Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Shack by William P. Young
Better than usual book about a "tangible" encounter with God in the Christian concept of Three Persons in the Trinity. Certainly thought provoking for me as a spiritual exploration of the Trinity, it has a tough mystery to solve that allows the principal character to be "processed" through conversations with these three unique characters. For conservative, tradition-based Christians, the license of having for example a large, ebullient African American woman as "God the Father" (a la a similar character in The Matrix) might be too much. But, the main character wrestles through personal pain in a process that would be familiar to most psychologists. Found it readable and less "pop religion" than other books of this type. If someone is wrestling with pain, it might give some inspiration. Unfortunately, some of the circumstances in the plot might not be worth exploring for some readers.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sea Wolf by Jack London
Recommended by someone after hearing about my interest in the Vendee Globe, an around the world solo sailing race just completed by 11 sailors. A Jack London classic discussion of a wealthy, prim office type falling from a boat in San Francisco Bay, then ending up on a seal boat and being toughened by serving under the maniacal captain, Lars Wolf. In fact, there is not a lot of insight into sailing and the challenges of rigging and manning a sailboat until about 3/4 of the way through the book. But, the character growth and the philosophical debates between Lars and his shanghaied educated crew member are well worth the read. The romance that develops and the ultimate ending are tied to the time of the writing, but still a very good classic novel. This was a book that I had in print and on Audio tape (unedited) so I could listen during my workouts. I became addicted to the audio version and enjoyed finishing the book with the tapes.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Rising Tide by John M. Barry
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Great book about Mississippi river policies and great flood of 1927; helped elect Hoover.
To read this book post-Katrina gives a tremendous sense of perspective. The flood of 1927, which extended all the way from Southern Illinois through Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisianna, happened almost in slow motion with cascading events over weeks and months that were unstoppable. Unbelievably, New Orleans' city leaders made the cold hearted decision, which turned out to be unnecessary, to purposely flood certain poor parishes to save the heart of New Orleans, with the implicit approval of Washington DC. This is like watching Katrina unfold in forward motion over years of poor flood control policies, then with more graphic tension as the weeks of rising waters broke levees all the way down the Mississippi.
The book reads like a novel and impacts American history in peculiar ways. When Northwestern Mississippi fell to the floods, an 'instant' migration of unemployable African Americans fled north to settle in Chicago, changing the face of that area in less than a generation. The principal engineer sent by Washington DC to address the crisis was Herbert Hoover, who rode the national press recognition right into the White House. The evolution of New Orleans and its peculiar customs and politics is traced before and after this, pardon the pun, watershed event.
The final lesson is this. Mother nature eventually wins. Most engineers expect the Mississippi to cut a more efficient path to the sea in the next generation, despite any and all efforts to the contrary.
Reading this reminded me of reading "The Johnstown Flood" by McCullough (yep, the John Adams Author) as so many events unfolded in sequence ahead of time that eventually led to an immutable crisis.
Blog written later, Jan 2010
Great book about Mississippi river policies and great flood of 1927; helped elect Hoover.
To read this book post-Katrina gives a tremendous sense of perspective. The flood of 1927, which extended all the way from Southern Illinois through Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisianna, happened almost in slow motion with cascading events over weeks and months that were unstoppable. Unbelievably, New Orleans' city leaders made the cold hearted decision, which turned out to be unnecessary, to purposely flood certain poor parishes to save the heart of New Orleans, with the implicit approval of Washington DC. This is like watching Katrina unfold in forward motion over years of poor flood control policies, then with more graphic tension as the weeks of rising waters broke levees all the way down the Mississippi.
The book reads like a novel and impacts American history in peculiar ways. When Northwestern Mississippi fell to the floods, an 'instant' migration of unemployable African Americans fled north to settle in Chicago, changing the face of that area in less than a generation. The principal engineer sent by Washington DC to address the crisis was Herbert Hoover, who rode the national press recognition right into the White House. The evolution of New Orleans and its peculiar customs and politics is traced before and after this, pardon the pun, watershed event.
The final lesson is this. Mother nature eventually wins. Most engineers expect the Mississippi to cut a more efficient path to the sea in the next generation, despite any and all efforts to the contrary.
Reading this reminded me of reading "The Johnstown Flood" by McCullough (yep, the John Adams Author) as so many events unfolded in sequence ahead of time that eventually led to an immutable crisis.
Blog written later, Jan 2010
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