The Reading List for July, 2024

 

July has come to an end so a list of e books read this month is in order.

First on the list is The Case For God by Karen Armstrong. Like all of Ms. Armstrong's books, this one is well researched. The book covers the history of religion - particularly the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, although she does explore the Eastern, non Abrahamic religions to some degree.

It was by reading Ms. Armstrong's book that I was led to read The Mind's Road to God  by Saint Bonaventure. For the most part, Saint Bonaventure's book went over my head.

I've already reviewed The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling) in an earlier blog post. I failed to mention in that review that the protagonist has pretty good taste in music; he listens to Tom Waits and a group called Elbow.

In his translation of Gustav Meyrink's The Golem, Mike Mitchell writes that although Meyrink and Franz Kafka were contemporaries, "In it [The Golem] we have the Castle which is not Kafka's Castle, The Trial which is not Kafka's Trial and a Prague which is not Kafka's Prague". I would add that Meyrink comes across to me as a blend of Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe.

After J.D Vance was chosen as Trump's Vice Presidential running mate, I decided to read Vance's book and watch the movie based on the book. Vance has taken some heat recently, but reading the book has convinced me that Trump made the proper choice in picking J.D. Vance.

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin become the first human to journey into outer space. He became famous, world wide. He was so famous, in fact, that even a nine year old boy living in Atlanta Georgia knew his name. In Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, Jamie Doran & Piers Bizony write not only Gagarin's biography, but they explore the Soviet space program during the 1950s and '60s - it's successes and failures. Originally written in the 1990s, this edition was updated in 2010. I was particularly interested in the controversy surrounding Gagarin's death.

Now, the complete list:

The Case for God             by Karen Armstrong
The Cuckoo's Calling      by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)
The Mind's Road to God   by Saint Bonaventure
The Golem      by Gustav Meyrink
Hillbilly Elegy    by J. D. Vance
Starman     by Jamie Doran & Piers Bizony

Bicycle Ride in Sibulan

It's coming up on the anniversary of my downloading an app onto my phone in order to monitor my bicycle rides. There is an option where I can video the ride. I've uploaded those videos from time to time on to Facebook. I don't usually upload the videos to Youtube, but I thought I would do so today. 

When prompted by Youtube to answer questions about the content, I said it was OK for kids. I thought that meant there was no sex or violence or adult specific content. It turns out it isn't kid safe after all because the app I used included an ad in the video.

 I changed the settings and now I'm good to go.

New Bicycle Tires

I've been getting a punctured tube on the rear tire of my bicycle almost every day for about a week. I finally decided to break down and replace both tires - front and rear.

 It really was past time. Checking an old blog post, it seems I last replaced the tires around the last week of March, 2022. That's a bit over 2 years ago. As near as I can calculate, I've ridden over 5,000 miles on those tires.

Yes, I'd say it's time for new tires.

 

The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling)

 

I was 45 years old in 1997 when J. K. Rowling first published her fantasy novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published a year later as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S.). Being 45, it was not the sort of book I'd be reading. Now, 27 years later, I can say I've never read any books in the Harry Potter series. I've seen 5 or 10 minutes of one of the films - I can't recall which one - and can say I was justified in not reading any of those children's books. I am not the intended audience.

So, not being a J.K.Rowling fan, it's shouldn't be surprising that I've only recently learned of her series of crime fiction novels (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) Cormoran Strike. Being a big fan of that genre, I downloaded the entire series and set the ebooks aside to be read at a later date.

I've become aware of the controversy surrounding Rowling and her support of women viz a viz the trans issue. After reading of her challenge to Scotland's new hate crime law , "Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls", I decided to show my support for Rowling by reading book one in the Cormoran Strike series - The Cuckoo's Calling.

Naturally, I have to compare this series to a favorite of mine - Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series. After reading this first novel, I have to say that I'm impressed. An excellent work; it stands up to Leon's crime novels. However, I do have one negative comment. I'm not a fan of crime detectives being given strange, unrealistic names. I don't care for the name, Cormoron Strike. Other writers of crime novels have been guilty of the same offense but those writers usually gave the detective either a common Christian name or a not quite so bizarre surname. I'll be reading more in the series and will do my best to overlook my dislike of the main character's name.