A book about words

Words: The Way Feelings Control Our Mind ~ by Gyozo Margoczi, 2015 and 2019, sociology, 268 pages

Words form the basis of human thinking.  During its history, humankind has been using words without being aware of what words are, what the process of thinking in words looks like, and what its pitfalls are.  As a result, sometimes we use meaningless words to make meaningless sentences which build up meaningless theories (in a good case), but which (in a bad case) can also build up theories that ruin the lives of millions of people.

This is not without consequences:  the history of humankind is a sequence of unending plots, genocides, bloody wars, and economic crises.  While the development of sciences soars uninterruptedly, human studies are struggling in the dust like a bird without wings.  Why?  Because of words.  Or more precisely, because there is an undiscovered, mysterious world where words are rooted and through and in which they live.  Is there a way out?

Under construction

Here's a link to a time lapse video of the construction of our new building.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations: A New Translation ~ by Marcus Aurelius, translated by Gregory Hays, philosophy, 90 pages

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (a.d. 121–180) succeeded his adoptive father as emperor of Rome in a.d. 161 — and Meditations remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written.  With a profound understanding of human behavior, Marcus provides insights, wisdom, and practical guidance on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity to interacting with others.  Consequently, the Meditations have become required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style.

Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius ~ by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, 2020, philosophy, 330 pages

Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that attracts those who seek to embrace self-mastery, virtue. and indifference to that which we cannot control.  Who were the Stoics?  This book offers a fresh approach to understanding Stoicism through the lives of the people who practiced it — from Cicero to Zeno, Cato to Seneca, Diogenes to Marcus Aurelius.  Through short biographies of all the famous and lesser-known Stoics, this book will show what it means to live stoically, and reveal the lessons to be learned from their struggles and successes.

I plan to read about Marcus Aurelius in this second book before reading his meditations and reflections about life.  I have both books on my Kindle.

This looks like a timely book for right now

The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar ~ by Michael Judge, 2004 and 2011, history, 206 pages

Did you know that the ancient Romans left sixty days of winter out of their calendar, considering these two months a dead time of lurking terror and therefore better left unnamed?  That they had a horror of even numbers, hence the tendency for months with an odd number of days?  That robed and bearded druids from the Celts stand behind our New Year’s figure of Father Time?  That if Thursday is Thor’s day, then Friday belongs to his faithful wife, Freya, queen of the Norse gods?  That the name Easter may derive from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, whose consort was a hare, our Easter Bunny?

Three streams of history created the Western calendar — first from the Sumerians, then from the Celtic and Germanic peoples in the North, and finally from Palestine with the rise of Christianity.  Michael Judge teases out the contributions of each stream to the shape of the calendar, to the days and holidays, and to associated lore.  In them, he finds glimpses of a way of seeing before the mechanical time of clocks, when the rhythms of man and woman matched those of earth and sky, and the sacred was born.

This is my tenth book this month, and my Kindle says I've read 49% of it at some point in the past.  Amazon says I "purchased this item on April 13, 2021," but I don't remember reading any of it.  So should I start over or start on page 107, where I apparently stopped reading?  What would you do?

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with a bridge game

Beginning

Our Mrs. Kaplan is not what you would call competitive.  Now her late husband, Sam (of blessed memory), he was competitive.  As a young man he was a terrific tennis player, and he never tired of telling us about how he once beat a world champion, even if at the time Sam was sixteen and the champion was only twelve and had not yet hit his stride.  He also told us how he won Mrs. K's hand by outmaneuvering two shlemiels who were trying to win her first.  But Mrs. K?  Even at bridge she plays only for fun, never to win, and don't think that doesn't drive her partners crazy.  Sometimes I tell her, "Rose," I say, "even if you don't care whether you win or not, would it kill you to try a little harder for your partner's sake, at least when I'm your partner?" 

Mrs. Kaplan and the Matzoh Ball of Death ~ by Mark Reutlinger, 2014, cozy mystery, 244 pages

Everyone knows that Rose Kaplan makes the best matzoh ball soup around — she’s a regular matzoh ball maven — so it’s no surprise at the Julius and Rebecca Cohen Home for Jewish Seniors when, once again, Mrs. K wins the honor of preparing the beloved dish for the Home’s seder on the first night of Passover.  But when Bertha Finkelstein is discovered face down in her bowl of soup, her death puts a bit of a pall on the rest of the seder.  And things go really meshugge when it comes out that Bertha choked on a diamond earring earlier stolen from resident Daisy Goldfarb.  Suddenly Mrs. K is the prime suspect in the police investigation of both theft and murder.  Oy vey — it’s a recipe for disaster, unless Rose and her dear friend Ida can summon up the chutzpah to face down the police and solve the mystery themselves.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

It's a mystery to me

Let Us Prey ~ by Jamie Lee Scott, 2011, mystery (California), 281 pages

A former secret service agent turned private detective, Mimi Capurro.  A disgraced NFL player turned homicide detective, Nick Christianson.  A snarky (who knows what his background really is) computer forensics specialist, Charles Parks, trying to keep them from killing each other.  And now they must find the killer of a New York Times best-selling author's assistant.  Gotcha Detective Agency was hired to protect the author, when it was the assistant who really needed protection.  Now it's a race to see who can find the killer.  Mimi is determined to make up for puking all over Nick's crime scene by solving the murder before he does.  Who will solve this case first?

National Book Lovers Day!

August 9th is a day to celebrate books.  It's National Book Lovers Day.  This holiday encourages bibliophiles to celebrate reading and literature, so book lovers should pick up a book and read!

"Wherever I am, if I have a book with me, I have a place I can go and be happy," says J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels.  I (Bonnie) have found that owning a Kindle means I can have hundreds of books with me, and thus have the option of reading fiction or nonfiction — whatever I'm in the mood for.