Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke was a Bohemian-Austrian poet whose intense, mystical style dealt man’s existence and ways to deal with solitude and anxiety. He stressed that with "free will" the individual had to assume the responsibility for their own acts, even if they lacked a clear knowledge of what was right and wrong.  

Franz Xaver Kappus was 19-year-old in the Austrian army when he started corresponding with Rilke, who in return, over the next 6 years, sent him 10 letters. The two never met, but Kappus sought out advice on the poems he had written and in his interest in a literary career.

Author and critic Stephen Mitchell’s in 1989 translated some of Rilke’s selected works and said that “Rilke is unquestionably the most significant and compelling poet of the romantic transformation of spiritual quest that the twentieth century has known.”

Rilke’s letters offer some real insight into creative thinking and writing as well as a surprising level of cordiality. He said: "There is nothing less apt to touch a work of art than critical words: all we end up with there is more or less felicitous misunderstandings.” He added that "Nobody can advise you and help you. There is only one way. Go into yourself.  Examine the reason that bids you to write . . . ask yourself in your night's quietest hour: must I write? Read the lines as if they were unknown to you, and you will feel in your inmost self how very much they are yours."

The letters also offer thoughts on just living with phrases like these: "To love is also good, for love is hard. Love between one person and another: that is perhaps the hardest thing it is laid on us to do, the utmost, the ultimate trial and test, the work for which all other work is just preparation."

The book “Letters to a Young Poet” is the collection of letters that Kappus compiled and published in 1929—three years after Rilke's death from leukemia. It offers a different way to look at poetry and writing and some philosophy on life.

Quotes

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” 

 “Let everything happen to you                                                                    Beauty and terror                                                                                                Just keep going
No feeling is final” 

 “To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” 

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.”

 “For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so,
because it serenely disdains to destroy us. Every angel is terrible"

How We Think by John Dewey

John Dewey was born in 1859 and died in 1952 and was one of the founders of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism. He wrote the book, “How We Think”, that concludes that we can be taught to think well, but not the process. He tells us that thinking is automatic, like breathing and our heartbeats.

Dewey tells us that our knowledge is what we are aware of, and that how we consider those things are beliefs. He tells us that beliefs have consequences, and that knowledge is relative to its interaction with the world.

He says that, “Genuine freedom is intellectual; it rests in the trained power of thought, in the ability to turn things over and to look at matters deliberately”. Thinking is more important than what is being thought about. “If a man’s actions are not guided by thoughtful conclusions, then they are guided by inconsiderate impulse.”

He tells us that thinking is the act of believing and offers an example: “I think that it is going to rain tomorrow’ is equivalent to saying, ‘I believe that it is going to rain tomorrow”.

Dewey tells us that the thinking process begins with a dilemma that suggests alternatives, indicating that thinking is evoked by confusion. He adds that schools do not need to teach information but should encourage stimulus that challenges external reality. The goal is to create curious and questioning minds that see wonder in science and philosophy, rather than monotony and routine in school.

Thinking doesn’t just happen, but it is evoked by something specific. Experience is a point of reference for the imagination.  The mind reflects by looking for additional evidence to compare with new experiences. Good and bad thinking in some cases can be in effected by the amount of experience or prior knowledge. With nothing to draw on the result is uncritical thinking.

Quotes

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.

We only think when we are confronted with problems.

Warlight, A Novel, by Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje is known for his writing of The English Patient

It is 1945 and fourteen-year-old Nathaniel and his older sister, Rachael, are told one day that their parents are leaving for Singapore and they will be staying with two criminals who will watch over them for a year that turns out to be more than that. This is Michael Ondaatje’s new novel, “Warlight,” beginning with something that seems clear enough, but it isn’t clear at all.

The brother and sister grow up during this time with a previous household renter named Moth as their official guardian. The other adult that became part of the temporary family unit was Darter, a colorful character clearly working outside the law. A temporary girlfriend of Darter, Olive Lawrence, brings some worldly glamour with her during her time with them and then writes to Nathaniel and Rachael for months after leaving. Their mother never writes.    

Nathaniel doesn’t do well in school and spends much of his time working, helping Darter in his life of crime, and with his first love, Agnes. Rachael likes school and is drawn to acting.

Someone has followed the two teenagers on several occasions, and when they are attacked and taken away, they are recused by friends of her mother who come with them back into their life. It turns out she has been on a secret mission and never did go to Singapore.

We shift into the second half of the novel where many seem to feel the novel slows into endless facts that don’t seem to connect but try to fill in all the blanks of the first half.  Nathaniel seeks answers to his mother’s earlier life and what she had really been doing. Years pass, and he is recruited by British Intelligence to review wartime files. He learns of war atrocities.

The details of what his mother was doing when she left, the war and his mother’s past seem to connect. We know it connects because his mother, Rose, predicts that things will come together in her journal.  For the reader it is questionable that the second half of this book really brings anything together.

The Author tells us that “No one really understands another’s life or even death,” This seems to be the real message of the book and that Nathaniel learns.

The first half of this book gave us a picture of two young people growing up without help from their parents at a difficult time, but the last half seemed to confirm that the book wasn’t about what happened in the first half. A confusing book.

The Outsider, a Novel, by Stephen King

See Review of End Of Watch (Holly Gibney character in this book comes from there) click here

Terry Maitland is a pillar of the community in Flint City, Oklahoma, and a very popular Little League coach. His DNA is found at the scene of a brutal murder and eyewitness identify him at the scene. He is also documented being in another town at the exact same time of the murder. 

Detective Ralph Anderson feels the case against Maitland is solid, based on the local witnesses and physical evidence, and he is ready to send Maitland to death row for his crimes. His wife Jeannie helps him see why his case may have problems and that he needs to look deeper. It’s Jeannie who first sees the truth lying at the center of this seemingly unsolvable mystery, and her questions eventually help Ralph to believe in the one woman, Holly Gibney, who can help him catch a child killer.

Much of the first half of this book deals with looking close at the forensics evidence. Some of that evidence leads to another town earlier that same year where a very similar crime takes place. Holly Gibney is a very qualified investigator who lives in Ohio near the other town and Anderson hires her to help find what might connect the two crimes. King has brought Holly’s character to this plot from the Bill Hodges Mr. Mercedes trilogy, and she drives much of the movement of the plot in the last half of this book. 

It becomes clear that an Outsider is involved in both murders. As brutal as the murders were, the mystery of the Outsider becomes scarier than the murders and is the strongest presence of evil in the story. 

Holly Gibney’s insight brings the twist that makes the second half of this book come together with supernatural elements worthy of King. Both halves work well together.

As with many of King’s novels it becomes clear that “there were monsters in the world, and their greatest advantage was the unwillingness of rational people to believe” in them. Once the supernatural is acceptance King makes that knowledge have its own terror. The first half of the book puts all the pieces in order and lead quickly to a confrontation with evil and to conclusion.

Quotes

“Doesn’t look like a monster, does he?” “They rarely do.”

"Adults are the real Monsters"

 “People had the mistaken idea that Poe wrote fantastic stories about the supernatural, when in fact he wrote realistic stories about abnormal psychology.” 

“Strange, the things you noticed when your day—your life—suddenly went over a cliff you hadn’t even known was there.” 

More

Stephen King has written over 50 Novels and 200 short stories. His books have sold more than 350 million copies. King was born September 21, 1947

In an article in Rolling Stone King said, "Hemingway sucks. If I set out to write that way, it would have been been hollow and lifeless because it wasn't me." (Good for you Stephen King. Hemingway was certainly self absorbed)

In the same article he was asked: "Do you see yourself doing this into your eighties and maybe even beyond?" (Loved his answer)He said,"Yeah. What else am I going to do? I mean, shit, you've got to do something to fill up your day. And I can only play so much guitar and watch so many TV shows. It fulfills me. There are two things about it I like: It makes me happy, and it makes other people happy."

Genius A Mosaic o One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds, by Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom’s book gives us a list of one hundred creative minds. The book is worth reading just to see who he picked for the list. He said, “I base this book, ‘Genius’ upon my belief that appreciation is a better mode for the understanding of achievement than are all the analytical kinds of accounting for the emergence of exceptional individuals.”

Since Bloom is one of the most well read in Western literature, as anyone alive today, his list matters. His conclusions seem to be based more on what influenced each person than the person themselves. 

One person on the list, Shakespeare, seems to be the one Bloom values for more than his influences. He treats Falstaff and Hamlet as models for people to choose between even though neither ever walked the earth.  They are both examples of literary personalities with power that is beyond themselves.   

Bloom likely would have said what William Blake said, “that that the history of religion consisted in ‘Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales’.” He added that “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all emerge from that process, and all of them are endlessly far away from the exuberant beauty of the Yahwist.”

Bloom has taken the storyteller of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers, and calling it the Yahwist turning it into a literary character. The creation of this myth gives Bloom several options. By calling the Yahwist a woman he pushes the feminists who see little female influence in those literary giants Bloom favors, and likewise other scholars are left objecting to the divinity claimed by the myth but with nothing substantial to justify themselves, either.

The book "Genius" defines literature as what exists between the lines. Bloom told us that his choice for these 100 people was “wholly arbitrary and idiosyncratic.” We should take him at his word and understand that what is important to him is the connections and who each is influenced by.

See Harold Blooms list of recommended books click here

See Review of Shakespeare by Harold Bloom click here or on the book

See Literary Favorites section for more on Harold Bloom. Click here

Quotes

“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.” 

“Real reading is a lonely activity.” 

“We read to find ourselves, more fully and more strangely than otherwise we could hope to find.”

"Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.” 

“We read, frequently if not unknowingly, in search of a mind more original than our own.” 

“We all fear loneliness, madness, dying. Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Leopardi and Hart Crane will not cure those fears. And yet these poets bring us fire and light.” 

What the Dog Saw and other adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

“What the Dog Saw” is a collection of Malcolm Gladwell’s favorite articles that were published in the New Yorker magazine, where he has been a staff writer since 1996. He tells us in the preface that the book is divided into three categories of articles. The first deals with what he calls obsessives and minor geniuses; the second is devoted to theories to ways of organizing experience. The third focuses on how we make predictions about people. 

Gladwell says the question he gets asked the most is “Where do you get your ideas?” He tells us that in this book he was going to try to figure out the answer, once and for all. Referring to one of the articles in the book on why no one has ever come up with a ketchup to rival Heinz, he said that he got the idea from a friend who was in the grocery business. He adds that “The trick is finding ideas to convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell.” The 19 diverse articles he includes in this book do confirm that he draws from everywhere. 

The book helps us change the way we look at the world and the method used to do this doing has been labeled as “Gladwellian”. This refers to a counter-intuitive type of thinking where more than one source is explored and used in formulating conclusions. 

The article, “What the Dog Saw” shows this approach. It tells the story of Cesar Millan, a professional Dog Whisperer, and his work with Sugar, the bad dog, and her owners. Sugar's behavior is changed almost with the touch of Millan’s hand, and the owners are stunned. Gladwell is more interested in what is going on in the dog’s head than what is going on in Millan head, but the story is really about both Millan and Sugar. When we see the world from both their eyes we understand.

The story of “The Talent Myth” examines in detail the idea that the better the talent pool the better the results. Enron embraced this idea with an obsession and we see the experience from their eyes. In the end we are told that yes, they were looking for people who could look outside the box, but the problem turned out to be that it was the box that needed to be fixed or better said: “The talent myth assumes that people make organizations smart. More often than not, it’s the other way around.” 

Gladwell continues to add enough of a twist to ideas that you thought you understood to be well worth reading.

Quotes

“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.” 

“You don't manage a social wrong. You should be ending it.”

 “What does it say about a society that it devotes more care and patience to the selection of those who handle its money than of those who handle its children?” 

The Woman In Cabin 10 a novel by Ruth Ware

Lo Blacklock is a travel journalist who is given the biggest assignment of her career to cover the maiden voyage of Aurora, a new super luxury ship. A few days before the cruise leaves her small apartment is broken into in the middle of the night, and she comes face to face with the bugler and is locked in her room for several hours. When she finally boards the ship see is still suffering from trauma and sleep deprivation. 

Lo’s first impression is positive. The ship is like a first-class hotel, but in miniature. The guest cabins are plush, those on board are important media contacts, and the dinner parties are elegant. Getting ready for the welcome party she knocks on cabin 10, next door, and borrows some make up from the young women who comes to the door. Lo hasn’t eaten much since her own break-in and she drinks a lot at the party and stays up late. 

That night in her room she hears “the kind of splash made by a body hitting water”.  She looks down from the deck outside her room and thinks she sees a body sinking into the dark waters, and then looks to the deck space next door through some cracks in the divider and sees blood smeared on the glass. She calls security but when they go to the cabin 10 it is completely empty and there is no blood. Security listens and even help by checking everyone on board to see if they can find the young women Lo saw  earlier in the cabin, but no one on board is missing.

Lo had confided details of her own break-in with Ben who is also on board, and whom she had been married to years ago. He shares the event, and that she had been drinking excessively, with security and that castes more doubt on her story. Security wonders if she was imagining everything but they try to help.

She continues, on her own to dig deeper, even searching below the guest decks. Things become more dangerous for her. She reaches a point where she can’t go back and may not make it out alive. The plot is filled with a constant feeling of danger and the reader will find themselves wondering what the next chapter will bring. 

Copies of social media posts from back home are inserted after some of the later chapters but they only add more questions to what is really happening on the ship. The book might be best described as a “claustrophobic whodunit”.

Quotes

"There’s a reason why we keep thoughts inside our heads for the most part—they’re not safe to be let out in public. “Other” 

“Maybe that was closer to the truth--we weren't captor and captive, but two animals in different compartments of the same cage. Hers was just slightly larger.” 

“We all have demons inside us, voices that whisper we’re no good, that if we don’t make this promotion or ace that exam we’ll reveal to the world exactly what kind of worthless sacks of skin and sinew we really are.” 

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

Joanne Greenberg said when questioned about the book, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, that she fictionalized it as a hedge.  She explained that she didn’t want to go back to that time and place, so she gave the character, Deborah Blau, different parents and different symptoms, that were more organized than her own had been. Her own story included her time at the Chestnut Lodge Hospital in Rockville Maryland from 1948 to 1951. She did recover completely from her own struggle.

In this novel the young girl Deborah seemed to have withdrawn into a deep depression. It could have been schizophrenia, but in those days this was often just a vague diagnosis. She also  had a traumatic experience in surgery she needed that involved a great deal of physical pain. She also felt a lot of abuse from anti-Semitic neighbors. She withdrew into an alternate world called ‘Yr”, which was a place of escape and comfort, but eventually those in charge of that world ruled over her every word and deed.  The world had its own language and laws, woven from the laws of the real world. 

After an attempt at suicide at 16 years old her parents take Deborah to an insane asylum  hoping that they can make her normal. As her mother and father drive her to the hospital her father tells her, looking at her in the rear-view mirror, “I was a fool when I married- a damn young fool who didn’t know about bring up children.” She spends three years at the hospital as she seeks treatment for, what in those days, was diagnosed as schizophrenia. (Every mental hospital in America was filled with schizophrenics in the late 1940s) She finally worked herself up to the disturbed ward. One of the questions this story raises is what does it mean to be normal and what is it to be mentally ill? 

Her doctor used psychotherapy to allow Deborah to face her own Gods as demons and be able to chose between them and the Gods of the real world.  Learning that the “Yri” language words had roots in the English language and were not original helped her start to understand.  When logic entered her thinking it helped her. 

Her doctors made slow progress and their goal was to give Deborah the ability to choose between the reality of the real world over the fantasy of her “Yr” world. Earning her GED degree is a help in her struggle over her illness as it draws her back into the real world. 

Deborah's progress is slow.  The reader will likely get caught up with the other patients and their stories and interaction. Their craziness starts to make some sense as we learn more about them. Their lives have some logic and rules that they live by and reveal a hidden culture. 

The step by step approach at building trust with Deborah helps her connect to reality and replace fantasy. Deborah’s personal resolution to have it work is the clearest indicator of the success that comes.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Lessons from Blink suggest that we can learn how to understand the process of decision-making and how we can trust our instincts and intuition to make decisions quickly.  We learn that our first impressions often are correct, but these intuitive judgments are developed by experience, training, and knowledge

To show this, Gladwell introduces the concept and power of what he calls “thin-slicing,” which is "the ability of our unconscious to find patterns, in situations and behavior, based on very narrow slices of experience."

An example of this is a test that was done by John Gottman, where in less than fifteen minutes, he could predict with 90% accuracy whether a couple would still be together fifteen years later. This was done by listening to a couple sitting alone in a room for fifteen minutes to talk about whatever they wanted and measuring the conversation. 

The researchers assigned values to defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism, and contempt. Contempt and disgust were given higher values in this group.  The man and woman used in a test had a new dog, and when left alone, it became the subject of their conversation. They had very different feelings about the new dog but never seemed to seem to get mad as they discussed the dog. 

The woman wanted to keep their new dog and was inflexible in her opinions. She showed contempt for the man’s thoughts, often with eye rolls, and her position never changed. The man did not like the new dog but often started out saying, he was fine with the dog, but then followed up with why he didn’t like the dog. 

The points assigned to the various aspects of the conversation were such that the conclusion was that this couple wouldn't be together in 15 years. A quick subjective decision may have suggested the same thing, but then that was the point. Subjectively we can, and do, measure the same points quickly. 

Another example of "thin sliced" moments in time where big decisions were made was how much a person learns by a quick glance at another person’s private space. Even a bookshelf, cabinet or bedroom can communicate a lot by how they are organized, or not organized. The subconscious recognizes patterns and connections and we often just assume they are gut reactions. 

Snap judgements were discussed and an obvious example was the process of speed-dating.  It was clear that a mountain of data was gathered in the blink of an eye. This conclusion seems at odds with the conclusion that snap judgments work best when they're informed by careful thought beforehand? Gladwell is saying that if you have studied the data and have a criteria in mind you can make the decision quickly, but he is also saying decesions are not just a coin toss.

We intuitively attempt to use this concept on ourselves by "priming" our own behavior. We have stereotypes that we label other people with. For example, we may feel certain ways about what being a professor or someone in a certain profession is and this belief defines many things we do. We change our own behavior to become what we feel we want to be, as seen in the actions of other.

Too much information can distract from making good intuitive decisions. “We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We’re a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don’t really have an explanation for.”  Gladwell writes that “The first task of Blink is to convince you of a simple fact, that decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately."

The key according to Gladwell is that "truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking". Blink will be worth reading and give you more confidence in your own intuition.

Quotes

"There can be as much value in the blink of the eye as in months of Rational Analysis"

"Success has to do with deliberate practice. Practice must be focused, determined, and in an environment where there's feedback." 

"It takes ten thousand hours to truly master anything. Time spent leads to experience; experience leads to proficiency; and the more proficient you are the more valuable you'll be."  

"The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world." 

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” 

“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.” 

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

Buy on Amazon

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."