And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss

As I kid walks his regular, boring route home, he imagines that he sees something more interesting. This imagination keeps crowing and extending until it gets to the point of an elaborate parade of different people, animals and vehicles. Though when he finally does get home, he just mentions that there was nothing special. 

This was one of the first Seuss books and has since been withdrawn from publication because of a Chinese Man eating with sticks. It seems just weird that heirs end up with control like this. I guess that's what you get with copyright extensions. At least this will be in public domain in a decade (unless there is another extension...)

The Hobbit

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit is one of the best Tolkien books. I actually grasped some of what was going on. Bilbo Baggins goes out on a quest. He fights a dragon. People think he died, but he didn't. There was some magic involved. I didn't quite grasp everything. However, it was a bit shorter than others, and thus managable.

Red Star over China

Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism by Edgar Snow

In the 1930s, Mao was a mystery to the west. Edgar Snow traveled up to the areas held by Red China to talk with Mao and see what was going on. At the time, Mao was far from taking full control over China. He was originally a teacher and had helped in a Communist rising in China. They were influenced by the Russian communism and hoped to set up a true peasant-based communism in China. 

The book is a journalistic story. We hear Mao's story. In this story the peasants hate the ruling "White" Chinese, but jump to the support of the Communist "Red" Chinese. The ruling Whites treat the Reds as bandits. However, the Reds realize they are fighting for a noble cause. They want democracy and rights for everyone. They advocate freedom, including religious and minority freedom. They are primarily against the Japanese imperialist and want to have a China rules by the Chinese. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is often portrayed as a poor leader who is too supportive of the rich and imperialists.

It is interesting to see how Mao wanted to portray himself. He thought of himself as an idealist. He may well have been. He may well have been. However, rebelling may have been quite different from actually leading. It is hard to see how the cultural revolution and great leap forward would come about. However, some of Mao's early criticisms of his education give some hints. He felt he was right and was upset about other classes (like art) that he felt were a waste of time. He wanted to be a teacher, but ended up a leader of a billion people. 

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men is a short book written about itinerant farm workers. Lennie and George travel together. George is the "brains". Lenny is not quite all there mentally, but he is big and strong. He is attracted to soft things. Unfortunately, he has a bad habit of accidentally killing soft animals that he touches. This gets worse when he accidentally strangles a woman. He retreats to his known hiding place when he is chased by a mob. George  later puts him out of his misery.

It is interesting to read about California agriculture from over 80 years ago. Has it always been a primarily itinerant workforce? The workers here were replace by Okies and later Mexican farmworkers. Ironic that it went through a few loops before getting back to the workers that were some of the earlier ones. I also wonder about the backstory of George and Lennie. They both dream of their own plot of land, yet find it out of reach. George is dedicated to Lennie, yet struggles with his burden. Was he really longing for the day to get rid of him? Or was it something he was doing out of sympathy?

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God centers on the life of Janie Crawford, an African American woman who wanted to live her own life. She was raised by her grandmother Grandma, whoworked as a nanny for a white family. Janie did not realize that she herself has not white until she couldn't find herself in a picture of the kids playing. Even so, she did have some "white" features which would play a roll in her later life. Grandma had grown up as a slave and lived through the civil war. She longed to have the ability to sit on the porch and do nothing and desired that of her granddaughter. She wanted to make sure Janie was properly married off soon after she "Became a woman". Janie was soon married to her first husband. She had hoped to love him, but their relationship never grew. He wanted her to be able to work hard and help on the farm. One day while he was out another man appeared that showed ambition and wanted to treat her "right". She eventually left with him and went to a "negro city". This man would go to become the mayor and they would run the store and live the life of luxury. However, Janie missed that chance to talk with common folk. After her husband died, she met a younger man named "Teacake". They would eventually get married and spend some time living in the Everglades working as harvesting crew. This marriage was much more down to earth. They were respected working class and made friends with many people. During this phase, she encounters a "white black" lady who respects Janie because of her paler skin color and "whiter" features and talks down to the more crude darker skinned blacks like Teacake. Janie doesn't buy into this argument. One day a hurricane comes through. They ignore the warning signs, and then make a mad dash to flea the rising lake at the last minute. In the process a dog bites Teacake. This leads to him coming down with Rabies and going mad. He raises a gun to shoot Janie. She has another gun and ends up killing him. She is acquitted in the trial, with many of the black audience muttering that a black woman or a white can get away with anything.
The novel focuses on life in the black community in the post civil-war era. There is still the challenge of rising up from out of slavery. Many people were like grandma and just wanted the chance to finally sit around and be lazy on their own. There were the few with the drive to make something of their life. However, they had to fight the trap of becoming something like what they detested earlier. Janie's second husband was resented for his living the life "above" that of his fellow men. However, he did gain their sympathy when he bought an old mule and freed him to live out his last days on his own. With Teacake, Janie was able to live a life of independence. They were striving for their own goals, not necessarily to live like white men. They, did not expect anything to be given to them. They were also quick to make friends with other immigrants. While they were mostly lived in a "black" world, events would make them realize they were not truly equal. After the hurricane, Teacake was pressed into service to bury the dead. Only the whites would get proper coffins. When they were ill, they would seek a white doctor as the "best" option. Once accused of murder, Janie appeared before a white jury. Life was "separate but equal" except when it wasn't. Native Americans also make a brief appearance, only to be talked down by the population, but later proven to be right. This book does a great job in showing how people lived their lives as complicated racial relationships were evolving in the Untied States.

I and Thou

There were some interesting parts of this work. However, wading through the text to get to them was a challenge. The audiobook started with plenty of commentary before getting to the actual work. Then there is the matter of it being a philosophical work originally written in German. This was not intended to be easy for the average English speaker to read. The commentary even admits that some may be lost in translation. The work has some religious undertones, but is more philosophy than religious. He posits that relationships, especially to God are very important, yet he doesn't care what type of relationship. There also seemed to be a good deal about the meaningless material "you" vs. the more important eternal "thou". I imagine this may have been clearer with the grammatical constructs of Germany. Alas, in English, it is very muddled.