Corduroy

Corduroy by Don Freeman

Corduroy is a bear at the department store. He wants to be bought by a good. However, it is pointed out that he is missing a button. He goes a trip to find one, and tries to get one from a mattress. This causes a ruckus and attracts the night watchman, who returns him to the toy department. The next day, a girl comes in and buys him. He is happy when he goes to her new home. This is a classic book with a simple tale about a toy coming to life for a short time. It is a bit more believable than Velveteen Rabbit. 

A Kiss for Little Bear (An I Can Read Book)

A Kiss for Little Bear (An I Can Read Book) by Else Holmelund Minarik (Author), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)

Little Bear draws a picture for Little Bear. He sends it back to him by way of an animal "chian". It starts to progress well from animal to animal until it gets to a skunk. However, a skunk kisses another skunk who kisses back until they fall in love. Hen has to grab the kiss back to get it back to Little Bear. The skunks end up getting married and inviting Little Bear to be best man. It is a nice , cute story.

The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection

The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary (illustrations by Tracy Dockray )

This is an audiobook collection of the Ramona books. She starts out as a preschooler and ends up in fourth grade. She is rambunctious and cares a lot about how people feel about her. However, she often reads people incorrectly. The books were written over a period of 44 years, with each book seemingly set in an idyllic version of those days - generally in anonymous Portland area.

Beezus and Ramona (1955)

This is the most distinct book in the Ramona series. It is more from the view of the other characters than Ramona herself. Ramona is always getting into trouble. She wants big construction equipment. She invites all of her preschool friends over for a party - without telling anyone else. She is just a big pain. However, mother and her sister had similar issues when they were young.

Ramona the Pest (1968)

Now the series is more from Ramona's point of view. She is in kindergarten. It is interesting that back then it was perfectly normal for kindergarteners to walk to school themselves.

Ramona the Brave (1975)

Now she is approaching first grade. Some kids call his sister a name and Ramona defends her - offending her sister. Ramona does other "brave" things.

Ramona and Her Father (1977)

Her father loses his job. Money is tight. He also smokes at home. Ramona and his sister work to get him to stop smoking. In the end, he gets a job at a supermarket. I was wondering what the smoking thread would be like. Looks like it was new enough to identify smoking as "bad". (Newbery honor book)

Ramona and Her Mother (1979)

Dad has a job he doesn't like. Mom still works her job. There is a fight with mom and dad over pancakes. Mom helps with some sewing. Beeezus wants a haircut from a beauty salon, but it ends up bad. There are other random episodes.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981)

Romona has a degree of unintentional mischief. She cracks an egg on her head - only to find it is a raw egg. She throws up all over the school. She feels her teacher does not like her. However, it is all a misunderstanding. She is gradually growing up. 

Ramona Forever (1984)

Things start to change. Howie's uncle visits. He later becomes engaged to Ramona's aunt. Ramona's mom is pregnant. Ramona will now have to deal with being a big sister. Ramona and her sister also take care of burying the cat. Dad has teaching jobs far away. However, he decides to take a grocery store manager job instead so they can stay close.

Ramona's World (1999)

Ramona is now in fourth grade. She has a baby sister. She gets a new friend. While playing, she falls through the floor into the downstairs ceiling (and gets stuck there, only to be rescued.) She is old enough to cat sit - and even watch her baby sister for a bit. The world has moved on to be more modern. The author has done a nice trick of moving the life of the characters forward a year at a time, while keeping the setting "modern" as it moves a decade ahead.

The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War

The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War by William Manchester

The Krupp family manufactured arms in Germany. They had a tight relationship with the military regime, including Nazis. They used this to ensure the appropriate session of ownership. They also took advantage of the slave labor provided by the Nazis. This book goes into extreme detail on the history of the Krupps, from centuries ago into the mid-twentieth century. The author didn't care for the Krupps and freely injects his opinion in numerous places.

The bulk of the book covers the experiences of Alfried Krupp. He rose to take over the company during the Nazi era, taking control in 1943. He was thus involved in the war crime trials where he was sentenced. He served time, but was later released. Even in prison, he helped control the firm. He was influential in building up the German industry after the war, as well as spreading German exports and knowledge throughout the world. How much of the German post-war success can be attributed to his work?

The tells his story from a distance. It feels like a student's report rather than a close telling of his life. The author is so keen on criticizing Krupp that you can't help but feel sympathy. (Imagine Fox News writing a biography of the Democratic Party.) 

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. 

Welcome to the Monkey House

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (Wikipedia)

This collection of Vonnegut short stories expressed many of the concerns of the day. The "modernization" of society and sexual revolution are key concerns. The titular story deals with a means of birth control that "numbs" people from the waist down to prevent excess reproduction (as an alternative to birth control.) 

Other ones that stuck was a story about a man with a lot of inherited wealth that lived as a pauper. He didn't want to use his wealth because working as a jazz pianist at a dive club provided him great joy. Another was about an anti-agining serum and a family that fought against each other in regards to the constantly changing will of grandpa.

There are a number of interesting stories in the collection. Vonnegut was a great short story writing.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Kubrick's 2001 was "inspired" by a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. However, this was only a basic concept influence. Clarke worked with Kubrick to create the movie. The audiobook is a novelization of the movie. It starts with the primitive society and the monolith, proceeds to the space mission. There is the conflict with HAL and then the final question about humanity. It is very faithful to the movie and does not add a whole lot. This is a rare case where the movie is much better. 

Pavane

Pavane is an alternative history set in "modern" England. However, the assassination of Queen Elizabeth led to the Spanish Armada defeating the English. From this, the Catholic church was able to reign supreme and limit innovation. Some technology has gradually permeated society. However, things like electricity are fundamentally banned (though sometimes clandestinely adopted by the wealthy.) The book consists of a number of small stories in this quasi-steam-punk environment. The end explains that limiting technology may be useful in helping to give people time to adopt to the new before they cause problems for themselves. The stories have a feudal feel to them. While I found the idea intriguing, I had a difficult time getting into the book.

Life for Sale

Hanio Yamada is a single man living an anonymous life as a white color employee. One day, through some fluke circumstances, he decides to commit suicide. However, he fails in the process. Since he is unable to kill himself, yet feels his life has no value, he decides to sell his life. He puts up an ad, and waits for customers. Somewhat surprisingly, they start to come. The first is an old man that wants revenge on his much-younger wife that left him for another man. He wants Hanio to become involved with her so that the new boyfriend will find them in the act and kill them both. Since Hanio sees no value in his life, he goes along with it. However, instead of being killed on the spot, he is discovered and chased out. Later, he hears of the girls' death.
Later clients ask him to take part in potentially deadly experiments. In each case he is perfectly willing to lose his life. However, in all cases, others end up dying, while he continues to live. This seems to show the strength in putting down one's guard. Ironically, by paying no head to the value of one's own life, he can live the life in a much fuller way. This even helps in some diplomatic actions, as two agents from one country have been killed supposedly eating poisoned carrots. He, however, hates carrots, but goes along with it because he is employed. He discovers that regular carrots were what was needed to break the code, and that the poison was just a ruse. This is perhaps the least convincing of the escapades. (However, he does mention that for this case, he actually loathes carrots, and was only willing to eat one because he had sold his life.)
Eventually a secret spy organization is convinced he is an undercover police agent. They threaten to kill him. This is not something that he wants. While it was ok for him to sell his life, he does not feel ok with somebody taking his life from him. They are convinced he must be a master agent. They don't see how somebody could not be part of an organization. He does eventually manage to elude them, but finds things more challenging now that he has placed value on his life.

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.

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

This novel is more commonly known by the name of the movie based on it, "Bladerunner". It centers around a "bounty hunter" who kills androids that are living among humans in a dystopian world.

A bounty hunter kills 6 androids in a day, but feels bad because he liked one of the android girls. However, with the money he gets, he hopes to be able to buy an animal. The world has suffered an environmental catastrophe. Thus, even ordinary farm animals are highly sought after. Electric animals are used in some sense to fill the gab. But, they are viewed as inferior.

The world that could create "electric" animals, also created "electric humans." These androids were initially supposed to focus primarily on areas of hard labor on remote colonies. However, some of them sneak back to earth to attempt to make a life there.

The novel can be confusing at times, and can be hard to tell what he is after (environment? Capital punishment? Morals? Consumerism?) You can even see a parallel to the United States immigration situation. The country loves to be able to reap the benefits of cheap labor from 3rd world countries, but doesn't want those people to dare take up residence in the US.

The Johnstown Flood

McCullough's The Johnstown Flood is written as a disaster novel. After giving a brief background of the history of the city and dam, it quickly moves to the actual dam breach and flood. The narrative relies heavily on the adventurous narratives of the survivors. Some people survived by riding a roof like a surf board, while others just happened to be in a location that the flood avoided.

The last third of the book covers the aftermath of the flood, along with the eventual lives of some of the participants.

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club is given some of the blame for the flood. This millionaire's club had taken position of the dam and lake. They had made "improvements" to the dam, but without expert engineering experience. They also had fish gates shut to preserve fish (but also contribute to flooding.) Everyone in the city, however, assumed that experts were managing it, and there was nothing to worry about. The final trigger for the flood, however, was the torrential rainpoor that occurred easily breached the dam to create the huge flood.

I would have liked to see further analysis of the causes. The author seems to merely tack it on to what is otherwise a human-interest adventure story.