Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 6: One Moore player for England

Bobby Moore, who captained the England football team to the 1966 World Cup championship, was born on Holy Saturday, April 12, 1941. He joined West Ham United as a 15 year old, making his professional debut two years later against Manchester United. He would spend 16 seasons at West Ham before moving to Fulham for three seasons and ending his career with stints in the US and Denmark. 

But Moore is best known for his run with the English national team. He played in the 1962 World Cup, and became England's youngest captain the following year. His participation in the 1966 tournament was briefly in doubt due to issues with his West Ham contract, and there was some talk prior to the championship game of leaving Moore out of the lineup. In the end leaving him in paid off, as he assisted on two goals towards the Three Lions' 4-2 win over West Germany.

Moore captained England in the 1970 World Cup, where they lost 3-2 to West Germany in the quarterfinals. England failed to qualify for the 1974 tournament, making a 1973 friendly against Italy the 108th and final cap of Moore's international career. He retired as the most capped player in England history and with the most appearances as captain for the national team. 

Moore survived a bout with testicular cancer in the early 1960s, but was not so fortunate with a case of colorectal cancer that spread to his liver. Moore would be the first player from the 1966 team to pass away, dying in 1993 at the age of 51.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 5: To (not) live and die in (not) Dixie

Richard Taylor was the only son of President Zachary Taylor, and despite being born in what would become a border state (Kentucky) and educated in Union states (Massachusetts and Connecticut), he spent most of his adult life in the south and would become a general in the Confederate army during the US Civil War.

Taylor had no military experience prior to the war, but was a wealthy planter in Louisiana, where he built a fortune on the backs of the 200-plus slaves who grew and processed his sugar cane. He was chosen to be a commander of a Louisiana militia unit in the Civil War because his (then deceased) sister had been married to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Potential cronyism aside, Taylor proved to be an able commander, leading troops that played a pivotal role in the Shenandoah campaign. He would be sent back to Louisiana to raise troops and fight Union incursions into the state. He defeated Nathaniel Banks during the Red River campaign, was promoted to lieutenant general, and would wind up commanding both a Confederate military department and, briefly, the Army of Tennessee. 

After the war, his plantation ruined, he lived in New Orleans, but relocated to Winchester, Virginia after his wife died. From there he often visited friends in Washington and New York while staying active in Democratic Party politics. It was during a visit to New York that he died, on April 12, 1879.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 4: Assassination averted

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim grew up in Finland when it was still part of Russia, and rose in the ranks of the imperial Russian army to become a lieutenant general. Finland would declare itself independent after the Bolshevik revolution, but soon had its own civil war between the pro-Bolshevik "Reds" and the "Whites," who were anti-communist and backed the Finnish Senate. Mannerheim was made the leader of the White army, which was also supported by Germany troops.

The Whites won the civil war, raising Mannerheim's profile. He served as regent of Finland for a short time, and ran a losing campaign for president. By 1920 he had left politics but was still an active public figure as well as a war hero.

Which made him a ripe target for assassination by former Red officers. A group assembled in St. Petersburg to plan the attack, which was to take place during a White Guards parade in Tampere. A shooter and two backups were selected, and they went to the parade on Holy Saturday, April 3 1920, but were unable to complete their mission. The shooter got cold feet, and his backups, not able to see him, were not able to fire on Mannerheim themselves. A second attempt was made for April 6, which also failed, and resulted in the arrest of all three assailants.

This all worked out for Mannerheim, as he would go on to become the army's Commander in Chief during World War II, as well becoming Finland's sixth president.

 Book Log 2023 #10: If Then by Jill Lepore

As much as we are (rightly) concerned about the ways tech companies collect, use, and misuse our personal data, the concept of data mining, and using the results of mining to direct politics, business, and everything in between, is not new. The Simulatics Corporation was a pioneer in the field, and this book looks at how the company came about and the ways in which they influenced society in the 1960s.

There's much in common with how the company collected and used data to guide politicians and advertising, notably providing consulting services to the Kennedy campaign in 1960. Unlike today, the company always feels a little on the edge, possibly due to the limits of technology at the time, or perhaps due to the personalities of its founders (one a mid-level ad man, the other a bipolar mathematical genius). It's not all that surprising that the company shut down in 1970, as it never seemed to be that stable in terms of a business.

The book does provide plenty of opportunities to think about how Simulatics informs today's big data environment, while also demonstrating that many of the issues we're facing aren't exactly new, and that the past may have something to teach us about how to deal with the present.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 3: Prominent polymath passes

Arthur Aikin was born into a family of noted writers and scholars, including a father who was a doctor, historian, and biographer. He followed his father's footsteps into science, studying chemistry under Joseph Priestly and becoming a lecturer in the subject at Guy's Hospital in London for 32 years. He would be the first treasurer of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) and its second president.

Outside of chemistry, he was also a president of the British Mineralogical Society, a founder of the Geological Society of London, and was a member of the Society of the Arts, the Linnean Society, and the Institution of Civil Engineers. He also supported himself writing, translating, and lecturing to the public, and his writing often introduced foreign scientific news to the British public. He was even a Unitarian minister for a short time.

Aikin passed away on Holy Saturday, April 15, 1854.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 2: Pentecostalism revival arrival

Pentecostalism has roots prior to April 14, 1906, but it owes much of its worldwide reach to the revival that started that day at the Azusa Street mission founded by William J. Seymour. His church had been meeting elsewhere priot to that day, but after the group started speaking in tongues (and after the growing crowds caused the porch of their previous meeting space to collapse), Seymour moved to a new building on Azusa Street.

Worship services there were frequent, and pulled in hundreds. The crowd was notable for it racial and gender balance, which did not always sit well with others (notably Charles Parham, another of the founding figures of the Pentecostal movement). This would change, as segregated congregations would become the norm until the 1960s.

While the revival would wane after a few years, Seymour would preach at what became to be called the Apastolic Faith Mission for the rest of his life. Other preachers, who left Azusa Street to found their own churches, would grow Pentecostalism to the worldwide faith it is today. This timeline gives a good idea of where the Azusa Street revival fits in the history of the movement.

Another Lenten season is upon us, and I am totally doing what I said I was going to do at the end of last year's Lentorama:

Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Same basic idea as last year, you're getting 40 days' worth of historical events that happened on the day before (Western) Easter. Such as:

Day 1: So Long Sam Stephens 

Sam Stephens served as an Army broadcaster during the Korean War, and after the war became co-owner of KOJM radio in Harve, Montana. He went into politiccs in 1969, rising to the position of state senate president during his 16 years in that chamber.  

In 1988 he ran for governor, beating former governor Thomas Lee Judge to become the state's first elected Republican governor since 1964. Stephens served one term, the highlight of which seems to be overseeing the state's centennial celebration.

Hopefully the other 39 days are more interesting.

I was lucky enought to find this site that calculates church calendar dates for any year you put in. It will come in handy when we get to 2032 and I'm reduced to a Lentorama of "It Happened on the First Day of the Second Week of Lent."

 Book Log 2023 #9: The Odd Clauses by Jay Wexler

Some parts of the US Constitution are pretty well known (if occasionally misinterpreted), like the First Amendment's right to free speech. But then there are other parts that are less familiar, or seem less relevant in today's world. Why is there a whole amendment on not forcing people to put up soldiers in their homes? What exactly is a bill of attainder? And why does so lofty a document get into weights and measures? 

In this book, Wexler (who, full disclosure, I knew in high school and have occasional contact with over social media) examines these less familiar parts of the Constitution, and shows how they apply to the present day with regards to broader themes in the law (for example, the chapter on the Third Amendment gets related to privacy). 

The dense subject matter is leavened along the way with a fair amount of humor and personal observation. This isn't surprising given that Wexler once wrote a scholarly article about which justices generated the most laughter during argument (there's also a sequel).

If you're interested in the Constitution, or in the ways common law is able to connect the seemingly anachronistic to current day concerns, this is very much worth reading.

 Book Log 2023 #8: Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

I'd heard from time to time over the years that Hitler was on drugs during World War II, but this was always somewhere between a rumor to an assertion, with no real corroboration. In this book, Ohler presents the results of his research, and details not only Hitler's drug use (generally under a doctor's supervision), but the widespread use of drugs by the military and the German people in general.

In one respect, this isn't that surprising, between the history of now-illegal drugs being widely available in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the known use of drugs (usually stimulants) by troops in wartime to fend off fatigue. The scope of the drug use, as presented by Ohler, is what's surprising.

While several drugs are discussed, the main focus of the book is on a methamphetamine called Pervitin. The book paints a picture of a nation popping Pervitin regularly, from soldiers on the front lines to civilians back at home. Hitler's drug use saw him go from doctor-administered vitamin and hormone shots to a regimen that included Pervitin and Eukadol, which we would know better as oxycodone.

All of this drug use is seen as a key factor in Germany's early successes in the war, but also a significant factor in its eventual loss, as dependency led to mental and physical breakdown. 

The book is quite readable and eye-opening. Assuming you believe that Ohler is correct in his assumptions. Not everyone is convinced that his recounting is on the level, either based on contrary evidence or thoughts that Ohler, a novelist by trade, spiced things up a bit to improve the story (this review is particularly critical). The linked review also notes that the book serves as a bit of an apology for Nazi Germany and its atrocities, blaming it on the drugs.

As a book Blitzed is successful, as it's engaging and well-paced. Whether or not it's accurate... 

 Book Log 2023 #7: Dead Lions by Mick Herron

British spydom's Island of Misfit Toys is back, after a low-level spy that Jackson Lamb worked with in Berlin back in the day turns up dead on an Oxford bus. He looks into things, and comes to believe that the man knew about a Russian operation going on in London, and was killed to keep it quiet. While Lamb continues to investigate, two of the slow horses are assigned to protect a visiting Russian oligarch. This is not a coincidence.

I thought this was a solid follow-up to the first book, and appreciated that it wasn't another book primarily about machinations at MI-5 (not that I had a problem with the first book, just happy that this wasn't more of the same). I am curious to see if Slough House continues to be as dangerous a place to work as it's been in the first two books. They've got a pretty high body count going for a dead-end post.

 Book Log 2023 #6: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

It's odd that I'd never read this book before, given that I've read a lot of Bradbury's writing and that it's part of a trilogy that starts with Dandelion Wine, which might be my favorite book. It doesn't have any of the same characters as the first book, but is set in the same town (Green Town, a stand-in for Bradbury's hometown) and traffics in some of the same mystery and wonder of being a kid and growing up.

It's now late October in Green Town, and there's a sense among the people that something is coming. What that turns out to be is a carnival, to the delight of most. But there are a few who have a sense of foreboding, which turns out to be justified.  There is a supernatural power to the carnival and its leader, Mr. Dark, which threatens the town, and it's up to a pair of 13 year old boys and one of their fathers to save the day.

While there are thematic similarities between this book and Dandelion Wine, this book is darker, and leans more heavily into fantasy and horror. It's also much more cohesive as a story, as it was written as a novel (via a short story turned film treatment) rather than a series of linked stories. I still think Dandelion Wine is my favorite Bradbury work, but this may be second (I'll have to reread Fahrenheit 451 to be sure).

 Book Log 2023 #5: The Chosen by Chaim Potok

It's another book assigned in junior high, but this time one I actually finished and liked (helped, I would think, by being about two high school boys).

Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter meet during a baseball game which is as much a contest between two strains of Judaism - Reuven and his team are from an Orthodox school, while Danny and his team represent a nearby Hasidic school - as it is a game. The two schools are geographically close, but the kids don't really know each other that well.

When Reuven is injured by a ball hit by Danny, it leads (eventually) to a friendship. They confide in each other about family (Danny's father only talks to him when studying Talmud) and the future, where Danny wants to become a psychologist rather than follow his father as leader of their community. The relationships between the fathers and the sons is a major theme of the book, as is the role of tradition and faith in the modern world.

I, of course, missed a lot of this when I first read the book, having no real experience with Judaism or the expectations of living up to a specific tradition. I'm glad I revisited it.

 Book Log 2023 #4: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Frida is a new mom, who, like most new moms, finds tending to her child exhausting. When she leaves the child unattended for a couple of hours to see to herself, she is caught and sentenced to the titular school, where instructors (none of whom actually appear to be mothers themselves) will re-educate Frida so she doesn't make the same mistake twice.

This is the very basic outline Chan's debut novel, which in its satire of mommy culture and government/family dynamics also ventures into issues of gender (notably in interactions with the school for fathers) and race (not surprisingly, non-white mothers have a much harder time at the school and with the system in general). There is a distinct Handmaid's Tale vibe, though it's hard to say if the draconian nature of the school extends into other facets of the government.

I'm guessing I would have gotten more out of the book if I were a mother, or even a woman considering having children (which is where Chan was when she started writing). I don't think you have to be a mother to feel for the characters or understand the tensions in the story, but I have to think that being able to see yourself in Frida or one of the other mothers would open up another level of connection.

 Book Log 2023 #3: Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James

This is the fourth book in the Adam Dalgliesh series, where he investigates murder at a local nursing college. I think it's better than the books preceding it, but I'm still struggling to connect with the series. I think the main problem is that I still don't have much of a clue as to who Dalgliesh is. By comparison, four books into the Inspector Morse series I had a much better idea of who he was as a person and his approach to solving cases (even if we didn't know his first name).

I am likely to stick with the series, just not in any particular hurry to do so. 

 Book Log 2023 #2: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

For years, seventh grade world history classes at my junior high school read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Except for my class in my seventh grade year, when the teacher pulled an audible and assigned this book instead.  In retrospect the change makes some sense, as it's a shorter book and I don't think the class really spent much time on Africa. And it was in the middle of the Cold War, so some added insight into the Evil Empire couldn't hurt.

Except that the class, almost to a person, decided not to read the book. I myself barely got more than ten pages in when I decided to bail. I didn't find the book too difficult, it just didn't click for me (much like A Passage to India, which I was also supposed to read at some point and bailed on early).  You can imagine the talking to we got after taking the test on the book.

Anyway, I decided to give this another try for a reading challenge (read a book you bailed on in school), and found it much better going this time around (which I did not experience when I took my second pass at A Passage to India). I think younger me would have actually liked the book had he stuck with it. Its depiction of gulag life in the Stalin-era Soviet Union shows both the brutality and the mundanity of the system, and how one man finds ways to manipulate both so he can survive to the next day.

If you have any interest in the Soviet era, you should read this.

 Book Log 2023 #1: Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

A pair of aging Irish drug runners stake out a Spanish ferry terminal to find one of their daughters, who took off after the death of her mother and is now traveling with kindred spirits around Spain and north Africa. While they wait the pair reminisce about their criminal past and what may lie ahead as aging gangsters.

For all the talk of crime in this book, it's not a crime novel. It's more about the ways past choices come home to roost, and the ways in which friendship can endure and, in some cases, be the only thing one can count on. And as you might expect in a book about Irish hoods, there's a fair bit of dark humor over both the past and their current situation.

This book picked up a number of accolades, and rightfully so. It avoids the tropes and easy markers of crime fiction and gives a much more nuanced and soulful examination of lives not that well-lived. Barry has a knack for writing characters on the margin (notably in his debut novel, City of Bohane), and here uses it to maximum effect.

 Book Log 2022: The POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Once again, I'm looking to see how well the books I read in 2022 fit the prompts of the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, and as usual I am allowing books to satisfy multiple categories where applicable.

A book published in 2022 - The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk)

A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - 

A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society

A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title

A sapphic book - 1979 (Val McDermid)

A book by a Latinx author - In the Distance (Hernan Diaz)

A book with an onomatopoeia in its title

A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid

A book about a "found family" - here I'm going with St. Marks is Dead (Ada Calhoun), as there are numerous examples of how the people who lived there over the years developed familial bonds.

An Ansfield-Wolf Book Award winner

A #BookTok recommendation

A book about the afterlife

A book set in the 1980s - La place de la Concorde Suisse (John McPhee) was published in 1984, so I'm guessing the author's time with the Swiss military took place in that decade. 

A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title 

A book by a Pacific Islander author

A book about witches

A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - Slow Horses (Mick Herron)

A romance novel by a BIPOC author

A book that takes place during your favorite season - The September Society (Charles Finch), for fall (at least in the title, I don't recall if the book actually takes place in the fall)

A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - The 99% Invisible City (Roman Mars), read after Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan)

A book about a band or musical group - Running' with the Devil (Noel Monk)

A book with a character on the ace spectrum

A book with a recipe in it - Taste (Stanley Tucci) has several

A book you can read in one sitting - The Plough and the Stars (Sean O'Casey), though this might be cheating as it's a play

A book about a secret - Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)

A book with a misleading title - I'd say Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan) fits here, as I wouldn't consider him fat.

A Hugo Award winner

A book set during a holiday

A different book by an author you read in 2021 - The September Society (Charles Finch)

A book with the name of a board game in the title - The English Assassin (Daniel Silva)

A book featuring a man-made disaster - Termination Shock (Neal Stephenson)

A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page

A social-horror book

A book set in Victorian times - Gillespie and I (Jane Harris)

A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title

A book you know nothing about - The Stranger in My Genes (Bill Griffieth), which I pulled off the shelf more or less at random to fit a different reading challenge

A book about gender identity

A book featuring a party The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk) has a party for library donors

An #OwnVoices SFF book

A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Sex Cult Nun (Faith Jones). The prompt (a book set in multiple countries) may not be my favorite, but it lets me use the book with the most provocative title I read this year.

ADVANCED

A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title

A book that features two languages - Code Talker (Joseph Bruchac) is in English and talks about how Navajo words and concepts were used to convey military information during World War II.

A book with a palindromic title

A duology (two books)

A book about someone leading a double life -  The Kill Artist (Daniel Silva), whose protagonist is an Israeli spy whose cover is as an Italian art restorer

A book featuring a parallel reality 

A book with two POVs

Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (two books)

 Book Log 2022 #66: Grass by Sherri Tepper

Humanity has spread throughout the galaxy, but that spread is threatened by a plague that is taking root across all human settlements. The powers that be notice that one planet, Grass (named for its vast prairies), seems immune to the plague, and sends investigators to figure out why. The investigators ingratiate themselves into the aristocratic ruling class of the planet, who have adapted local fauna to engage in a form of fox hunting that's all the rage. The participation in these events, and a deeper look into the native life forms of the planet, lead to a conclusion about the plague and immunity that put Grass the the future of humanity in jeopardy.

The book is seen as a classic, and is noted for its use of feminist, ecological, and class themes. That being said, I found I disliked the book more as I went along. One review I read of the book suggested that it felt like two books put together to make one, with the second half marred by an unexpected romantic story line and a convoluted reveal as to why the planet is immune. I don't know that I feel exactly that way, but I do feel like there was a shift that significantly changed where the book was going.

This is the first book in a trilogy, though I don't think I'll pick up the other two. That's it for 2022!

 Book Log 2022 #65: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I'd seen this on any number of 100 best book lists, and thought it was time to check it out. I did like it quite a bit, maybe not as much as the people who put those lists together, but it's probably the most personal and moving book I've read about soldiers in Vietnam. I did find it a little confusing early on, as the line between memoir and fiction can get pretty thin, but it was more of me getting used to the structure of the book rather than a failing in writing.

 Book Log 2022 #64: Northern Spy by Flynn Berry

Tessa, new mom and BBC producer in Belfast, is confronted with video of her sister apparently participating in an IRA bank robbery, Tessa is loathe to believe this, thinking that her sister was somehow coerced into participating. When she learns the truth, she is faced with the difficulty of trying not only to save her sister, but to protect her family from potential IRA reprisal.

On the one hand, I did like the book quite a bit as a well-paced and plotted thriller, and for not being another IRA story where women are simply victims or bystanders. But I never quite bought into the IRA being as active as depicted in the book. I don't doubt that the IRA is still functioning in some fashion, but based on my own consumption of Irish news and media I don't get the sense that they're as present in Irish society as depicted here (though maybe I'm just not connected to the right stratum of Irish society).