Niggling details

Straight from Marlo:

The Encyclopedia Britannica says that John Calvin was born in France (and died in Switzerland).


Developments after Calvin: While Lutheranism was largely confined to parts of Germany and to SCANDINAVIA, Calvinism spread into ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, the English-speaking colonies in NORTH AMERICA, France, the Netherlands, much of Germany, and parts of central EUROPE.


No wonder it's confusing!


He was a RC who gradually became a Protestant. His book Institutes of the Christian Religion, his masterwork, became the single most important statement of Protestant belief.

Shall we add it to our book list? (Kidding.)

Note: during our discussion on The Artist by Jan de Hartog, a question came up regarding Calvinism, where Calvinism flourished, what influence it had on the Dutch, so on. Marlo followed up with the above from the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Our April book

Next will by The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. Again, if anyone has anything interesting about it, please post or send to me by email so I can post it for everyone's enjoyment.

Another top 100 booklist

From Marlo: here is the list.

The Book Quiz

Follow the link to take the Book Quiz.

"Henceforward", a play by Alan Ayckbourn

For February, we will cover "Henceforward", written by Alan Ayckbourn.

Marlo has been busy as always digging up goodies for us. Since she's got so many links, I'm just going to post them here without too much detail.

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/aycka/hencef.htm
http://www.britannica.com/eb/print?eu=2800
http://www.alanayckbourn.net/ his website
http://www.sjt.uk.com/aa.htm
http://playwrites.net/playwrights/1999/f_june/AlanAyckbourn1.html two interviews
http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/20000721hence6.asp stage review of his play
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/aycka/hencef.htm review of the play

Books I Did Not Read This Year

Bookslut points out this excellent post by Kieran Healy on books he didn't read this year.

NY Times Book Group is reading Eugene Onegin for December

NY Times' December reading group pick is Eugene Onegin. Anybody would like to share their expertise by discussing it online? Please check it out. Here is their site.

Update: NY Times requires registration in order to see their stuff. It's free. To post messages on their online discussion, merely update your account by clicking on the 'subscribe' button. No money out of your pocket needed for these procedures, fortunately, unlike the LA Times (grrrrrrr).

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

...is our December selection.

Update: Found this Jared Diamond essay written 1987 "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" here.

Here are comments about Guns, Germs, and Steel in response to a review by Bradford Delong, an economist.

At Cornell, I found a page with links to comments about Diamond's book. The first, about Yali, is worth reading.

Here is a page with a bit of criticism.

The NY Times reviews this book.

My quick comment on this book: It seemed as though reading this amazing book was like peeling an onion, especially towads the end. I enjoyed reading this book about the 'big picture'. But, correct me if I'm wrong, it seemed as though he didn't cover a few areas about humans that I really think are important, such as the role of religion and the role of world view and how that affects conquest. The questions I pose are these: do you think he adequately answered Yali's question in his book? Why did he leave the areas of worldview and religion out of this book?

Don Quixote and Pushkin

The New York Times reviews two books relevant to our bookclub: one is a new Don Quixote translation and the second is a review of a new Pushkin biography.

wood s lot

This blog is a gem: wood s lot