Review of Book Reviews from 2007 by RayS

Directions: The date at the beginning of each book is the date on which my review was published in this blog. Each review consists of three parts: 1. “Why read it?” 2. Sample ideas from the book, either paraphrased or quoted, and 3. Final, thought-provoking quotes. To locate the review, look at the “Blog Archive” at the right of the blog. Click on the year 2007. Find the month in which the review was published, click on it and go to the date of the review.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007. A Random Walk in Science: An Anthology. Compiled by RL Weber. Ed. E. Mendoza. Foreword by William Cooper. 133 selections record anecdotes about noted scientists, items of historical interest, and articles showing the often bizarre ways in which scientific theories and achievements are brought into being. Before you take science too seriously, you need to read this anthology. Parts of it are very, very funny.

Thursday, October 11, 2007. The Red Badge of Courage. Stephen Crane. Novel. A realistic, impressionistic description of confusion and fear and death in the Civil War, written by an author who had never seen a real battle, but so vivid that “you are there.” War is all about irony. The irony of Henry Fleming’s illusion that he will be a hero when engaging in combat, but when faced with the reality of the conflict, he turns and runs. And justifies his cowardice to himself. The irony of being struck accidentally on the head by a fellow soldier’s rifle, giving Henry his “red badge of courage,” the sign to others that he had actually fought and been wounded during the battle. In turn, he feels courageous. In the end, Henry Fleming forgets himself, forgets his doubts, joins in the shooting, becomes one with the other men on the lines.

Monday, October 15, 2007. The Road Ahead. William H Gates, III. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, predicts the changes in the world that will happen because of the computer and the Internet. He is not far off: “There will be a day, not far distant, when you will be able to conduct business, study, explore the world and its cultures, call up any great entertainment, make friends, attend neighborhood markets and show pictures to distant relatives—without leaving your desk or armchair.”

Tuesday, October 16, 2007. Robert Kennedy and His Times, Vol. 1. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Schlesinger divides the topics in the book among RFK’s growing up; his shyness and feelings of inferiority to his brothers; his physical exertions; his mixed achievement in school; his work in Congressional investigations, including those concerned with corrupt unions; his work in organizing his brother’s Senatorial and Presidential campaigns; his work as Attorney General and his battle with institutional inertia, particularly the FBI and J Edgar Hoover; his work with his brother on Civil Rights; his trips to foreign, unfriendly counties in which he confronted aggressive criticism of the United States, especially from the young; and his work with his brother during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007. Robert Kennedy and His Times, Vol. 2. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The second volume of this biography of RFK by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., covers the period of the assassination of his brother, his stormy relationship with LBJ, becoming the Junior Senator from New York, considering the vice-presidency under LBJ and, finally, when he realizes that Vietnam is tearing American society apart, the run for the Presidency that is halted by his own assassination.

Thursday, October 18, 2007. Roughing It. Mark Twain. Twain describes pioneering in the West: riding a stage coach; the Pony Express; the Mormon Bible (“chloroform in print”); the “scholarly” Indians in The Last of the Mohicans; characters’ use of language; a landslide; a character who knows everyone he meets or a relative; the colorful idiomatic language of the West; lawyers—“First and last aim…was to defeat justice"; the belief that everything that happens is good if we wait long enough to find out—“Prov’dence don’t fire no blank ca’tridges, boy”; the missionaries who converted the natives of Hawaii to Christianity and made them permanently miserable; and Brigham Young and polygamy.

Friday, October 19, 2007. The Roots of Heaven. Romain Gary. Novel. Morel, the idealistic defender of elephants, is the moral of this story. Opposed to the slaughter of the elephants in Africa, and laughingstock to most of the people around him, he mounts a campaign to gather signatures to stop the slaughter of elephants in Africa. However, he is not just defending the elephants, who are a symbol of freedom, man’s freedom. He is trying to show men that they can be the sensitive, moral, compassionate creatures that they are in potential. His selfless obsession for saving the elephants attracts a number of people who have other agendas—but their agendas fade as Morel’s quest to save the elephants takes on a higher purpose—to save men from their own self-destruction. For what they do to the elephants, they will do to themselves. Morel is confident that he will achieve his goal, so confident, so sure, that he fears not for his safety. He is the exemplar of what he wants men to become.

Monday, October 22, 2007. Saints and Strangers. George F. Willison. The author set out to separate the myths from the truth about the Pilgrims. The author found that much of what he thought he knew about the Pilgrims was wrong and learned that he did not really know much about them. The Pilgrims, “Separatists” from the Church of England, had emigrated to Leyden, the Netherlands, and then sailed on the Mayflower to found Plymouth Colony in 1620. While the Leyden group held the power and were the motivating force behind the voyage, the majority of the group consisted of “strangers,” non-Pilgrims.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007. The Scarlet Letter: A Romance. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Novel. Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet letter A on her breast to advertise her guilt as an adulteress, but she will not reveal the name of the father. It is Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected, godly, influential young preacher who has condemned publicly the very sin he has committed. Pursuing knowledge of the identity of the father is Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, an older man, a physician, who had remained in Europe when Hester had come to America. He continually baits Dimmesdale while gathering evidence that he is the father. The book represents Hawthorne’s favorite themes: secret sin and the unpardonable sin of using others for one’s own purposes.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007. The Schweitzer Album: A Portrait in Words and Pictures. Erica Anderson. A remarkable person. The essence of Dr. Schweitzer’s life and thought is respect and reverence for all life. He believed that the idea of reverence for life is spread from person to person, not through the mass media. All life is one. The good preserves and supports life; evil destroys or injures life. Everything that lives is related to us. The fly knows anxiety, hope and fear of not existing any more. Has any man been able to create a fly? Schweitzer earned degrees in philosophy, theology and medicine. Dedicated the first 30 years of his life to scholarship and music; the rest of his life would be dedicated to the service of men. [Assume he modeled his life on the life of Jesus.]