Behind Putin's Curtain: Friendships and Misadventures Inside Russia

I received an advanced review copy of Behind Putin's Curtain through Librarything's Early Reviewer's Program. It is a travelogue of Stephan Orth's 10 week trip inside the republics that make up the Russian Federation.

Orth begins his journey in Moscow where he had advance "hotel" arrangements through couchsurfing.com. In fact, all of of overnight stays were arranged through this organization. The results were usually comical but sometimes dangerous. Orth stated early in the book that he "wanted to spend time with normal people doing the things that they normally do and not focus on politicians, activists, or intellectuals, as is the usual practice of journalists." The purpose of the trip was to understand what was on young people's minds and to understand the Putin phenomenon and its effect on people.

My first impression of this country was that it was truly poverty stricken. I always believed otherwise. While I knew there were parts that were poor my general impression was that Russia was a comfortable country that I would like to visit one day. This book changed my mind. Russia seems to be the kind of country my church would have a practical mission trip to in order to construct a building or fix one.

My first impression of the book questioned how the author could stand these strange people he stayed with. My next thought was how did these folks become so strange in the first place? Russia is a country of many accomplishments yet the people are quirky and they are living like they are in a third world country.

While their living conditions are not so great, i.e., food and electrical shortages, they seem to love Putin as he is a strong leader.  They see him as being able to bring back national pride and that is more important than their personal struggles. When Putin invaded Crimea, they felt proud of the accomplishment. When Putin looks superior to other world leaders they are similarly proud.  When Russia gets blamed for interference in international affairs the Russian people feel proud that they have power again.

The author made an in incredibly astute assessment of the world's political situation. During the months before and after his trip the British voted for Brexit, the U.S. elected Trump as President, Igor Dodon became the President of Moldavia and Rumen Radev, the new president of Bulgaria, took over the presidency of the European Union. All of these events happened exactly as Russia would have wished. They all strengthen Putin's position in the world. I haven't heard any of the U.S. news stations report on Putin's political power in the world as the author has reported.

The author never stayed in one place more than a few days. He maximized his interactions with people and summarized his experiences at the end of some of the chapters with what he calls truths about Russia. They are comical but true. An example is Truth #6 "The words 'That's Russia' explain many things for which there is no logical explanation."

However, the book was slow reading perhaps because of the journalistic format. Most of the interesting assessments of the Russian people and of Putin were at the end of the book. The reader does get a feel for what it's like to travel within the country via train and plane. The psyche of the Russian people is evident in the stories the author told from his interactions with his various hosts. You only get that from the format the author used where he shows you what the Russian people said and did when he was with them. He doesn't tell you in a summary. While it seemed the book read slow, I don't know that the reader would be able to surmise the Russian psyche without this particular format. It was necessary.

I find it hard how to rate this book on my 5 star rating list. The author made some incredible political assessments. He showed us what makes Russians tick. However, it was slow reading. Even though I think the way he wrote it was necessary, it was slow reading for me. I am thinking 3 or 4 stars for its entertainment readability but if you consider the book's duty to inform it might be a 5. I cannot decide so I won't rate it.  Read it yourself and you decide.

Tombland

I have been looking forward to this installment of the Matthew Shardlake Mystery from C. J. Sansom for two years since I finished reading the last book in the series. This is the 7th book in the series.

The story opens with Matthew Shardlake being approached by courtiers for Lady Elizabeth, not yet a princess or queen, to investigate who killed Edith Boleyn. Elizabeth's relative, John Boleyn, has been arrested for the murder of his former wife and is expected to be found guilty and hanged. Edith Boleyn disappeared nine years ago and John Boleyn remarried as soon as he could legally declare her dead. People were suspicious when he remarried so quickly.

Shardlake learns that two nearby landowners want Boleyn's property and he begins his investigation with them. It appears that the boundary lines from the old monastery deeds were unclear and an adjoining landowner was declaring ownership of part of Boleyn's property when Edith's body was found lying in the mud on the boundary line. Lady Elizabeth's courtiers believe that this scandal could put her in danger with her brother King Edward's Protector, Edward Seymour. Anne Boleyn had been executed just thirteen years prior and the country was still suspicious of the Boleyn family.

I enjoyed this story but feel that the pace was slow. It's 866 pages did not scare me off but as I was reading I felt that I was not gaining any momentum.  This is unusual for a C. J. Sansom book. I normally find them riveting. There were incredible twists and turns in the story and the characters acted realistically for the time period. The aristocracy were brutal during the Middle Ages! However, if the story was told in 100 - 200 pages less it may have been better reading.

If you have been reading the Shardlake series you will want to read Tombland. While it can be read as a stand alone novel, readers new to the series should be prepared for its slow pace.

The book began as a whodunnit and then turned into historical fiction which is what the author is celebrated for writing. Perhaps I was expecting a historical mystery given the story's beginning. The first two chapters moved quickly as the reason for the story was introduced.  Then the pace slowed. Tombland just isn't my favorite book in the series but I am still glad that I read it, mainly to keep up with the characters.

Seven Days that Divide the World

The author, John C. Lennox, is a professor of mathematics at Oxford University.  I read this book for the Christian Reading Challenge based on a recommendation from a friend.  My friend stated that the author would  be able to prove through science that God created the world in 7 days.  While I disagree with the author's ability to provide proof, he certainly shot holes in the arguments of the New Atheists against creationism as well as coming up with quite a few interesting points about the Genesis Chapter 1 story. This was such a fascinating book that I read its 184 pages in an hour and a half and then reread it a week later and a third time one month later.

The author begins by stating he is a scientist who believes in both science and in the Bible. He says that you can draw scientific implications from the Bible but that does not mean that the Bible is a scientific treatise from which you can deduce Isaac Newton's laws or Einstein's equations.  The Bible was not intended to explain the origins of the universe in a detailed scientific language. It was intended to teach people about God.

A discussion over young earth and ancient earth creationist views is expanded on to point out that the definition of the word "creationist" has changed over the centuries. Originally it referred to someone who believed in a creator with no implication for how the creating was done. Today, a creationist is usually referred to someone who believes in a young earth. Also, these viewpoints are not new. They have been debated since times before Christ by Jewish scholars. Whether the 6 days in which God performed his creation were 24 hour cycles or epochs of unspecified lengths changes the age of the earth. See Psalm 90:4 "For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past..." Then there is the question of what is meant by "earth." Is it a planet, dry ground, or something else? Consider whether you are interpreting the Bible from the era it was written in or the era you are currently living in. That changes everything too. In addition, there is a grammatical point to be made about English versions of the Bible where the creation days are rendered "the first day," "the second day." Genesis was written in Hebrew. While the Hebrew language has a definitive article (ha) it is not used in the original for days one through five.  Thus the beginning of time is "one day" rather than "the first day. "  It makes a difference in how you interpret the chapter.

Another interesting discussion in the book concerned the word "literal." What does it mean to literally interpret the Bible? The definition of this word has also changed over the centuries and the author shows how there are different levels of literality.

All of these discussions were further expanded upon in the book. In addition, there are five appendices that dispute several theories of the New Atheists concerning the Genesis text. The book gets extremely technical here. I won't go into detail about these issues even though the book appears to have been written to debunk the theories of the New Atheists.  That was not the reason that I read the book.

The main thrust of the author's argument is that there is a way to understand Genesis 1 that doesn't compromise the authority of Scripture and at the same time take into account our increased knowledge of the universe.  I thought this was fabulous! Many of his discussions were above my ability to understand. I am not a mathematician or a scientist. I was impressed though with what he had to say.

I cannot remember a time when I was excited to read Genesis but John Lennox has made it seem important to study.  He has highlighted the creation story for me in such a fascinating manner.  I highly recommend this book!

Winesburg, Ohio

I loved this book from my high school days and was glad that I had another opportunity to read it again. The story covers the life of George Willard from his time as a child until he left the town of Winesburg as a young man.

The book is divided into 24 sections or can be considered 24 short stories that take place in Winesburg. Each section focuses on a different resident of the town. Willard is included in 15 of the sections and he is a newspaper reporter who is an empathetic listener to his neighbors. Most of the residents are very unhappy and lead bleak lives. Consequently, I felt the book was depressing and don't know why I idealized it all these years.

The major problem that I had with the book is due to how I personally changed since I last read it 40 years ago. I was healthy at the time I initially read it but within 10 years of reading Winesburg I became disabled. My professional life then centered around civil rights. I now view these Winesburg residents as being members of protected classes. Some are physically disabled, some mentally disabled and others have psychiatric disabilities.

I abhor the name of the first section "The Grotesque" because it describes a man "whose body was old and not of much use anymore." I would call that ageism. I realize this was written a hundred years ago when attitudes were different but these thoughts were dominant in my mind as I read the book.  A bent up, or disabled, body is not grotesque in my opinion.

The other residents had deformities. Some were physical, some mental, and some had both. All were described as grotesque. Is that what we were called 100 years ago or did the author have a problem that he worked into a book that became acclaimed? I became angry as I continued reading but another thought came to mind.

One of the stories concerns Elizabeth Willard, George's mother, who had an illness and "between Elizabeth and her one son George there was a deep unexpressed bond of sympathy."  When a child grows up in family with a sick or disabled family member they become empathetic listeners. Let me also add that the Introduction by Irving Howe in my version of the book referenced the town of Clyde, Ohio as the town that Winesburg was based on. The author grew up in Clyde and during this time in our nation we were turning from hand crafted items to machine made items. Many people were out of work and life was bleak just as it was in this fictional Winesburg. It is my belief that the author chose the 24 residents to write about because he was their empathetic listener. He cared for them as he cared for his mother.

After rereading Winesburg, Ohio I no longer idealize it. It is archaic compared to our 21st century manner of thinking. It did not seem archaic 40 years ago but it certainly does now. I did not like the negative physical descriptions of the residents.  Since in many of the stories the physical characteristic had nothing to do with the storyline it appeared to me the author hated people with deformities. If you read reviews of this book you will see that each resident is considered an example of the grotesque. For me, the unstated question is who is the grotesque? The town's residents or the author?

I was quite surprised by my reaction to the book. However, I have spent most of my career trying to change people's perceptions of those who are different, including the usage of more politically correct, i.e., kind words to describe people. This language used in this book was jarring and did not sit well with me.

Book of the Month: February

My favorite book for February was The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish.  It is the story of Ester Velasquez who lived in the 1600s in London's Jewish community. She was quite a compelling character. After having lost her entire family she begins to secretly be a scribe for a blind rabbi. This type of work is unthinkable for a woman of that era. Her intelligence and her job must be kept quiet in order to maintain her standing in the community as well as keep open her marriage prospects. Ester wasn't interested in marriage because she knew no husband would allow her to continue her reading.  She thought that she could somehow make herself a life of intellectual activity but I won't tell you whether she succeeded or not. Read the book!

I began reading C. J. Sansom's Tombland which could have been a contender for book of the month but its 900 pages have me still reading it all the way into March. 

Siddhartha

Siddhartha is another book from my high school days that I loved. I have wanted to reread it for a while and the Read it Again Sam Reading Challenge gave me the opportunity.

Hermann Hesse began writing Siddhartha in 1919 and finished it in 1922. He was fascinated with India as his parents had lived there as Christian missionaries. He even tried to travel to India to live but became ill on the ship in Southeast Asia and returned to Switzerland where he had been living. The book was immediately successful in his native Germany but he probably never thought that it would become popular with the hippie culture of 1960s America.

The story begins with Siddhartha going on a spiritual journey with his best friend Govinda where they eventually meet Gautama Buddha. Govinda stays with the Buddha and becomes his disciple but Siddhartha leaves, still in search of finding his true self. He continues to be a self-denying samara until he figures out how to be made whole. Just when Siddhartha finds himself he meets a woman named Kamala. Kamala is a prostitute who Siddhartha falls in love with but she will have nothing to do with him as he has no money, fine clothes or possessions. Siddhartha gives up his samara ways, gets a job with a merchant and and becomes one of Kamala's lovers. He becomes wealthy, buying a house and a garden. After 20 years he leaves her as he realizes that he has changed from what he has sought to be his whole life. He does not recognize his soul.

He begins to walk back to where he originally started from and runs across Govinda. Govinda does not recognize him. They have a short talk and then Govinda leaves him. Siddhartha comes across a boatman he met 20 years ago and finds him to have become wise from the river that he plies his trade from. Siddhartha moves in with him and regains his soul. There is more to the story but for Siddhartha he has learned that he had to err in life in order to find wholeness.

While this book was written 100 years ago it is still relevant today.  The character Siddhartha found that there was no happiness in following the ideas of others, that you must find it within yourself. After he endured a period of suffering Siddhartha was able to pull himself up out of his pit and make a new life for himself. There is a lesson for us all here.

Siddhartha is a short 80 page book whose words flow beautifully making it a wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

The Weight of Ink

The Weight of Ink won the Book Club Award from the National Jewish Council in 2017.  It's chapters alternate between the stories of two women, one living in the 1660s and one in the 2000s. Ester Velasquez was an immigrant to London from Amsterdam and was permitted to be a scribe for a blind rabbi for a period of time before the plague hit the city.  Helen Watt was a historian who ran across some newly discovered Jewish documents from the 1600s that had been kept hidden in a storeroom under the staircase of a London mansion.

The Weight of Ink is not for the faint of heart. It is 560 pages long and it is not a light read. What keeps the reader interested is primarily the incredible character Ester. You want to know how life turned out for her who had a rough start in life. She lost her entire family while she was young, in separate incidents, and then was sent by her Amsterdam community to London to live with a stranger, Rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes. The Rabbi becomes her mentor which puts her at risk. Women in that era were not supposed to be educated, let alone work as a scribe, and doing so affected their marriage prospects.  Ester was required by society to hide her intelligence. Helen Watt is a less compelling character. She suffers from Parkinson's Disease and is near retirement age. Consequently, she needed help in studying the documents that she found as quickly as possible so that she could publish a paper about them before her retirement. She hired a Jewish American student, Aaron Levy, to assist her. She is somewhat similar to Ester in that she must kowtow to younger male historians at her college who are always ready to take any advantage over her that they can. Ester, however, is the reason you will want to read this book.

Since Ester is scribing for a blind rabbi the novel is heavy on Jewish theology and Jewish heresies of the time period. Secular philosophies of the era are also discussed. The history of London's Jewish community is also shown in great detail.

It took me awhile to finish this book but it was a satisfying read. I am both glad and sad that I have finished reading it! I am happy to be done with it but sad that this lovely story is over. The author, Rachel Kadish, is an incredibly talented writer. This is her third book.

Way over 5 out of 5 stars!

Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches

Carole Samples' book is the go-to guide for crazy quilters seeking new stitches and stitch combinations for their quilts.

I had been doing crazy quilting for a few years when I first learned about Carole Samples out of print book. All of my crazy quilting education came from blogs at that time and 3 years into my crazy quilting experience one blog post mentioned this book as having every stitch and stitch combination imaginable within its pages.  I found a copy and was amazed at what I found inside.

This book is very different from other crazy quilting instruction books. It does not have stitch instructions or pretty pictures to get inspired by. What it does have is quite helpful for the intermediate or advanced crazy quilter who is looking to expand her stitch repertoire.  The book shows every stitch on black and white pages by stitch category, ie, single stitch, fan stitch, holbein, comb, alphabet, T, triangle, geometric, cross stitch, stem stitch, star, herringbone, arrowhead, chevron, fern, zig zag, fishbone, satin stitch, blanket, buttonhole, feather, cretan, and chain stitch. The book then shows numerous examples of stitch combinations.  When the title says the book is a "treasury of stitches" it is telling the truth!

If you want to advance in your crazy quilting craft then you need this book to help you see new ways of doing common stitches.  It helps you to be creative in your embroidery on your crazy quilt top.

I would rate this book 10 of of 5 stars! That is how fantastic it is. As I said above, this book is out of print. However, you can still find it on Amazon as well as Ebay.  It is a must have for the crazy quilter.

12th Annual Graphic Novel and Manga Challenge

I am rejoining this challenge again despite having to post review links on Facebook. I prefer to keep my Facebook separate from my book reviews for personal and business reasons. However, I read a lot of graphic novels each year and it would be foolish not to join the challenge and meet other readers and see their reviews.

To ensure that I can meet challenge requirements I will join at the Modern Age level which is the smallest reading level.  It requires that 12 books be read throughout the 2019 calendar year.

Murder by Misrule

Murder by Misrule is Anna Castle's first book in her Francis Bacon Mystery Series. Francis Bacon is a 25 year old new barrister at Gray's Inn who is tasked by his uncle, Lord Burghley, to find out who killed fellow barrister Tobias Smythson in Westminster. Smythson had been working with Bacon's uncle to get information on the Catholics in the country, particularly the Jesuits who may have been bringing unlawful pamphlets into the country. With Mary Stuart condemned to die, England's Catholic citizens were in turmoil and Queen Elizabeth wanted to stamp out their rebellion. Smythson's death meant that the three law students he tutored needed to find someone new. The student's leader,Thomas Clarady, picked Bacon and Clarady primarily assisted Bacon in the investigation.

The mystery formula was followed here with the murder occurring early in the novel and the suspects and red herrings being in their proper order. The fact that the story took place in 1586 was secondary to the solving of the crime. Murder by Misrule, while a historical mystery, followed the formula of a straight mystery not the formula of a historical mystery.

I found the novel to be enormously entertaining. I was engaged in the plot from the first chapter. It had a light feel to it similar to a cozy mystery which made it a fast read.  The Francis Bacon character was interesting. As a 25 year old he had a brilliant mind but was a bumbling young man who had made some major political mistakes in his career. This is not how I remember him from history but everyone has to start somewhere.

Murder by Misrule was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know what to expect since I had never heard of the author before. Now I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Book of the Month: January

My top book for the month of January is The Sisters of Versailles. Based on a true story, this historical fiction novel presents the bizarre story of the five Mailly Nesle sisters, four of whom had affairs with Louis XV.

While the background of the story was about sex, it did not go into detail about the sex itself. The book showed the differences between the sisters' personalities and how each of their strengths, or vanities, propelled them toward Louis and power in his Court.

They loved backstabbing each other like no other characters you have ever read about before. They grew up on the poor side of aristocracy but had an incredible zest for power and had an innate sense on how to obtain it.  They mesmerized me.

I have already read book two of this trilogy.  It was good but I don't think the mistresses in book 2 can beat the ones in book 1 for their political and sexual maneuvers. I will soon be getting the third novel and conclude reading this delicious trilogy.

The Splendor Before the Dark

The Splendor Before the Dark is the sequel to Margaret George's The Confessions of Young Nero.  The story begins when Nero is 26 and has been emporer for 9 years.  It covers a 4 year period of time which is also the last 4 years of Nero's life.

The story opens with Nero helping to put out the Great Fire of Rome.  Here he is a benevolent ruler with concern for the poor citizens as well as the rich citizens of Rome. His political and administrative skills are top notch.

Rumors begin to circulate that Nero started the fire which wasn't true because he was out of town when it started. He brushes the rumors aside initially because all emporers have to deal with them. Nero sets about to rebuild Rome with grand public features even though some wealthy citizens will have to be displaced to make room for them. The houses will be grander and the placement of them will be organized into a beautiful city plan. The rumors become more intense that Nero started the fire so that he could rebuild the city and he decides that he can no longer ignore them. He comes up with a plan to blame the Christians for the fire.

The author presents a Nero who loved to stage plays, play music, engage in athletics and compose lyrics. He is a man who fiercely loved 2 women. Acte is the girl he grew up with and who knew him as he really was, not as an emporer. He adored his wife of 2 years, Poppaea. When she died he was devastated. This is a sensitive man, not the man of history that we have come to know, except for the part about blaming and punishing the Christians by burning, crucifixion and feeding them to beasts.

While I enjoyed the book in the beginning, it was slower reading than the first book The Confessions of Young Nero. It was a little wordy and less exciting than Confessions. It took me 6 weeks to read it! In addition, I don't remember Nero being such a nice guy in the first book. He had to become evil in order to survive his family.  The family was rough. They killed each other for power. There seems to be a missing link between what Nero was like at the end of book 1 and what he was like in book 2. Am I missing something here?  Did becoming emporer free him to be himself or did being the only surviving member of the family free him? I am just speculating.

Margaret George is well known for her research on the people she writes about.  It is confusing to me that she gives us a nice Nero. Nero is not known historically as a nice person. She shows us Nero as a human being and explains in the Afterward that most of what we know about Nero was written by his enemies who had an agenda to destroy his reputation.  However, she whitewashes the treatment he ordered against the Christians by preferring to focus on his leisure activities both before and after he made decisions to torture and kill them. This did not sit well with me. Most of the book was about Nero finding time to be an artist. If he was truly just an artist, why does she need to end the book with his successor killing everyone associated with him? He does not sound like a benevolent ruler here and it seems that she left out many of his ruthless actions as emporer.

She explains in her Afterward that she agrees with the historian Edward Champlain that Nero's actions were rational and that much of what he did resonated with contemporary social attitudes. She further stated that the Christians may have started the Great Fire in order to bring about the end times which is exactly what Nero believed and was the reason he persecuted them. However, she writes in the novel that they had no involvement in the fires but writes in the Afterward that they may have. In addition, she states that no one knows how widespread the persecution was and that the Christians may not have known about it. Ms. George has failed to read all of the historical accounts of the persecution. I find her thoughts offensive.

What is "the dark" referred to in the title? It's the last chapter where Nero is forced to commit suicide for an unknown reason. If you know history you know why he had to commit suicide. If all you know is the history presented in this book you must be confused.

The Splendor Before the Dark is thought provoking. It gives the reader a different perspective on Nero than history provided but still shows him as a ruthless killer albeit indirectly. I must state, though, that my opinion of Margaret George has changed. In historical fiction writing the reader expects the author to be true to history. In this book she wasn't. It seems to me that she and Nero have the same opinion on Christianity. Otherwise she would not have focused so much attention on how more important his leisure activities were than ordering the slaughter of a group of people.

2 out of 5 stars.

Frost Quakes and Polar Vortexes

Here in the American Midwest we are in the middle of a polar vortex which has brought freezing temperatures. It is currently colder where I live than in Antarctica. At the time I am writing this post the actual temperature is -21 degrees with a wind chill factor of -54 degrees.

Last night I woke up three times in the middle of the night hearing loud thuds outside. I got up to look out the windows to see what was happening outside or to see if the windows cracked but saw nothing. This morning the TV weatherman explained that we were all hearing frost quakes which is a seismic event.

Here is how a frost quake occurs. While water naturally freezes underground, when the weather is in a deep freeze the water goes deeper underground. This forces the soil upward which releases kinetic energy. The release of the energy makes a loud sound that is called a frost quake.

Here is a photo of a frost quake in nearby Milwaukee, WI showing that it's much more than a loud sound. This is scary.

I guess if you lived in Antarctica this would be common knowledge for you. Now it's common knowledge for those of us in the Chicagoland area. The quakes are still occurring this morning. It is going to get a little warmer today and by that I mean -13 but I don't know at what temperatures the quakes stop.  We had a -17 degree day 2 years ago and we didn't have frost quakes then.

With three polar vortexes now under my belt I should be accustomed to their challenges. No one ever said anything before about a frost quake. Now I am worried about the ground opening up near my highrise apartment. We have never seen the train tracks set on fire before either.

The steel tracks get pulled apart into pieces during extreme cold and after being set on fire they can be molded back into one piece that the trains can run on tomorrow.  I don't really trust those train tracks. They just don't seem safe.

Polar Vortex 2019 has been the toughest and it's not over yet.