I Should Maybe not be Reading this Book Now

This book is a limited look at Hitler's Germany--from June 1933 for a year.  I am now to November.  Hitler is vice-chancelor (Hindenburg is still alive, though old--85).  Earliest developments are that news media is discredited--by November, the only three newspapers still in operation are loyal to and controlled by Hitler and the Nazis.

An early law has been passed that will assist in the suicide of anyone who is disabled or chronically ill.  Later, this will be used to "euthenize" all such people manditorily.  They are not considered "Aryan" because they cannot contribute to the Third Reich.

People are required to stop whatever they are doing and give the Hitler salute whenever they see anyone in uniform (who are forever marching in the streets.)  People who fail to do this are beaten.  Of course, state policy is that foreigners are exempt from this, but, in practice, many Americans and other foreign nationals were attacked.

The attitude of the state is to ridicule the press, the disabled, anyone non-Aryan, and anyone foreign....  Hitler and his ministers are described as progressively more arrogant and dismissive of all but the most inner circle.

Finished THE UNINVITED

Great supernatural mystery with an unexpected ending.  Note to Amy--you may enjoy this author.  Most of her books that I have read have been about ghosts.  It certainly kept my interested to the end.  My only grumble is that Heather Graham creates wonderful characters, matches them up romantically, and then we only see them in passing in subsequent books.  I'd love to check in with those characters again and again.

I have now started In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson.  I have read The Devil in the White City and enjoyed it and decided to read more by him.  I have just barely started.  The time is 1933 Berlin and William E. Dodd has just been appointed ambassador to Germany from the USA.  The point is to explore the experiences and attitudes of innocents thrown into a quickly changing world.  Non fiction.

Finished WITHOUT RESERVATIONS

I had actually been forgetting about this until I took Greek Myths and Legends into the bathroom to sit next to it.  The cartoons are right down my alley--my sense of humor.  Of course, Mark Twain is also my sense of humor.  The back cover say that Ricardo Cate uses irony in his humor...isn't that what humor is???  It certainly is in Mark Twain's humor as well.  Many belly laughs are in this book.  Though Native Americans are featured in most (not all) of the cartoons, if it is Native American humor, I guess the moral is funny is funny is funny.  Amazing how human this sense of humor is (my form of irony...)

I am now going back to Greek Myths and Legends in the bathroom.

Decided to relegate GREEK MYTHS AND LEGENDS to the bathroom.

After starting this book, it was obvious (as it probably should have been just from the title) that this is full of little short stories which makes it a perfect book for the bathroom.  The problem with this remedy is that I have already been reading a book in the bathroom:  Without Reservations, The Cartoons of Ricardo Cate.  I had bought this book when we were in Tucson last year at the Native American Center and have been enjoying it when I remember to pick it up.



I am now about to start The Uninvited, the eighth book in Heather Graham's Krewe of Hunters series. Have I actually read seven of these books already???  Maybe.  This is a group of FBI agents who investigate hauntings and possible hauntings.  It is a lot of fun.

Finished LES MISERABLES

When Hugo gets around to telling his story, he becomes edge of your seat interesting.  His descriptions of people are also quite beguiling along with descriptions of place.  But, when he goes off on his tangents or into his opinions, he can be quite dry.  It will be awhile before I attempt another unabridged Hugo, but, if I live long enough, I may tackle Hunchback.

I am now about to begin a children's picture book--Usborne Illustrated Guide to Greek Myths and Legends.  I have a number of books on legends and myths of the world which I have kept as reference materials when I encounter a creature I've not heard of before in my reading of fantasy.  But, now I have decided to go ahead and read these...

Back to LES MIS...

Hugo ended the last section with the rebellion of 1832 and the building of the barricades on major Paris streets.  He starts this section off track again as he described the barricades of 1848 as being much larger and better able to be defended.

As he described them, my mind slid back to the last time I visited Oaxaca.  It was (and probably is) a beautiful city with a pretty and relaxing zocolo, bordered by shops and restaurants, with a gazebo in the middle, trees and benches.  Vendors were everywhere with crafts, balloons, and toys. Just a lovely central park.

But this last time, there had been a teacher's strike.  A teacher of more than twenty years at the time, I was inclined to sympathize with the strike, but, it seems other people all over the city had joined the demonstrations, and we arrived in the city as the same time as the forces sent out from Mexico City.  I had flown down alone and the taxi from the airport stopped at a restaurant outside the central part of the city (just a little hole in the wall place, but at least it was open.)  The driver refused to drive any further.  The owners of the small restaurant were scrambling to find places to put people up (blankets on tables) and I was fairly sure I didn't want to stay there (especially being alone) since my accommodations downtown were already paid for.  A few of us went outside to attempt to hail another taxi.  An enterprising young man showed up after awhile and told us that he and two other drivers were still going downtown and he could hail them on his radio.  He picked up the people ahead of me and said to the four of us still left that his buddy would be along soon.

Soon was about an hour, but this man took us all to the door of our hotels and was lovely about it.  I hope those three young men made a fortune that evening.  They certainly deserved it.  My friends, Peggy and Ruth, were already at the hotel, having arrived earlier that day, but I learned they had walked about twenty blocks, with their luggage after being unable to get a taxi.

The next day, we saw why.  Burned out city busses were in all of the approaches to the Zocolo where the demonstrators had barricaded themselves and now the troops from Mexico City were camped in the Zocolo.  There was no danger to us--looking very much like the tourists we were.  The troops were even most helpful in pointing us to the very few restaurants still open.  With the exception of the troops, the city seemed deserted...

Down near a church not far from the Zocolo we found a nest of activity--shrines to the movement, the lives lost in the strike/rebellion and pamphlets explaining their demands.  Of course the pamphlets were in Spanish, so I never did know what the demands had been...  Some people tried to convert us to their way of thinking, but we just said we were teachers and were already converted....  without really understanding what their way of thinking was...

Overall, it was a sad visit.  The beautiful city had lost its spirit and its beauty.  Burned out busses and unhappy people and troops with big guns....  I probably will never get back, but I hope it has gotten its mojo back.

Finished A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Of course I knew a story about women set in Afghanistan in modern times is not going to be all merry and bright, but Hosseini manages to maintain an optimistic spirit as do his characters.  If anything he celebrates the strength of the human spirit with each new paragraph.  The book kept me glued to my chair, as, usually, only thrillers do.

And now I turn back to Les Miserables, of which I have just one last section to read.