The mattries37315 reading thread of 2024

Hello everyone and Happy New Year,

My first book of the year is The Reformation by Will Durant, which will be read at breaks at work.

I goal is to read at least 40 books this coming year and you can check out which books from my ever expanding shelves I hope to get through this year in my 2024 Reading Plan post linked below.

2024 Reading Plan

I love it when a plan comes together!

>2 Bookmarque: Thank you. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

>1 mattries37315: Happy New Year! Am looking forward to your thoughts on what you read this year.

Happy reading in 2024!

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread! I hope you have a year of great books!

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread. May you enjoy a bountiful and satisfying reading year.

>4 Karlstar: Happy New Year and thank you.

>5 MrsLee: Happy New Year. Thank you, I'm hoping for a good year.

>6 Narilka: Thank you.

>7 Sakerfalcon: Happy New Year and thank you. I hope so as well.

>8 clamairy: Happy New Year and thank you.

The Reformation by Will Durant

The Reformation was the outgrowth of and the downfall of the humanism of the Renaissance, together both movements ended the Middle Ages while dividing Europe civilization in the process. The Reformation is the sixth volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization as he explores how the rest of Europe outside of Italy transitioned from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era as Christendom divided and as Europeans expanded their footprint across the world.

This volume is unique in Durant’s series as it was originally supposed to be combined with The Renaissance but given the length and depth of the research would have resulted almost twice the size of the longest book in the series. This volume is a continuation of The Age of Faith outside of Italy as well as paralleling the events through the end of the Council of Trent. After setting the stage for Luther’s protest in the first third of the book, Durant then turned to the period from Luther’s thesis to the death of John Calvin in which northern Christianity split away from Rome and developed into different sects aiming for reform, the final third of the book was Durant looking at Islam and Jewish developments followed by cultural accomplishments and then the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This volume was a change from previous volumes as Durant concentrated most of the text on a 50-year period instead of the ebbs and flows of history and society over the course of centuries. The fact that most of this period centered around religion, Durant is able for the most part to keep his contempt for belief at bay though he does go a little off in the Epilogue in synthesizing the developments of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Yet throughout the book, Durant notes that the religious developments were a reaction the pagan influences of the Renaissance along with the budding of nationalism that would be supercharged once the church came under the purview of the state.

The Reformation is a unique book as Will Durant must literally dedicate the majority of his writing towards religion instead of culture, yet he is able to hide his contempt to look how the reforming of Christianity influenced and was influenced by centralizing of various nation-states as Europe entered the Early Modern Era.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Reformation by Will Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Lore Olympus (Volume Two) by Rachel Smythe.

Lore Olympus (Volume Two) by Rachel Smythe

Two gods quickly meet awkwardly then go their separate ways expecting nothing to come out of it, then stuff just keeps on coming up from that meet that just makes their lives annoying. Lore Olympus: Volume Two by Rachel Smythe continues following Persephone and Hades after their initial meeting as they try to either get used to being in Olympus or back to one’s usual routine, but others keep on butting in making immortality annoying.

Covering episodes #26-49 of the webcomic sees the main protagonists attempting to get on with their lives and duties, however things aren’t easy as Olympian gossip makes both of their lives more interesting though more for Persephone than Hades. Smythe while giving depth to her central story arc, world builds a modern age Olympus, and wrapping in various Greek gods and goddesses deciding how to react to the “facts” of the relationship. The art is excellent, and the story is engaging enough to keep me invested and interested in what twists and turns Smythe is planning towards the eventual outcome—just because it is a well-known myth doesn’t mean there are not multiple ways of telling it.

Lore Olympus: Volume Two sees Rachel Smythe build upon the foundation she laid down in the first volume and kept me interested in how she’s going to craft her 21st century version.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Lore Olympus (Volume Two) by Rachel Smythe, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Women of Myth by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy

Over the millennia and around the world, religions and literary epics and superstition had numerous female characters that have influenced numerous cultures and societies. Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy with illustrations by Sara Richard covers 50 goddesses, heroines, and monsters from around the world.

Over the course of 248 pages, Williamson and McMenemy cover their selected subjects in encyclopedic format giving pronunciation guides, appearance, and any symbols connected with the subject before giving an overview of the individual and their story with a sidebar to end the entry. As the very long subtitle states the authors cover women from around the world as 28 of them come from non-European, North African, or Middle Eastern cultures that sometimes dominate books like these with only token characters from China or India and a generic entry to cover all Native American tribes & cultures. The main reason I got this book was the 30 illustrations done by Sara Richard, an artist whose work I’ve followed for a very long time and frankly her work here is once again top notch. Now for some people who are triggered by gender terminology, avoid this book because Williamson and McMenemy don’t shy away from stating the evidence of genderbending or intersex for some individuals which when I checked other sources—besides those they provided in the reference section at the back of the book—turned out the authors did their research to give that possibility of that interpretation.

Women of Myth looks at 50 individuals that had significant impact upon their cultures either as deities to be prayed to, heroines to look up to, or monsters to look out for. Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy did a great job introducing readers to these individuals with the added effect of the amazing art of Sara Richard giving a visual interpretation of them as well.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Women of Myth by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy, feel free to comment here or there.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

The fates of Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Sub-Saharan Africa all turned out differently for some there is the question of why? Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond looks to answer that question while also challenging the colonialist rationale that has dominated 19th and 20th Century discussion.

Diamond’s argument comes down to environmental differences in which human groups had to work from the end of the Ice Age, circa 11,000 B.C. There were three factors that Diamond highlighted the domesticable plants to create large agricultural societies, domesticable animals that helped in agriculture as well as transferring diseases from animals to humans, and finally the continental axis that allowed for easier spreading of innovations in Eurasia compared to the Americas or sub-Saharan Africa. Using a multiple of scientific disciplines, Diamond builds his case as to why overarching historical patterns played out like they did while not completely taking out the impact of individual decisions but also saying that those individuals that had a big impact on history had advantages that others living on the planet didn’t. Overall, the book is an overview of large historical factors that resulted in the world we’re living in, the case Diamond makes can either be accepted in whole, in part, or completely rejected and while I some merit to his overall thesis I think it isn’t the entire explanation.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an intellectually stimulating read for anyone interested in history, but whether you agree with Jared Diamond or do not this is a very good book to read.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Rousseau's Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

>13 mattries37315: I really enjoyed this one of his, almost as much as I did his book The Third Chimpanzee. I'm glad you seem to have gotten a lot out of it as well.

>13 mattries37315: That one sounds quite interesting!

>15 Karlstar: I think this is right up your alley. You might end up learning more about yams than you ever thought humanly possible, though.

>14 clamairy: I have his book Collapse as well that I'll be reading soon as well, thanks to being next to one another at the used book store. I'll keep my eye out for The Third Chimpanzee.

>17 mattries37315: I only made it about half of the way through Collapse, and had to take a break because it was so disheartening. I think that break has lasted almost 13 years* at this point. I still intend to finish it! I might try listening to the second half instead.

*I found the thread where I put it down. Apparently there was more than a little cannibalism being mentioned and I couldn't deal with it at the time.

>18 clamairy: Thanks for the heads up.

>17 mattries37315:, >18 clamairy: We had a GD group read of Collapse back in the day, which is when I read it. I think I preferred the second half to the first, which I remember being a bit repetitive. It was thought provoking though.

ETA I found the link to our thread under Conversations on the book page. Rereading my comments it seems I enjoyed the beginning and the end but not the middle.

>20 Sakerfalcon: I couldn't take part in that one. I wonder why it was never added to the group's list of book discussions. I will add it later. I'm sure we're missing quite a few.

Rousseau's Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment and later the French Revolution, yet it is through three pieces written within 8 years of one another that would be the most important. Rousseau’s Political Writings collects the essays Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, and The Social Contract that sees the development of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s political thought and features how his contemporaries and later commentators have reacted.

In Discourse of Inequality, Rousseau after a long examination of how human society began focused on the creation of private property as the beginning of inequality and this created a corrupt modern world as well as illegitimate states—as alluded to in future writings. In the Discourse on Political Economy, was a furthering of some of Rousseau’s ideas in Inequality to a conclusion while ignoring others but the most important was that he proposed that the best way for a legitimate state to handle inequality is for essentially progressive taxation on income and wealth as he views luxury with distain and leading to corrupting of a legitimate state into an illegitimate one. Finally, The Social Contract Rousseau fully develops his systematic approach into how a legitimate state is established, organized, and run though they are more guidelines as each state’s environmental factors dictate which type of government—democracy, aristocracy, or monarchy—is best for it. The 173 pages in which Rousseau develops his ideas takes up a little over half the book, the second half the editors gave background to Rousseau’s life that influenced his thinking with selections from his own autobiography and the thoughts of his contemporaries and later commentators thought the later would focus on one intellectual thread they loved or hated while ignoring Rousseau’s careful balancing act. Overall Rousseau’s thoughts and the critical reaction they elicited from others made this little over 300-page book very informative in the development of political thought in the 18th century and beyond.

Rousseau’s Political Writings is both a good collection of three of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's most important political essays as well as thoughtful criticism from his contemporaries and later political commentators.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Rousseau's Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

The second Nilgaardian war began as the result learning about the Northern Kingdom’s secret plans and backing a coup among the sorcerers and sorceresses, the later of which found a unexpected factor in the person of a certain witcher. Baptism of Fire is the third novel of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series as an recovering Geralt of Rivia looks to head south to rescue his ward Ciri from Nilgaard and slowly collect a cadre of fighters around him.

From beginning to end, the narrative essentially followed Geralt or his companions with only glimpses of Ciri and a little subplot amongst sorceresses from across the continent. This tight focus was a vast improvement over the two previous books from Sapkowski, showing growth as an overall writer. Coming in at roughly 350 pages, the pacing was very good and very easy to stop and start giving I read it during my breaks at work. The introduction of new major characters of Milva, Regis, and now official Cahir—who has been around but not really developed—as well as interesting or important secondary characters brought a new dimension to the narrative and Geralt’s reactions to have to work with more than one person, especially as part of a team. The surprise ending for Geralt was a nice little twist that would be interesting to see as to how it would affect his story going forward.

Baptism of Fire is frankly the best book of the series so far, Andrzej Sapkowski kept the narrative basically tight and covering the entire book with only occasional glimpses into developing subplots important in the future. After reading this book I look forward to where things are going.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

>23 mattries37315: I did not care for Baptism of Fire as much as you did, but I was probably a little too hard on it. I'll be looking for your thoughts on East of Eden, I think it is an excellent book, but I dislike the subject matter so much that I can only read a little of it at a time.

Psalms by Martin G. Klingbeil

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Psalms by Martin G. Klingbeil, feel free to comment here or there.

>24 Karlstar: Well, given that there are three novels after Baptism of Fire this could be my high point of the series and everything after it quickly falls off the cliff of my enjoyment.

As for East of Eden, I'm 40% in and I've got some thoughts so far.

White Sand Omnibu by Brandon Sanderson

The desert planet of Taldain is locked between two suns so that that with one side is constantly in light and the other in constant darkness, each side has powerful magic apparently exclusive to it but is it possible that isn’t the case? White Sands Omnibus is the only graphic novel entry into Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere where if follows two individuals looking to save their cultures, Kenton is attempting to save the Sand Masters after a surprise attack left their ranks decimated while Khrissalla and her entourage have arrived from the dark side of the planet to enlist the help of the Sand Masters to save her homeland.

While there are times when a writer’s style and storytelling differ from one format to another, this graphic novel is not one of them as it is quintessential Brandon Sanderson. In fact, given the magic involved, as Sanderson said himself in the forward, the graphic novel worked to showcase it. This omnibus edition included a new prologue that gave better background to Kenton and Khrissalla before the opening of the original first volume of the trilogy, which not only showcased the Diem before it was decimated while Khrissalla’s personality traits are developed for her eventual appearances in other Cosmere locations. The script—translated from Sanderson’s original prose draft—was by Rik Hoskin, who overall did a good job keeping Sanderson’s voice throughout the whole of the book though there were times it was quite Sanderson. A variety of artists and colorists worked on the projected over the course of the three volumes and the new prologue but while those early on had a unique style those later in the prose had a crisper though “generic” style, the sudden change was a bit of a jar but not out of the ordinary. Overall a good story for those interested in continuing their journey through the Cosmere especially as it’s the homeworld of a Shard that is impacting other locations.

White Sand Omnibus is a unique entry in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere as it only graphic novel, yet it’s a fun engaging story once collected in one place that features a new prologue that helps start things off well.

Volume I
Volume II
Volume III

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of White Sand Omnibus by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Two families, two sets of brothers, a well-known Biblical tale, and one important location are central to this magnum opus of one of American’s best-known writers in the first half of the 20th century. East of Eden is an ambitious novel by John Steinbeck that is essentially a historical fiction novel of the Salinas Valley that is a double allegory for the Biblical Cain and Abel.

Steinbeck used his family history, his hometown’s history, and the Biblical story of Cain and Abel to form the backbone of this 600-page literary classic. Focused on the Hamiltons—based on Steinbeck’s maternal family—and the Trasks, were within Cain and Abel is repeated in succeeding generations, the story is also a fictional history of Steinbeck’s home region of the Salinas Valley in Central California. There is a slew of characters that come off the page at comes off as actual human beings, though many of them if we met them would wonder if they had gotten any psychological help and if not would hope they’d get it. The Biblical allegory centers around one man, Adam Trask, first as the Abel to his younger half-brother Charles’ Cain and then as the “father”—biologically it could also be Charles, legally it was Adam, and essentially it was Lee who I’ll get to further down—of Cal and Aron who repeat the Biblical allegory in a different way. Early on Adam is sympathetic given his childhood, but after the “breakup” of his marriage he becomes a human nonentity which allows the repetition of the Biblical story. The twins undisputed mother Cathy/Kate Trask (nee Ames), could be in the allegory the Devil or the Talmudic Lilith who was the Biblical Adam’s first wife but didn’t want to be dominated and became a baby killing demon in Jewish folklore, is an amoral psychopath who is able to hide her amorality from all but a few observant individuals. Then there is poor Lee, a Chinese manservant to the Trask family that essentially is Cal and Aron’s dad but could only do so much with Adam around and was in this ambiguous position of sage relative and hired help, but along with Sam Hamilton is the best character of the entire book. Looking overall at the story, it is very engaging and a page-turner to me yet also frustrating with Adam’s wanton disregard of his sons thus allowing the family drama to repeat itself.

East of Eden is considered by John Steinbeck as his magnum opus, it was certainly ambitious with this allegorical approach that was mixed with a fictional account of the author’s home region.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of East of Eden by John Steinbeck, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant & Ariel Durant.

>28 mattries37315: Nice summary. I'll continue reading it, slowly, I can only take it a little at a time.

>28 mattries37315: I have always wondered what that book was about and if I should attempt it. I think that at this point in my life I shall not, but your review is very interesting.

>30 MrsLee: Oh, but Lee, it's awesome. I've read it twice. Once in my early 30s, and again in my mid 40s for a book group. I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Perhaps you could try the audio?

>31 clamairy: Maybe. If I come across it. My brain isn't liking reading much, and depressing reading even less so. Reading about dysfunctional families hurts. I grieve so for the children.

>32 MrsLee: I understand. I bail on books that are bothering me without hesitation these days.

>28 mattries37315: So far, this is the only novel by Steinbeck I've read. I'm happy that my book club decided to read it, it was awesome. Lee was the best character, imo :)

The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant & Ariel Durant

The near century between the death of John Calvin and the Council to Trent to the end of the Thirty Years War saw first religious intolerance and religious wars range across the continent until in the end politics trumped everything like it always does. The Age of Reason Begins is the seventh volume of The Story of Civilization series by Will & Ariel Durant as Protestants fight one another and both fight Catholics before eventually politics overrules everything and people begin to ignore religion.

This volume continues a trend of transitions that defined Early Modern Era highlighting a single nation, then the continent, and finally beginning of the return of “reason” over “religion”. The Durants began the rise of Great Britain from the reign of Elizabeth I to the death of Charles I as it transitioned from warring individual nations to nations united political though with significant differences that still needed to be worked out. Next, they followed the transition across the continent of various religious wars that saw either the rise or follow of great powers from prominence that ultimately went from how God was worshiped but what was politically more important. Then they completed the volume with the rise of science and slow return of now religious inspired philosophy. Even though the Durants focused on philosophy and scientific advances in the last 100 pages of the book, they did not neglect cultural developments in literature to theater to music to the development of scientific thought, it was in this area that one could tell Will Durant was enjoying writing. After three volumes in which Will Durant had to focus on religion more than he liked this volume a reader of the series could tell change in Will’s writing that could by a result of Ariel or Will love of philosophy and science.

The Age of Reason Begins is a transitional volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization not only in the transition into the Early Modern Era but also the involvement of his wife Ariel as a cowriter.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Age of Reasons Begins by Will & Ariel Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Sorry everyone for not responding to your comments earlier.

>29 Karlstar: Yeah, if I were to read this book 12 years ago when I really got into reading again then I might have done the same thing or been like >30 MrsLee: and decided to skim the rest of the book then give it a vague review.

>34 Alexandra_book_life: If it wasn't for Lee, this book might have gotten a very worse rating from me.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

A dead body shows up in a person’s bathtub, it just so happens that that person has connections including to a second son of a duke that has time on his hands and has taken up sleuthing as a hobby. Whose Body? is the first book of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsy series in which the titular character investigates the mysterious body and later a mysterious disappearance as well.

This was a very engaging mystery from the start especially since Sayers close to the beginning either provides information that someone is either a massive red herring or the obvious culprit, but the astute reader to realizes this feels the need keep going to find out which. The main character, Lord Peter Wimsy, is overall a good protagonist to follow and has some very well characterized supporting characters in his butler Bunter and police detective Charles Parker that help to spread the narrative. While there are some characteristics of Lord Peter that I personally is his speech patterns of the stereotypical snotty Englishman especially when talking with other snotty noblemen of his same age, however I like that Sayers in making him a veteran of the Great War—as it was then known—that suffered recurrent bouts of shell shock—a.k.a. PTSD—which over a century later connects this fictional character to our world today. Frankly, the mystery was good, the main character was good, and Sayers writing was good not only making me enjoy this book but also to look out for more Lord Peter books.

Whose Body? is an interesting mystery with a good main character and engaging writing by Dorothy L. Sayers that got me hooked into seeing what future adventures Lord Peter Wimsy has.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Collapse by Jared Diamond.

>37 mattries37315:
I enjoyed Whose Body. It was not the first Lord Peter mystery I had read. Having read a few of the Lord Peter books I resolved to read them in sequence, and hence my reading Whose Body. At this stage I am about 75% through the Lord Peter stories. They are all worth a read, especially if you enjoyed Whose Body.

>38 pgmcc: Glad to hear it. Thank you.

>34 Alexandra_book_life: Give Grapes of Wrath a try. it really is worth it.

>40 Karlstar: Nice, thank you! I am planning to read more Steinbeck at some point :)

>37 mattries37315: Glad you enjoyed the Sayers novel. They are my favorites. She often works in underlying themes into her stories; it helps if you are familiar with the classical education materials, but is not necessary.

>41 Alexandra_book_life: Me too, A couple of years ago I decided to read a few more Steinbeck novels, starting with a re-read of Of Mice and Men, then read Grapes of Wrath, but got stalled at East of Eden. I probably should skip that one for now and read one of his others.

>36 mattries37315: I certainly don't mind delayed responses, some weeks I don't get here for a couple of days, but then some days I'm here 3 times in a day.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

Around the world there are abandoned buildings and monuments of long-gone or greatly diminished human societies that evoke questions of what happened and why they aren’t around anymore. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the follow up Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel as he looks at how those societies rose and fell while also how they didn’t realize they were in trouble then how those lessons could help us today.

Diamond begins by defining collapse as “a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time” then brings forth five significant factors—environmental changes, the effects of climate change, hostile neighbors, trade partners, and the society's response to the foregoing four challenges—to look at how they played into the demise historical civilizations. From the beginning it was obvious that Diamond was using Easter Island, the Classical Maya, the Greenland Norse, and many others as small-scale stand-ins for our globalized society that is facing the same challenges they did. However, Diamond is not all doom and gloom as he included various examples of societies—Norse Iceland, Tokugawa Japan, and Tikopia—that did make changes to save themselves. After all this Diamond looks at 12 challenges we face as today and “one-line objections” that are encountered when trying to solve them. Throughout the book Diamond can appear like a downer, but he ends on cautious optimism as he thinks we have the agility and the capacity to adopt practices favorable to our own survival while avoiding unfavorable ones. Overall, this book is an interesting read as a study of how historical civilizations dealt with changing conditions whether because of their own actions or of environmental factors beyond their control. While I appreciate Diamond’s look at historical civilizations to support his thesis, he isn’t a historian and as I’m not familiar with all the historical societies he cited I had to keep that in mind as he examined our globalized society.

Collapse is a book that looks towards historical societies’ relation with their environments and how it compares to our modern society. Jared Diamond’s cautious optimism is a high point, but there felt a lot of doom and gloom early on.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Collapse by Jared Diamond, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading A Treatise on Tolerance by Voltaire.

>45 mattries37315: I'm glad you enjoyed this one, for the most part. I do appreciate his insight, but I bailed about halfway through this book because I was getting so depressed. Thanks to your comments I may decide to try again, and perhaps listen to it this time.

>46 clamairy: Yeah, I at least had the warning you gave me so I knew what was coming early on.

>47 mattries37315: Yes, I'm sorry I beat you over the head with my dire warnings. Haha.

The Undiscovered Jesus by Timothy E. Crosby

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Undiscovered Jesus by Tim Crosby, feel free to comment here or there.

A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings by Voltaire

A man loses his son to suicide then the local religious fanatics claim he murdered his son because his son was about to change his religion to theirs and then tortured him to death, no this is not a country in the modern Middle East this is pre-Revolutionary France. A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings by the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire who looks to exonerate a man of accused of killing his son and the religious fanaticism that inspired the injustice.

In reaction to the 1762 miscarriage of justice relating to the suicide of Marc-Antione Calas that ultimately led to the execution of his father Jean by religious fanatics “out for justice”. The whole affair caused a scandal resulting in the philosopher Voltaire became the champion for justice for the surviving Calas family, which brought about this Treatise. Voltaire describes the fatal events of the night of Marc-Antione’s death with evidence that he was for a time had studied how to take his own life, that the timing of his death around the celebration of the anniversary of a well-planned massacre of Huguenots—French Protestants—in Toulouse during the Wars of Religion that led to conspiratorial stories about Jean killing his son because he wanted to convert to Catholicism while ignoring that he had been fine with a younger son already doing that, and the total lack of justice in the entire process. The Treatise of Tolerance then becomes a clarion call for religious toleration while also attacking religious fanaticism—Voltaire specifically points to French Jesuits of his time with able arguments—and the superstition surrounding religion that leads to situations like in Toulouse. Voltaire also writes excellent endnotes that are very informative, though the decision of the publishers of this edition to put those Notes at the end of the book and not at the end of the chapters was a bit annoying. This is one of the most important works of philosophy and religion from the Enlightenment era for those that support the freedom of religion and are opponents to religious fanaticism.

A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings is a very well written defense of a wrongly executed man while arguing for religious tolerance and against religious fanaticism by the Enlightenment’s best known philosopher, Voltaire.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of A Treatise on Tolerance by Voltaire, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

As the second Nilgaardian war continues, the search for a certain missing Princess from Cintra by various factions from both sides of the conflict including a newly dubbed knight from Rivia is getting more frantic. The Tower of Swallows is the fourth novel of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher saga as Geralt and his cadre continue their search for Ciri while she suddenly finds herself drawn to the titular tower.

There is a myriad of storylines that are centered around Ciri, either from her point of view or from other people looking for her with mixed results for themselves. While the action and the storylines themselves were very good, the way they were framed is the major issue for me. Apart from Geralt’s arc and the climax of the novel, every storyline was seen in flashbacks and frankly I wasn’t in the mood for that style of storytelling for most of the book. Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with flashbacks as a storytelling device, but after the previous book this was not exactly what I was looking forward to especially since this book is the penultimate installment of the main saga. Given all of that I liked how Ciri’s character was given more depth throughout the book and frankly that was needed for me to care about what’s her fate be the end of the next book.

The Tower of Swallows is an alright novel in the Witcher saga, Andrzej Sapkowski’s decision to mostly do flashbacks for most of the book is why after finishing I didn’t feel satisfied.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Coffin Corner Boys by Carole Engle Avriett.

I've just been lurking on your thread, but thought I'd at least leave a comment to demonstrate a periodic presence. It's nice to know that people like you continue to work through the Will and Ariel Durant series! And your summation of East of Eden almost makes me want to read Steinbeck.

Coffin Corner Boys by Carole Engle Avriett

While they had been substitutes on other missions, this was their first mission together after arriving in England and it would turn out to be their last. Coffin Corner Boys by Carole Engle Avriett features the stories of the 10-man crew of a downed B-17 bomb in occupied France and how they survived not only through her own research but through interviews and first-person accounts by the flyers themselves.

The newly arrived crew piloted by a 20-year-old George W. Starks left for their first mission, occupying the coffin corner—so named for being the most vulnerable to fighter attack—position in the flying formation due to being the least experienced in the squadron. They were shot down and those able to parachute to safety landed in occupied France three months before D-Day, their options were to get to Switzerland or Spain before being taken as prisoners of war. As it happened all three options happened to the crew as George Starks on his own and a few others as a group were able to get to Switzerland with help, a few were able to get to Spain with help, and the rest were eventually captured by the Germans and taken to POW camps in Germany. While Avriett is the main author, Starks is the primary contributor through interviews he had given and written accounts so much so that this could have been “The George Starks Story” but as one learns when reading this book that would not have been the George Starks way when it came to his crew. All the flyers’ stories are absorbing from two crewmembers’ harrowing last moments before making it to Spain to the crewmembers who survived in POW camps or later the death match to no where in the last months of the war.

Coffin Corner Boys tells the stories of survival by a crew of a downed B-17 bomber over occupied France that keeps the reader interested in a book that is less than 250 pages long. Carole Engle Avriett using research, interviews, and written recollections from all the crewmembers—especially by George W. Starks—brings page-turning read from those interested real-life military stories.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Coffin Corner Boys by Carole Engle Avriett, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

>52 jillmwo: Thanks for dropping the comment. Yeah, I kept on seeing the Durant series in the background of some of the history-tubers I watched and then one day at my local used bookstore the entire series was there, I couldn't pass up.

>53 mattries37315: That sounds like a good one.

>54 mattries37315: What a marvelous day at the bookstore that was! I never seem to enjoy that kind of haul!

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

So, what happens when a humorous writer from the West Coast joins a bunch of East Coasters tourists on a tour of the France, Italy, Greece, the Holy Land, and Egypt in 1867? The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain is a humorous travelogue detailing the author’s five month “pleasure excursion” on both land and sea.

Noting his observations and critiques of not only his adventures, but his fellow passengers, those locals that he’s met, and his expectations, Twain took everything to task so likely to the frustration of his fellow passengers. Twain’s humor isn’t over-the-top instead it is subtle and slowly builds thematic jokes until hitting the perfect one to finish the thread on then letting it go—unlike some comedians that can’t think of new material. This narrative nonfiction account has it all with minute detail of how the trip begins, excitement on finally getting to a foreign location, annoyance with everyone tell you the same nonsensical factoid all the time, watching our fellow travelers taking souvenirs by breaking pieces off stuff, realizing all the money you spent of travelogues to let you know what to expect would have been better in your pocket, and not caring one bit what happened on the way home because you just want to get there. As my previous Twain reads were short stories in high school or the serious historical fiction Joan of Arc, I didn’t know what to expect going in and I came out very happy after reading it.

The Innocents Abroad is a humorous look at a journey from the United States to Europe and the Holy Land from the viewpoint of Mark Twain. Upon finishing it you’ll realize why it was Twain’s bestselling book during his lifetime.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading 1491:New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.

Oooh, I LOVED 1491 and the follow up, 1492. Fascinating and sad at the same time. I hope you enjoy!

>57 mattries37315: Have you read Following the Equator? It has the light-hearted look and subtle humour (a contented smile rather than a belly-laugh) you describe in The Innocents Abroad. I found it particularly interesting for its description of how the town I live in was 130 years ago, and his meeting with the backers of the Jameson Raid, when they were in prison in Pretoria in 1896.

If you're interested in elderly accounts of travel in the Holy Land and eastern Mediterranean, may I recommend H. V. Morton's In the Steps of the Master (1934), In the Steps of St. Paul (1936) and Through Lands of the Bible (1938)?

Lore Olympus (Volume Three) by Rachel Smythe

A goddess beginning her time as an eternal maiden and the king of the underworld have a complicated relationship and they’ve just met, what’s going to happen next? Oh, and things aren’t what they seem. Lore Olympus Volume Three by Rachel Smythe finds the two protagonists once again finding themselves together this time thanks to the machinations of Hera whose plans of everyone else including Persephone and Hades.

Covering episodes #50-75 of the webcomic finds Hades and Persephone combatting the gossip by different means, mainly by doing things that are toxic to themselves or hiding away from the truth as well as staying away from one another. However, when Hera selects Persephone as Olympus’ representative for an intern exchange program with the Underworld, things once again are complicated between the two protagonists. Yet Smythe begins branching out the story with subplots featuring Eros, Minthe, and planting the seeds for others as the series while slowly pulling away layers of the protagonists’ stories including a mysterious event in the past. The art’s quality is excellent and Smythe shaping of the story is engaging, dominated by character-driven narrative but with a mix of worldbuilding and humor.

Lore Olympus Volume Three by Rachel Smythe continues the quality storytelling that she had established earlier and that the story is about to expand in a natural way that makes the reader want to know what is going to happen next.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Lore Olympus (Volume Three) by Rachel Smythe, feel free to comment here or there.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

When Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere, it was a nearly empty land with only a handful of people who hadn’t been there that long and had not done much in that time, right? 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann shatters narrative we learned in high school textbooks.

Throughout the book Mann tackled the familiar talking points, if not myths, of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and continual European contact. Over the course of 414 pages of text, Mann goes over the findings of scientists from multiple disciplines that reveal that at the time of contact the Americas were a highly populated area with numerous complex societies that had developed longer than previously thought and in a different way than those in the Old World. Yet it was how Native Americans shaped the land of both continents and all environments—especially the Amazon basin—that really made this a must read as Mann went into detail about the finds scientists had found. While Mann explored all these new finds, he does present the minority opinions among scientists who have issues with them yet the amount of evidence supporting this new conscious is very convincing. There might be comparisons with Jared Diamond and while Mann does mention some of Diamond points that he agrees with, but some of the evidence he presented refutes other of Diamond’s points though Mann never actually says anything to that affect. The one issue I had with the book was all the mistakes that a proofreader should have taken care of, especially since I was reading a second edition that Mann had added more content to.

1491 is a fascinating look into the Americas before continual European contact and the picture Charles C. Mann reveal through new scientific findings—at the time of publication—that do not look like what high school textbooks said they did.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of 1491:New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant & Ariel Durant.

The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant & Ariel Durant

The near three-quarters of a century from the end of the Thirty Years War to the death of Louis XIV saw the promise of French greatness being achieved then squandered allowing Britain to rise. The Age of Louis XIV is the eighth volume of The Story of Civilization series written by Will & Ariel Durant looking into the reign of the Sun King and how the politics and intellectual though rotated around him and France.

The book centered around France with the Netherlands, England/Britain, and the intellectual revolution for most of the text as well as the interaction between all of them over the course of the decades the Durants wrote about. While the rest of Europe is discussed, especially the continual rise of Russia during the reign of Peter the Great, the Durants give a good but brief synopsis of each location when not connected with the main portions of the book. The political, religious, and cultural developments of France and England were gone over in detail not only for their own history but how it affected the rest of the world. Yet for the Durants, especially Will, the portion of the book that the reader can tell they enjoyed writing and having a hard time holding back is the intellectual revolution in science and philosophy in the latter half of the 17th century and early 18th century. Not only are there chapters dedicated to Newton, Spinoza, and Leibniz but all the English political philosophers that have had influenced thought were covered in detail as well. A thorough reader of this series can tell that there is excitement and dedication to the intellectual revolution like that of the second volume of the series, The Life of Greece.

The Age of Louis XIV sees Will and Ariel Durant detailed not only the man who dominated a Europe undergoing an intellectual revolution but how he led his nation to disaster to the benefit of Britain.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Age of Louis XIV by Will & Ariel Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Lady of Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Second Nilfgaardian War continues as the Northern Kingdoms attempt to push back Nilfgaard while the search for Ciri by everyone concerned with her politically and magically continues, but it’s a certain Geralt of Rivia who is doing it out of love. The Lady of the Lake is the final book of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher saga and penultimate book published in the series featuring the end of the story of Geralt, Yennifer, Ciri, and everyone else the reader as followed over the course of the series.

After the previous book, I came into this one without high expectations and so wasn’t disappointed but after finishing really didn’t feel satisfied. The entire book is framed as a story told by Ciri to Galahad—from the King Arthur mythos—that makes sense when we learn how they’re able to interact in the first place though not so much when it comes to the multiple point-of-views from the decisive battle of Brenna and any other point-of-view that isn’t Ciri, unless the entire series has been told by Ciri which seems a stretch. If there is a huge bright spot it’s Sapkowski’s writing of Brenna that decisively ends the Second Nilfgaardian War with multiple points of view spread throughout both sides. The main plot that deals with Ciri is an interesting arc showing off why everyone is looking for her as well as explaining why she’s talking with Galahad. The last quarter of the book felt like a very long anticlimactic wrap-up with the big event not really a surprise given how the book was opened, it felt like a lot of padding honestly especially the sections on Peace Conference which could have been handled with less text. Overall, this book was like the main series was for me, peaked in the middle with a meandering start and finish.

The Lady of the Lake completed The Witcher story arc, but honestly except for short sections of writing I wasn’t really into Andrzej Sapkowski’s work. While there is a full length prequel book still to be read, I’m overall impression of the series is meh.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

>63 mattries37315: In general I agree, I found The Witcher series to be just average.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

An old sailor with a secret map, the adolescent boy who finds it, and the voyage to find the buried treasure with ship filled with pirates who had helped take it, the classic tale that has inspired daydreams for centuries. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is the quintessential pirate treasure adventure story that has been a staple in pop culture since it was published.

As a kid I watched several adaptations of this book, but it turns out they never really followed the book—at least from what I can remember of them. Upon finishing this book, I instantly knew why it became such a classic and secured a place in the cultural zeitgeist. While I could really nitpick various things like I do other books like it’s something that annoyed me, honestly it wouldn’t affect my rating so I really don’t know if I should but the fact that after Jim Hawkins was able to steal the ship back from the pirates and everyone thought less of him because “he didn’t do his duty” because he left the fort, I mean he took the ship back while they were scared in the fort—jealousy hiding behind “duty” it looks to me. Anyway, this is a classic book that holds up for me and frankly if you haven’t read it yet don’t wait and do so.

Treasure Island is a classic coming-of-age adventure with pirates(!) that I needed to have read sooner in my life.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann.

>65 mattries37315: I really loved this book when I read it in my twenties, and I swore I was going to read more of Robert Louis Stevenson's books. I still haven't read anything but The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Thanks for the nudge!

>64 Karlstar: Yeah I wish Sapkowski had continued to do short story collections like the first two books.

>66 clamairy: You're welcome.

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann

Today we live in a globalized society that some accept and attempt to enter while others fight against to save their local culture and way of life, but what if it turns out our global society hasn’t just happened but been around since a man called Columbus arrived in the Caribbean? 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann is the follow up to his previous bestseller 1491 in which he shows the changes around the world that the ‘Columbian Exchange’ created.

Mann argues that Columbus, referenced as Colón based on untranslated surname, created the path to the homogenocene—the global homogenization of (agricultural) species, diseases, and tools brought about by the migration and transport that set in with the discovery of the new world. This homogenization includes “invasive species” that the modern world relies on for food and has allowed for the number of humans living on the planet. Throughout the book Mann not only studies the environmental impact of this global exchange but also the impact on humanity through food, diseases, migration (both voluntary and the slave trade), and on society. While much of the “story” of history of the Americas after Columbus focuses on Europeans, it turns out Africans were way more impactful not only in the future United States but everything south of the Rio Grande especially as Europeans were vastly outnumbered by Africans and their descendants for centuries. Mann brings out the history of Indian, African, and Asian populations in the Americas that created the Western Hemisphere a melting pot way before it became associated with the U.S., but also how Africans and Indians banded together against Europeans to create mixed societies or allied societies that main life difficult for colonial masters. Through 521 pages, Mann explores how one voyage created the world we live in today and ramifications everyone has had to deal with for over half a millennium.

1493 can be read after or independently of Charles C. Mann’s 1491, it is full of facts that are communicated well with connected with one another in a very understandable way that makes to see today’s world and history in a new way.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

The Book of Matthew: Save Us Now, Son of David by Andy Nash

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Book of Matthew: Save Us Now, Son of David by Andy Nash, feel free to comment here or there.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

There are two non-religious books that have impacted the world in the last two and a half centuries, both dealing with economics that would result in dueling worldviews. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith was published the same year as the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the nation that would be his “champion” in the 20th century.

The predominate economic thought of the 18th century was mercantilism that sought to maximize exports and minimize imports to accumulate resources, i.e. money. Yet Smith viewed this theory and the French theory that focused solely on land value as inadequate for the growing Industrial Revolution that is just commencing, and this his magnum opus was a paradigm shift for economics. However, for many of certain of today’s defenders and proponents of Smith, they claim fly in the face of the author’s actual words including the very lauded phrase “invisible hand”. But even as Smith’s defenders twist his words, some of his detractors overlook many of his passages that support their critiques of him or what is thought he says by those who use his words out of context. Though this is primarily a philosophical treatise on economics that doesn’t stop Smith from revealing his antislavery views as well as his belief that competition in religion would lead to a more tolerate government—this later point would influence James Madison and the separation of church and state. While these two non-economic points were interwoven within the text as a way to emphasize Smith’s economic arguments, Smith’s use of economic data—or overabundant use—was detrimental to the book especially in his digressions and in the last chapter of Book V when covering Public Debt when he went over the history of England/Great Britain’s debt he could have literally halved the section and had a stronger argument to end his treatise. Smith’s very readable treatise comes in at over 1200 pages in this edition and there are many chapters that like the chapter on Public Debt could have been shortened and been just as, if not more, powerful in argument.

The Wealth of Nations is Adam Smith’s magnum opus that resulted in him becoming the “Father of Capitalism” and has been one of the most important economic books of all time, along with Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, and the world has been debating his work ever since.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski.

>70 mattries37315: I've been considering this one to read, your review was encouraging.

>70 mattries37315: You're welcome. Hope you'll find it as interesting as I did.

The War Between Good and Evil by Mark Finley

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The War Between Good and Evil by Mark Finley, feel free to comment here or there.

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski

A mutated individual who hunts monsters that threaten innocent lives, he isn’t supposed to be a name on people’s tongues, but he is and finds himself tangling with monsters he wasn’t trained to tackle. Season of Storms is a prequel novel and final installment in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series that follows Geralt of Rivia as he finds himself looking for his stolen property while being a pawn in several power chess games.

This book read like a series of short stories that are interrelated to one another and not like a “normal” novel usually does. Given this was a prequel Sapowski tried to put this into the established timeline of everything he’d already written and so there was information to put this book into the timeline which felt ham fisted at best. While I went into this book willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, but like the last few books published before this one the quality was wanting and given the structure it just made me frustrated. Honestly there were incidents that if had been fashioned into short stories and the book a collection of numerous stories, I might have really like this book but given what it is I enjoyed the good parts and wanted to forget all the other stuff.

Season of Storms ends the Witcher saga is a somewhat limping note even though it was a prequel.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Age of Voltaire by Will Durant & Ariel Durant.

The Age of Voltaire by Will Durant & Ariel Durant

The death of Louis XIV to the beginning of the Seven Year’s War was a time of change for Western Europe, especially in a growing conflict between faith and reason. The Age of Voltaire is the ninth volume of The Story of Civilization series by Will Durant and joined for the third time by his wife Ariel investigate the changing politics, cultural traits, and the face of sciences of the early modern era as well as the conflict between religion of philosophy.

While this volume isn’t a biography of Voltaire, the Durants used his life to focus on specific regions of Europe—mainly his native France, England, and greater Germany. Those regions are the focus of the first three books of the volume in which their political developments, their cultural accomplishments in the various arts, and the impacts they and Voltaire had on one another. The last two-fifths of the book features the two highlights of the “Age of Enlightenment”, the advancement of science and the attack of the Philosophes upon Christianity. It is this last topic in which Will Durant had waited decades to get to as reason and faith battled leading to the intellectual development of atheism in the cultural context of Catholicism in 18th-Century France especially in play between factions of the Jesuits and the Jansenists. Durant not only introduces the reader to Diderot, Helvetius, D’Holbach, and Voltaire’s shifting view of religion and philosophy in the context of morality. Through the writing a long-time reader can tell how much Will Durant enjoys discussing the topic, but also how he foreshadows the result of this conflict that would not affect England or Germany the same way and why.

The Age of Voltaire finds Will and Ariel Durant detailing the “Age of Enlightenment” following the life of its most well-known thinker, and setting the stage for revolution.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Age of Voltaire by Will & Ariel Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

It is a nation that is politically on edge since a failed revolution after a humiliating military defeat, and now it declared war to defend a little nation no one cared about resulting in patriotic fervor and a ticking clock. August 1914 is the first installment of what author Alexander Solzhenitsyn planned to be a cycle of novels following the death of Imperial Russia and birth-pangs of the Soviet Union.

Given the ambitious plan that Solzhenitsyn had in mind, this book does not stand on its own while part of a greater whole. While the main storyline, the destruction of Russian Second Army at the Battle of Tannenberg, is complete and leads to a cliffhanger ending it’s the other storylines that are simply introduced for later in the series especially in view of the various 1917 revolutions and the aftershocks. That said Solzhenitsyn’s characters are interesting and those with introduced storylines would be interesting to follow in future volumes, however the “main character” of the book is Colonel Vorotyntsev whose journey among the units of Second Army essentially shows the unprepared state of the army and how the private soldiers as well as junior officers gave pride to the uniform while dying to no purpose because of the stupidity of the General Staff. While I knew the outcome of the battle and how depressing it would be to see so many soldiers that the reader would meet that I knew were going to be dead by the end of the book, Solzhenitsyn made me care and that was very well done. If I’m ever able to find the other books of this unfinished cycle I’d give my time to reading them.

August 1914 is Alexander Solzhenitsyn opening installment of a cycle of novels that detail the death of Imperial Russia and birth of the Soviet Union, it’s depressing not only because of how little chance Russian soldiers have but also because it’s Russian literature and what else can you expect.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume.

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume

A friend of mine gave me a warning before Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion that David Hume puts all his mental capabilities to bring into the question the existence of a wise and loving creator, that his can be quite compelling and that I needed to be prepared to have my faith severely tested. After reading this essay, my friend could have saved his time warning me because Hume just wrote stuff down like some people just talk to hear themselves talk, in the words of William Shakespeare this was all “sound and fury, signifying nothing”. This book also contained the unpublished essays “Of the Immortality of the Soul” and “Of Suicide” that were impressive, also included was “Of Miracles” that I read in Hume’s Enquires and I decided not to read a second time for the author circular argument. In all honesty, I have found David Hume to be overrated and wish he had taken the hint when his first book had bombed and never written again.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

A companion book to one of the most influential science documentary miniseries of all-time, the success of both the miniseries and this book redefined the popular science genre for the public. Cosmos by Carl Sagan is a book that not only covers the mysteries of space but various fields of science from the origin to the present (of time of publication).

Over the course of nearly 300 pages, Sagan covers a wide range of scientific topics over the course of 13 chapters that correspond to the 13 episodes of the PBS miniseries it was written to compliment. Using a conversational writing style that connects with the general reader, Sagan explains complex scientific information without being condensing but encouraging for those interested to investigate further on whatever topic caught their attention. Given that this was published over 40 years ago some of the scientific information is outdated—something Sagan would be happy about given his call to expand our knowledge—and the cultural overtones related to the Cold War especially nuclear self-destruction do stand out as jarring, but don’t take away from overall book.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan is an engagingly written book for the general reader about very complex scientific ideas.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Cosmos by Carl Sagan, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.

>78 mattries37315: That's one I've been interested in. Sounds like it is still worth reading even all these years later. Thanks for the review.

>79 Narilka: You're welcome.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A human male emissary to a planet of androgynous humans attempts to open them up to the rest of the galactic human civilizations navigates the religious, social, cultural, and political webs that cross the two largest nations of the planet. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin is a science fiction novel that deals sex and gender that changed the genre as well as put her into the forefront of it as well.

Having heard that significance of this book as well the importance of the author to science fiction and fantasy, I felt the need to make sure I read it. Upon completing it I found it a fine narrative and an interesting worldbuilding that Le Guin created in social structures and political systems, and I personally found that the book reveals two different means for its title. However, the 55 years since the book published—at time of reading—things have changed in fiction and real life that have blunted its impact, namely another book and it’s adapted film franchise as well as certain sports controversies including one that happened while I was reading this book. Frankly this is a good read and I’m not disappointed in reading it, but unlike when it first came out its “impact” isn’t really felt to me personally.

The Left Hand of Darkness is one of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best-known works, while I felt it was good I didn’t feel the impact that is associated with one of this book’s main themes which probably affected my overall view of the book.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading A Struggle for Power by Theodore Draper.

>81 mattries37315: True, this may not be as impactful or innovative as it was when it was written, but the way LeGuin handles the subject and introduces so many concepts it is still a masterpiece.

A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper

So how did the relationship between Great Britain and the British American colonies deteriorate into war in a little over a decade after securing a huge victory over France that secured them everything east of the Mississippi and all of Canada? The Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper details how ideological factors were the main cause of the American Revolution.

While Draper begins the book the debate occurring in Britain about whether to keep Canada or Guadeloupe after the end of the Seven Years’ War—aka French and Indian War—using the arguments that had begun during the Stuart restoration nearly a century before about how to keep the American colonies dependent on Britain. However, Draper showed that those old arguments had since been surpassed by the economic prowess of the American colonies and did not consider the political attitudes and realities of those colonies until it was too late. Throughout the book Draper illustrates that the American Revolution came down not to paying taxes, but who had the power to pass tax legislation and collect the money. Over the course of a little over 500 pages, Draper developed his case by not only American sources but those of the British as well, showing the ideological arguments over 12 years that eventually could only be settled in blood.

The Struggle for Power as a great look into the cause of the American Revolution by Theodore Draper, not only seeing it from the western side of the Atlantic but in the mother country too.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of A Struggle for Power by Theodore Draper, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Rosseau and Revolution by Will Durant & Ariel Durant.

>83 mattries37315: Have you read 1776 or The British are Coming? If so, how do they compare?

>84 Karlstar: Yes to both. They give overviews of this period and aren't as detailed, especially on the British side. This is going off the top of my head, I might have to glance at my review of Atkinson's book to see if I mentioned anything.

>85 mattries37315: Interesting, I thought both were quite detailed, I'll have to check out the Draper.

The Book of Mark by Thomas R. Shepherd

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Book of Mark by Thomas R. Shepherd, feel free to comment here or there.

Exploring Mark: A Devotional Commentary by George R. Knight

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Exploring Mark by George R. Knight, feel free to comment here or there.

Rousseau and Revolution by Will Durant & Ariel Durant

If Voltaire was the embodiment of rationalist philosophers looking to bring reason to government and society then Rousseau was the embodiment of Romantic impulse for self-exploration and social revolt, they lived at the same time and died the same year without known their two visions would influence Europe’s most famous Revolution. Rousseau and Revolution is the tenth—the planned concluding but eventually penultimate—volume of The Story of Civilization by Will Durant and for the fourth time joined by wife Ariel Durant which reveals how Jean-Jacques Rousseau brought forth the Romantic counterpoint to Voltaire’s Enlightenment and how it played into the development of Europe in the late 18th century.

Unlike the previous volume, Rousseau is not as prominent throughout but his influence if felt as the chronology of the various parts of Europe are covered politically and culturally especially as the underpinnings of the Romantic movement begin appearing. The decline and fall of the French Ancien Régime bookend the volume as Durant signals the fall of the absolute monarchy with Louis XVI putting the cockade of the Revolution on his hat, yet the history behind the collapse is and how each Estate had a ‘revolution’ of their own before being overtaken by the next until that moment. Between the rest of Europe is covered either from where they were politically and culturally left off in either of the last two volumes. As the Durants originally planned that this would be the final volume of the series, they ignored their 1789 ending point to finish out the lives of various individuals and take a glance at various movements—political and cultural—that began in the focused-on decades, and they did not believe they would fully cover. If this had been the final volume as planned it was a good ending to the overall series, but with another volume to go it will be interesting how the Durants write it given how they wrote this one.

Rousseau and Revolution finds Will and Ariel Durant revealing the countering of Voltaire’s emotionless rationalism in Jean-Jacque Rousseau as well as the consequences of his undermining of the Church that help prop up the absolute monarchy leading to the latter’s fall.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Rousseau and Revolution by Will & Ariel Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

His life is an allegory for the post-colonial history of his homeland, but is it real? is he insane? is he suffering from PTSD? Yes. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie follows the life of man born at the exact moment that India became an independent nation-state and how his life reflected that of the nation.

Rushdie writes the book from the perspective of its protagonist, Saleem Sinai, whose origins are as muddled as that of the nation itself at the time of independence. Throughout the book, the magical elements of Saleem’s familial—hereditary attributes and emotional pollution—and personal life are related by the character himself but instead of simply not mentioning the illogicalness of this Saleem addresses these magical connections directly at several points. As I said above Saleem’s life mirrors that of India’s from its independence in 1947 through the 1980s even though he himself doesn’t stay in India the entire time—living in Pakistan almost a decade until the Bangladesh Independence War of 1971—but that doesn’t stop their connection. Unlike Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, this magical realism novel kept me engaged throughout whether because Rushdie’s actual references to historical events compared to Allende’s allusions to Chilean history thus getting to the history addict in me or simply me liking Rushdie’s writing style over Allende’s. Not only was this Rushdie’s first novel, but it was also my first exposure to his writing, and it makes me interested in others of his work.

Midnight’s Children is an engaging read of how not only a nation, but individuals related to the end of the British Raj and an independent nations early history handled the change.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading A New Age Now Begins (Volume One) by Page Smith.

>90 mattries37315: Thank you for this review. I've always meant to read something of Rushdie's, I even own a couple of his books. I needed a nudge.

Midnight's Children is part of the Plus catalog at audible until 10/25. Many of his other books are also free with your subscription. I've been tempted.

>91 clamairy: Glad I could give you a nudge.

>92 Bookmarque: Oh, awesome! Thank you. Does that mean I only have 11 days to listen to it?

>94 clamairy: You'd have to ask >92 Bookmarque: I read physical books not listen to audio.

>95 mattries37315: Yes, I accidentally replied to the wrong message. (But you should give audiobooks a try.)

A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution by Page Smith

The American Revolution began long before 1775, in fact the British colonists were technically rebelling in 1765 however during that decade the ‘American’ consciousness began. A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution (Volume One) is the first of two books by Page Smith covering American Revolution as well as his American history series, A People’s History, in which he reveals how British colonists transformed into Americans.

Smith just doesn’t deal with the American Revolution with the immediate lead up but goes into the origins of each of the 13 colonies and their development in broad terms both internally but in relation to each other before 1763. The period between 1763 to the outbreak of armed conflict in 1775 covers a little over a third of the book as the British Parliament and colonists butted heads over taxes that brought the once selfish colonies closer together and the populace went from thinking of themselves as British to something new, Americans. The military phase of the Revolution takes up just under half of the rest of the volume and through just after the Trenton-Princeton campaign, but with several political developments like how the new states developed constitutions that would have implications later. This volume ends at page 872—with Volume Two continuing the page count—throughout which is a lot of information, but one of critiques I had was that there were no footnotes or bibliography until I glanced at Volume Two in which Page addressed the lack of footnotes—extending the length of an already large history, finding them personally pretentious, and including the sources within the text when quoting or revealing what an individual thought—and while an answer to my main critique, there is still a little doubt that affects my overall view of this very interesting history.

A New Age Now Begins (Volume One) is the first of a double volume history of the American Revolution with this dealing with the founding of colonies through the darkest hour of a young nation.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of A New Age Now Begins (Volume One) by Page Smith, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton.

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

It is a fifteen-month period in the history of North American that changed it forever, during that time British colonists went from being dominated by moderates to dividing to the extremes with bloody consequences. 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton covers the period from December 1773 to April 1775 in which colonists separated into Whigs and Tories, aka Loyalists.

Over the course of 344 of text, Norton shows the reactions to a tax on tea and Parliament giving the East India Company direct access to colonial market which led to the final crisis between the colonies and Britain as well a break amongst the patriot colonists themselves when congresses and committees begin to be formed. As a longtime researcher of American Loyalists and Women, respectfully, during the Revolutionary era, Norton brings those elements as well as those well known to general history readers to give great context to this time in Colonial American history that doesn’t get a real in-depth look in histories that cover the period between 1763-1789 given everything that happened. Norton not only deals with what is happening in America, but real times events in Britain—as well as Europe as the year progresses—to show how events happening simultaneously or in reaction to previous events come at the point when debate or discussions have moved on thus showing how this crisis spiraled until bloodshed was inevitable. Overall, this book shows how the events of April 1775 became inevitable when just a year before they were unimaginable.

1774 is an insightful, in-depth history for general history readers as well as those interested in specialized. Mary Beth Norton is an accomplished historian that is well-written and very thorough in her research giving the reader confidence in what they read.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading A New Age Now Begins (Volume Two) by Page Smith.

>97 mattries37315: >98 mattries37315: Good stuff.

>99 Karlstar: thanks

A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution (Volume Two) by Page Smith

The six years between the Battles of Trenton and Princeton to the concluding Treaty of Peace to end the War of American Independence were trying times not only for Americans but the British and many other as egos needed to be checked. A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution Volume Two is the second half of Page Smith’s historical look at the American Revolution and the second installment of his A People’s History series.

Given this book began continuing the page count from the first installment, thus representing that Smith’s original manuscript was very long, the historical narrative continues in the aftermath of Continental Army’s 1776-77 Winter Campaign. Smith continued his critical look at British political leadership whose fumbling since the Stamp Act and now during the war brought the most powerful country on the edge for revolt, with the only thing saving them the patriotic feeling against France and Spain. Also highlighted were the failures of the Continental and later Confederation Congress when it came to financing anything and everything then later the ineptitude of instructing its diplomats who decided to what was best for the nation not the French alliance. To Smith, the French military alliance came to nothing save for the French navy in the Chesapeake during the Yorktown campaign. In fact, to Smith Washington only became the “Deliverer” of his country because of the campaign—he believes history would have given that title to Nathaniel Greene (who was a better tactical general than Washington to be sure) due to his campaign in the South after the failures of three different generals before him—after almost three years of inactivity in which his keeping the Continental Army together and creating a sense of national union which he came to embody as seen in the march to the Virginia but only was enhanced by the victory. Of everything in this book the biggest criticism, which honestly makes me looking questioningly back at Volume One, was Smith’s look at the war on the western frontier against and with the various Native American nations or to be exact his total butchering of who did and didn’t belong to the Iroquois Confederacy because the War of American Independence resulted in a Iroquois civil war that damaged it for generations and even in 1976 there is no excuse for Smith to bungle to badly. Even with that major issue, Smith’s perspective on what he believed the actual American Revolution was—not the unwinnable war the British fought to keep American dependent—and seeing the War of American Independence as revealing to the population the need to unite for a greater whole was very informative and thought-provoking.

A New Age Now Begins (Volume Two) is the second of a double volume history of the American Revolution that details the final six years of the War for Independence that revealed the need for the new American states to unite to form a new nation and complete the formation of a new type of people.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of A New Age Now Begins (Volume Two) by Page Smith, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon Sanderson.

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson

This collection of short shorties and novellas ventures to various locations within Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection contains nine pieces of varying lengths that add to various worldbuilding of several series or introduce new worlds in Sanderson’s shared universe.

Of the nine stories featured in this collection, I had read three already due to being published novellas (The Emperor’s Soul, Mistborn: Secret History, and Edgedancer), so the other six pieces were my focus in reading this book. While the short “The Hope of Elantris” is a nice additional scene that takes place during the climax of the novel and the prose draft of “White Sand” of the prologue and chapter 1 of Volume One of the graphic novels, these are both the weakest pieces in the collection. The other four are simply fantastic parts of the overall Cosmere from how Kelsier’s crusade began in “The Eleventh Metal”, to a funny pulp adventure in Mistborn’s Second Era with Allomancer Jak, and introduces two new worlds in Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell and Sixth of the Dusk. Also included before the stories for each planetary system are essays about said system written by Kriss of White Sand fame and to one’s overall knowledge of how the Cosmere physically exists.

Overall, Arcanum Unbounded is a very good book for any Brandon Sanderson fan who wants to collect all the stories taking place in this vast universe.

The Emperor’s Soul (5/5)
The Hope of Elantris (3.5/5)
The Eleventh Metal (4/5)
Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltantia, Episodes Twenty-Eight Through Thirty (5/5)
Mistborn: Secret History (3.5/5)
White Sand (3.5/5)
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (4.5/5)
Sixth of the Dusk (4/5)
Edgedancer (5/5)

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Age of Napoleon by Will Durant & Ariel Durant.

The Age of Napoleon by Will Durant & Ariel Durant

After spending over 40 years writing a prelude to your major work on Napoleon Bonaparte, you finish what you believe that last book you’ll be able to complete before you die but when the reaper doesn’t show up what do you do? The Age of Napoleon is the concluding volume of The Story of Civilization series written by Will & Ariel Durant not only detailing the life and career of the titular historical personage along with his place and roll in the history of the times but also the cultural history of Europe during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

Unlike any of the previous volumes of the series that featured a person in the title—Louis XIV, Voltaire, or Rousseau—the life and actions of Napoleon Bonaparte felt like it was central to all the historical, cultural, and other events during the quarter century is covered. To be clear this was not a biography of Napoleon, as for nearly a third of the book he is only a shadow looming over other areas of Europe or just out of vision as a threat or inspiration depending on the individual. Yet as Napoleon dominates politically and militarily, the Durants sweep of cultural history features the dominance of Beethoven in music, the beginning dominance of German philosophers but mainly focusing on Hegel, and the variety of English poetry from Wordsworth and Coleridge with Southey on one end of the spectrum to Bryon and Shelley on the other. The 80 odd pages of the volume goes over Napoleon’s fall, but even though the reader knows how it ends the Durants write so engagingly that one keeps on turning the page. As a historical synopsis of a hectic quarter century that set the stage for the modern world, this book is a worthy concluding volume to an over 3000-year long biography of Western—i.e. European—civilization.

The Age of Napoleon features as the Durants’ put it a “once in a millennium” individual that showcases the “power and limits of the human mind”, it is up to the reader to determine if a great man shapes history or if events produce a great man.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Age of Napoleon by Will & Ariel Durant, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reviewing The Corsican Shadow by Dirk Cussler.

The Corsican Shadow by Dirk Cussler

To protect the spirit of France from the Germans in the summer of 1940, a secret mission is launched to save the nation’s greatest citizen from the hands of its eternal enemy with a nice shiny bonus. The Corsican Shadow is the twenty-seventh installment of the Dirk Pitt series and the second that Dirk Cussler has written exclusively to continue this father’s creation.

Dirk Cussler wrote a tight, engaging narrative in which the protagonists, though separated from one another, interacted with two factions of the same antagonists. Though Cussler tried to hide the fact that the body of Napoleon was the big treasure with diamonds, the book’s title—though a character was included as a misdirection—and the size of the crate basically gave things away. Another nitpick was that fact that the antagonists didn’t kill any of the protagonists instead of just tying them up to be blown up and having one of the antagonists thinking this same thing before deciding to blow Summer Pitt up, while addressing the issue it just highlighted it even more. Yet, this was a page-turner of a novel that overall had very good writing and followed one of the series’ good adventures.

The Corsican Shadow is another good installment written by Dirk Cussler to continue the Dirk Pitt series begun by his father.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Corsican Shadow by Dirk Cussler, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson.

>103 mattries37315: >104 mattries37315: Good stuff! Haven't read either one but they sound interesting.

>105 Karlstar: I was pleasantly surprised with The Corsican Shadow, but looking back I think The Age of Napoleon was helped by the Durants writing the book because they weren't dead instead to trying to finish the book before they died and I should have included that in my review.

The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson

The world of Scadrial doesn’t know it’s under attack by a god from another world that has multiple plans to take control from the planet’s sole god. The Lost Metal is the seventh Mistborn novel in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere which sees Waxillium “Wax” Ladrian, Wayne, and Marasi Colms travel to the city of Bilming to confront the Set and save the world.

Over the course of almost 750 pages, Sanderson weaves three interconnected story arcs focused on Wax and Wayne, Marasi, and Steris each doing what they can to stop or mitigate a disaster put into motion by the Set led by Wax’s sister who is the avatar of the god Autonomy looking extending her reach beyond her home domain. This culmination of a four-book series not only completes the arcs of the character’s mentioned but also shows how over the course of less than a decade in the timeline the planet went from late 19th Century/early 20th Century technology to the verge of Scadrial’s version of an “atomic” and early Cold War era rocket technology all while including the magical system first introduced in the original trilogy making interesting stories to read. This last installment of this Second Era finds the greater Cosmere truly impacting Scadrial as well as having vibrations across the rest of the Cosmere as a result given the reveal of a certain character in the epilogues. Overall, this was a very good read that brought things to a satisfying conclusion while also making me interested in how Scadrial will develop in two planned future trilogies.

The Lost Metal concludes the Second Era of the Mistborn series in satisfying fashion, once again showing Brandon Sanderson knows how to construct a multi-volume story.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson, feel free to comment here or there.

I'll next be reading G.I. Butler: An Honest but Misunderstood Church Leader by Denis Fortin.

>107 mattries37315: In this year's State of the Sanderson, he titled the Mistborn Era 3 series Ghostbloods and it is supposed to be set roughly 50 years after Era 2. That will be interesting.

>108 Narilka: Yeah, apparently Era 3 was originally going to be Era 2 with The Alloy of Law originally meant to be one of a collection of short stories between the original and next trilogy. But Sanderson like the story so much it became a novel and the characters that he created an originally unplanned trilogy to follow their stories.

Themes in the Gospel of John by E. Edward Zinke

Due to the religious nature of this book, please read my review either at the link above or at the book's LT page.

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The link above goes to my Wordpress page that has my review of Themes in the Gospel of John by E. Edward Zinke, feel free to comment here or there.