Review: Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding by John W. Dean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Edit: Revising my rating down to a 2, just based on what I've been reading about Harding after having finished this book. As just one example, his parentage of a child during his extramarital affair has apparently been proven conclusively with DNA tests, (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-can...), and yet this was dismissed in the book pretty vehemently by discounting Nan Britton's accounts: "All that her papers show is a lifetime fixation with Harding and her undending effort to have him as the father of her child" (wouldn't this be her attitude if he were the real father as well?), and also stating his smoking gun: "Harding lamented to his friends and relatives that he was sterile and sadly could not have children". Well, the DNA evidence begs to differ.

This entire book has the goal of "setting the record straight" for this president, who has been much maligned.

However, without having read anything else about Harding, I couldn't help having the feeling that this book doth protest too much. Every single moment in which Harding had been criticized is torn apart in its details to try to deflect the blame, while other points seem to be totally glossed over.

For instance, in Woodrow Wilson's biography it mentions how Harding acted with great disrespect toward the ex-president, but none of that was mentioned here. And whenever members of his staff accomplished great things, he was given credit for having hired them, but whenever they were corrupt, involved in scandals and/or received payoffs, it merely says he wasn't involved personally. Not to mention an affair he had is just alluded to at the very end, when trying to discredit another person who claimed to have had an affair with him.

Despite all that, however, it is still interesting to read about his story.

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Review: The Failure of Freedom: A Portrait of Modern Japanese Intellectuals

The Failure of Freedom: A Portrait of Modern Japanese Intellectuals by Tatsuo Arima
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Paul, a Jew and a disciple of Jesus the Christ, was a true samurai, the very embodiment of the Spirit of bushido. Said he, "for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void." He preferred death to dishonour, to dependency, to begging whatever cause." -Uchimura Kanzo (p. 23)

This book would actually be very useful to someone studying the Taisho era, or pre-war era in general, of Japan. It is a bit too philosophical for me, so I'm afraid that many of the concepts were over my head, plus it mentions many people I'm just not familiar with.

Still, it is interesting to see the reaction in Japan to Marxism, Anarchism, and world-wide events during the first decades of the 20th century. This book covers some Japanese Christian authors, the Naturalists, the Shirakaba-ha, Marxists and others.

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Review: A Good Family

A Good Family by Hajin Seo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"I tend to prefer slightly boring writers. Their work somehow resembles 'life' more closely" (p. 136)

I would have to agree, and I think this is one of the main reasons why I enjoyed this collection so much. I felt like I was being transported to various corners of Seoul and seeing people live their lives.
My favorites were probably "Dad's Private Life", "Where is Everyone Going?" and "The Interview".



***SPOILERS BELOW***
Since Goodreads doesn't provide enough space to keep personal notes, I will write brief synopses here:

What Grows out of Sadness: A lady gets diagnosed with cancer. Over time we realize she has been keeping so many of her feelings and emotions bottled up inside her, and it's implied this may have been a cause.

Dad's Private Life: A daughter and her friend follow a dad and a mysterious "Lady Unidentified" to and around Hong Kong.

A Good Family:Through the various undertakings during the day, we realize how much a mother is the strength and backbone of her family.

Where is Everyone Going: A doctor has tumors, which are most likely malignant. He settles his affairs, with close family members coming to terms with their emotions. He then leaves town to see "someone", and on the way receives a phone call telling him the tumors were benign after all.

The interview: A novice author is interviewing a well-known author, and she has prepared meticulously for this interview, since the author is someone she admires very much. However, there seems to be an ulterior motive.

Sugar or Salt: A woman visits her friend K abroad (in the US), and they reminisce, and we realize what went on behind the scenes, including with K's ex-husband.

Who are you?: An author visits her town's bookstore, which is about to be demolished, and sees many copies of her book there, which she had dedicated to K. She then goes on a search for him. He seems to have been her assistant/inspiration/muse/motivator.

The Little Thing: A woman in a company denounces a superior for sexual harassment. Things aren't as clear-cut as you would think. In the end the perpetrator seems to wish to understand, but doesn't, and is forced to resign, while all the other men remain oblivious. The woman is moved to another department.

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Review: The Wind That Lays Waste

The Wind That Lays Waste by Selva Almada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can't really say I enjoyed this all that much.

I loved the setting, the general ambience and the feel of the place. The characters seemed interesting, with strong backstories leading up to this point in their lives. The point where they meet and interact also seems promising. The issue, however, is that (despite the big storm, which seemed like extremely heavy-handed symbolism of 'change to come') none of this really seemed to lead anywhere.

I was left with more questions than answers. How will things proceed? Why did the preacher leave his wife in the way he did? and some others.

Ultimately, I wish it were a longer novel that it had let us get to know these characters more and for a longer time.



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Review: Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think the author and I started off on the wrong foot. His first way to stay creative was "Everyday is Groundhog Day", where he talked about how one day is just like the next, and he says it's because the creative life is not linear, but circular, and we "keep coming back to a new starting point". Well, while reading this I've been having the precise opposite feeling. Time seems to be flying by and I don't get enough time to work on what I'd like to. Far from each day being a repetition of the last, I find myself working on a new project and then amazed at how many days have passed, wishing I had more time to complete what I'd like to complete.

Regardless, once I shook that off, I found the other points quite useful, although I don't think there was anything groundbreaking. It was more of a repetition of things I had already come across.

I especially liked "Forget the noun, do the verb"

I found it amusing how anti-Marie Kondo he seems, and, although I found her a tad odd, I think I agree with her more than him (he says "Keep your tools tidy and your materials messy", but I'd rather keep it all tidy otherwise I find my brain is in chaos).

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Review: Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia

Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia by Thierry Zephir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was planning on saving this until I could travel to the region, but since it looks like all travel is on hold for a while, I thought I'd read it anyway and live vicariously through the book and its pictures.

I was surprised at how little I knew of the Khmer empire. I mean, I knew I knew nothing about it, but I figured it would have been more tied into East Asian history. But this wasn't the case. In fact, it was influenced much more by India. First with Hinduism and then Buddhism. It was also fascinating to read about the general weather, and how that affected the people, and the rulers.
Probably the most interesting section was under "documents" at the end, where a Chinese man, Zhou Daguan, who lived among the Khmer for over a year (from 1296-1297), wrote about the country, its people and its customs.

Having said that, the format of the book is quite annoying. It is chock full of pictures, which is nice, but they each have captions and I found myself interrupting the main narrative over and over to read these captions and to look at the photos. This made it difficult to just go through the text and get into it.

Regardless, it's been a good primer, albeit a bit cursory. If and when I actually make it to Cambodia I'll probably try to find another book to add onto this.

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Review: The Portable Dorothy Parker

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a delight. And to think I found this in the Free bin of 2nd and Charles!

I will list my favorite poems and short stories below, but I should mention that she really seemed to shine in her theater and book reviews. I doubt anyone else could be that snarky while heaping that much praise all at the same time, and you can tell she loved every minute of it.

I recommend you keep this on your bedside table and read a little bit now and then. At least, that's what I ended up doing, and it never disappointed.


10 stars

My favorite poems:
Resume
Love Song
Observation
The Red Dress
Partial Comfort
The Maid-Servant at the Inn
Thought for a Sunshiny Morning
Second Love
Sanctuary
Tombstones in the Starlight IV: The Fisherwoman


My favorite short stories
The Custard Heart
Just Around Pooh Corner

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Review: The Life and Times of Prince Albert

The Life and Times of Prince Albert by Patrick Allitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

More interesting than I thought it would be. I always imagined he was simply a hanger-on of Queen Victoria's but it turns out he was anything but.

On the other hand, the praising in this book didn't seem to stop. So now I'm wondering how much of it was unmerited and I want to pick up a biography of Queen Victoria to see what it would have to say...


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Review: 36 Books That Changed the World

36 Books That Changed the World by Andrew R. Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Great ideas may be executed poorly in many ways. For example, someone may wish to compile a list of what Tyler Cowen called "Quake books" (books that shake your foundation), but then decide only to search for lectures that already exist and simply aggregate them, so the result feels disjointed and often references other lectures that aren't part of the course.

This may also result in incomplete lectures. For example, Aristotle's section might cover just a very small portion of his Nicomachean Ethics, and the St. Augustine section may talk mainly about how St. Augustine influenced later thinkers, rather than his material per se.

Or the books might be compiled by someone who quite obviously is from the US, so the collection is very US-centric (or possibly just western-centric), and there might be just 5 non-western books (Gilgamesh, Art of War, Analects by Confucius, Baghavad Ghita and the Koran).

But many things can be done right as well, and it can introduce you to works you knew nothing about (and usually felt like you should). This happened for me with Tocqueville's Democracy in America and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Or even to works you hadn't heard of before (Denis Diderot's & Jean le Rond d'Alembert's The Encyclopedie, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich)

This collection does all of the above. Overall it has more good points than bad, but I would have appreciated maybe one of the 4 Chinese classics, the Tale of Genji, or maybe Arabian Nights.

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Review: Silla

Silla by Fran�ois Hinard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a re-read. I really didn't remember much from the first time around, and I had given it only 3 stars, which is usually not a reason to read it again. But I was annoyed that I knew so little about Sulla, so I decided to give it another go.

And I'm glad I did. I think I have to raise my rating of this book now, and possibly lower my rating of myself as a reader.

Sulla is certainly an interesting character, and while the author seems to be a bit of an apologist for him, I'm inclined to be convinced it is with good reason.

Here is a man who seems unbeatable in battle (beating both Jugurtha, Mithridates and another Roman Army led by his superior Gaius Marius). He returns to Rome to become dictator, but then abdicated the throne to live as a private citizen and dies a natural death (presumably).

It seems odd to me that his reputation is by and large a pretty bad one, while someone like Julius Caesar, who wanted to remain dictator and ended up being stabbed to death, is so often revered.

4 stars

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Review: Wilson

Wilson by A. Scott Berg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is refreshing to read about probably the most intellectual president since John Quincy Adams, if not Thomas Jefferson.

A man of letters, he attended Davidson, Princeton and Johns Hopkins, became the dean of Princeton and 'modernized' it, and was also one of the most popular historians in the country.

Herbert Hoover's reputation after WWI was excellent. He convinced Americans to save and be sparing, and people would "Hooverize" gladly for the war effort. He probably should have never run for president.

Very interesting to notice the parallels with today. Americanism, Jingoism and "America First" all featured prominently in the US during this time. However, Wison was an intellectual dealing with it, so the response was very different.

Also interesting to see how he, a very intellectual and academic president, is followed by Warren Harding, one of biggest failures of a president.

Also, Henry Cabbot Lodge deserves a lot more vitriol and hate from history books. He obviously didn't cause WWII, but I'm starting to think that his dogged refusal to pass the League of Nations for purely personal political aims is what eventually led to the possibility of a second World War. But we'll see how these biographies progress. I may be wrong there.

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Review: Empire of Light

Empire of Light by David Czuchlewski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just like The Muse Asylum, this novel can be categorized as a psychological thriller, just a thriller, or an action novel. Regardless, it is intelligent and a relatively fast-paced book.

I appreciated the impression we get of the Empire of Light, given that it can be considered a cult, but its members would disagree, and it has many aspects that could place it on one side or the other, rather than being an obvious Davinci Code-esque evil secret society.

The main character did annoy me somewhat. And the ending was frustrating, but I imagine it was supposed to be.


***SPOILERS BELOW*****
The juxtapositions were revealing, although I'm not sure I grasped everything they were supposed to reveal. There were definite contrasts between the narrator's father, who did the right thing (back in Vietnam) but attained bad results. While Giuseppe Conti (and the Imperium Luminis) would do the wrong thing, but with the 'right' results.
Another one was how Giuseppe Conti seemed to hate his sheep. I'm sure there is some analogy here about how Jesus loved his "flock" and God said to be a shepherd among men. But again, I'm not sure what the exact analogy is supposed to represent.


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Review: Popol Vuh

Popol Vuh by Anonymous
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently read Mythos, by Stephen Fry, and Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. Well, actually I listened to them, both narrated by the respective authors. So I couldn't help wishing one of them would narrate Popol Vuh, and bring these characters to life.

Regardless, this was a great find. Another book I picked up in the Free book bin at 2nd and Charles. It reads like a collection of stories. The names were a tad difficult to keep up with, but it was doable with some work. And the footnotes also helped quite a bit.



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