Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Take George Orwell at his word. As he reaffirmed in his book, “Why I Write” (see review of that book) he wrote that "Animal Farm was the first book that he wrote with full consciousness of what he was doing, to fuse political and artistic purpose into one whole". The political purpose was to speak out against Lenin, Stalin and those voices of communism that were being embraced in 1945 when this book was published. The farmyard and the animals were the allegorical means that Orwell used.

The story begins in the farmyard where the animals rebel. An old boar pig named Old Major and two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, call a meeting of the farm animals and they tell everyone that the humans are enemies. They adopt seven commandments of Animalism, the first of which is that “all animals are equal”. Then they drive off the farmer and all his help and take over the farm. Snowball distinguishes himself in the battle and ongoing efforts to protect the farm. Napoleon discredits Snowball and forces him out stealing his ideas and establishing himself as the clear leader.

Napoleon expands his power by using a committee of pigs who become the managers of the farm. A neighboring farmer attacks the farm, but he is defeated. A popular donkey , Benjamin, is hurt badly, and Napoleon has him taken away in a van. He is supposed to be going to a hospital but instead he is sold off to a glue factory and the money is used to buy whiskey for the pigs. The pigs are in full control and seem to be smart enough to run the farm, but they become corrupted with greed. The rest of the animals seem to have lost some of their initial concerns with the pigs with the loss of Benjamin they seem to resign themselves to the memory of one of the donkey sayings: “Life will go on as it has always gone on- that is, badly”. 

Years pass and many who fought for their freedom and better way of life are dead. The pigs begin wearing clothes and walking upwards and, in their meeting, they abolish the original commandments and change the most important one to say: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

With clothes, and walking on two legs, the pigs start to resemble humans. They decide to reach out to their neighbors and invite the farmers in the area to a dinner to build an alliance. The other animals notice when they come that they all seem to look alike.

The book raises just as many, if not more, questions today as it did in 1945 and is an important book.

Quotes

"Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer- except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs."

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." 

"Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball." 

Orwell says in his book, "Why I write"

Write for a political purpose-"the desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after".

Thoughts on Napolean

"Napoleon’s name is no accident. Historically Napoleon ruled France and conquered much of Europe before being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1814. He too was originally a great liberator, overthrowing Europe’s kings and bringing freedom to its people. But he eventually crowned himself emperor of France, shattering the dreams of European liberalism"

Animal Farm

By George Orwell

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Left Neglected, Lisa Genova

Lisa Genova's second novel tells the story of Sara Nickerson who, because of a traumatic injury to the right side of her brain, suffers from “Left Neglected,’’ also known as hemi spatial. The damage completely erases control of the left side of her body.

Sarah is a hyper-active, ambitious, 37-year-old mother of three young children. The children are each a challenge in their own way, and their life before the accident was soon going to require a bigger house and some live-in help to enable it to work.

Sara loves her job and works 80 hours a week as a vice president of human resources, commuting to Boston each day.  One Friday morning she looks at her cell phone to find a number and wakes up a week later after brain surgery. 

Her healing process reveals that besides what the loss of everything the left side of her body represents for her, that all the things that, up to this point, have been “left neglected” in her life become clear to her and additional issues that must be dealt with.

Her husband must help her floss her teeth. She can’t dress herself or walk without a cane. She can’t walk in a store or the neighborhood alone because she loses track of direction. Her mother had neglected her for many years, but now she comes forward to help. She begins to heal, but it seems to tie to her efforts to deal with those things in her life formerly neglected.  

Sarah intelligence remains intact, but she has been a workaholic and now struggles with the concept of not scoring 100 percent in everything she does in trying to recover.

Genova’s details about the damage done, and the therapy needed, blends into her personal needs and other life issues. Sarah’s change as a person suggests that she likely will be a better person when her recovery is complete to the point that it can be.

Lisa Genova has written 5 books with her newest one, “Every Note Played” being released this March 20th, 2018.  “Still Alice” had a movie made about it and has been considered her best. This new book may well be her best. See the review on this web site on March 22.

Quotes

“I smile, loving him for changing with me, for going where my Neglect has taken us, for getting the new me.”  

“To me, meditation sounds a whole lot like doing nothing. I don’t do nothing. I pack every second of every day with something that can get done.” 

“I know this looks pathetic, but I’m wearing black elastic-waist pants just like my mother’s, a hot-pink fleece hat, mismatched socks, and no makeup. I think it’s safe to say that vanity is no longer my biggest concern.”

 “Buttoning the length of my shirt with Left Neglect and one right hand takes the same kind of singular, intricate, held-breath concentration that I imagine someone trying to dismantle a bomb would need to have.”

Left Neglected

By Lisa Genova

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Reading the Classics with C.S. Lewis

"Reading the Classic’s with C.S. Lewis", does capture a lot of what is interesting about C.S. Lewis, but it seems like the contributor’s views of those classics chosen are just mixed with some of Lewis’s thoughts.

The bigger question is, which classics, and in what order, would have Lewis chosen to emphasis how he felt, because those choices would have defined his legacy for us, and I don’t think this book does that.

In an early chapter, “Entering Imagined Worlds”, Lewis viewpoint on literature in general is discussed. He says there that “the good of literature is that we want to be more than ourselves. We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own.” He adds to this, and ties the thought together, by saying “We demand windows, even doors, that admit us to experiences, other than our own.

He left the Christianity of his youth, but literature eventually brought him back. His approach to the classics, and to reading, was shown in his insistence that authors like Dante, Spenser or Milton need to be understood by looking deeper into their literary forbears. Seeing a train of thought for various authors suggests that we ought to know more about how Lewis would connect the classic’s presented and what his train of thought was?

Romanticism, as a literary genre, was discussed in the book showing that Lewis felt it was more than what was generally thought during his time. He added the idea that “Sweet Desire” was a concept that should be added to understanding Romanticism.  It explains that it was the search for both a moral direction, and a sense of belonging, in people. He said a longing for more was common in all people.

Lewis’s writings about fantasy, science fiction, and imagination seem to have been the bridge back to Christianity for him, and a genre that allowed him to bring the scared into the mundane world. He said that fairy tales and the traditional treatment of the hero, was often a simile of the coming of Christ.  

Critics continue to try to explain the difference between science fiction and fantasy, but Lewis says that the difference is that science fiction writers expend more effort to make their imaginative worlds seem plausible.

Lewis said, both literary and unliterary, readers can be guilty of using a text by looking for validation of the reader's own beliefs in the work, rather than humbly "receiving" the story the author presented. He said his own view was that “in reading literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad of eye, but it is still I who see.”

I liked the book for the thoughts about Lewis that it pulled together but didn’t think the insight into the classics discussed was really Lewis’s thoughts

Quotes by C.S. Lewis Also see Literary Favorites Section 

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”  

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. 

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.  

Reading the Classics with C. S. Lewis

Baker Academic

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Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Educated, A Memoir, Tara Westover is the next post down

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, written by David Bayles and Ted Orland, is a small book, and is a shot in the arm for motivation and discouragement. The principles can be used by artists in any creative field. 

The book came to be because of some questions the two authors asked themselves. Do artists have anything in common? How do artists become artists? How do artists learn to work on their work? How can I make work that will satisfy me?

 

Many of the chapters deal with fear. Some focus on what talent is, and it is claimed to be the least important ingredient. 

The shot in the arm is more motivational, in its intent, than technical. The deep secret discussed is that the artist needs to just keep working. Don’t stop. Speed is ok. Learn from your mistakes, but learn while you go, and don’t stop your work.  It’s ok if new work makes old work look weak. 

The book differs from art books which traditionally say little about making art, suggesting that it is the product of genius.  This book says that it doesn’t matter if you’re a Mozart and that there won’t be more Mozart’s anyway.  

The book brags about the fact that it doesn’t have a section on “creativity”, and boldly says; “Why should it”? The point being that all people can confront problems, dream, and live in the real world, and breathe air?

So, the book is useful for a shot in the arm, or if you want you can just skip that and get to work. Learn from what you have done not from thinking about it. 

Quotes

“When you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

 “As far as most people are concerned, art may be acceptable as a profession, but certainly not as an occupation.”

“It’s been a tough century for modesty, craftsmanship and tenderness.”

 “Fears about artmaking fall into two families: fears about yourself and fears about your reception by others.”

 “The only work really worth doing — the only work you can do convincingly — is the work that focuses on the things you care about. To not focus on those issues is to deny the constants in your life.

”Most artists don’t daydream about making great art—they daydream about having made great art.”

Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

By David Bayles, Ted Orland

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Walden; Or, Life In The Woods, by Henry David Thoreau

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Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist who is best known for his book, Walden, Life in the Woods. Published in 1854, the book focuses on his experiences over two years, two months and two days in a cabin that he built near Walden Pond and the surrounding area. He was supposed to have, during this time, been so submerged in nature, living off the land and self-sufficient, that his transcendentalist philosophy was validated by this experience.

With the organized religions and political parties of the day behind him he was free to focus on nature. This time became a source of metaphorical and poetic insight into life. The plants and animals were part of a natural balance, personal declaration of independence, and self-reliance that connects him with the universe.

He said of this experience: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

It was his friend Emerson that owned the land and even told him when it was time to come back. The cabin was built within sight if a road. His was indeed a Spartan-like approach, but it seems likely that the "meanness of life", he said he wanted to feel, may not have been as deep as he assumed.

Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”

 “Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” 

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”

 “Things do not change; we change.”

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live"

Walden

By Henry David Thoreau

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Hamlet, by William Shakespeare →

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This post has been moved forward, from May 5th, where it originally was reviewed. See the review of  "Shakespeare The Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom" which is yesterdays post. Also she the "Literary Favorites" Tab for the current post on Shakespeare, or the Past Reviews for other reviews.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, usually just referred to as Hamlet takes place in Denmark. Claudius has murdered his brother, the King, and married his widow to take over the Kingdom. The Ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to Hamlet and the play focuses on Prince Hamlet’s revenge.

Hamlet is one of if not the most performed plays of Shakespeare and is his longest play. William Shakespeare is considered the master of the human condition. That must mean all that a life encounters but here one of those conditions is death.

In Hamlet Act 3 the conditions of prayer, repentance, and perhaps murder is considered. Claudius wants to kill the King, who is watching a play, and so he waits for a chance to do so. After the play Claudius goes to do his deed and overhears him praying. He hesitates and waits. He fears that being killed in the act of prayer, may be like confession to God, would enable the person to go directly to heaven. Claudius leaves and Hamlet finishes his prayer and says these words:

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Is it just that prayer is often insincere? Is it that insincerity is judged by a God as He hears the words, or is it that the person knows as he prays that he doesn't mean it? He knows he didn't put much thought into?

What about words with thoughts? What does that really mean? How does that work? Is it enough, to have deep thoughts before speaking, to make what you say sincere? Does it take a lot of thought or is a certain amount of time required?

Maybe the human condition, as far as getting your words "up" and heard, is just one of intent? Are prayers offered to get gain and forgiveness, or to express sorrow or is it none of these?

These questions bring substance to the expression: "words fly up". Shakespeare seems to know that praying is something that needs some pondering

Quotes by William Shakespeare

There is nothing good or bad, only thinking makes it so.- Hamlet

Hell is empty and the devils are here.- William Shakespeare

Though this be madness yet their is method in it.- William Shakespeare

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare

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Shakespeare The Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom

See Harold Bloom's recommended list of books.

Harold Bloom is a well-known American literary critic, and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University.   He has written over 40 books and often it is his opinions that  are most interesting and overshadow the book itself. It is clear, from all that he has written, that Shakespeare has a special almost scared place in his own literary hierarchy.

Bloom in the book gives analysis and overview of each of Shakespeare's 38 plays. Shakespeare’s characters in these plays reveal what it is to be human, because you see how life affects them. You see their growth and change with events.  “Shakespeare’s eminence was in a diversity of persons he presented. No one, before or since has had so many separate selves.”  Both Bloom and Shakespeare see literature as just an imitation of human character.

Bloom often says in his writings, that Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare, but what he means is that the plays were written by the “social, political, and economic energies of his age”.  An interesting way to say listen to your characters and they will tell you what to write. This isn’t complicated. The same could be said about everything else. Bloom said in this book that “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” could just as soon be called “The Book of Reality”.

Bloom is the personification of the idea that in life our friends are the authors and characters we read about. In his own words he admits this saying; “I am naïve enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people, profoundly enough”.

Of all the plays presented, Sir John Falstaff of Henry IV, parts of V, and Hamlet, are the two favorites of Bloom. The key characters in each are ones Bloom knows well and even imagines them interacting with each other because of their very different natures. In a book about Falstaff, Bloom has Falstaff, Hamlet and Socrates sitting at a pub, having an intense discussion, so this seems to be a special way he has of his own to show the true nature of the characters. 

Falstaff is a character representing self-satisfaction, a happy guy.  He mocks faith, can be lewd, funny and reckless. 

Hamlet is self-loathing, and not a happy guy. Nietzsche said of Hamlet that he is “not a man who thinks too much, but rather a man who thinks too well”. Bloom says of Hamlet that he is an experimental thinker. 

See Review of "Falstaff Give Me My Life, by Harold Bloom" Click here to link

The claim by some scholars that Shakespeare didn’t write Hamlet is dissected and Bloom clearly shows why the final Hamlet had to be Shakespeare’s.

This is a big book that covers a lot, but Blooms thoughts are what make it so interesting

Quotes by Shakespeare and Harold Bloom

I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people, profoundly enough” - Harold Bloom

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.                             -William Shakespeare  

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.- William Shakespeare

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.-William Shakespeare
 

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Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

By Harold Bloom

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Genius of Place the Life of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin

Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin

Justin Martin said, “Frederick Law Olmsted is arguably the most important historical figure that the average American knows the least about. Best remembered for his landscape architecture, from New York's Central Park to Boston's Emerald Necklace to Stanford University's campus”

He was born in 1822, and his 81-year life had more than a normal share of personal challenges and tragedy. A strained marriage, untimely deaths of children, close relations and close friends.  He suffered psychological torment, physical ailments and depression.

During the civil war he was put in charge of the United States Sanitary Commission which was created by federal legislation in 1861 to help support sick and wounded soldiers of the United States Army. The commission was the forerunner of the American Red Cross. What seems remarkable with his diverse interests and background is that he would finish his career considered the father of American landscape architecture.

He was asked by the New York Daily Times to go to the American South and Texas and research the land and the issue of slavery from 1852 to 1857 before the civil war broke out. He submitted the conclusions of his work in three volumes in which he presented his thoughts his on the effect of slavery on the economy and social conditions of the southern states.

He said that slavery had made the slave states inefficient and said it took 4 times s long to do the same work as was done in the North without slaves. He said that the economic benefits were not true. He claimed that the natural resources of the land were not maximized and were somewhat wasted and that the culture of slavery was not efficient. 

When the competition was announced to present a plan for the design of Central Park in New York, Olmsted worked with Calvert Vaux, an English born architect on the contest. They won the competition and then later went on to design and build the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

The author didn’t just focus on Olmsted’s projects, but has let us see who he was and what motivated him as a man. You can’t help but see the genius of this man and his insight. He was an early conservationist and environmentalist with a different philosophy about how the land and people should mix.  

Olmsted is presented as a social reformer whose passion for work found its most complete expression in the creation of public spaces intended for the enjoyment of all. Martin’s goal was to “restore Olmsted to his rightful pace on the pantheon of great Americans.”

Quotes by Frederick Law Olmsted

"The possession of arbitrary power has always, the world over, tended irresistibly to destroy humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth." 

"The design should take advantage of unique characteristics of the site, even its disadvantages. The design should be developed and refined with intimate knowledge of the site." 

"Olmsted believed the goal wasn’t to make viewers see his work. It was to make them unaware of it. To him, the art was to conceal art. And the way to do this was to remove distractions and demands on the conscious mind. Viewers weren’t supposed to examine or analyze parts of the scene. They were supposed to be unaware of everything that was working."

Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)

By Justin Martin

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Camino Island, by John Grishman

A small gang of thieves hatch a plan to steal five priceless manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s from the Princeton University library. Of course, they are insured but the insurance company brings the FBI’s Rare Asset Recovery Unit in to the crime. The insurance is just a starting point of 25 million, since the manuscripts are priceless. The theft part of the story itself is everything you would expect from Grisham, but it is what happens after the theft that becomes the core of this novel. 

The gang is really made up of 5 small time amateurs who scatter after the robbery. By the time the FBI has captured some of them, the manuscripts have been sold for a fraction of their worth.  The FBI knows that it will take a sophisticated book dealer to know the worth, to have an interest, and to have the needed connections, so they narrow those who could be that person, to a few individuals.

Bruce Cable is the sophisticated, handsome owner of a bookstore that specializes in rare books which is located on Camino Island.  Mercer Mann is a young university instructor and aspiring novelist whose teaching contract has run out, and who has a mountain of student debt of her own. Elaine Shelby who is working with the insurance company and the FBI meets with Mann and offers to clear her student loan and give her a substantial amount of cash to help.  Mann is young and pretty, a literature teacher, and she spent lots of time on Camino Island when she was growing up. She agrees to the plan to find out if Cable has the stolen manuscripts and she understands that it likely will involve getting intimately close to Cable. He is a smooth experienced operator not just in books but with young pretty women and their time together is a big part of this book.

This is Grisham’s 30th novel and is a departure from the legal script we usually encounter with him.

This was reviewed last September by myself at another site. I wanted to have it included here. Grishman's non legal scripts are rare. His books are always relaxing and for me a break from the normal. 

A thought and question about Amazon for you. I hope you will read and consider. Is having a Amazon link of value to the reader? If a book occurs to you all you have to do is click on the link. When you do you are then working one on one with Amazon. The site gets a small credit. It doesn't cost you anything and Amazon's prices are very competitive.  If you have a book here or anything you thinking of buying from Amazon the "come on" click the link and order.

Camino Island: A Novel

By John Grisham

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The Great Stone Face, by Nathanial Hawthorne

As a boy, Ernest had wondered about the Stone Face that was formed by the rocks far up on the side of the mountain near his home. He often sat with his mother talking about the face. Once he asked if she thought they would ever see such a man with such a face and she shared what her mother had told her. Some day it was destined that a great one, who was noble and kind, would come and he would have that face. 

Ernest spent years studying the face each day looking up. He saw deep love in the face and he learned to recognize that in others. Ernest hoped to see the man who would come and he waited for him throughout his life. As he grew older many came and many brought some nobility even being felt by the people to be the one at first but never was the right one found. 

Often the people would shout saying, at last he has come, and what Ernest never understood is how they were so deceived. Eventually the people would come to know they had been wrong. 

Near the end of Ernest's years a poet came and spoke to the people. Ernest stood and added his own thoughts to the poets strong words. He spoke from his heart and mind and his words had power and depth, because they harmonized with the life he had always lived. The poet, seeing Ernest's face as he spoke, saw the grandeur it had assumed and shouted, "Behold!" Ernest is the likeness of the Great Stone Face."

The people saw it was true and they all felt  that the prophecy was fulfilled. When Ernest was finished he took the poet's arm and walked home, still hoping himself that some wiser and better man than himself would come eventually, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE.

Thomas Monson, the last President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was a lover of literature. He said of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic account,"The Great Stone Face, we adopt the mannerisms, the attitudes, even the conduct of those whom we admire — and they are usually our friends."

Some more thoughts on "Who do we Admire" and "The Great Stone Face" in the Daily Comment section in this blog.

The Great Stone Face

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute

Jean Paget is a young woman living in England after WWII who is left a great deal of money by a distant relative. She wants to use the money to build a well in a village in Malaysia that was so important to her during the war. She tells her solicitor, who is the trustee, why she wants to do this, and this forms the first part of the book as her life as a prisoner of war. 

She was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese invaded and was taken prisoner together with a group of women and children. The Japanese marched them from one village to another rather than take responsibility for them. None of the villages would take them. During this time Jean met an Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner.

Harman steals five chickens from the local Japanese commander to help the women. The thefts are investigated and he takes the blame full blame to save Jean and the rest of the group. He is beaten, crucified, and left to die by the Japanese soldiers. The women are marched away, believing that he is dead. This happened in the very village where Jean, after the war, wanted to go back to to give them a well. 

After her return to the Malaysian village she discovers that Harman had survived his ordeal and returned to Australia. Her trip to Australia takes her to a town she knew Joe had lived before the war called Alice Springs. They eventually find each other and the book ends with their effort to build a special town and place to live.

This book was first reviewed in 2009 by this reviewer. It was first read in 2005. It is a short book and easy to reread and gives a little different message each time. issue of racism. The books characters are English, Australian, Malaysian, Japanese, and Aboriginal. Racism is clearly an issue but not the books message. 

Nevil Shute upper left.  Jean searched for  Harmon when she went to Australia and went to the town of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She was impressed with the town. Picture shows the town and the spring it was named for.  

Quotes by Nevil Shute

“People who spent the war in prison camps have written a lot of books about what a bad time they had, she said quietly, staring into the embers. they don't know what it was like, not being in a camp.” 

“Men' s souls are naturally inclined to covetousness; but if ye be kind towards women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do.” 

A Town Like Alice

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Falling Leaves, The Memoir of a Unwanted Chinese Daughter, by Adeline Yen Mah

1st Reviewed in 2009

This book is a look at a culture, a country, a family and relationships that just didn't work for any of the children, especially for one young girl, Adeline Yen Mah. She was born in 1937 and grew up in a wealthy Chinese family. Her mother died when she was born and her new mother was Eurasian, with her own children.

Her respect for and commitment and effort to be part of a family, presents an insight into the culture. Her relationships with her siblings as a young girl, and later as a successful women, added a dimension to the cruelty she suffered from both of her parents. 

This Chinese proverb described her life. "When leaves fall down they return to their roots". It was hard to understand why she would have even wanted to return to her roots. It seemed that the real roots in this family was her strength. 

The time setting was in 1949 during the revolution in China. The impact of Mao on society was insightful and interesting. Her father's success under both the old and a new government in Hong Kong suggested that times might get better for the family but it didn't get better for Adeline. She did not find love with either her dad or her stepmother or really with any of her 6 brothers and sisters. An aunt offered her love and encouragement to leave and she did and came to the United States where she was able to have a happy marriage of her own. It was her insights and her successes, seemingly against all odds, that was fascinating. 

A well told story about a young girl and a successful woman who, after it all was completed, the only strength found was in her. 

This book is one that I didn't want to put down. It left me anxious to find out what was coming

Quotes  by Adeline Yen  Mah

“Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities"

“I read because I have to. It drives everything else from my mind. It lets me escape to find other world."

“But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.” 
 

Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter

By Adeline Yen Mah

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Einstein, His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson

Some reviewers suggest that Isaacson was pushing the virtues of the founding fathers in this book, since his prior book, about Benjamin Franklin, and all that he had written about those great men were likely on his mind.

Well good news, with America's influence, he did become a supporter of much of what is great in America.

He first visited the United States in 1933. He was Jewish, and Adolf Hitler was coming to power. He could see the problem coming and decided to settle in the United States, where he became a citizen in 1940. He warned in a letter to President Roosevelt about the dangers of the new type of bombs that Germany was experimenting with. 

A review in "The Guardian" quoted Isaacson suggesting, "we should regard Einstein not as an august scientific priest, but 'as a rebel with reverence for the harmony of nature', a scientist who rated imagination far higher than knowledge and an individual whose motto, at least in his early years, was 'Long live impudence! It is my guardian angel." Sounds like an American to me.

Isaacson said of Einstein that we are still living in a universe largely defined by him,“one defined on the macro scale by his theory of relativity and on the micro by a quantum mechanics that has proven durable even as it remains disconcerting to some.”

"Life is like a bicycle, to keep your balance your must keep on moving". This is the caption under a picture of Einstein on a bicycle near the front of the book. The book shows clearly a life that indeed just kept on moving.

America should embrace and claim citizen Einstein as one who has taken American Ideals and influenced the world. 

A Few of Einstein Quotes

• "Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas."

• "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot."

• "Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that can be counted, counts."

• "Any fool can know. The point is to understand."

• "A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be."

• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

• "So far as the theories of mathematics are about reality, they are not certain; so far as they are certain, they are not about reality."

• "The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas."

• "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."

• When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge

• "Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself any more."

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• "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

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• "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Einstein: His Life and Universe

By Walter Isaacson

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Obsessive Genius, the Inner world of Marie Curie, by Barbara Goldsmith

The title "Obsessive Genius" refers to many different sides of Marie Curie's life. Some may have considered her story to be somewhat of a feminist message but the title describes the "person", not just the woman behind the research and the life that went with it. 

Marva Salomee Sklodowska, Marie Curie, was born in Poland and a naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity.  She went to Paris and got her degrees at the Sorbonne and then spent most of her life in France. Her singular passion was for her work but that changed when she met Pierre Curie. Her obsessive passion for work, studies, research, and her husband, were complex and present a very interesting woman. Their first Nobel Prize in 1903 was a mutual effort but her second came later in her life and was clearly something that she could not be denied. She was denied the opportunity to co-accept the first award and sit in the audience. She had done much if not most of the work.

Like the book Einstein, by Walter Isaacson, this book lets you see a life through the lens of a particular science. In both cases you learn about both the person and the science. This type of biography lets you see the historical events you thought you knew all about very differently through the lens of a particular person and the science that fills their life. The book is well done and well worth reading.

Quotes By The Author & Marie Curie

"The rare female scientist was depicted as masculine, coarse, ugly, careworn and industrious but making no significant contribution.- Barbara Goldsmith

 

 

”Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas"-Marie Curie 

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less" - Marie Curie  

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained." - Marie Curie

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (Great Discoveries)

By Barbara Goldsmith

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Lincoln's Greatest Speech, The Second Inaugural, by Ronald C. White Jr.

Lincoln Second Inaugural Address is a stunning example of leadership, and it is indeed an important part of what has made America such an influence for good over so many years. It is obvious that, at any point in time, things are not all in perfect balance in America, and things take time to work through, even the parts of the whole. Lincoln, like today, had two sides both claiming the moral high ground.  He wondered what God's will might have been in allowing the war to come, and why it had assumed the terrible dimensions it had taken. 

He clearly stated that the cause of the war was slavery, and said it constituted a peculiar and powerful interest, yet he did not proclaim that he had God on his side.  Rather than review the book I have just included he short speech, a masterpiece in influence. See the full speech below

Fellow-Countrymen:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.