Review: Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy

Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy by Mark Gilbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A tour de force covering the founding of the Republic of Italy, picking up from the ashes after the war (also obviously covering prior to and during the war).

This was incredibly well-researched and does a great job explaining the inner workings of Italy, including how, despite being derided for having had some many governments over the years, this is actually one of its strengths; in setting up a system wherein the strength is not the government, but the system itself, so anytime the government falls, it is not “an earthquake”, but just “a tremor”.

Also fascinating details about how Italians reacted to events during the war, including realizing Mussolini was a puppet, and the partisan’s role in denouncing fascism during and after the war. Also fascinating to see how the communist party became strong after the war, and it was thanks to the various coalitions (and the church) that it did not actually take power.


I now want to read a biography on Alcide de Gasperi.





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Review: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is interesting to read this right after Nate Silver's "On the edge". My guess is we will start reading many more books dealing with AI and its changes to society, governments, business, and everyone's life.

This is written with the usual in-depth historical research typical of Harari, with some repetitions from his old books.

There are some fascinating points, such as how conservative political movements have become untenable with all this change, so they have morphed into radical movements touting revolutionary slogans.

Also some interesting analyses, such as how the Catholic church has been able to change with the times without ever admitting it was wrong (it cannot, since technically it follows God's word), but rather due to "bad actors". I don't know if this holds true, but it's an interesting perspective.


Either way, Harari remains a must-read.



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Review: Augustus: First Emperor of Rome

Augustus: First Emperor of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Informative as ever, although my impression was that this was more about the times and surroundings of Augustus. Still, plenty of interesting information.


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Review: Jerusalem: The Biography

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This really does read like a biography of a city. And, given the many millennia of history, not to mention how central it has been to history, religion, politics and pretty much everything else, I can say that reading this book once isn't nearly enough to confidently say I know the history of Jerusalem.

Many of the incidents and issues will be familiar to most, from Bible stories, history books, newspapers, etc. Here they are all interwoven into a thread, with tidbits that (at least to me) are entirely new. For example it was interesting to read how, after Jesus' death, his brother James had been the de-facto head of the religion until Paul came around and insisted on preaching to non-Jews (and after James' death his cousin took over).

Regardless, this book is packed with way too much information to remember, but it is definitely a journey. One reviewer recommended reading it like a work of fiction, and I think I'd agree. It reads like an adventurous history of a land that was (and is) important to so many different people.



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Review: Edward III: The Perfect King

Edward III: The Perfect King by Ian Mortimer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is extremely well-researched (even calculating how many people likely had King Edward's blood over the ages), although at times it seemed strikingly apologist for him. For example, to dismiss his accusations of rape because someone 700 years ago questioned his servants and no one spilled the beans seems a bit rash.

Still, a fascinating read.


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Review: Prohibition: A Concise History

Prohibition: A Concise History by W.J. Rorabaugh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Concise and informative. Also quite interesting to read about the dynamic of prohibition and how it fit in with abolition, women's rights, political parties, the temperance movement, etc.




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Review: The Mummies of Ürümchi

The Mummies of Ürümchi by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating book packed with fascinating information about a fascinating subject I knew nothing about.

Some sections do meander a bit, especially regarding stitching and some theories of provenance, but still well worth the read.

My main issue is that this was written over 20 years ago, and I had to go to Wikipedia to see what is new in the field (quite a bit apparently). I wished they would write an updated edition.


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Review: The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this very prematurely, never even having set foot in Australia and knowing next to nothing about its history. Still, despite the overflow of people and place names, this was extremely eye opening. The treatment of the prisoners, in particular, is probably some of the most sadist material I have ever read. It is absolutely crazy that people in charge could do such things and still consider themselves civilized.

And many of the characters were unforgettable, especially Alexander Maconochie and his Merit point system. I wonder if any other place has ever tried a similar system, since it seemed to produce some excellent results.


And I expected to read more about The Kelly gang, but they were mentioned only in passing, so I can only imagine the target market was people who are much more familiar with Australian history than I am. 



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Review: London and the Seventeenth Century: The Making of the World's Greatest City

London and the Seventeenth Century: The Making of the World's Greatest City by Margarette Lincoln
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent book that delivers exactly what is promised. Moreover, despite being a pretty big book, it is jam-packed with information. I particularly liked the story about coffee shop and how it affected news being circulated, as well as how the King Charles debacle came to be (maybe British people learn this in school, but much of it was unknown to me). Also, they shipped 400 prostitutes to Barbados? Did they really think that would end prostitution?



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Review: London

London by Edward Rutherfurd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The style of this book reminded me of "Il prete rosso", although I have to admit I enjoyed it more then, since it only covered 500 or so years so the families and generations were more intertwined (also it took place in a much smaller valley).

After a while this book seemed more like a collection of short stories. Each story takes place in London at a different point in time, involving people of the same family(ies), from the Ancient Roman times to the 20th century. This is a lot of ground to cover, and at many points I found myself not caring about the stories and just wanting to hear more about the time and age.

In fact, if this had been a real series, with a different book of this size for each time period, I think it would have been more interesting, since it could delve deeper into each era.


Regardless, I definitely enjoyed it. 3.5 stars.



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Review: The Secret History

The Secret History by Procopius
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reads like a gossip rag badmouthing the people in charge, set in Justinian's reign. A very rare type of book, given the time period and location. A great read.


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Review: Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Always interesting to read updated information on Neanderthals, especially related to how they lived, how they died out, and how much DNA we share with them. This book was jam-packed with information.



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Review: Shenandoah Secrets

Shenandoah Secrets by Carolyn Reeder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great compendium of stories from the Shenandoah valley area. I really enjoy reading stories like these, especially having recently been there. Actually, they make me want to go again and find some of these places.

Some interesting short stories:


"One autumn day, the teacher at the Simmons Gap
Mission School noticed an unpleasant smell and traced
it to one of her students. She sent a note home asking
the mother to give her child a bath. When nothing
changed, the teacher sent another note. Finally, she
told the child to ask her mother to bathe her. The next
day the little girl came back with a message:
her
mother said she'd been sewn into her clothes for the
winter and wouldn't be let out till June!"


"John Henry Bolen spent the Civil War
years
evading the conscriptors who
combed the area looking for men of
draft age. Once the conscriptors came
Beulah
in the daytime when John Henry was
in the house, and he had no way to
escape. Thinking fast, he sent his wife
outside and had her walk toward Pig-
nut Mountain hitting two shingles to-
gether. Since the conscriptors thought
she was signaling her husband to stay
away, they didn't bother to go into the
house.
When the conscriptors came on a
summer night, John Henry and a friend
took refuge in the chimney, one standing on the other's
shoulders. Mrs. Bolen slapped the baby playing on the
floor near the hearth so Its crying would mask any noise
they made.
Eventually, though, John Henry Bolen and his
friend were caught and taken to an army camp, but they
escaped and came home- wearing out their shoes on the
way."




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Review: The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag

The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag by Peter Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not sure what I expected from this, but it ultimately ends up being a list of 500 (I assume) polymaths and a brief description of what makes each one a polymath. There are some discussions about things they may have in common, although of course nothing holds for all of them. The author mentions, in passing, the advantage one has being a polymath (can connect disparate points from unrelated fields), and some of the issues (not taken seriously by experts).

I guess I was hoping it would discuss more of the advantages/disadvantages and how to become more of a polymath and think like one. Or something along those lines.

I did like the quote "Adrien Baillet feared the return of barbarism because of too much literature available", in the 1600's.



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Review: Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt

Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had recently started watching Succession, but then lost interest. Watching a show about family members who happened to have inherited wealth fighting over it just didn't interest me. 

For some reason, however, I found this book enthralling. So much so that I may give Succession another chance. 

The Vanderbilt family spawned some very interesting characters, to say the least, as well as some unique stories. 

It's also a good cautionary tale as to how not to maintain wealth over many generations. 

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Review: Korean Works & Days

Korean Works & Days by Richard Rutt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Richard Rutt was a Catholic (and Anglican: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rutt) priest who lived in Anjung, Korea, and in this book he recorded the village life he witnessed and which, unbeknownst to him (or maybe he had an inkling), would pretty much disappear within a few decades. 

This book, written in 1964, is choc full of many little tidbits about old Korean traditions and ways of life. Like how the older men would grow their pinky fingernails out, witnessing the exchange of poetry and wordplay (using Chinese characters). 

It also seems pretty critical of the "kye" rotating credit system, which is interesting since the last book I read about it (Yogong: Factory Girl) seemed to be in favor of it. 

Some other interesting points:

Hearing how Suwon was back then

"This is the kind of village where they understand all twelve flavours in an ox's head"

"On the 7th day of the 7th moon they celebrate the star Vega under the name of the Spinning Maiden" (this must be the Qixi festival)

"Chuseok's Korean name is Han-gawi" (I Never knew this)

"Like most Korean villages, ours has a chop-house run by a family of Shantung Chinese"

The festivals were fascinating, and probably don't exist anymore ("dance and wrestling festival")

No mentions of Taekwondo, but it mentions traditional Korean wrestling, which reminded me of Sumo wrestling (or more like Schwingen, as we had back in Switzerland)

He mentions a memorial for Sin Suk-chu, who I had never heard of before (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Suk-ju)

"Korea knows no tea" - Interesting statement (p. 144)

The naming conventions are fascinating, and I don't remember encountering nearly this many issues in the 1990s (then again, I was in Seoul)

"I know a high school boy who did not even know his mother's surname until I told him" (p. 149)

One man refused to pronounce a certain character correctly because it was the personal name of the first King of the Joseon dynasty. 

Some books he mentions that I would like to read in the future:

J.R. Moose: "Village life in Korea" (1909)

J.S. Gale: "Korean sketches" (1899)

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Review: The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

We never stop to think about the importance addresses have in our everyday lives. Without addresses we cannot receive (or apply for) official documents, benefits, jobs, etc. Even if we're not homeless, we need an address. And yet addresses aren't as ubiquitous as we'd think. West Virginia barely had any outside cities prior to 1991. 

Also, did you know you can buy any old address in New York for 11,000 dollars? Which is why Trump was able to open a building on "1, Central Park West" (he had the address changed from 15, Columbus Circle), and then he got mad when Time Warner also got the address "1, Central Park" (rather than 25, Columbus Circle). 

And What3Words seems like a fascinating idea. 

I have to say, however, that the idea brought up for creating an address for homeless people using houses that aren't in use at the moment seems a tad flawed. In theory it sounds good, but I could see these rich people with empty real estate protesting that they plan on moving back any time now, so the address can't be used. or something. 

However, I do think someone enterprising could come up with a solution. At first I thought just providing PO Boxes, like some coworking spaces do, would work. But I could see places of employment figuring that out and discriminating against these. Otherwise maybe something like choosing a place that shows up on Google maps, but with a different number. For example, my building has 7 floors, but there would be floors 8 through 12, say, which are addresses used for homeless people. They don't really exist, which is ok, since house calls aren't needed. But the post office will have an automatic trigger whenever any one of these addresses is used, to hold onto them in a PO box, which the homeless person can check. 

I'm sure I'm missing something in the details. Still, a very interesting and seemingly surmountable problem, which gets you thinking. 

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Review: Bricchiche fiorentine - Parte seconda

Bricchiche fiorentine - Parte seconda by Foresto Niccolai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#books #bookreview #booktwt

Another excellent book detailing many places. This also covers the mainstays (Duomo, Piazza della Repubblica, etc. etc.). I basically saved a bunch of spots on google maps with interesting tidbits in the notes for each. 

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Review: Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power

Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hämäläinen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely excellent. A history of the Lakota, but told from their perspective more than an outside one discussing different people. This is all-encompassing, at least as far as it can be with the knowledge we have. Highly recommended. 

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Review: The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Discovery

The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Discovery by Martin Dugard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quite an interesting find. This focuses on Columbus's last voyage, which is probably his most interesting (maybe aside from his second), but it is hardly ever mentioned, since it isn't where he "discovered the new world". However, it is where he was arrested and thrown in jail for possible death, where he convinced some Native Americans he had supernatural powers by "causing" a lunar eclipse, and was his last trip and last attempt at being a governor in the Americas. 

Plenty of background information is given as well, obviously, including quite a bit of interesting information about indigenous peoples you don't often read about. 

All in all, a great read. 

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