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Bev

Bev

Thanks for stopping.

My life revolves around family, gardening and reading.
I'm a caregiver...
I'm a Christian...
I've recently retired from a hospital laboratory

My reading taste is eclectic..(historical fiction), ( American history)
(bio, autobi), (mystery) but I'm open to move into different... more »
  • Pgh, PA, USA
  • member since February 25, 2010

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 374 reviews
  • Thoughts in Solitude
    2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Thomas Merton (1915-1968)....influential spiritual thinker of the 20th century...Trappist monk.

    Thoughts In Solitude is written from a monastic perspective, sharing the joys and insights of a solitary life.... but, it offers considerations to all who value quiet reflection.

    The following are a few such thoughts:

    "Without courage we can never attain to true simplicity"

    "A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all.
    No man can serve to masters.
    Your life is shaped by the end you live for."

    "Before we surrender ourselves, we must become ourselves
    For no one can give up what he does not possess."

    "Humility is a virtue, not a neurosis"
    ------------------------------------------------------------------”

    Bev wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Ghost Map
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 5 stars

    “

    I scarcely know where to begin in Ghost Maps
    It is truly a multidimensional book.
    I'll stay with my original reason for reading and highlight medical aspects.

    It's summer 1854 and the site is London.
    We have an emerging metropolis with a population over two million and our infrastructure standards are
    are Elizabethan.
    Waste management is nil and water is sewage polluted.
    An epidemic ensues and 10% of the population is dead in 7 days.
    The situation was terrifying.
    There was scientific confusion.
    The pathogen later was identified as a comma shaped bacterium and named vibrio cholerae

    The miasma theory held that diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma (Μίασμα, ancient Greek: "pollution"), a noxious form of "bad air"
    The theory held that the origin of epidemics was due to a miasma, emanating from rotting organic matter."

    Enter Dr John Snow
    "John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene.
    He is considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the source of the cholera outbreak in Soho, London, in 1854."

    Dr John Snow expounded a partially correct theory that cholera was spread through water.

    By tireless effort of testing water and talking to local residents (with the help of Reverend Henry Whitehead), he identified the source of the outbreak as the public water pump on Broad Street.

    The ghost maps that they assembled were dot maps used to illustrate the cluster of cholera cases around the pump.
    Deaths dots or dashes highlighted the Broad Street pump.

    Throughout the read, we meet city residents, the doctors chasing the disease, the medical detective Rev Henry Whitehead and the pathogen itself....
    Finally we see how this epidemic initiated profound changes in science, in city managment and modern society in general.

    I found Steven Johnson (the author) to be an intriguing thinker.
    The scope of his research is impressive and Alan Sklar did an fine job of narration.
    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
    ”

    Bev wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • PERSUASION and A MEMOIR OF JANE AUSTEN (Cambridge World Classics) Complete Novel by Jane Austen and Biography by James Edward Austen (Leigh) (Annotated) (Complete Works of Jane Austen)
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Challenge fulfillment 5/22/2013”

    Bev wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Wild Garden
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 5 stars

    “The Wild Garden was originally published in 1870 and proceeded through a series of editions and reprints through the author's lifetime. (1838-1935)
    Ther fifth edition in 2009 contains new chapters and photography by Rick Darke.

    Contents:

    An introduction to William Robinson and the expanded edition
    Reading The Wild Garden
    The wild garden in the 21st century

    You'll find a large section of selection of plants for naturalization in a variety of settings and a large bibliography for further study.
    You'll find sketches, explanations and photography.

    Lovely coffee table style book, rich with ideas for a naturalistic approach to gardening.”

    Bev wrote this review 9 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Clouds of Witness
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 0 stars

    “Clouds Of Witness (1926) by Dorothy Sayer

    is book #2 in the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series.

    I hesitate to rate and do a thorough evaluation because I'm not familiar with the series
    and have little experience with the English cozy subgenre.
    I'm assuming this qualifies as cozy.

    The subject is serious--Peter's brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murder.
    Elements of the story and Peter's character provide comic relief and a pleasing puzzle throughout.
    Here's an example:
    You're introduced to the intricate layout of the English court and the trial procedure.
    and suddenly, out of nowhere, a witness debunks her previous testimony and "reporters looked up suddenly like dogs expecting a biscuit"
    and Sir Wigmore knocked his brief over the head of the clerk of the house of lords sitting below."

    Lord Peter had a habit of addressing his sister Mary as "old thing" or Polly.
    You had to chuckle.

    Clues are plentiful as are "red herring" characters.
    Occasionally I needed the dictionary and a repeat reading of a colloquial "string of thoughts."

    I ordered this book as a trade paperback and found the text was so tiny that it was headache material and I gave up trying to read it.
    Also, there were huge spaces between each paragraph....why?
    and, there is no publisher listed/mentioned anywhere in the book.
    It simply said --printed and manufactured in the United States Of America.

    I needed to read this for my F2F group.
    My E reader version was 644 pages.....
    Needless to say....I'm glad this experience is over.

    ”

    Bev wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Flat-Out Rock: Ten Great Bands of the 60s
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Mike Tanner has done a commendable job in presenting 10 of the
    great bands of the 60's.

    Each individual/band is unique in musical style but all have certain things in common
    Tanner lists these as
    "-created sounds that had never been heard before.
    -used what had come before and added something personal to break new ground
    -kept moving forward.
    -brought a special passion and energy to music.
    -have caused their share of controversy.
    -nobody in these pages cared as much about pleasing the accountants or the critics as they did about artistic honesty."
    They acknowledged those who came before, dominated and defined their style, and their influences will be felt for a long time to come

    The given time frame is mid 60's to mid 70's.
    Prior to this... formative rock. This period...classic rock.... And, a post period where rock splits into genres and subgenres.

    Profiles include:
    Jimi Hendrix
    The Beatles
    The Doors
    Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash
    Janis Joplin
    Creedence Clearwater Revival
    Led Zeppelin
    Bob Dylan
    The Who.

    Each profile includes background, main influences on the "fabric" of each group, best albums and songs,
    musical descendants and the band's line up.
    There are political and social photographs, showing as backdrop, an era of turbulence and creativity.
    There are often interesting tidbits---like----
    Why Morrison and Manzarek called their band The Doors

    There are 3 members of "Club 27" featured in these profiles.
    Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all died at 27 yrs of age.

    Flat Out Rock was recommended for a young adult audience but is easily appreciated by an adult reader.

    Mike Tanner (from sources I found) is an English teacher, song writer and recording artist from Canada.

    He suggests the reader "read the book, check out the music, and decide for yourself."
    "Pick up the albums if you can--they're the full show, a complete listening experience you won't get just hearing a song or two.
    Turn up the volume, flip through the pages, and slip back into an era when music truly did rock the world."

    Suffice to say, I highly recommend this book as a read and a resource.
    ---------------------
    "I've got pieces of April,
    I keep them in a memory bouquet
    I've got pieces of April,
    but it's a morning in May" (David Loggins 1972) (Performed by Three Dog Night)

    ★ ★ ★ ★ ★”

    Bev wrote this review 10 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Telling the Bees
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 0 stars

    “"Telling The Bees is a beautifully imagined novel about the far reaching consequences of words left unspoken, the persistence of regret and the power of truth both to
    wound and heal"
    This is the book jacket statement....
    I'm still evaluating what I think and feel......
    3.5 ★”

    Bev wrote this review 12 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • American Bloomsbury
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 4 stars

    “The time: mid 1800's
    The place: Concord, Massachusetts "biggest little place in America," (Henry James)

    Susan Cheever explores the intersecting personal lives of a group of friends, who we acknowledge as an extraordinary group of writers.
    The "Concord gang" would include literary residents such as Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry David Thoreau.

    The American Bloomsbury bears little resemblance to their Victorian "British Bloomsbury" counterparts.
    You'll find they are avant-garde bohemian types, often at odds with the existing moral and social structures.
    In such close proximity, they intertwine intellectually and romantically.

    "Ralph Waldo Emerson was the central and most influential figure among the group of radical thinkers and writers of the 1830s-1850s known as the New England Transcendentalists"
    His 1836 essay NATURE is usually considered the decisive moment at which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement.

    The audio presentation by Kate Reading brought to life the volatilities and passions of this "cluster of geniuses"
    If you have read their writings and have an interest in the era, you'll enjoy this read.

    (6 audio discs)

    ★ ★ ★ ★

    ”

    Bev wrote this review 13 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Shelter Dogs
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 5 stars

    “The photo and title say it all.
    I love a happy ending for a shelter dog.”

    Bev wrote this review 13 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Astor Orphan: A Memoir
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

    The Astor Orphan: A Memoir

    by Alexandra Aldrich
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Alexandra Aldrich begins her memoir with a brief Astor history, concentrating on Astor orphans (the last Astor family descendants to reap the benefits of the estate).

    Margaret Astor Ward (1838–1875), married 1856 John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877)
    Margaret Chanler died of pneumonia in December 1875
    John W. Chanler died at his "Rokeby" estate also of pneumonia, on October 19, 1877.
    Their 10 children were raised at their parents' estate in Rokeby located at Barrytown in Dutchess County, New York.
    They were the original eccentrics of the family, leaving their descendants "the house, its history and contents, and a sense of entitlement and superiority"

    Alexandra's father, "despite an Ivy League education and five languages acquired while traveling in Eastern Europe (where he met his wife), could not hold a steady job."
    Her mother was a bohemian polish fiber artist, who thought she was marrying into a wealthy family.
    Aldrich states, “money was the only thing we hadn’t inherited.”

    Her memoir is concise and pertinent...sometimes distressing and painful and often humorous.
    As the memoir ends at age 14, she leaves for boarding school and the reader feels , with some reservation, that there is progress to follow.
    Will we have a sequel?

    The NY Observer has an interesting comment
    "Ms. Aldrich’s first book, reads like a cross between Jane Eyre and Running with Scissors"

    ★ ★ ★”

    Bev wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 1-10 of 374 reviews

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