Travels in Siberia 4 -- cont

Amazing glass beach in Vladivostok--Eastern side of Siberia. "Drinking" beach, bottles thrown down, waves work their magic, gorgeous . . . flight out never takes off . . . no refund, no reschedule . . . driving across Lake Baikal . . . "driving up from the lake into the regular streets of a city was an abrupt, peculiar experience." Page 380-81 Strange story of two flamingos falling from the sky into Siberia . . . rescued by boys and then given to strange Winter Garden . . . Yakutsk, at the latitude of Nome (p. 3500) has over 200,000 residents. Wendell Wilkie visited (!) and said it reminded him of Elwood, Indiana . . . Today Yakutsk has The Gap, 31 Flavors, and many more American chains while Elwood, Indiana (a dying, manufacturing town) has NONE.

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Puppy, Story by George Saunders

PUPPY Dysfunctional family has puppy that they need to get rid of. Mom places ad; family is coming over. Description of family. Mom: husband changed from long-haired attractive to stooped old man. Husband: talks constantly of living on a farm and doing what needs to be done, though he never lived on a farm. Conversations together: Sell and move to Arizona, get hooked on phonics for kids, buying a car wash. . . wonderful randomness. Straight-laced suburbanite comes to look at puppy. Seems like she will buy it, even though she is repelled by house. (Dog turds on carpet, filthy.) She is proud of how accepting she is until she looks out window and sees white trash's son tied by harness to a tree. Reader knows he is a menace to himself, darting across I-90, for example. Suburban mother beats hasty retreat, leaving dog to be (probably) drowned by dad who does what has to be done. Suburbanite remembers her own pathetic ch...

Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler

Bryant & May--Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery, Book 1 Lots that I liked. Crime novel that is also historical fiction. Fowler gives insight into London during the blitz. Danger from street cars, some looting during blackout, stiff upper lip British still going to theaters, etc. Fowler also takes reader backstage into the workings of a theater. I learned a lot about the physical complexity of a major theater--production is a tremendous production. I liked both the main characters. Bryant, the eccentric loner who thinks out of the box. May, the more traditional "bright" guy, who is able to appreciate Bryant and help by keeping him in the real world, a little. Plot revolves around murders committed while cast rehearses and then performs Offenbach's scandalous version of Orpheus and Eurydice. The murders are on the gruesome-detail side given the general British coolness of the rest of the text. Spoiler coming. The denouement wa...

Napoleon 12: Lawgiver

"I must give the people their full right in religion. Philosophers will laugh, but the nation will bless me. " "What nothing will destroy, what will live for ever, is my Civil Code." French Revolution is anti-clerical, but Napoleon recognizes the power of the pulpit--useful to have the church as an ally. Concordat signed, bringing church and state into alliance of sorts . . . the bureaucracy of the church used as a method to get out his messages to the people . . . called "Restorer of Religion," though it was purely pragmatic . . . Napoleon always skeptical of Jesus wondering, for example, if he even existed . . . Following the religious Concordat, he turned to the Civil Code, combining 42 codes into a single system--most enlightened system in the world. Rule of law is the same over large area (or at least close to the same.) Major weaknesses . . . extremely respectful of property rights as opposed to labor rights . . . sexist--women subordinate to ...

Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

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