February

Beowulf (6th century) translated by J.R.R. Tolkein

Read with my Mom and brother

Two of my favorite quotes:
'Do all things well unto the end, even as thou didst vow aforetime in the days of youth that thou wouldst not while living suffer thy honor to fall low.'

'Death is more sweet for every man of worth than life with scorn.'

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Summary forthcoming after I do the writeup for the Great Books Project Y2Q4

The Midnight Library (2020) by Matt Haig

Reading i Sverige Book Club

What a great book. In this contemporary book,  the author's main character experiences life in the 21st century yet takes on a timeless theme—loneliness in the human condition. The author's use of science and philosophy to creatively examine this theme made it a thought-provoking read. As Mrs. Elm says, 'You don't have to understand life, you just have to live it.'

Exodus (6th century BCE) by Moses

Great Book Project Y2Q4

As part of the Great Books of the Western World reading project, I am reading through the Bible. The God in Exodus is an entirely different God than the Greek gods. Where the Greek gods toyed with humans, the God in Exodus directs the people with minute detail. The story of the exodus from Egpyt is a familiar story to me. In this reading, there were several aspects of the story which caught my attention.

• God was sympathetic to Moses and his weaknesses.
• Moses was able to get God to change his mind by arguing with him.
• This God is a God of detail. 
• The detail in the final chapters of the tabernacle construction and its components demonstrates God's clear intent of exactly how it was to be built.

Breath (2020) by James Nestor

Reading i Sverige Book Club

The author has a humorous style of writing with quirky observations and always mentioning the clothes people wear. He makes it clear why we humans are the only animal who has problems breathing. The book was informational and inspiring. I have used yoga to alleviate back pain, and now I will use my breath to become healthier. This book is a great read. 

Hexaemeron (370 AD) by Saint Basil of Caesarea

Saint Basil's delivered these nine homilies on the creation story in Genesis to the common working man. His understanding of the natural world in the 4th century is impressive. Since his sermons are on the creation story, he weaves theology with the sciences. 'In truth the most difficult of sciences is to know one's self.'  His blessings at the end of each discourse show his care for the congregation.  At the end of the 8th homily, he states, 'Filled with these thoughts may you, even in sleep, enjoy the pleasure of the day....meditating day and night upon the law of the Lord.' 

Job (6th century BCE) tradition ascribes Moses as the author

I had read Job when I was in my 20's.  Even though I had read it before and knew the story when I recently read it, it was like reading it the first time. Reading Job again made me realize how much the reader brings to the understanding of great texts. My life has changed, and my understanding of Job has now shifted to a new place. The poetry struck me. Lines such as, 'Where light is like thick darkness,' indeed left me with the depth of despair felt by Job. In Job 19:1, we read, 'How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with your words?' Even though God took all of Job's material possessions, family, and health,  it is words that break him. It is the words of others, the words of those we love, that can harm us. After Job's friends torment him by telling him how immoral and unfaithful he is, Job uses honest, authentic, simple, humble, and a few words to make things right. These words are what God hears and responds to, giving back and more all that Job ever had. What a powerful end to this epic poem. 

Giraffes Can't Dance (2002) by Giles Andreae

Read with Izzy

Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift

Great Books Project Y2Q4

Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels in 1726. His satirical account exposes England by pulling back the curtain of what the society was truly about and how it worked. He pulls back the curtain by using outrageous language and stories. Often his subversive language isn't all that subtle; he states it as it is. 'You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator. That laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.' Swift's accounts of Gulliver's travels to various unknown places give him a tool to describe societies, governments, customs, and values. He states,' Philosophers are in the right when they tell us, that nothing is great or little, otherwise than by comparison.' And that is what he does throughout the book, comparing these new societies with the corruption and bizarreness of his own. Often I found these descriptions of England in 1726 describing the 21st century in the US. Here he writes about conspiracy theories:

"First, they can decipher all initial letters into political meanings. Thus _N_, shall signify a plot; _B_, a regiment of horse; _L_, a fleet at sea; or, secondly, by transposing the letters of the alphabet in any suspected paper, they can lay open the deepest designs of a discontented party. So, for example, if I should say, in a letter to a friend, 'Our brother Tom has just got the piles,' a skillful decipherer would discover, that the same letters which compose that sentence, may be analyzed into the following words, 'Resist ---, a plot is brought home—The tour.'"

Finally, I now have a complete understanding of the word Yahoo, a word I must admit is part of my vocabulary. Next time I use it, I will think of Gulliver!

Lille Prinsen (1942) Antoin De Saint-Exupery

Translated to Swedish by Bengt Samuelson

This wonderful book looks like a children’s book, yet In my mind, it is a book for adults.  As Little Prince traveled from planet to planet, he learned lessons that are for all of us.  The beautiful lesson he learns from the fox goes right to the heart of the book. ’Det viktigast går inte att uppfatta med ögonen’ and ’men ögoner är blinda. Man måste söka med hjärtat.’

This read was difficult for me because I read it in Swedish! (Cheers to me!!9 I understand why this book has been translated into 300 different languages. The beautiful story has lessons for us all.

Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution’s Women

By Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Heather Webb, Allison Pataki (forward)

In my Great Books Project this quarter, I am reading 'A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality' by Jean-Jacques, 'Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals' by Immanuel Kant, and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The Great Books of the Western World reading project considers what is the nature of man and what is society and how does it work? These three authors wrote before the French Revolution, yet their writings reflect what was happening and what people thought right before the French Revolution. I wanted to listen to a historical novel that took place in this time period. Recently, I have listened to Stephanie Dray's historical novels of important persons in the American Revolution. Those novels were well written and narrated with great voices. Stephanie Dray is one of the authors in this book, Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution's Women.  What is unusual in this book is there are six authors, each portraying a different woman. The authors bring to light the complexities of the revolution through the eyes of women. It was worth my time to listen to and has helped me in understanding this time period.