The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

“The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin, is the story of a bookstore and the events that lead to A.J. owning it, and his life from that point on.

Key characters in the plot are A.J. the bookseller, his first and second wife, a 2 year old little girl left in his shop with a note, and the  New England Bookstore, It is obvious that the author, Gabrielle Zevin, knows the bookselling business and bookstores, from the sales representatives selling to them, the store owners and right down to the nuts and bolts of the store.

A.J. drinks too much grieving the loss of his first wife. He is opinionated about customer’s literary tastes and seems in the beginning to be a man with few customers and even fewer friends. His life changes for the better when a 2-year-old girl is left in his store with a note attached to her, about the same time his most valuable possession, a first edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tamerlane” worth as much as $500,000, is stolen. Even with the financial loss, and his recent years of grieving, the little girl changes his life for the better.

About this same time, he meets with a publisher’s lady sales rep and that leads to even more life changing events. The tone of the romance that follows is like the conversations that take place throughout the book and seem to be laced with book references. A.J. claims to have a disdain for book clubs, cute little events, and gimmicks but the book is full of how these fit into his life.

A.J.’s relationship with his daughter Maya is special and is something we didn’t get enough of and the sudden grim changes that happen to some of the characters do feed some narrative that the author may have wanted more than we did.

The focus is on love and the joy of living with characters we care for and with humor that compliments the plot.

Quotes

“You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?” 

"We aren’t the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on”

“We are not quite novels.
We are not quite short stories.
In the end, we are collected works.” "Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.”

Author Gabrielle Zevin, 

The Shining by Stephen King

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The Shining, Stephen King’s third novel, published in 1977, established him as the preeminent author in the horror genre. The key character is Jack Torrance, a teacher and aspiring writer. Wendy is Jacks wife and Danny is their five-year-old son. Jack has a drinking problem, even worse, he becomes violent and can’t control his temper, even at times when he is sober.

Jack hurt Danny, breaking his arm, when he was drunk and then with other problems he stopped drinking. Just going on the wagon wasn’t enough to stabilize him, and at school he lost his temper with a student, hit him, and has lost his job.

A past drinking partner, who has influence at school and owns part of a winter resort, helps him find a job where he can get away from his problems. The Overlook Hotel, in the high mountains in Colorado, closes each winter and a job is open to stay at the hotel taking care of it’s sensitive boiler heating system and the hotels other needs. Jack gets the job.

He can take Wendy and Danny and they feel Jack will have the winter to have the time to do some writing and stay sober. The hotel is where the real trouble starts. Danny meets a Hallomann who is working on the hotel staff for the summer.

Hallomann recognizes that Danny has “the shine”, like he does but much stronger. The “shine” is the ability to see what other are thinking and see the future. Hallomann also knows that the hotel is evil, and that Danny will likely need him, so he tells him to send a message in the coming months if that happens and he leaves for Florida.

Everyone leaves, and the real problems begin. It is the hotel itself that is evil.  In the decades of it’s history many people have lost their lives in the hotel and terrible things have happened. All the events seem to be coexisting in one place and time and the hotel wants Danny and his powers. Jack is influenced to help them, and he is taken over by them, or probably more accurately stated, by the hotel itself.

It is no surprise that King brings a variety of scary situations to the plot. In the end Danny reaches out for Halloman’s help and evil is confronted.

Quotes

Stephen King said that "When he went home from the hospital he watched the Titanic and he knew his IQ had been damaged" No one can say that King's Horror Genre doesn't make you think. The problem is often what you wind up thinking about!  .... (this quote used in the essay on Stephen King a Literary Influence in that section)

“Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.” 

 “This inhuman place makes human monsters.”

“Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.” 

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

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The title, Catch-22, is so well understood that it alone could serve as a simple review for this book. Even those that have never read the book understand the title, which can be found as a dictionary entry for what the book implies.

"Joseph Heller’s Catch-22," and "Voltaire’s Candied" (see review) are both focused on satirizing the idea of optimism. Events in both allow the author to interchange tragedy and comedy. Both books are literary icons , but Catch-22 speaks loudly to today’s readers, even though it was first published in 1961. 

Heller’s writing style is perfect for a story in the military, as is the military the perfect medium to convey the absurdities, suffering and irreverence that make this novel so interesting and humorous.  Even with the tragedies, which are serious, comedy comes through. 

Yossarian is the key character and he is the one that champions our frustration and we love him for both his strengths and flaws. The book has dozens of characters who all are important and interesting. The essential plot for Yossarian is that he does not want to fly any more missions, but that is the core issue of what Catch-22 is. Pilots can stop flying if they are insane but if they declare to those in charge that they are insane and request to stop flying it proves that they have cognitive abilities and are considered sane. It will just lead to them flying more missions. Yossarian is trapped in “Catch-22”: “Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t

Other forms of Catch-22 are throughout the novel to justify various bureaucratic actions. Even those accused cite the provision and one character explains that "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing."

The book presented situations that were insane but then they weren’t. The book is worth reading more than once.  

Quotes from Catch-22

If he flew the very risky military missions, he was obviously crazy and then didn't have to; but if he didn't want to and said he didn't want to go, he was sane, and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is. 

“He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.” 

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.” 

“Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.” 

The Art of Stillness, Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer wrote “The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere” and tells us he did it as “a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it.”

His decision to find and write this message followed his life spent as a travel writer, over several decades, arriving at a time in his life when the pleasures of slowing down and being in one place, especially if it is inside ourselves, was considered the real adventure.

As evidence of this conclusion he points out that today people are going faster and faster in search of contentment and meaning. He tells of a thirty-year study of time diaries where “two sociologists found that Americans were actually working fewer hours than we did in the 1960s, but they felt as if they were working more. He says we have the sense, too often, of running at top speed and never being able to catch up.”

Iyer adds that “We’ve lost our Sundays, our weekends, our nights off — our holy days, as some would have it; our bosses, junk mailers, our parents can find us wherever we are, at any time of day or night. More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.”

Our educational institutions tend to tell us the point of life is to get somewhere, not to go nowhere. But nowhere can be just as, or even more interesting.

This conclusion sounds good, even though it does seem that if he hadn’t been traveling for all those years as a travel writer before he came to this conclusion, that it may ring a little truer. Years of travel suggest stillness but what about the "homebody" is stillness the best for them? Perhaps he redeems himself when he adds to his conclusions that “Too many of us see going nowhere as turning away from something rather than turning towards something” and “Going nowhere … isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.”

Iyler quotes Shakespeare who says, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” This isn’t a new truth that how we respond to our experiences is more influential in our lives that the experiences themselves.

Even though it is a short book, Iyler’s quote by William James, “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another,” with two more words added, “slow down”, would have been enough.

Quotes

“Be still Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity” 
― Lao Tzu  

“There is nothing to save, now all is lost,
but a tiny core of stillness in the heart
like the eye of a violet.” 
― D.H. Lawrence

“The inner is foundation of the outer
The still is master of the restless
The Sage travels all day
yet never leaves his inner treasure” 
― Lao Tzu

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, published in 1912, is a book that seems to defy deep meaning, or perhaps it just shouts out that it must have some deep, deep, meaning, to justify having been written? Knowing something about the author and attempting to understand him may be a way to approach the book.

Franz Kafka’s writings inspired the word, “Kafkaesque”, which by definition is the “characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Kafka’s fictional world.”

(“the blend of absurd, surreal and mundane which gave rise to the adjective "kafkaesque)

He was Jewish living in Czech Prague, surrounded with anti-Semitic pressures, and working each day failing in his profession in the shadow of a father figure who was a successful business man. It was the world around him that lead to his destruction.

We see Kafka in this book as the character, Gregor Samsa, who lives with his parents and sister, and works as a traveling salesman. One day he comes home from work, goes to bed, and wakes up as a giant disgusting ugly bug who just to look at is a puke-inducing experience. 

He sees what he has become and then thinks of his past miserable life. His first thought is to realizes he has overslept and he knows his boss never accepts his excuses. His mother knocks on the bedroom door and is concerned because he will be late for work but when he tries to answer his voice is very weak. Then his sister, who has been and continues to be a back stabber, whispers through the door and begs him to open it, but the office manager shows up to check on him. He tries to get out of bed by rocking back and forth but his body falls to the floor. 

The family just accepts what has happened and he lives in his room being fed from a saucer each day. He decides he likes his new body and learns how to crawl on the walls and ceiling. Without Gregor’s income as a salesman, the family must take in some boarders. After an argument with his father Gregor returns to his room and dies. The reasons for the death are unclear. The family comes to feel it was best.

Quotes from The Metamrphosis

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” 

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” 

“Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light.” 

“the blend of absurd, surreal and mundane which gave rise to the adjective "kafkaesque” 

“Calm —indeed the calmest— reflection might be better than the most confused decisions” 

Us Against You: by Fredrik Backman

Us Against You: by Fredrick Backman

“Us Against You” starts out telling us “It’s Going to Be Someone’s Fault”. Then it asks and continues, “Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We’ll end up saying that violence came to “Beartown” this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that is seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.”

The characters in “Us Against You” have evolved since we first meet them in Fredrik Backman’s book “Beartown”. We may have thought we knew them, but "Backman’s" writing style adds layer after layer of details and that take us deeper into the truth of both towns, “Beartown and Hed”. 

Reading “Us Against You” doesn’t seem like a continuation of the first story, even though that is exactly what it is. It seems like we finally really understand the characters who all seem much more a part of the story.

A couple of new characters show up. A local politician manipulates both towns and a lady coach bring out new concerns and challenges. The town is headed for a new tragedy. Some, who we see as bigots and bullies, turn out to also be generous and selfless sometimes. The all-important hockey culture seems pure and able to stay out of all the issues but then it does inspire violence.

Violence has moved into the community and the competition of the game serves to inspire it at times and then defuse it at times. The author writes that, “When guys are scared of the dark they’re scared of ghosts and monsters but when girls are scared of the dark they’re scared of guys.” Margaret Atwood said it better and with more authority decades ago with her quote, “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”

This is a good book. I think it is important to have read “Beartown” first but I do think that “Us Against You” is the better book, because of “Beartown”.

Quote from Us Against You

“He’s twelve years old, and this summer he learns that people will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe.” 

“Everyone is a hundred different things, but in other people’s eyes we usually get the chance to be only one of them.” 

“Unfairness is a far more natural state in the world than fairness.” 

“Exclusion is a form of exhaustion that eats its way into your skeleton.” 

“Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else.” 

Click Book Covers to link to Reviews

Swedish Novelist Fredrik Backman

Click on Book Covers, Bear Town, A Man Called Ove, and And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer above to link to Reviews

Winning Every Day, by Lou Holtz

In Winning Every Day, Lou Holtz, the miracle coach who rebuilt the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win nine bowl games, a national championship, and obtain a 216-95-7 career record, during his 27 years as head coach gives a lot of good advice and ten strategies for life. He tells us: "Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it."  

I really enjoyed his book but wonder how many people, even with his amazing career, can still remember him or are aware of him? When I first read his book, published in 1999, I underlined his story of the wolf: “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” What more do you really need to say about teamwork and success?  It seemed so relevant, but one time I was getting ready to use the quote and realized that Holtz only borrowed the quote. It was originally taken from Rudyard Kipling in his book, “The Jungle Book.”

Holtz’s strategies helped Notre Dame and they apply well to living a successful life. He was voted the top motivational speaker two years running by a survey of speakers' bureaus.  A good book even if you don’t know who he is anymore.  Find out. Read the book.

Winning Every Day: The Game Plan for Success

By Lou Holtz

Jack Reacher A Novel: Tripwire by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is the main character in Lee Child’s book, Tripwire. This is the 3rd book, in at least 23, that Child has written. I was not familiar with this author before this book, but I was left feeling glad that I had found him.  He is “Jim" Grant, best known by his pen name Lee Child, a British author who writes thriller novels, and is best known for his Jack Reacher novel series.

Reacher is in Key West, digging pools by hand and working a 2nd job as a bouncer for a topless bar. A private investigator, Costello, comes looking for him but is killed. He was hired by a Jody Garber who turns out to be the daughter of General Leon Garber, Reacher’s mentor father from his past in the Army.

It had been 15 years since he had last seen Jody, then she was 15 years old and he was 24, and they loved each other then, and it blossoms again, this time for real. He starts to help her work on the General’s last project and that leads them to Victor Truman "Hook" Hobie who has a big secret that goes back to Vietnam.

An early warning system has been a way of life, for over 30 years, for Hobie, and it consists of two “tripwires” that notify him when he has to get ready to move.  The first is eleven thousand miles from home and the second is six thousand miles away and for the first time both alerts arrive on the same day.

Reacher and Jodie follow Costello's trail and information on her father's last project. It leads them to the National Records Center in St. Louis and to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii and into looking at forensic remains of solders.

Victor Hobie is a moneylender, and he takes his customers for everything they have using torture and violence to enforce his terms. His current customer and targets, Chester and Marilyn Stone, represent a very big payoff for Hobie if he can close the deal before he must leave town. He draws Jodie into the closing using attorney status as a pretense and he hopes to take everyone out before he leaves, including Reacher.

It is hard to write a review for this book because so much happens that it is just exciting to be surprised at. It is a book you will not want to put down and will be anxious to get back to.

Lee Child (Left) Stephen King (Right)

Ok, I will have to tell you why I read this book. Stephen King has said that we ought to always have something to read with us. Apparently he meant it since he is reading at this Red Sox Game. I noticed the book and likewise noticed he had read most of it and bought the book. Great book. I had never read this author before. I was impressed with his writing style. 

The Red Earth Poems of New Mexico, by Alice Corbin

“Pretentious As It Sounds” wrote Tony Hillerman, “and tough as it is to prove, there does seem to be something about New Mexico which not only attracts creative people but stimulates their creativity”.

The poems of this book pull from and involve communities from throughout the state. The pictures follow the same approach and reflect a wide diversity. Alice Corbin was inspired by the people and the cultures they encountered especially from Northern New Mexico.

Alice Corbin was considered a modernist poet in the early part of the twentieth century with a national reputation. She lived and worked in Chicago and was a regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune and the Saturday Evening Post but her best poetry was written after for health reasons she moved to Santa Fe New Mexico.

Red Earth: Poems of New Mexico was first published in 1920 and reflected the poetic techniques of Native American myths and Hispanic culture. A newer edition including a biographical sketch of Corbin’s life and contributions to art and culture. 

This poem also included in the poetry section

The Basic Works of Aristotle by Richard McKeon

Aristotle focus in “The Basic Works of Aristotle” is that “all men suppose what is called wisdom to deal with the first causes and the principles of things.” These causes and principles are the subject matters referred to as “first philosophy.” Considered to be one of the first true scientists, he created an early version of the scientific method to observe and draw conclusions. The approach begins with reviewing the opinions of others and even the history of thought. 

He drew distinctions between things that are “better known to us” and things that are “better known in themselves,”. He said we start with what is best known to us and then move to things better known in themselves. 

Aristotle’s said “the study of being qua “is frequently and easily misunderstood, because it seems to suggest that there is a single subject matter—being qua being. The subject matter of “being” included within it three things: (1) a study, (2) a subject matter (being), and (3) a way the subject matter is studied (qua being).

Much of Aristotle’s teachings were preserved by Arabic mathematicians and canonized by Christian scholars. His works have shaped Western thought, science, and religion for nearly two thousand years. Richard McKeon’s The Basic Works of Aristotle is the one-volume source for understanding this scholar. 

The books approach is especially useful in comparing him to Plato. Plato's world was one of changeless things assigned for lofty contemplation and for Aristotle, as we are told in the introduction, it was a world for empirical investigation. Aristotle had a fascination with living things.

The contents list a Preface, Introduction, Bibliography, Organon (logical treatises), Physica, DeCaelo, De Generatione, Parva Naturalia, Historia Animalium, De Partibus, De Generatione, Metaphysica, Ethica Nicomachea, Politica, Rhetorica, and De Poetica.

In the preface it tells us that this book is an aid to understanding the man and his thoughts. A study of an ancient writer. The re-discovery and assemblage of useful items of information and knowledge and inquiry into truths whose specifications do not change with time. “The Basic Works of Aristotle by Richard McKeon” is a must-have book to understand and have a useful reference for understanding this important scholar.

Quotes

“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ” 

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” 

“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.” 

“The more you know, the more you know you don't know.” 
 

Rattlesnake Lawyer by Jonathan Miller

See the latest books by this author at Rattlesnakelaw.com

"Watch for Rattlesnakes" reads the sign at the first rest stop within New Mexico's "Fighting 14th district. Young attorney Dan Shepherd has been fired from his mothers prestigious Washington law fir, and now must must make it among the rattlesnakes.

Rattlesnake Lawyer is best described as a Southwestern Novel, set in Southern New Mexico, it captures the geography and the small town setting very well. The Hispanic influence is the norm here and this one-time big city lawyer is the one that is out of place.

The justice system in this small town doesn’t work well but Miller brought some interesting twists to the plot. Young independent Attorney Dan Shepherd is in new town trying to get started with his legal work and finds it hard to make ends meet. The first case that comes his way, however, is anything but promising.

Shepherd is assigned the task of defending a memorable character, Jesus Villalobos, who is accused of a murder. Though his family and friends have nothing bad to say about Jesus, the State seems determined to send him to the gallows. What follows is Dan's quest to secure justice for his client and the bond that forms between the lawyer and his unusual client leads to an exciting courtroom drama.

Jonathan Miller was a new author back in 2004 when this his first book came out, and he is a practicing attorney. His expertise in law and courtroom procedure serves him well in Rattlesnake Lawyer and the novel reads like a well-prepared brief. A good book worth reading.

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Rattlesnake Lawyer

By Jonathan Miller

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Laughing Gas, by P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse was referred to by an English journalist as “the most influential novelist of our age” and a master of “the Great English Joke”. This meant the teasing of all people who take themselves too seriously.

Wodehouse said, “I had just begun to write this story, when a literary pal of mine who had had a sticky night out with the P.E.N Club blew in to borrow bicarbonate of soda, and I thought it would be as well to have him vet what I’d done, in case I might have foozled my tee-shot.” He tells him he can read some of the story and is told, “If you must” and he replies: “Right ho”. 

The story starts with Reggie and Joey sitting I the dentist office. Reggie is the Third Earl of Havershot, he started at the bottom and worked his way up to Third Earl, also an accomplished boxer. He has been asked by his family to go to Hollywood and save his cousin Eggy, the family black sheep, who is planning to marry a Hollywood bimbo. On the way he meets a famous movie star and his long-lost love, April June, but he is surprised to learn that she is the one his cousin Eggy plans to marry. 

Reggie, in the dentist office, finds himself sitting next to Joey Cooley, a 10-year-old child film star and they are both under laughing gas anesthetic and somehow, they find that their identities are swapped, and each is in the others body. 

Trouble follows. Young Joey has lots of resentment for his manages and even for his co-star, April June. Joey with his new 6-foot body plans to give his past tormentors a punch in the snout. Reggie now in the body of a child wants to warn those that may be punched. 

Eventually Wodehouse finds a way out for Reggie and Joey. Reggie as his mature self gets an opportunity to approach Ann Bannister. He is at first hesitant because he knows his true face looks like a gorilla. 

This is a small comic novel, 286 pages, first published in the United Kingdom in 1936 and then in the United States. The story is set in Hollywood in the early 1930s. This story is a satire on Hollywood full of facades, and the story is a farce. 

Quotes

‘Haven’t you ever heard of Sister Lora Luella Stott?’ ‘No. Who is she?’ ‘She is the woman who is leading California out of the swamp of alcohol.’.............................‘Good God!’ I could tell by Eggy’s voice that he was interested. ‘Is there a swamp of alcohol in these parts? What an amazing country America is. Talk about every modern convenience. Do you mean you can simply go there and lap?’ Laughing Gas (1936) 

“And she's got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.”

“It has been well said that an author who expects results from a first novel is in a position similar to that of a man who drops a rose petal down the Grand Canyon of Arizona and listens for the echo.”

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir Review

Kao Kalia Yang tells us in her book, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir Review, about the Hmong people, who beginning in the 18-century migrated south from China, first to Laos, and then Vietnam. They became allies to America helping with the Vietnam war even before it was on the radar for most Americans. When the war ended they fled the country across the Mekong River into Thailand where they waited years before they were able to come to the United States. 

Yang tells us about her Grandmother and what really is a love story of sacrifice for her Mother and Father. Once they arrive in America her parents and all their extended family live for each other, but especially to help their children benefit from being Americans. She tells us that the Hmong are in the end Americans first and Hmong in heritage. 

Yang was born in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand in 1980. Her grandmother had wanted to stay in the camp, to make it easier for her spirit to find its way back to her birthplace when she died, but it wasn’t possible. The Hmong left the jungles of Thailand to fly to America and then they settled in Minnesota and California. Like many immigrant groups before, the adults worked two jobs, so the children could get an education. The Hmong were different, having come from a non-Christian background, and a rain forest and jungle culture with no homeland to return to. People in America didn’t know anything about them, and when their kids studied the Vietnam War at school, their lessons never mentioned that the Hmong had been fighting for the Americans in that war.

Yang story of family and the death of her grandmother is touching. The Hmong’s sacrifices truly qualify them as pioneers and their story ought to be required reading for the insight into the strength of their family values and how they have grown through their hardships. This book is important, and America needs to know this story. 

More On Hmong

As many as 20,000 Hmong soldiers died during the Vietnam War. Hmong civilians, who numbered about 300,000 before the war, perished by the tens of thousands.

From 1959 to 1973, the CIA trained Hmong tribesmen to fight against Communist insurgencies in Laos.

At the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s about 130,000 Hmong made their way to United States. Another 50,000 to 100,000 stayed in Thailand. About 400,000 remained in Laos.

Candide, by Voltaire

Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer who embraced the ideals of a free and liberal society, along with freedom of religion and free commerce. His book, Candide, was a satire, funny, well done and relevant to the times but Voltaire’s purpose was to use wit to make his points.

He made fun of the teachings of the Church, but he was pushing for religious freedom. He had strong opinions and Candide was a tool to presenting his thoughts. The book is one of the most significant works of Western Canon due to its portrayal of the human condition.

The story is intended to satirize the idea of optimism. The approach was developed in the events of a trip which allowed the author to interchange the tragedy and the comedy within the various situations that occurred. This was a unique approach but provided a way to look at good and evil, as well as the role of God and Government in people’s lives. The satirical approach allowed him cover to focus on criticism.

A simple story, a young man leaves his home because he has been caught kissing the wrong person. Sill optimistic he joins the army. He is flogged and later almost burned alive. He continues to believe that he is indeed living in the "best of all possible worlds", as he was taught growing up, and sets out to see the world. Nothing goes well with one tragedy after another. Funny but sad. Then, after what seems to be an endless ordeal, he returns and settles for life in a garden. Even so, still optimistic perhaps, he says that "we must cultivate our garden".

Voltaire’s book, and his story, challenge the idea that "all is for the best" in a world where it is often assumed that things "work out for the best".

Quotes

“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.” 

“Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.”

 “If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?” 

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Ivan Denisovich Shukov was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1943 and he later escaped and returned to his own troops. He admitted that the Germans has captured him, and that became his crime. He was assumed to be a spy. He was forced to confess to being a spy to avoid being shot, but then went to a soviet prison.  

The others in the prison also seem to have little logical reason for being there. One mans crime was being a Baptist. Many were there for being spies. Survival meant stealing, lying, and anything it took to stay alive. In prison they were not able to call the guards comrade but had to call them “Citizen”, removing their hats five steps before approaching them, and keeping it off until they had past two steps beyond. An inmate said that survial was "by the law of the taiga," or as we would put it, the law of the jungle.

Ivan says of the time "How can you expect a man who's warm, to understand a man who's cold?" The goal is to live through just one more day. On this "one day" Ivan is lucky when he was awakened by the sound of a hammer clanging against a steel rail, Ivan thinks he is sick guard pretends to take him to the punishment cells, but he only wants Ivan to mop the floor of the guardroom.

He did not have to work in the 20 below zero wind, and even got to stand in a warm place, while his guards discussed the wall his gang would have to make. He tricked the lunch staff and got an extra bowl of mush. He worked on building a wall and mistakenly put a long steel shaft in his pocket and he thought for sure he would be caught with it at the days, end when he remembered it was there, but then he was successful in getting the metal blade through the check station without being caught. He gets an extra meal ticket at dinner standing in line for a wealthy prisoner.

The day ends with Ivan sharing his story and talking about God with the Baptist prisoner.  The is the end of the book.

 

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was specifically mentioned in the Nobel Prize presentation speech when the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded the prize to Alexksandr Solzheitsyn in 1970,    

"Solzhenitsyn's One Day: The book that shook the USSR". BBC. Moscow. -Steve Rosenberg Nov. 19th 2012  / Vitaly Korotich declared: "The Soviet Union was destroyed by information - and this wave started from Solzhenitsyn's One Day.

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