Book Post: Barry, Wilhelm, Ricks, Epstein, Jones, and short stories
I wanted to read 3 history books this year and my aim was to finally finish some of my medieval history ones but I ended up reading all about 20th century: flu pandemic, world war II from the British side and Holocaust and Jewish ghetto from the Soviet side. All very cheery topics clearly. And on top of that I read a sci-fi book that is all apocalypse and the short story collection I picked up is pretty much future dystopias. Diana Wynne Jones is the one one giving some sort of flimsy right now. I really need to do more cheerier books. Maybe it helps to read about more depressing times so our times don't seem as bad by comparison? I do hope that perhaps one of the short stories will do something different though.
Just recently finished:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry, 461pp
The authors is very pessimistic of what would happen in another flu pandemic; as well he should be but hopefully not to that extent. This book is not just about the Spanish Flu pandemic but also rise of American medicine and science and all the men and a few women who worked on the problem and were able to help lower the pneumonia. And it is also the story of how useless federal government was at even wanting to stop it because they were mainly concerned with fighting in World War I. So that was actually comforting. Things are basically screwed no matter what. He also argues that Wilson had the flu during the Paris accords that affected his brain and that is why he agreed to the horrible terms that led to World War II. This book did remind me that before modern medicine and germ theory people died a lot and there were many many outbreaks of diseases we don't see much anymore, so things could always be worse. And also that this too shall pass.
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm, 227pp [Hugo book]
I am, as usual, very happy about my goal of 5 Hugo winning books a year because it leads me to books that I would not have read otherwise, like this one. This book won a Hugo in 1977. It is about a world that is going apocalyptic from too much population, global warming, hunger and all kinds of disasters and going that way fairy quickly; civilization dies in less than five years basically. One family of doctor and scientists build a giant hospital and a cloning lab near their home in Virginia's village, and create clones of animals and people. Because there is a cloning problem after 4th generation they are occasionally still having babies regularly (which really leads to a horrifying situation). It is a story about individualism vs community society. She has a point to show that creativity is only possible if new people are born. The book started out slowly and has weird abrupt transitions, but once you get to the clone kids and especially the characters of Molly and Mark, the book certainly picks up and draws you in. Overall, I enjoyed it.
Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks, 270pp
My Dad gave it to me for my birthday and it was a good choice. I like biographies especially if they give context to the historical times as well and here were two biographies. I didn't know much of Orwell's personal history, but I read both Animal Farm and 1984 (which for a person who was born in Soviet Union described a very familiar environment) so it was really interesting to meet the man behind the writing. I knew more about Churchill but I still enjoyed learning more of his early life. I also like the style of the book as it flowed easily. Interesting book for me.
The Minsk Ghetto, 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism by Barbara Epstein, 292pp
I'm really glad I finally read this book. It makes me understand that the experience of my grandfather who escaped it to join the partisans was actually typical of the underground resistance of the Minsk ghetto, so it was like me getting an inside look. I never met my grandfather, who died before I was born, so I think this book helped me to understand what it was like for him from age 18 to 22. The author's main point is the Minsk's Jewish underground cooperated well with main city underground and there was a lot of cooperation in general between Belorussians, Communists and Jews (many who were Communist as well) - there was more internationalism in Belarus than say in Ukraine or Poland. For the author, this story offers an alternative to the ideal ghetto revolt like done in Warsaw. There was another underground strategy of sending people to the partisans and it was most successfully practiced in Minsk.
Currently Reading:
The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
I see it as a clear sequel to "Charmed Life" and it is kind of fun to come back to that after understanding the universe better through the last 4 books. It still doesn't rise to the delight of "Conrad's Fate" or enjoyment of "Life of Christopher Chant" - as those are my favorite but I do like Cat much better in this one. I'm also not sure where this story is going, which is interesting. After I'm done with this book, only the short story collection is left in the series. It is certainly a book to cheer me up along all other depressing things I'm reading.
People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
One of my friends recommended this collection to me. It has stories by Charlie Jane Anders, N.K. Jemisin, Catherynne M. Valente, Seanan McGuire and a lot of new to me authors. I'm not usually a short story person - I really prefer longer works but I figured it would give me a chance to try many other authors who write sci-fi. And the introduction was really promising. One of the editors was really impressed with "People's history of the United States" book which put minorities and women into forefront of history and wanted to do similar things for writing of the future. So the authors were asked to write speculative fiction from the perspective of minorities/women etc. The problem is the first four stories which I have read so far are all dystopias. They all see US falling, collapsing or just suppressing everyone who is not white/male/Christian. West Coast separated in two of the stories. A few stories offer hope but, man, it is so depressing. Can't I get a story were change is possible and the country can advance without an apocalyptic collapse. Can include others without hunger, disease, war and concentration camps. There are still 21 stories to go and I am going to read them but I'm really hoping for something that is not that depressing.