Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr, illustrated by Eric Carle

This was first published in a "different form" in 1967, and then newly illustrated in 1992. I'm not a big fan of the illustration style. However, the text is great for kids. It's rhythmic and follows a pattern that young ones love to follow.

The Gingerbread Man (Easy-To-Read Folktales)

The Gingerbread Man (Easy-To-Read Folktales) by Karen Schmidt

This is a telling of the gingerbread man story. There is nothing special. It is not horrible, but doesn't add anything special. At least it tells the story accurately, with the gingerbread man being eaten by the fox.

The Great Brain

The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

I remember reading many of the Great Brain books when I was in elementary school. The narrator is JD Fitzgerald. They are Catholics living in Southern Utah during the early 20th century. His brother, Tom, is the Great Brain. He is always thinking of schemes to make money. Sometimes they backfire. But more often, JD ends up at the poor end of the deal. 

The book covers many of the adventures of the Great Brain. When his family gets a new indoor water closet, he charges all the kids a penny to go see the construction and use of it. (However, his parents end up making him refund it.) When a new Greek kid moves to town, he befriends him. He also sends his old "junk" to him to make him to help him be like local kids. He later earns money for training him to fight. In both situations, they ended up being "win win" situations.

In one episode, JD tries to be the first kid in the family to get the Mumps. He is proud of doing it and getting time to enjoy his freedom. However, his brothers end up giving him the silent treatment and JD has to bay the Great Brain for the privilege of getting back to normal.

In the end, the Great Brain works to frame a bad teacher as a drunkard in order to get rid of him. They succeed. However, JD and the Great Brain fess up and then feel remorse. The Great Brain has a change of heart and works to get the teacher reinstated. This ends up benefitting him after all as the teacher implements a kinder means of discipline.

The book is a fun read and has a "Curious George" type of feel. The Great Brain always manages to come out ahead in his plans, even if there are some short term setbacks.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

A suburban girl decides to run away from home to New York City. She enlists her younger brother to join her. She has found an unused train ticket they can take. Her brother has a good amount of money earned from playing war with other kids. They hide their stuff in their musical instrument cases and then go off towards school, only to hop the train to the city. There, they plan on staying in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They hide out around closing time, then sneak to their area to sleep. They bathe in the fountain (which they also discovered to be a source of income.) They do voyage to other areas of the city.

They see a new statue at the museum that is rumoured to be from Michelangelo. It was purchased cheaply at an auction from a wealthy lady. They decide to find out more. They do library research and carefully look at it to identify a stamp that could identify it as original. They send a letter to the museum. (They type the letter on demo typewriter and open a PO box to receive responses.) Alas, the museum responds that they already knew about that and continue to investigate.

Finally, the kids decide to go visit the rich lady. There they agree to tell the lady the details of their experience in return for details on the statue. The lady has proof of the statue's provenance. However, she does not want to share it. She is willing to give it to the kids in her will after she passes away. She also agrees to return the kids to their home in her Rolls Royce. In the end, we learn that her lawyer is the kid's grandfather.

Through their journey in the city, the kids learn to get along better and build off each other's strengths. They also learn to get bold and solve problems. The book is told somewhat from the view of the rich lady, with many "clippings" included.

Speak Memory: An Autobiography Revisited

Speak Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov

Nabokov's desired view of himself comes through in this autobiography. Instead of a strict narrative, it is a collection of essays, usually focussing on different activities or places in his life. He came from a well-to-do Russian family. He was not fond of the Czar and had some sympathy for the revolution. However, that faded as the Lenin/Stalin dictatorship came to be. He likes to point out that his nostalgia is not for the lost wealth, but for the missed homeland. The essays cover some of his childhood actions and friends as well as hobbies. It ends up being a fairly well done autobiography.

American Challenge

American Challenge by J. J. Servan-Schreiber

In 1967, the French were worried about the economic dominance of the United States. America seemed to dominate industrial production and innovation. Only small scraps were left for Europe. Often these "scraps" were offshoot of American companies, with small manufacturing operations in Europe. The first bits of the European Union had been started, with the treaty of Rome. However, there were challenges of agreement and enforcement, together with worries of external domination.

The author presents predictions for the future as well as an action plan for France. A "Federal EU" is detailed as a better plan. There is discussion of politics with criticism of both the right and left, with a desire for an "innovative left". Technology predictions were in some ways correct and others way off the mark. A chapter was devoted to supersonic transit. It was taken as a given that Boeing's SST would end up dominating the earlier-released Concorde. (Instead the SST never was produced, and the cancellation nearly destroyed Seattle.) The importance of computers and the knowledge economy was fairly accurate. However, it has failed to result in a massive reduction in individual working time. Instead, it seems that Americans work even longer than before. There was also a prediction that America, Japan, Canada and Sweden would be the few "high income post-industrial economies" by 2000. Europe was predicted to be in the next rung below. Well, by the time 2000 rolled around, most of Europe was fairly intermingled with the big 4. The big miss was Asia, with many east Asian countries (other than Japan) moving up the charts.

The book could easily be rewritten today from an American point of view with China substituted. There is worry today that China is dominating production. There is hope that more automation and more local production will help take back some of the Chinese dependency. America still does have a lead on research and knowledge. However, there is concern that some of that is ceded to China. Today, Americans complain of significant Chinese government supports. In this book, the French acknowledge significant American government investment in key industries. (Though the difference is the French thought they should also have government support rather than fight against it.) 

It was interesting in this time that Russia was already somewhat of an afterthought. There was earlier thought that the USSR would pass the USA economically. However, buy 1967 that economic growth had already appeared to be a mirage. The Vietnam War seemed to be the last standoff between the two powers before they concentrated on other things. 

Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia

Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia by Roslyn Poignant

This book explores myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Australia. It includes a large number of pictures and photos and seems to be geared towards a popular audience. However, the text is very dry and academic. Rather than a telling of myths, it is an anthropological study of the mythology of the cultures with some details of the myths tied in. The photos may somewhat relate to the myths, but often just tangentially. Some common features for the myths are explored. It is a pretty dry book. 

Many of the societies were decimated before their culture was documented. How much of these stories had already tied in the encounters with the Europeans? Is it most often those in the least desirable areas that are still around? Are these representative? How were these part of worship versus stories like our super hero stories? It is difficult to tell today.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

I tried reading this in English rather than Spanish. I had difficulty following what was going on overall. However, the disjounted parts seemed quite interesting and worth reading. It is set mostly in the "real world", but there are some minor fantastical elements.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The recording of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight included both a verse translation and a reading of the original version of the poem. In the original, bits and pieces are understandable, but it is only a little more understandable than Dutch to the native English speaker. The tail centers around Arthurian knights a duel and a quest with a lady.

The Outsiders

[July 2009]This is a classic "coming of age" tale of a boy who grows up on the "wrong side of town". Today, the "social groups" presented in the story 'socs' and 'greasers' are dated. However, they can easily be mapped to other competing groups that may exist today. The true strength of the story is the evolution of the relationship between the lead character and his "family". At times the events seem to be a little far-fetched, however, the strength of the character development helps to overshadow those.

The lead character lives in a bleak world, where kids come from broken home, not knowing a world where everyone doesn't smoke, drink and fight violently. In spite of (or because of ) this, the "kids" have strong relations with each other. Even growing in this world, the lead character is smart, ahead in school, and would appear to have a bright future. However, he appears convinced that he will grow up to just be like the 'losers' around him. The events in the book are strong enough to help convince him to re-examine his views. The evolution in the book is convincing, without excessively trying to prove points.

A Galaxy Trilogy

This audiobook had three "classic" science fiction novels. It is interesting reading these old books, and occasionally hearing fantastic events that take place in what is now the past. Even though they portray fantastic, futuristic events, they are clearly dated in the era when they were written.

"The Day the World Stopped"(1968)  deals with the fears of a nuclear holocaust. Hot-button rulers are ready to destroy each other. The only way that they are stopped is by alien intervention that shuts down all technology and manages to enforce world peace. The aliens remind me of those from the Simpsons. They appear similar to humans, yet have a general naivety. It seems that the author thought the current global situation hopeless, and only through external intervention could we save our world.

"Druids World" (1967) was less straightforward. The world is advanced, yet pre-technological. The wars are fought on boats. There is a connection between the world and earth of today. There are also "polymorphs" that are bad creatures that inhabit the bodies of people and can seem to retain a young age. Battles break out. People decide to do things. I had trouble maintaining interest.

"Star Ways" (1957)was even tougher. There were some nomads and some ships and they did something. Uh. Yawn.

Well, one good one out of three. I guess it works.

The Selected Stories of Philip K Dick Volume 2

This collections contains the following stories:
Colony
Upon the dull earth
The short happy life of the brown oxford
Faith of our fathers
The days of perky Pat
The variable man
I hope I shall arrive soon

Many of the stories deal with a post-apocalyptic world.  The Variable Man is the longest. In it, earth is planning to use a special faster-than-light bomb to defeat some intergalatic overlords.  The leaders depend on an odds machine to calculate the chance of winning. Unfortunately, another experiment accidentally brings a man from the early 1900s to the current day. This throws the odds all out of wack. The leaders try to have him destroyed. However, the scientist in charge of bomb-making "saves" him to assist him in the effort. Unfortunately for earth, this causes the bomb to fail to detonate, and the earthlings lose the battle. Fortunately, this also unlocked the key to faster-than-light travel, and now the earthlings can span the universe.


In Perky Pat (1963), most of the earth has been leveled, with a few people left. The adults spend all day playing a "doll" game, Perky Pat.  Some people discover that a nearby group has a different doll. They compete and win, but from that they are shunned out of town.

In Colony (1953), a planet is seen to be perfectly benign. Then inanimate objects start to attack. A local lifeform disguises itself as these objects to then consume humans. They think that the solution is to either annihilte themselves and the planet or try to escape without any inanimate objects. Since they will be naked, they ask for an unmanned spaceship to rescue them. It comes earlier then expected and they all board. Later we hear of the real ship coming and not finding anybody.  (And we wonder - did the lifeform sneak back to earth on the ship?)

"I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" (1980) deals with a man who cannot fall asleep during a long-distance space journey. He becomes tourmented with his childhood memories of persumed animal cruelity.

"Upon the Dull Earth" (1954), a girl is "taken" too soon. She comes back, but then consumes everyone else, destroying her universe.

In "Faith of Our Fathers" (1967), the great leader turns out to be an alien form that most people see as an old man. The main character takes an anti-hulucinatory drug to see him as who he is. It is not pleasant, and he thinks of him as good and evil.

In "The short happy life of the brown oxford" (1954), an "animator" is used to turn inanimate things alive. A shoe is turned alive, and then uses the machine to turn a girl shoe alive for it.

While the stories seem to espouse many sentiments of the time they were written. However, the stories provide some interesting fodder for thought - especially in the realm of human relationships.