Jane Austen: a life

This is the best biography of Austen that I've read, to date. All the facts are presented clearly, with the usual amount of speculation and guesswork, given that we know so very little. This was fascinating, depressing and inspiring all at once. I found that the majority of the speculation was based in reality and, most importantly, it was based on research of the period in question. The way things were done during the Georgian and Regency periods contrast rather sharply with the following Victorian era, particularly in the area of 'refinement'. Austen comes alive in this book, as does most of the family. More time is spent discussing the information that we do have, than lamenting the lost letters, etc.

I thoroughly recommend this to anyone interested in Austen or her work.

This forms part of the non-fiction non-memoir challenge, which does actually allow biographies 

(just not memoirs or autobiographies).

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time

This is a very interesting read. It's really quite a fascinating look at political matters, the way people live in other, less westernised countries and, most importantly, the lengths that people will go to in order to help themselves. All they need is the resources, which are so very hard to come by. Greg Mortenson, however, makes sure that they get them.

This book is partly about the development and work of the Central Asia Institute (much to my disappointment, this doesn't fit the requirements of my Middle Eastern challenge as a result) and the work they do. It's also partly about Greg Mortenson - who he is, why he is the way he is and so on. It's not really a biography, though it's certainly biographical. It's a weird mix of things. It's definitely worth reading, though it can be heavy-going in places.

Tolkien and the Great War: the Threshold of Middle Earth

This is an amazing book. I've never really read much about the First World War. Anyone who's so much as glanced at my non-fiction shelves or GoodReads stats will note a decided preponderance of works relating to the Second World War, but nothing on the First. Everything I know about the First World War is due to Sue Harsant, who taught me history in high school (and I shall never forget her complaining after an exam/test/assignment that we should not simply say Ferdinand, because she might think we were referring to Ferdinand the Bull who went traipsing through the daisies. Her very dry sense of humour delighted myself and Tiina Napoleon at the time).

Anyway, the point of that long aside was that this is the first work I've ever read about the First World War and so was my first glimpse into the horrors of trench warfare. I had an intellectual understanding that it was a horrific thing, but I didn't understand. I still don't, thankfully, but now I have a greater idea of what about it was so horrific. Of what it was like to be there, what happened to people on the ground. On the one hand it makes me glad for the 'advances' of mechanised warfare. At the same time, those same supposed advances terrify me. No longer does individual kill individual, now machine destroys machine and life from afar. I know they had machine guns and bombs and so on, but on the whole they could at least see who they were killing. The horror of war, and the facts of war - the facts being that you are killing individuals that are really no different from yourself - were up close and personal. They no longer are.

At the same time as this works as a general introduction (for me) to the First World War (because you can be sure I'm going to be looking for more on the subject now), it also works really well as a biographical work on Tolkien. Specifically with regard to the effect that his experiences in the war and in the Battle of the Somme particularly must have had on his writing. You cannot go through an experience of that sort without undergoing profound changes. There's a fair amount of speculation on the author's part because Tolkien was extremely reticent regarding those experiences. That speculation is backed up by fairly solid reasoning (in my completely uncritical opinion) and while I'm of the opinion that you can never know exactly how things influenced the creative process, you can work out a fair amount, especially when it's something as significant as this.

If you're interested in either the First World War or Tolkien, I'd recommend this.

Jack the Ripper

A fairly old book, this has as plausible an explanation as any I've read (and I've read a few). I'm not completely convinced, though I think the explanation put forward here is possibly the most well-researched and well-thought out of any. There are parts of it I agree with, such as the murderer only stopping because he died. There are also parts I disagree with completely, such as the idea that the murderer's first attempts were as successful as his later ones. No researcher seems to take any practice into account. I cannot believe that he did not make some mistakes when he first began to kill. A must-read for anyone interested.

Mary Tudor: England's First Queen

History has vilified her as Bloody Mary. Why? Because she burnt over 300 heretics in her reign. She tried to stem the tide of Protestantism in England, to return the country to the Catholicism that reigned at her birth and until her father's lust (for both power and women) got the better of him. Unable to produce an heir, the crown returned to a Protestant (Queen Elizabeth I) and Mary was consequently vilified on religious grounds.

I had always thought that Elizabeth was the first queen of England and that her sister Mary was Mary Queen of Scots. How little I knew! Mary Tudor was a phenomenal woman. She lived in interesting times. To have your entire family turned against you for your beliefs - beliefs that they shared until very recently - must be extremely disorienting for anyone. She handled herself extremely well. I am impressed by her complete belief and the way that she was willing to stand by her belief and not simply renounce it for another, milder version of the same faith as so many others did. Unlike Elizabeth, she was not willing to pretend to comply with the religious dictates of her family and the law. She was prepared to die for what she believed. History would have been far kinder to her if she had.

This is a story of a remarkable woman. I admire her greatly for her unwavering determination to do what she believed was right. I may not agree with what she believed, or what she did, but I admire the courage that she showed at a time when she was abandoned by all who should have supported her. This is a woman who did much for the equality of women and the rights of women at a time when the notion was never even considered. This is a highly recommended biography.

Pascal's Wager: the Man Who Played Dice with God

This is not really a book about Pascal's Wager, so much as it's a book about Blaise Pascal. It was particularly interesting to read this while The Three Musketeers was fresh in my mind, as the two overlap in time, with Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII (who was apparently homosexual) and Anne of Austria being prominent figures in both.

Anyway, this book considers Pascal's life from birth to death. It considers his rational and scientific research, and the varying success thereof, both as it relates to contemporary times and as it related to the time in which he lived. It also considers the religious atmosphere of seventeenth century France. I found Jansenism, and consequently Augustinism, as rather frightening extremes of Catholic belief. I was highly amused at the way the Catholic Church wiggled around the question of heresy, as declaring Jansenism heretical really is the same as declaring Augustinism heretical. But questions of Catholic belief are not relevant here.

What is relevant is that Pascal subscribed to Jansenism. Somehow, from that religious standpoint he formulated his well-known wager. Connor makes the point that the wager is only really useful in the context of the 'rules' of the 'game' in which it was made, which I found very interesting. What I particularly found interesting is that considering Augustinist, and consequently Jansenist, belief in efficacious grace, the wager should never have been made. Which brings up the question of what Pascal actually believed, as opposed to what he thought he believed.

This is a fascinating biography of a remarkable man - both in terms of science and theology and in terms of the relationship between them in the seventeenth century. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in these subjects.

The Passion of Therese of Lisieux

This is the story of the final part of Therese of Lisieux's life. I don't pretend to understand the Christian term 'passion', which seems to mean 'suffering leading up to death'. That's certainly what this book is about. I have an autobiography of Saint Therese on my list of books to read, but this deals purely with the onset of symptoms of the tuberculosis that led to her death.

This is an interesting read, particularly because I had no idea who Saint Therese was or why she was important (or even that she was actually a canonised saint). I was also rather ignorant as to the progression and final stages of pulmonary tuberculosis, that it can spread to the intestines (which apparently causes gangrene and is most unpleasant) or even that there were multiple varieties of tuberculosis (I shall have to google phthisical tuberculosis - apparently phthisis is a medical term for 'wasting away' and so it has the same meaning as 'consumption' and other terms no longer used for tuberculosis, one definition has it as meaning 'pulmonary tuberculosis'!).

I personally found Saint Therese rather irritating in her desire to die, to be a martyr. Isn't she supposed to wish to live so as to work for her god? Apparently, that only applies if you consider the Christian heaven to be a place of rest. Saint Therese considered that she would be able to do her work far better in heaven and so was anxious to be there. I'm not sure how I feel about her, but I consider her 'little way' to be something of great interest. As far as I can tell, it entails being completely dependent on and trusting in god, such that you give yourself up into god. As you might imagine I see quite a few parallels to what she says with what Bernadette Roberts said in her book. It's likely I'm seeing things that aren't there, but there are certain phrases that Saint Therese uses in describing her experiences that struck me all the more forcefully for the previous reading.

As someone interested in what makes people themselves, this is an interesting book. I don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone that wasn't interested in Saints, Religion or the Way Religion Effects People.

Hidden Children of the Holocaust

This book is about the lower echelons of the Catholic clergy during the Nazi occupation of Belgium in World War II. While the higher levels kept quiet, the parish priests and nuns hid thousands of Jewish children and saved their lives.

Vromen undertook this research as a sociological study and the book reads somewhat like a thesis. She has interviewed one priest, a number of nuns, a number of hidden children and a couple of members of the secular resistance movement responsible for getting the children from their families to the institutions that hid them.

I am left feeling depressed and uplifted at the same time. Nazis and nuns are two of my greatest fascinations, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this study. What I'm left with is a sense that armed resistance receives too much acclaim in comparison with other forms. The people who just did a few tiny things - carrying messages or providing food - were just as courageous as those who chose a more militant form of resistance. But what about all those others who chose not to resist, neither actively nor passively. Did they collaborate or embrace Nazi ideology? Did they merely think of themselves as neutral? Which begs the question, how can you remain neutral in the face of such inhuman behaviour? More interestingly, how would I have behaved? There's no way to know without finding myself in a position that I hope the world never sees again. I suspect, though, that as survivors die memory will fade and such horrors may again be committed. The extreme religious right of the United States and their vilification of Muslims give me cause for concern. The eternal conflict in the Middle East gives me cause for concern. Every continent shows some form of intolerance and oppression of humanity. I can only do what little I can to ensure that we do not forget.

Sybil

I first read this book in high school. I've had vague memories of it and a desire to reread it ever since. I am aware that there are arguments against its being factual. I'm also aware that there are arguments against the study that found it to be largely fictional. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to solve the problem is for the files to be unsealed and for the case to be studied by multiple experts. I know that there are many experts who do not consider dissociative identity disorder (DID - formerly multiple personality disorder, MPD) to be real. I understand that the majority of cases are found in the US. Either way, this book was written as a true account and that's how I'm going to treat it (mostly).

Sybil is the story of a woman with DID. She has sixteen separate personalities. Quite frankly I don't consider all sixteen to be either complete personalities or completely separate, but that may be simply due to the constraints of the book. Perhaps if I had met them myself, I would have found them to be separate personalities. The reason for Sybil's personalities appears to be the abuse she suffered at the hands of a diagnosed but untreated schizophrenic mother. At one point in the book the abuse suffered by Sybil, and other children, at the hands of the mother is recounted. The abuse, however, is not dwelt on, which I feel is a good thing. It's important to understand the causes, but there's no need to portray it graphically. There are, however, places where I feel that either the causes were not explained well enough, or the cause is simply unbelievable. Two personalities appear simply because a doctor walked away from a two- or three-year old and sent her back to her abusive home? There's either something I don't understand, or there's something missing from this explanation.

The focus of the book is Sybil's psychoanalysis with Dr Wilbur. I have to say that, on many levels, I object to Dr Wilbur. She does not maintain any objective distance from her patient, in fact she befriends a number of the personalities. Possibly this was necessary as the case was exceedingly complex and groundbreaking. I do feel though, that her professional integrity is damaged by this. There is some suggestion that Dr Wilbur manipulated Sybil into believing she had DID when she didn't and I can only feel that it's strengthened by Dr Wilbur's inability to maintain professional distance. Also, she's a Freudian psychoanalyst and I deeply distrust Freudian anything.

At the end of the book, Sybil is reintegrated. She's a whole, single person, though the personalities do in some measure still exist within the confines of her mind. I feel that this whole process is treated far too superficially. Either that, or the entire was superficial because the disorder didn't exist to begin with. I can't decide. Either way, I felt the end of the book was lacking because of this and there is a sense that the happy ending is contrived.

This is a deeply moving story, regardless of whether or not it's true. It gives one the ability to imagine the fear that someone suffering from DID must feel when they come back to themselves and find that they've lost time. It's well written and easy to read, despite a proliferation of technical terms. This is a book that I recommend regardless of the veracity of the account.

The Year of Magical Thinking

I read this book a few years ago and found it interesting. In the wake of actually experiencing grief myself I thought it might be worth rereading.

It's a good book, well written. I think, however, that while her experiences may be analogous to mine (the cognitive deficits, the denial, the avoiding of reminders, etc.) the simple fact that she had so much else to deal with, with her daughter's illness, makes the story somewhat inaccessible.

It's a fascinating insight into the way her mind dealt with the sudden loss of her husband. Some of her experiences are similar to mine and, no doubt, every other grieving person on the planet. But the simple fact that her situation is not mine - I do not have an ill daughter, I can not rely on a life's worth of work to buoy me up while I grieve, I need to work - means that what she went through is not particularly comforting to me.

This is a good book and you should probably read it. Just don't read it while you're grieving, because it's not the comfort they suggest it is.

Little Town on the Prairie

This is the seventh book in this series and so far, though I've not read all the previous six, it's my favourite. Laura, author and main character ages from 14 at the beginning of the book to very nearly 16 at the end. Calm, sedate Mary goes off to the school for the blind in Iowa and while her family might miss her, it doesn't really affect the rest of the book.

This is the book that takes a step away from the intense focus on the immediate Ingalls family and starts to really interact with others. Laura and younger sister Carrie attend the local school and form friendships with other children there. The family again spends the winter in town, though this is a far milder winter than the previous one they experienced (see The Long Winter), and as a result they are far more social. At least part of this may be due to the fact that there are far more families in the area than there were the previous year.

Anyway, it's a classic series that you really should read. It's also worth reading from an adult perspective, in my opinion, if you enjoy historical stories.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

This book first came to my notice when my one and only not-normal aunt (her words) recommended it to me. The copy I have belongs to my sister, a gift to her one christmas, possibly from me (it's so hard to remember, but I strongly suspect that it was so). I enjoyed this book, though I gather that others haven't. It's a history of detection in England and the detective novel. It's a biography of Mr Whicher and the Kent family. It's also a fascinating mystery about a murdered child.

If you only like the kinds of mysteries where everything is accounted for and 'solved' at the end, then this is not a book you should read. While, technically, the crime was solved when someone confessed, there were still unanswered questions and unexplained facts. There are ways to account for this, but one does not come away from this book feeling that the mystery has been solved satisfactorily. In many ways the book is rather depressing as one vicariously views the British media and public ruin the lives of both the family involved and the detectives trying to solve the case.

An interesting book. I enjoyed it, but I'm not really sure how I feel about it.

Look Me In The Eye

This is a fascinating biography of a man born long before Asperger's Syndrome was a recognised diagnosis. An interesting look at his individual quirks and skills. Robison is a highly skilled engineer. He designed the flaming guitars for KISS. Now he has a diagnosis and understands himself better.

I don't really have much to say. This is an account that speaks for itself. If you have any interest, you should read this book.

Louisa May Alcott

I picked this up in the States, quite early on. One of the places that I wanted to go to was Orchard House, which you can see in the link above. Orchard House was one of the Alcott's residences (they seem to have moved every five minutes), but one that they seemed to keep coming back to.

Louisa May Alcott really was an amazing woman. I knew her only from the four books about the March family (given that a fair majority of South African books are obtained from British publishers/printers we have Good Wives, rather than two parts of Little Women). I knew that she'd written some other books, but I'd never read any and hadn't much interest in them. I had some vague knowledge that she'd been a nurse in the civil war and that Little Women was semi-autobiographical. I wanted to go to Orchard House because it was mentioned in the adaptation I have of Little Women (the Winona Ryder version).

So, when Steven and I were in Boston, we hopped up to Concord (Massachusetts, not the one in New Hampshire or whatever it is further to the north) and visited Orchard House. There I learnt more about her writing, the importance of her father and the society in which they lived. I was more than ready to read her biography - this apparently being one of the best biographies of Louisa May Alcott ever written. It is well written without appearing at all like a biography in any way. It's written more like a historical novel, though one knows that all the events and facts that are dramatised on the page are actual events written about in the family journal and letters.

This is a highly recommended read.

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism

Temple Grandin is just about the most famous autistic person on the planet. This book talks about the way she sees the world and how that affects her life. She talks about the ways in which being autistic has helped her and hindered her. Most importantly, she talks about autism as a way of being, rather than a disease to be feared and cured. Autism cannot be cured and, in fact, does not need to be cured, a point that Grandin makes perfectly clear. Her life may be very different and not something that neurotypicals (non-autistics) would wish for, but it suits her. It makes her happy. She lives a satisfying, fulfilling life.

Anyone with an interest in the autism spectrum or the ways in which the mind can work should read this book.

Atypical: Life with Asperger's in 20 1/3 Chapters

Our whirlwind trip of the States is almost over. We begin the trip home tomorrow and presumably I will resume my blogging activities.

Jesse Saperstein was born in the same year as me. Around the same time, Asperger's Syndrome (AS) became recognised as a legitimate form of high-functioning autism. Previously, people with AS slipped through the cracks and were generally considered to have personality disorders. Usually, the individual was too high-functioning to be considered disabled, but too disabled to be considered 'normal'. Jesse was diagnosed at the age of fourteen. This book tells the story of his struggles growing up, the changes a diagnosis caused him and the obstacles he still faces.

Highly recommended.

Enid Blyton: The Biography

This book is exceedingly difficult to find. I have seen references to it all over the place. I have seen an actual copy of it in the UCT Special Collections, though you aren't allowed to take it out (they also have Childhood at Green Hedges, written by her younger daughter, which is also an elusive book). Finally, for a fair amount of money, I found a copy at Quagga in Kalk Bay. The Kalk Bay book/antique shops aren't on my usual rounds because (a) they're annoyingly far away and (b) they're mostly antique shops and so tend to be expensive. At least Kalk Bay has decent shops of this sort, unlike the horrific excuse for a bookshop in Simon's Town.

Anyway, this is a biography of one of my favourite authors, Enid Blyton. I don't like all the stuff she's written (not that I've read it all) and quite agree with some of the criticism she's received (racist, classist, etc), though I'm quite willing to accept that she and her work are products of their time. Much the same way I'm quite willing to accept similar attitudes in Agatha Christie's work or historical fiction. I don't really understand why it should be sanitised simply because it's for children. Perhaps I just think children are smarter than we give them credit for. On the other hand, I still enjoy reading my Blytons, so what do I know? Well, I know how to enjoy myself for an afternoon of light reading ... well, an hour or so at least. I'd need a few Blytons to last a whole afternoon. Also, there are no better books for bathtime reading. This is not because most of my favourites have already been dropped in the bath multiple times. Really.

Enid Blyton did not live a particularly interesting life and from all I can tell was not a particularly nice person if you weren't a child. Or at least adoring. She was, as all I've read about her agrees, extremely childlike. She needed attention and adulation. She did not want any sort of responsibility that was unrelated to her writing. All relationships were conducted on her terms. The family history is interesting and I'm really glad I wasn't born at the end of the 19th century.

I don't think I'd have been friends with her, but she wrote some fantastic books. And that's all I have to say on the matter.

CS Lewis: The Man Behind Narnia

I picked this book up at Bargain Books the other day. I really am completely hopeless when faced with books that are cheaper than usual. Though, it's always worth it to check, 'cause I once saw a book at an EB sale where the sale price was higher than the normal price! Anyway, I picked this up because it looked interesting and I needed a third for my '3 for R99' bunch.

This is a biography that's really aimed at American children. I can tell this from the style of writing and the way that they keep choosing to explain what I feel are fairly self-explanatory words. I guess that they're words that most non-British children wouldn't be familiar with (what that says about me, I'm not sure, but probably has something to do with my large accumulation of books by British authors through my life).

It's well-written and informative. I had no idea about much of Lewis's life story (I didn't even know he was actually Irish!) and this was a very interesting introduction to it. It did, of course, focus mainly on his writing, but that's to be expected, since it's aimed at children who enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia. But as someone who did not enjoy them, it's still a good introduction to the author. Apparently I have the same objection to Narnia as Tolkien did - it's just a mish-mash of myths that don't (or shouldn't) go together. It drove me nuts and apparently did the same to Tolkien.

This is a good introductory book and I'll certainly be looking out for others - both by this author and on this topic.

The Glass Castle

I've been reading this book for over a week now - between my library books and FotR and so on. I can only say: wow. This is definitely a book to digest slowly. If you're one of those odd people who don't read, read this when you do. It's an extremely well-written biography about what appears to be an extremely stressful way to grow up. Would I have turned out so well? Would I have coped so well?

All families and all children have their difficulties to overcome, but some people have it worse than others and some people make it even worse for their children. Adventure is all very well, but regular meals are better.

I say again: read this book.

Jane Austen: Selected Letters

This is probably one of the best gifts I ever received from Sheep. Now, at first glance, Sheep is not a very complimentary name to give to a friend. I suspect, however, that she will not mind terribly. For a start, her name begins with an S. On top of that, it's her fault for moving to New Zealand, which many people associate with sheep. Thirdly, she's Christian and very devoted. As Jesus is the Lamb of God, sheep must be highly valued animals to Christians. Also (and this really isn't complimentary), I consider the blind acceptance of belief that most adherents to organised religions display to be very sheeplike.

Anyway, this is a collection of some of Jane Austen's letters. It's not all the surviving letters that have ever been found (I wouldn't mind Deirdre Le Faye's volume of those, actually, but I've never yet seen it in South Africa). Most of Austen's letters were destroyed by her sister, Cassandra, as she felt they were too private for public consumption. I don't blame her and I doubt not that it was what Austen herself would have wanted, but I do lament it.

The letters give some insight into Austen's life and personality. It's an interesting read and highly recommended (unless you can get your hands on the complete collection, in which case you'll have all of these as well).