Hello everyone. I guess it makes sense that I should love my own book, but this one is particularly personal in regards that it's based on a dream.
I'm running a promotion on Amazon. You can download my latest book, Last Chance Lane by Jennifer R. Kim, for free on 12/3.
I'll tell you about how things are going in my next blog.
Enjoy!
Monday, December 1, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
The Lady and the Poet by Maeve Haran
John Donne. Anne Donne. Undone.
I remember reading these lines in high school English class and wondered what would induce John Donne to pen such words. These simple words intrigued me far more than any of his poems (maybe I just don't have a poetic soul, but such is the case), but I didn't do anything to find out what he wrote such words. Then a couple of weeks ago, at a library book sale, I picked up this book because I still remembered these words. And now, after having read this book, I want to read his poems.
Spoiler Alert~
Anne Donne (formerly Anne More) came from wealth and privilege. Her unusual grandfather educated her far beyond what would have been acceptable as a young woman, and she had spirit and fire to match her keen intelligence. It was decided that Anne should come to London and stay with her aunt. She was destined to become on of Queen Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting, resulting in an advantageous marriage. At her aunt's house, she meets John Donne; he was her uncle's secretary.
When they first met, she's thirteen years old, but John Donne mistook her for a servant and propositioned her at their first meeting. At a later meeting, she corrected his error and put him in his place. This was the start of their attraction to one another; however, there were several, almost insurmountable obstacles.
Compared to Anne's esteemed background, John was merely a servant in her uncle's household. Anne's highly status conscious father would never want someone like John, who could offer nothing to him, as his son-in-law. When they met, he was a man of 25 who wrote bawdy poems and had a string of women (both high-born and low-born) at his beck-and-call. She was an innocent girl of 13 who was at the cusp of her womanhood. There was a chance he might be thrown into prison. In the time of Bloody Mary and Elizabeth I reign, he was a Catholic, and she was raised Protestant. This alone could have led to great strife. Most importantly, they knew they would most likely be completely ostracized by all those who knew them and might face financial ruin if they act on their love and affection for one another. Even as they faced all these consequences, they married one another in secret when she was 17 years old.
When John Donne revealed their secret marriage to Anne's father a year later, he's thrown in prison, and Anne's father proceeded to dispute the validity of the marriage. However, their marriage was upheld by the courts. Anne's father refused to pay her dowry, and John lost his position. Now, they were forced to live off the charity of Anne's cousin in the country. Though constantly under financial pressures (Anne's father was rather vindictive and slow in paying out her dowry), John and Anne lived happily.
Anne died at the age of 33, after delivering a stillborn child, her 12th child. John never recovered for Anne's death and lived the rest of his life (another 14 years) alone.
This wonderful book brought forth some very interesting points about John and Anne Donne.
John Donne was a worldly man compared to Anne, with bawdy verses, mistresses and what seems like a great appreciation for the good life. So, what induced him to give up all that for Anne? Anne must have been one remarkable young woman, to intrigue, to attract, and to hold his attention for the rest of her life.
Anne's cousin, who supported her and her family for a long time, must be a very generous man who had an understanding wife (is this too modern way of thinking?). It must cost a lot of money to provide housing as well as some level of necessities for the family (especially when Anne and John had many children). Remember, she died after her 12th baby was stillborn? I'm more used to very demanding and judgmental English upper-crust families (from literature) to cut themselves completely off from a wayward family member. Good thing John Donne and Anne Donne weren't completely Undone.
John must have loved Anne dearly. He became a priest after Anne's death. It must have been hellish for him to wake up and know that he must face another day without her (especially in the beginning). Maybe he did find consolation in God.
Very little is known about Anne Donne. I wish there were more of her from historical sources. She would have been a very interesting person, I bet.
Though I had never been interested in John Donne before, I am eager to get my hands on a volume of poetry.
I remember reading these lines in high school English class and wondered what would induce John Donne to pen such words. These simple words intrigued me far more than any of his poems (maybe I just don't have a poetic soul, but such is the case), but I didn't do anything to find out what he wrote such words. Then a couple of weeks ago, at a library book sale, I picked up this book because I still remembered these words. And now, after having read this book, I want to read his poems.
Spoiler Alert~
Anne Donne (formerly Anne More) came from wealth and privilege. Her unusual grandfather educated her far beyond what would have been acceptable as a young woman, and she had spirit and fire to match her keen intelligence. It was decided that Anne should come to London and stay with her aunt. She was destined to become on of Queen Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting, resulting in an advantageous marriage. At her aunt's house, she meets John Donne; he was her uncle's secretary.
When they first met, she's thirteen years old, but John Donne mistook her for a servant and propositioned her at their first meeting. At a later meeting, she corrected his error and put him in his place. This was the start of their attraction to one another; however, there were several, almost insurmountable obstacles.
Compared to Anne's esteemed background, John was merely a servant in her uncle's household. Anne's highly status conscious father would never want someone like John, who could offer nothing to him, as his son-in-law. When they met, he was a man of 25 who wrote bawdy poems and had a string of women (both high-born and low-born) at his beck-and-call. She was an innocent girl of 13 who was at the cusp of her womanhood. There was a chance he might be thrown into prison. In the time of Bloody Mary and Elizabeth I reign, he was a Catholic, and she was raised Protestant. This alone could have led to great strife. Most importantly, they knew they would most likely be completely ostracized by all those who knew them and might face financial ruin if they act on their love and affection for one another. Even as they faced all these consequences, they married one another in secret when she was 17 years old.
When John Donne revealed their secret marriage to Anne's father a year later, he's thrown in prison, and Anne's father proceeded to dispute the validity of the marriage. However, their marriage was upheld by the courts. Anne's father refused to pay her dowry, and John lost his position. Now, they were forced to live off the charity of Anne's cousin in the country. Though constantly under financial pressures (Anne's father was rather vindictive and slow in paying out her dowry), John and Anne lived happily.
Anne died at the age of 33, after delivering a stillborn child, her 12th child. John never recovered for Anne's death and lived the rest of his life (another 14 years) alone.
This wonderful book brought forth some very interesting points about John and Anne Donne.
John Donne was a worldly man compared to Anne, with bawdy verses, mistresses and what seems like a great appreciation for the good life. So, what induced him to give up all that for Anne? Anne must have been one remarkable young woman, to intrigue, to attract, and to hold his attention for the rest of her life.
Anne's cousin, who supported her and her family for a long time, must be a very generous man who had an understanding wife (is this too modern way of thinking?). It must cost a lot of money to provide housing as well as some level of necessities for the family (especially when Anne and John had many children). Remember, she died after her 12th baby was stillborn? I'm more used to very demanding and judgmental English upper-crust families (from literature) to cut themselves completely off from a wayward family member. Good thing John Donne and Anne Donne weren't completely Undone.
John must have loved Anne dearly. He became a priest after Anne's death. It must have been hellish for him to wake up and know that he must face another day without her (especially in the beginning). Maybe he did find consolation in God.
Very little is known about Anne Donne. I wish there were more of her from historical sources. She would have been a very interesting person, I bet.
Though I had never been interested in John Donne before, I am eager to get my hands on a volume of poetry.
1356 by Bernard Cornwell
I have always loved action adventures. In fact, action adventure books (The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Black Night, Ivanhoe, Quo Vadis?, Arsene Lupin books, Sherlock Holmes books, etc.) have kept me sane in the first couple of years of immigration when I felt so alone and lost. These books were my friends, and they helped me keep my spirits up. They taught me never to give up and keep on fighting for what I believed in.
These are some of the most-treasured books I own (especially since they were from a 100 Masterpiece in the World young adult collection in Korean that my parents brought with us when we immigrated to the United States). Some of my favorite modern action adventure writers are Clive Cussler, Micheal Crichton, Daniel Silva, Sharon Kay Penman, etc. And now, I have another to add to the list - Bernard Cornwell.
What I love about these books is that for a short span of time, they take me on a fantastic adventure. I'm so busy keeping my wits about me that I forget to worry about such mundane things as learning English and finishing my Language Arts homework.
Now, on to the review - I love the books I love in this genre for the same reason. They take me to a very exciting place and give me a great roller coaster ride. However, I have yet to write a review about any of the books I love reading on this blog because at the end of the day, they don't linger in my head, making me think about it for a long time, until this book.
I loved the details of medieval life in this book. I can feel the damp chill in the crypt. I can smell the acrid smoke wafting up to the sky. I can feel the blood pounding in my veins with every sword thrust and axe swing. I can share the profound grief in losing love ones so needlessly. All this is wonderful enough, but in the heart of this story is a man driven by his own moral code in the time when a sense of righteousness and moral authority was hijacked by the nobility and Catholic Church and used for their gain rather than for God's justice and mercy.
~Spoiler Alert~
In the time of relic collecting, when a notable relic not only made or broke the church that housed it, but the whole region, Sword of Saint Peter was one of the most sought after relic. Saint Peter purportedly used the sword to slice one of the soldier's ear when they came to take Jesus away to Pontius Pilate. This sword was believed to have mystical powers, and it supposedly granted certain victory to whoever possessed it. With another war between the English and the French looming ahead, the race was on from all sides to find it at all cost.
As the relic hunters drew close, those who were responsible for keeping it safe were forced to move it, and this movement created more upheaval in times of chaos.In these troubling times, Sir Thomas Hookton is busy sacking a castle for a French Count whose wife ran away with the lord of the castle. Sir Thomas Hookton is a very successful mercenary known as Le Batard, and he leads a troop of archers and men-at-arms to serve whoever pays him the most money. Though he meets his end of the bargain, the Count in question, even after having retrieved his errant wife and exacted gruesome revenge on the lord of the castle, short-changes Le Batard. Before Le Batard could collect his just payment from the Count, he is called back by his British liege lord and sent on an important mission to find the Sword of Saint Peter.
Here are some excerpts -
"Bernard Cornwell does the best battle scenes of any writer I've read, past or present."
- George R. R. Martin (author of Game of Thrones)
"His characters are vividly drawn, betrayals lurk around every corner, the humor is as sharp as swords, and the action is nonstop."
- Sharon Kay Penman (one of my personal favorites)
"Cornwell's cinematically detailed battle pieces are literal tours de force."
- Washington Post
Now, on to why I really loved this book.... As I was reading it, everything seemed so unfair. Those who had rank and money could do anything they wanted to do. And the Catholic Church, with its supposed moral righteousness behind it, did everything it wanted to do. A priest's word was all the society needed to find someone guilty of consorting with the devil or some other crime (by the way, how do you fight such a claim? Where can anyone begin?). Then this person would be executed, in very cruel way for that crime. There was very little anyone could do to save a person who had been label thus (especially in places far away from large towns). When I thought about what it would be like to watch my loved one jailed, tortured, then executed for no crime greater than a crime of expediency for the powerful, the impotence of the situation horrified me.
A couple of night ago, I was laying down with my little daughter who called for me in the early morning. Just as I was holding her, a stream of sunshine fingered into her room and illuminated the side of her face where she has a small mole close to her hairline. That mole sent a chill down my spine as I was transported back to the world of 1356. My daughter could have been wrenched away from my arms for that mole alone, jailed and tortured, and maybe even executed for no other reason than someone accused her of a crime.
How does anyone live with that kind of loss and injustice?
I gleefully think about Le Batard taking revenge on the culprits for us.
I think about committing acts of sheer foolishness that would cement my death as well. Do I want to live without my precious child?
But I think the worst possible answer could be that I just have to live with it. I have no other choice. I have to wake up the next day and live my life as if nothing had changed since there was nothing I can do to change anything. Not even for the next victim.
Even though I didn't know it, this book held me under its spell well after I finished the book. My mind made associations I never realized (I'm not sure if there were moles or consorting with the devil actually in the book) and forced me to put myself in the place of these people who lived so long ago. For that alone, I recommend this book.
These are some of the most-treasured books I own (especially since they were from a 100 Masterpiece in the World young adult collection in Korean that my parents brought with us when we immigrated to the United States). Some of my favorite modern action adventure writers are Clive Cussler, Micheal Crichton, Daniel Silva, Sharon Kay Penman, etc. And now, I have another to add to the list - Bernard Cornwell.
What I love about these books is that for a short span of time, they take me on a fantastic adventure. I'm so busy keeping my wits about me that I forget to worry about such mundane things as learning English and finishing my Language Arts homework.
Now, on to the review - I love the books I love in this genre for the same reason. They take me to a very exciting place and give me a great roller coaster ride. However, I have yet to write a review about any of the books I love reading on this blog because at the end of the day, they don't linger in my head, making me think about it for a long time, until this book.
I loved the details of medieval life in this book. I can feel the damp chill in the crypt. I can smell the acrid smoke wafting up to the sky. I can feel the blood pounding in my veins with every sword thrust and axe swing. I can share the profound grief in losing love ones so needlessly. All this is wonderful enough, but in the heart of this story is a man driven by his own moral code in the time when a sense of righteousness and moral authority was hijacked by the nobility and Catholic Church and used for their gain rather than for God's justice and mercy.
~Spoiler Alert~
In the time of relic collecting, when a notable relic not only made or broke the church that housed it, but the whole region, Sword of Saint Peter was one of the most sought after relic. Saint Peter purportedly used the sword to slice one of the soldier's ear when they came to take Jesus away to Pontius Pilate. This sword was believed to have mystical powers, and it supposedly granted certain victory to whoever possessed it. With another war between the English and the French looming ahead, the race was on from all sides to find it at all cost.
As the relic hunters drew close, those who were responsible for keeping it safe were forced to move it, and this movement created more upheaval in times of chaos.In these troubling times, Sir Thomas Hookton is busy sacking a castle for a French Count whose wife ran away with the lord of the castle. Sir Thomas Hookton is a very successful mercenary known as Le Batard, and he leads a troop of archers and men-at-arms to serve whoever pays him the most money. Though he meets his end of the bargain, the Count in question, even after having retrieved his errant wife and exacted gruesome revenge on the lord of the castle, short-changes Le Batard. Before Le Batard could collect his just payment from the Count, he is called back by his British liege lord and sent on an important mission to find the Sword of Saint Peter.
Here are some excerpts -
"Bernard Cornwell does the best battle scenes of any writer I've read, past or present."
- George R. R. Martin (author of Game of Thrones)
"His characters are vividly drawn, betrayals lurk around every corner, the humor is as sharp as swords, and the action is nonstop."
- Sharon Kay Penman (one of my personal favorites)
"Cornwell's cinematically detailed battle pieces are literal tours de force."
- Washington Post
Now, on to why I really loved this book.... As I was reading it, everything seemed so unfair. Those who had rank and money could do anything they wanted to do. And the Catholic Church, with its supposed moral righteousness behind it, did everything it wanted to do. A priest's word was all the society needed to find someone guilty of consorting with the devil or some other crime (by the way, how do you fight such a claim? Where can anyone begin?). Then this person would be executed, in very cruel way for that crime. There was very little anyone could do to save a person who had been label thus (especially in places far away from large towns). When I thought about what it would be like to watch my loved one jailed, tortured, then executed for no crime greater than a crime of expediency for the powerful, the impotence of the situation horrified me.
A couple of night ago, I was laying down with my little daughter who called for me in the early morning. Just as I was holding her, a stream of sunshine fingered into her room and illuminated the side of her face where she has a small mole close to her hairline. That mole sent a chill down my spine as I was transported back to the world of 1356. My daughter could have been wrenched away from my arms for that mole alone, jailed and tortured, and maybe even executed for no other reason than someone accused her of a crime.
How does anyone live with that kind of loss and injustice?
I gleefully think about Le Batard taking revenge on the culprits for us.
I think about committing acts of sheer foolishness that would cement my death as well. Do I want to live without my precious child?
But I think the worst possible answer could be that I just have to live with it. I have no other choice. I have to wake up the next day and live my life as if nothing had changed since there was nothing I can do to change anything. Not even for the next victim.
Even though I didn't know it, this book held me under its spell well after I finished the book. My mind made associations I never realized (I'm not sure if there were moles or consorting with the devil actually in the book) and forced me to put myself in the place of these people who lived so long ago. For that alone, I recommend this book.
Monday, August 4, 2014
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
I am writing about this book not because I loved it (I liked it enough, but I loved the topic), but because it's an important book. Just like Imperial life in Emerald City, this book should be read by as many people as possible.
This book should be required reading for those in the diplomatic corps. I could serve as a partial roadmap of how to get things done in a very challenging social environment. Often, I get the feeling that when a non-native organization is trying to do good in its own cultural and social context (as in Imperial life in Emerald City), it results in disaster. Kamila Sidiqi accomplished much while adhering to the rule of Taliban. This is the trick we need to learn and teach to help those who are living under most difficult circumstances.
Kamila Sidiqi comes from a family of eleven children. She is the third oldest, with an older sister and brother. Having blessed with an educated father who believed in education for all his children, she had big dreams. She hoped to become a professor in Dari or literature one day. All this suddenly came to an end when Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
Almost immediately, brutal laws were instituted and enforced. Some of them are as follows:
Initially, Kamila's family didn't have to worry about money. Her father had made wise investments, and they were able to make it. However, as time passed and the adult males of the family (Kamila's father and older brother) were forced to leave their home due to Taliban threats (Kamila's family came from northern Afghanistan associated with a rival faction headed by a charismatic mujahadeen fighter), and the household finances were more and more difficult to meet. As desperation grew, Kamila talked her oldest and married sister, Malika, into teaching her how to sew. Though Malika had a university degree and had been a teacher previously, she was now helping her husband make ends meet with her sewing.
Kamila noticed that even under Taliban rule, some women run businesses did well (such as female doctors treating female patients) as long as they heeded no contact with males rule. Kamila decided that they could start sewing clothes to sell at various markets nearby. The only danger lay in Kamila having to talk to the shopkeepers (mostly men) about her wares. In the beginning, Kamila and her sisters only sold a handful of pieces, but soon, the word spread about her work ethic, craftsmanship, quality of clothes, etc. brought in more and more work. And Kamila's enterprise spread from mouth-to-mouth and more and more desperate women came to Kamila's house to beg for work.
The remarkable thing about Kamila is that she didn't turn anyone away. In fact, she created sewing school to take in as many women and girls as possible and to train them. Her business grew and she was able to give desperate women a chance to contribute and help their desperate families.
Kamila's secret to success was that she knew the dangers and she adhere to most of Taliban's rules. This was a recipe to her success. She dealt with most women. She didn't "educate" the girls, but taught them sewing, which would serve the girls well as adults in helping out their families. Even some Taliban soldiers and commanders sent their daughters to Kamila's sewing school and ordered wedding dresses and others from her. So, she kept the big rules, but she broke what she considered less severe ones - like talking to males not related to her.
Though she minimized the risks of her sisters and those who worked for her, she took great personal risks - she went to the markets to negotiate, sometimes every day, and she later went on to work for a UN agency against her family's wishes. Through it all, she held her family together, she provided livelihood for hundreds of people, and she made a difference in lives of many.
What I've learned from this books is that under the most draconian living conditions, we are resilient enough to find ways to not only to survive, but thrive. If Kamila can do it, I feel like I can do it, too. Then I wondered if there were any Kamila Sidiqi's in North Korea, in Syria, in Gaza, etc. and I wondered if there'd be anyone there to write their stories.
I hope there is.
This book should be required reading for those in the diplomatic corps. I could serve as a partial roadmap of how to get things done in a very challenging social environment. Often, I get the feeling that when a non-native organization is trying to do good in its own cultural and social context (as in Imperial life in Emerald City), it results in disaster. Kamila Sidiqi accomplished much while adhering to the rule of Taliban. This is the trick we need to learn and teach to help those who are living under most difficult circumstances.
Kamila Sidiqi comes from a family of eleven children. She is the third oldest, with an older sister and brother. Having blessed with an educated father who believed in education for all his children, she had big dreams. She hoped to become a professor in Dari or literature one day. All this suddenly came to an end when Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
Almost immediately, brutal laws were instituted and enforced. Some of them are as follows:
- "Accused thieves had one hand and one foot cut off, and their severed limbs hung from posts on street corners as a warning to others."
- Everything that they consider a distraction from worship was banned - such as music, movies, television, card playing, chess, and kite flying.
- Creating a representation of the human figure was forbidden.
- Wearing western clothing or hair cut was forbidden.
- After a short grace period, the length of men's beard must meet Taliban's requirement of longer than a fist length.
- Shaving was forbidden.
- Modernity or anything associated with it was banned.
- Women will stay at home.
- Women are not permitted to work.
- Women must wear the chadri in public.
- Women must travel with a male family chaperone.
- Women cannot speak to men they are not related to.
- Women were banned from schools, offices, etc.
Initially, Kamila's family didn't have to worry about money. Her father had made wise investments, and they were able to make it. However, as time passed and the adult males of the family (Kamila's father and older brother) were forced to leave their home due to Taliban threats (Kamila's family came from northern Afghanistan associated with a rival faction headed by a charismatic mujahadeen fighter), and the household finances were more and more difficult to meet. As desperation grew, Kamila talked her oldest and married sister, Malika, into teaching her how to sew. Though Malika had a university degree and had been a teacher previously, she was now helping her husband make ends meet with her sewing.
Kamila noticed that even under Taliban rule, some women run businesses did well (such as female doctors treating female patients) as long as they heeded no contact with males rule. Kamila decided that they could start sewing clothes to sell at various markets nearby. The only danger lay in Kamila having to talk to the shopkeepers (mostly men) about her wares. In the beginning, Kamila and her sisters only sold a handful of pieces, but soon, the word spread about her work ethic, craftsmanship, quality of clothes, etc. brought in more and more work. And Kamila's enterprise spread from mouth-to-mouth and more and more desperate women came to Kamila's house to beg for work.
The remarkable thing about Kamila is that she didn't turn anyone away. In fact, she created sewing school to take in as many women and girls as possible and to train them. Her business grew and she was able to give desperate women a chance to contribute and help their desperate families.
Kamila's secret to success was that she knew the dangers and she adhere to most of Taliban's rules. This was a recipe to her success. She dealt with most women. She didn't "educate" the girls, but taught them sewing, which would serve the girls well as adults in helping out their families. Even some Taliban soldiers and commanders sent their daughters to Kamila's sewing school and ordered wedding dresses and others from her. So, she kept the big rules, but she broke what she considered less severe ones - like talking to males not related to her.
Though she minimized the risks of her sisters and those who worked for her, she took great personal risks - she went to the markets to negotiate, sometimes every day, and she later went on to work for a UN agency against her family's wishes. Through it all, she held her family together, she provided livelihood for hundreds of people, and she made a difference in lives of many.
What I've learned from this books is that under the most draconian living conditions, we are resilient enough to find ways to not only to survive, but thrive. If Kamila can do it, I feel like I can do it, too. Then I wondered if there were any Kamila Sidiqi's in North Korea, in Syria, in Gaza, etc. and I wondered if there'd be anyone there to write their stories.
I hope there is.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
The Genesis Mystery by Jeffrey Goodman
I like interesting books. OK. That didn’t come out right.Who likes boring books?
I like books that provoke me to think or look at things
differently and entertain possibilities. A friend described my taste in books
as eclectic, and this book definitely falls under the eclectic, provoking category.
I have had this book for a long time (~1986), and I think I’ve
read it more than five, less than ten times since I purchased it. Sometimes I
read it annually, and other times, I can go a long time before I pick it up,
again. But, I find that every time I read it, I get something new out of it
(actually, this is the case for me for most books).
This book basically says that Homo sapiens sapiens were
“smart from the start,” and that of all the
fossils we’ve found around the world show discrete and separate trend
lines for the cranial capacity (as well as other physical characteristics)
rather than overlapping trend lines (which would confirm the traditional
evolutionary models). This means that a 4 million year old Australopithecus
fossil has almost the same features as a ~2 million year old Australopithecus
fossil. That nothing changed in 2 million years! The same can be said for the
Homo erectus fossils ranging in age from ~1.9 million years old to ~140,000
years ago. The same discrete and separate existence applies to Homo habilis,
Neanderthals, and finally, Homo sapiens sapiens. Listed below are the discrete
timelines for other Homo species from Wikipedia:
Homo habilis:
2.33 – 1.44 million years ago
Neanderthals, early:
600,000 – 350,000 years ago
Neanderthals, true:
250,000 – 25,000 years ago
Homo sapiens:
500,000 - ~200,000 years ago
Homo sapiens sapiens:
200,000 – present
I find it curious that there are no noticeable overlapping
trend lines of fossils in any of these groupings. Supposedly, the fossils stayed the same
over these spans of years.
This book also talks about the “impossible evolutionary reversals.”
“In all the successive species of the genus Homo, the genetically controlled traits
of skull-wall thickness and brow-ridge size have undergone a series of
seemingly impossible reversals.”
Skull wall thickness (species listed chronologically):
Homo erectus – Thick
Homo habilis – thin
Neanderthals – Thick
Homo sapiens sapiens – thin
Size of brow bridges (species listed chronologically):
Homo erectus – “substantial”
Homo habilis – “small”
Neanderthals – “massive”
Homo sapiens sapiens – “practically nonexistent”
Finally, this book touches upon evolutionary anomalies such
as our voice box and the sudden appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens’ “sharp
chin, weak brow, and high valuted forehead…,” as well as spiritual aspect of
Homo sapiens sapiens development.
And according to Dr. Goodman, all these attributes point to
some sort of intervention. Whether this intervention comes from God, aliens
(Anunnaki from Sumerian legends), “hitchhiking spirits,” other, etc.
Dr. Goodman doesn’t say what his conclusion is, but leaves it frustratingly or deliciously open for us to ponder.
Dr. Goodman doesn’t say what his conclusion is, but leaves it frustratingly or deliciously open for us to ponder.
HOWEVER,
I’m writing this review because I finally read two very different
thought-provoking books about the same time and everything sort of clicked to
entertain an outrageous what if scenario….
Recently, I read
The 12thPlanet by Zecharia
Sitchin. It talks of alien intervention in forms of creating a slave population using Homo erectus (for gold
mining in Africa) and alien (Anunnaki) DNA, resulting in
Homo sapiens. And as I was reading this book, the Genesis Mystery, it struck me
as odd that the purported time of first Anunnaki visit ~450,000 years ago, and Homo
sapiens timeline of ~500,000 years ago seemed to coincide fairly close. Hm…. Maybe this is the best thing about this book, that we can have fun thinking about what ifs.....
Monday, July 21, 2014
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Though this book was a Junior Library Guild Selection, this is a great book for any age!
Before I get into the book, I'm curious about one thing. I wonder if it was normal for an orphaned child to be shuffled around from relative to relative like an unwanted burden in the days of old. Anne of Green Gables comes to mind along with The Secret Garden and several others. Was it because resources were scarce and adding one more mouth to feed was indeed a tremendous burden? Or was it because there were more indifferent, if not more cruel relatives abound? Or worse still, the world they lived in placed little value on these orphaned children except for what labor could be gotten from them? It's really heart-breaking.
A 16-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks lived with her Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt in Arlington, Iowa. She lost her father to a lung disease when she was two, and when she was five, her mother died of pneumonia. Since then, she's been passed from relative to relative, some of them with thin, tenuous claim to any relation.
"I'd stay to help out with this sick person or that until I'd run of folks who needed help and didn't mind an extra mouth to feed to get it."
This had been Hattie's existence until she was thirteen when Aunt Ivy took her in (but it was Uncle Holt who was a distant cousin). But instead of finding love and understanding, Aunt Ivy reminded her every day that she had nothing and no one. Aunt Ivy was on the verge of forcing Hattie to work at a boardinghouse when she received a letter from her dead uncle to come and inherit his homestead claim in eastern Montana. She jumped at he opportunity to escape the dreary existence of maid at a boardinghouse and set out for an adventure in January of 1918.
And boy did she set out for an adventure. Her naive ignorance made her dismiss what the men on the train told her, but she should have listened to some of their comments with some credence. But she didn't. And the reality of winter in eastern Montana alone in a shack with a smart, considerate horse name Plug and a cantankerous cow named Violet almost did her in, except for the kindness of strangers (her closest neighbors) kept her alive and surviving everyday.
Though she quickly learned that "inheriting" a claim was really more like a curse than anything, she was determined to "prove" a claim and keep the 320 acre her uncle left her. However, there were conditions to be met.
1. She must build and fence (set four hundred eighty rods of fence).
2. She must cultivate at least one-eighth of the claim (or 40 acres).
3. All the conditions must be met in three years or the person loses the claim. This gave Hatti ten months to prove her claim.
A school girl from Arlington, Iowa must do all this, almost by herself, in ten months.
Hattie took up the challenge. In the process of trying to prove a claim, she faced unimaginable hardships, both physical and mental, but in her depth of despair and hopelessness, which she shrugged off quite readily, she found her own family, made of strangers who come to love and care for her more than her own relatives.
Ultimately, she failed to prove her claim due to a natural disaster (hail storm) and must relinquish the claim, she had no regrets. She had done her best, and in the process of trying to prove the claim, she had learned that her future might not lie with farming, but writing. Though she worked at the boardinghouse to pay off her (mostly her uncle's) debts, she had hopes for a brighter future. At the end of the book, she's on a train, again, on her way to Seattle where her new family (closest neighbors) and her could-be sweetheart moved.
As I was finishing this book (I finished in 1 1/2 days), I thought, this is what makes America great. Because it's populated mostly by the people or the descendants of the people who desperately wanted to be here and to "make it" here. They were more than willing to work hard to make their dreams come true, whatever that dream might have been.
To these intrepid immigrants, failure was not an option. Hattie worked hard to payoff her debts before she was on the train to Seattle.
The long thread of people who held this country together had the same core values (hard work ethic, the indomitable spirit, and the spirit of independence, etc.) running through them whether they were the English, the Germans, the Norwegians, the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Mexicans, etc.
We are but a small portion of the thread of greatness that ran from the beginning of our country's history. Hopefully, we could continue the work to make this a great country.
Can you tell I really enjoyed this book? I think you should check it out, too.
Before I get into the book, I'm curious about one thing. I wonder if it was normal for an orphaned child to be shuffled around from relative to relative like an unwanted burden in the days of old. Anne of Green Gables comes to mind along with The Secret Garden and several others. Was it because resources were scarce and adding one more mouth to feed was indeed a tremendous burden? Or was it because there were more indifferent, if not more cruel relatives abound? Or worse still, the world they lived in placed little value on these orphaned children except for what labor could be gotten from them? It's really heart-breaking.
A 16-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks lived with her Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt in Arlington, Iowa. She lost her father to a lung disease when she was two, and when she was five, her mother died of pneumonia. Since then, she's been passed from relative to relative, some of them with thin, tenuous claim to any relation.
"I'd stay to help out with this sick person or that until I'd run of folks who needed help and didn't mind an extra mouth to feed to get it."
This had been Hattie's existence until she was thirteen when Aunt Ivy took her in (but it was Uncle Holt who was a distant cousin). But instead of finding love and understanding, Aunt Ivy reminded her every day that she had nothing and no one. Aunt Ivy was on the verge of forcing Hattie to work at a boardinghouse when she received a letter from her dead uncle to come and inherit his homestead claim in eastern Montana. She jumped at he opportunity to escape the dreary existence of maid at a boardinghouse and set out for an adventure in January of 1918.
And boy did she set out for an adventure. Her naive ignorance made her dismiss what the men on the train told her, but she should have listened to some of their comments with some credence. But she didn't. And the reality of winter in eastern Montana alone in a shack with a smart, considerate horse name Plug and a cantankerous cow named Violet almost did her in, except for the kindness of strangers (her closest neighbors) kept her alive and surviving everyday.
Though she quickly learned that "inheriting" a claim was really more like a curse than anything, she was determined to "prove" a claim and keep the 320 acre her uncle left her. However, there were conditions to be met.
1. She must build and fence (set four hundred eighty rods of fence).
2. She must cultivate at least one-eighth of the claim (or 40 acres).
3. All the conditions must be met in three years or the person loses the claim. This gave Hatti ten months to prove her claim.
A school girl from Arlington, Iowa must do all this, almost by herself, in ten months.
Hattie took up the challenge. In the process of trying to prove a claim, she faced unimaginable hardships, both physical and mental, but in her depth of despair and hopelessness, which she shrugged off quite readily, she found her own family, made of strangers who come to love and care for her more than her own relatives.
Ultimately, she failed to prove her claim due to a natural disaster (hail storm) and must relinquish the claim, she had no regrets. She had done her best, and in the process of trying to prove the claim, she had learned that her future might not lie with farming, but writing. Though she worked at the boardinghouse to pay off her (mostly her uncle's) debts, she had hopes for a brighter future. At the end of the book, she's on a train, again, on her way to Seattle where her new family (closest neighbors) and her could-be sweetheart moved.
As I was finishing this book (I finished in 1 1/2 days), I thought, this is what makes America great. Because it's populated mostly by the people or the descendants of the people who desperately wanted to be here and to "make it" here. They were more than willing to work hard to make their dreams come true, whatever that dream might have been.
To these intrepid immigrants, failure was not an option. Hattie worked hard to payoff her debts before she was on the train to Seattle.
The long thread of people who held this country together had the same core values (hard work ethic, the indomitable spirit, and the spirit of independence, etc.) running through them whether they were the English, the Germans, the Norwegians, the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Mexicans, etc.
We are but a small portion of the thread of greatness that ran from the beginning of our country's history. Hopefully, we could continue the work to make this a great country.
Can you tell I really enjoyed this book? I think you should check it out, too.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
O, Juliet by Robin Maxwell
O, what a fantastic book!
I'm a book lover, especially hardback books. I know I'm going to have to surrender to the digital age and buy an e-book reader or a tablet, but I'm still trying to hold out. However, collecting hardback books get to be a very expensive hobby. So, I frequent nearby thrift stores, dollar stores, and library book sales to get my fill of books. This was a dollar store find (I also teach science at my kids' school as a volunteer, and Dolllar Stores are great for science project supplies).
I never liked Romeo and Juliet. I prefer The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, Henry V, The Tempest, Macbeth, etc. Romeo and Juliet seemed overly sentimental and stupidly tragic. And Juliet's nurse and Romeo's Friar should have known better than to not only encourage but to aid in the teenage lovers' hair-brained schemes.
Having said that, I loved O, Juliet. If this had been Shakespeare's original play, I would have loved it, too. It added so many layers and texture to the story. Most of the characters felt real and alive, and each had strong motivation in their backstories to explain their own journey to the tragic end.
Spoiler Alert~
Set in the opulent world of Don Cosimo de Medici in Florence, our Juliet is best friends with Don Cosimo's would be daughter-in-law Lucrezia Tornabuoni, who replaces Juliet's nurse as her confidante. Lucrezia's upcoming marriage to Piero casts a pall on Juliet. She, too, has an upcoming marriage, except it's to a man she despises. At Lucrezia's betrothal ball, Juliet meets Romeo, and they fall in love over Dante's love poetry.
Though they are from warring families and their hatred go back for at least two generations, there is hope. The parents on both sides, fathers especially, are more than willing to forgive one another and reconcile. However, Juliet's betrothal, Jacopo Strozzi, will not stand by and watch Juliet fall through his fingers. Though he doesn't love Juliet, he needs the business partnership with Juliet's father for secure his future, and he'll not lose out on that for something as silly and insignificant as love.
Jacopo Strozzi sets the major pieces of Romeo and Juliet in motion and brings about the tragic end to their classic love story.
I can't say enough how much I loved this book. The original pales in comparison with this awesome book.
Whether you pay $1 or $15, this books is well worth the price of the book (can you tell I like to buy books?). Go check it out and enjoy! I'm going to check out other books by the same author. Since I like de Medici's Florence so much, I think I'm going to check out Signora da Vinci, about Leonardo da Vinci's young mother.
I'm a book lover, especially hardback books. I know I'm going to have to surrender to the digital age and buy an e-book reader or a tablet, but I'm still trying to hold out. However, collecting hardback books get to be a very expensive hobby. So, I frequent nearby thrift stores, dollar stores, and library book sales to get my fill of books. This was a dollar store find (I also teach science at my kids' school as a volunteer, and Dolllar Stores are great for science project supplies).
I never liked Romeo and Juliet. I prefer The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, Henry V, The Tempest, Macbeth, etc. Romeo and Juliet seemed overly sentimental and stupidly tragic. And Juliet's nurse and Romeo's Friar should have known better than to not only encourage but to aid in the teenage lovers' hair-brained schemes.
Having said that, I loved O, Juliet. If this had been Shakespeare's original play, I would have loved it, too. It added so many layers and texture to the story. Most of the characters felt real and alive, and each had strong motivation in their backstories to explain their own journey to the tragic end.
Spoiler Alert~
Set in the opulent world of Don Cosimo de Medici in Florence, our Juliet is best friends with Don Cosimo's would be daughter-in-law Lucrezia Tornabuoni, who replaces Juliet's nurse as her confidante. Lucrezia's upcoming marriage to Piero casts a pall on Juliet. She, too, has an upcoming marriage, except it's to a man she despises. At Lucrezia's betrothal ball, Juliet meets Romeo, and they fall in love over Dante's love poetry.
Though they are from warring families and their hatred go back for at least two generations, there is hope. The parents on both sides, fathers especially, are more than willing to forgive one another and reconcile. However, Juliet's betrothal, Jacopo Strozzi, will not stand by and watch Juliet fall through his fingers. Though he doesn't love Juliet, he needs the business partnership with Juliet's father for secure his future, and he'll not lose out on that for something as silly and insignificant as love.
Jacopo Strozzi sets the major pieces of Romeo and Juliet in motion and brings about the tragic end to their classic love story.
I can't say enough how much I loved this book. The original pales in comparison with this awesome book.
Whether you pay $1 or $15, this books is well worth the price of the book (can you tell I like to buy books?). Go check it out and enjoy! I'm going to check out other books by the same author. Since I like de Medici's Florence so much, I think I'm going to check out Signora da Vinci, about Leonardo da Vinci's young mother.
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