More Library Books

I went to the library today with the intention of return a few books and leaving empty handed. As usual, I proved incapable of resisting the lure of more books and I left with seven more (seems to be about what I can justify borrowing on a whim without feeling like I’ve gone completely overboard).

I’m sure I did overdo it but since I need to read one for a book club and I’ve already written about my interest in all the others, I don’t feel too silly.

I checked out:

• The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (National Book Award for Fiction winner 1962)
• Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy (click here to view all my posts about this book)
• In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan (click here to view all my posts about this book)
• Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics by Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (click here to view all my posts about this book)
• The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse (click here to view all my posts about this book)
• The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine by Sherwin B. Nuland (click here to view all my posts about this book)
• White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters by Robert Schlesinger (click here to view all my posts about this book)

I first heard about Cullen Murphy’s Are We Rome? about a year ago at the Harvard Bookstore in Harvard Square and my interest in this book was renewed when someone in I.O.U.S.A. compared the United States to Rome. As a loyal reader of The Atlantic, I have great respect for Murphy who was their managing editor for two decades. I have high expectations for this book and hope I will not be disappointed. Click here to read an excerpt.

And I suppose the Democratic and Republican National Conventions have once again piqued my interest in speechwriters, so naturally White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters by Robert Schlesinger caught my eye.

With all the talk of tough times, economically, for the average American and the outrage over the recently released GAO data that most U.S. Corporations pay no income tax, I just couldn’t resist picking up Steven Greenhouse’s The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. I hope it provides new information and doesn’t overlap too much with David Cay Johnston’s Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) and Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else.

And like most Americans, all I know about Joe Biden I’ve learned from reading the news (in my case the New York Times) these past few weeks. It hasn’t added up to much. I hope to get a better sense of the Democratic Nominee for Vice President from his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

I tried to keep myself to just five books but when I saw Nuland’s The Uncertain Art sitting on the shelf, I had to borrow it — it’s been a few months since I’ve read any books related to medicine or the human body and as a scientist I am compelled to reading science books. And all the talk about our nation’s broken health care system makes this book about medicine from a doctor’s perspective all the more irresistible.

And as I was about to leave, I saw Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto which I’ve wanted to read since January when I read Janet Maslin’s review titled “Obsessed With Nutrition? That’s an Eating Disorder” and published January 3, 2008 in the NYTimes Book Review). I suppose my new gardening hobby (influenced by reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life and Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future) has made me even more interested in learning about food and nutrition. Click here to read the introduction of In Defense of Food on the author’s website or here to read the first chapter on the NYTimes Book Review website.

Alright, I think I’ve spent enough time trying to justify my borrowing way too many books — I’ve got to get to reading now! My book club’s discussion of Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer is scheduled to start in three days!

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I’ve been slowly plodding through A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, which I first read when I was a kid.

I had forgotten that this classic piece historical fiction depicting the French Revolution was printed in serialized format in the twopenny periodical All the Year Round — and I was thrilled to find an edition (by Penguin Classics) that publishes the full text of this story as it appeared in 1859 and includes the original illustrations by H. K. Browne (‘Phiz’).

I had also forgotten how easy it is to get confused about the plot, so I was thrilled to see that this edition includes a timeline of Dickens’s fictional events and historical French Revolution events.

I’ve included the timeline here for easy reference as I continuing reading this masterpiece.

This timeline represents two kinds of events. Fictional events, involving characters invented by Dickens, are represented in plain type; historical events described or alluded to within the novel in italics. This timeline excludes famous events of the French Revolution not described or alluded to by Dickens; in other words, it is designed to suggest what parts and aspects of the Revolution the novelist works to make visible and to intertwine, and to a greater or lesser degree, with the private, invented action of his narrative.

• 1756-63: The Seven Years War (II.2)
• 5 January 1757: Robert Damiens attempts the assignation of Louis X V; two months later, Damiens is executed, as described by the mender of roads in conversation with the Defarges and their revolutionary associates (II.15)
• 22 December 1757: The twin Evremonde brothers hire Dr Manette (III.10)
• 29 December 1757: Death of the elder sister of the future Mme Defarge – seduced by the uncle of Charles Darnay (III.10)
• 31 December 1757: Dr. Manette arrested and confined within the Bastille (III.10)
• 1766: The Chevalier de la Barre accused, tried and executed (I.1)
• December 1767: Manette starts to write his confessions (III.10)
• 1775-83: The American Revolution (I.1)
• November 1775: Manette released from Bastille (I.4-6)
• March 1780: Darnay tried at Old Bailey (II.2-3)
• June 1780: Lorry, Darnay and Carton attend a gathering at Dr Manette’s Soho house and sense (in Carton’s words) ‘a great crowd bearing down upon us’ (II.6)
• July 1780: Monsieur (the uncle of Darnay) attends Monseigneur’s reception in Paris; returning to the country, he receives Darnay at his chateau and, the morning after, is found dead (II.7-9)
• Summer 1781: Lucie Manette marries Darnay; Manette reverts temporarily to shoemaking; Jerry Cruncher participates in the ‘funeral’ of Roger Cly and later tries to dig up his body; the Defarges consult with the mender of roads and visit Versailles (II.10-20)
• 1783: Lucie Darnay’s daughter born (II.21)
• 14 July 1789: Storming of Bastille, recovery by Defarge of Manette’s confession (II.21)
• July 1789: The first emigration (II.23)
• Late July and early August 1789: The Great Fear, Evremonde chateau destroyed (II.23)
• 21 June 1792: Prussians issue the Brunswick Manifesto, threatening revenge on Paris and the Revolution. Lorry very worried about integrity of documents at Tellson’s in Paris (II.24)
• 13 August 1792: Louis XVI and family imprisoned in the Temple (III.1)
• 14 August 1792: Finally receiving Gabelle’s letter, Darnay leaves for Paris (II.24)
• 15-18 August 1792: Darnay arrested and imprisoned (III.1)
• 2-6 September 1792: September massacres in Paris (III.2-3)
• 3 September 1792: Lucie and Manette follow Darnay to Paris (III.2-3)
• September 1792-October 1793: They live in Paris, while Darnay languishes in prison (III.4)
• 21 September 1792-20 September 1793: The Year One of Liberty – l Vendemiaire to 30 Fructidor (III.4)
• 23 October 1792: Condemnation to death of returning emigrants (III.6)
• 21 January 1793: Execution of Louis XVI (III.4)
• 24 February 1793: 300,000 men recruited for armies, to combat internal rebellion and threat of invasion (III.4)
• 17 September 1793: Law of suspects (III.4)
• 16 October 1793: Execution of Marie-Antoinette (III.4)
• 31 October 1793: Execution of Girondins (III.4)
• November-December 1793: Lucie’s vigils outside the prisons of La Force (III.5)
• 9 November 1793: Execution of Madame Roland (III.15)
• December 1793: The Terror in Lyon (mass drownings in DIckens’s ‘rivers of the South’) (III.4)
• December 1793: Darnay’s first trial; he is acquitted and rearrested; Carton arrives in Paris (III.6)
• December 1793 or January 1794: Second trial of Darnay; Darnay saved by Carton (III.9-15)

Economist – Running dry

I’m a little behind on my subscription to the Economist.

Okay, I’m a lot behind.

Months behind.

But I’m going to catch up, starting with the August 23, 2008 issue. From this issue, I just finished the Business section including “Running dry.”

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been seriously concerned about the world’s water supply since 2003 when I read Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. And having grown up on an island, water conservation and water rights have always been important to me.

My interest has been slowly increasing over the years and it seems like the issue of water is becoming a hotter and hotter subject with each month.

This article just reminded me that I’ve got to make it a priority to read Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (click here to read my posts related to this book) and Ken Midkiff’s Not a Drop to Drink: America’s Water Crisis (and What You Can Do).

I hope the situation does not get as desperate as some experts foresee.

Got to run to the library!