books – Page 3 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

AMERICAN LIFE

The relentless harshness of Demon’s life wares on a listener/reader. One has to be invested in Demon’s life adventure to fully appreciate the creative talent of the author.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Demon Copperhead (A Novel)

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Narrated By: Charlie Thurston

Barbara Kingsolver (Author, American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, born in 1955.)

Several years ago, I began Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. This revisit to her writing is to see what her view is of a young boy in a broken American family. “The Poisonwood Bible” like “Demon Copperhead” are well written novels but “…Poisonwood…” is about missionary work whereas “…Copperhead…” is about life in America for children who are challenged by poor family circumstances. Both novels are too long though …Poisonwood… is highly acclaimed and rewarded by a Pulitzer Prize. Demon Copperhead is the story of a young boy caught in a welfare system meant to aid mothers who are incapable of caring for themselves, let alone their children.

Kingsolver’s point of view can be understood from different perspectives.

The hardship of raising a child is compounded by circumstances of an unmarried woman with a substance abuse problem. The story of Demon Copperhead explains how incredibly harsh it can be to live in America. Despite America’s reputation in the western world as a land of opportunity, it is viewed by many as a land of excess and inequality. Sweden, Canada, and Germany consider America more critically than other western nations. Kingsolver explores some examples of why America is viewed so differently.

Demon’s parent is a recovering drug addict with poor job prospects whose husband has died and decides to marry a man with anger management problems.

Demon’s mother obviously has personal problems. With a school-age child to raise, and a second marriage created out of her self-inflicted problems, her life is a mess. Addiction returns, and her new husband physically abuses her son. She overdoses, and her son calls 911 to have her rescued. She does not recover, and Demon becomes a ward of the State. Demon is farmed out to a rehabilitation ranch called a foster home when in fact it is more like a slave retreat serving the needs of a hard scrabble farm. Demon’s mother dies from her earlier overdose. Demon is 11 years old with nowhere to go than a neighbor’s family to be watched over while he fulfills his obligations to the rehabilitation ranch. He is essentially a slave to the care of cattle and the harvesting of tobacco when he is not in school.

Harshness of life is generally an uncommon circumstance of life in America, but it shows how harsh life can be whether one lives in America or anywhere in the world.

Demon is characterized as a tough-minded boy who adapts to his circumstances with little choice because of his age and family circumstance. One dim opportunity is the grace of his dead mother’s neighbors that reluctantly allow him to temporarily stay with them after his mother’s death. Demon chooses to search for his birth father’s grave and finds his grandmother in Nashville, Tennessee. It comes as a surprise that Demon’s father comes from a matriarchal family that is a haven for lost human beings.

The relentless harshness of Demon’s life wares on a listener/reader. One has to be invested in Demon’s life adventure to fully appreciate the creative talent of the author. Some will choose to finish Kingsolver’s story to find out how Demon’s life is either resurrected or lost. Others will move on to another book, not out of disappointment with Kingsolver’s creativity but out of fatigue from a story that is too long.

SCIENCE & ART

Science is unquestionably dependent on precise measurement while art or literature may have little to do with it.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Perfectionists

Author: Simon Winchester (How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World)

Narrated By: Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester (British-American author and journalist)

The beginning of “The Perfectionist” has an interesting vignette about Simon Winchester’s father that sets the table for his book. Simon’s father is characterized as an engineer that was asked to investigate why ammunition being used during WWII was misfiring. Bernard Winchester went to the production’ plant and precisely measured the ammunition that was being manufactured. Its quality was found to be well within specifications required to fire properly when used. Simon’s father followed a shipload of the ammunition to its destination to re-measure the specifications after delivery. The on-board jostling of cargo boxes caused miniscule damage to ammunition resulting in misfires in the field. Simon’s father’s discovery led to better packaging of the ammunition. Simon notes his father is highly praised by the military for his diligent investigation which made corrections in the way ammunition was packaged for transport to the front.

Simon’s father followed a shipload of ammunition to its destination to re-measure the specifications after delivery.

Simon Winchester’s story of his father is the subject of “The Perfectionist”. There are many ways of categorizing the advance of civilization. Manufacturing precision is Simon Winchester’s category of choice. Simon explains how improvements in precision, reaching as far back as the 18th century, led to technological advancement in the modern world. To Winchester, much of that advancement came from the needs of the military.

Winchester notes that John Wilkinson standardized and precisely measured cannon barrel rifling in the 1770s to improve accuracy.

The inaccuracy of weapons like cannons, mass production of reliable weaponry, and strategic advantage for military commands were founded on improvements in precision. Winchester notes that John Wilkinson standardized and precisely measured cannon borings in the 1770s to improve accuracy and reliability in battle. In the 1800s, the French began standardizing gun parts to allow interchangeability when field weapons were damaged or just quit working. In visiting France, Thomas Jefferson recognized the value of that interchangeability during America’s civil war when weapons often broke down and could only be repaired by craftsman who understood how a uniquely designed gun could be repaired.

Eli Whitney chose to hoodwink the American government during the War of Independence when he falsely claims to have a manufacturing plant that could produce standard gun parts.

Around 1801, Whitney contracts with the government and is paid but never produces any standardized parts. Whitney puts on a false show of interchangeability with parts that were manufactured by craftsman rather than a standardized process of production. (Whitney is neither penalized or required to repay the government.) The consequence of mass production of precise gun parts and ammunition is to kill more people in war which started an arms race that continues through to today. Progress in weapon design and manufacture is a harbinger of good and ill. Moving away from weapon production to the rise of industrialization, precise measurement remains a critical component of societies’ modernization.

Though there are precursors to the steam engine that reach back before the 18th century, James Watt (pictured here) revolutionizes its design with the help of Matthew Boulton.

Winchester explains how refinement of the steam engine enables the Industrial Revolution. Watt is obsessed with refining the containment of steam from an operating engine. Watt knows leakage of steam is correlated with loss of steam engine power and potential. The key to achieving better efficiency comes from John Wilkinson who develops a machine that could bore a precise hole through solid iron. With that level of precision, Watt recognized he could produce an engine with perfectly cylindrical, leak-proof chambers that could more efficiently power pistons to produce energy. Watt, Boulton, and Wilkinson open the world to the industrial revolution. Winchester suggests precision is the pursuit of perfection, i.e., a preeminent turning point in history. One may take issue with that conclusion because invention and innovation seem more important than precision, which is a tool rather than a cause for modernity.

The remarkable story of the jet engine is told by Winchester.

It is surprising that the jet engine became a reality as early as the beginning of WWII. Like nuclear bomb invention, Germany’s Hitler initially fails to grasp the importance of jet engine propulsion. However, Germany becoming the first to create a jet plane, the Heinkel He 178, to fly with jet propulsion. Hitler is more focused on refinement of the V-2 rocket as a revenge weapon against England than on jet propulsion for airplanes.

Frank Whittle (1907-1996, English aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine.)

The original idea for the jet engine came from Frank Whittle, a British engineer in the early 1930s. Whittle realized Newton’s laws of energy could propel an airplane without propellers. Newton’s third law says for every action in one direction there is an equal but opposite energy reaction. Whittle acquired a patent on the idea of a jet engine but because of the five-pound cost of patent renewal and lack of any financial support for his brilliant idea, his patent expired. As a result, no single entity holds a patent on jet propulsion. It is not until May of 1941, that Frank Whittle’s turbojet engine first flies a plane.

1945 Gloster Meteor British jet.

There are many issues to be resolved for the idea of a jet engine to propel an airplane. There is the extreme pressure and heat generated by fuel being ignited within a turbine that must be designed with precise measurements, i.e., measurements within millionths of an inch. Winchester notes that the slightest deviation in blade shape, alignment, or material composition could cause vibration, inefficiency, or worse–engine failure and pilot death. The jet engine components had to endure extreme temperature changes and withstand metal fatigue while operating with high-speed rotating parts. Thousands of parts had to be precisely designed and integrated to provide the propulsion necessary for flight.

Whittle’s ultimate success leads him to be Knighted in 1948.

Whittle is recruited in 1937 by British Thomson-Houston, an engineering firm, to build a prototype of a jet engine. With money to create a prototype, Whittle turned his design idea into reality. With the help of two retired RAF officers, Whittle formed a company called Power Jets Ltd. In 1944, Britan nationalized Power Jets Ltd and Whittle was compelled to resign from the board in 1946. However, Whittle was ultimately recognized and knighted in 1948 for his contribution to Jet engine development.

The next big area of change addressed by Winchester is computer chip manufacture.

Transistors like these in the early years of computers are used in computer chip manufacture.

Winchester’s primary subject is Moore’s law postulated in 1965 by Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel. Moore predicts microchip computing power and efficiency would double every year and then every two years with continued miniaturization of chip transistors. His prediction, as of today, holds true. The size of computer chip transistors is measured in millimeters in the early 1960s. Today, measurement is at an atomic level, trending toward the use of quantum theory to continue Moore’s law prediction.

The last chapter of “The Perfectionist” is about measurement as a tool. Ironically, understanding measurement evolves through history. It may be a standard of change, but it is also a subject of change. The idea of distance measurement has evolved from an organic explanation that only imperfectly describes the visual world. That imperfectness leads to an obsession with exactness that boggles the mind.

As a caution, Winchester suggests the pursuit of precision may blind us to other values. The aesthetic beauty of a musical composition, architecture, a great novel, or mere thoughts of human beings may have little to do with precise measurement but can change the world. What one sees or feels is what we discount or respond to with emotion and/or appreciation, regardless of measurement analytics. Science is unquestionably dependent on precise measurement while art or literature may have little to do with it.

LIBERALITY

The conclusion one may draw from “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is that government liberality is better than authoritarianism

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Author: Gail Honeyman

Narrated By: Cathleen McCarron

Gail Honeyman (Author, Scottish writer and novelist, won the 2017 Costa First Novel Award for “Eleanor Oliphant”.)

“Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” is a commentary on life’s loneliness which seems a self-imposed choice. There is a comic and mysterious quality to Honeyman’s story. Genetics and life experience inherent in every life is what the story of Oliphant is about. As an observer of life, one may believe experiences of life only reinforce genetic predisposition. If one accepts that belief, little of who we become is under our control. Honeyman’s story infers that is only partly true.

Waxing hair removal.

Life is a struggle for Eleanor. It is not that Eleanor does not make choices about life but that her choices appear other directed rather than inner directed. Life may be just a matter of chances and circumstances rather than inner directed motivation. Her story begins with a visit to a salon for an intimate waxing of her labia majora. (Hot or cold wax is applied to her intimate parts that pulls the roots of pubic hair off.) Eleanor is shocked by the experience. One presumes she is shocked because of the pain but surprisingly Eleanor explains it is because of the appearance it leaves of her naked woo-hoo. She thinks she now looks like an infant rather than a fully mature woman. This is a somewhat comic beginning to the author’s story. On the other hand, it shows Eleanor’s life seems more determined by society than inner direction.

Eleanor is a bookkeeper in a small business.

There is a mystery in this story that is slowly revealed by the details of Eleanor’s life. She lives alone in what is a subsidized apartment paid by social services. She is visited by a case worker and there appears some mysterious reason for her receiving help from the State. The mysterious reason is implied by the interview of Eleanor by a social case worker who pauses as she looks at the last part of a file as she interviews Eleanor. The case worker’s pause is about something written about Eleanor’s past. That past is made more mysterious as one finds Eleanor’s mother is institutionalized for some reason not disclosed.

Cultural differences.

The striking point made by this case worker’s visit to an American reader is the difference between Great Britain’s philosophical and cultural differences in regard to social policy. America rejects socialism while Great Britain endorses it. Great Britain practices democratic welfare capitalism while American democratic welfare is more limited. Healthcare is publicly funded in Great Britain while it is mostly private in America. These differences do not change the truth of Eleanor’s life story but it contextualizes Honeyman’s view of a life in a democratic socialist system rather than a democratic capitalist country.

The waxing incident is a comic beginning to Honeyman’s story, but it reflects on urban life as emotionally isolating despite being surrounded by other people.

Eleanor drinks half or more of a bottle of vodka alone in her apartment at the end of a work day. Her life is depressingly humdrum with hints of a trauma earlier in life. Whatever that trauma may have been urges one to keep listening or reading the author’s story. One’s interest is heightened by a young man that seems interested in Eleanor as a future companion. The young man is Raymond, a co-worker. Raymond is a loved son which is quite different from the family in which Eleanor appears to have been raised

Nearly half way through the book, one finds Eleanor has a scar on her face.

Like stepping into a darkened room, Honeyman shines a light on humanity. We become who we are from genetics and life experience. Honeyman gives many hints in her story that suggest there is a connection between Eleanor’s appearance, her reclusive and withdrawn behavior, her alcohol consumption, her mother’s confinement, and the aid she receives from Great Britain’s welfare system.

The perspective one gains from this story ranges from the horror of human selfishness to the value of caring for others.

One may compare American Capitalism with British Socialism thinking of their strengths and weaknesses or view the story of Oliphant as something that can occur in any social system of government.

Oliphant is rescued from a horrible family environment by Great Britain’s social welfare system to become an independent and productive British/Scottish citizen. One wonders if the same could happen in America with a less liberal system of welfare that relies on self-interest to change people’s lives. Of course, that is an unanswerable question because Oliphant could have been rescued in either country. On the other hand, would more citizens be saved by a more socialist system of democratic capitalism?

The details of Oliphant’s life are horrific. The cruelty of family life is real in every culture, whether authoritarian or democratic. The conclusion one may draw from “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is that government liberality is better than authoritarianism.

FAME

As a son of a strong mother, one is impressed by Tina Knowles’ character in her enlightening memoir. She shows how women are the backbone of society despite their treatment in a patriarchal world.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Matriarch (A Memoir)

Author: Tina Knowles

Narrated By: Tina Knowles & 4 more

Celestine Ann Knowles aka Tina Knowles. (Author, American businesswoman, fashion designer, and mother of the famous performer, Beyoncé.)

This is an intelligent well-written memoir of the mother of two famous performers, Beyoncé and Solange Knowles. Celestine Ann Knowles is born in Galveston, Texas on January 4, 1954. Her two famous daughters are the singer Beyoncé and the composer, Solange Knowles.

The mother of these two famous women tells a story of what it is to live in the 1950s as a young, poor Black American. Tina (a diminutive of Celestine) Knowles becomes a successful businesswoman, fashion designer, philanthropist and mother of two highly successful women in the 21st century.

Galveston’s in the 1950s.

Living in Galveston, Texas in the 1950s as a person of color is starkly and clearly explained in Tina Knowles’ memoir. Tina’s father works as a longshoreman. His work is sporadic because of a mining accident that ruined one eye and made him hard of hearing which limited the work he could do as a longshoreman. With the aid of his wife, Tina’s mother as a seamstress, their meager income is enough for them to get bye. Tina’s mother is the foundation of the family. Tina grows up as a force of nature before reaching adulthood. She grows up in a family ruled by a “Matriarch” as the power in her family and neighborhood. Even in her pre-school years, as the youngest of seven children, Tina understands her mother is the person who holds the family together and eventually makes Tina the matriarch of her future family.

White American’ opposition to equality in the 50s.

Tina adventured where many young Black children timorously dealt with life in an unfair world. Despite its unfairness, Tina ventured forth.

Tina tells the story of her childhood companions who would not go into an ice cream store in Galveston when white children were being served. Tina ignores their timorousness, goes into the store and is told to get out by the store manager. She finds what her friends were saying is true, but she had to experience it herself. Tina goes to a Catholic school where she is treated harshly by the teachers but continues on to graduate despite their strict rules. Nearing graduation, she becomes ill and is treated by a white physician who presumes she is lying about never having premarital sex. The white physician and an aide strap her down and conduct a physical exam that leaves blood on the table because of her hymen being broken by the exam. Her mother calls the physicians to complain about the treatment of her daughter and takes her to another hospital to find her illness is unrelated to the doctor’s presumptive and unnecessary pelvic exam.

Tina is raised in the time when Black discrimination is finally beginning to change. Brown v. Board of Education is decided in 1954.

Tina graduates from high school, presumably in the early 1970s, and goes on to college. While in high school, she joins a local singing group that is inspired by The Supremes. They call themselves the Veltones. That experience leads her to work in fashion and entertainment. She becomes a designer, and entrepreneur, and eventually the “Matriarch” of her own family. In 1980, Tina marries Mathew Knowles. They were married for over 30 years but divorced in 2011.

In the Knowles’ marriage (1980-2011) they have two daughters, i.e., Beyoncé and Solange Knowles.

Tina Knowles explains how the birth of Beyoncé ignited her ascendence as the “Matriarch” of her generation. From taking care of Beyoncé to remodeling her house to creating her first business, Tina created her own world. Tina built the foundation for her life and raised one of the most famous singers in the world.

“Headliners”–Tina Knowles first business.

At 32 years of age, Tina decides to start a business. With financing from what is to become her former husband, she decides to open a salon. Tina is pregnant with her second child, Solange. Matthew involves himself in Tina’s business in financial ways that challenge its success. Tina starts “Headliners” in the early 1990s to offer make-up and beauty services in Houston, Texas. Beyoncé is now around nine years old while Solange is nearing four or five years of age.

Matthew and Tina Knowles file for bankruptcy.

Her husband, Matthew decides to quit his six-figure job to join Tina in her business. For unclear reasons, the family files for bankruptcy, sells their home, and rebuilds their lives while Tina focuses on her salon business. Tina explains she decides to divorce her husband because of his infidelity and mishandling of their dwindling wealth. She holds her life together by focusing on the burgeoning career of her girls and her salon business. Tina shows herself as the guiding force of her talented daughters. She has become the “Matriarch” that her mother had developed her to be.

Beyoncé’s 2025 concert in London.

Though most interest in Tina’s story may be because of her daughter, Beyoncé, her memoir suggests the “Matriarch” of the next generation of Knowles will be her daughter, Solange. She does not diminish the great success of Beyoncé as an incredible talent who runs her musical productions, but it seems Solange is the worker bee that is driven to become her generation’s “Matriarch”.

Agnéz Deréon (Tina Knowles’ mother, the “Matriarch” of the Knowles’ descendants.)

At the end of Tina’s book, she has reached the age of 70. She maintains a clear picture of the story of her life. Married and divorced twice, she is in charge of her life and appears to influence all who surround her. As a survivor of breast cancer and a firm grasp on life, she uses her strong belief in God and the love of her family to believe the best is yet to come. As a son of a strong mother, one is impressed by Tina Knowles’ character in her enlightening memoir. She shows how women are the backbone of society despite their treatment in a patriarchal world.

MARK TWAIN

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mark Twain

Author: Ron Chernow

Narrated By: Jason Culp

Ron Chernow (Author, journalist, biographer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the American History Prize for his 2010 book “Washington: A Life”.

No stranger to historical biographies, Ron Chernow has written an interesting biography of the peripatetic humorist Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, two weeks after Hailley’s Comet passed Earth in 1835, he died in 1910 when Hailey’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth in 1910. Chernow’s biography explains how Clemens became a steamboat pilot, frontier journalist, author, and American gadfly in his journey through 74 plus years of life.

Chernow’s biography of Mark Twain reminds one of Donald Trump without the power of the Presidency.

Clemens is noted as a stretcher of truth who told stories of his time that illustrated the contradictions of race, slavery, and morality that live through today. Twain is shown to express himself in humorist ways that challenged racial norms and societal conflicts which made some laugh, and others cringe with disgust or anger. Chernow argues Twain’s use of language shaped American literature. He gave American literature a unique voice that blended humor with criticism. Twain humanized the Black community and the iniquity of slavery, but Twain’s upbringing suggests he did not escape the false belief of innate Black’ inequality. Chernow painted a picture of Twain that showed how society was filled with the promise and pitfalls of Americans’ character.

Chernow shows how Clemens reinvents himself, not from formal education but from life experience.

At 21, Clemens begins training himself as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi river, a highly praised, prized, and well-compensated position. Chernow suggests Clemens found his nom deplume, Mark Twain, based on the language of riverboat pilots. (“Mark Twain” is the 12 feet of depth needed for safe navigation of a riverboat.) As material transport changed after the steamboat era, Twain had to find a new career. He traveled to Nevada with the hope to become rich as a silver baron during the gold and silver rushes of the late 1850s. However, he never struck it rich, lost other people’s money, and turned to earlier work experience in newspapers when he lived in Missouri. He had learned the typesetting business and had written a few articles for the paper in his hometown. He settled in Carson City, Nevada, eventually becoming a journalist. On the one hand his stretching of the truth got him in trouble as a journalist but, on the other, it opened him to another career. His wit and way with words led to a role as lecturer and performer.

Chernow shows Twain changes jobs based on his innate abilities and external events.

The development of mass media, America’s Civil War, the industrialization of America, and the growth of a celebrity’ culture influence Twain’s life and made him a cultural symbol of America in the same way Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Chinua Achebe became symbols of their countries. Twain exemplified American life, its contradictions, its greed, and its biases that were blended into the personal tragedies and experiences of his own life. He turned his life experience into an art that reflected America’s growth as a nation. He became a writer and lecturer.

Chernow explains how Twain did not just read his lectures, i.e., he performs and acts their meaning to an audience.

Twain blends storytelling with satire and theater to entertain his audience. His reputation as a public speaker is made in California, but he becomes a global star. He performs in London, Berlin, and Bombay with what became cultural events about American humor and American foibles. His lectures are folksy with tinges of intellectualism that make him revered, respected, and laughed about by his audiences. Chernow believes he created an image of one who speaks truth to power about imperialism, religion, and human folly.

Chernow does not sugar coat truth about Twain.

Like all human beings, Twain had his blind spots. He was silent about lynching and its immorality, and he was trapped in his vision of racism by treating it as a troubling fact of American life despite his championing of civil rights. At best, he appears to be an agnostic when it comes to religion. There is criticism of Twain’s close relationship with teenage girls that he dismisses as a public concern by saying “It isn’t the public’s affair”. Twain is reckless with other people’s and his own money and investment. He exhibits behavior that suggests a gambler’s view about getting rich quickly. Twain could be vindictive, and melancholic because of his gloomy view of humanity. His family life suffers from his impulsivity and emotional distancing toward his wife and daughters. In one sense, Chernow makes Twain more human by noting he is like most of us except for his insightful sense of humor and talent for extemporaneous public speaking.

The archive of Twain’s letters is in the thousands which spans his entire adult life.

Chernow gathers much of his understanding of Twain from his personal letters rather than his books. He does note a number of Twain’s family members and friends are models for characters in his novels. However, Chernow’s focus is on Twain the man who appears morally inconsistent, a poor manager of other people’s money, and prone to anger when aggravated by other’s opinions. Whether this is fair or not, it describes many people today.

WEALTH

What is wrong about Housel’s investment recommendations is that his life experience sets a table that is not the same table as those who have much less to eat.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Psychology of Money (Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness)

Author: Morgan Housel

Narrated By: Chris Hill

Morgan Housel (Author, two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.)

“The Psychology of Money” is a plain-spoken examination of the value of wealth, how it is attained, retained or lost, and why its’ real value is independence. A superior perception of reality would certainly be ideal, but Housel implies no such thing exists, and that the presumption is too theoretical to be useful. Every human being becomes a product of their life experience. Unquestionably, all human beings have genetic inheritance, but Housel suggests personal life experience molds that genetic inheritance. All true, but it helps if your parents are upper middleclass and have a mindset for saving rather than spending their income.

Housel argues high intelligence is no guarantee of success in achieving wealth.

To achieve wealth, Housel argues one needs to be a consistent saver, a long-term thinker, an index fund investor in the stock market, and one who resists impulsive decisions to sell investments or use savings during financial instability. These guidelines are based on a wealth-seeker’s “margin of error” calculation of financial need during market weakness. One’s objective is to maintain one’s independence and freedom to live as they wish without risking that freedom by buying luxuries from short-term gains to only appear wealthier than others.

Cutting through the lessons that are listed by Housel’s suggestions is the ancient Greek recognition of the importance of “knowing thyself”.

Are you a crazy risk taker, do you think about the value of wealth, are you more interested in what others think of you than who you are to yourself, are you goal oriented or a “go along to get along” kind of person? These are clues to who you are and whether you should change to assure a life of freedom to live as you wish.

Janitor Ronald Read Leaves Behind $8,000,000 Fortune at his death

Housel gives the example of the janitor millionaire from Vermont who had no formal financial education. Ronald Read worked as a janitor and gas station attendant during his working life. He lived frugally while investing in blue-chip stocks that he held until his death. He amasses a fortune because of small savings and investments while never having high income but investing unneeded cash based on the way he chose to live. By being patient and disciplined over the course of his life, Read died in 2014 at the age of 92, donating $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, $1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library, and $2 million to his stepchildren, caregivers, and friends. Like Ben Franklin, Read lived a long life, accumulated great wealth while living the life he wanted. Just like Franklin, Read lived his life as he wanted and contributed his savings to eleemosynary institutions and people who were important to him during his lifetime.

Warren Buffett (The Oracle of Omaha.)

Warren Buffett is another example offered by Housel to explain that time and compounded returns on investment are key to one’s independence and success for living as one chooses. Buffet’s genius is not in just choosing the right stocks, but in staying with investments over the long term. Housel notes 96% of Buffett’s immense wealth came after his 65th birthday.

The discipline outlined by Housel is difficult for a young person to accept because of the tendency of human nature to impress others with their success.

When young, image is important for reasons ranging from attracting desirable partners to impressing others with one’s success by driving expensive cars, wearing elegant clothes, and living in luxurious homes. Many people believe image is as important as substance and fail to realize its folly when they are too old to do much about it. Freedom to live as we choose is a mixed blessing. Being disciplined about money and investment when one is young is an important lesson but hard to follow, particularly in a free society.

Piketty argues that the income gap widens after World War II. He estimates 60% of 2010’s wealth is held by less than 1% of the population.

Housel comes from a family of savers who appear to have followed the path he recommends in his book. Though what he recommends makes sense, his starting point seems better than most middleclass or poor families in America. He chooses a very conservative investment strategy because of his life experience. He only invests in index funds and lives in a house without a mortgage. His story is not a typical American middleclass family story. What works for him is based on his personal life experience. What is wrong about Housel’s investment recommendations is that his life experience sets a table that is not the same table as those who have much less to eat. This is not to say Housel’s advice is wrong in recommending living within one’s means, investing for the long term, and letting wealth accumulate over time. It is good advice but where one starts in life makes a difference because your life experiences mold a large part of who you become and how you choose to save or spend your money.

FICTION’S VALUE

How many thoughts run through one’s mind as they listen or read Hurwitz’s imaginative story? Maybe a movie will be made that simplifies and dumbs down its plot. The point is that fiction begins, regardless of the media in which it is represented, from a writer’s mind who creates a story.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Out of the Dark (An Orphan X Novel–Book 4)

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Narrated By: Scott Brick

Gregg Hurwitz (Author, American crime novelist, comic book writer.)

In the media lately, there has been the observation that novels are losing their grip on the reading public. A number of recent studies, like that done by the National Endowments for the Arts, show a drop in adult readers of fiction in 2012 from 45.2% of adults to 37.6% in 2022. Possibly more troubling is the 13-year-olds drop from 27% to 14% in a similar time frame. Some suggest it is because of cognitive fatigue and a cultural shift to visual or audio entertainment. There is undoubtedly some truth in that belief.

Empathy, thought, and human insight generated by audiobooks, films, and serialized television generate the same thrill and human understanding as written fictional stories.

However, even though the format has changed, an author’s creation is the source of an idea whether it is converted to a film or audiobook. One can draw as much, if not more, knowledge of the world and human experience from visual and audio input as from reading a book. Books of fiction can be equally impactful from a screen that is viewed or an audiobook that is heard through EarPods.

Fiction begins on the written page whether it becomes a movie or a bestselling audiobook.

Of course, audio/visual actors can elicit different interpretations to an audience of what has been written by its originator but that is true of any person’s perception of what a writer meant in the creation of his/her story. So what? If the visual or auditory results are insightful then the media representation of a book of fiction has value. The point is the impetus of media presentation came from a written document by a writer. Of course, in today’s world, that writer may have his idea enhanced by A.I. but the idea still came from human thought.

Hurwitz’s novel is complicated with many story lines and characters.

Hurwitz’s novel resonates with a view of today’s world. America has a President that was nearly assassinated in his first term of office. This President uses lies in ways that make one wonder about his views and the direction of America. It makes one think about the assassin Hurwitz creates and whether a foolish young man on a roof could become an agent of the government to murder perceived enemies of the state by someone who is out of control. Of course, a majority of voters chose today’s President so maybe lying should not be a criterion for judgement of one’s value as a leader of a democracy.

“Out of the Dark” is a fictional novel that captures a listener’s imagination in a well narrated audiobook.

The story is of an incredibly intelligent, tech savvy, American assassin that chooses to turn his skill to murdering an American President. The President is characterized as a brilliant politician serving his last term of office. A woman secret service officer is interviewed by the President to be the person in charge to protect him from the rogue assassin that has been used by the President to assassinate alleged foreign enemies. Assassination is a crime against humanity. There seems no justification for one nation state to have assassination as a tool of governance. Would assassination of Hitler have erased antisemitism or WWII?

HUMAN FLAW

A not surprising irony in “They Made America” is that great innovators like the rest of us are flawed. Ford is widely considered an antisemite, Edison is too opinionated to countenance differences of opinion, Rockefeller is an elitist, Singer is a misogynist and so and so on

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

They Made America (From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators)

Author: Harold Evans, Gail Buckland & 1 more

Narrated By: Harold Evans

Harold Evans (Author, 1928-2020, British journalist died at age 92.)

“They Made America” is partly about inventions but mostly about innovations that transform society. He writes of America but his explanation of making any successful economy requires innovation. Invention may be a beginning while innovation has no end. He writes of mostly American men whose imagination leads to innovations that transform America’s economy. The generation of power, and advances in communication, transportation, finance, and culture are the consequence of innovation that may or may not be based on original invention. Some of a nation’s economic and social advancement is from unique invention but all of a nation’s success is a result of innovation.

During the Obama administration, America’s economic growth began to decline and accelerated with the Covid 19 pandemic.

Evans and his co-authors identify many who have contributed to the success of America’s economic growth. Most of those he identifies are Americans but a few like Leo Baekeland, Reginald Fessenden, and Herbert Boyer show that innovation is not just an American phenomenon. Baekeland is a Belgian who invented Bakelite and became a U.S. citizen. Bakelite is the first fully synthetic plastic that revolutionized design and manufacture of consumer goods. Fessenden was a Canadian who pioneered radio transmission technology and Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson were Americans who collaborated with many international scientists to create Genetech, the first biotech firm in the world that commercialized recombinant DNA for life-saving medicines like insulin.

Though British innovator, James Watt, did not invent the steam engine he radically improved it by adding a separate steam condenser.

The invention and innovational changes of the steam engine led innovators like Robert Fulton to see how a steam engine could power a steamboat. The invention of the automobile led to Henry Ford’s innovations in assembly line work that reduced the cost of production to make cars available to almost every working American. Ford also increased wages of his workers so they could buy Ford products. The founder of Bank of America, A.P. Giannini, innovated lending with idea of consumer banking giving workers a way to secure their paychecks in a bank that could provide a means to pay for services and possible credit based on accumulated wealth in their checking account. Innovations in communication by Ted Turner, Page and Brin, and Jobs and Wozniak changed the media communications industry.

Thomas Edison (1847-1931).

The recounting of the many American innovators in “They Made America” is not a picture of idealized human beings. Thomas Edison, who is among the greatest innovators in America, created a team of experimenters at Menlo Park in New Jersey. Edison created an “Invention Factory” that led to the electrification of the world. Though he did not believe in alternating current (AC) as an improvement over direct current (DC) in the use of electricity, he envisioned an electrical system that would light the dark streets of the world. Edison is a perfect representation of inventor and innovator in Evans’ American story. Edison’s belief in himself, his drive for accomplishment, and risks he was willing to take, exemplify the best an American entrepreneur can be.

Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875).

Isaac Singer innovated sewing machine manufacturing and sale but led a profligate life as a seducer of women with a volatile reputation that often erupted in anger toward others. Singer is alleged to have fathered 24 children from wives and girlfriends. Like his name, Singer was a showman who demonstrated his machines and built a brand that remains popular today. He was flamboyant and accused of bigamy and adultery but is noted to have created a global sales and service company with an installment purchasing plan for his machines. He carries the same force of nature as Edison but with the development of a singular product.

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937).

In contrast to either Edison or Singer, Rockefeller is primarily focused on increasing his wealth and power. He revolutionizes the oil industry through monopolization while raising prices of oil to increase his wealth. He brands his product, reduces his costs of operation by building oil pipelines to reduce delivery costs and develops a corporate strategy to eliminate competition. His focus is on creating an industrial empire.

Evans notes other innovators like Ted Turner and Malcolm McLean and their innovations in media and global shipping. The lesser-known McLean introduced and launched the first container ship in 1956 that dramatically reduced loading times, labor costs, and cargo theft in the shipping industry. Ted Turner created CNN and TBS to revolutionize the news and entertainment industries. Page and Brin, and Jobs and Wozniak unleashed the internet to offer wider knowledge to the world but also provided a network that spread lies and misrepresentations of truth.

Dr. He Jiankui is an example of human blind spots. (Jiankui claims to have conducted the first human genome-editing of a human embryo with no oversight and a botched process that embarrassed the scientific community.)

The common denominator of these and many more innovators described in Evans’ book (though Jiankui is not mentioned) is their ambition, ego, and human blind spots. Edison is domineering and ruthlessly competitive. Ford’s antisemitism is reflected in his support for Adolph Hitler and being the only American cited in “Mein Kampf” as a model of antisemitism. Rockefeller shows the same traits as Edison as a corporate hegemon while using his innovative skill to dominate competitors and corner the market price for oil. Singer improves the utility of sewing machines through innovation and salesmanship while living life as though his personal ego is all that matters.

A not surprising irony in “They Made America” is that great innovators (like all of us) are flawed. Ford is widely considered an antisemite, Edison is too opinionated to countenance differences of opinion, Rockefeller is an elitist, Singer is a misogynist, Jiankui is a scofflaw, and so and so on. On balance however, innovators make a contribution to the success of America while most of us go along to get along.

LIFE’S JOURNEY

Millman’s Socratic story is about human patience and knowledge. He addresses knowledge as something of the greatest value that can keep one from resorting to violence. This is a message that resonates with those who are appalled by today’s international and domestic conflicts.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Journeys of Socrates

Author: Dan Millman

Narrated By: Sam Tsoutsouvas

Dan Millman (Author, world champion athlete, martial arts instructor, and college professor.)

Dan Millman’s reasons for the title of his book “The Journeys of Socrates” is difficult to understand. The known facts of Socrates life do not seem remotely related to the life of a Jewish immigrant who lived in 19th century Russia. The story is almost too horrific to believe because of the tragic life of its hero Sergei Ivanov, a Jew in Tsarist Russia being raised in a camp of Cossack warriors. The only parallels one may make is that Socrates is characterized in ancient writings as a man who sought virtue and wisdom in his journey through life.

Socrates was known as a warrior in the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431-404 BCE). He is better known as a teacher and student of the philosophy of life.

Socrates had gained a reputation for bravery, endurance, and moral fortitude in war, while a mentor of young men like Alcibiades who wanders through life with little self-understanding. (It is the ancient writings of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes that reveal some of what is told of Socrates life.) This seems a slender thread of association with the title of Millman’s book. The story of Sergei Ivanov is of a man who introspectively examines the meaning of life after experiencing horrific violence. This is a Socratic interrogation of a Jew’s life in pre-1917, revolutionary Russia and Ukraine.

Hiding one’s identity as a Jew has been told many times by many authors. Ethnicity and religious belief, like the color of one’s skin, marks one as different.

Ethnicity is a marker of human beings as the “other”, i.e., someone different than themselves. Unlike the color of one’s skin, ethnicity is easier to hide. Sergei Ivanov becomes known as a Jew in a Cossack training camp. He decides to escape that life but is followed by a fellow trainee who catches him. They fight and Sergi’s antagonist is knocked unconscious and appears dead. Sergi escapes and plans to find what he believes is a treasure buried by his grandfather that will give him enough money to get passage to America from his grandfather’s Ukranian homeland.

Buried treasure.

Sergi finds the treasure that had been buried by his grandfather, but it was only a clock and five gold pieces, not enough for passage to America. However, there is an address on the clock that leads him to his grandfather’s house. What he finds is an aunt that he thought was dead. She has a daughter for whom he falls in love and asks for her hand in marriage. They are married and Sergi’s plan is to take his now pregnant wife to America when he has earned enough money for passage. However, fate intervenes.

The man Sergi thought he had killed when he escaped the training camp was alive and had become a leader of a Cossack gang that terrorized the country with a special hatred for Jews.

The gang comes across Sergi and his pregnant wife when they are out for a walk before their planned trip to America. His former enemy and his followers murder Sergi’s wife, rip the baby out of her womb and leave her husband unconscious on the ground after trying to defend his pregnant wife. The gang leader chooses to leave Sergi alive to remember the grief he would have for his wife and baby’s loss of life because he could not save them. Sergi recovers and prepares himself for revenge on his former training camp antagonist.

Deaths inevitability.

At this point, one presumes this is to remind listeners of Socrates reported bravery, endurance, and moral belief despite hardship in life and one’s inevitable death. However, this is only a small part of the author’s intent. What one draws from the story is how ethnic or racial discrimination exists in every nation in the world. Human nature is often brutish and violent despite a rational person’s search for truth and peaceful coexistence. One asks oneself why humans wage war, why we murder innocents, and why does revenge only begat more death.

Sergi recovers from his injuries and is counseled and educated by a believer of a different faith.

As one finishes Millman’s story, listener/readers realize Sergi’s teacher is educating him about human patience, ethnic understanding, and knowledge that can break the repeating cycle of discrimination and violence caused by racial, gender, and ethnic difference. It requires patience, preparation, and knowledge. Sergi spends many years with his teacher and gains great strength to prepare him for what is to happen next in his life. Knowledge of what happened when he was struck down after his wife was murdered is not clear to him. As the story develops, one finds his wife had two children in her womb and only one died in the confrontation. What happens when Sergi meets his wife’s murderer is the denouement and fundamental meaning of Millman’s story.

VANISHING WORLD

Murata’s satire infers obsession with sex for pleasure, child rearing collectivization, gender dysphoria, and pregnancy equalization are pathways to societal destruction.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Vanishing World (A Novel)

Author: Sayaka Murata

Narrated By: Nancy Wu

Sayaka Murata (Author, Japanese novelist.)

Sayaka Murata’s subject is clearly revealed in its title, “Vanishing World”. “Vanishing World” is a provocative assessment of how sexual relationship and sex education has changed. Murata satirically reveals how human reproduction, objectification of life, motherhood, and technology may dehumanize society.

Murata’s fictional story is highly informative in regard to sexual difference and similarity between men and women.

In one sense, Murata’s fictional story is highly informative in regard to sexual difference and similarity between men and women. As a reader/listener, Murata offers a detailed description of the physical difference between the sexes. Many who think they know something about sexual difference will find the author’s candor enlightening. However, her depiction of social relationship is off-putting with a satirical exaggeration of socio/sexual objectification.

Murata writes about a single parent family with a young daughter who lives with her mother and is nearing the age of puberty.

(Though not mentioned in Murata’s story, single family homes in America have grown by nearly 30% in the 21st century.) The main character’s name is Amane and Murata’s story is about Amane’s sexual awakening and how she views social relationship. Amane is infatuated with an animated male character on television. She imagines being married to this character before puberty but holds this character in her mind throughout childhood and later life.

Murata suggests reproduction may evolve into a preferential desire for artificial insemination rather than sexual intercourse between a man and woman.

This idea feeds into a listener/reader’s mind as a diminishment of the need for emotional attachment to the opposite sex for procreation. Sex becomes detached from procreation, evolving into only “hooking up” for sexual stimulation and/or personal gratification. Murata infers desire is no longer needed for procreation but only to experience intercourse as an emotional and physical pleasure. Consequently, it seems perfectly natural to transfer sexual desire to a fictional character because it becomes unnecessary to have emotional attachment to humans when a figment of one’s imagination is available.

Murata creates a bizarre world.

The bizarro world that Murata creates is an extension of a belief that society is becoming less attached to their humanity. Marriage, human relationship, and motherhood are replaced by mindful personal’ inwardness and endless pursuit of physical stimulation without emotional entanglement. By extension, Murata suggests science will create wombs for men so that the difference in sexes equalizes childbirth and care of children. Caregiving becomes bureaucratic and collective because caregiving is no longer personalized.

Murata suggests that a new system of childcare will evolve into collective training camps for working parents who are too self-absorbed to raise their own children.

Collective childcare disconnects parents from the management and development of their children. The sterility of conception by artificial insemination, collective childcare, and social acceptance of multiple sex partners diminishes both familial relations and child development. Birthing and raising children becomes a clinical process, i.e., less personal with both men and women capable of experiencing pregnancy and delivery; all without responsibility or obligation for childcare.

In some sense, this satire illustrates the negative potential of socio/sexual equality.

Murata’s story ends with the birth of their first child from a man who is Amane’s husband. She is torn over not being able to take the baby home because the child is already being “cared for” in a ward meant to raise and nurture all newly born children. A final point is made in the story by a visit from Alane’s mother after the birth. She asks Amane where the child is, and Alane explains the child will not be raised by her and her husband. Alane’s mother is aghast. Her mother falls to the floor and dies without any apparent familial concern for her sudden collapse and presumably, death. The next thing to happen is a visit from one of the children born in this new world. Alane chooses to have sex with him and the story ends.

“Vanishing World” implies 21st century science, organizational bureaucracy, and social change threatens survival of humanity. Murata’s satire infers obsession with sex for pleasure, child rearing collectivization, gender dysphoria, and pregnancy equalization are pathways to society’s collapse.

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