Deep River

Deep River: A Novel by Karl Marlantes

This book explores the history of a few related Finnish people who came to the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the 20th century. They were primarily attracted by the logging industry. It was a tough industry with hard work and serious chances of injury and death. Men were attracted to the income with some looking at the chance of going on their own. One woman was attracted with the possibility of organizing a large union to help the loggers. The book slowly goes through their experiences and struggles with the local impacts of widespread events like wards, union activities and prohibition. At times it has interludes describing events instead of having the characters live through them. Even so, the book is quite long and it can be difficult to tell the characters apart. The historical settings can almost be identified, but even parts of that have been fictionalized. The female union organizer gets a bit too much coverage, while I would like to see more coverage of the evolution of the society from rough-and-tumble to legitimate towns.

Unsong

Unsong by Scott Alexander (audio version)

Scott Alexander has a cult-like following on his blog (Slate Star Codex and later Astral Codex Ten). He writes a lot and elicits a huge number of comments. This book was originally serialized over the span of a couple years on the blog. It has the feel of a work full of inside jokes. 

The book is an alternative history starting from the 1960s. The mission to the moon broke an important crystal surrounding the earth and started messing up the magic. Things started going wrong in various ways. Angels, demons and other religious figures are real and heavily involved in earth. Words have great power. Saying the right word can have real actions. (In one scene, the President burns up because somebody hacked a teleprompter to get him to say "light myself on fire" word.) Companies have set up ways to find words - and then copyrighted the words. This has caused problems as others are not permitted to use them - even if they would help a lot.

The book goes through many digressions at it explores possible kabbalistic interpretations of people, places and things. San Francisco is similar to Jerusalem, with many areas having words that match Jewish names. In one scene, a character goes through a deep theological analysis of the song "American Pie". He is only stopped by someone taking this discussion in other ways.

The book is very long and has a "blog feel". There is something of a plot with the rise of a fallen angel and the conflict with the world. However, that is of minor importance compared to the string of short episodes. Good angels are busy trying to "debug" the functionality of earth. Hell comes out in the open and partners with countries in earth. Historic episodes take place in this weird world, though often with more obvious manipulation. It would not be hard to read some sections out of order.

The audiobook was prepared as a podcast. The narration is pretty well done, but the volume can be variable.

The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Rather than a novel, this reads like a long notebook of anecdotes lumped together. There are different parts of the author's life that are explored. She is communist during the time of the red scare. That provides a big part of her identity. However, she is losing faith in it. The bad actions of people like Stalin as well as some of the drivel that gets published have caused issues. She also explores her sex life. There seems to be many cases of having affairs with sexually frustrated married men. What is the place of women in the world and. how can she live an appropriately fulfilling life? The life of a novelist ties much of this together. Her novel explores areas that are verboten. Her status as a communist also makes it challenging. The book goes on and on and seems to repeat the same things told from a somewhat different angle.

The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett

The early part of the book was heavy on religious discussion. The end was a murder trial. In between it was quite slow moving. The early writing was good, but it went on for too long. The trial was fast paced and tied in some of the moral discussions of the early part.

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears by Donald Katz

Sears was the Amazon.com of its time. It started as a mail order company with a giant catalog. It then went into the physical store business. It was a huge business that dominated the retail sector. However, it became stuck in its ways and started to fade as shopping habits changed. It went through various attempts to improve its financial position. Attempts at international expansion fizzled out after showing potential. Acquisitions and non-retail business lines also showed potential. Sears invested heavily in computer systems. The company also realized that they sat on a treasure-trove of data that would allow cross-selling insurance and other financial products. 

The book primarily covers the Telling leadership of the company. He started shortly after the move to the Sears tower and had a "different" style of leadership. The book ends with the choosing of Brennan as the new leader. There are many different personalities involved, with the ups and downs of a company trying to find its way. Seas seemed to be finding its way through the struggles at the end. It is interesting toread about "classic" business practices. However, the book was written in 1987. Since then Lampert acquired the company and fully drove it into ground. Will this be the fate of Amazon? Despite Sears being nearly non-existant, past components like Allstate are still thriving.

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel, translated by Geoffrey Dunlop and James Reidel

This is a somewhat controversial story of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The Turks were working to assert their independence and control over the region. The Armenians were Christian and thus did not belong. They had also done some bad things. This novel primarily deals with a small population and their resistance. They were forced out of their land (often based on some past wrong.) There were people that had differing views of resistance. There were also some internal struggles over property rights - even among those that had no properties. The book portrays the Turks in a bad light, and thus with America trying to keep a middle eastern friend, the powers that be were willing to limit the production of a film based on the book. The book itself is very long and reads similar to those covering Jewish ghettos.

Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude

Anna Karenina is a long book dealing with marriage and affairs in 19th century Russia. Anna does not like her marriage. Anna has an affair with another man. Her husband considers divorce, but due to culture at the time, that would not be easy, and would create difficulty for Anna. Later Anna's paramore feels bad and tries to commit suicide. Things get weird in their lives. Others have different experiences and various relationships. The book kkeeps going on and on with details.

Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition

Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition by Mark Lawrence Schrad

The history of prohibition has been significantly rewritten from the modern point of view. Today it is often seen as a moral crusade by the religious right to inflict middle class values on the working class. However, during the time, it was primarily the oppressed fighting against those in power. An analogy today would be the attacks on big pharma for their role in the opioid epidemic. 

Taxes on alcohol sales were often a primary driver of revenue for governments. In addition, licenses to sell alcohol would be hard to come by. Regulation was often a means of controls. Laws prohibiting alcohol sales on Sundays would only be enforced on those establishments that failed to pay appropriate bribes. The lower classes tended to suffer the greatest damage. Saloon owners would encourage them to stay and drink more and more. It would cost the poor money as well as cause difficulty in the community. The damages were also inflicted on other countries occupied by Americans (such as the Philippines and Cuba)

Prohibition and temperance sought to resolve problems. The primary attack was on the liquor traffic, not the individual consumer. Abolition, universal suffrage and prohibition were closely entwined as part of the progressive platform. Blacks and Native Americans were especially drawn towards abolition as it caused great harm in their communities.  Even today, dry areas can be often found in areas with large Native American populations, such as Indian Reservations and Alaskan villages.

The book provides a very thorough history of prohibition worldwide. There were differences from place to place. However, a common theme is money and corruption. Those in power see alcohol as a great way to subjugate and extract money from those without. The author spends significant time flipping the modern narrative on its head. 

The Road of Bones: The Ashen Series, Book 1

The Road of Bones: The Ashen Series, Book 1 by Demi Winters

This is a long, forgettable fantasy romance. It is somewhat viking. They do stuff and yell at each other. I am not the target audience for this genre.

The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790

The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790 by Ritchie Robertson

This is an extremely long book that attempts to explore the entire enlightenment. However, it reads more like a book review. It goes through fields and countries to explore various works of the era and how they tie together in various themes. The time period does get a bit fluid, with Jane Austen books appearing also. In addition to books, there are other works such as plays or compositions by Mozart. The elites of the time were thinking outside the box. Rather than focus on the given knowledge and explanations, they worked to discover and obtain truths of their own. The scientific method started to make its way in society. There was striving for more equality. However, that definition was in flux. Slavery was on the rise. The French Revolution started with bold goals, but then fell apart as those that did not adhere were executed. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is emblematic of the thought. Is society on a path towards improvement or just oscillating? The book goes on for much to long to try to get to its answers.

2666

2666 by Roberto Bolaño translated Natasha Wimmer

This is a long book that the author at one time envisioned publishing as multiple books. He died before it was finished and his heirs decided to publish it as one thing. The various sections of the book tell their own stories that are somewhat related together. There are sections discussing the life and romantic experiences of an author. One section goes back to World War II and talks about experiences in Nazi controlled areas and the experiences complying with Nazi policies and "taking care of" Jewish populations. A significant section of the book covers crime in a Mexican town. This starts with the experience of a African American journalist that is sent to cover a boxing match and then gets interested in the the cases. Then there is a section about the murders. There is a criminal that goes crazy in churches. Later there are women that are mysteriously killed. Most have few external connections. Their bodies are often discovered long after their deaths. Eventually an American detective comes in to help resolve the crimes.

I was most interested in the middle section of the novel. Scott Brick always does a great job narrating. Parts at the start and end were not quite as appealing.

Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive

Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Wind and Truth is about as long as the Old Testament.  It also deals with religion and warfare. There are quotes from other "works" that are generally previous books in the series. The scope ranges from individual actors, to Cosmere level discussions. Most of the narrative takes place in a few days times. However, there are chapters that go back thousands of years. In this world, there are gods and people. The gods themselves are also "people" and have their foibles. Dalinar Kholin has challenged the god Odium to a duel. Odium used to be somebody else and we hear his history in some of the flashbacks. There are other characters like Jasnah and Szeth and Pattern. They are fighting battles, discussing slavery and other things. It is difficult to keep track of everything that is going on.

Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace

Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace by Dominic Lieven

The view we have of the Napoleon in Russia is influenced by Tolstoy. View writers have gone to the Russian sources to understand what happened from the Russian view. This book attempts to remedy that. It goes into details regarding the battles campaigns and society of Russia. The details were so extensive that I missed the big picture. Russians were often in their regiment for the long haul. They had a great deal of loyalty to their group. They worked to beat Napolean.

I Am Charlotte Simmons

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

A bright girl (Charlotte Simmons) from rural North Carolina goes off to fictional DuPont college, one of the top schools in the United States. There she encounters the prep-school elite that are more concerned with sex and sports than academics. She discovers that her French literature class is conducted in English - and is a popular one for jocks. In the class, she notices a student starts to give a smart answer, then plays dumb jock. The student later hits on her. She resists, but encourages him to not be dumb. (She didn't realize he was a basketball star.)  She switches out of that class and succeeds academically, but becomes disillusioned with the social life. There is plenty of underage drinking and her roommate boots her out in the middle of the night to have sex. She falls to peer pressure with some other girls and attends a frat party. A frat boy comes on to her. She spends time with him, but resists when he tries to get her alone in a room. One more boy, "a dork", comes onto her after running into her at the library and gym.

Despite not trying hard, she has a frat boy, a jock and a nerd all wanting her. They also have some connections to each other. The "dork" is on the newspaper and doing a story related to the frat boy and some bad behavior from the California governor. The dork works as an academic tutor and wrote a paper for the jock. At a tailgate, some boys get in a fight over her. The frat boy ends up stepping him to defend her. She later goes back to thank him. He invites her to an out of town frat formal. There, she ends up getting drunk and having sex with the frat boy. Gossip spreads after that and she feels horrible and loses her friends.

When she goes home for Christmas, she finds that is not home anymore. Her life with the rich kids at school is in a different universe than her rural home life. Her depression is also hitting her, resulting in her being even more distant from her family.

When she returns, her depression hits high gear. She doesn't want to be in her room with the other girls. She can't do much of anything. The dork boy helps save her. She moves in to his apartment (in a non-sexual way). He helps her to improve enough to go to her finals and eventually get mostly out of her depression. Then things flip. The dork tries to spill all beans to a professor regarding the paper he wrote for the jock. However, the professor uses that as an admission of guilt to press charges. Now he is depressed and needs her help. She helps for a bit, but is not as patient as he was. She eventually gets him to read his email and finds that his story about the governor's misdeeds is blowing up and the professor is now willing to drop his charges. As part of this, the frat boy has also become popular in school - but also lost his near-six-figure job.

The novel then jumps to a brief epilogue. The jock has had a career renaissance. He is one of the top players on the team. He is also challenging himself academically. He went against the coach's desires and took an advanced philosophy class. The next semester he challenged himself with even more academically challenging classes. Charlotte is now his girlfriend and has been helping push him to his academic success.

The book is a fairly easy read, but it is long and vulgar. The language is a bizarre combination of profanity and anatomical terms. The characters are mostly caricatures. The only character that experiences real growth is the basketball player who realizes that academics and discipline are valuable - and can improve his on-court performance. The main character spends time stepping out of her zone, but realizes it just made her feel worse. Keeping true to herself is what lead to a better experience. 

The author was a half-century removed from college when he wrote this book. He tried to get some details through research. This was written at a point in time that doesn't exist anymore. Cell phone were just coming into use - but only as phones. Social media was not yet a thing. College athletes still had the mirage of being students and were not yet fully professionalized. The view in the book is already dated. There were also some key details that were just missed. The school had finals after Christmas break. While high schools may do that, almost every college finishes before break. It also stretches credulity that all the "important" guys would be hitting on the same country girl. And would she be so cruel to just ditch the dork (even after telling her family that he was her boyfriend.)  What is the point of a not-quite accurate portrayal of college life with stock characters? Perhaps it is just an exercise in how 70-year old men see college students.

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.) 

The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century

The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century by Peter Watson

Germans had a huge influence on the arts and sciences. This book goes through them in excruciating detail. Just when it feels it is about to end, it goes on again. It is written well, but the details feel like an encyclopedia. Mahler, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud are a few mentioned. Gauss and Engels are consigned to an appendix of lesser known Germans. It is interesting to read an intellectual history from a German perspective. Hitler seems to have stunted our opinion of Germans as a whole, but we still have respect for the individuals.