Thursday, April 3, 2025

The Happiest Man On Earth by Eddie Jaku

 




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The year before his death in 202, one hundred year old Eddie Jaku wrote his memoir.  It is a quick read and outlines his life along with his formula for happiness.  Eddie was a Jewish man who survived the concentration camps during WWII.  After the allies took him to a hospital, near death, he was experiencing some anger and bitterness about all he experienced at the hands of the Nazis.  As his life progressed he was able to let go of hate and embrace love as a lifestyle.  He attributes his survival of the death camps to some important factors.  One is the relationships he had with friends and family.  Even though his parents were killed in the gas chambers,  his sister remained alive as did one of his best friends.  Relationships with them and other friendships he developed were an important ingredient of being able to continue living in the death camps.   Another thing he mentions that was important to his survival was hope.  Without hope people ran to the electric fence and grabbed on thereby electrocuting themselves.   Hope kept Eddie going.   A third thing that was important was helping others.  Eddie believes a life that includes service to others is necessary to survive in a community.  Those that survived the concentration camps did so by helping each other through it.  One hundred year old Eddie Jaku believed the secret to happiness is love, hope and cooperation.  Eddie volunteered at the Sydney Holocaust Museum and did a lot of speaking at schools and churches.  He was even invited to do a TED talk.  Eventually he wrote his book.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to learn more about Eddie.   And enjoy the video of his TED talk that follows.  We could all use a good dose of Eddie Jaku.  






Monday, March 31, 2025

Divided Hearts: A Civil War Friendship Quilt by Barbara Brackman

 




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Well known in the quilting world for her non fiction, historical books about quilting, Barbara Brackman's book, Divided Hearts: A Civil War Friendship Quilt, does not disappoint.  She presents twelve short biographical sketches of women who lived in the mid 1800s.  Some are well known women such as Teddy Roosevelts mom and Mary Todd Lincoln.  And some are women who are not as well known but nevertheless lived interesting lives.  Each biographical sketch is paired with a period quilt square and directions for that quilt square.  The book is delightfully illustrated with period photographs and pictures of the various ways to put together the same blocks, creating much different presentations with changes in color and arrangement.  Barbara Brackman has written several books, including her encyclopedia of blocks that has been digitized and  is part of the Electric Quilt software as an add on called "Block Base+".   This book is about autograph quilts from the Civil War era.  The author noticed civil war autograph quilts that were signed by northern and southern women alike so she began to research how they were connected.  Often southern young women were sent north for finishing school.  And it was not uncommon for southern families to spend the hottest part of the summer in the north to avoid diseases carried by insects in the heat of summer.  Friendships were formed and romances kindled that grew to marriages and intermingling of northern and southern families.  During the war years feelings of closeness didn't just disappear.  This book teaches us a lesson that is pertinent to today.  Relationships can continue in spite of very fundamental differences in belief systems and political opinions.  This book is a quick read and I enjoyed it very much.  It combined my interests of genealogy, social history, and quilting.  I highly recommend this author and intend to enjoy more of her work.  Please click on the links above and enjoy the video that follows.  





Sunday, February 16, 2025

Death In A Strange Country by Donna Leon

 




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Donna Leon is an author that writes mystery novels that are set in Venice.  She has a series that revolve around a police commissioner named Guido Brunetti.  This is the second book she wrote and she wrote it in the mid 1990s.  Each one of her books addresses not only the story line of the mystery but incorporates a social issue.  In this novel a young American soldier who is a health official at an American military base in Italy is murdered in Venice.  A week later his girlfriend, who is a doctor at the base, is murdered.  And soon a mafia connected businessman is robbed.  Surrounding these crimes and the investigation of them a ring of illegal toxic waste dumping emerges.  The illegal dumping of toxic waste is an international problem.  Most of the articles I found online were written eight or ten years ago but AI chimes in that it is still happening and it is happening here in the United States too. So I don't think it is an issue that has been resolved completely although we are not hearing a lot about it recently.   More information can be found HERE,  HERE and HERE.   This book is an interesting read as are all Donna Leon's novels.  They also are books that bring world wide problems to the surface.  Please click on the author's name and book title above and follow the links in the text for more information.  The video that follows also has more information.  






Thursday, February 6, 2025

Beyond The Crushing Waves by Lilly Mirren

 




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We are all very aware of the orphan trains that carried children out of then crowded eastern United States cities to the western farms from about 1854 to 1929.  But a less known practice was Great Britian transporting orphans and poor children to their colonies as late at the 1950s.  Lilly Mirren taps into this historical practice in her novel Beyond The Crushing Waves and tells the fiction story of three children who navigate the move from London to Australia.  The book held my interest and peaked my curiosity to find out more.  Although Mary, Lottie and Harry lives turn out well,  not all the children who were sent to colonies had such a happy ending to their lives.  There are a couple of organizations advocating for the victims of this practice.  The International Association of Former Child Migrants and Their Families and The Family Restoration Fund both work with the people who went through this relocation process.  I enjoyed this novel very much and found it to be a fast read.  I highly recommend it.  Please click on the links in the text and on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to learn more.  And enjoy the video that follows.  



 


Saturday, January 25, 2025

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

 





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The last book that George R R Martin has completed in his Song Of Ice and Fire series is A Dance With Dragons.  This book was over eleven hundred pages long and I had to renew it, although I only kept it seven days past the renewal date before I completed it.  This is the first of the books that I noticed was much different than the television series.  In the other four books there were lots of similarities and the differences were in the details.  But in this novel the story line is not the same as the Game of Thrones television series.  It is obvious the television writers veered off in order to complete their programming,  The book continues to have much more detail and be more tastefully handled than the television series.  It does still have its fair share of sex and violence.  It pulls back into the story some of the characters that were left out of the fourth novel while still continuing the threads of the main characters. Cersei has her famous walk of shame in this novel and Arya is learning her art in the house of many faces. Two of the areas that are much different are the sections about the House of Greyjoy and the story line about Stannis.  Also Sansa's story is handled much differently.  As good as the television series was,  the books outshine them by far. I have my fingers crossed that George R R Martin will be able to finish writing his series.   Please click on the links at the book title and author's name above and enjoy the video that follows.  




Monday, December 30, 2024

A Feast For Crows by George R R Martin




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After a break from reading this series in order to get home made Christmas gifts ready by Thanksgiving, not to mention a dozen custom burp rags made for a great grand daughter's baby shower,  I resumed reading George R R Martin's Game Of Throne series early in December.  I finished the fourth book, A Feast For Crows, last evening.  This book is different than the other three in that it only follows half of the characters while the next book will bring the other half up to speed.  The story has become too involved to keep up with the people in one volume.  Some of my favorites were included in this book though.   Arya is getting her training with the faceless masters and managing to survive in the land of Braavos.  Sansa is navigating survival in  the Vale as she masters hiding her identity.  Sam's story is involved this novel.  He is trying to hold together a band of misfits as he leads them towards Oldtown.  Just as he touches base with two of Jon Snow's half brothers in the prior novel he brushes shoulders with  Arya in this one.  And Brianne, as usual, has a rough time of it.  She continues to navigate outlaws as she is trying to find Sansa.  In fact, the outlaws are hanging the kings soldiers in this novel and the crows are eating their remains.  Hence the title of the book.    Two other characters  whose stories are covered in the volume are Cersei and Jamie.  Quite a bit of the book is spent on details of the Greyjoys and much is written about the kingdom of Dorne. The next book is a continuation of the story and will cover the characters not covered in this one.  I am glad I am taking the time to read this series.  It is so much better than the television series was and so much more tastefully handled.  Anyone who doesn't choose to wrestle through this is missing out.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the link to more information and enjoy a video that can be found HERE.  








 

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

A Storm Of Swords by George R R Martin

 




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George R. R. Martin's A Storm Of Swords is the third book in his series A Song Of Fire and Ice.  This book series was turned into a popular television series on HBO several years ago.  Each book so far has been in excess of one thousand pages.  I have really been enjoying escaping into the land of Westeros this election season.  The books are not difficult to read and I am enjoying them more than I did the television series.  During this novel the character's stories continue.  Jon escapes from the wildlings and returns to the wall to fight a large battle against them.  Samwell kills one of the others and rescues a wildling girl.  Ayra manages to find her way to a ship that is going to take her to the free cities.  Catelyn and Rob are lost at the famous wedding feast.  Sansa and Tyrion both escape from Kings Landing but in different directions.  Daenerys is gathering slaves for an army to retake Westeros as her dragons grow and learn commands.  The book left me wanting more.  But since I have been plowing through the thousand pages each time I checked out one of these three books in less than three weeks I am waiting a bit to check out the fourth one.  I need to catch up on some other things.  Nevertheless I will look forward to book four.  I highly recommend this series whether you have watched the television series or not.  Please click on the book title and author's name above for more information and enjoy the video that can be found by clicking HERE