children who were captured by Native American tribes, and the trouble they had adjusting when they were returned to their biological families. I also want to read another book of hers, The Color of Lightning. There's an historical character, Britt Johnson, who makes a brief appearance in News of the World. The Color of Lightning tells his story as historical fiction.

 

 

 

Glad to hear you liked News of the World. I'm waiting for it, most impatiently.

 

I began The Plover and am working on it. I knew my pleasure reading would slow down once the semester began so it's going to take a while.

 

But worth every minute!!

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My culture: Navy brat, navy wife, three countries, one territory, six states, Virginian for 27 years now. I don't have an accent that people recognize easily. I'm comfortable with the ways of the south, but have too much of my New England born parents in me to be seen as a true southerner. I'm definitely an east coast person. I've lived near the Mississippi, but never west of it. I now live in a small rural town. The first year I kept wondering why people were waving at me when I didn't know them.

 

My biggest culture shock was coming back to the U.S. as a 12yo after 4 years in Puerto Rico. I look back on those years as idyllic, realizing they probably weren't as fascinating to my parents at the time.

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I am having trouble settling in to a new year of reading. I'm not sure why. I finished only two books this year, both carry overs from 2016.

 

Jotham's Journey - a Christmas devotional for kids which I really didn't enjoy as much the second time around and obviously didn't finish around Christmas!

 

And Etiquette and Espionage - my audio book after Christmas. I thought the reader was great, but I realized that my audio skills are still not great. I've only read this book once and found myself not able to follow along well.

 

I'm in the middle of two books now.

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I've had a book on my TBR list for a while now that I think will be perfect for the local culture mission: Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John. It's about a refugee boys' soccer team in a town about 5 miles away. 

 

This week I started Lab Girl and The Wise Man's Fear. I'm keeping your warnings about The Wise Man's Fear in mind, but am enjoying it so far - still less than 200 pages in though.  DH swiped Winter Is Coming but I'm hoping to start it soon, as it's due in 5 days and won't renew. 

 

Speaking of trying to squeeze things in before they're due, I loved this blog post about Library Chicken and thought you ladies would probably relate as well!

 

Books I read before handing them off to my kids this week: Ghosts (graphic novel) by Raina Telgemeier and Inside Out & Back Again (novel in free verse) by Thanhha Lai. I thought they were both excellent. My DD also pestered me into reading another Warriors book this week, which was, um, less excellent, but she likes being able to discuss them together. We've read many books from that series and they do spark some good discussions about leadership, loyalty, choices, etc.

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I moved quite a bit between set points as a child of older parents and have continued to do so as an adult. "Where are you from" always makes me pause because I tend to give the most appropriate answer for the setting I am in.

 

My family has deep roots in the Yorkshire moors with both a village and a moor named after my ancestors. I never had an opportunity to visit either until dh and I stopped a couple of years after we married to have a look. My dh, a Scot whose roots are coastal, had a poor immediate reaction to the hilly terrain filled with an overabundance of sheep that were blocking our way. The stark beauty.....I had never really stopped and looked at a place quite like it but found myself very comfortable. We are actually considering a move to that area now, dh has gotten used to moors. ;) That immediate connection still amazes me because the reality of my childhood was living near water wherever I was.

 

Reading wise my week has been slow. I am finishing off The Ides of April and One Night for Love by Mary Balogh. When those are done so is the January Garnet challenge.

 

On my library trip today I picked of a couple of mysteries whose subtitle is "a Yorkshire Moor Mystery". Now to find something cultural......

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I moved quite a bit between set points as a child of older parents and have continued to do so as an adult. "Where are you from" always makes me pause because I tend to give the most appropriate answer for the setting I am in.

 

My family has deep roots in the Yorkshire moors with both a village and a moor named after my ancestors. I never had an opportunity to visit either until dh and I stopped a couple of years after we married to have a look. My dh, a Scot whose roots are coastal, had a poor immediate reaction to the hilly terrain filled with an overabundance of sheep that were blocking our way. The stark beauty.....I had never really stopped and looked at a place quite like it but found myself very comfortable. We are actually considering a move to that area now, dh has gotten used to moors. ;) That immediate connection still amazes me because the reality of my childhood was living near water wherever I was.

 

Reading wise my week has been slow. I am finishing off The Ides of April and One Night for Love by Mary Balogh. When those are done so is the January Garnet challenge.

 

On my library trip today I picked of a couple of mysteries whose subtitle is "a Yorkshire Moor Mystery". Now to find something cultural......

Can you share some titles?

(Or put them on your Goodreads list?)

 

The more I visit parts of the UK, the more fun it becomes to read books with a British setting:)

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Just finished Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleve. I enjoyed it. It's a great story and an easy read. Very page-turning. I'm not sure it's a book that will really stick with me. It didn't challenge me at all and it was somewhat similar to other WWII era novels with a London setting. But I definitely enjoyed reading it. 

 

 

I just finished that book, and it will definitely stick with me. I truly had never thought about racial discrimination in England during WWII so this book removed my blinders. It made me think about a lot. 

 

 

 

Heather, congrats. What a great accomplishment for you after your surgery. I remember when you were not allowed to walk. Now you're a black belt!  :hurray:

 

My reading has slowed because I'm planning for a co-op class. Sure eats a lot of time.

 

Heading out this evening with my eldest to my first ever orchestra concert.  :thumbup:

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After taking a few days break from reading, I have several books going at once.

 

Long term reads:

  • ESV Bible - currently midway through Exodus
  • History of the Ancient World - finished chapters 5 and 6 this week

 

Current reads

  • Audiobook:  The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Adams - I'm currently four chapters in and waiting for the story to pick up
  • Fiction book:  Slathbog's Gold by Forman - Reading to see if my 12yo ds might enjoy the series, about 3 chapters in
  • Nonfiction book:  The Happiness Project by Rubin - I decided last week that I wanted to increase the number of nonfiction books I read and picked this one to start.  At a chapter a day, I should finish sometime next week.
  • Spanish book:  Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal by Rowling - I've decided to brush up on my Spanish before ds gets to high school because I don't expect him to want to continue with Latin.  Hopefully I remember enough to follow the story.

 

Finished for the year

4.  Moon Dance by Rain (Bingo: flufferton)

3.  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle (Bingo: collection of short stories)

2.  The Strange Library by Murakami

1.  Written in Red by Bishop

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Can you share some titles?

(Or put them on your Goodreads list?)

 

The more I visit parts of the UK, the more fun it becomes to read books with a British setting:)

I put the mysteries I found today in my current reads on Goodreads. I also put what I think will be my cultural read, Richard Muir's How to Read a Village. It is supposed to be reflective of the disappearing countryside and what common terms mean. It's been on my bookshelf for years.

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So I am reading several books simultaneously, which is odd for me. I tend to read in series instead of parallel. A little electrical engineering metaphor, which leads to the first book I am reading--Am Imaginary Tale, the History of the square root of -1. I picked t up because a polynomial graphing problem I assigned suggested it. So I read a bit of it to my class and now I am hooked.

 

I am reading, with my ten year old, Taffy of Torpedo Junction, a favorite from childhood. And we are actually reading from my original copy. I love this story about a teenager living on the Outer Banks during WW2.

 

Finally, I am slogging through Robert Burns poetry.

 

I am from Maryland, and lived there until I went to college in Blacksburg, VA. I went from living halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC, with every store and amenity I ever wanted to, essentially, the middle of nowhere. Katherine Patterson, in Jacob Have I Loved mentions that there is nowhere more like an island than an isolated valley. Of course, Blacksburg is not that isolated, but it sure felt like that to this city girl. Then I moved to the ATL for grad school and have never left. I still do not fit in here. My closest friends here all come from elsewhere. And, funny, my kids' closest friends' parents mostly come from elsewhere.

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So I am reading several books simultaneously, which is odd for me. I tend to read in series instead of parallel. A little electrical engineering metaphor, which leads to the first book I am reading--Am Imaginary Tale, the History of the square root of -1. I picked t up because a polynomial graphing problem I assigned suggested it. So I read a bit of it to my class and now I am hooked.

 

Hey, I own that book!  I've never actually gotten around to reading it - I found it on the shelf at my parents' house and thought it looked interesting.  I've even carried it around once or twice as potential reading material, but never actually got into it.  I should give it a try? ...it would definitely qualify as 'dusty'...

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Reading about local culture sounds like fun! I picked up, and then subsequently set back down, a book that caught my interest. It would fit the challenge! May have to go pick it back up.

The Last Wild Places of Kansas: Journey Into Hidden Landscapes by George Frazier.

 

My reading has completely taken a turn from what I thought it would look like last Sunday, but that's the joy of it, isn't it?

 

Books I Completed This Week:

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales (I'm sorry, I've forgotten who recommended it here, but thank you! I loved this book and my DH has gotten so tired of me talking about it that he's reading it next)

Tales from the Odyssey Part 1 by Mary Pope Osborne (read aloud with little kids)

 

Books I'm (Somewhere in the Middle of) Reading:

One Rough Man by Brad Taylor (may shelve this one for a little while just because I have so much other stuff going on)

Tales from the Odyssey Part 2 by Mary Pope Osborne (read aloud with little kids)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey (study with the older kids)

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (read aloud for older kids)

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier (pre-reading for the family)

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (okay, okay, you all talked me into at least listening to this one on audio... lol!)

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (I started reading this before the new year, never finished it and it had to go back to the library. It became available again, but I won't be able to renew it because it has holds. A little bit Sherlocky steampunk with an alternate-universe-traveling librarian. Sounds great with lots of potential, but I'm not sure this one is going to pan out)

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I read Outcasts United a few years ago. As an ATL soccer mom, I recognized lots of the clubs, even when their names weren't given. We have played against the Fugees. It's a nice book.

 

I've had a book on my TBR list for a while now that I think will be perfect for the local culture mission: Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John. It's about a refugee boys' soccer team in a town about 5 miles away.

 

This week I started Lab Girl and The Wise Man's Fear. I'm keeping your warnings about The Wise Man's Fear in mind, but am enjoying it so far - still less than 200 pages in though. DH swiped Winter Is Coming but I'm hoping to start it soon, as it's due in 5 days and won't renew.

 

Speaking of trying to squeeze things in before they're due, I loved this blog post about Library Chicken and thought you ladies would probably relate as well!

 

Books I read before handing them off to my kids this week: Ghosts (graphic novel) by Raina Telgemeier and Inside Out & Back Again (novel in free verse) by Thanhha Lai. I thought they were both excellent. My DD also pestered me into reading another Warriors book this week, which was, um, less excellent, but she likes being able to discuss them together. We've read many books from that series and they do spark some good discussions about leadership, loyalty, choices, etc.

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Hey, I own that book! I've never actually gotten around to reading it - I found it on the shelf at my parents' house and thought it looked interesting. I've even carried it around once or twice as potential reading material, but never actually got into it. I should give it a try? ...it would definitely qualify as 'dusty'...

It's one of my crazy, you should read in math class, things. I'm enjoying it.

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I often feel that I live my life in cultural shock. 

 

My core values are Midwestern--I am a pragmatist in many ways. I love the geography of where I live now but often feel like a Stranger in a Strange land from a cultural perspective.  When I moved here 25 years ago, I was a damn Yankee.  Now there are more "Yankee" retirees than natives.

 

I am definitely a part of the "New South".  Farmers and fishmongers all know me by name as I embrace many elements of traditional food culture.  I am a known advocate for a state wide university program, taking great pride that I am part of a proud tradition of excellence in post-secondary education offered here in NC. No Southern drawl here, although I do like sliding in a few "y'alls" for good measure.

 

And I am out of likes. Pfui.

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My biggest culture shock was my first day living in Italy I was hit by a car, my elbow knocking off the side view mirror. I was uninjured, but frozen, unable to believe a car hit me. The driver got out, glared at me, picked up his mirror, got back in the car, and drove away. At that moment, I couldn't help but worry about the rest of my time there. But things were fine. I got better at dodging cars...

 

Read a book about another culture this week? Maybe I can read The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe. I also have Ulysses by James Joyce and there's Don Quixote that I've been pretending to read for over a year. We'll see. I'm a bit exhausted with reading.

 

Books read last week:

 

  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Fairytale Horror. A young boy finds himself helpless when a creature crosses over into his world and into his life. A novella that was a quick spooky read. I think I should hold off on Gaiman until October, but I'm loving his writing so much.
  • Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 by Paul Hendrickson. Biography. Hemingway purchased a boat in 1934 as his literary star was rising and found some of his greatest joys on the ocean. Shorter version: Hemingway was an jerk (more evocative language is necessary, but I'm trying to keep it G-rated). I'd read a book about his first wife either last year or the year before, so I knew he was not a nice person, but wow. While he was kind and welcoming to certain strangers, the more he knew a person, the less he liked him or her. The author obviously admires Hemingway, excusing bad behavior at certain times, but still seemed to concede that yes, he wasn't a nice man. The book structure was tough, arranged thematically as opposed to chronologically, but the flow didn't make much sense so I ended up flipping back and forth to understand what was happening. My bingo Nautical read.
  • Mort by Terry Pratchett. Fantasy. Death's apprentice finds the job a lot harder than he expected. I mentioned it last week, but I loved this clever, funny read. I've put Pratchett in the queue, but only after I've worked through my TBR list. Or not. These may be my go-to brain candy books. My bingo Friend Recommendation read.
  • The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth by Robin Hanson. Speculative Science. A economist specializing in artificial intelligence speculates on the future of human consciousness. He argues, fairly persuasively, that we are more likely to map and store human brain wiring on computers before true artificial intelligence is realized. The book imagines what the emulation or "em" culture would look like. My second time requesting this through inter-library loan, I was determined to finish and I'm glad I did. I usually read quickly, but things were slow as I was taking notes and my brain kept interrupting with questions and possibilities. He makes interesting arguments and there's thirty pages of bibliography in the reference section. I found him less persuasive in fields I'm familiar with like logistics, finance, and energy, which makes me fear I'm succumbing to Gell-Mann Amnesia by taking his word in less familiar areas. I love these types of books as they are very thought-provoking. Stripped of biological influences, like hormones, is a conscious mind truly human? Is there a reproductive drive without biology? Are em children simply clones? Without the genetic recombination that comes from s*xual reproduction, would conscience moving into the electronic world become an evolutionary dead end? What happens when the software becomes obsolete? Are portions of consciousness lost when the operating system is upgraded? I have a several pages filled with these questions. If you or someone you know enjoys creating cyberpunk science fiction, this has a wealth of ideas.

I'm working on Emma by Jane Austen as my Flufferton Abbey read and still listening to Death, Dying, and the Afterlife from the Great Courses.

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I'm from the Atlanta area, been in and around here my whole life.  I'm in the northern burbs now, but enjoying downtown more now that ds is in college there.  His dorm is just off Auburn Ave., so we spend time at the Sweet Auburn Market.  I know basic Atlanta history, but I'm learning more and more about the history through the buildings.  Having just finished Born a Crime and watching Hidden Figures, I'd like to read more about the cultural history of Auburn Ave., not so much MLK, Jr., but other regular people of the time.  So far I've found:

 

Darktown by Thomas Mullen about the first black officers in Atlanta

Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones about the Atlanta Child Murders

Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn by Gary Pomerantz about the families of Ivan Allen, Jr. and Maynard Jackson

 

I'd love to hear any thoughts on those books or any other recommendations of books.

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I finished a couple of things this week: Ultraviolet, which is a good YA novel for older teens, I'm handing it off to dd after finishing it last night. It's about a girl with synesthesia, which my dd has in a very mild form (number-color synesthesia) so I know she'll be fascinated. It's also all about a girl trying to figure out who she is. I enjoyed it.

 

That book sounds icky!

 

But I want to know what kind of synesthesia the chick in the story has.

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  • Mort by Terry Pratchett. Fantasy. Death's apprentice finds the job a lot harder than he expected. I mentioned it last week, but I loved this clever, funny read. I've put Pratchett in the queue, but only after I've worked through my TBR list. Or not. These may be my go-to brain candy books. My bingo Friend Recommendation read.
  •  

 

I love Pratchett.  

Assuming the Female Adventure square can be fiction, consider The Wee Free Men, the first in his series about Tiffany Aching (who also lives in Discworld).  

If you feel guilty about the lightness, read his non-Discworld book, Nation.  I thought it was a beautiful novel.  

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