The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt

 

Review

Greenblatt has already dazzled me with his previous book, that concentrated knowledge, in such an orderly form, in a logical arrangement, tries to convince its reader that he is sharing something with him.  Of course, this is not true, as it only summarizes pre-existing knowledge and leads it along a logical chain of thought.  Sure, there are those who say it’s just Greenblatt’s vision, and they’d see these connections quite differently, but since the chemtrailes have fluttered to nothing on the edge of the earth, I’m just trusting my common sense.

This book analyzes one of the oldest myths.  Mankind has always been preoccupied with where we came from (although perhaps we would go further with it to deal with where we are going, there is still room for correction) and the origins of Adam and Eve in Christian culture - even though there are few today who believe in  in its literal meaning - was forever embedded in the common consciousness.  Even if not in a religious sense, but in a cultural sense, Adam and Eve still symbolize man and woman.

Greenblatt goes through history and takes stock of every major change the interpretation of the myth has gone through.  St. Augustine put his life on it to prove a literal interpretation of Genesis with moderate success.  We get a lengthy analysis of the artist’s depictions of the first human couple, including the image of the famous Dürer, who wanted to be the depiction of the physical perfection of Adam and Eve.  We get a good lengthy analysis of Milton’s Paradise Lost, (actually, a mini-Milton biography is incorporated into the book by Greenblatt), and then comes the scientific discoveries that have begun to undermine the myth, with Darwin in closing.

It can be said that Greenblatt immerses quite extensively and has packed a lot into this book that only touches on the story of the first human couple, so perhaps this book may not seem compiled enough for everyone, but in fact Greenblatt is not simply exploring an ancient myth, but  human thinking, if you will, writes the story of the Enlightenment.  How a tale becomes a dogma, a weapon, and how this weapon is deactivated by advanced thinking.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly

 

Review

I always thought that through Bosch’s life, Michael Connelly had always described the current situation in the United States well.  Thus, in this book we can see the state of the country, and within that, the state of the police.  The country is divided and its political and judicial system is in ruins.  Nothing works, silly and incompetent people fill all positions, removing those who might be suitable and who could change that situation.

My favorite crime detective has always been Harry Bosch.  That’s why I wanted him to be the protagonist in this book, too.  I accept that was not the case, Bosch grew old, retired.  But I’m glad he’s still involved in the investigations, even if he’s no longer a senior detective.  Ballard is sympathetic too, you could say she's a female version of Harry.

The first half of the book was a bit slow, but in the second half, things got bustling, and the story became at least as exciting as Michael Connelly’s other books.

Sonny by S. J. Peddie

 

Review

It was a very interesting read.  When I started, I thought it was just an average mafia story.  It then turned out to be much more than that, a man’s long life, full of happenings, experiences, violence, love, affection, duty, and sin.  It was basically about original sin, about the culprit, yet Sonny Franzese, the mobster, wasn’t a completely negative character for me.

We can make an easy judgment sitting in our comfortable armchair, just as it was convenient for a judge to make a judgment from the height of the judge’s pulpit.  Sonny's life was predetermined, her environment, her innate qualities, led her to sin.  He spent more than thirty years in prison, but he survived all his enemies, and for decades lived the life he had always longed for, playing a role in which he had a good time.  And was he really the only one guilty?  Wasn't society, the political system, the state, the government, the law enforcement authorities guilty too?  In my eyes, they are the real culprits who created the opportunity for the mafia to operate, turned a blind eye to it, and were content to sometimes be able to imprison one or two mafia chiefs by illegal means.  Theoretically, the mafia represents evil and the state represents good and truth.  Though the line between good and bad is usually very thin, we often don’t even know where it is.  A lot of people have been killed by Sonny in his long life, but the book didn’t tell me if there were innocents among them.  He usually killed mafia members, instructing others to kill them.  The reason for this was mostly the fear of being killed or of being imprisoned for their betrayal.  The bad killed the bad, so I didn’t shed tears.  Sonny’s business methods were tough and ruthless, but doesn’t the state treat its citizens the same, stronger countries treat weaker ones?  Everyone longs for some kind of power, and if he gets it, he will be ruthless and inhuman.  It’s more obvious in Sonny’s life, and that’s why we condemn him while we excuse others.

We also met Sonny, who befriended famous people who sought her graces and had a love affair with women that the average person could only dream of.

But we all die, Sonny’s life is worth as much in the present as it is all of us, nothing.  He was a prominent figure in the American mafia, but young people today no longer know his name, as do Ava Gardner or Bobby Darin.

In this book, however, we got to know this past world, the life of the Mafia and Sonny.  For me, it’s a good book I won’t forget for tomorrow.  This is a book like this.  I confess, in the end, Sonny became a tragic hero for me, whose death I even cried a little for, despite being a murderer and a sinner.  That’s probably the writer’s merit, though I don’t know if that was his intention.

Elijah-Co by Dan W. Luedke

 

Review

I have mixed feelings about this book.  The writer himself is a doctor, and this is his first book to be published.  The basic concept is good, interesting.  However, I have problems with the implementation.  Lars is the protagonist who, along with his wife, represents morality in principle.  However, this only appears in words, in reality they do nothing against unethical attempts and murders, and even accept them as a necessary evil.  The story of the book is built on dialogues that are pretty boring, uninteresting, and don’t sound like we’re talking in real life.  The characters are not sympathetic, and whoever they might be, they will soon die under suspicious circumstances.

But the basic concept is interesting, sometimes it’s good to dream about how good it would be if we could live forever and if it only took one injection to be young again.  The writer probably has his own experience of how experimenting and testing such a drug would work, but I felt quite a bit of professionalism in the procedure.

Despite the problems described above, I have read through the book, which is a positive.  But it was more because of my patience, not because the story was so exciting.  And in vain I waited in the end for the big twist or to get a proper finish.  The end of the book seems cluttered, it made me more upset.

If the writer were to rewrite the book with the help of a professional editor, there could be a chance of success being a good book that is worth reading.

The Ultimatum by Jonas Saul

 

Review

This is the first book I have read from this writer that is part of a series.  I thought that since this is a separate story, I will understand.  Well, that wasn't the case.  I didn’t understand what a special ability Sarah and her daughter have, what this group around Sarah is, why they imagine they are smarter and stronger than everyone else.  While they behaved and acted completely idiots.  I tried to reach the end of the book, but at 60% I had to put the book down and I don’t even read it anymore.  So far, I’ve been stupid for wasting time on this book because it just annoyed me with a lot of it’s stupidity.  This is the first book where the protagonists are the dumbest, and compared to them, the cops and the mafia look like nuclear scientists.

When She Disappeared by Steph Mullin & Nicole Mabry

 

Review

It was a bit boring for me, the events didn’t spin, the characters weren’t sympathetic.  I’m not saying it was a bad book, but it sure could have been a lot better.  I expect a thriller to rise above the rest of the average book, but it still remains an average book with the usual templates.  And of course, I was expecting a big twist at the end of the book, which, however, was pretty predictable, so I knew pretty soon who the killer was, or at least I suspected.  Reading similar books always makes me wonder if it’s worth writing average stories, reading average stories.  Because I'm just wasting my time with these.

The New Friends by Daniel Hurst

 

Review

Daniel Hurst releases a new thriller almost every month with new ideas, new excitement.  He’s become one of my favorite writers, I know I can not be disappointed when I take his book off the shelf.

In stories like this, we usually cheer for the rogue, but in this book, we’re excited they catch the swindler who wins his worthy punishment.  I think there would have been an easier way to do this than described in the book, but the story had to be a little complicated to make it even more exciting and enjoyable.  I did find the protagonists a little naive, even though I have been deceived by scammers already as well.

Despite the above, I felt the story was a bit average, as if it was important for the writer to write as many so books as possible that would be published, and not to write a really great thriller instead.  These books are fun, I get excited and smile as I read them, but none of them leave a lasting impression on me, I forget about them the next day.  Yet I feel he has the knowledge and ability to write a book that would put him at the forefront of bestseller writers.

The Demogra-fate Hypothesis by Nguyen Ba Thanh

 

Review

It’s a very interesting read, you can’t even flip through it quickly, you have to go back and forth to some thoughts to understand the processes that lead to, or could lead to, the extinction of humanity due to aging.

According to the writer, aging and then death is a natural process that inevitably leads to extinction.  Unfortunately, as described, this process is also being accelerated by current human societies.  The reasons for this are emancipation, the emergence and development of feminism, the disappearance of the original role of the family, technical progress, the transformation of social relations, liberalism, bad democracy, which is why we choose bad politicians who only follow a trend and offer short-term solutions.

That is, the extinction of humanity is inevitable.  The only question is when this will happen, due to aging, or a natural disaster.  According to the writer's prediction, the process of aging has already begun, and migration can only delay, but not stop, this.  Unfortunately, we are now living in an era where migration is placing a heavy burden on us, on our workers, as we need to sustain large masses in order to have a hopeful future for the population in our countries to grow and the average age to fall.  Unfortunately, this has unpredictable/foreseeable consequences that will fundamentally transform the societies of these countries.  It doesn’t seem to be the best or not in the direction we want.  But this has been decided by someone who thinks this social transformation is a desirable tool to prevent aging.  However, it is also clear from this book that this will delay extinction by no more than a decade or two.

As described in the book, extinction could only be stopped by reversing the course of history, abolishing liberalism, democracy, feminism, birth control, technical and technological progress.  That is, we would consider the interests of humanity instead of the interests of individual people.  And that interest would be survival, a long-term, indefinite reproduction.  Such a society still exists, and the population of this society is being integrated into the society of developed liberal countries in the hope that they can retain the benefits of modern society while reducing the average age.  Unfortunately, this experiment does not seem to be successful, because the societies of these countries are moving in the wrong direction, and even the average age is declining only slightly in a generation, but then the reproduction of the integrated population is also greatly reduced.  Therefore, the original goal will not be achieved while the societies of these countries are collapsing dramatically.

Our lives will end in years, in decades.  Mankind's life will end in a few milleniums.  Do we have to worry about that?  After all, we are no longer affected.  However, it is in our DNA that it is in our best interest for our offspring to be born.  We should strengthen this inner urge so that humanity can survive as long as possible and extinct later.