Also good from......

Hilaire Belloc is "The Crusades".  He tells the story of the first Crusade because he says it was the only successful one.  It kept a Christian Kingdom in the Holy Land for almost a century until it was defeated by the forces of Saladdin, who managed to unite the Moslems from Egypt to the Euphrates, and the Crusaders were vastly outnumbered.Very readable and a painless way to study history.  The third book I took from the Vancouver library was  a copy of "Religion and the Rise of Western Culture" by Christopher Dawson.  Not as easy to read as Belloc.

It seems to me that if you......

....want a good history book, it's best to go back a few years.  When I was in Vancouver earlier this month for my ERCP, I called in at the Vancouver Library and picked up this copy of "How the Reformation Happened."  by Hilaire Belloc.  He didn't disappoint me.  Packed with information, a very thorough description of the Reformation as it unfolded, he tells in a short book the major sequence of events in England, Scotland, France, Germany and Holland.  I would like to have a copy of this book for reference.  He claims that when it started, the Reformation was not about Doctrine, but a protest against clerical and Papal abuses, and a realization by the nobility that it was an opportunity to get rich by plundering Church and Monastic property, and that it was a movement of nobles more than a popular uprising.  Also surprising was the involvement of Islam, which won in Hungary at the battle of Mohacs in August 1526, which distracted the German Emperor and stopped him from quelling the rebellion at home.  He also claims that Henry Vlll's break from the Pope was not meant to be permanent, Kings did that all the time.  But that Henry died before he could repair the break.  Excellent book.

One of the most dramatic books.....

I've read lately was "Under an Afghan Sky"  by Melissa Fung, a Canadian journalist.  She was captured by a group of young Afghans outside a refugee camp in Kabul and kept prisoner in a hole in the ground for 28 days.  The only way I could get through this book was because I knew at the end of it she escaped.  I saw her interviewed on the National by Peter Mansbridge a few weeks ago.  I read it in about 3 days.  She behaved in a very intelligent way with her captors,  asking their names and taking an interest in their lives.  They told her they were Talib, but she suspected that they were just criminals, who supported the Taliban.  Finally she was released in exchange for a member of her captors' family, without payment.  She was lucky to get out alive.  It could have ended very differently.  The book is very well written and a compelling read.

A book I've been waiting for.......

arrived sooner than I thought it would.  Michael Coren's book  "Why Catholics are Right."  No false modesty here!   It's about time someone wrote this book.  I've heard many of the arguments used here often enough and others have heard them too.  Michael gives a good response to the confused ideas around such topics as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Catholic Doctrines like Purgatory.  I bought myself a copy to keep as a reference and also one to lend out.

More of the same.....

from Melanie Phillips in "Londonistan".   It breaks my heart to see what has happened to England's green and pleasant land.  Some towns in the north are all Muslim.  She speaks about the rise of militant Islam in Britain and how it has been allowed to be taught in the Mosques there.  British born youths whose loyalty is not to the country they were born in, but to Muslim countries.  She tells how the Underground bombers went white water rafting in Wales the weekend before the attack, and how they were all born in Britain.  She also speaks of institutional reluctance to name and confront the problem.  It does not speak well for the future of Britain, I hope it's not too late.

A book to entertain and frustrate.......

"America Alone" by Mark Steyn.  It had me convulsed and it had me shaking my head in disbelief.  Bracing, brisk a call to common sense in our confused world.  To be read to be believed.

For a better understanding......

of the war in Afghanistan I took out a copy of "Descent into chaos"  by Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, who seems to be on friendly terms with many of the crucial players.  He paints a tangled picture of intrigue, corruption, mistakes in judgement and general incompetence of those involved in the  American invasion of Afghanistan, and its consequences.  It's hard to believe that peace will ever come to this region, including Pakistan and central Asia.  It's a fascinating read and I came away with a better knowledge of the people and places involved, and even admiration for the ordinary people who have endured so much, and for those who continue the struggle, against many odds, to bring some kind of stability here.

Long Hiatus......

....Not sure why but I've had trouble accessing my blog in recent weeks.  So I have quite a number of books to review.
The first is a book by the well known British Atheist Antony Flew.  At least the blurb says that he is a well known atheist, but I had never heard of him.  I guess I haven't been moving in the right/wrong circle.  The book:  "There is A God".  Apparently Antony Flew was the first to come up with a systematic theory of atheism.   He tells in this book how he came to change his mind, from atheism to a belief in God, a Creator.  He says:  "I have followed the argument where it has led me.  And it has led me to accept the existence of a self-existent, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, and omniscient Being."  He also says about Christianity that:  "If you are wanting omnipotence to set up a religion, it seems to me that this is the one to beat!"
One thing that puzzled him was consciousness:  how could matter give birth to consciousness, another was rationality and conceptual thought:  "How is it possible to evaluate data at all?"
A good read, which I intend to go back to, if ever I have the time.

Change of pace......

...Wanting to read more Canadian books I saw this one recommended on Salt and Light TV.   "Mercy among the Children" by David Adams Richards.  It's the story of a New Brunswick small town in the seventies and eighties, and of a poor family that becomes the community scapegoat for everything that goes wrong there.  The grandfather, Roy,  is found guilty of setting fire to the local mill (he was found drunk at the scene of the crime), and the story is told years later by the grandson, Lyle,  to the ex policeman whose car the grandfather happened to stumble into, to sleep, on the night of the crime.  The father, Roy,  basically a very good man, well read but not schooled, had made a promise to God that he would never try to defend himself again when he almost accidentally killed a schoolmate.  Years later when he and his wife are unjustly accused of crimes he keeps his promise and the family is plunged into a nightmare of poverty, accusations and threats from almost the whole town, including the ones responsible.  There are few redeeming features in the book, but it is very well written and a real page turner. The author probes the motives and actions of all the characters and  you are kept in suspense wondering what can happen next and how will it all turn out, gripping is the word I would use to describe it.  Richards has written other books and eventually I will read more of him but "Mercy...." will last me for a while.
Two favourite quotes:
"Those who lift a hand against you do so against themselves."  Roy
"For the river was hurrying on, like the world, and had no time to stop to reflect on the greater ideas of where it was going." David Adams Richards

In the same theme......

as the previous two books (Islam, the Middle East), I took out "Fifteen Days" by Canadian journalist Christie Blatchford. She spent several visits with the Canadian troops in Afghanistan in 2006 and writes their stories and the stories of their families.  The book gives a vivid picture of life in war torn Afghanistan.  The troops are always in danger from IED's, RPG's and suicide bombers and work in temperatures of 50 degrees and over, in isolation and with minimum or no creature comforts.  They work long hours and days over periods of several weeks, but they are loyal to each other do their job well.  She writes of the soldiers killed and injured and their families so that they become people and not just names on the evening news.  Most of the book is about the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry 1st Battalion from Manitoba, soldiers that all Canadians can be proud of.  Hopefully their work there will leave the Afghan people better off in the end.

Two more books....

.......on the middle East.  First "The Lost History of Christianity" by Philip Jenkins.  He talks about the Church that has been mostly forgotten.  A Church that was larger than the Church of Europe in the early centuries....in Iraq, Syria, even Yemen and Bahrain, to Persia, India across Asia to China.  These Christians were mainly Nestorians and to a lesser extent Monophysites.  Declared heretics by one of the early Church councils.  But for centuries they survived in the East until..... they were largely conquered by Islam.  He quotes one of the early Saints, St John Damascene, who considered that early Islam was a Christian heresy.  Something that I read Hilaire Belloc as saying.  The Mosque as we know it today is a copy of the early Syriac Churches.  Even the minaret is a copy of their square Church towers.  (He who controls the landscape controls the culture).  He quotes one scholar who, writing under a pseudonym, claims that the Koran is a copy of one of the early Syriac Christian liturgical books.  The name that they used for their liturgical books is similar to the word Koran.  Perhaps that is only in the realm of speculation and we may never know, but he also states that alternative copies of the Koran were burned by one of the early Caliphs, and some have resurfaced today that are being studied in secret by scholars.  In secret because such work is dangerous for obvious reasons.  The Muslims believe that the Koran is co eternal with God and that there is a Koran in Heaven, that it was not created but has always existed.  It's a very interesting book, "The Lost History.." that is, I haven't read the Koran.
The second book was "A woman among the Warlords" by Malalai Joya.  She was born in Afghanistan in the late 1970's and spent 16 years in refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran.  Her family left the refugee camp in Iran and went to one in Pakistan where she could go to school.  At age 20 she taught young children in the camp and later went back to Afghanistan to teach there.  She was elected to Parliament but because of her criticism of the Government, many of whom were Warlords guilty of crimes against the Afghan people,  she was thrown out.  One of the first acts passed by the Parliament, formed with the help of the U.S. Government after the Taliban were forced out after 9/11, was to grant themselves amnesty from prosecution!  Many countries are involved in Afghanistan,  Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nato and the Americans, but security, human rights and women's rights do not exist, in many parts of the country.  She has no good words for NGO's either, whose aid comes with strings attached.  One gets the feeling and she says quite plainly that the Afghanis would be better if all foreigners left and allowed the Afghanis to  sort the country out for themselves; as it is foreign countries are propping up the warlords, and making them more rich and powerful and above the law.  A sobering book.

Just finished.....

....reading "Sumer and the Sumerians"  by Harriet Crawford, a professor at Camebridge University.  It was rather a dull recitation of archaelogical digs in Iraq, where the findings seem to have been sparse because of conditions there.  Sumeria was the ancient civilization that grew up in southern Iraq, one of the earliest known civilizations.  I found that Mosul in the north is the ancient city of Ninevah.  She describes the geography of the region, what is known of craftsmen and trade, language and writing.  Early tokens were used to record business transactions, and as they became more frequent, tokens were drawn on pots and tablets, other designs were drawn which came to signify sounds, and more abstract ideas were then expressed in writing.  The final chapter ties everything together, and she comments how digs became impossible after sanctions were imposed on Iraq and then the two wars.  Archeologists from around the world gave support to Iraqi archaelogists since their ability to connect with outside research was stopped.  Many artifacts were stolen from museums during the wars and though some have been returned many thousands are still missing.

Entertainment

Watching "The Pallisers", a 1974 BBC drama.  I'm not sure how we missed it when it was on TV, but it's very enjoyable, following the story of three generations of an aristocratic family in Victorian times.  The acting is superb, and the plot involves arranged marriages, doomed love affairs, and affairs of a political nature as several characters are members of her Majesty's Government.  I get so caught up in it that I forget I'm watching a show.  There are 26 episodes and we're up to episode 13.  New characters are introduced as the story unfolds so there's never a dull moment.

Another good book......

.....reading "A Journey" by Tony Blair.  An account of his political life.  I was a bit disappointed in the first few chapters, he seems to be speaking in generalities and cliches and the text is a bit disjointed and rather like a women's magazine style at times.  But later as he continues to where his party is elected and he becomes Prime Minister and is writing about actual events, then the story picks up and becomes really interesting.  He speaks about the political background of events like the Northern Ireland peace treaty, Kosovo, and the war in Iraq, and his reasons for the decisions that he made.  He made me rethink my views on the war in Iraq, the decision to go to war wasn't made hastily and his reasons were good ones.  We don't know what would have happened if Saddam Hussein had been left in power, he was responsible for many deaths.  His view that the desire for freedom is not only a western value but in the heart of every human being is one that I share.

Gripping story......

of Jewish refugees from Moslem lands.  The book is "In Ishmael's House" by Sir Martin Gilbert.  It tells the history of the Jews in Moslem, mostly Arab lands and how they were treated.  Sometimes they thrived but often they were persecuted.  It's no wonder they wanted a country of their own where they wouldn't be treated as second class citizens and at the mercy of others.  He ends by saying that peace in the Middle East while recognizing the rights of Palestinian refugees must also recognize the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab lands....some 850,000 of them in the years after the 1948 Israeli war.  It's a sad story.

The book I always......

wanted to read but didn't know existed until recently..."The Great Ideas (how to think about), by Mortimer Adler.  He tackles all the big questions of society and starts with the difference between knowledge and opinion and goes on to discuss democracy:  "When the majority tries to settle controversial issues by using pressures and propoganda instead of resorting to rational persuasion, then the weight of numbers is as bad as the force of guns and bombs."   That answers a question I had:  "How is majority rule different from dictatorship, especially when the majority is wrong?"  I'm looking forward to the rest where he discusses among other things:  the different kinds of love, art, beauty, how to read a book!, work, leisure, law.  He has the ability to clear the confusion and explain things simply.  Excellent.

A sobering read....

I've just finished reading "The Golden Spruce"  by John Vaillant.  It's a story of the Pacific northwest forests, Haida Gwai - the Queen Charlotte Islands - the native people and the logging industry.  The first chapter is a description of the mysterious, mist shrouded forests of the BC and Alaska coastlines.  We saw these first hand on our cruise in September 2009, how beautiful they are.  Vaillancourt's book speaks of the devastation the logging industry has caused to this region and across North America, though he's not unsympathetic to the loggers.  He speaks about the impact of the industry and the results of contact with Europeans on the Haida people of the Queen Charlottes, and he writes well.  This book is a national bestseller and has won the Governer General's Award for non fiction.  It's not an easy read, I was tempted to give up half way through but I'm glad I persevered.

Delighting in......

.....Shakespeare.  Loving "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  It's a charming tale full of Elizabethan fun, it must have taken the minds of the people off of the events happening at the time.  Is Shakespeare making a mock of how romantic love can make fools of us all?  the plot is cleverly woven and the dialogue delightful.  Why have I waited all this time to re read it??  On Saturday I'm going to watch the DVD... a BBC production with Helen Mirren and other actors that I recognize....looking forward to it.

My next endeavours.....

....in reading are "The Jew is not my enemy" by Tarek Fatah and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare....the book and the DVD.  The former is opening up a new world with unfamiliar stories and names.  In the first few chapters he is tracing the history of anti semitism in Islam.  My next read will be Sir Martin Gilbert's book called I think..."In the  House of Ishmael" the history of the Jews in Muslim lands.  I'm looking forward to "AMND" I haven't seen it for about fifty years I think, and I'm hoping that time and experience will have made it more intelligble as they did for "Hamlet".

Grey days of January......

...just right for reading.  Have finished "The Power and the Glory" and got taken with the story by chapter 3.  The surroundings and the characters are sordid but there are redeeming lights...unexpected instances of human compassion in some of the characters.  The whisky priest is flawed and too despairing but he hasn't entirely given up.  He makes attempts -if feeble- to carry out the work of a priest and he's on the point of despair.  In the end he gives up his life to go to the aid of a dying man, whether out of a resigned acceptance of his fate or a real wish to carry out his priestly duties isn't clear.  Perhaps it's a bit of both.  A sad tale with most likely elements of truth about the situation and the human condition.  At any rate no one knows how they would react in similar situations. The kind actions shine all the brighter because of the darkness.

Peter Pan etc.

I watched "Peter Pan" on DVD hoping for a good children's story.  I remember we put this play on in school years ago. I was supposed to play Peter but Mother Lucy changed her mind about me because she said my voice was too sad.  Here I was a little disappointed in Walt Disney's version.  Too much silliness and too Americanized.  I was never a big fan of cartoons, but I think this is the only version of Peter Pan available.  It's a good children's story and it's a pity he messed around with it. I'm sure children don't need the silliness to be entertained, at least they didn't used to need it.  I wonder too about the message contained in the story, that Never land and escaping from real life are necessary.  Now that I'm old I really believe that dealing with life and getting more involved in day to day realities is the best way to improve things, not escaping from them.  Though I suppose in extreme conditions escape into a fantasy world for a while might give some relief.  At least Wendy realized that she couldn't stay and brought the children back to the real world.  But I wonder which message children would remember.
We also watched episode one and two of the British Drama "The Pallisers" produced in 1974.  It's taken from the book by Anthony Trollope and tells the story of an aristocratic family during the Victorian Era:  young people fall in love, man not suitable (a bit of an adventurer), marriage arranged by adults to carry on the family line and protect their assets.  I think that Plantagenet will make a better husband for Glencora than the man she fancied.  I liked his statement when the old Duke was telling him that he should marry first and then do whatever he pleased:  that marriage means fidelity.  Good for him!  Twenty six episodes and all in the library.   We're looking forward to the next two episodes when they become available.
I also took out the CD of "Peter and the Wolf" by Prokofiev.  I'm trying to learn more about music than just listen to it, and thought I would try here with something simple for children.

Just finished....

...reading "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas.  I've read it in a week because I can't renew it at the library, there's a waiting list.  It's a very good biography of the German Lutheran Pastor who was involved in forming the Confessional Church in Germany and who entered a plot to assassinate Hitler. It's the first time I've read a book from the inside of Germany in the years leading up to Hitler's coming to power and the reign of the Nazis, and during the Second World War.  There were many involved in the resistance in Germany - something I haven't heard too much about.  It's a gripping story of the fight against an evil man and his regime and it shows very well the difficulty of organizing opposition against evil men who have the power of the state under their control:   deception and fear take over people's lives.  Evil is not a static thing but feeds on itself.  That men and women like Bonhoeffer acted against those in power is a great testimony to the goodness of the human spirit, especially when sustained by faith in God.  The heaviness and sadness of those times is redeemed by their courage.
Now I'm reading "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene.  I'm not very far into the story but so far it has no redeeming features.  The characters are all very sad specimens of humanity, and the culture and even the landscape is depressing.  I know very little about the persecution of the Church in Mexico in the thirties.  That's the main reason I decided to read this book, and because it came highly recommended.  Time will tell.......