Books and Ideas (2)

I read for ideas. What follows is my attempt to summarize the main ideas of books I have read.

The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America. Thurston Clarke.
Explains the methods used by JFK and Ted Sorenson in preparing JFK’s speeches, particularly the inauguration speech. The inauguration itself was a study of political backbiting.

The Autobiography of Mark Twain. Ed. Charles Neider.
Twain’s autobiography reflects his cynicism and, in the end, his preoccupation with death, “the deliverer.”

Babbitt. Sinclair Lewis.
Satirical novel about the American middle class. George Babbitt is unimaginative, self-important, and longing for something beyond conformity.

The Best and the Brightest. David Halberstam.
Contrast between the Kennedy and LBJ styles of leadership, which led to the escalation of the war in Vietnam by LBJ.

The Best Nature Writing of Joseph Wood Krutch.
Writes about nature to spread the joy of living. One of a number of writers on nature who believes that humanity is an equal partner in nature, rather than its dominator.

Bill Campbell: The Voice of Philadelphia Sports. Sam Carchidi.
Bill Campbell was as much a part of Philadelphia sports as booing.

The Blithedale Romance. Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Novel/Romance. Hawthorne was a feminist before his time. The intellectual woman is no match for the sweet, clinging, dependent and worshipful pretty girl whom men seek as their companions.

Booknotes: America’s Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas. Brian Lamb, ed.
How do writers write? Fascinating view of the writing process. On one thing most of these writers agree: it takes years to write books.

The Book on the Bookshelf. Henry Petroski.
The author describes the growing problem through the centuries of finding enough shelf space for books.

The Brothers Karamazov. Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Novel. Who killed Fyodor Karamazov? All of his sons in one way or another. A very philosophical novel on good and evil, sons’ hatred for their fathers and people’s hatred of authority.

Catch-22. Joseph Heller.
Novel. A man would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t but if he was sane, he had to fly them. A “catch-22” is a diabolical dilemma. Some funny scenes and language.

Building of Christendom. Warren H. Carroll.
The cruelty of Christians to other Christians and Jews. Vividly told. The brutal conquests of Christian countries by Muslims. One reader said that if history had been written like this when he was in high school, he would have loved reading history. He was referring to how history is written, not the bloody and cruel nature of the events.

Civilization: A Personal View. Kenneth Clark.
History of Western civilization. A personal study of the nature of civilization, which needs confidence to construct and is easily destroyed.