The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my all-time favorite books. It is a novel, but it is also about philosophy, music and language among other things. The novel is set mostly in Czechoslovakia, before and after the Prague Spring of 1968. The novel follows Tomas, a surgeon, and Tereza who meets Tomas while tending bar in her small town, and goes to Prague to see Tomas. Their relationship is complicated by the fact that Tomas is a compulsive womanizer. Sabina, an artist who is one of Tomas’s “erotic friendships” also figures prominently in the story.

For fear of spoilers, I really don’t want to go any further into the plot. I will say that the plot does not unfold in chronological order, so the reader knows the fates of the main characters long before the end of the book. One of the major differences between the book and the 1988 movie, is that the movie is in chronological order.

I highly recommend this book. It may seem to start slowly, but it’s definitely worth the effort to read.

Visualizing The Beatles: A Complete Graphic History of the World’s Favorite Band by John Pring and Rob Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Visualizing the Beatles is a very interesting and very enjoyable look at the the career of the Beatles. While I would say it’s not a complete graphic history of the group, certainly it covers all of the important stuff. I really enjoyed the graphic representation of the data about each album, including which keys the songs were in, who played what instruments, who wrote (or co-wrote) each song, etc.

The book is organized around the Beatles albums, so a few things fall through cracks, but it’s a pretty good way to present the story. And it shows how the group’s clothing and hairstyles changed through the years. I thought this books was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to all fans of the Beatles.

Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This volume of Maus picks up with Vladek and Anja’s story as they arrive at Auschwitz. They are separated – she goes to the women’s camp at Birkenau and he is in the labor camp at Auschwitz. Vladek proves to be very adept at manipulating the systm (within limits of course) and he is able to make contact with Anja intermittently.

In early 1945, the Red Army approached the camps, and the Germans evacuated the camps, which led to forced marches until the prisoners reached Germany, and then they were put on trains to Dachau. Eventually American forces liberated Vladek, but he had lost track of Anja. They had agreed to meet again in their home town in Poland, which they do. They wanted to go to the United States, but the visa restrictions did not permit it at this time, so they went to Sweden for a few years, before eventually emigrating to the US.

That is one part of the story. The other part is the struggle of Art, the son, and his wife to deal with the aging Vladek. He is not easy to deal with to say the least!

It’s a good book and it’s a compelling story. I highly recommend both volumes of Maus.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On Tyranny is a very short, highly readable book showing how democracies were vulnerable to totalitarianism in the the twentieth century, and why we should be worried about our democracy today. The author is a professor of history at Yale, and he knows how communism, fascism and Nazism took down European democracies in he 1920s, 30s and 40s.

The twenty lessons run from very short to somewhat lengthy, but never a chore to read. The author writes very clearly and to the point. I also found the Epilogue to be well worth the time to read. I highly recommend this book.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maus is the story of the author’s father, Vladek Spiegelman, and his mother Anja, who survived the Holocaust. It’s also the story of the author as he tries to come to terms with his father and his story of survival.

It is an amazing story and it is made more powerful by being in the form of a graphic novel. This volume is the first part of the story, where we meet Vladek and see him meet and marry Anja. They had a fairly prosperous life in pre-war Poland, which changed in September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded and defeated Poland. As Jews, they were forced to live in a ghetto with little food provided. Vladek had managed to hide jewelry and other goods, so he could trade with Poles for additional food and other things.

As the ghetto was being liquidated, Vladek and other members of his family went into hiding. Sometimes Poles would help, but other times they would not. Every time the hiding place had to be changed, there was always the question of trust – would the people helping them inform the German authorities?

I’m skipping a lot of the details, for fear of spoilers, but Vladek and Anja are eventually betrayed, and they are sent to Auschwitz. This is where this volume of Vladek’s story ends.

Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe by John Julius Norwich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four Princes is the story of four rulers of the early 16th century: Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor and Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. The book is a biography of the four princes and also a history of this time period. The author does a great job of interweaving the stories of all four men and fitting them into the historical narrative.

All four were born between 1491 and 1500, and when they became rulers, their mutual interactions shaped much European history during this era. Henry, Francis and Charles had all met each other at least once. Suleiman is the outlier; he never met any of the other princes but he did have quite friendly relations with Francis, because of their common opponent Charles.

There are other actors in this story as well: the various popes, and the reformers like Martin Luther. So it is a complex and interesting tale of religion and international politics. We meet all six of Henry’s wives for example, as well as the struggle between Charles and Suleiman in Hungary and the first Ottoman attempt to capture Vienna in 1529.

I really enjoyed this book – it is a great overview of European history in the first half of the 16th century. If you’re interested in this period of history or any of the four princes, I think you will enjoy this book too.

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Own Words is a collection of the writings and speeches of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993, and she remained on the court until her death in 2020. The writings are in a more or less chronological order, and begin during her school years and continue through the 2015-2016 term of the Supreme Court. While the words are Ginsburg’s own, context and biographical information are provided by her co-authors Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who are her authorized biographers.

I highly recommend this book. Justice Ginsburg writes very well, had a great sense of humor, and cared deeply about the law and how it affected people. The section on gender equality is well worth reading; Ginsburg was one of the lawyers who brought this issue to the forefront in the 1970s. I also enjoyed the behind the scenes look at life in the Supreme Court.

Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Powers and Thrones is a history of the Middle Ages, and in my opinion, is one of the best single-volume histories of this period. I think it must be a difficult task to write a history of the Middle Ages, mainly because so much happens in this 900 to 1000 years that you can’t possible include everything of interest. So there is always the tradeoff between general information and specific events. And I think the author has done an excellent job of maintaining the balance between the “big picture” and events and people which are familiar to most readers.

The focus is on Europe from the fall of the western Roman Empire until the Reformation. The author has organized the book around topics, while maintaining a more or less chronological order. Each chapter covers a topic, for example the Black Death or the Byzantines, and the topics are cross-referenced as needed.

I liked that the author really developed the story of the Arabs; often they are only discussed in terms of the Crusades. And I enjoyed the chapter on the Mongols. I think I really learned something about them.

If you’re interested in this period of history, I strongly recommend this book.

Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wessex Tales is Thomas Hardy’s first collection of short stories, all set in his fictional Wessex. There are seven stories, and most of them are inspired by legends, superstitions or tales handed down over the years. Most of the inspirations for the stories are events that took place before Hardy was born.

Wessex Tales was published in 1888, and falls between the publication of The Woodlanders and Tess of the d’Urbervilles, so it comes relatively late in his career. Hardy published three collections of short stories. In many ways, Hardy’s short stories are much more accessible than his novels.

I can’t really say much about any of the stories for fear of spoilers, but they are all good reads. I liked all of the stories, but I especially enjoyed “The Three Strangers” and “The Withered Arm” as well as “The Distracted Preacher.”

Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin M. Kruse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Myth America is a collection of 20 essays by historians on a variety of topics in American History which are often misrepresented or lied about. Some of the topics are relatively recent, but some are as old as the Constitution. And because the authors are all historians, everything is footnoted.

There are a lot of good essays in this book. I learned quite a bit, and there are some things that surprised me too; for example the essay on the Founding Myths. Most of us think of James Madison as being the “Father of the Constitution” but the reality is somewhat different. I also found the essays on the “failures” of the New Deal and the Great Society to be very interesting as well. And the essay on Voter Fraud (and voter suppression) is definitely worth reading as well, given that it has been in the news almost continuously since the 2020 election.

One thing to note is that there is nothing about slavery in the book – the editors discuss this in the introduction. The reason is that there are simply too many myths about slavery to fit into this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. There are definitely some surprises and I learned some new things.