DISEASE AND HISTORY by Frederick F. Cartwright in collaboration with Michael D. Biddiss

 Finished Mo 12/27/21 during the Covid Pandemic of 2021

This is one of my ancient hardback books that I had never read, but purchased at Barnes and Noble on Friday,  7/23/93.

Cartwright is a medical historian and Biddiss is a professor of history at Cambridge University.

The first 'big plague' was Black Death which occurred mid 14th century.

Malaria might have been more catastrophic for the Roman Empire than the attacks of the Goths and the vandals.

Black Death definitely hastened the end of feudalism.

Syphilis had an impact on the reign of Ivan the Terrible.

Did disease have a more powerful impact on indigenous South Americans than Cortez and his army?

Did hemophilia contribute to the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917?

Romans fresh water system was unrivaled until the 20th century.

Measles is a sub-set of small pox.

The authors treated mental illness also.

A reader on Amazon:

"It’s hard to say what I liked best about the book, since it was all very compelling. The chapter on the evolution of syphilis and its impact on some important historical figures, such as Henry VIII, however, was of particular interest. The same can be said for the pages dealing with England’s King George III’s suffering and death from porphyria, how typhus decimated Napoleon’s Grand Army leading to his defeat at Moscow, and how his later defeat at Waterloo was largely due to his being ill at the time. But most interestingly, at least to me, was the indirect manner in which England’s Queen Victoria, through her progeny, contributed greatly to the downfall of Russia’s Romanoff Dynasty and the rise of the Soviet Union. And, let’s not forget the chapter on the bubonic plague or the book’s final chapter, which describes how man’s efforts to overcome the diseases which have plagued mankind throughout history, may, if not controlled, lead to mankind’s ultimate demise."

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM by Chester Himes

Refinished Th 12/23/21

This is one of my trade paperbacks that I bought at The Book Barn on Su 10/17/99. According to the flyleaf "I read about 1/2 and then skimmed to the end on Thanksgiving, 11/25 at The Club. 

I think I enjoyed the novel more on the second time around. I liked the writing and I'll keep my eye out for more novels by Chester Himes.

 Part of the journal entry for Th 12/23/21:

"I finished reading 'COTTON COMES TO HARLEM' by Chester Himes on the couch. The adventures of GRAVEYARD JONES and COFFIN ED JOHNSON. The ' Back To Africa Movement' clashes with the 'Back To The South' movement, and $87,000 is concealed in a bale of cotton. In the end, an old black homeless man had the money all along and escaped to Africa and lived happily ever after."

The book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Comes_to_Harlem_(novel)

The plot was fairly complex and the 'Plot' at Wikipedia was helpful.

THE BLUE AFTERNOON by William Boyd

Finished Sa 12/18/21

This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks that I first completed in two days over the Labor Day weekend, Tu 9/3/96. 

Set in Los Angeles, 1936; and on Luzon (largest island of the Philippines), Manila (capitol city), 1902. 

An elderly man contacts a woman in Los Angeles. He tells her that he is her 'real' father. This occurs in 1936.

Then the story switches to the Philippines in 1902 and tells the story of his love affair and professional tribulations.  

From a review on Goodreads:

" The themes covered here are the occupation of the Philippines by America, the birth of aviation, the improvement of the surgical science at the beginning of the 1900s. And love. Physical attraction, love between couples, love between parents and offspring, and relationships without love. Rather than providing a list of correct historical details you get a feel for the era. It is not the details but rather a sense of what conditions were like. In this book you are confronted with the filth of earlier surgical practices; you are confronted with the atrocities committed during America's occupation; the exhilaration of flying for the first time. What you get is more an emotional understanding than a mental learning of historical facts. I want to feel myself in another person's skin. I am less interested in the historical details. I will soon forget the historical details if I don't feel an emotional empathy for those who lived through those times.

This is a mystery story too. There are murders. I personally think the ending is clear, at least we know how Kay Fischer interprets the events. What is not conclusively known is not that important, and this is an important message of the book."

From the review at Publishers Weekly:

"in 1936, Los Angeles architect Kay Fisher is approached by elderly Salvadore Carriscant, who tells her he's her father and whisks her off on an improbable journey to Lisbon. Despite that unconvincing framing section, a fascinating love story-cum-murder mystery occupies the heart of the narrative, which flashes back to 1902 Manila. There, the young Carriscant, a brilliant surgeon, falls in love with Daphne Sieverance, the wife of an American colonel whose troops are stationed in the Philippines to quell a bloody insurrection. When two American soldiers are murdered by someone who eviscerates their internal organs, Carriscant helps the chief of the constabulary, the improbably named Paton Bobby, to locate the killer, whom Carriscant suspects but cannot accuse. In this middle section of the novel Boyd suspensefully orchestrates some diabolically clever events, including a fatal air crash, a scene reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet and a shocking climax that will send readers reeling."

I enjoyed the book and would read more by William Boyd. I'll check him out on Amazon Books.   

PROPHET OF DEATH by Pete Earley

Finished Mo 12/14/21

This is one of my ancient hardbacks and I first completed it 'early morning' on Thanksgiving, 1997.

The story of Jeffrey Lundgren, a preacher and self proclaimed prophet in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He believed that he was called by god to murder a husband, wife, and their three children. 

Lundgren was able to convince his wife and several church members that this was what god wanted.

For his whole life this guy thought nothing of the law or what other people thought. He would constantly steal and then coverup his crimes.

He was also a sexual freak and was attracted to coprophilia- sexual arousal and pleasure from feces. 

His wife, Alice believed, even as a teenager that she would marry a man who was destined for spiritual greatness.

An interesting take-away: "For two hundred thousand devout adherents, the spiritual center of world Mormonism is not Salt Lake City but independence, Missouri." Lundgren got his start there, but the killings occured in Kirtland, Ohio which is where Joseph Smith, Jrl, established his ministry and built the first Mormon temple. This antique temple is where Lundgren gathered a circle of followers who fell under the spell of his oratory and his 'reform movement'. Part of the church wanted to allow women to become priests, but Lundgren and the conservatives felt that this was against god's law. 

I thought that I had thrown away all of my True Crime books, but I'm glad I got a chance to reread this interesting non-fiction book. 

Jeffery Lundgren was executed in Ohio in 2006 and his wife got five life sentences.

Lundgren's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Lundgren

CHILDWOLD by Joyce Carol Oates

 I read to p. 139 (half of the book) by Fr 12/3/21

This is one of my ancient paperbacks and no record of when I bought it and this was my first attempt.

It's the story of a fourteen year old girl who has an affair with man nearly forty.

He's a rich man from a prominent family and she is from a poor family of many children.

The story unfolds with several different points of view.

Page-long paragraphs that went on forever.

From New York Times and posted in Goodreads:

"This is the story of an enchantment and its dramatic consequences. At the centre is the frustrated love of a man in his forties for a fourteen-year-old girl whom he meets and befriends.

Drawn into her strange family and the haunting world of Childwold, he discovers that, while others find freedom for themselves, for him there is no escape.

"A blowsy mother whose many children have many fathers; her 14-year-old daughter, Laney, and Kasch, an anguished intellectual who loves them both...The novel's tight Oedipal triangle opens into a triple alliance against age and aggression as each person tries to turn the biological clock back towards innocence. Laney's mother wants to bear children to narrow the world to a child's room. Laney starves herself to stop her menstrual cycle and prolong her childhood. Kasch in his insanity is harmless, nonsexual, helpless...Drawn by his vulnerability in the same way that Kasch was drawn by her poverty, Laney may cling to Kasch and he to her as children cling together in the dark." (New York Times, 11/28/76)" 

This was not one of Joyce Carol Oates's more well received works, but I would give her another chance if I ran across one of her novels. 

PROVINCES OF NIGHT by William Gay

Finished Mo 11/29/21 

I ordered this hardback book from Amazon and received it Tu 11/23/21.

I saw the film, 'BLOODWORTH' on Amazon Prime and wasn't wild about the movie, but thought the book would be well worth a look and I wsn't wrong. The writing is some of the best that I've seen in months. 

'BLOODWORTH' 2010 film starring Val Kilmer, Kris Kristofferson, Hilary Duff, Reece Thompson, and Dwight Yoakam. 

Set in 1952 in very rural Tennessee and concerns the men in the Bloodworth family. There are lots of brothers, cousins, fathers, and uncles and it's a little confusing, but still very interesting. 

E.F. Bloodworth is a banjo playing wandering and he has been on the road for a couple of decades and he is returning to his home town. His wife is mentally deteriorating and the family tries to keep his return a secret from her. 

The Brothers Bloodworth:

Warren- a womanizing alcoholic

Boyd- his wife left him and traveled to the big city and he's trying to get her back.

Brady- puts hexes on people that he doesn't like. He arranged for a dilapidated trailer for E.F.

Fleming- The smartest of the brothers. He likes to read and is trying to be a writer. In the movie one of the brothers referred to his typewriter as a 'girly machine'. 

The author's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gay_(author)