My reading list - Jan 2021

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson

I have read several books by Eric Larson but "Devil In The White City" was always my favorite. After reading "The Splendid And The Vile", this one is a tie for me with the above book ("Dead Wake" being a close second).

Never have I read another author who can make learning about history engaging and easily readable. It was a bit hard to read in part because of the pandemic we are still struggling with. However, it was such a story of human strength, determination, and victory that I found it uplifting.

I had never researched Winston Churchill in the past and knew him only by brief articles about him or short films. In reading an article by the author I found that after he visited New York he suddenly understood how New Yorkers felt about 9/11, it was an attack on their home city that none of us living elsewhere could truly understand. He then began to think of London and "the aerial assault of 1940-41 in which they endured 57 consecutive nights of bombing, followed by an intensifying series of nighttime raids over the next six months."

It was then that he decided to write this book and focus on Churchill's 1st year as prime minister and what it must have felt like to have his city invaded from the sea and sky. "This was the year that Churchill became Churchill, the cigar-smoking bulldog we all think we know when he made his greatest speeches and showed the world what courage and leadership looked like". Wow-what an incredible achievement of research and smooth-flowing prose this book is. I learned about what Churchill's family life was like and how much they struggled. There are also many characters, ordinary citizens, and what it was like for them, to know that when nighttime came the bombing would start again.

Reading this book transported me to England and showed me what a unifying leader Mr. Churchill was, how much the populace loved him and how he walked among the ruins and wept openly. He showed by his actions that he was right there in the battle with his countrymen and kept them inspired and motivated to continue the fight.

This book is as easy to read like fiction but is so educational I think it should be a strongly suggested read for high school students. To look at the war from the UK’s point of view and learn what can be achieved by fighting on in spite of the terrible odds they faced.

There has been so much written about this book but truly this is one of the top 10 books I have read over last one year, simply amazing!

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

It's been quite a while since I had this on my reading list. After reading it, I am properly infatuated.

Cloud Atlas is a grand novel containing six interrelated stories, of differing narrative structure and genre. The first story is a travelogue, told in the voice of an edgy notary speaking in a very formal language. The second is an epistolary story, with the letters written by a sharp-tongued penniless musician. The third is of the mystery genre, headed by a tough female journalist, doggedly pursuing a lead. The fourth is a picaresque story of an elderly publisher. The fifth is science fiction, with a protagonist in the form of an ascending clone in a futuristic Korea. The sixth, a tribesman from a degraded world speaking in pidgin English. See how massively diverse these stories are? Yet Mitchell is a brilliant craftsman and manages to tie them all together through certain recurring elements. And he skips from one genre to another, from one narrative style to another with such ease that it never feels wonky or disjointed. And each story is very fully realized. The characters are unique and memorable, the world-building is one that you can get lost in, the dialogue is sharp and smart. The result is a grand, awe-inspiring, exciting tale, with a narrative scope that reaches far and wide.

I admit it took me a while to get a grip on the grandness of the story, but when I did, I somehow felt fear and wonder, maybe like being in space. Mitchell touches on the idea of interconnectedness. Probably like the six degrees of separation theory, only more ambitious in range. He speaks of souls never leaving this earth, only crossing and recrossing each other, and evolving from good to bad to something in between, and back again. He speaks of love and passion and freedom and oppression. It's a beautiful, ambitious piece of storytelling.

I don't begrudge anyone for shying away from Cloud Atlas. The book opens with The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, narrated in a very challenging formal language. But mostly I think it's the ideas that take a bit of getting used to. And to those who have the slightest bit of inkling in reading this, or maybe even the total skeptics, or everyone on this planet, I do hope you'll all take a leap of faith. And it's not as much of a difficult read, and is quite accessible, once you get into it. In fact, Mitchell wishes to do away with the whole high brow, low brow distinction.