The Soul of America

The Soul of America The Battle for our Better Angels is the first book by Jon Meacham that I have read.  Part of the title comes from a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln wherein he says that the memory of our bonds of affection will swell the Union when touched by the better angels of our nature.  I was inspired even before the Introduction by 3 quotes.  One from James Baldwin, another by Franklin Roosevelt and the third by Lyndon Johnson.

As I was reading I felt I inspired by the recitation of American history that I was quite familiar with but have not heard anyone talk about in decades. Citizens from my baby boomer generation are well familiar with the thoughts the author presented and believe them.  I am not so sure that young Americans do and I doubt that they would bother with a book written by someone from my generation.  I am 60 by the way.

The author's grasp of history is evident as he connects events from Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement. He showed Lyndon Johnson's knowledge of the need to return to the events at Appotommax, where Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant, in order to fix the civil right wrongs of the 1960s. He shows how politicians in our past and present have used fear to get elected and how that did not work out well for them or for the country either.

One fact that I was not aware of was that every President from Reconstruction to the beginning of the 20th century had to make deals with the KKK in order to get elected. Warren Harding, who did not like them, made a critical public remark about them and their response was to create a conspiracy theory that he had black blood.  This conspiracy theory was backed with false affidavits concerning his birth record. Sound familiar? Another new fact for me was that there was a national debate at the end of the Civil War whether emancipation meant equality. The South got organized and won that political debate.

While it seems that the Trumpian politics of today are a new low for the U. S., Meacham tells us a forgotten history that says otherwise. Our politics have always been nasty with brief interludes of peacefulness.  However, there have always been several voices in each generation speaking against the wrongs of the day, voices that succeeding generations followed.

While I have always believed that each generation has improved life in our nation and that this would always continue throughout history, I cannot be as optimistic about the future as the author.  The reason is that the young people I know do not acknowledge that there is a shared American past or even a shared creed. This is new. We have never had a generation so unconnected with the past. It's only what can I get for myself from so-and-so in the fastest way possible. What I think is discarded by them because I am old and responsible for all the things they think are wrong with the country. Many of these things are not wrong, it just prevents them from having to work to get ahead.

As I write this review, I have just watched the funeral of Sen. John McCain where the ideals presented in The Soul of America were talked about but only by those whose careers were either over or will be over soon due to their advancing age. Who will take up our American cause and show our true soul? I am anxious about this. I try to be hopeful but it is hard.

The author offers a salve for these feelings in the final chapter with a Harry Truman quote, "The next generation never learns anything from the previous one until its brought home with a hammer." The author ends with "The moral utility of the past should help us prepare to act in the present."

I did not have high expectations when I got this book even though it has had many great reviews and everyone told me I had to read it. I viewed it as a political book, a type of book that I try to avoid. However, I was surprised by how Meacham connected the past with the present. It is a fabulous trip down America's memory lane and Meacham shows all the good, the bad and the ugly parts as well as how it explains where we are now as a nation. I am thrilled that I read the book and highly recommend it. 

The Essex Serpent

This is the first book by Sarah Perry that I have read. It is her second novel, a work of historical fiction set in London and Essex in 1893.

After Cora Seaborne's uncaring husband dies, she abandons her society life in London and takes a trip to Colchester and the coastal town of Essex with her 11 year old son and his nanny where she is free to pursue her personal interests in the natural sciences. She continues to see her former husband's physician who she initially feels affection for, affection that is returned. Here she first hears about the 300 year old legend of the Essex Serpent who has recently been seen roaming the local waterways. The serpent has been rumored by local residents to have killed a man. In Essex Cora meets the Reverend William Ransome and his wife Stella and becomes a friend of the family.

I read a positive review of this book last year but what made me pick this book up at the library is its gorgeous cover. We don't often see beautiful covers like this so I want to point out that it was designed by Peter Dyer using images from iStock and William Morris. Dyer is a graphic artist in London who has designed many book covers in his illustrious career.

I don't usually read straight historical fiction as I prefer historical mysteries. Historical fiction reads a little slow for me. However, I felt this book was even slower than normal for historical fiction. I was engaged in the plot during the first half of the book but completely lost interest at the halfway mark.  While I continued reading I was bored. There was very little plot movement or character development. I couldn't wait for the book to end and skipped some of the last 100 pages.

This book was disappointing. That old saying that you can't judge a book by its cover applies here.

Crippled Grace

Crippled Grace is a book in the Studies in Religion, Theology and Disability series by Baylor University Press. The series will include books that discuss disability in all of the faith traditions. The author is a theology professor at Alphacrucis College in Sydney, Australia. Readers note that both the author and this blogger have mobility impairments.

The author, Shane Clifton, had my utmost attention from the first paragraph of the Introduction. I knew that I would be buying this book which I had taken out of my local library. He struck a cord with this statement "We are told by charismatic preachers and motivational speakers that to concede to the constraints of disability is to fail in faith; to give in to doubt rather than be positive... " Boy, have I heard that fail in faith message over and over.

He also brought up a touchy subject that people with disabilities are set up to be used as inspirational, something we in the disability community call inspiration porn.  The purpose of inspiration porn is to make nondisabled people feel better about their life circumstances. The author states his intention in the Introduction to show in his book that disability, happiness and faith are not self-contradictory.  I had never thought of this viewpoint before but can see that he is right.

Clifton was already a theology professor when he became a quadriplegic. The experience caused him to reevaluate his thoughts on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas' viewpoints toward virtue. For example, Aristotle believed that ill health was not only undesirable but restricted the full exercise of virtue and the good life. He also believed women and slaves were inferior and therefore incapable of virtue.  You can make a similar application of these thoughts toward disabled people and discern that Aristotle would not have considered disabled people capable of living a good life. Likewise, Aquinas felt that happiness could be impeded by illness, ie, disability.

There is much more theology from both of these men and other theologians as well as the Bible on issues such as suffering, pain, happiness, and grace.  This is, after all, a theology book. Where necessary, Clifton shows how the theology has been incorrectly interpreted to the detriment of people with disabilities. When he shows a different, or correct, interpretation I am emotional; gaining new knowledge, but emotional. In addition, there are several chapters discussing the psychology of happiness and friendship and one chapter on sexuality.

I must admit that the theology and philosophical theories did not sink in because the communion of experiences among people of disabilities tugged at my emotions. I will read the book at a later date to pick up what I missed.

The book made me feel better as a person with a disability. For me, it has now been 32 years since I became disabled. There was some camaraderie from hearing similar life stories from other persons with disabilities and their families and also the identification of feelings I had toward God and the local church that I was not always consciously aware of. I wanted to get out a yellow highlighter to mark sections that were important to me but this is a library book so I could not do that!

When I picked up this book from the library I thought I would be giving a review of its theology on disability. However, it touched me personally and that is all I can say. 

Origin

Origin is the 5th installment of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series.  However, unlike the earlier books this one had a boring start, mediocre middle and a strong finish.

I have a rule that if a book does not grab my attention by the first 50 pages I put it down.  It didn't grab my attention but I kept reading anyway because this is a Dan Brown book.  In the first 3 pages there was talk about a new scientific revelation that scientist Edmond Kirsch discovered that would upend all religions. For the next 100 pages there was only talk about what it could possibly be. There was no action nor any statement about what this new revelation was. Kirsch was planning on revealing his discovery at an event at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain that would be live streamed to millions.  However, Kirsch was murdered during his presentation but before he could state what his discovery was. As his former teacher, Robert Langdon was invited to the event and witnessed the murder.

The story then picked up as it alternated between Langdon's attempt to find out who killed Kirsch as well as figure out what his discovery was and the scene at the Spanish Royal Palace where Prince Julian, assumed to be a staunch supporter of the Roman Catholic faith, is about to ascend the throne.

This book did not read like a Dan Brown book. The sentence structures were different. The suspenseful chapter endings were not there. There was no treasure hunt or emphasis on symbols as in prior novels but rather just a murder mystery. It seems like Dan Brown did not write this novel. That is how different Origin is from his prior books.

I was disappointed with Origin. While the plot premise was good, the writing was not. Let's hope he gets it right the next time.

Kaffe Fassett's Bold Blooms

I have read a few of Kaffe Fassett's books and even had the good fortune to take a 2 day quilt workshop with him 5-10 years ago. I love his fabrics and have used them in several quilts. Bold Blooms was not only eye candy for me but inspiration as well for future quilts that I am dreaming up.  I am counting this book as a selection for the 2018 Creativity Reading Challenge.

The book begins with Kaffe's story as an artist. He moved from California to London in the 1960s and began sketching items he saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as in England's estate homes. Photos of his watercolor sketchbooks are included in the book which I found interesting as I never knew he used that medium. From those sketchbooks he began his design career, initially in knitwear, oil paintings, tapestries and then quilt fabric design. However, all along he was inspired by floral patterns, the larger the better. He is also a colorist, by that I mean he uses color intensely and combines colors in ways that most artists would not.

I have never used large scale prints in a quilt before but Kaffe shows how it is done. He includes cutting and sewing instructions for several quilts.  I am interested in making 3 of them but 2 use both traditional piecing and applique methods.  I am not good with applique so I am hesitant to try to make them.

As I said earlier this book is eye candy for an artist, quilter, etc... There are large scale photographs of his paintings, tapestries and fabrics as well as his muses from the London museums and estate homes. You also see him working in his glorious colors while knitting, painting, doing needlepoint and designing a quilt on a quilt wall. For those of you who do not quilt, we plan our quilts on a flannel fabric design "wall" that is held against a wall in our sewing room that is large enough to hold fabric pieces for the entire quilt.  Here we try out fabric colors to see what works together before actually sewing the pieces together. You can also see what the whole quilt will look like before sewing and if it isn't pleasing to the eye you can make changes.

The colors in the photographs are inspirational on their own. As an artist my heart begins to swoon when I see color used this way and I can see in my mind not only quilts I could make but colored pencil drawings too.  The big question for me is whether I need  to buy this book.  Probably. While I took it out of the public library it really belongs in my home library for future inspiration.

Highly recommended for artists and quilters!

Zahra's Paradise

Zahra's Paradise takes place in Tehran in 2009. The author and illustrator have chosen to remain anonymous for political reasons and are known only as Amir and Khalil. This is a graphic novel.

The story is about a mother, Zahra, searching for her son, Mehdi, after one of the biggest street protests that took place in Tehran after an election. Mehdi has disappeared.  His mother and his brother Hassan, a blogger and the book's narrator, search for him at all of the city's hospitals, prisons and at the morgue.  They plead with corrupt politicians for information on an almost daily occasion, showing them all a copy of Mehdi's photograph. Hassan even hacks into one of the regime's most notorious prison's computer system with the hope that he will find him there.

This story primarily shows that a mother's love has no boundaries. However, it also shows how Iranians engaged with each other at that time period, which was not so long ago, just 9 years ago.  We westerners have been taught by the media that Iran is solely Muslim yet Zahra's best friend since the 3rd grade is Miriam, a chain smoking, drinking Armenian Christian. The title of this book "Zahra's Paradise" is also the English translation of the name of the largest cemetery in Iran, located in Tehran. Those interred there include people who both supported and opposed the Iranian Revolution as well as the current regime. Also, the regime buried Jews there that they caught and murdered. This story is showing a more diverse Iran than I am accustomed to hearing about with Jews and Christians living there alongside Muslims.

The artwork is composed of black and white drawings with varying degrees of grey shading which I assume reflects the desperation felt by Medhi's family. The comic is formatted in a traditional comic book page spread.

This story is an important one to tell. It shows what life is like in Iran at this time period. While this is a book of fiction, real life events took place in its pages. The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 as President of Iran resulted in days of protests. The arrest, torture and murder of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi is part of the story. Also, the hanging of 2 gay men was mentioned. I remember reading about this in the newspaper. What surprised me was what the Iranians in the book thought about the execution of these 2 men. They wondered why their leaders could not wait for God's judgment on them and why they felt that they had to be the judge and executioner.

Highly recommended!

Plum Tea Crazy

Plum Tea Crazy is Laura Childs' 19th Tea Shop Mystery.  The series takes place in historic Charleston, South Carolina.  I have read all of the books in the series and have loved them.

The story opens with Indigo Tea Shop owner and amateur sleuth Theodosia Browning viewing a Gaslight and Galleons Parade from friend Timothy Neville's mansion.  A local banker, Carson Lanier, falls from a rooftop and impales himself on an iron fence. Some observers thought they heard a shot before he fell. However, it is later discovered that Lanier was shot with a bolt from a  medieval crossbow before he fell.  At the request of her friend Timothy Neville, Theodosia becomes involved in the investigation into Lanier's death.

I think this series needs a shot in the arm.  The same events happen in the same order in every book.  While I applaud the author for always having the crime committed in the first chapter so that the entire book is devoted to the whodunnit, after that the book is stale.  We series readers know that secondary character Delaine Dish will host a fashion show where 2 women will have an argument and Delaine will then have a tantrum that can only be soothed by Theodosia. We know there will be 2 extravagant tea events in her shop, although those tend to be rather interesting. We also know that the Heritage Society, chaired by Timothy Neville, will be the place where the crime or a crime will be committed. Usually it is where the crime to be solved in the book occurred. The murder place should be varied.

The main characters are great. Theodosia, her tea blender Drayton Connelley, her cook Haley and police detective Bert Tidwell are awesome. Some of the regular secondary characters are no longer interesting, especially Delaine, and the author should create some new ones. Theodosia has some eccentric relatives that maybe should become more prominent characters. Theo uses her secondary characters to help her solve murders so it is crucial that they not only be interesting but grow as characters.

I was disappointed with this installment of the series. I will give the series one more chance but if the author doesn't mix things up a bit I will stop reading it.

Rosalie Lightning

Tom Hart's story of his 2 year old  daughter Rosalie's death is memorialized in his graphic novel Rosalie Lightning.

He talks about the things she loved, her favorite sayings and activities.  He also goes into great detail describing the grieving process he and his wife shared after her unexpected death just days before her 2nd birthday.  All of his best memories became nightmares after she was gone.  He asks the question "what do you do after your child dies?"

This is a sorrowful book. Anyone who has suffered a loss will appreciate this book.

Brazen

Penelope Bagieu's graphic novel Brazen is subtitled Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World. It contains 30 short biographies of women who challenged the norms of their eras and made changes to society.  As a feminist, I could not help but love this book.

With the exception of Wu Zetian, Nellie Bly, Josephine Baker, Hedy Lamarr and Mae Jamison I had not heard of any of  these women. One in particular surprised me. Agnodice was a female gynecologist in the B. C. era. I didn't know there were gynecologists back then let alone women gynecologists.  She had to masquerade as a man to practice because prior women gynecologists were accused of performing abortions and women were then outlawed from working in that profession. Some things never change do they?

Be prepared to be inspired to dream big and learn how to persevere to reach those dreams of you read Brazen. I recommend this book as a must read for all girls for this reason.  Us older gals like myself could use a good dose of inspiration to either keep us on track or be inspired to find another path as a few of the rebel ladies did.

The artwork is done in a traditional comic book page layout using primarily colored layouts but occasionally black and white drawings. What strikes me about the drawings is how well the author captures women's emotions on their faces.  When a rebel lady gets treated badly or gets bad news, the author has drawn the perfect expression on her face.

Highly, highly recommended!

Public Library Haul

I just came home from the Chicago Public Library with 9 books which is all my briefcase would hold.  There were 5 additional graphic novels concerning the Jews and the Holocaust in a special display area that I wanted to check out but there was no room for them and I probably couldn't carry them all home on the bus anyway.

So, what did I get? I got one cozy mystery: Laura Childs' "Plum Tea Crazy." I also got 3 graphic novels: "Brazen," "Rosalie Lightning" and "Zahra's Paradise." There is one art book in the bunch by Kaffe Fassett who designs quilt fabric and textile patterns. A newly published religious book on being a disabled Christian by Shane Clifton titled "Crippled Grace" caught my eye as I, too, am a disabled Christian. Dan Brown's new mystery "Origin" and a historical fiction novel titled "The Essex Serpent" by Sarah Perry was checked out.  Finally, Ken Follett's latest novel "A Column of Fire" was also checked out.

I have 3 weeks to read all of these books and do not know how I will ever have the time. I felt compelled to bring them home with me just the same.

Palestine

Journalist Joe Sacco wrote Palestine in 1991 and 1992 as a 9 issue comic book series.  He wrote it after spending two months in the Occupied Territories and it is about the first intifada against the Israeli occupation which he says in the Foreward was running out of steam at the time of his visit. The edition that I have read is the 2015 Fantagraphics Books edition. The original comic book series won the 1996 American Book Award.

Sacco interviewed many Palestinian families but heard the same stories over and over. People were run out of their homes by Israeli policemen or soldiers, were arrested and jailed for offenses that they did not commit, lived in squalor, were not allowed to work, and had their businesses razed among other things. That said, he did present their hatred of Jews. The book opened with a discussion he had with a Palestinian about Jewish American tourist Leon Klinghoffer being thrown over the ledge of a cruise ship in his wheelchair by the PLO. The Palestinian only cared about the international news coverage that he felt the Jews were getting over the murder.

The artwork is a little different from what I am accustomed to seeing.  The author used black line drawings and text in full page and double page spreads as well as an occasional traditional comic book page layout.

Had I read this when he wrote it, it would have been newsworthy for me.  However, I have heard these stories from several different news sources and have read one or two books on the Palestinian/Israeli issue. I am aware that Sacco's book was groundbreaking for it's time, particularly for a graphic novel and therein lies it's value.

The Photographer

The Photographer, Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders is a reportage comic written by Didier Lefevre. In July, 1986 he traveled to Afghanistan with the French Doctors Without Borders during the height of the Soviet war to photograph their mission. The artwork of Emmanuel Guibert also helps to tell the story of their 3 months in Afghanistan. The book was published in three sections in France between 2003 and 2006. It was translated into English by Alexis Siegel who also wrote the Introduction and was published in English in 2009.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section is the month long trek to the mission location. The second section deals with the provision of medical treatment to the Afghans and the third section is the month long walk out of the country.

The graphic novel begins with the photographer leaving France for Pakistan where he meets up with other members of the mission and helps them prepare to enter Afghanistan. The first glimpse of local flavor is here.  The MSF (French name of Doctors Without Borders) packs up their supplies in boxes so that there is no room inside due to the battering that the boxes will go through during the expedition through the mountains to their post in Badakhshan. I was quite surprised to discover that the contents of a pack of pills could be crushed to a fine powder if they were to shift within the boxes. The boxes then must be covered in waterproof tarp in case they fall into a river. Negotiations over the purchase of animals for the expedition take place, where else, in a refugee camp.

The medical mission itself was pretty straightforward. Most of the harrowing stories dealt with how the group got into Afghanistan and how they got out.
The book ended with an update on what each member of the mission is currently doing with their life.

The artwork is colored in the browns of the region. While some of the drawings are detailed, many are not. They were drawn first in a black outline and later colored in by Frederic Lemercier. The photographs are all in black and white. A few of them are out of focus and I cannot understand why they were used in the book. Most of the photos are dark and I am not sure why.  Lefevre had good cameras with him. I wonder if the brown terrain made everything dark. However, in some places he said he was in beautiful terrain and the photos were still dark. His photos of the wounded and the surgeries were very clear. The comic print style of putting a page together is used regardless of whether there are photographs on the page, drawings or a combination of the two.

The story told here is an important one. It not only is an MSF story and an Afghanistan story, but a story of how the American war on terror began. The Introduction discusses the people involved in Afghanistan at the time of this mission who were also involved in the September 11 attacks in the U. S. The role of the CIA in Afghanistan is also discussed.

I highly recommend this book.

Heretics

Elias Kaminsky traveled to Havana, Cuba in search of the story how his family's Rembrandt painting of Jesus came to be auctioned off in London 70 years after his grandfather Daniel landed in Havana in the late 1930s. Daniel Kaminsky, a Polish Jew, was sent ahead of his family to an uncle, Joseph Kaminsky, who was already living in Havana with the expectation that his parents and younger sister Judith would follow in a matter of weeks. 

Their ship, the Saint Louis, did arrive in Havana in 1939, but none of the 937 passengers were allowed to disembark and after a week of political wrangling they were sent back to Holland where the ship had originally set sail. However, while the ship was in Havana harbor Joseph hired a small boat to get near the Saint Louis in order to speak with his brother Isaiah Kaminsky. His brother mentioned that he had the painting and that he was going to be able to sell it so that the family could pay people off in order to exit the ship. Upon their arrival back in Holland they were placed in a refugee camp and later they were exterminated at Auschwitz. 

Joseph Kaminsky was a religious, Orthodox Jew but Daniel decided on the day that the St. Louis set sail from Havana with his family on board that he would no longer be Jewish.  He grew up in Cuba and considered himself to be Cuban instead of Jewish.  Daniel married a Catholic woman named Marta, even converting to Roman Catholicism only so that he could marry in the Catholic church as his non-practicing girlfriend wished, and they later emigrated to the U.S. and lived in Miami Beach where their son Elias was born.  Marta converted to Judaism while in Miami so when Elias was asked in the story whether he is Jewish he says yes, because his mother was Jewish.  However, Elias was not religious. 

The story followed Elias' search for his parents' story as well as the painting's story. He enlisted the help of former Havana police detective Mario Conde to help him in his search. The author alternated chapters between Elias' time and Daniel's time.

I had read Leonardo Padura's Havana Gold a few years ago and thought it was just OK. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try another book of his but the back cover blurb convinced me to buy this novel as the history of the Saint Louis ship in Havana harbor in 1939 is another one of the heart wrenching stories of the Holocaust.

You could not help but feel great emotion for the main characters, Joseph, Daniel and Elias Kaminsky. They all suffered from the one act of the Kaminsky family's death in Auschwitz. All were heretics in some form with Daniel becoming one by trying to deny his faith and Joseph breaking a commandment. A big one. The Sephardic Jew who posed for the portrait in the 1600s was probably the first heretic in the novel. 

I love family sagas and that's probably one of the reasons I loved this book. Daniel's changing emotions toward his faith tradition was compelling and the reader was able to get inside his head as he grappled with personal decisions when Israel became a nation and when he converted to Catholicism so Marta could have the extravagant wedding she always wanted. 

While the subject matter of the story is serious and the author wrote much emotion into this story, it still flowed effortlessly and was an easy read. If you are not familiar with the St. Louis incident in Holocaust history, you will find the book informative. At 528 pages it's a chunkster but I guarantee that you will love it. I certainly did.