Napoleon by Felix Markham

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There is a great deal the can be found about the life of Napoleon and the complexity of all that he accomplished. The book, Napoleon by Felix Markham, is a short, easy to read, biography about Napoleon Bonaparte, the French leader who pronounced himself emperor and conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century.

Napoleon was born in 1769 and in 1785 he joined the French Army. In 1793 he went to the war in Tulon where he assumed the place of a wounded commander and with victory became a brigadier general at the age of 24.

The British were aligned with Turkey and then with Russia and they declared war on France. In 1799 Napoleon learned that a Turkish Army was planning to invade Egypt, so he attacked and defeated the Turks. When he returned to France he took complete control of the French government. With many years of revolution, the French people wanted one strong leader, so Napoleon ruled France as a dictator. In June 1800, Napoleon led the French to defeat the Austrians and then they signed a Treaty with them.

In 1802 the French people made Napoleon first consul for life. He believed that Brittan and France would eventually be at war, so he sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States to get money needed.

Napoleon crowed himself emperor in 1804 with his Senate’s approval, and he dominated Europe.   In 1805 Austria, Russia, and Sweden formed an alliance against France, but later that year Napoleon defeated the Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz in Austria. In 1806, Prussia joined Russia in a new coalition, but they were crushed as Napoleon overwhelmed Russian armies at Friedland and then again in 1809 at Wagram. He eventually added Holland and Northern Germany and seemed unstoppable.

Napoleon felt France was threatened by actions of Russia and in 1812 he sent 600,000 men into Russia, but the Russians only retreated.  Napoleon pushed on to Moscow only to find the city nearly empty. Much of the city had been destroyed by fires, set by retreating Russians. Napoleon waited with bitter cold coming expecting Alexander to return, but he never did. The winter brought starvation and exposure causing 500,000 of Napoleon’s men to perish. He returned to France and surprisingly the people still supported him, but his enemies had been encouraged.

After his return in 1809 he married Josephine de Beauharnais who was 46 years old. He felt his biggest problem was not having an heir so in April of 1810 he divorced Josephine and married Marie Louise who was 18 years old. In 1811 they had a son and named him Napoleon.

Napoleon took his armies to Germany to fight the alliance again, but this time his troops were outnumbered and defeated. This loss was the cause of eventual collapse of the Napoleonic Empire. The enemy alliance pursued him and in March 1814, they captured Paris and Napoleon was exiled from France.

One more time Napoleon gathered some troops marched into Belgium where he hoped to defeat Britain’s separate armies of the Duke of Wellington and Blucher of Prussia. Napoleon defeated Blucher and attacked Wellington at Waterloo, but he was beaten, and Napoleon fled to Paris but he was captured and sent to the barren British island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic where he died on May 5th 1821.

If Napoleon is a historical figure you may have wanted to learn more about you will find Felix Markham has brought his life and the many events that he touched into focus.  It was really surprising to see the full scope of his ambition.

Quotes

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."  

"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent." 

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."

 

Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

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Anne Frank wanted to become a writer or a journalist. Her diary has been published in over 70 languages and has had over 30 million copies published. Anne was born June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany.

With the Antisemitism that Hitler’s rise to power brought, she fled, with her father, mother and sister to Amsterdam. 

The family tries to emigrate to England or the United States but are not successful. On September 1939 Germany invades Poland and World War ll begins. By May the following year Germany has occupied the Netherlands and regulations force Anne and her sister to attend a Jewish only school and their father Otto loses his business.

Anne’s sister is given notice to report to a work camp and the family goes into hiding in a secret entrance to Otto’s old business where they stay for 2 years. They receive some help for the office workers of Otto’s old company.

Just before they went into hiding (Picture of Hiding Place) Anne had a birthday and she received a diary. She begins immediately to write about their life and is encouraged to write more, with the broadcast she hears on a British radio station that encourages people to keep war diaries. 
In August 1944 the family, and some who helped, are arrested and sent to Auschwitz.  Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl discover in the hiding place Anne’s diary and papers and take them for safe keeping. 

Of the total of 8 people who were in hiding with the Frank family, Otto Frank is the only one that survives the war. After the war he goes back to Amsterdam hoping to learn if his daughters are alive and learns that both died of disease in the concentration camp. Miep Gies and Otto meet, and he is given his Anne’s diary and also given a place to stay for the next seven years.  

The diary is a day to day account of Anne’s life and a search for identity. It is addressed with daily entries to “Dear Kitty” who seems to be an imaginary person Anne wants to confide in. In her writings she wonders about what type of person she is, and how she should feel about others who were suffering. She wonders why the Germans despise her for just being a Jew. 

The writings are what you might expect from a teenager. What stands out is how positive she is despite all that is happening.  At age 14 she made this entry: “Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.” 

Her father is very moved by what he reads in the diary. He feels he has found a part of Anne that he didn’t know. In looking to find an overall message and purpose for the diary this quote seems to sum up her message. “The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands”. This, and the victory of good over evil, is really the message of her life. 

Quotes

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

 “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” 

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” 

 “I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” 

“Because paper has more patience than people. ” 

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” 

Last diary entry, Aug 1 1944, Dear Kitty

"Little bundle of contradictions" That's how  I ended my last letter and that's how I'm going to begin this one. "A little bundle of contradictions" can you tell me exactly what it is? What does contradiction mean? Like so many words, it can mean two things, contradiction from without and from within."

The first is the ordinary "not giving in easily, always knowing best, getting in the last word," enfin, (in conclusion) all the unpleasant qualities for which I'm renowned. The second no one knows about about, that's my own secret."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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In The Book Thief, death is more than an event, it is a spirit that comes and takes the souls of those who have died and delivers them to their destiny. Death is an all knowing, all seeing spirit who has different feelings about each of his victims and says of them, “I’m am always finding humans at their best and at their worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both”

Death introduces himself directly to us at the beginning when he says “You will know me well enough and soon enough. I suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you and your soul will be in my arms”. One more important thing, Death is the narrator of this story.

Liese is turned over to foster care by her mother and then taken to her new home. On the way her younger brother dies and they stop to bury him. As she leaves the cemetery she finds a book laying on the ground called The Gravedigger’s Handbook. She can’t read but this becomes the first book she steals. She will eventually have 9 books of her own.

Hitler, the rise of the Nazi Party, the outbreak of World War ll, and the persecution of the Jews, are all part of the story, but it is still the story of Liese and her life that captures our interest.

She comes to appreciate her new parents, Hans and Rosa, and her father slowly teaches her to read.  A neighbor boy, Rudy, becomes a best friend and they have adventure after adventure with the neighborhood kids.

Her father had been in World War l and his life was saved by the father of a Jew named Max Vandenburg. Max finds Hans, and hides in his basement. Liesel’s relationships with Hans, and later in the book Max, are key portions of the plot.

The books Liese steals are ones that the Nazi party wants destroyed. Mein Kampf is the exception and it saves Han’s life, but then it is painted over inside by Max and he uses it to write a story inside it for Liese. The power of the written word is an important part of this story. 

The book is easy to read. It is a story that shows Germans of very different points of view during this important time in their history

Quotes 

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.”

 “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

 “It kills me sometimes, how people die.” 

 “Even death has a heart.” 

“He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world.

“A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”  (Death)

Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

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The review below was first posted in August of 2017 and rated #1 on the top ten for 2017 on this blog. (See Top Ten Tab).  I have moved it forward and added some notes here, because this book has had so many people come to this site to read the review, and some more thoughts seem of value. 

The book was released on June 28, 2016 and spent 49 weeks on USA TODAY’s list. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2016 and 2017.

Why? Why has there been soon much interest in this book, and why has it been so successful? Timing is everything. The assumption that the white working class are key to the election of Donald Trump likely brought many to this book. They may have expected to find an explanation of how Trump seemed like a solution.  What they found was a personal life story for the author J.D. Vance's time growing up in the Rust Belt. Vance's story shows that much of his success came from the sacrifices of his grandfather.

Some may feel they have found the answers in this book and others seem to be critical that Vance did not have much to say about how the government ought to interact with the poor. 

 

See Original Review Below

JD- as an adult, at about 10, and when he first joined the Marines, both pictures with his "Mamaw", and with his wife, Usha.

Review from August 2017

J.D. Vance grew up first in Jackson, a small town of about six thousand, in the heart of southeastern Kentucky’s coal country. He later moved to the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio. His neighbors, friends and family were what Americans call white trash, hillbillies, and rednecks.

His mother was an addict and provided him with a revolving door of father figures. His Scottish-Irish grandparents were new-middle class (still very much hillbillies) and taught him solid values. The language of his youth was colorful and harsh but it could also be considered down to earth and real.

“Mamaw”, his grandmother, once set her husband on fire when he came home drunk. His grandfather, “Papaw”, could be violent and once tossed a fully decorated Christmas tree out the back door. They both packed guns and swore up a storm and obviously had tempers. They were also anchors whose encouragement and love helped J.D. endure decades of challenges and heartbreak.

A sense of family comes through strong in this book. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and especially his grandparents were close to each other and to J.D.. Loyalty to the family was important.  If you had a large extended family growing up, this book may take you back.

J.D. said in the introduction that “he hasn’t done anything great in his life”. He said the coolest thing he has done was to graduate from Yale Law School, something that he, as a 13-year old, would have considered ludicrous."

In the Marines (he served in Iraq), at Ohio State, and then at Yale Law School, J.D. learned to make right choices. He tried to find answers for the problems of the community he grew up in. He studied sociology, psychology, community, culture, and faith, looking for answers. The solution, he believes, is not government action but in people asking themselves “what we can do to make things better?”

After Law School, he wrote about his findings for the National Review and for the New York Times. Declaring that he survived with the help of caring family and friends, he writes, “I am one lucky son of a bitch.”

He mentioned that many of his people couldn’t support Obama because they couldn’t connect. Obama was black but that wasn't enough. He was polished. His language, clothing and education communicated that he was different than they were.

Understanding how J.D. looked at his life and why he wanted to do what he did is well worth reading this book for. I like the book and would recommend it.

Quotes and Thoughts

“whenever people ask me what I’d most like to change about the white working class, I say, “The feeling that our choices don’t matter.” -J.D.Vance

“So, to Papaw and Mamaw, not all rich people were bad, but all bad people were rich.” -J.D. Vance

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"You will not read a more important book about America this year."--The Economist
"A riveting book."--The Wall Street Journal
"Essential reading."—David Brooks, New York Times

New York Times recommended as one of 6 books to help understand the Trump win. 

“We hillbillies need to wake the hell up.” 

 American Conservative columnist, wrote that “Hillbilly Elegy” “does for poor white people what Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book did for poor black people: give them voice and presence in the public square.” 

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

By J. D. Vance

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An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis

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A short answer to why read, according to C.S. Lewis, is that the process itself a hedonistic pleasure and that suggests that it is "good". "Good" for Lewis does not mean the subject matter is true or even logical but dependent on individual need and on approach. He suggests that we read differently when it is good, compared to when it is bad, at least as far as meeting the need for reading is concerned.

The book proposes that good reading compared to poor has to do with whether books are read in a literary or unliterary way.  He says like art, few receive it and many use it, and he adds that when it is only used, it facilitates, brightens, and relieves our needs but does not add to it. It also may just satisfy an interest or a pleasure.

Literary readers, in comparison, are seeking intellectual expansion and looking for something they don’t already know. They are challenged by what they read and added to. They see with others eyes but remain who they are.    

Lewis seems to look down on other critics when he says of them, that they are “forced to talk incessantly about books,” and that they “try to make books into the sort of things they can talk about?” Lewis says that this approach is one that just imposes an opinion on the reader. It is interesting that this same criticism may be a weakness in this book itself. Lewis demonstrates a vast knowledge of literature and likely this will seem, to some, as putting himself above it all.

The book covers Lewis’s thought on myth, fantasy, children’s books, realism, and poetry. It is well written and brings much of the literary world into focus

Quotes by C.S. Lewis

“But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.” 

“In order to pronounce a book bad it is not enough to discover that it elicits no good response from ourselves, for that might be our fault.”

“The best safeguard against bad literature is a full experience of good; just as a real and affectionate acquaintance with honest people gives a better protection against rogues than a habitual distrust of everyone.” 

The Pearl by John Steinbeck →

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John Steinbeck's story of dirt poor folks who find wealth and hope for a better life only to find nothing but problems presented in a setting helps make the overall point of the novel. The pearl symbolizes the destructive nature of materialism.

Kino is a poor Mexican-Indian pearl diver like his father and grandfather. Kino is married to Juana, and their baby, Coyotito, is bitten by a scorpion. Still, the doctor won’t help them because he doesn’t think they have any money and because of his prejudice against Kino’s race.

Kino goes to dive for oysters, hoping to get some money to help. He finds a giant oyster, and inside it is a pearl the size of a gull’s egg. Good fortune follows briefly when he returns to his wife because the baby’s swelling has gone down. Word spreads fast about the large pearl, and everyone thinks about its great wealth.

The doctor comes by referring to Coyotito, his patient, and then he secretly makes Coyotito sick so he can pretend to heal her. He demands payment, sees the pearl, and learns where it is kept. A Priest who would offer no blessing comes by to bless the baby.  Someone comes that night to steal the pearl, and both are hurt in a fight with Kino. Kuno decides to sell the pearl quickly, but the pearl buyers conspire with each other to claim the pearl is too big and offer very little.

Again, the next night, more intruders come to his home and beat him, looking for the pearl. Juana begs Kino to throw the pearl back into the ocean, but he refuses and wants to take it to the capital city to sell it. Juana takes the pearl to the beach to throw it back, but Kino follows and stops her. Kino is attacked and beaten again but he kills his attacker with his knife. They go to get their canoe to leave but find it smashed.

That night, Kino, Juana, and Coyotito leave, walking to the village of Loreto, careful not to leave tracks. Even with their precautions, they still are tracked, and they flee to the mountains and hide in a cave, but the trackers still find them.  Both trackers are killed in a fight that breaks out, but a bullet from one of their guns kills their daughter, Coyotito.

They go back to the town carrying the dead body of Coyotito and when they reach the city, Kino throws the pearl back into the sea. 

Quotes from The Pearl

"But the pearls were accidents, and the finding of one was luck, a little pat on the back by God or the gods both."

"Luck, you see, brings bitter friends.” 

"And the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared."

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck

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“It was Wang Lung’s marriage day. At first, opening his eyes in the blackness of the curtain around his bed, he could not think why the dawn seemed different from any other.” His future wife, O-Lan was twenty years old and had lived as a slave, since she was ten years old, with the family of wealthy landowners who lived in the House of Hwang, nearby.

His father advised him to not get a pretty bride and O-Lin was plain in appearance, quiet, obedient and seemed to know her duties. Wang’s fortunes changed with his marriage. His wife worked hard to keep the house, help and care for his old father, and still joined him in the fields each day. When their first child was born O-Lin delivered the baby herself and still went back to the fields to work. They slowly, through their hard work, earned enough money to be able to save some, and they bought some land from the Hwang family. Wang owned his own small farm and then he had a larger and better parcel to add. The Hwang family standing was declining, with excessive spending and the matron of he house’s expensive opium use.

O-Lan and Wang eventually had three sons and three daughters. After several good years a drought comes and with no food or backup they were near death. A hateful Uncle tries to get Wang to sell his land to some men he knows. It is O-Lan that helps Wang resolve to not sell the land, but instead their processions to get a little money to help them leave and go South to a large city. A train takes them 100 miles south, using the money they have, and they arrive in a large city. The family learns how to survive with the help of his wife O-Lan who had begged on the street as a child with her family in a similar city until they were forced to sell her as a slave when she was 10 years old.

Wang and the family begged for food and money and worked hard but ever being able to return to their land seemed like it would never happen. They considered selling their daughter to get money to go back and just to live. While struggling with that they delivered another child, a girl. O-Lin knew they would not make it with another mouth to feed and she kills the young baby girl at birth.

A mob comes to a rich man’s house near where Wang Lung’s family lives and he finds himself swept u into the mob who is looting a rich man's house. He confronts a man who, fearing for his life, gives him all his money and O-Lan finds jewels in a hiding place she discovers in the inside of the wall of the house.

They use the money to go home. They buy an Ox and seed and when they get home they buy the Hwang’s land. Over a few years they become rich and Wang has idle time. He has hired people to do the work. A woman in a tea house in town captures his lust and he buys her as a second wife. Living in the home of O-Lan is hard. The new wife talks Wang into buying a servant for her.

Eventually they rent the Hwang home and move in. O-Lan eventually dies but she was able to see her first son married first. Wang Lung had lost much of the lust he had for his second wife and with O-Lan dying he sees clearly what her real place in his life had been.

It seems clear that the only two things that distinguish Wang Lung’s life is his love of his land and the help and focus that O-Lin brought to his life. His first and second sons had been educated and had not done much manual work in their later youth. Wang’s love of the land faces a challenge at the end that will not be overcome. His sons are talking of selling the land when he is gone, and he tells them passionately not to do that. They tell him they will do as they ask, but smile knowingly at each other behind his back.

Quotes by Pearl S. Buck

"Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of heaven, unasked and unsought."

 “And roots, if they are to bear fruits, must be kept well in the soil of the land.”

“It is the end of a family — when they begin to sell their land. Out of the land we came and into we must go — and if you will hold your land you can live — no one can rob you of land

The Good Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

By Pearl S. Buck

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The Crucible: by Arthur Miller

See short article on "Why Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the stories section or click here. 

The Crucible: by Arthur Miller is a 1953 play where the Salem witch trials of 1692 are dramatized to be a metaphorical test to reveal inner character. The word crucible is a reference to a container that can resist heat and can serve as a test of strength for what is put in it.

The play was written by Miller, as an allegory for McCarthyism, at a time when people were being accused of being communists, much like the way some were accused of being a witch in Salem. The play focused on inconsistencies in a trial and dark agenda that had their own parallels to when, in 1956, Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities, and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

The play starts with the Reverend Parris’s daughter Betty, ill and unconscious.  Late the night before Parris had seen his niece Abigail, and Tituba, his black slave, dancing in the woods, causing Betty to swoon. The local physician is unable to determine the cause of Betty's illness and neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, report that their daughter Ruth is also ill. There is talk in the village of an unnatural cause.

The people in town hear of this and ask Reverend Hale, an expert in witchcraft, to come and determine if witchcraft is behind the children's illnesses. Hale learns that the girls were dancing in the woods and that Tituba can conjure spirits.

A young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch and self-righteous church leaders insist she be brought to trial. The actions of the prosecutors are mean spirited, and neighbors become anxious to testify against their neighbors.

The Puritans had based their newly established society upon religious intolerance. They worked hard, were honest, and followed their religion strictly.  Sexual desires were considered the devils work and it was the job of their ministers and the Bible to interpret the Lords will.

Even with McCarthyism long past, Miller's play shows a dark time in our history and how human hidden agendas work with intolerance. The play is an enduring masterpiece

The Crucible Arthur Miller Quotes

“I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” 

“It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves”

 “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”

 “Sex, sin, and the Devil were early linked.” 

The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts

By Arthur Miller

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Watching The Tree: Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Tradition and Spiritual Wisdom, by Adeline Yen Mah

Watching The Tree: Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Tradition, and Spiritual Wisdom, by Adeline Yen Mah, needs to be introduced as a follow up book by the author of Falling Leaves. The first book was about her life in a family where her mother had died, and her Chinese father married a Eurasian woman. She was the youngest of her father’s first family in a new family of 7 children and felt unloved.  Her struggles with fitting in and how she found strength in her roots as her life progressed added interest to the things we learned about her culture.

In “Watching The Tree” thirteen year old Adeline is concerned about having to leave school and go get a job in Hong Kong. She aks her grandfather, Ye Ye, who she is close to, for money to go back to school and go to Shanghai where she thought everything would be the same as she had left it a few years before.  He brings out the “I Ching” which are like scriptures and reminds her of a teaching that “the only thing that does not change is that everything changes”.

The goal that Adeline had for this book is to bring ideas that play a role in Chinese thinking, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism, to the reader. She quotes this thought, “every Chinese wears a Confucian thinking cap, a Taoist robe, and Buddhist sandals. She brings together the many influences on her life as a child of the East and as a student and adult in the West and explores the centuries-old Chinese traditions.

Zen, yin and yang, feng shui, and the issues of happiness, health, and spirituality are discussed to show the cultural divide between the East and West. The stories are interesting, but they lack the drama of her first book’s struggle with her own life. 

The book overall is interesting, but is a weaker follow up for the first book, and probably would be even less interesting if you had not read the first book.

FALLING LEAVES The True Story of a Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah can be reviewed by clicking here. 

Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Spiritual Beliefs and Universal Wisdom

By Adeline Yen Mah

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The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline, selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy

The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy. Her opening paragraph is a testimony to the value of poetry in our lives.

She said: “One of the greatest gifts my brother and I received from my mother was her love of literature and language. In this anthology I have tried to include poems that reflect things that were important to her-a spirit of adventure, the worlds of imagination and nature, and the strength of love and family. There are poems to read with children, poems for readers just starting out on their own, and poems for those who have never thought poetry was for them.”

She said of her mother, “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis loved literature, especially poetry and said, “Once you can express yourself you can tell the world what you want from it” She also said her mother was a true romantic and responded to the poetry of love.

Caroline’s choice of what poems to begin the book, listed below, when read together tell you much about both her mother and her.

America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates

John F. Kennedy His Inauguration by Robert Frost

The Gift Outright by Robert Frost

Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I hear America Singing by Walt Whitman

Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Brown River, Smile, by Jean Toomer

She writes of poems that she had been taught to recite when she was about 3 years old. In a section titled Adventure poems of the love of heroic adventure are included. Sections titled Escape and Reflection bring thoughts that show “A Poem comes to us almost like a message in a bottle ….and can carry thoughts from other times or places.

The last section is her mother “In Her Own Words”. She said English teachers changed her life and that she also said, “read for escape, read for adventure, read for romance, but read the great writers”.

A great book.

The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

By Caroline Kennedy

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The Unknown Masterpiece by Honore De Balzac

The Unknown Masterpiece by Honore De Balzac is the story of a 17th-century painter, Frenhofer, who is considered an old master and has spent 10 years on the portrait of a woman. His painting style, and use of line and color, is very different from the standards of the day.

Young Nicolas Poussin who aspires to be a great painter goes to visit Porbus, a local artist, in his workshop and he takes the old master with him to help him understand the painting. Frenhofer comments on the painting Porbus has just finished saying it seems unfinished.

With permission he adds some slight touches of paint and transforms the painting and it comes to life before their eyes.  Frenhofer then talks about his own painting that he has worked on for 10 years and says he has not been able to find just the right model for the painting.  

Poussin is grateful for the help and offers his own lover, Gillette, as a model. Frenhofer accepts and is inspired to finish his project quickly. Poussin and Porbus then come to admire the painting, but all they can see is part of a foot that has been lost in a swirl of colors.

Poussin describes what he sees as nothing, but confused masses of color contained by a multitude of strange lines, forming a high wall of paint out of which emerges a delightful foot.

Their disappointment drives Frenhofer to madness and he sets fire to his studio and dies amid his whole production.

Some feel that this novella predicted the evolution of modern art.  Frenhofer claimed that there are no outlines in nature and seems to be anticipating the Impressionists by 30 years. Others suggest that that Frenhofer was just caught up in a mad obsession.

Richard Howard translated this book. He was born in Cleveland in 1929 and is the author of fourteen volumes of poetry and has published more than one hundred fifty translations from the French, including works by Gide, Stendhal, de Beauvoir, Baudelaire, and de Gaulle. Howard received a National Book Award for his translation of Fleurs du mal and a Pulitzer Prize for Untitled Subjects, a collection of poetry.

The French novelist Honore de Balzac was the greatest novelist by well-known literary pundits in the 1960's simply because he produced so many good novels in his lifetime. 

Quotes from "The Unknown Masterpiece"

“You have wavered uncertainly between two systems, between drawing and coloring, between the painstaking phlegm, the stiff precision, of the old German masters, and the dazzling ardor, the happy fertility, of the Italian painters.”

 “However," he continued, "this canvas is preferable to the paintings of that varlet Rubens, with his mountains of Flemish flesh sprinkled with vermilion, his waves of red hair and his medley of colors"

 “But, after all, too much knowledge, like ignorance, brings you to a negation.” 

The Unknown Masterpiece (New York Review Books Classics)

By Honoré de Balzac

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Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

See Daily Comments, click her to link. Thoughts on Flatland, Einstein, EMC2 and more. A book way ahead of it's time.

The story of “Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions”, was first published 100 years ago and is considered by some as “mathematical fiction”. 

The author presents us first with a 2-dimensional world made up of regular Polygons which have at least three straight sides and angles but can have five or more. This world exists as if it were a flat piece of paper with lines and shapes on it. The residents of this world are like the lines on the flat paper. Shape determines rank and if deformities in shape are found it can be a criminal issue.

This society has very strict standards and if a deviation in shape are beyond the established standard then the solution is euthanasia of the shape. If it isn’t beyond the standard, but is still a deviation, then the shape may be allowed to grow and develop to see if it can be cured. If it can’t then the shape will be “painlessly and mercifully consumed”.  A shape that is off-standard, but leaning in a different direction than where the more fatal standard exists, will be assigned to live their lives as civil servants or in lower level jobs.  Class structure is very rigid.

The “Square” shape is a favored member of a special group of professionals and gentlemen in this two-dimensional world.  The books narrator’s name is A-Square’s and he comes from this group.

Men are polygons with various numbers of sides, but women are simple line-segments. Women are required to make a noise if they move so they will not bump into the shapes. Classes are distinguished by the "Art of Hearing", the "Art of Feeling", and the "Art of Sight Recognition" or even just the sound of one’s voice.

The first seven chapters of the book considers existing in a two-dimensional universe, but then A- Square dreams about a visit to a one-dimensional world called “Lineland”. The inhabitants of this world can’t see A-Square as anything but a group of points on a line and they themselves exist only as just points.

After this dream A-Square is visited by a three-dimensional sphere named “A-Sphere” who has come from a 3-dimensional world. A-Sphere appears to A-Square but he still only looks like a circle to him. A- Sphere levitates both of them, up and down, and shows him what 3 dimensions look like. The two of them discuss the possible existence of a fourth, fifth and sixth dimension.

A-Square returns to his dimension, anxious to tell other about the other dimensions, but makes no progress in convincing the others of what might be possible, and he winds up in prison for what he is saying.  Seven years after being imprisoned, A-Square writes out the book Flatland for a future generation so that they can see beyond their two-dimensional existence.

“Attend to your Configuration.” 
― Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift Editions)

By Edwin A. Abbott

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Beowulf (Old English Literature) →

See Literary Favorites Section and see information on C.S. Lewis.  Fantasy and Science Fiction writers like Lewis must have drawn influence from Epic Poems like Beowulf

This Epic Poem and parable, from the eighth century, is delivered by a Christian poet and intended for a Christian audience. It offers some symbolic inferences to a God concerned about suffering, and a son sent, with a miraculous birth, to help. The story begins with reference to this son.

“Hear! We know of the bygone glory of the Danish kings, and the heroic exploits of the princes. Scyld Scefing’s life began as he just appeared floating, as a baby, in from the sea. He grew into a king and in the face of hostile armies, that were used to bring nations into subjection and strike terror in the hearts of their leaders, he fought and prevailed.” 

When he dies he is returned to the sea, by being placed in a boat, with many of his processions and weapons. The poet is saying “That’s life. Out of nowhere, and into nowhere. Better make it count.”

“Scefing had a son who also had a son, Hrothgar, who is the current King of these Geats in Southern Sweden. They have spent 12 years being terrorized by Grendel, who often comes at night, carrying off Hrothgar’s warriors and devouring them. 

Beowulf a powerful Scandinavian warrior has heard of the threat and he goes to help Hrothgar and his people. He meets with Hrothgar in the Great Hall of Heorot. The King is skeptical and leaves, but later Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights the monster and rips his arm off and nails it over the door to the hall. He then fights Grendel’s mother, who is a water monster. Grendel has crawled into her cave and pond to die and Beowulf kills the mother with his sword. 

Beowulf goes home to Geatland and eventually becomes king of the Geats. After 50 years as King, Beowulf has to fights a dragon and kills him but he is wounded and dies. His body is cremated, as and he is remembered as a hero. More about this book at web site.

A Higher Loyalty / Truth, Lies, and Leadership, by James Comey

See DAILY COMMENTS for thoughts about why this political book was reviewed. Click Here

"A Higher Loyalty, by James Comey", has three important questions listed on the inside front flap of the cover. What is ethical leadership? How do you do what is right instead of what is expedient? How do you maintain loyalty to the values of the institutions you have sworn to protect, the values you have dedicated your entire life to upholding, even if that loyalty comes at your own expense?

The answer to these questions are what this book is about. Of all the many books that have come out this year that take positions on the political climate this one stands unique. Say what you want about James Comey’s motives, and everyone seems to do just that, he can’t win and has found himself, with this book, on truly unusual ground, where all sides can find reasons for concern. That hard place is the real power of this book. 

The book is very well written, easy to read, and his life story could have been a very good book even if he had he never mentioned Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. His story is a testimony to a person who sincerely cares about the three questions raised on the inside cover. 

It would be easy to drift off into comments about the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. The strengths and weaknesses, manifested in the stories Comey presents are clearly invitations to jump into partisanship ranting, even or maybe especially, in a review. 

Comey seems to have measured everything in his career against a template of right and wrong, as he understood how is existed, at the time.  Some reviewers have used this to be critical of his motive. Political books are hard to review because, for many people, the answer is one they are seeking only to prove rather than find. It is assumed that good and evil has picked sides. It is easy to say, and especially sad that many feel a greater good is worth sacrificing a less important good for, because after all the other side is pure evil and for them it isn’t really good and evil it is taking sides.

Comey’s book is what happens when that normal approach of using a political vantage point is ignored and someone dares to state that good and evil exists on all sides. Sorting out good from evil requires a higher standard, which of course the book, "A Higher Loyalty" does.  

His Author’s Note, at the very beginning of the book, starts out saying. “WHO AM I TO TELL others what ethical leadership is? Anyone claiming to write a book about ethical leadership can come across as presumptuous, even sanctimonious.”

James Comey’s book presented us with good answers to his three questions and his choices show us that evil is no respecter of political parties. Thank You James Comey. Thank you for showing us real leadership and consistent respect for values. Thank you for this very special book. 

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership

By James Comey

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From Time To Time, The Sequel to Time and Again, by Jack Finney

Jack Finney’s book, Time and Again, is one that Stephen King wrote about in the afterword section of his great book 11/22/63. He said that he had inspiration from Jake Finney, who he says was one of America’s great fantasists and storytellers. He said of “Time and Again”, that in his humble opinion it was THE greatest time travel story. This book, “From Time To Time”, is the sequel. It helps a lot to have read the first book and even so this one is not as good.

Simon Morley while involved in secret government time-travel project, transported himself back to the New York City of 1882. The first book ends when Simon marries Julia and decides to stay in the 19th century. 

The sequel starts with Simon curious as to what is going on in the late 20th century and his returning to find out. This time he uses a bench by the Brooklyn Bridge to go back. He takes gold coins planning to change them to dollars. He is found shortly after returning by Ruben Prien, who worked on the old project and still believes that the present can be changed if someone can go back and change the past.

Rubin has a plan that he wants Si to attempt. He believes that World War 1 can be prevented, and that the world would then become “the best and happiest time the human race ever knew.” Si agrees to try, and then goes to 1912 to find a man referred to as Z who was sent, by both Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, to go to England with messages that will prevent war. 

Si's spends time spent looking for Z in dance halls and vaudeville shows seems like it will never end , and it seems at times to distract from the plot. Si met a young lady on his first day back, they go to dinner and then see a show. She just keeps showing up in his search. He refers to her as the Jotta Girl because the popular dance of the day has the word Jotta in it. He doesn’t realize that Rubin didn’t trust him so he sent this young lady, who had also worked on the time project, back to shadow him. 

Si finally learns more about Z from someone he finally meets at one of the shows, but it seems to late. He decides to try one more time and goes to where the Titanic is being built, hoping to delay it or to find a way to save the ship from sinking, so that the messages being carried can get through.

When he boards the ship and finds the Jotta Girl, he knows who she is, and that she was asked to follow him again. They together attempt to change the past but it doesn't work. 

The Jotta Girl returns to the 20th century and Si to the 19th century to be with Julia and his family. 

See review of Time and Again click here or on book

See review of Stephen King's 11/22/63

Jack Finney wrote The Body Snatchers FYI

From Time to Time

By Jack Finney

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