Review: The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys, The True Story

The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys, The True Story by Dean King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you have any interest in the Hatfield and McCoy feud you probably have to read this book. It details the entire feud, from beginning to end, and the level of detail is astounding at points (obviously I can't verify any of the information, but I'm assuming it's legit).

Still, there is no way to keep up with all the people. You have Hatfields and McCoys. Some Hatfields and McCoys live on the West Virginia side of the border, some on the Kentucky side, some from both families fought for the confederates, and some for the union, and some from both families were on either side of the feud. In addition, many have the same names (and are related in two different ways).

The story itself, however, is fascinating. This area during this time seems just as wild, of not more, than the wild west ever was.

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Review: The New Horizon to Ancient Korean History

The New Horizon to Ancient Korean History by Chung Yenkyu
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I didn't finish this book, so I won't give it a rating, but I will say that it seems a bit *out there*. I just read the first chapter, but it talks about how humanity started 70,000 years ago in "The Pamirs", and language started there too. And how "the progenitors of mankind were Naban (那般) and aman (阿曼), which gave the words for father and mother, at least in Korean.

He then goes on to say that the spiro mounds in the US were Mongolian (which I might actually have bought if he had put more effort into showing the link and specifying that these were some type of proto-Mongolians who came over the Bering Strait)

And he treats Dangun as real and he states that before the Han people lived in China, the ancestors of Koreans lived there (he calls them 東夷).

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Review: Korean Travel Literature

Korean Travel Literature by Tae Joon Kim
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I confess I found this book useful mostly as a list of other books I'd like to find and read. It discusses Korean authors who have had something to do with travel over the centuries and dynasties. So, people who were exiled, who got lost abroad, who went on pilgrimages, who traveled within Korea and who were captured. It doesn't really go enough into detail for any of them to really get a sense of what they said or what they wrote about. So basically I am using it as a reference for finding whatever books I can in translation, at least until my Korean gets good enough to read them in Korean (or Chinese characters, as the case may be).


These authors/works have now been added to my wishlist:
Hye Cho's "memoir of a pilgrimage",
The women traveler/writers: Kim Geum-won and Lady Nam,
Yu Kil-chun,
Kim chun tae,
jeong yak yong and jeon yak-jeon (two exiled brothers),
Choe ik-hyeon,
Kim Ryeo,
Choe Bu's "Record of Drifting across the sea",
Kang Hang's "Memorials of a loyal subject" (experiences of a captive in Japan during the Hideyoshi invasion),
Shenyang Reports,
Nogajae's journal,
Damheon's Yanjing memoir,
Jehol diary (already on my list),
Shin Yu-han's "Journal of travel to Japan",
You Hong-june's "My exploration of cultural heritage"

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Review: On the Nature of Things

On the Nature of Things by Lucretius
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum"

Throughout this book I was wishing I could go back in time and have a talk with Lucretius. I think I could have explained things pretty well to him. Except probably lightning, since I have no idea what the science is behind moisture and water creating electricity (with apologies to all my science teachers).

Otherwise this was quite interesting, if for no other reason than to get an idea as to how Ancient Romans saw and understood the world.

I really like this translation, by Martin Ferguson Smith, along with its footnotes, which helped me quite a bit, and didn't lack in humor ("Lucr. identifies its name with the Greek aornos, "birdless," and applies the adjective "Avernian" to all places whose noxious exhalations render them birdless. On a visit to lake Avernus, I did not see any birds flying over it, but I observed that the place is not inimical to water-skiers" - p. 197, footnote 51),

His arguments regarding gravity were fascinating, and I loved his reasoning for not worrying about death. I would be lying, however, if I didn't say there was a lot of uninteresting material to slog through as well.

Now I will have to read more about Epicurus.

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Review: The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women

The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women by Oh Jung-hee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great collection of Korean women's writing. Some of the stories were odd and/or disturbing. Some didn't really speak to me. Some were excellent.

My favorites:
Identical Apartments, by Pak Wan-so
Ali Skips Rope, by Chon Un-yong
The Future of Silence, by Kim Ae-ran.

This last one was beautiful and sad, especially for language lovers.


The best title award goes to: "It's one of those the-more-I'm-in-motion-the-weirder-it-gets days, and it's really blowing my mind". Although the story was a tad too disturbing for me.

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Review: Secrets of Sleep Science: From Dreams to Disorders

Secrets of Sleep Science: From Dreams to Disorders by H. Craig Heller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rather than "Secrets of Sleep Science" this should probably be called "Science of Sleep Secrets". There is a lot of scientific information to wade through, which I'm sure is all accurate and fascinating to people in the field, but it was pretty much over my head.

I suffer from periodic insomnia and have been doing so for years, so I'm always interested in anything pertaining to sleep, generally the more scientific the better. And yet I found this a bit too heavy on the science.

However, later on it started focusing more on the conclusions, and the sections on insomnia, parasomnia and how sleep affects pretty much everything were fascinating. Including the section on sleeping and learning.

I hate to take points away because of too much science (or too much information), but much of this would have been perfect in the end notes, not in the first half of the book.


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Review: The Girl Who Is Getting Married

The Girl Who Is Getting Married by Aoko Matsuda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had no idea what to make of this story. The rhythm is odd, yet strangely comforting, with the repetition of "the girl who is getting married" (she is never given a name, nor even referred to as 'she' or 'her').

Unlike normal stories, however, the more that is told of this story the more it falls apart. By the end I didn't know if I was imagining things or not. I had to go back and make sure I had understood other sections correctly.

This is also a steady path into the uncomfortable (for lack of a better word); from an innocuous "There was not the slightest tension in the smile of the girl who is getting married", to a girl who is getting married who is wearing a flu-mask, surprised to see the narrator, trying to communicate by mouthing something with her lips which are obscured.

This is a very short read, but very involving. I loved it.

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Review: Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt

Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First of all, this book is excellent. It portrays Teddy Roosevelt with all his eccentricities, his privileged upbringing and his tragedies (losing both his wife and mother to different diseases right after his daughter is born, on February 14th). It also discusses his family, the people around him and the times he was living in.

Unfortunately, this is not a biography, but just a biography through his 29th year. It only ever mentions his presidency and Nobel peace prize (and mayorship) in the afterword, and just very briefly. Having the subtitle "The story of ... the unique child who became Theodore Roosevelt" isn't exactly clear about not covering his adulthood.

So this just seemed misleading. Of course, calling it Theodore Roosevelt's life up to 29 years of age, or Teddy's youth, might not sell as many books.

Now I'm wondering if I should tackle another biography to actually read about his presidency, or just continue on to Taft.

Anyway, 5 stars for content. 1 star for being misleading. 3 stars overall I guess.

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Review: Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--and How to Make Them Work for You

Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--and How to Make Them Work for You by Geoffrey G. Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book would be a tad outdated at this point, but by and large it is all still quite relevant. This is probably required reading for anyone working in any sort of platform company, and in fact will be useful to anyone who even uses platforms for their work, since it gives a much more in depth understanding of the structure of platforms and how they differ from classic supply chain businesses.

The last chapter is probably the most interesting during these days of Coronavirus, since many of the changes the authors predicted were slow to catch on, but seem to be accelerated just during these past couple weeks. Who knows how far it will go?


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Review: As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I didn't really enjoy this at all. There were around 15 different narrators, it was all stream of consciousness, a tad non-sensical and pretty depressing. I had to google the plot to figure out if I was missing something.

Maybe a lot of this was the point, since it forces you to be very involved and decipher what you're reading rather than just read it passively. Or you could just opt to toss it aside and read another book...

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Review: The Private Lives of the Impressionists

The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. I'm only on page 23 but this is already fascinating. Monet came to Paris from Normandy and enrolled in an art school where his classmate was Pissarro (a Portuguese Jew born in the Dutch West Indies), and they became friends. After a while another student joins, called Cezanne (who came to Paris with his good friend Emile Zola). After going back for a visit to Normandy and returning, Monet enrolls with another teacher and is classmates with Renoir. They then room together to save on rent, with Cezanne stopping by often. They're also hanging out with Sisley and Bazille. Affaire à suivre...

*****
Well, I finished the book, and I honestly can't believe they haven't made a movie or TV drama about these people. I have no interest in art, know next to nothing about Impressionism, and frankly just thought I ought to tackle this book because I've had it for over ten years collecting dust. However, I found the entire thing interesting. It certainly had some less than enthralling sections, but then again, it is basically a biography of a group of painters who banded together, were ridiculed, were often immature, often not, found spouses, had children, and finally, after decades, gained recognition. Given that, I'm amazed at how much of it was actually really riveting.

If you're not sure, check out the second (long) paragraph on page 91 (in the paperback version), about how Renoir, before he was famous, was almost killed by a firing squad and how he got out of it. The book seems full of little gems like that.

Recommended for anyone who is interested in Art, Art history, Impressionism, or in none of all that, like I was.



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