April Reads
Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen
Jeanne is a survivor of the Ywanada genocide. A child of a rich family, she is witness to a world turned upside down.
Fire by Bill Bright & Jack Cavanaugh
Josiah Rush leaves his hometown of Havenhill, outcast. As a young man he accepted the blame for an accident which results in three people’s death by fire. Now he returns, seven years later at the behest of his best friend from the school days, to serve as their minister. He knows he’ll be facing a lot of judgement. The town has changed a lot, suffering from what Josiah calls “soul sickness.” He sets out to find it’s root and to save the town, even though the odds are against him. I enjoyed the book…the characters were interesting, and the story was overall well written.
One area irritated me, though. At one point, a big slaver arranges a slave auction in Havenhill in hopes of eventually turning the town into a slave port. The citizens decide to outfox the slaver by joining the auction, outbidding everyone, and setting the slaves free (putting them on a ship back to Africa ). The slaver is outraged. My question…..why would the slaver care? No matter who bid for the slaves, that money still went into his personal purse. Releasing the slaves also did not impact the slaver’s profit margin. That part of the story didn’t make sense to me.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
I’ve been planning to read this book for a long time. I adored Kingsolver’s The Bean Tree. The Reverend Price takes his wife and four daughters to the Congo where he hopes to convert the Congolese to christianity. We quickly learn that he is a horrible, hateful man, completely self-absorbed and seeing things only his way. As a result, he makes no progress with the natives, and quickly alienates his own family. We follow the thoughts of the five women as they try to adjust to life in this foreign place, during a time when the Congo is in political turmoil. Between the natural disasters and the violence of mankind, they reevaluate their existing views of God and shape into a completely different family.
The Ghost Map (the story of London ’s most terrifying epidemic – and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world) by Steven Johnson
This nonfiction book is fascinating. It’s written in a truly engaging manner, not just dry facts. I loved hearing about some of the 18th Century London jobs that no longer exist – like nightsoil men. There were several of these jobs designed to help control a city’s waste management. As the city became larger and as the economic demographics changed, these positions were eliminated, allowing the waste to grow out of control.
I always knew that cholera was transmitted by polluted water. However, the book explained that cholera had ALWAYS existed in the water. So, what caused this bacteria to go from being a common, harmless thing to an epidemic that killed thousands in a matter of days? The explanation boils down to waste management and the pollution of drinking water. Cholera was designed to consume human excrement. In order to effect a human being, it had to be ingested. Normally, since humans do not ingest excrement, the cholera bacteria would have been passed out of the human digestive system without any notice. However, as human waste began to build up in the drinking water, everything changed. In addition, bacteria – with its tremendously fast reproductive and evolution cycle – was able to change into a strain that was even more dangerous. Normally, a parasite needs to keep the host alive as long as possible to survive. However, once the bacteria was able to survive by passing quickly and easily from one host to another, the need to keep the host alive was unnecessary, and the strain began to reproduce more quickly and become viciously virulent.
The book discussed how medical studies communicated their theories on how to cure cholera….generally by argumentative articles in the local newspaper. There were no processes available to guide research, ensure data accuracy, and to protect the general public. Also, the process of research into the actual cause of cholera was limited and often misguided. It was fascinating to read on the progress of the medical research.
Why do some nationalities have low tolerances to alcohol or lactose? Johnson throws out his theory on this one. Nationalities with no tolerance to alcohol trace back to hunter/gatherer tribes (American Indian, Eskimo, Aborigines); their introduction to alcohol has been fairly recent in the scope of genetic evolution. Nationalities that came from cities or agrian backgrounds started drinking alcohol a long time ago. Alcohol is, actually, a poison; many of the early users died from alcohol poisoning or from the effects of alcohol abuse (cerosis). Those who drank alcohol and survived (exhibited an early tolerance to the poison) passed on their genetic predisposition to their descedants. Similarly, dairy from milk and goats is not natural to the human diet. Many non-white cultures (Indian, Asian, African, etc.) are lactose-intolerant. Again, we can trace the ability to consume milk products back to those civilizations that were predominantly herders. The increased lactose tolerance was genetically passed on.
The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd
This little story is hilarious. You follow the progress of a young man goes to college as an art major. He doesn’t even particularly LIKE art, but there is no major for “making stuff.” We get a description of the creative friends he makes, the classes he takes, his quirky teachers, and his personal development as he discovers what he really loves – graphic design. The dialogue is intelligent and humorous. I think my niece would love this.
Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey
A mystery intrigue novel based on the Lost Gospels of Nag Hammadi, along the lines of The DaVinci Code (which I loved). It’s post WWII, and Gemma (a nurse) is still mourning her mother’s death when she receives communication from her father. He’s working on a very exiciting project in Egypt , and he tells her he thinks it will change Christianity. He is purchasing a home, and the plans are for Gemma to join him soon. The next thing she knows, she is notified of his death from heart attack. While she is contemplating how a healthy, vivacious man with no heart problems can suddenly have a heart attack, she receives a package that her father mailed just before his death. It contains a piece of an ancient script. Gemma goes to Egypt to claim her father’s remains….and to uncover the mystery of his suspicious death and to unveil the mystery of his project.
Step-by-Step Composition Techniques for Digital Photographers by Ernst Wildi
Neatly organized into a variety of categories….different things to look for when composing pictures to avoid distractions and to help reinforce the subject. His strength was clearly in the landscape realm. His written tips for portraits was all right, but his pictures for them were ridiculous…particularly when he was talking about “natural” poses. I thought the first half of the book was quite helpful, and then it went downhill from there.
Jeanne is a survivor of the Ywanada genocide. A child of a rich family, she is witness to a world turned upside down.
Fire by Bill Bright & Jack Cavanaugh
Josiah Rush leaves his hometown of Havenhill, outcast. As a young man he accepted the blame for an accident which results in three people’s death by fire. Now he returns, seven years later at the behest of his best friend from the school days, to serve as their minister. He knows he’ll be facing a lot of judgement. The town has changed a lot, suffering from what Josiah calls “soul sickness.” He sets out to find it’s root and to save the town, even though the odds are against him. I enjoyed the book…the characters were interesting, and the story was overall well written.
One area irritated me, though. At one point, a big slaver arranges a slave auction in Havenhill in hopes of eventually turning the town into a slave port. The citizens decide to outfox the slaver by joining the auction, outbidding everyone, and setting the slaves free (putting them on a ship back to Africa ). The slaver is outraged. My question…..why would the slaver care? No matter who bid for the slaves, that money still went into his personal purse. Releasing the slaves also did not impact the slaver’s profit margin. That part of the story didn’t make sense to me.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
I’ve been planning to read this book for a long time. I adored Kingsolver’s The Bean Tree. The Reverend Price takes his wife and four daughters to the Congo where he hopes to convert the Congolese to christianity. We quickly learn that he is a horrible, hateful man, completely self-absorbed and seeing things only his way. As a result, he makes no progress with the natives, and quickly alienates his own family. We follow the thoughts of the five women as they try to adjust to life in this foreign place, during a time when the Congo is in political turmoil. Between the natural disasters and the violence of mankind, they reevaluate their existing views of God and shape into a completely different family.
The Ghost Map (the story of London ’s most terrifying epidemic – and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world) by Steven Johnson
This nonfiction book is fascinating. It’s written in a truly engaging manner, not just dry facts. I loved hearing about some of the 18th Century London jobs that no longer exist – like nightsoil men. There were several of these jobs designed to help control a city’s waste management. As the city became larger and as the economic demographics changed, these positions were eliminated, allowing the waste to grow out of control.
I always knew that cholera was transmitted by polluted water. However, the book explained that cholera had ALWAYS existed in the water. So, what caused this bacteria to go from being a common, harmless thing to an epidemic that killed thousands in a matter of days? The explanation boils down to waste management and the pollution of drinking water. Cholera was designed to consume human excrement. In order to effect a human being, it had to be ingested. Normally, since humans do not ingest excrement, the cholera bacteria would have been passed out of the human digestive system without any notice. However, as human waste began to build up in the drinking water, everything changed. In addition, bacteria – with its tremendously fast reproductive and evolution cycle – was able to change into a strain that was even more dangerous. Normally, a parasite needs to keep the host alive as long as possible to survive. However, once the bacteria was able to survive by passing quickly and easily from one host to another, the need to keep the host alive was unnecessary, and the strain began to reproduce more quickly and become viciously virulent.
The book discussed how medical studies communicated their theories on how to cure cholera….generally by argumentative articles in the local newspaper. There were no processes available to guide research, ensure data accuracy, and to protect the general public. Also, the process of research into the actual cause of cholera was limited and often misguided. It was fascinating to read on the progress of the medical research.
Why do some nationalities have low tolerances to alcohol or lactose? Johnson throws out his theory on this one. Nationalities with no tolerance to alcohol trace back to hunter/gatherer tribes (American Indian, Eskimo, Aborigines); their introduction to alcohol has been fairly recent in the scope of genetic evolution. Nationalities that came from cities or agrian backgrounds started drinking alcohol a long time ago. Alcohol is, actually, a poison; many of the early users died from alcohol poisoning or from the effects of alcohol abuse (cerosis). Those who drank alcohol and survived (exhibited an early tolerance to the poison) passed on their genetic predisposition to their descedants. Similarly, dairy from milk and goats is not natural to the human diet. Many non-white cultures (Indian, Asian, African, etc.) are lactose-intolerant. Again, we can trace the ability to consume milk products back to those civilizations that were predominantly herders. The increased lactose tolerance was genetically passed on.
The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd
This little story is hilarious. You follow the progress of a young man goes to college as an art major. He doesn’t even particularly LIKE art, but there is no major for “making stuff.” We get a description of the creative friends he makes, the classes he takes, his quirky teachers, and his personal development as he discovers what he really loves – graphic design. The dialogue is intelligent and humorous. I think my niece would love this.
Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey
A mystery intrigue novel based on the Lost Gospels of Nag Hammadi, along the lines of The DaVinci Code (which I loved). It’s post WWII, and Gemma (a nurse) is still mourning her mother’s death when she receives communication from her father. He’s working on a very exiciting project in Egypt , and he tells her he thinks it will change Christianity. He is purchasing a home, and the plans are for Gemma to join him soon. The next thing she knows, she is notified of his death from heart attack. While she is contemplating how a healthy, vivacious man with no heart problems can suddenly have a heart attack, she receives a package that her father mailed just before his death. It contains a piece of an ancient script. Gemma goes to Egypt to claim her father’s remains….and to uncover the mystery of his suspicious death and to unveil the mystery of his project.
Step-by-Step Composition Techniques for Digital Photographers by Ernst Wildi
Neatly organized into a variety of categories….different things to look for when composing pictures to avoid distractions and to help reinforce the subject. His strength was clearly in the landscape realm. His written tips for portraits was all right, but his pictures for them were ridiculous…particularly when he was talking about “natural” poses. I thought the first half of the book was quite helpful, and then it went downhill from there.
posted by Rhonda L at 10:21 PM
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