Recent reading
Steve Hayes
FitzRoy, V.M. 1955. Dark bright land. Cape Town: Maskew Miller.
Stories of the Moodie, Pigot, Stewart and other families of
19th century South Africa
6 March 2006
Evans, Howell. 2001. The Falkland Islands I knew. Oswestry:
Anthony Nelson.
Howell Evans was born in the Falkland Islands in 1915, and
after his father's death in 1913 became a cabin boy on a
local ship, and so got to see most of the islands.
26 March 2006
Cronin, A.J. 1973. Beyond this place. London: New English Library.
A young man, Paul Burgess, discovers that his father, who he
thought had died in a railway accident, was actually in
prison for murder. On an impulse he sets out to find what
happened, and the more he learns, the more he comes to
believe that his father was really innocent.
4 April 2006
Bryant, Arthur. 1953. The story of England: makers of the realm.
London: Collins.
A popular history of early England.
12 April 2006
Andersen, Virginia. 2003. How to do everything with Microsoft
Access 2003. Emeryville, CA: McGaw Hill Osborne.
12 April 2006
Jardine, Quintin. 2005. Lethal intent. London: Headline.
Deputy Chief Constable Robert Skinner is faced with three
apparently unrelated problems: four suspected Albanian drug
smugglers have sneeked into Scotland and disappeared; a
policeman's young son has died in mysterious circumstances,
and the First Minister for Scotland is planning to introduce
a bill that would give him almost complete control of the
police.
25 April 2006
Vine, Barbara. 2005. The minotaur. London: Penguin.
Kerstin Kvist is employed as a kind of nurse-companion to
John Cosway, a mentally-disturbed man who is drugged to
control his behaviour. She soon discovers that John's mother
and sisters are almost as strange as he is, with two of them
attracted to the same man, who is simply stringing them
along, uncaring about the jealousy he is stirring up, that
eventually explodes into violence.
8 May 2006
Smith, Martin Cruz. 2005. Wolves eat dogs. London: Pan.
Moscow physicist turned businessman Pavel Ivanov falls to his
death from the flat where he has lived the life of a recluse
for a month. Chief Investigator Arkady Renko thinks the
circumstances are suspicious, but his superiors think that if
it is treated as a suicide, it will cause fewer problems.
23 May 2006
Eco, Umberto. 1998. The name of the rose. London: Vintage.
A whodunit set in a medieval Italian Benedictine monastery,
where a visiting Franciscan friar is asked by the abbot to
investigate mysterious deaths within the monastery.
24 May 2006
Child, Daphne. 1979. A merchant family in early Natal 1850-1880.
Cape Town: Balkema.
Diaries and letters of Joseph Churchill and his sister
Marianne who married Hugh Gillespie.
--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius
Marko Amnell
Some books I've read recently and enjoyed:
Ernst Gombrich, A Little History of the World. Actually a children's
book. There is a good story behind it. During the Great Depressions in
the 1930s, Gombrich was unemployed just after he received his doctorate
in Art History. A publisher friend asked him to translate an
English-language history of the world for children into German. After
looking over the manuscript Gombrich told his friend "It's so bad even
I could write a better book". The publisher said he was welcome to
submit a chapter. The sample chapter was so good Gombrich was asked to
write the whole book, but he had only six weeks in which to do it. He
managed to do it, and it became so successful, it led to Gombrich being
asked to write a book on art history for a general audience. That book
became The Story of Art.
Steven Mithen, The Singing Neanderthals. Funny title. Interesting
speculative theory about the origins of language. Mithen wrote a
similar book about the origins of creative thought ten years ago (The
Prehistory of the Mind). The title refers to Mithen's curious notion
that, according to him, the Neanderthals lacked language, but could
sing better than Homo Sapiens. Mithen thinks singing and language
evolved together, but some hominids never got beyond the singing stage.
The best thing about the book is how the author collects together many
interesting scientific discoveries (such as in genetics).
Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality. OK, I haven't actually read all of
this one, as it's about 1000 pages long. But I read parts, such as his
treatment of Einstein's general theory of relativity. It's an expanded
version of another popular account of the same theory in another book,
It Must be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science. Penrose is
very good at explaining these things clearly. But it's an odd sort of
popular science book, as he decided to provide the actual equations,
despite warnings by the publisher that this would greatly reduce the
number of readers.
Many books on military history, which I've read a lot of recently, e.g.
"The Battle for History" by John Keegan, about rival interpretations of
the Second World War. Also, "Crossing the Buffalo: The Zulu War of
1879", by Adrian Greaves. Another good one was "Six Days of War", by
Michael Oren, billed as the first comprehensive history of the Six Day
War. Another one I liked was "Women Warriors" by David Jones. I was
always fascinated by the story of Queen Zenobia (or Bat Zabbbai, as she
was called in Syrian)and Palmyra, and he has a good account of that.
Also many books on mathematics, which I read regularly. Some
interesting ones were "Unexpected Links Between Egyptian and Babylonian
Mathematics" by Jöran Friberg, which offers translations and
interpretations of newly discovered cuneiform tablets about
mathematics, and shows how they are connected with ancient Egyptian
writings. Also, "Symmetry and the Monster" by Mark Ronan. It's about
the famous Monster group, but the book is disappointing as Ronan
doesn't give enough details. The bizarre and puzzling connections
between the Monster and number theory are interesting, but the book
doesn't really give enough information about it. "Introduction to
Circle Packing" by Kenneth Stephenson -- Just a topic I always wanted
to know more about.
Phyllis Chamberlain
"Steve Hayes" <haye...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:tnqa72175ni6erln0...@4ax.com...
>1 March 2006
> FitzRoy, V.M. 1955. Dark bright land. Cape Town: Maskew Miller.
> Stories of the Moodie, Pigot, Stewart and other families of
> 19th century South Africa
>
Steve, Since you're in South Africa do you also read Afrikaans? I've been
very much enjoying the mysteries of Deon Meyer as they appear, slowly, in
the United States. He apparently writes in Afrikaans. English translations
appeared in the UK seven years ago for the most recent I read, the
new-to-the-US _Dead Before Dying_, originally published in South Africa in
1996.
Anyway, the books are terrific, with the setting in South Africa and the
political tensions different enough to make them fascinating. Place is very
well done, without being the major element. I thought _Heart of the Hunter_
out in paperback last year, was one of the very best action mysteries I'd
ever read.
Do you read these in Afrikaans? How are they stylistically in the original?
Is he considered especially good in South Africa, or are there other mystery
writers equally esteemed? Do Afrikaans and English speakers mingle, as they
do in Meyer's stories, or are they separate communities? There is
discussion of accents in the novels, how well a person speaks English
without an Afrikaans accent and vice versa.
One would think English and American mystery novelists would do more with
accent as an aspect of delineation of character. I play duplicate bridge in
a group that includes a man I assumed was Norwegian or a Swede. I could
hardly understand a word he said. It turned out he was originally from
Scotland! and had lived in the US for years and was an American citizen.
I wonder why the English novelists don't write more about accent, since it's
supposedly a really important social determiner in the UK.
Phyllis Chamberlain
tbsa...@att.net
Phyllis Chamberlain wrote:
> Steve, Since you're in South Africa do you also read Afrikaans? I've been
> very much enjoying the mysteries of Deon Meyer as they appear, slowly, in
> the United States. He apparently writes in Afrikaans. English translations
> appeared in the UK seven years ago for the most recent I read, the
> new-to-the-US _Dead Before Dying_, originally published in South Africa in
> 1996.
>
> Anyway, the books are terrific, with the setting in South Africa and the
> political tensions different enough to make them fascinating. Place is very
> well done, without being the major element. I thought _Heart of the Hunter_
> out in paperback last year, was one of the very best action mysteries I'd
> ever read.
>
original?
Is he considered especially good in South Africa, or are there other
mystery
writers equally esteemed? Do Afrikaans and English speakers mingle,
as they
do in Meyer's stories, or are they separate communities? There is
discussion of accents in the novels, how well a person speaks English
without an Afrikaans accent and vice versa.
You might get a bit of insight into this with Lisa Fugard's novel
SKINNER'S DRIFT. I read it a couple of weeks ago..
I enjoyed it.
T.
ObSAAuthor: Stuart Cloete
Steve Hayes
<phc...@nospamverizon.net> wrote:
>
>"Steve Hayes" <haye...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:tnqa72175ni6erln0...@4ax.com...
>>1 March 2006
>> FitzRoy, V.M. 1955. Dark bright land. Cape Town: Maskew Miller.
>> Stories of the Moodie, Pigot, Stewart and other families of
>> 19th century South Africa
>>
>[Snip rest of list]
>
>Steve, Since you're in South Africa do you also read Afrikaans? I've been
>very much enjoying the mysteries of Deon Meyer as they appear, slowly, in
>the United States. He apparently writes in Afrikaans. English translations
>appeared in the UK seven years ago for the most recent I read, the
>new-to-the-US _Dead Before Dying_, originally published in South Africa in
>1996.
I haven't read any of his books, but yes, I do read Afrikaans
>Anyway, the books are terrific, with the setting in South Africa and the
>political tensions different enough to make them fascinating. Place is very
>well done, without being the major element. I thought _Heart of the Hunter_
>out in paperback last year, was one of the very best action mysteries I'd
>ever read.
I'll have to look out for them.
>Do you read these in Afrikaans? How are they stylistically in the original?
>Is he considered especially good in South Africa, or are there other mystery
>writers equally esteemed? Do Afrikaans and English speakers mingle, as they
>do in Meyer's stories, or are they separate communities? There is
>discussion of accents in the novels, how well a person speaks English
>without an Afrikaans accent and vice versa.
>
>One would think English and American mystery novelists would do more with
>accent as an aspect of delineation of character. I play duplicate bridge in
>a group that includes a man I assumed was Norwegian or a Swede. I could
>hardly understand a word he said. It turned out he was originally from
>Scotland! and had lived in the US for years and was an American citizen.
Accents can be funny things, and comedians and others often satirise the
accents of politicians speaking a language other than their own, which in
South Africa they often do.
>I wonder why the English novelists don't write more about accent, since it's
>supposedly a really important social determiner in the UK.
I think they do, and sometimes try to represent it phonetically.
Sam Culotta
I'm impressed.
Sam
"Steve Hayes" <haye...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:tnqa72175ni6erln0...@4ax.com...
delc...@mail.ab.edu
Eisner --Secret Weapons--, a book about chemical defenses in insects.
Peter Carey --Theft--, a novel.
--The Grail Bird--, the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
--The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey-- more than you'll ever want to read
about monkey dentition.
--Nerve Endings-- an account of Ramon y Cajal's discovery of the
synapse.
--Masdevallias-- a book about one of my favorite orchid genera ( I get
them to flower more than I do with other species)
--An Enthusiasm for Orchids-- adaptive evolution. in orchids,
especially Australian terrestrials and the mimicry they employ to get
wasps to pollinate them.
Geoffrey Hill --The Lords of Limit-- , --The Orchards of Syon--,
--Style and Faith--.
--Birding Babylon-- a soldier's account of amatuer ornithology in Iraq.
J. Del Col
.
Marko Amnell
God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad,
by Charles Allen
This is my latest book purchase, and is proving a good read so far.
Really interesting to find out how a marriage between a member of
the al-Saud family and the al-Wahhab family in the 1740s created
the dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia today, and the ideology that
motivates Osama bin Laden. The Wahhabi cult also turns up in
India in the 19th century, and the assasin of Viceroy Lord Mayo in
1872, Shere Ali Khan, looks and sounds a lot like Osama.
Apparently, he may have been put up to the killing by the
Wahhabis, who were upset over Mayo's percecution of the sect.
Douglas Clark
"Marko Amnell" <marko_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1148928257.1...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
I have read this and a few others of Charles Allen (Just finished his Buddha
and the Sahibs). He is a historian of the Raj so the Saudi parts of God's
Terrorists are a bit out of his usual territory and he does say he hasnt had
time to do his usual researches so I am unsure as to how accurate the book
is. I didnt see any knowledgable reviews but I am left a bit dubious about
tracing the Islamists back so far in time. I thought the fundies were a
religious reaction to the Enlightenment trying to argue with it on its
terms.
Mac the Nice
"Douglas Clark" <dgdc...@NOSPAMdgdclynx.plus.com> wrote in message
news:447c05dc$0$18240$ed26...@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net...
> tracing the Islamists back so far in time. I thought the fundies were a
> religious reaction to the Enlightenment trying to argue with it on its
> terms.
When you say, "I thought" isn't that really just another way of saying "I
heard" or "I read" or "I was taught?"
In any case, there is much difference between hearing and thinking, all the
difference. You hear a lot of stuff you take on faith, on trust, but not on
thought.
But if anyone was truly to think about what is or is not 'fundamentalist' in
the faith of Islam, they would first have to attain to some original basis
for thought by their own study and research--taking nothing on trust or
faith from anything but original sources, like the Qur'an and the Hadith.
And what happens then?
Here's what: after you're done plodding after many a weary, horror-filled
hour through those texts, taking none of it on faith or trust but by purest
filter of an objective skepticism, you can come out of the experience with
but one conclusion which is this: Islam is nothing but fundamentalism,
entirely.
You must not take my word for that, but study the texts for yourself. Short
of that, your opinions in the matter can't be worth a damn, can they? You
didn't find out for yourself, but foolishly trusted to the 'thinking' of
others. So you can 'think' not an original thought about it.
Now, is that right, or not?
--
Mackie
http://whosenose.blogspot.com
http://doo-dads.blogspot.com/
"As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct,
admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat
them." The Holy Qur'an: Surya iv. 34
"If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four
witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them
to houses until death do claim them. If two men among you are guilty of
lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, leave them alone; for
God is Oft-retuning, Most Merciful." The Holy Qur'an Sura IV. 15-16
"Oh ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged . . . nor in
a state of impurity, until after washing your whole body . . . or [if] ye
have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for
youselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands." S.
iv. 43 The Qur'an
--
.............................................................
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Marko Amnell
I doubt we can ever be really certain how far back in time we can
trace the roots of violent Islamic fundamentalism. But it's a very
interesting question, so it's tempting to try. I read a book on
Islamic fundamentalism by a political scientist, and he traced it
back *as a political movement* only to the 1940s and '50s.
The Egyptian radical Sayyid Qutb was a key influence at the
level of ideology, so it's interesting and perhaps relevant that
Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two man in Al-Qaeda is
also Egyptian. Zaharihi is also sometimes called the ideologue
of Al-Qaeda. Sayyid Qutb was influenced by fascism. As a
political movement, Islamic fundamentalism really only became
influential during the 1970s, as the popularity of pan-Arabism
and othe nationalist ideas declined. The Iranian revolution of 1979
was the first big success.
But it seems to me that Charles Allen is on the right track
when he looks for the origins of Al-Qaeda and Taliban further
back in time. Al-Wahhab was born in 1703 or 1704 so he
lived during the Enlightenment. But Allen also says that the
Islamic fundamentalists of the 18th century were reacting to
the failure of the Ottoman empire to expand further West.
Political causes such as the failure to capture Vienna in
1683 were as important as ideological factors related to
the Enlightenment.
Allen also notes the importance of the medieval Muslim
fundamentalist Ibn Taymiyya, who was reacting against
the destruction of the Baghdad caliphate by the Mongols.
Perhaps it would be possible to trace the roots back
even further. In a history spanning well over one thousand
years it's not surprising to find attempts at various points
in time to return to a more literal interpretation of the
original holy text. But not all of those fundamentalists
would have been violent. But the original Wahhabists
of the 18th century were as violent as Al-Qaeda. There
is a direct trail of evidence, and ideological infuence,
leading from those early desert armies of raiders to
today's terrorists.
Douglas Clark
the 19th century.
--
Douglas Clark ..................... Bath, Somerset, UK ......
http://usergroup.plus.net .......... http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
"Marko Amnell" <marko_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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