#Classic Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

Finished: 01.11.2024
Genre: novella (198 pg)
Rating: A
#NovNov24

Good News: I finished the book quickly, the writing flows and the narratives connect seamlessly. Achebe was clear about his purpose, educate his readers about the value of his culture as an African. Mission accomplished.

Bad News: I like to read a book fluently but stumble contantly over the character names. Who’s Who? So it is essential to have a strategy to remember the people in the nine villages where the Umuofia clan live.

Good News: This book has been read and reviewed for more than 60 years. It is obvious that Achebe analyzed Aristotle’s Poetics and created a character (Okonkwo) with a classic tragic flaw: hubris, pride, arrogance. In the course of his life Things Fall Apart. External: British colonizers disrupt his world. Internal: Okonkwo loses his good reputation after making a mistake in judgement….he loses everything.  Okonkwo is one of literature’s most iconic characters. #MustReadClassic

Good News: Strong point in this book was the way Achebe reconstructed the lives of women in Igbo culture: daughter Ezinma, wife Ekwefi, priestess Chielo and a very brave convert, Nneka..who lost so may twins.

Personal: This book was a slow burn for me. It took me days after reading it to appreciate what the book meant. I read one other reviewer mention it is important to read these books as a time capsule. That was the missing link in my thinking. Achebe brings together objects or information that will be preserved for future generations to discover. We must be grateful he did that.

#Classic Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Finished: 10.11.2024
Genre: nonfiction
Rating: B
#NovFicNov24

Good News: It is time to confront this book…I’ve been avoiding. Also in chapter 8…Glad to hear some good news. Donehogawa was and educated Iroquois, Commisioner of Indian Affairs appointed by President Grant…finally leaves civil service and makes a fortune New York in that Gilded Age of Finance! #Bravo

Bad News: Just awful. Pages of attempts of peace with the white men and Indians. Again and again broken promises, vengeful soldiers who don’t listen to orders. Soldiers are very “trigger happy”…many friendly indians killed by mistake. Rhetoric like “…I think a little powder and lead is the best food for them”. The destruction of Native American peoples, cultures, and languages has been characterized as genocide.

Good News: People should read how the Indians were “descimated” for land (Colorad0) in gory details, the well planned massacre at Sand Creek (pg 87 -91). I have no stomach for his but I will finish the book and NOT skim. Face the truth., don’t look away…you will not see this in the history books.

Personal: These chapters are one sad story after another…so depressing.
Conclusion: Years of resistance to change, loss of the Indian way of life and Manifest Destiny…the idea that white Americans were divinely ordained to settle the entire continent of North America. Many lives were loss on both Indian and white men’s sides. It feels like this piece of history was inevitable but it still makes for difficult reading.
#FinallyFinishedTheBook

#Classic The Iron Heel

“Crushing Wealth”

• I could not believe my eyes when I saw
• The New Yorker’s over this week! (28 October)
• I just finished  “The Iron Heel” which …warns us of the
• …crushing wealth of Oligarchs.
• It appears the New Yorker feels they need to
• to bring this to our attention…just like Jack London!

by Jack London

Finished: 26.10.2024
Genre: Dystopian novel  (pg 288)
Rating: B
#SciFiMonth 2024 

• Note: The manuscript written by Avis (Ernest’ wife) was found in 2368 AD
• The book opens with this mauscript being reviewed by an editor in 2600 AD
• Theme: Socialism vs Capitalism

Good News: I learned more about the working class, business and socialism in this book than those by George Orwell! Orwell’s strong point was describing the dismal living/working conditions of the oppressed and poor: Road to Wigan Pier . Jack London’s strong point is his Socratic analysis. There is a shared dialogue between teacher (Ernest)and students (small business owners, the elders of the Church, citizens in general). The teacher leads by posing thought-provoking questions. “Students” actively engage by asking questions of their own. The reader learns so much!

Bad News: I’ve avoided reading Jack London because I thought he only wrote about men and dogs in the wilderness! My loss… London was a very insightful writer.

Good News: Jack London’s voice  and his warning is powerful in the character of  Ernest.  The ideas this J. London hightlighted in 1908 are even MORE relevant today! The book is so entertaining because London is a wordsmith!  While speaking to owners of small businesses he explains:  “Your teeth are pulled, gentlemen. Your claws are trimmed,,,toothless and clawless, you will be as harmless as any army of clams.”

Good News: I was stunned…..this reminded me of Nalvany: Avis commenting about Ernest:  “…and I remembered His end upon the cross, I thought of Ernest.  Was he destintned  for a cross?  (pg 30). I cannot emphasize enough how chilling a read this book is.  Mr Wickson (stockholder) says in ch 5: “What if you do get a majority  on election day? …Suppose we refuse to turn the government over to you after you have captured it at the ballot-box?”  SOUND FAMILAR??

Personal: The story covers the years 1912 through 1932 in which the Oligarchy (or “Iron Heel”) arises in the United States. I  did not realize that Jack London was so politically motivated. His book illustrates capitalism as undemocratic and is destructive of man’s rights. The title is on page 73: “…we will be crushed under the iron heel of a despotism.” Think of this and look at the cover of the New Yorker  dd. 28 October. It feels like this book  is not dystopian…anymore!!

Reading time: 7 hr
#ThisBookIsAGem

#Election Day USA

1. Today is USA Election day!
2. “Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.”  (Maya Angelou)
3. Good news: stress eating on election day and night is wonderful
4. …I’m sipping and nibbling on anything I want!
5. So now a cocktail I’ve NEVER had…just to ease my
6. …election stress.
7. Blood  & Sand

Backround info:

1. The Blood & Sand is a classic scotch-based cocktail.
2. The recipe first appeared in 1930 in The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock.
3. It is probability, it was named for a 1922 movie starring
4. Rudolph Valentino, the silent-film star known as “The Latin Lover.”
5. Valentino’s performance in Blood and Sand—it centered on a bullfighter and
6. was based on the novel by Vincente Blasco Ibáñez.

Conclusion:

1. I used  glass well chilled ingredients in shaker with ice
2. …shake till chilled – pour into cocktail glass.
3. Very nice balance of taste!
4. I expected the Cherry Heering to overpower
5. (..tasting like cough syrup) but no…!
6. All 4 ingredients they blend to make their  own  “taste”.
7. This is a lovely “ladies” cocktail!
8. Not too sweet and
9. …you can sip it slowly while gossiping with a BFF!

Ingredients:

1. 3/4 ounce scotch (Irish Redbreast Whiskey) 2 CL
2. 3/4 ounce sweet vermouth 2 CL – substituted cointreau (orange based)
   
3. 3/4 ounce Heering cherry liqueur 2 CL
4. 3/4 ounce orange juice, freshly squeezed 2 CL
5. Garnish: orange peel

#November Reading List 2024

1. Reaper Man (1991) – Terry Pratchett –   Fantasy – REVIEW
   
2. Suttree  (19179) – Cormac McCarthy – Southern Gothic – READING
   
3. Bury My Heart at Wouned Knee – Dee Brown – REVIEW
4. No Life for a Lady (1941)  – Agnes Morley Cleaveland (350 pg) – READING
5. The  True Story of Ah Q  (1921) – Lu Xun – Novella – REVIEW
   
6. Metamorphosis – F. Kafka – REVIEW
7. Punishement – F. van Schirach – REVIEW
   
8. The Iron Heel – Jack London – REVIEW
9. A Fever in the Heartland – T. Egan – REVIEW
10. Things Fall Apart – C. Achebe – REVIEW

#Non-fiction Watergate A New History

• Author: Garrett M. Graff
  
• Title: Watergate A New History
  
• Genre: non-fiction  (793 pg)
  
• Rating: A++
• #NonFicNov (starting reading in October!)

by Garrett M. Graff

Bad news: The book is very long…and I’m afraid if you’re not a “history buff” you may give up after 50%. But there is a reason it is a challenge….Graff’s excellent research!  Sometimes a book appears interesting but you are not sure if you’ll finish it. There is an EXCELLENT audio version of this

Good news: Once the book enters the “investigation” period by the Washington Post (Woodward and Bernstein) it picks up steam! Names of the Watergate ‘plumbers’, Nixon aides and politicians of the early 1970s are till fresh in many baby boomer’s minds.

Good news: The book does NOT re-investigate Watergate but adds many, many informative footnotes that bring this political tragedy up-to-date with what we know now.

Personal: I was fascinated in the insights G. Graff gives the reader about Nixon’s character and state of mind while his political world is crashing down around him. Nixon would vanish to his “private” office, sip his scotch on the rocks and sometimes Al Haig ….was running the govenrment b/c Nixon was inebriated, intoxicated with alcohol…wasted.
#ExcellentRead…..if you like history..or not!

NOTES:

September 18, 2024 – page 39
4.69% Just finished chapter 3 The Chennault Affair. I knew Nixon was a devious, shifty politician but never knew about this! Graff’s book Watergate: A New History…is NOT just a rehash of history but reveals new info!

September 19, 2024 – page 70
8.41% I thought a book about Watergate would be somewhat boring but still interesting to read about. Well, I stand corrected…this book is a page tuner! Nixon wanted to bruglarize Brooking b/c they had a report in their safe that could expose some “secrets” about Nixon. FBi was not good enough so Nixon hired ex-CIA E. Howard Hunt. N: ” I want to crack down on every goddamn leak”…I know how to play this game”.

September 20, 2024 – page 150
18.03% “I’m not a crook.” Who said that? While reading this book at times I gasp at what Nixon was prepared to do: secret taping conversations, even Kissinger did not know about it, keeping tapes about Daniel Ellsburg in WH safe so Nixon could claim “executive privilage” and keep them away from grand jury. Funny, feesl like Nixon was just as bad as Trump…but without the graft of selling bibles, sneakers and coffee mugs!

September 23, 2024 – page 170
20.43% Nixon compiled “enemies lists” like other people would make a grocery list!

Fun fact:
An admiral at the Pentagon was spying on Nixon by getting his hands on files in Kissinger’s office!

#Cooking thoughts 28.09.2024

APPLE SAUCE CAKE…. (link to recipe)

1. I made it and it was delcious!
2. I needed to watch the over temp carefully…
3. …which resulted in 60 mn cooking time instead of 40-45.
4. NO frosting…that would make the cake TOO rich, too  heavy!
5. There is a lot of butter (150 gr)  in this cake
6. ….with subtle spices (nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon)
7. ...and the frosting  cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar
8. would “overpower” the rest of the cake and make my teeth tingle!
9. Used a (9 x 2 inch round baking pan but
10. …next time rectangle pan 23 x 33 cm
11. …easier to cut into pieces to put in the freezer.
12. I’ve compared other chef’s, Delia, Nigella, Martha Stewart,
13. …versions of this cake and Ina’s is the best.

INGREDIENTS:

#Cooking Thoughts 25.09.2024

1. Entering that time of year when I want to COOK!
2. The Fall and Winter is the time for comfort food.
3. I dieted very strictly for months and now is the time to enjoy!

Starting “cooking thoughts”: 25.09.2024

1. I eat veggies every morning for breakfast.
2. Not everyone wants to do this…but it fills me up and during dieting I had to avoid
3. my beloved “Toast, butter and jam” with my coffee.
4. Coffee is now a treat….but I nibble on nuts instead of toast!

Breakfast: I had no broccoli in the fridge…so I used “spitskool” (chopped pointed cabbage) and chopped kale.  I put the chopped veggie is a sieve…ran boiling water over them, drained. Spices: used “Foxpoint”  (Penzeys Spices) for the first time and I was delicious! Added olive oil, splash balsamic vinegar then added cooked quinoa (1/2 c). This is a breakfast “MEAL”!

COFFEE:  Made “real” coffee this morning (no instant anymore) and in each cup 1.5 tsp “koffiemelk”.  This coffee creamer is very rich and only use very little. I haven’t had this treat in 9 months!!

BREAD: First slices of a bread in 6 weeks! (…if you want to lose weight, cut out the bread for a few weeks, months!)

Lunch: Three Cheese Bruschetta:  2 slices sourdough bread – bush sides with olive oil – bake in oven 200 C (176 F) 5-7 min (turn once til golden, let cool). Tomato: 2 diced with 1 tsp olive oil – 1 tsp balsamic – salt/pepper – 1 grated clove of garlic. Cheeses: 2 tsp cream cheese – 2 tsp feta  mix. Spread: cheese mixture on bread slices, top with diced tomatos + grated  italian cheese. GREAT…bruschetta tastes just like pizza that I have been missing for years. The flavors, the cheese and the CRUNCH! Website: Yellow Bliss Road

SNACK: 15 hr – apple/orange

Dinner: Soup by Ina Garten: Tuscan Bean Soup (used brown beans I had in the fridge)

Make sure you cooking pot is big enough…these are a LOT of veggies!

#Pulitzer Prize Robert Caro

1. It is time.
2. I am starting on one of the best books of the 20th century:
3. The Power Broker.
4. This will be a joy to read and also a challenge.
5. My last challenge was Bolaño’s 2666 (1148 pages.)
6. Robert Caro does one better…. 1286 pages.
7. The book weighs 3 pounds….and is a “lap book”
8. …too heavy to hold!

1. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a
2. 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro.
3. The New York Times is celebrating the 50th aniversary with a very good article:
4. dd 12.09.2024 Robert Caro “The Power Broker”
5. NOTE: I’ve got to get one of those mugs from the gift shoppe in NYC!

1. The book focuses on the creation and use of power in New York local and state politics,
2. as witnessed through Moses’s use of unelected positions to design and implement
3. dozens of highways and bridges, sometimes at great cost to t0 the
   
4. he communities he nominally served.
5. It has been repeatedly
6. named one of the best biographies of the 20th century,
7. and has been highly influential
8. on city planners and politicians throughout the United States.
9. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

1. So as I settle into the Fall season,…temps going down…leaves turning color
2. …I will finally enjoy many, many wonderful reading hours with the great Robert Caro
3. The introduciton begins with a quote by Sophocles
4. …that I will keep in mind for a long time:

“On must wait until the evening

to see how splendid the day has been”

#2024 New books and reading lists – September

• Love the first day of September!
• Time enjoy one of my favorite times of the year
• …Indian Summer.

• I’ve a new rule:  no more wasting good reading time!
• I’ve decided to post my monthly planning with
• …links to my short reviews on Goodreads.
• It saves time and there are so many reviews of books
• …on other blogs.
• I’ll keep mine KISS (keep it short stupid).

• I found a great list on the New York Times (dd. 30.08.2024)
• …Best books about Politics chosen by the readers.
• I would like to see if I can finish this list.
• I”ve read a few and have ordered Robert Caro’s book. (…BTW, expensive, ouch!)
• I’m old enough to remember  the name  of Robert Moses
•  in the 1960s…but have no idea…what all the commotion was around him.
• Time to find out!
• Another yearly favorite of mine is: Australian Political Book of the Year!
• The Judges are busy reading, and will determine a
• ….longlist of 10 books to be announced in October!
• #AusPolBookAward

Reading Lists:    Best books about Politics

• Another list I’d like to finish is Obama’s Summer Reading 2024.
• I don’t always agree with the 44th President…but we’ll see what happens this year!

Fiction

1.  READ – “James” by Percival Everett — Inspired by “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: by Mark Twain, Everett’s novel follows Jim, the character in the original story who is escaping slavery.   – REVIEW – Somewhat disappointed…. “Erasure” was better.
   
2. “Headshot” by Rita Bullwinkel — This debut novel follows eight teenage girls who take part in a boxing competition in Reno, Nevada.
3. “The God Of The Woods” by Liz Moore — Barbara Van Laar’s disappearance from her family’s summer camp eerily mirrors her brother’s disappearance 14 years earlier. As the search intensifies, the seems of the Van Laar family’s tightly woven secrets begin to unravel.
4. “Beautiful Days” by Zach Williams — A couple wakes up in a remote cabin, rapidly aging, while their toddler stays the same. Across ten stories, Williams explores different characters who struggle with nightmare scenarios.
5. “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar — A troubled poet explores the mysteries of his past in order to discover the truths of his family’s dark history.
6. “Memory Piece” by Lisa Ko—Set in the 1980s, Ko’s novel follows three teens — Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen — who find solace in their shared alienation and dreams of the future. Later, as adults, their friendship faces turns and challenges.
7. “The Ministry Of Time” by Kaliane Bradley — In the near future, a civil servant is hired by a government ministry that determines if time travel is possible. Tasked with living and working alongside Commander Graham Gore, a man who died in 1845, she doesn’t expect their relationship to grow deeper.
8. “Help Wanted” by Adelle Waldman — A group of low-wage employees at a big-box store in upstate New York tough it out through exhausting shifts, all the while hoping for better opportunities.

Nonfiction

1. READ– “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball And Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib — From the author of “Little Devil in America,” “There’s Always This Year” explores the pinnacle of success through the lens of basketball’s prime era, focusing on the rise of players like LeBron James. – REVIEW   – EXCELLENT
   
2. READ – “Everyone Who Is Gone Here: The United States, Central America, And The Making Of A Crisis” by Jonathan Blitzer —Blitzer explores the decades of flawed policies and corruption that have fueled this crisis of Central American migrants seeking safety at the US-Mexico border.  –  REVIEW  – EXCELLENT
3. “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook” by Hampton Sides — The novel explores British explorer Captain James Cook’s fatal encounter with Indigenous Hawaiians and the broader impact of the Age of Exploration.
4. “When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, And How America Cracked Up In The Early 1990s” by John Ganz — John Ganz dives into the heated era of the early 1990s, following the fall of Reagan. He explores the rise of domestic upheaval.
5. “Reading Genesis” by Marilynne Robinson — In her new book, Marilynne Robinson challenges traditional and fundamentalist interpretations of Genesis.
6. “Of Boys And Men: Why The Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, And What To Do About It” by Richard Reeves — Reeves shares his take on the future of masculinity and what it can look like in an equal world.