Desert God

I stopped reading Angle of Repose temporarily in order to read the next book chosen for the Book Club.  My first question as I read more of the book is: Is this historical fiction?  And the answer is answered right at the top of the photo of the front of the book.  Stephen King says that Wilbur Smith is the best historical novelist!  Pretty high praise....so I guess I will stick with it.  Wikipedia says:

Desert God is a novel by author Wilbur Smith first published in 2014. It is part of a series of novels by Smith set to Ancient Egypt and follows the fate of the Egyptian Kingdom through the eyes of Taita, a multi-talented and highly skilled eunuch slave.

Oh, wow....I just read the rest of the synopsis and I am not sure that I am going to be able to get through this book....lots of battles...lots of gore....not sure that it is my kind of book.  But below is what I am reading this morning:



Here are a few maps to help understand the first of the book....







And here is the link to the website for Wilbur Smith's books:

http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/books/family-trees/ancient-egypt

Oh, wow, this is too complicated to figure out this close to Christmas.  So I am going to throw up my hands.   Here is what I found about another of Wilbur Smith's books that is helpful:

River God is a novel by author Wilbur Smith. It tells the story of the talented eunuch slave Taita, his life in Egypt, the flight of Taita along with the Egyptian populace from the Hyksos invasion, and their eventual return. The novel can be grouped together with Wilbur Smith's other books (The Seventh Scroll, Warlock, The Quest, Desert God and 'Pharaoh') on Ancient Egypt. It was first published in 1994. 

A new threat to the kingdom emerges — the warlike Hyksos. Equipped with the horse and chariot, as well as a superior recurved bow, their technological superiority is far greater than the Egyptian army's. The Pharaoh is killed, forcing a majority of the Egyptian nobility (including Lostris, Tanus, and Taita) to flee Egypt by heading up the Nile with the remaining army.

[So the book that we are reading is after River God...Taita and the Pharaoh have already fled south on the Nile after the Hyksos invasion.  They are planning a huge and complicated series of events to oust the Hyksos and thus reunite the land that is Egypt so that the Pharaoh can wear the crown of all of the land and so that they will have access to the Mediterranean Sea which they are lacking because of the rout.]  

And here is an answer to the idea that Wilbur Smith has based this novel on a particular reign or date: 

The central conflict of the novel is the Hyksos invasion, which took place approximately 100 years after the claimed date of 1780. 1780 was approximately the beginning of the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt: The Hyksos have been assigned to the Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt.^[4] Thus, it is not possible to relate characters and events in the novel to specific characters and events in history.

I am quite surprised that I am finding the book entertaining.  I might just get it read for Dec 15th after all.  The reader is PERFECT for the book!  He is without a doubt native born British speaker.  And it actually gives the vain Taita the perfect voice!  This morning I laughed out loud as Taita explains to Pharaoh how they are going to change huge silver ingots that they have stollen into a form that they can spend without giving away the secret that they are the culprits who have stollen the gold.  The exchange between the two men reminds me of Forrest Gump!  Movie that I loved....In solving the problem of turning all of the stollen silver into a form that they can use to purchase much needed commodities, they make coins.  And Taita (unlike Forrest Gump who was anything but vain) takes the credit for having invented coins that changed the ancient world!

I finished the book tonight.  It is a bit of a silly book.  But at the same time, it appears that the crazy volcano eruption did really happen:

• MORE

Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today.

The world map might look differently had the Greek volcano Thera not erupted 3,500 years ago in what geologists believe was the single-most powerful explosive event ever witnessed.

Thera didn't just blow a massive hole into the island of Santorini – it set the entire ancient Mediterranean onto a different course, like a train that switched tracks to head off in a brand new direction.

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Minoan culture, the dominant civilization in the Mediterranean at the time, crumbled as a result of the eruption, historians believe, changing the political landscape of the ancient world indefinitely. Environmental effects were felt across the globe, as far away as China and perhaps even North America and Antarctica.

The legend of Atlantis and the story of the Biblical plagues and subsequent exodus from Egypt have also been connected to the epic catastrophe.

Dwarfed the atomic bomb

Historians and archaeologists have had trouble deciding on the year Thera erupted, with dates ranging anywhere from 1645 BC to 1500 BC. Studies of ash deposits on the ocean floor have revealed, however, that when the volcano did blow, it did so with a force dwarfing anything humans had ever seen or have seen since.

There are no first-person accounts of what happened that day, but scientists can compare it to the detailed records available from the famous eruption of Krakatoa, Indonesia, in 1883.

That fiery explosion killed upwards of 40,000 people in just a few hours, produced colossal tsunamis 40 feet tall, spewed volcanic ash across Asia, and caused a drop in global temperatures and created strangely colored sunsets for three years. The blast was heard 3,000 miles away.

Thera's eruption was four or five times more powerful than Krakatoa, geologists believe, exploding with the energy of several hundred atomic bombs in a fraction of a second.

An absence of human remains and valuables like metal suggest that the Minoan residents of Santorini predicted the eruption and the island was evacuated, but the culture as a whole did not fare as well.

Based on the nearby island of Crete, the powerful Minoan civilization declined suddenly soon after Thera blew its top. Tsunamis spawned by the eruption would have swamped its naval fleet and coastal villages first off, historians think. A drop in temperatures caused by the massive amounts of sulphur dioxide spouted into the atmosphere then led to several years of cold, wet summers in the region, ruining harvests. The lethal combination overran every mighty Minoan stronghold in less than 50 years.

In just a short time, their peaceful, efficient bureaucracy made way for the warring city-state system of ancient Greece to dominate the Mediterranean. The Aegean would turn out to be a fundamental building block for the history of Europe, and the Minoan decline changed its early foundation completely.

Famous legends

Thera didn't just alter the cultural make up of Europe, it has kept adventurers and treasure hunters busy too.

When the Greek philosopher Plato described the lost city of Atlantis over a thousand years after the volcanic eruption, he may have been referring to Thera folklore passed down in Greece over many generations and exaggerated like a game of broken telephone.

The eruption has also been loosely linked with the Biblical story of Moses and the exodus from Egypt. The effects of Thera's eruption could have explained many of the plagues described in the Old Testament, including the days of darkness and polluting of the rivers, according to some theories.

So the book has not been a waste of time.  I might never have read anything about the Minoan culture nor the volcano eruption nor of Egyptian politics had I not read this book.  But I will have to say that I am not tempted to read more of the series.  This book reminded me of the James Bond series that I read as a teenager.  My father LOVED the books.  Tatai reminds me of an ancient James Bond set in ancient Egypt.  

Thomas Jefferson

It is two years later after my post about John Adams who was interpreted at the Nov 2014 Colonial Dames fundraiser at Guyan Country Club.  This year the event was held at Edgewood Country Club in Charleston.  And this year Steven Edenbo "brought Thomas Jefferson to life"



What a wonderful program!  I wish that I could listen to something as educational and inspiring EVERY week!  So start by visiting my blog post that I wrote after the John Adams event two years ago:

http://serendipityreading.blogspot.com/search?q=john+adams

The background that was presented by John Adams is quite helpful in understanding what Thomas Jefferson is saying.

Thomas Jefferson started his presentation by kind of doing a mumbling beginning.  He seemed to be trying to point out that the original Thomas Jefferson was not an accomplished speaker.  He actually said that Thomas Jefferson's inaugural address was heard by only a few people sitting in the first rows of the Senate chambers......however, there was a printed version that was passed out as the men exited the doors.  And that the address was printed in MANY languages because the ideas presented were so innovative.  But I am getting ahead of the story....

Much of the first part of the talk told about the ugly election process that had taken place in the fall before this inauguration.  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had been great friends.  By the end of the process leading to the election they were at such odds that they never spoke to each other again.  (later Thomas Jefferson explained that they did indeed become friends years later and spent many years exchanging letters about everything from gardening to politics.....but they were never to actually be together again in person).  These are the two men who died on the very same day:  4th of July in 1826....the date of the celebration of 50 years since:

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king. July 4th, 1776.


I wish that I had the energy to repeat all that our wonderful Thomas Jefferson explained about this election.  However, I do not.  I will content myself with adding a few links to remind myself of some of what he said:

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/early-republic/essays/presidential-election-1800-story-crisis-controversy-and-change

The link below is the only one that takes the reader to the mentioned the name of the representative from Delaware,  Federalist James A. Bayard, Delaware’s only representative in the House.  The information about this is MOST interesting in this article.  The information about Bayard is in fact #11:  

http://mentalfloss.com/article/82871/12-facts-about-election-1800

If I were to condense what I believe that I heard, I would say that after an ugly election, there was no clear winner.  When George Washington had been president, there was only one party.  He was the clear majority winner.  During the presidency of John Adams, two parties had evolved.  John Adams was a Federalist who believed in strong central government.  Thomas Jefferson had shifted away from this belief and felt that John Adams and the Federalists were wrong.  He believed in States having strong control over their own constituents.  They hadn't quite settled on a name for this new party.  But it was some sort of combination of Republican and Democrat.  While the House of Representatives and Senate were voting every day, every day produced a stalemate.  More than one state had raised a militia to march on Washington, DC if the Federalists won.  It looked as if there could be Civil War at any minute.  And this was what people all over the world were used to!  Uprisings every time a government changed hands.  But Thomas Jefferson felt strongly about that as well.  And when finally Bayard abstained from voting and a couple of other states who had representatives who were Federalist did the same, Thomas was officially president.  His inaugural address made it clear that he did not plan to ride the other politicians out of town on a rail...nor punish them for their ideas....nor incite any sort of an uproar.  Instead he felt strongly that it was important that the ideas that didn't agree with him were important.  That it was GOOD to have opposing philosophies to help keep those in power honest and also to help keep them from the temptation of too much power.  It is hard for us to believe today that this was a NEW concept.  That before this date and this speech every time there was a political upheaval it was accompanied by strife, bloodshed, chaos.  That is why Thomas Jefferson's speech was translated for readers all over the world to read!  He had changed the face of politics forever.

My other favorite remarks of the day included:

The Missouri Compromise of 1820.  The Missouri Compromise was about slavery.  Thomas Jefferson's remark was this WAS NOT a compromise!  In a real compromise both sides give up something and reach a middle agreement in which no one is really happy, but there is an agreement.  That if anyone is happy with a compromise, it is NOT a compromise....someone has won.  In this Missouri Compromise, everyone just agreed to stay in their own arena with their own beliefs thus eventually leading to the split between the two factions which happened with the outbreak of the Civil War.  Missouri joined the Union as a slave state while Maine was admitted as a free state.

In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

Then in the final parts of the presentation, Thomas Jefferson explained that when he left the office of President, he was greatly relieved to give up the responsibilities of the office.  And then he spent time admonishing all of the audience to never make it easy on those they elect.  To constantly hound their elected servants to do right and not to yield to the temptation of power.

And one of my favorite ideas put forth was that any generation that decides to participate in war, needs to tax itself to pay for that war.  They should not put the expense of war on the next generation.  Thomas Jefferson was very unhappy about the great amount of debt that the new nation had amassed with the Revolutionary War.  Much of what he was doing in Europe in the early days of our new nation's history was trying to finance loans just to pay the interest on the debts that had accumulated.

And finally the words that Jefferson himself chose as the three things he wished to be remembered for :

The brief inscription his tombstone bears, written by Jefferson himself, is as noteworthy for what it excludes as what it includes. The inscription suggests Jefferson's humility as well as his belief that his greatest gifts to posterity came in the realm of ideas rather than the realm of politics: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University Of Virginia."

Ok....I have a few more things that I want to add because I don't want to loose the ideas.  Apparently John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson were cousins.  I am googling tonight trying to figure out what their connection involved.  I have a few URLs that I want to add:

http://patch.com/massachusetts/attleboro/bp--thomas-jefferson-and-john-marshall-founding-fathe0e112006ee


ok....it looks as if it is a distant relationship through the Randolph family:

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/john-marshall/

  

Angle of Repose

Wallace Stegner's Pultizer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery—personal, historical, and geographical. Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America's western frontier.








I decided to skip the book that the book club is reading this month.  I hate that I can only manage to read one book that is fiction each month....but it is a fact.  I had already started Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, and I decided to stay with it.  Much like Crossing to safety, the book is not a huge page turner.  It is slow and purposeful.  I have had the actual print book on my shelf for many years.  It has seemed to me a book that I SHOULD read:  Pulitzer Prize Winner....book about a Quaker woman ....book about a man who is writing his grandparents family history after his retirement....well I HAVE to read it don't I?

I am actually listening to it via audible.  And today is the first time that the light bulb went off:  Oh, yes....I "get it"....Susan Burling Ward has just taken the train across the continent to join her new husband in California.  How many thousands of times did a young Quaker girl move west on our continent and think about all that she left behind and the fact that she might never see her parents again?  WOW!  The thought is huge.

This morning on the way to get coffee Iistened to a part where Susan and Oliver are visiting San Francisco for their Thanksgiving holiday.  It reminded me of the fact that San Franciso was quite gay in that time period.  Unlike the rest of the state that was still fairly raw.  My grandmother Hawkins was very proud of her Uncle John Partridge:

Granny Mary was proud of her relationship with John S. Partridge of San Francisco, California who was recently [letter written July 26, 1923] appointed Federal Judge in this state...

Granny Mary  said:  "Uncle John was rich and lived in a four story mansion in San Francisco and all of his children lived in the same house.  They were Marie (a singer), Bee Wellmans and Carl and Harry."

I added birth and death dates and the middle name Slater while perusing information on Ancestry in June 2004.  Source given for the information was:

Name: Partridge, John Slater

Birth - Death: 1870-1926

Accession Number: 3244759

Source Citation: Biographical Dictionary of the Federal Judiciary. Compiled by Harold

Chase, Samuel Krislov, Keith O. Boyum, and Jerry N. Clark. Detroit:

Gale Research, 1976.(BiDFedJ)

Biographical Directory of the Federal Judiciary, 1789-2000. Lanham,

MD, USA: Bernan, 2001. Biographies begin on page 347.(BiDrFJ)

Who Was Who in America. A component volume of [Who's Who in American

History.]. Volume 1, 1897-1942. Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co.,

1943.(WhAm 1)

But the thing that I remember the most about early San Francisco was the Cliff House.  And Susan mentions having seen the Cliff House in this book.  My NORCAL mail list (back in the days when it was VERY active) talked about the Cliff House for many days!  Jack and I took the trolley out to see the site the last time we were in San Fran.  The structure below no longer exists.  But the ruins of the Sutro baths are visible.  I am not taking the time to figure out what Susan and Oliver actually saw on their trip.  Instead I am remembering what I was thinking when I bought the pictures that are at the bottom of my steps to the basement.



OK....the book just started to engage me totally.  It may still not be a page turner, but the description of the mine town and the structure of the mining business in that town is amazing.  I don't know how Stegner manages to get one to understand so amazingly well all of the things that are going on in the book....including his character, Lyman Ward, .....how his life is so much at the mercy of the people around him and yet he manages to have a real life that he indeed controls with the help of his help.  This is truly a great book!