The Webber Family Bookshelf is the blog of the Strange-Webber family, descendants of Dorinda Rebecca Strange and Myron David Webber. Shake the family tree and you will discover diversity in education, ethnicity, viewpoint and reading habits. Whatever family members are reading may be reviewed: fiction, history, theology, cookbooks, poetry, children’s books, etc. At least two reviews will be published each month. Reviews represent the viewpoint of the writers, not the family.
Caroline Moorehead. A Train in Winter – An Extraordinary
Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France (New York: Harper
Collins, 2011). 317 pages. Additional materials in an Appendix, Source Notes,
and Bibliography.
(NON-FICTION: HISTORY)
Reviewed by Chuck Dayton
This work of non-fiction is written by Caroline Moorehead
who lives in London and Italy. In this work, she interviews women who survived
the “Paris Roundup” of French Resistance workers by the Nazis and collaborating
French police. In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination, Auschwitz
on the only train from Paris with all women (230). Only 49 would return to
France.
This is a remarkable but emotionally difficult-to-read
account from interviews, diaries, and collected papers of this phenomenal group
of women. Those who survived the atrocities of imprisonment credited the
closeness achieved by the women while imprisoned as a reason for survival. Some
helped in the camps as quasi nurses, some helped the weaker of the women on
work details, but all shared food, talked with each other every night, and kept
each other warm. Death was all around them, including many of their group.
To me, an interesting aspect of the book is the experience
of the women who came back to France after the liberation of the camps. Many
were faced with children they left behind who no longer knew them, others with
no spouses, parents or children surviving. Some started over. Some just gave up
from the guilt of having survived when so many died. Interestingly, many of the
women noted that they actually missed their shared time together with other
women as it had been in the camps and reported they were lonely upon return to
their homes. Some tried to talk to others about their experiences, only to
become silent on the subject. One woman, speaking to a group, was told she
could not be telling the truth because if she were, she would not have survived
the experiences.
This is an important book, I think, to help us remember how
cruel fellow human beings can be under the leadership of a deranged person. A
poll in France as recently as the 1980’s showed that about 34% of French people
aged between 18 and 44 did not think that the existence of gas chambers had
been clearly proven. Let us strive to never forget.
William McDonough & Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make
things (New York: North Point Press; a division of Farrar. Straus &
Giroux, 2002).
(NON-FICTION)
Audio Version: Read by Stephen Hoye (Tantor Audio, 2008).
Reviewed by Wilda Morris
I sometimes feel as though there is no hope for the
environment. We are depleting and destroying a large proportion of the world’s
non-renewable resources. An ever-increasing number of people are within reach
of television programs and movies which project images of North American life
styles. Millions see and want luxuries they had not previously known existed.
Advertising encourages this phenomenon.
I read in Cradle to
Cradle that fabrics used in furniture, drapes and carpets contain dangerous
chemicals; our computers contain more than a thousand different materials,
including toxic gases, mercury and acids; and the shoes in which we walk or run
through the forest preserve (in order to enjoy nature) are leaving deleterious
substances in our footprints.
However, Cradle to
Cradle has given me a sliver of hope. “Reduce, reuse, recycle” is not the
right approach, the authors argue. It will not end the “cradle to grave” approach
to manufacturing which started with the industrial revolution. McDonough (an
architect) and Braungart (a chemist) have a different “design assignment.” They
believe it is possible to create:
“*buildings that. .
. produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water
*factories that
produce effluents that are drinking water
*products that. . .
do not become useless waste but can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and
become food for plants and animals and nutrients for soil; or, alternately,
that can return to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for
new products
. . .
*transportation that
improves the quality of life while delivering goods and services
*a world of
abundance, not one of limits, pollution, and waste.”(Pp. 90-91)
The authors use the image of the cherry tree, which produces
more blossoms and fruit than needed, but this “waste” is converted into
nutrients for its environment. If you do not believe the vision embodied by
McDonough’s and Braungart’s design assignment is possible, I encourage you to
read Cradle to Cradle (or listen to
the book on CD). You will learn about projects already completed or underway which
join the best intentions of environmentalists and manufacturers. You may not agree
with everything you read, but the book may help you envision a new approach to
protecting the environment.
The End of Food by
Paul Roberts (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008; Mariner Books; Reprint edition, 2009).Also available on Kindle and CD.
(Non-fiction)
Reviewed by Wilda Morris
Paul Roberts argues that “On nearly every level, we are
reaching the end of what may one day be called the ‘golden age’ of food, a
brief, near-miraculous period during which the things we ate seemed to grow
only more plentiful, more secure, more nutritious, and simply better with each passing year” (xii).
The modern food system is an economic system which treats food like other
consumer products, which has meant increasingly larger scales of production to provide
high volume at lower costs, continuous innovation to create new products, and
distribution channels not unlike those of toys or DVDs. But, according to
Roberts, food is not suited to the kind of mass production and distribution.
The system has contributed to obesity, the development of food-borne pathogens
against which we have no defense, failed programs against world hunger which
have increased malnutrition in some areas of the world, while putting small
producers out of business. The current food system will make it exceedingly
difficult for human beings to respond to changes which will result if
predictions of global warming are correct. Rising fuel costs and the depletion
of water resources threaten the system.
The book is organized “somewhat like the economic system it
seeks to reveal” (xxv). Roberts begins with a history of the food economy,
then, in chapter 2, discusses how food became industrialized. Nestlé, the world’s largest
food distributor is used as the primary example. Then Roberts looks at the ways
in which large food companies leveraged size and market share to take control
of the supply chain, driving smaller produces from the market and changing the
nature of food. He discusses how these changes resulted in a decline in the
nutritional quality of food as the system demanded more and more processing,
and how this has contributed to diabetes and other health issues.
Roberts discusses how the benefits of globalizing the food
system have been balanced by new dangers, including easier transmission of
diseases and greater vulnerability to increases in energy costs.Increased control by large corporations
centered in the US, Europe, Brazil and China has excluded millions of people,
especially in sub-Saharan Africa, without adequate food or nutrition. The US
Department of Agriculture has been complicit in the creation of many problems
for other countries by its support of US agribusiness. I found the case study
of Kenya and its food issues quite eye-opening.
According to Roberts, if we are to overcome problems related
to food-borne disease; soil contamination; water, energy and land scarcity, we
need to completely overhaul our food system and reduce our meat consumption.
Neither transgenic nor organic food will solve the problem. Other options are
available, but there is resistance to needed changes from the large
corporations benefiting from the current system, not to mention politicians who
want the support of these magnates. There is also resistance to the required
changes in culture: eating less meat; doing more of our own cooking instead of
reaching for the most processed—and often most convenient—products. and so on.
This book provides much for us to chew on, as we consider
where our food comes from and how it comes to us.
Note: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.
The Garden of Last
Days
by Andre Dubus III (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), 535 pages.
Also Available on Kindle.
(Novel)
Reviewed
by Chuck Dayton
Sue
and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Dubus at a book reading in Iowa City on
June 9th, 2009, our wedding anniversary. He wrote a very
complimentary note in my book regarding a question that I had asked. He is the
son of Andre Dubus II, who is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. He was
raised around authors in his early years, relating that he watched cartoons on
Saturday mornings with his father’s best friend, Kurt Vonnegut,
while growing up. This author’s first book, House
of Sand and Fog was extremely popular and was eventually made into a movie.
The Garden of the Last Days is a novel set in south
Florida, intertwining the lives of some very interesting people and some
ordinary people. The title is played out in the garden of Jean, a widow, who
tends her garden while babysitting a small child whose mother happens to be a
stripper trying to make ends meet. In a rather long and involved plot, it is
revealed to the reader that some patrons of a strip club turn out to be the
Arab terrorists currently in flight schools in Florida, preparing for the 9/11
attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
It was interesting to me to see how the lives of ordinary
people and the lives of these Arab men were so intertwined, and yet their goals
were so different. Because of their incredibly conservative Muslim backgrounds,
there is a lot of angst portrayed in their involvement with American culture.
This is not a violent book, and the actual commission of the terrorist acts is
but a small part of the plot. I recommend this book if you are interested in
the interpersonal relationships of people of radically different cultures.
Cutting for Stone by
Abraham Verghese (Vintage; Reprint edition:January 26, 2010)
(NOVEL)
Reviewed by Lisa Proehl
Abraham Verghese is a physician and author. His two non-fiction
books are My Own Country, about his work
with AIDS patients in rural Tennessee, and The
Tennis Partner, a memoir of a difficult friendship. Cutting for Stone is his first novel.
The story is set in Ethiopia, where conjoined twins Marion and
Shiva Stone are born and immediately lose their mother, a nun, to the
complicated pregnancy. What follows is the story of their coming of age as
Ethiopia hovers close to revolution. The twins share a very strong connection
with each other, a fascination with medicine, and eventually a passion for the
same woman.
There are several plot twists which keep the reader engaged
throughout the novel. What resonated most deeply for me was the beautiful
expression of the power and beauty of doing healing work, as well as the
profound love and connection between the twin brothers.
The “Cadfael Chronicles,” twenty historical mysteries sent
during the English Civil War of the 1100s, by Ellis Peters (various publishers
and editions available). They were written between 1977 and 1994, in the
following order:
WM: I read all twenty of the
Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters (a pseudonym of British author, Edith
Pargeter). Did you also read all of them? If so, what did you
especially like about them?
TK: It was quite a while ago, but I
believe I read all that were available at the time. I enjoyed them very much
for several reasons—I enjoy mystery novels, I enjoy novels set in the Middle
Ages, and I enjoy novels that serve to open a window into life in monasteries. I
also appreciated Cadfael's perspective on life and events.
WM: The series was recommended to me during the month we spent
on the border between Wales and England. The main setting is the Benedictine Monastery
of St. Peter and St. Paul at Shrewsbury. I found one of the books in a store
and bought it. I think it was The Hermit of Eyton Forest. It was a
mistake not to begin with A Morbid Taste
for Bones, the first book in the series. If you don’t start with the first
book, you know something that gives away too much in an earlier volume. Thirteen
of the books were made into television shows (with Derek Jacobi playing Brother
Cadfael). I never understood why our public television station played the third
episode first. One of the suspicious characters in the second novel becomes a
regular, much-respected character in the later books. If you already know he is
a “good guy,” he won’t look like a villain in One Corpse Too Many. That reduces the suspense. I highly recommend
starting with the first volume of the series and working your way through in
order! Do you have a favorite?
TK: I don't remember
enough details to specify a favorite in terms of the story, but the one that I
am reminded about most often is Monk's Hood because it involved a poisoning using a toxic plant called Monkshood -
which has a beautiful hood-shaped purple bloom. After reading the book I
planted some Monkshood in our yard (just to look at - not to use as poison), and
think of the novel every time I see the plant.
WK: Maybe you could give me a cutting of Monkshood for my
garden! Your mention of that reminds me that Cadfael was an expert in herbs and
other plants. As a monk, Cadfael was in charge of the monastery herb garden,
which was grown primarily for medicinal purposes. Cadfael was called on when a
monk was ill, as well as when a body was found in the area around Shrewsbury. Cadfael
had been a soldier in the Crusades and had brought back herbs that were new to
English gardens.
TK: I’d be glad to
provide you a cutting! It spreads slowly
without being invasive and seems to be quite hardy and I’ve begun to plant
cuttings in various places in our yard.
Two interesting features of the books for me was that Cadfael was an
herbalist and that being a monk was a “second career” after having led a more worldly
life, including service in the Crusades.
That juxtaposition of two radically different life-styles and worldviews
is what I was referring to when I said I appreciated his perspective on life
and events.
WM: At one point, after the fourth or fifth of the series, I
thought the books were getting a bit redundant. I put the series aside for a
couple of months, and then went back to it. After that, I never found them
redundant or boring. Now I wonder if it was after that that some of the plots drew
on Cadfael’s life as a Crusader (and his time as a sailor), before he settled
down and became a monk. This back-story gave the author interesting material on
which to draw.
TK: Interesting. This
conversation is making me want to go back and read the Cadfael series
again. I think that I’d appreciate and
enjoy them even more than I did the first time. Do you have copies of most of
the books? It just occurred to me that while I spend a fair amount of time in
used bookstores and at used book sales, I seldom see Cadfael novels. I can only
remember running across one in the past several years. Have you had the same
experience?
WM: I have seen some of these books at The Frugal Muse in
Darien, Illinois, where I sometimes buy used books. To change the subject a bit, it seems to me
that these books could be used as a resource on which to base a series of
discussions of theological issues. Off hand, I can think of several: the use
of relics; a Christian view of sexuality; whether it is ever appropriate to
lie, etc. What do you think of this idea? Are there other issues you would
add to the list?
TK: I think using the Cadfael novels as
the basis of theological discussions is a great idea—and perhaps a way to
engage some folks who might not think they'd enjoy such discussions. I'd have
to re-read some of the novels to comment much more, but certainly issues of
faith and authority - as well as historical discussions of 12th Century
England.
WM: Yes, I should have thought of religious authority as a
discussion topic; Cadfael had some interesting conflicts with other members
of the monastery community, especially Prior Robert and the prior’s clerk!
TK: The issue of
religious authority is quite interesting.
Cadfael’s position as herbalist is certainly not a “power position”
within the monastery or Catholic hierarchy.
But to my mind his wide previous experience before joining the order
provided him more authority in terms of understanding of human nature and
society. I always enjoyed seeing how
he managed to maneuver in the hierarchical system.
WM: Another interesting topic for discussion would be the
relationship between the secular world and the sacred, a theme which occurs
regularly in this series. Grace, ethics, and the role of prayer are other
potential discussion topics which could be based on reading one or more of
the Cadfael series.
I learned some things about the history of Great Britain
while reading these books. The fact that the stories take place in historical
sequence is helpful from that perspective. I don’t recall ever having heard
of the struggle between Matilda (also called Maud) and Stephen for the throne
of England until I read these books. Did you find the books an enjoyable way
of picking up a little historical knowledge?
TK: They were very enjoyable! If you liked
the Cadfael novels you might also enjoy books by Sharon Kay Penman. She has at
least three mysteries out (example: The Queen's Man) - and if you enjoy "bigger" reads, her novel When
Christ and His Saint's Slept is a much
longer read about Matilda/Maud's struggle with her cousin Stephen for the
throne. For some reason I find this particular period of English history
fascinating—although I certainly wouldn't have wanted to live in England at
that time. Another novel set in that same period that I enjoyed very much is The
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. That
period of English history provides the grist for discussion on many, many
topics and aspects of “the human condition”—much as the U.S. Civil War does.
WM: I really enjoyed The
Pillars of the Earth also. You aren’t the first person to recommend Sharon
Penman’s books to me. I guess it is time for me to start reading them. And one
of these days, I’m going to reread all twenty of the Cadfael novels. Edith Pargeter
died in 1995, so there will not be any more books in the series.
Civil War 1-7. written
by Mark Millar and drawn by Steve McNiven
(New York: Marvel Comics, 2010).
Reviewed by Kevin Penrod
This is by far one of my favorite comic books. It’s about all our favorite
super heroes from Marvel getting split down the middle and going at it with
each other. It starts out with a reality show staring some semi-unknown trying
to get their ratings up so they go after a team of very powerful super
villains. In the battle there is a huge explosion which causes the death of a
lot of innocent civilians including a few children. In the aftermath the
government passes the super hero registration act which calls for all masked
heroes to make their identities known and register with the government. For
some this seems like a good idea, especially with Tony Stark (Iron Man) heading
the idea. When it is passed there are a few heroes who go underground because
they oppose it. Leading this team is Captain America who was against it from
the start. With constant action and a great story to go along with it, Civil War is a comic I recommend to any
Marvel fan.
