Erasing History, Jason Stanley

 

Erasing History:  How fascists rewrite the past to control the future by Jason Stanley

Started: 10/11/2025
Completed: 10/11/2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

It is interesting to hear how fascists fight to get rid of history.  It is important that the history of a fascist state be "good" and attributable to the fascists.  Stanley argues that a large part of the work happens in schools where history is codified among children.  This explains the focus on censorship of books in the school libraries.  The justification was that someone could always go to the regular library to read the book, but the regular library is coming under fire.

History is also better when viewed from many facets (several people can experience the same event in different ways).  Fascists, however, want to control the story (honestly, like everything else), so they want one history to be told (their history).  This is short book, but it is very clear and the topics covered are kept close to actual history and its erasure which allows for some context while at the same time applying brevity.  Very well done. 

The Myth of American Idealism, Chomsky and Robinson

 

The Myth of American Idealism:  How U.S. foreign policy endangers the world by Noam Chomsky and Nathan J. Robinson  I got this book as part of a book club sponsored by the authors.  I have read Chomsky's books on language and programming, but not his works on politics.  I have been a long time subscriber to Current Affairs which is Nathan Robinson's project.

Started: June 1, 2025
Completed: October 11, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: the authors

Review:

This book is eye-opening.  First, there is the distinction between what America says and what it does (looking out for the good of a populace and then actually bombing that populace).  This can be seen in speeches from politicians and then the actual orders given by those same politicians.  While the right is more culpable, this has been happening from both the right and left.  There are also draw dropping statements on the public stage where the USA says simply horrible things and then follows through on the horrible stuff.  The back end of the book is focused on what can be done, but, honestly, there is not a lot of advice there that anyone can act upon.  Getting the media to focus on the facts and the facts alone is hard and it is something that no individual can do.  Supporting universities and their efforts to offer multiple views of history, but, again, it is not at all clear how that can be done.  In the end, the value if this book is in seeing what the USA is doing in the name of "We The People."

The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan

 

The Silk Roads:  A new history of the world by Peter Frankopan

Started:  August 11, 2025
Completed: October 9, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody in particular, but I think that this caught my eye because of my niece's recent visit to Morocco where she sent me pictures of ruins that once were part of the silk road.

Review:

This look at the history of the world focuses on what we would call the East (here in the West) and identifies how the countries of the East have been the focus of modern history with the start of everything in the general area (think Babylon or Ur if you know that).  The perspective is refreshing and offers new insights if you are even only thinking about trade (which is how this book looks at it).  Surely there are other ways to view the world, but from the perspective of trade Frankopan makes a good argument that what we think of as the Silk Roads were the entry point of West into the lucrative markets, resources, skills, and culture of the East.  Ridiculously long book with an incredible amount of detail.

Arden's Act, Elizabeth Thomas

 

Arden's Act by Elizabeth Thomas

Started: August 11, 2025
Completed: October 7, 2025
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: The Author

Review:

I am trying to enjoy the romance genre.  SPOILERS AHEAD.

This book looks at romance through the lens of rape.  Arden is almost gang raped at the outset of the book.  A flashback tells you she was abused.  As the book progresses, she is living with "kept women" most of the time.  She, herself, becomes a kept woman (and has sex with a lord in exchange for safety from her childhood abuser).  Later, she marries (in order to keep her child) a man with whom she is friends, but not a romantic interest.  She comes to love this man who faces an untimely death and she returns to her lord where she is more of a girl toy.  Eventually, she prostitutes herself to save her child and nurse maid (who, meanwhile, is raped).  Finally, she ends up marrying the lord who gives up his title to be with her.

As a result of the focus on rape, I found the sex scenes (even when conceptually mutually agreed) to be mildly unattractive.  The concept of the book as a whole put me off.  I will grant that at least the lord comes to realize he has effectively raped Arden though by the end she freely loves him.  I just didn't find this book romantic and, with the overtones of rape rife throughout, I did not find it pleasant.  I offer a mild recommendation because this book did not feel formulaic and some of the characters do change over the course of the book.  The plot was fairly straight forward with the exception of the step father who, of course, is raped in jail and comes to understand what he had done to his step daughter (I did not expect that nuance).

Rosarita, Anita Desai

 

Rosarita by Anita Desai

Started: October 2, 2025
Completed: October 4, 2025
Recommendation: Mildly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The omnipotent narrator has an odd habit of addressing the protagonist as, "you."  It is an odd third person personal (?) form of story telling.  It was so incredibly distracting to be so directly addressed by the narrator in the persona of the protagonist as to constantly distract me from the story which unfolds from a series of descriptions and vignettes which feature people who are not present (most notably the protagonist's mother who has died). 

Desai is celebrated for her turn of phrase.  In this book I was captured by, "The bells ring unexpectedly at irregular times."  I like this sentence because it suggests that if there are bells, they should be ringing expectedly at regular times.  In the following paragraph there is a discussion, effectively, of unexpected memories intruding.  It is a nice link and something that I can appreciate.  I liked that the metaphor was implied by proximity.

How To Be A Saint, Kate Sidley

 

How To Be A Saint:  An extremely weird and mildly sacrilegious history of the Catholic Church's biggest names by Kate Sidley

Started: October 1, 2025
Completed: October 2, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I am not a Catholic.  I did enjoy this book (it isn't the first time that I've found the stories of saints interesting).  This one is fun because author is funny.  So the turns of phrase had good timing and this tongue in cheek book was a quick and enjoyable read.

Dominion, Addie E. Citchens

 

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens

Started: September 28, 2025
Completed: October 1, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This was an interesting book.  The characters are rich for their ages and the story benefits from multiple perspectives.  While several of the characters are children, they are old beyond their years.  This was not a happy story, it was really a slow demise of a family and, with it, part of a community.  Sadness, heaped on sorrow, heaped on pain is the way that the Joker describes this Mississippi community and this exploration of that experience describes the effect of that environment more eloquently than spelling out the details of each piece.