The paradox of choice, by Barry Schwartz

The paradox of choice, by Barry Schwartz

I supose this book was a bit disappointing for me. Occasionally you will get a book which is just common sense. Yep, this was one of those books, nothing wrong to be reminded of this type of stuff. But I really didn't find anything new. The major problem was its age, 2004 and using political figures of the day who are from the United States are going to make it irrelevant to the rest of the world. American centric was a major problem with the 'Paradox of choice'. What about choice in third world country? Anywhere other than the US?. This would have been of more interest to me.

2/5

Lolita

Lolita by Vladumir Nabokov

I once read that Lolita was one of the books that you 'must read' in a magazine or blog somewhere. I looked at the subject matter and was instantly turned off. Christina read it a couple of weeks ago and came to the same conclusion, it is a must read. After reading it myself, yes it is one of those books which is a must read.

The subject matter is disturbing, there is no getting away from it. Yet there is a range of emotions which you encounter. Worry for Dolores, anger at Humbert, sorrow at Humbert, the fear of being caught for Humbert. It is all twisted. It is as if Nabokov is playing with you. The reader is the victim in it all.

Nabakov's talent as a writer is amazing. His descriptions are often poetic. Often a pity one liner can make you stop and wonder at its beauty. Amazing considering English is his second language.

So yes I gave it 4/5. It could have been 5, but that is left for a novel which I want to read on. Not one where I dread to read what happens.


Vladimir Nabokov 

Tom Keneally, The Daughters of Mars

 

Tom Keneally, The Daughters of Mars.

I don't read Tom Keneally lightly. Having read Schindlers Ark and been scared forever. Yes another novel on the horrors and stupidity of war.

The Daughters of Mars is based on the experiences of two Australian sisters who are nurses who follow the Australian troops; as they wage war in the Mediterranean and France.

As a nurse and an Australian I found many connecting stories to my story. A nurse, put under pressure and the distress at times it can cause. But what the nurses in the story and during that period went through was incrediably traumatic. The wounds of World War One, the maming through bullets, shrapnel and shells. Yet worst of all gass. Which attacked the centeral nervous system and lungs in a horrific maner. Somthing which I would never want to go through.

The stories of nurses coming from 'Bush nursing homes in Gipsland' amused me. Phillip Island's hospital as mentioned to me by many of the older locals was a 'Bush Nursing home' Now unfortunatley there is nothing.

The name 'Monash' which I am likely to phone as our client is an inpatient; or drive along; or the education institution. But to think of the reason behind the name Monash the general; It never occurs to me. Though I always knew he was a famous guy, I never realized the idolision of him at the time of ordinary Australians.

One theme that interested me was a Character called "Kierman". A Quaker or as they said at the time time "Family of Friends". He as an orderly the closest you would get to a male nurse during that period.

What interested me about him was his faith, or his acknowledgment of where he was at in a holistic way, from the horrors of war around him and how he interacted to it. Naomi one of the sisters and Kiermans fiancé had this to say about her experience :

"...or was it a genuine spiritual instinct of her own which made her feel that she could inhabit this silence? Other religions began with certainties and pronounced them from the start of their rituals. The Friends seemed to have no certainties and humbly waited for the voice to emerge. These people did not seem to anticipate or even feel sure that anything would grace them with a visit. That attracted her. She had never been in an uncertain Church before."

I write rather enviously of Naomi's experience!

It's a good book, one worth reading if you like Australian History or Australian Nursing history. His characters never let you down with there development on the intricacies which surround them.

4/5

 

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Alaska, Sue Saliba

Alaska, Sue Saliba

There were three reason that I picked up this book:

1. Alaska, one of the last of the great wildernesses.
2. A continuation of my reading theme of young adult literature
3. Sue Saliba, a local to Phillip Island, who I've meet a couple of times

At first I struggled with the book, I couldn't get my head around no CAPITALS. It actually made reading difficult. I knew there was some literary reason but it wasn't until I reflected that there was some turmoil for the reader (At least myself) having not capitals; much like the main character, Mia.

Like a good movie a book which keeps you thinking about it after it has finished, is good. There were many themes which got me thinking; the idea of trying to escape a bad situation only to find that there is no escape, even thousands of miles away; compromises and what is worth fighting for and what isn't. It brought up questions in my own life, asking the same questions about what is important and how much I'd fight and how much I'd let pass by.

There where also some great quotes in the book:

"you can't have beauty without danger..."you can't have life and absolute safety"

Its very reminiscent to the quote but Whilliam Shed "A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for. "

Its a good book, like I've written; it had me thinking afterwards. It has that feel of a book where the author was deliberate with every word; a precious commodity in todays literature. Even if at time it seemed a bit flowery.

4/5

 

Weapons of Choice, Word War 2.1, by John Birmingham

Weapons of Choice, World War 2.1, by John Birmingham

The basic premiss of this book was about a modern international fleet of naval warships 2021 is caught up in an experiment which lands them bang, in the middle of the Battle of Midway during World War 2.

It is a genre of historical, science and alternate fiction. This first novel Birmingham doesn't go down the 'what if', my grandmother was killed scenario, that most time travel fiction tries to get there head around.

Rather Birmingham looks at comparison, between weapons of different eras, culture between different nationalities but different times. For example in the 1940's equality between sexes, cultures and colors was still racist.

 

The most important aspect in this book which quickly becomes apparent is not the technological advances but the knowledge of history in the short term. How both the Axis and Allies can take advantage of the historical knowledge for there Global strategic advantage. This is very apparent in the last few pages (Which I wont give away), and has me eager to read the next book in the series.

 

Arsenals Of Folly, Rhichard Rhodes x2

Arsenals Of Folly, The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, Richard Rhodes.

This is my second post on thoughts on Arsonals of Folly, by Richard Rhodes.

::Once again I found Regan to be a man of contradictions. Deeply religious yet astrologers where used?

::It's well documented and mentioned throughout that the arms race basically bankrupt the Soviet Union. Yet I thought it interesting that Rhodes quotes  Marriner Eccles 'as long ago as the 1960's that "over-kill spending of the military" was " responsible for our financial inability to adequately meet the problems of our cities (poverty, crime, riots, pollution) and our rapidly expanding educational requirements".
Rhodes goes on to quote others as well to argue his point that the USA as far as infrastructure and other problems was behind other Western country's because of its military spending.

::That the same Neo-Conservatives who came up with exaggerated  claims of "weapons of mass destruction"  eg Dick Cheyney, Paul Wolforwitz, Richard Pearl, Donald Rumsfeld. Where very much behind telling and again exaggerating the Soviet nuclear capability. It was a good that Regan was  often motivated by his own intuition or 'hunches' and entertained and followed Gorbachev offers, rather than his 'conservative' voices in his own camp.

::I like the summing up paragraphs
"The politics of both sides were not moral because they put the human world at mortal risk, with no reasonable gain in security, for domestic advantage and the international play of power. Robert Oppenheimer saw the dishonesty as early as 1953, when he wrote sardonically in Forigen Affair

The very least that we can say is that, looking ten years ahead, it is likely to be small comfort that the Soviet Union is four years behind us, and small comfort that they are only about half as big as we are. The very least we can conclude is that our twenty-thousandth bomb, useful as it may be in filling the vast munitions pipelines of a great war, will not in any deep strategic sense offset their two-thousandth... We may anticipate a state of affairs in which two Great Powers will each be in a position to put and end to the civilization and life of the other, though not without risking its own. We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life."

Related articles

• Richard Rhodes, "Twilight of the Bombs" (longnow.org)