In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other.
The book is a collection of essays by writers, professors, Ph.D. candidates and well, philosophers. Each essay looks at a different idea or subject in Alice in Wonderland and surveys it based on its philosophical truths or lack thereof.
TRUTH OF GWEN: I still don’t get philosophy. This book penetrated a bit deeper than it would have 20 years ago, but that still ain’t saying much.
I feel sad because I know that many of you were looking forward to this review. All I can say is if you enjoy logic and philosophy, this would be a great book. If you are like me, just don’t need to understand the deeper truths and hidden meanings of life, pass on this baby like the plague. If you don’t “get” philosophy, this probably won’t help.
Now, I am going to crawl away slowly with the awful knowledge that I am nowhere near as deep as I thought I was…….If you care to explain all to me, I am listening.
“In Victorian London, Charles Dickens and his protégé, author Wilkie Collins, make the acquaintance of the shrewdest mind either would ever encounter: Inspector William Field of the newly formed Metropolitan Protectives. A gentleman’s brutal murder brings the three men together in an extraordinary investigation that leads Dickens to the beautiful young actress Ellen Ternan, who would become the love of his life but who now stands accused of murder” Reminding me of Sherlock Holmes, this was written in the form of a journal of sorts by Dickens’ sidekick, Wilkie Collins. I love how it mixed fact, fiction, and a murder mystery all in one delightful story that was a gentle reminder of the horror of 1850s London. Dickens meets Inspector Field at a ghoulish hanging and is immediately drawn to learning more about what it means to be a detective. Eventually, the proper case for him to tag along on comes and Dickens and his companion, Wilkie find themselves exposed to all sorts of things that gentlemen are not usually. Read Brothels, Victorian pornography, prostitution, and in general the lowest class of the slums of London. If you are a fan of Dickens or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this is a very pleasing read. My only complaint is that the copy I read was done in really small type. I don’t wear glasses, but this was tiny even for me! The Detective and Mr. Dickens by William J. Palmer Publisher: Fawcett; First Thus edition (September 23, 1992) ISBN-10: 0345374711 ISBN-13: 978-0345374714
A Nation Rising: Untold Tales of Flawed Founders, Fallen Heroes, and Forgotten Fighters from America’s Hidden History
This is the second book of Davis’ that I have read and I have to say that I liked this one a lot better. (the other was America’s Hidden History)
Davis is an artist at turning small seldom known events in American history into easy-to-digest, about 20-25 page, stories that hold your interest and leave you questioning your own knowledge of the US. Those nuggets also lead me to want to know more and that is perhaps, what I enjoy so much about his work.
A Nation Rising, focusing on 1800 through 1850, includes the tale of Aaron Burr’s trial for treason, Major Francis Dade’s massacre by Indians in the area that would later be named Dade County, Florida, a brave woman, Jessie Freemont, journey to the gold rush in California through the treacherous Isthmus of Panama, and more.
The chapter that intrigued me the most was Morse’s Code. Did you know that Samuel F. B. Morse, the guy that came up with the Morse Code, was a fervent anti-Catholic? In just 35 pages, Kenneth C. Davis explained to me something that I had been struggling to understand for years, why our nation was so fervently opposed to Catholics or what many at the time called Romanism/papism.
Any book that can explain something that I have been perplexed over for years in just a few pages, is golden in my life. The other thing that Davis does so well is showing us the men behind the myths in history. Our founding fathers and other bright lights in American history were human. They did great things, but the things that are often hidden over time are just as important in understanding these men. No real person is perfect and the myths that we build up around our fearless leaders often make them seem infallible and therefore, make it really hard to see them in our own lives. Davis shows the men, warts and all and that makes what they achieved not only grander but makes it seem possible that we could achieve great things in our own imperfect lives.
What happens when two New Yorkers (one an ex–drag queen) do the unthinkable: start over, have a herd of kids, and get a little dirty?
The Bucolic Plague starts off with the most hilarious Author Caution that I have ever read.
This book is not about living your dream. It will not inspire you. You will not be emboldened to attempt anything more than making a fresh pot of coffee. The author reminds you that there are plenty of other memoirs out there written by courageous souls who have broken with their past, poetically leaving behind things such as: 1. Drugs and/or Drinking 2. Career Ennui 3. Bad Relationships ….and have successfully achieved goals such as: 1. Creative Fulfillment 2. The Simple Life 3. Jesus’s Approval The author notes that those memoirs are generally full of more shit than a bard at the end of a long winter.
The Bucolic Plague had me from that page and I couldn’t put it down. Part memoir, part making fun of the things we all try and fail the first time around, kept me cheering for the pair. You find yourself cheering for them at the same time you are could I pull this off?
Josh Kilmer-Purcell, a former drag queen and current ad executive, and his partner, Dr. Brent Ridge, formerly a Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, were on an apple picking trip in upstate New York when they stumbled upon the Beekman Mansion in Sharon Springs. It was love at first sight with the historic home completed in 1802.
The pair thought that it would make a great getaway home and that it would be fun to become gentleman farmers. How hard could it be, right? Let me tell you right now, the fun really begins when you are cleaning up poop-covered goats with wet naps for their debut on the Martha Stewart show and gets better from there.
What was a bonus to The Bucolic Plague was the overall message Kilmer-Purcell learns and shares with us. That it isn’t about being perfect, like Martha Stewart, or about having the “best life” like Oprah, it is about living the best way for you.
If you pick up one memoir this year, make it this one. You’ll laugh, you will encounter zombie flies and you will learn some very important things.
Learning about Emmett Till is important, without question, but the epilogue of this is what knocked me to my knees.
a sample…
“America is still killing Emmett Till, and often for the same reasons that drove the violent segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s. Yes, some things have changed; the kind of violence that snatched Till’s life strikes only rarely. A white supremacist gunman slaughtering nine black churchgoers in a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2014, however, reminds us that the ideology of white supremacy remains with us in its most brutal and overt forms.”
We are still killing Emmett Till, with our silence, our generalizing, our refusal to see the problem or by calling violent events a “one-off, the work of one crazy person”.
We haven’t changed as much as we like to think and we are still killing Emmett Till.
Update November 30th, 2017: This has turned out to be one of my most liked reviews on Goodreads and even though I read the book way back in January, some 400 plus books ago, this one still haunts me. The epilogue has helped me focus my lifelong search for understanding and a focus on Civil Rights then and now, especially considering the current political climate. Call me an idealist, but I’ve never understood the hatred of or the difference between races, religions, or even cultures ‘other’ than our own. We all have the same or similar dreams for our lives and children if we have them. We all cry the same tears, live through the same heartaches and disappointments, celebrate successes as they come, and even bleed the same damn color.
The ‘wrongness’ of all of this has been with me since childhood and it isn’t like it was something we discussed at the dinner table or that my parents were strongly one way or another, racist or not, if anything, growing up in a predominately white area of Southern CA and then being at UCLA during the last days of the Civil Rights area, they were somewhat isolated from all of it. (Although my mom does like to mention that she had Kareem Abdul Jabar in one of her classes, all she says is that he was really tall. Her being 5’2′ in shoes, this isn’t exactly surprising. )
It was just a vital truth that came from inside me, but being an introvert with anxiety issues, I’ve never been able to figure out how to take part and be a soldier in the change. This book helped me realize that with every act, we are all part of the change or the continuation of this. If we allow a derogatory comment to slip by without calling someone on it, we are part of the problem. If we cross the street when we see someone different, either black, seemingly mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or wearing a burka. we are part of the problem. If we aren’t willing to shake each and every hand that is put out to us, we are part of the problem. If we don’t bother to learn about different cultures, either by immersion and face to face interactions or by reading, we are part of the problem.
As basically a hermit, I read and learn constantly and that brings me a greater understanding and respect. Although sometimes I get so fired up that I feel ready to take on the world about this issue, I know that with my mental health issues that isn’t sustainable. I can be a small part, however, through my gaining of understanding and respect by my reading, by shaking every hand, by returning every smile, by speaking up or calling someone out when I see or hear an issue, and by using my words on the screen. Right now, I’m just not in a position to do more. I hope to be less of a hermit someday be able to volunteer more and be a part of larger changes.
It’s the least I can do for Emmett Till and all of those that lost and continue to lose their lives in this battle along with those continuing to suffer from all of the crap thrown at them or walls built in their way in their everyday lives. We are all the same and until every single person realizes this, we will continue to be killing Emmett Till and that’s not okay.
In 1885 Leland and Jane Stanford co-founded Stanford University in honor of their only son, Leland Jr., that had died of typhoid fever in 1884 at 15. After Leland Sr died in 1893, Jane became the became the chief funder and steward of the university.
While there was a board of trustees and president, she was very heavily involved to the point of complaining about the cost of things like door stops bought by specific departments. There truly was no decision that she felt was below her input and she had a way of giving orders so that it would make others look like the bad guys; she never wanted the blowback from her decisions.
She dictated the hiring and firing and wouldn’t take no for an answer even when it was explained to her that the decision would reflect negatively on the university. There were a string of kerfluffles through her tenure that hampered the universities name and ability to hire top professors.
All of the details of each “affair”, as the internal squabbles were called, wouldn’t be all that interesting if they hadn’t been leading up to a big blowout of some kind or another. The big blowout in Jane Standford’s case was her murder. A murder that the trustees and president moved hell and high water to have called an accident or a suicide.
They succeded, no one was every charged with the poisoning murder of Jane Stanford and to this day, the identity of her murderer is debated often.
Wright has laid out the story and his case like building blocks, each episode of tension leading to the next until finally on February 28, 1905, Jane Stanford was murdered. Then he shows all of the ways that they did their best to cover up all evidence of said murder. It worked.
Who killed Dr. Harvey Burdell? Though there are no witnesses and no clues, fingers point to Emma Cunningham, the refined, pale-skinned widow who managed Burdell’s house and his servants. Rumored to be a black-hearted gold digger with designs on the doctor’s name and fortune, Emma is immediately put under house arrest during a murder investigation. A swift conviction is sure to catapult flamboyant district attorney Abraham Oakey Hall into the mayor’s seat. But one formidable obstacle stands in his way: the defense attorney Henry Clinton. Committed to justice and the law, Clinton will aid the vulnerable widow in her desperate fight to save herself from the gallows. Set in 1857 New York, this gripping mystery is also a richly detailed excavation of a lost age. Horan vividly re-creates a tumultuous era characterized by a sensationalist press, aggressive new wealth, a booming real-estate market, corruption, racial conflict, economic inequality between men and women, and the erosion of the old codes of behavior. A tale of murder, sex, greed, and politics, this spellbinding narrative transports readers to a time that eerily echoes our own.
I LOVED this! The era and the setting made it such an escape and it was amazing to think of how trials were conducted at the time. You think that they are a media circus now, you should see how it was done in 1857.
The defense attorney, Henry Clinton, and his wife were people that I would like to have as friends. They were thoughtful, never quick to judge and the romance and respect between them was uplifting.
It was one of those mysteries that you change your suspect with every chapter. Your mind changes as the story evolves and your judgment of the characters changes with every page. I really enjoyed that aspect of it.
Set in a New York that you can only dream of having lived in, 31 Bond Street made me grateful that I live now. Women were nothing unless they were married or trying to get married. We were defined by our husbands, not our own minds. Just how does a woman stand up for herself in a time where she couldn’t vote, couldn’t own property unless she was a widow, couldn’t really do much of anything except for trim roses and pop out kids?
Untold Tales of Flawed Founders, Fallen Heroes, and Forgotten Fighters from America’s Hidden History
This is the second book by Davis’ that I have read and I have to say that I liked this one a lot better. (the other was America’s Hidden History)
Davis is an artist at turning small seldom known events in American history into easy to digest, about 20-25 page, stories that hold your interest and leave you questioning your own knowledge of the US. Those nuggets also lead me to want to know more and that is perhaps, what I enjoy so much about his work.
A Nation Rising, focusing on 1800 through 1850, includes the tale of Aaron Burr’s trial for treason, Major Francis Dade’s massacre by Indians in the area that would later be named Dade County, Florida, a brave woman’s, Jessie Freemont, journey to the gold rush in California through the treacherous Isthmus of Panama, and more.
The chapter that intrigued me the most was Morse’s Code. Did you know that Samuel F. B. Morse, the guy that came up with the Morse Code, was a fervent anti-Catholic? In just 35 pages, Kenneth C. Davis explained to me something that I had been struggling to understand for years, why our nation was so fervently opposed to Catholics or what many at the time called Romanism/papism.
Any book that can explain something that I have been perplexed over for years in just a few pages, is golden in my life. The other thing that Davis does so well is showing us the men behind the myths in history. Our founding fathers and other bright lights in American history were human. They did great things, but the things that are often hidden over time are just as important in understanding these men. No real person is perfect and the myths that we build up around our fearless leaders often make them seem infallible and therefore, make it really hard to see them in our own lives. Davis shows the men, warts and all and that makes what they achieved not only grander, but makes it seem possible that we could achieve great things in our own imperfect lives
“From 1910 to 1919, New Orleans suffered at the hands of its very own Jack the Ripper–style killer. The story has been the subject of websites, short stories, novels, a graphic novel, and most recently the FX television series American Horror Story. But the full story of gruesome murders, sympathetic victims, accused innocents, public panic, the New Orleans Mafia, and a mysterious killer has never been written. Until now. The Axeman repeatedly broke into the homes of Italian grocers in the dead of night, leaving his victims in a pool of blood. Iorlando Jordano, an innocent Italian grocer, and his teenaged son Frank were wrongly accused of one of those murders; corrupt officials convicted them with coerced testimony. Miriam C. Davis here expertly tells the story of the search for the Axeman and of the eventual exoneration of the innocent Jordanos. She proves that the person mostly widely suspected of being the Axeman was not the killer. She also shows what few have suspected—that the Axeman continued killing after leaving New Orleans in 1919. Only thirty years after Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of Whitechapel, the Axeman of New Orleans held an American city hostage. This book tells that story. “
First off, I could have sworn that I’ve read a book about this before, yet can’t find it in my read lists and am only seeing cheesy looking ones that I’d most likely never read when I do a google search. If you remember a serious one, shout out the title, please and put my poor brain out of its misery.
That being said, there was little earth-shatteringly different about this one except I appreciated that Davis followed each person’s story to the end of their lives to show the effects, if any, their involvement in the case had. The story is never over when the bad guy is caught or the innocent man is freed or even when the cut or gunshot wound heals, the trauma lingers like a ghostly shadow for the rest of that person’s life.
If you like your true crime tied up neatly in a bow, this isn’t it. There are a lot of unanswered questions, not because the author didn’t do the work, but because either the people at the time didn’t or there just aren’t any. Another thing I noted was how justice used to move so slowly and yet be more permissive then, one of the family members of the people accused of murder was allowed to hold his wedding in jail!
I can’t end on a better note than that. It wasn’t even a jailbird, but all were worried that the trial might end badly or go on forever, so the Sherriff approved. Love conquers all.
