Sons, Pearl S. Buck

Sons, Pearl S. Buck

Sons is the second book in the House of Earth trilogy by Pearl S. Buck. The first book is about a Chinese man who works hard farming and gains land to become a great and wealthy farmer in China. He has three sons, and after his death, the land is divided between them. This book is about the three sons, Wang the Landlord, Wang the Merchant, and Wang the Tiger, a soldier and warrior. It is mostly about Wang the Tiger and his conquests, how he builds his "empire" and his army, and he has a son with the purpose of training him to inherit his warrior kingdom.

I find it interesting that Wang the elder, the father of these three sons, wanted all his sons to farm, but they all had different ideas of what they wanted in life. So it is with the son of Wang the Tiger, who has a passion for agriculture, even though forced to become a military student. It seems to have come full circle; however, there is one more book to read, A House Divided, so we shall see how things turn out.

I have to take a break from reading Pearl Buck's works. Her stories are excellent but the writing style sometimes goes on forever and is a bit dry. They are a great way, though, to immerse yourself into learning about how the Chinese people lived in her lifetime.

 

1984. George Orwell

1984, George Orwell

This was my first time reading 1984 by George Orwell. I definitely recommend reading it. It's the story of a distopian world, where socialism has conquered all. It has taken all rights, property, and freedoms from the people, and Big Brother watches over, controls, "provides", and protects everyone. Anyone who is not fanatically loyal to the Party disappears and is wiped from history and existence.

In his story, some main factors in oppressing the people are removing independent thought, making the masses completely dependent on the government for everything, including food, home, clothing, medical, and work….rewarding turning others in who are suspicious, erasing the past and rewriting it to reflect the current political view, redefining the meaning of words and getting rid of any words or definitions that don’t support the political agenda. and encouraging violence and hate toward anyone, real or imaginary, who might oppose the politically correct ideology.

All material goods, food, supplies, toiletries, clothing, were rationed out. For example, the main character slept naked because in order to purchase pajamas, it would cost over a years worth of wages. He had to buy razor blades on the black market because not enough were ever rationed out, and although there were always news reports about ration sizes increasing, they were constantly getting smaller. The world was in a state of abject poverty for everyone, except for the Inner Party, which always had abundance.

This, my friends, is how socialism actually works. This book, although fiction, shows what will happen when a country is given over completely to socialism. You exchange freedom and liberty to do what you want, for promise of having everything provided. However, "everything provided" eventually becomes less than bare minimum and is never in the realm of abundance.

There is a difference between giving to those in need and socialism. Socialism takes without permission to distribute to others. It takes away choice and freedom. It sounds great in theory that we bankrupt a few billionaires to level the playing field, but if you really look at it, those billionaires have a right to their hard earned and invested money. If they want to give to the poor, that's their choice, their liberties shouldn't be violated just to make it happen.

Or we could look at it on a less financially extreme level...because if it happens to the billionaires, it will happen to the rest of us: Say you bought a three bedroom house. It's for you, your husband, and a child. Socialism would say that you should be able to fit at least 3 people in a bedroom, so your family gets one bedroom, and two other families that don't have a house will move into the other bedrooms. You are also going to share your vehicle, and your backyard is too large, so another house is going to be built back there for another family. You object? If you don't like it, you can have it taken away from you altogether, because it doesn't really belong to you, it belongs to the government.

And this part already happens: you work hard for a paycheck, but now a certain percentage goes to fund all other aspects of government and humanities, and you get no choice over where your money goes. It might go to provide food and shelter for someone who is disabled, but then again, it might go for food and shelter for someone perfectly capable of working but just doesn't want the responsibility. Or maybe you are against abortion, and your paycheck goes to fund abortions. And so on.

In Orwell’s 1984, there was something called the Two Minutes Hate. For 2 minutes a day, the entire country had to throw a hateful and violent temper tantrum against opposing political forces, cursing, screaming hateful things, throwing things. This was required by law and not participating wholeheartedly could be punishable by law. It was important to keep the people riled up in a constant state of hatefulness against opposition. Even if they didn’t understand why they needed to hate, they simply had to hate because they were opposite.

The spirit of the Two Minute Hate is alive and well, unfortunately, as we see people from both political sides spewing hate toward each other based on the news or social media, without really checking to see if their own viewpoint is accurate, and even if it is, do we really need to be villainizing our neighbor? At what point does that political animosity become so venomous that we act out in violence to shut up opposing viewpoints?

I am glad we live in a country where we do still have free speech. We can choose how we want to live and work, and we can choose to disagree or agree with others. But if we don’t guard those freedoms, we will lose it all.

If you have not read this book yet, please go find a copy and read it right away. It is very relevant to today.

 

Firefly Lane, Kristin Hannah

Firefly Lane, Kristin Hannah

My daughter has been telling me that she has heard so many good things about the author Kristin Hannah and her books, so I have been picking them up in my thrifting adventures. This is the first one to resurface in my TBR pile.

This is the story of two girls the same age, in the Snowqualmie or Snohomish Washington area (outside Seattle), I can't remember now which. But they are as different as night and day, one coming from a down to earth traditional family, and the other a lone child living with her drugged out, hippie mother.

The story shows how they became friends and spans decades of their friendships and relationships. One becomes spectacular as a journalist and talk show host, while the other becomes spectacularly ordinary in the eyes of the world, choosing family and motherhood over her aspirations to be a writer. Yet despite their different lifestyles, they remain friends until that one fateful day...

It kind of reminds me of Beaches. I saw the movie but I haven't read the book.

SPOILER ALERT

If you haven't read it, then don't read any farther as this next part contains a SPOILER

The last part of this book was not easy for me to read. A character in the book, I won't say who, but they end up with cancer, and it shows the terror of finding out and receiving a death sentence, and the eventuality of their demise and how it affects their loved ones as well as their own outlook on life.

The reason why this is so hard for me is because it was like reading what happened to my sister, Cathy, who had Ewing Sarcoma, a cancer for which there is NO hope of recovery. It was terrifying the thought of losing my sister, and to try to do all I could to help her, to pray for her, and watch her life and health destruct before us, completely helpless to do anything but let her know we were there and would always love her. It's a hard thing for me to relive, which is why I still steer clear of books and movies that I know touch on this.

However, I know the author added this to the book because it's how her mother passed, and it affected her so greatly, she wanted to write about it to make people aware of the specific type of cancer she died from. It was her way of trying to make some good come out of it and I commend her for it. 

 

Historic Homes of Baker City, Volume 1: The Baker's Dozen, Crossroads and HBC

Historic Homes of Baker City, Vol 1

This is another small book produced as a collaboration between Crossroads Carnegie Art Center and Historic Baker City, and includes 12 historic homes in Baker City with some of their history, notable owners or architects/builders, and current owners at time of publication. This was printed in sometime around the mid 80's so owners are out of date. Instead of using photographs, artist Laura Hayse drew some very lovely images of the houses.

I am adding this to my research pile for a project I plan on doing for my hometown of Baker City, Oregon.

 

Historic Baker City: A Walking/Driving Tour

Historic Baker City: A Walking/Driving Tour

Historic Baker City, Inc.

This is a lovely small book from 1985 when Historic Baker City was working hard to revitalize the town of Baker City, restoring historic buildings and trying to bring tourism and growth to the town. With this book, you have information on most of the historic buildings of Baker, where they are located, and when available, some of the history of their previous owners or builders. You can walk or drive around town with this as your guide.

I will be adding this book to my research pile for a project I am planning on starting soon.

 

Peter's Family, by Paul R. Hanna and Genevieve Anderson

Peter's Family

Paul R. Hanna and Genevieve Anderson

This is another lovely vintage Dick and Jane style early reader for social studies, by Scott Foresman, printed in 1942, and illustrated by Charlotte Becker and Ellen Segner. This book is about baby Peter, from the time of his birth until his first birthday. We learn about the nuclear family unit, mother and father, siblings, grandparents, and pets. We learn about family roles, and in this case, Father works, and Mother does not bring in an income, but is very helpful at home taking care of the home and family needs. Both are essential to a well-adjusted family. We learn how children can help at home, and how Father can help at home as well, since everybody lives there and should all take responsibility. We see the family visit the grandparents' farm, and learn about animals and farm chores. We learn about as the family expands, they need to find a bigger home, and how they look until they find the right one, near to a school and market. 

As I have stated before, I just love these old readers and their gorgeous illustrations. This one will also be going into my personal collection. 

 

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan

Who hasn't heard of the Joy Luck Club? I first heard of it as a movie in the 90s. I still haven't seen the movie...but after reading this I will probably give in and pay to rent it on Amazon Prime. 

I believe this is Amy Tan's first novel, the story of a Mah Jong playing group of four Chinese American women, who uprooted their lives in China for different reasons and came to San Francisco to start a new life. These are stories of their lives, and also included are stories of their daughter's lives, told in each character's point of view. We get little pieces of their past and present, and each story when stitched together, creates a bigger picture

I don't know why it took me so long to pick up this book, since I love learning about Asian culture as well as Chinese-American history. The first of Amy Tan's books I read was Saving Fish from Drowning, and I enjoyed that one as well, so I had to move this one up on my TBR list, and am glad I did. 

The author, using the Chinese mothers and Americanized daughters, writes from two culturally different perspectives. The mothers have a definite traditional Chinese perspective including superstitions and just different thought processes. The daughters have more American perspectives and don't always understand or appreciate their mothers or what they experienced before they got to the point of life where they now are in the book. That's something that I appreciate. We don't all have the same perspectives or thought processes, because we don't all have the same life, or the same history or culture. But if we just try to listen and understand, we can learn to connect.