The Little House

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

A family builds a little house in the country and promises to keep it in the family for multiple generations. The house is interested in the city. Soon the city comes to the house. Roads, tall buildings trains and subways all get built around the building. Finally some descendants come and move the house out to the country where it can be back to a situation similar to where it started. It shows gradual city development in the pre-suburban era. A return to the original country is a little far fetched.

Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys

Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys by H.A. Rey

Cecily G is a bored giraffe who wants somebody to play with. Then she runs across 9 monkeys. At first she helps them by being a bridge across a chasm. Then they become playfriends. Most of the games at first involve Cecily enabling the monkeys. One cringeworthy one has the monkeys tie Cecily's neck to a tree so they can ski down. (I can just the giraffe suffocate.) In one humorous one, Cecily hangs her skin out to dry after getting wet. There is some interesting humour in this book. George is just one of the monkeys and doesn't really stand out. However, this was the first book that he appears.

The Poky Little Puppy

The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren

The puppies dig a hole under the fence and explore the wide world. One poky little puppy is behind them. At dinner time, the race back. They get in trouble for going under the fence and don't get dessert. The poky puppy shoes up at home later and eats all the dessert. This repeats a few times. Then one time, the puppies get home quickly and do get dessert and the poky puppy gets nothing. I'm not sure what message this book is trying to show. Perhaps "being slow means things will happen in a different way for you."

The Little Red Hen

The Little Red Hen (Little Golden Books) by Rudolf Freund

This version of the little red hen story has a mixture of black and white and color pictures. There are a lot of pictures with just the right amount of text.

Nursery Songs. A Little Golden Book

Nursery Songs. A Little Golden Book by Arranged By Leah Gale. Illustrated By Corinne Malvern (Author)

This is a song book. It contains music and words for various classic nursery songs. It is not something you would read, but rather somethin gto play on the piano.

Snow Treasure

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan

At the outbreak of World War II, the Nazis began to establish a presence in Norway. The residents of a Norwegian town had a large amount of gold that they didn't want the Nazi's to get their hands on. However, Nazis are closely monitoring what they do. To get around this, kids carry a few bricks at a time as they ride their sleds around. They are able to get most of the bricks into a staging area (sometimes hidden in snowmen) so it can be loaded in a ship bound for America.

Things get a little dangerous near the end where a Nazi seems to find them. However, he is a Pole that was conscripted by the Germans and wants to get out. He does later help rescue a boy who threw a snowball at a Nazi and they all set sail for America.

In the afterward, the author mentions that a ship did show up in America full of gold claimed to be smuggled from the Nazis via sleds. However, the details have not been corroborated. Regardless, this book is strictly historical ficiton. 

The World of Yesterday

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig was a Jewish Austrian writer who lived through World War I and World War II. He was born in the late 1800s and saw great improvements in society. The Victorian prudishness fell away, giving people greater freedom. The order and technology allowed for predictable, comfortable life. It felt like society was only getting better. People were gaining more freedoms and creature comforts. Poverty and depravity were on their way out. The summer of 1914 started out beautifully. Then Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Alas, he wasn't very popular, so this could lead to a better heir. It caused a bit of a spurt, but didn't seem like a big impact. Then war was declared. Everyone was eager to go, expecting to be back by Christmas. Then the war dragged on. Morale went down. After the war, Austria was carved up. The people wanted to have their imperial borders, or just be part of Germany. Alas, they didn't get a say and were forced to be an independent German state. Conditions were not great. Inflation was out of control. Germans would come across the border to take advantage of low prices. (This would latter change as Germany had high inflation.)

The inflation lead to significant reorganization in society in both Germany and Austria. Long term wealth and debt both evaporated. Conditions were ripe for the growth of fascism and the rise of Hitler. Anti-semitism rose up. The natural progression of society was placed in reverse.

The book is Zweig's autobiography. The world events just happened to occur in his life. The first part covers his youth. He had little positive to say about the school system. There was a lot of tedious "learning" and little true intellectual engagement. Both the students and teachers were eager for the school day to learn. Alas, little has improved in the education system of the day. He learned to get true education from Vienna. There were many chances to see musical premiers, read books and truly learn. 

He traveled extensively, primarily throughout Europe. He met many literary figures, from Joyce to Richard Strauss (with whom he composed an opera). As a Jew, the gradual rise of anti-semitism led him to leave Austria permanently. He was a "person without a state" in England. However, he was also an enemy of the state once Austria declared war on Britain. There is a tone of loss at the end. He loved his Austria, but was distraught be the end of society. 

Despite living a century ago, the situation of his life is distraughtingly similar to today. The education system has not significantly changed. The general attitudes of society are similar. There is a feeling that progress is improving society, yet concerns and underlying conflict. There is comfort in the societal structure. Minor inflation during the Covid-19 pandemic caused issues. Would major inflation lead to another World War?

On Growth and Form

On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

Living things grow in patterns. This book has plenty of math to analyze the various forms that cells grown and divide. It is along and detailed, with many pictures and a lot of math.

The Boxcar Children: The Boxcar Children Mysteries, Book 1

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Four children are orphaned, but don't want to go into a children's home. They try to hide from a family that said they might have to send the youngest one to a home. After a few not so pleasant nights, they find a nice railroad box car to live in and scrounge for some other furnishing. The oldest of the kids goes into town to do some odd jobs for money. A dog joins them and the baby of the group learns to read. Eventually, one of the kids gets sick and the doctor that the boy works for helps take care of her. He admits that he had followed them to see where they live. He also introduces them to their grandfather who was not as bad as they expect.

The kids have a very positive outlook on life, despite the poor circumstances. They are able to make do with a combination of items discarded by others and some ingenuity. The heavily regulated society of today would never allow kids to officially fend for themselves like this. (Though it might just turn a blind eye to those living in squalor in an encampment.)

The Stranger

Camus. An existential work about a Frenchman in Algeria. He does what feels good. He kills a guy. He gets the death penalty. It was first written in French. It is short and easy to understand.

Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters: With Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters are a series of letters from a senior devil (Screwtape) to a junior devil (Wormwood), providing advice on his "temptation efforts" of a young Brit. In the letters, he expresses the subtleties needed to tempt man and bring his "soul" to the devil. Screwtape advises against the obvious frontal assaults, and instead in favor of more subtle maneuverings. Many of the best "destructions" of souls can take place by turning their own virtues in to vices. (For example, church attendance can be helpful to a devil - a person attending church may observe the defects of the others there and use that to imply church teachings are negative.) Helping them to give in to small temptations can bring about a gradual destruction of the soul. On the other hand, wars can actually lead a soul to separate from the devil.

In the end, Wormwood's target is killed during World War II bombings and "lost" to the Devil as he embraced God. However, he is now better prepared for his future targets, so we must be prepared also.