Currently Reading...

[Aravis]

Nulla, I would be interested to hear what you think of My Life when you've finished.

[pinkozcat]

I was given a copy of 'My Sister's Keeper' for Christmas. I'm not sure that I really want to read it - my Christmas was rather depressing and I suspect that it might be better to wait a while before I start it.

Has anyone read it? I'd be interested in some feedback on it.

I've just finished reading 'Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason' which was great fun.

[Aravis]

I read Bridget Jones- Edge of Reason, but not the other. Sorry that your Christmas was so down pink. What is it about?

I was given Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, for Christmas. Anyone read that?

[pinkozcat]

The blurb on the back says:

"Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions and shots so that her older sister can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood."

It is about a designer child and the effect that it has on her life.

[Aravis]

That sounds like an interesting, complex and yes, depressing story. I have seen that storyline in a couple of TV shows in the last year, including ER and Without A Trace (I think it was that one). I may have to locate a copy of that book. Thanks for making me aware of it pink!

[Aravis]

Peace Like A River, by Leif Enger. So far it's an odd little story, intriguing and well-written.

[RobertGraves]

I'm (still) reading Jonathan Strange... and enjoying it.

[pinkozcat]

I'm currently reading a book called 'The Templars' which is about ;D the Knights Templar.

I know that it is historically inaccurate - one of my closest friends is a Maltese historian who specialises in fortifications and he says that the book is rubbish. I must admit that even I have picked up a major inaccuracy and I never even studied history at school - we had a choice between history and physics.

However, inaccurate as it may be, it gives an interesting insight into the crusades and how, from the primary aim of freeing the Holy Land from the infidel, it ended up with Christian fighting Christian with various popes attempting to eliminate all those who opposed the Roman church, including the Byzantine Empire and the various 'heretical' sects. To achieve these aims the crusaders allied themselves with the Mongols and the Muslims themselves.

[Aravis]

Scoundrel by Bernard Cornwell.

Paul Shanahan worked for the IRA until his girlfriend claimed he was CIA in an attempt to save her own disloyal skin. The IRA found no proof of her allegations so Paul was allowed to live. However the accusation cast a pall over him and he was shunted to the fringes of the movement. That is, until they need his help four years later. Colombians have a shipment of Stingers- surface to air missiles- they are willing to sell to the IRA, and the Arabs are willing to fund the transaction. They need Paul to sail the gold payment from the Mediterranean to Miami. There are too many anomalies from the way the IRA usually does business and Paul is uneasy. Adding to his uneasiness is that this transaction was set up right after Operation Desert Storm was begun, and Paul worries that Iraq is somehow involved.

Paul has the nagging sense that he won't live long enough to spend his reward.

I can't help but wonder if he isn't really CIA after all. Either way, I suspect he's right about their intentions regarding him. Good book so far.

Update: My mistake, it's the Cubans, not Colombians, selling the missiles.

[john]

I'm reading 'Constantine's Sword' by James Carroll

A bit of information:

James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling two-thousand-year course of the Church’s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic.

The Church’s failure to protest the Holocaust -- the infamous “silence” of Pius XII -- is only part of the story: the death camps, Carroll shows, are the culmination of a long, entrenched tradition of anti-Judaism. From Gospel accounts of the death of Jesus on the cross, to Constantine’s transformation of the cross into a sword, to the rise of blood libels, scapegoating, and modern antisemitism, Carroll reconstructs the dramatic story of the Church’s conflict not only with Jews but with itself.

Yet in tracing the arc of this history, he affirms that it did not necessarily have to be so. There were roads not taken, heroes forgotten; new roads can be taken yetDemanding that the Church finally face this past in full, Carroll calls for a fundamental rethinking of the deepest questions of Christian faith. Only then can Christians, Jews, and all who carry the burden of this history begin to forge a new future.

[Aravis]

John, I don't often read non-fiction. This does sound interesting, though.

[john]

So far, it is quite interesting, mostly because the man himself, Constantine, chose to further the course of a small sect, the Christians, using a 'dream' that may or may not have occurred. This very powerful man put a blanket of protection over a group that might very well have 'died out.' He was no angel, either. I sort of know how the 'story end,' but it is still rather fascinating.

[Wyndham]

Hi John. Haven’t read this particular book, but I wouldn't be too hard on Christianity. Many books make the distinction between 'traditional' and 'new' or 'ideological' anti-Semitism'. Traditional anti-Semitism was religiously based, but the taint was easy to wash off. Baptism usually did that. Consult, in Britain, the career of Benjamin Disraeli or of the Montefiore family (I believe the current Bishop of London is a Montefiore), or in Germany, of the Mendelson family. The ‘new’ anti-Semitism of the 20th century was secular, rather than religiously based. Jews were a race, not a religion. The taint was in DNA. All the churches fought the idea, as they had the idea of parallel evolution and so on (you know St. Paul better than I do). In the end, not all risked annihilation by fighting the practice that followed the idea.

But what good would that have done? I’m an Anglican. I can remember, in the 70s, the Anglican church in Uganda fighting Idi Amin. The Ugandan Archbishop, a principal light of the church, went to the extent of declaring him anathema, and the country under interdict. He died trying to escape from a moving car, so it was told. His Bishops didn’t survive much longer than many of his congregation. There just aren’t that many willing martyrs. I think, however, that the Christians get a rough go, but perhaps other than the Communists (who didn’t have choices) their record was better than any secular creed – liberal, socialist, you name it. You fight Hitler. You accept martyrdom with pain. Until 10 May 1945 there were no other options.

[RobertGraves]

I am on hols and reading for pleasure a bit more than usual. Current pile includes:

Tolkien and the Great War
www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=688446

Caesar's 10th Legion - which is pretty ordinary but easy to escape with
www.sciencedaily.com/cgi-bin/apf4/amazon_products_feed.cgi?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=0471095702

Chester Wilmot Reports
shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=160354

[wordswordswords]

I'm reading THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH REVISITED by Jessica Mitford--where, incidentally, the Protestant clergy win some very high marks from the author for resisting the funeral industry's extremely mercenary endeavors.

I had read THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH when it first appeared and found it very absorbing. This update is equally interesting, in my opinion--and hilarious in spots, for the author has a biting wit.