Lynn Maudlin

A relatively unknown piece of American History

Revisado: 02-06-25

This is an amazing book, written in the early 1950s, close to the Alger Hiss trials, and through the late 1960s and 1970s the whole HUAC movement was pretty much discredited, but it makes me aware that Chambers' concerns about the influence of communists within the highest levels of American government were valid and are still valid (the question, "who was running the presidency during the Biden administration?" - the Democrats felt he wasn't up to running for re-election and in January of 2025 the mainstream media is asking, "how were we deceived about Biden's mental acuity?").

Communism doesn't go by that name much anymore (we're much more likely to see folks describe themselves as "Marxist," e.g. the leadership of BLM, etc.) but the attempt to undermine the republic which is the USA is still in play.

So it's an amazing book because of his insight into communism and its larger goals -- understanding 'cleaning house,' the killing off of earlier iterations (e.g., Lenin, Trotsky) but also because of his personal growth, his movement from atheism to recognizing the reality of God and His mercy; his wrestling with how he could protect people from charges of espionage after he exposed them as communists - there's a lot of psychological self-examination in this book. I will read it again.

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Delightful

Revisado: 11-18-24

I listened to the audiobook and the narration, by author Natalie Haynes, is brilliant (an author may be an excellent writer but a mediocre or even lousy narrator; that is *not* the case here). I grew up on the Greek and Roman myths, told to me by my great-aunt, a Latin teacher who lived with us, so I have a soft spot for mythology. Even so, Haynes brings scholarship and visual power, when describing artwork, to her presentation of Greek goddesses. She brings a modern woman's perspectives and reactions (too often missing, imho) without watering down the accurate presentation of what these gods and goddesses were (the phrase, "behaving badly," rings a bell).

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Good book, a fair amount of untranslated Spanish

Revisado: 11-16-24

THIS is a remarkable book! (imho, of course) - and I suspect I may be one of the "white people" to whom the books by "Alma's friend" (cited in the first chapter) are not directed... certainly there's a lot of Spanish which isn't translated, but the gist is clear enough. Fascinating book, and very engaging to listen to. It's rather like a stream, separating into various other streams, telling assorted stories in a variety of voices, and then interweaving them.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book!

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Fascinating

Revisado: 11-16-24

This was my "backup book" and was interrupted several times by wait-listed library books becoming available, but it's the kind of book that actually reads okay in that broken-up kind of way... you wouldn't want to read a who-dunnit like that, but this book isn't only about Leonardo painting The Last Supper in Milano, it also serves as a moderately detailed biography of the great artist and scientist. I particularly enjoyed chapter 11 which talks about his library and the books that were especially valuable to him as an autodidact. Fascinating!

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Too much snark

Revisado: 08-12-24

The author's snarky tone, combined with her criticisms of other historians for doing the same thing she does (treating their theories and opinions as facts), interferes with my ability to give much credence to this book.

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Something I will never do--

Revisado: 04-06-24

Having some acrophobia, mountain-climbing has never had huge appeal for me (hiking generally yes, but mountain ledges, uh, no thank you!) - so reading about the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster is fascinating and causes me to ask, "why?!" That said, this is an amazing and appalling and hard-to-imagine book. Another good "winter" read.

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ARGH!

Revisado: 04-06-24

This is one of those books where you want to slap somebody upside the head: the consistent bad choices, the overarching selfishness, the complete lack of self-awareness as a human being - GAH! The book itself is a bit confusing - are we being presented with a character for whom we should have some compassion or sympathy (that's how I took it, initially) but, by the end of the book, it's pretty clear that no, we are meant to judge (and judge rightly) the appalling behavior of Sharon and her 'mountain man' lover.

There are direct quotes from both, scattered throughout the book, and I can't see that there are footnotes in the print/Kindle editions to provide citations (from interviews with the author or ?) - in the prologue she is quoted, speaking about her life in prison: "I don't know how to do it with no conscience. I wish I could. It would make my time so much easier. What good has all of your goddamn wanting to be good and moral gotten you, Sharon? What has it gotten you?"

The woman is a delusional narcissist - she has not, in her adult life, made any choices consistent with wanting to be 'good and moral' and the fact that at some later point she claims, "I'm not a bad person but I've done bad things," is further evidence that her definition of 'good person' is fluid enough to include adultery, theft, and murder. Yikes.

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A fine series of short stories

Revisado: 04-06-24

This collection of short stories in The Chronicles of St Mary's includes a prequel (which one is meant to read AFTER reading the first book, _Just One Damned Thing After Another_) so now I have read it, and the other stories, which include comments from the author about the writing of each story before the story itself, and that's delightful. The collection is somewhat uneven but even its low points are well above three-star "liked it" range, so this is an easy four-star rating. Very entertaining - enjoy!

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Entertaining listen--

Revisado: 04-06-24

Another entertaining book by John Scalzi, although I do get tired of the *f*ing language (even if it's from the mouths of dolphins).

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Be Careful When You Hike--

Revisado: 01-06-24

An interesting book that provides some history on the Pacific Crest Trail (versus the better known Appalachian Trail, and the differences in their relative risks). It primarily looks at the search for specific missing hikers and, perhaps of greater importance, talks about dynamics of search efforts (e.g., pros and cons of Facebook groups, etc.) and new technology with high-resolution drone searches (and the complexities of where its use is legal or not) as well as some snake-oil purveyors selling expensive air-search techniques that use fingernail DNA from relatives and purport to find "a drop of blood thirty years old" (!!!) and preying on the heartbreak and hope of the parents, friends, and siblings of the missing hikers - definitely a club nobody wants to join.

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