Booknotes 4.23

A Confession, by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Aylmer Maude), published 1882, nonfiction. A relatively short book about the beginnings of Tolstoy’s conversion when he was in his mid-forties, after much suicidal angst and a conviction that life is meaningless. Found it quite interesting. On a related note that isn’t in the book: I didn’t realize Tolstoy was only forty-one when War & Peace was published.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli (translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre), published 2014 (translation published 2015), nonfiction. Generally liked it, though I often found myself wondering if — given the book’s dusty old age of a whole decade — the current paradigms in physics have changed even more since it was written. Regardless, it was poetic and interesting and short.

The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020, by Tim Weiner, published 2020, nonfiction. Fascinating history of the Cold War by the guy who wrote Legacy of Ashes (which I’ve been wanting to read for a while). I hadn’t realized most other European countries didn’t want Germany reunified. The book ends before the January 6 insurrection, but the appalling wreckage we’ve seen since Inauguration Day has for me been further evidence of the book’s convincing case that in some way, directly or not, Putin is pulling Trump’s strings.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger, published 2016, nonfiction. This passage from the book works as a decent summary: “He was unable to find a single instance where communities that had been hit by catastrophic events lapsed into sustained panic, much less anything approaching anarchy. If anything, he found that social bonds were reinforced during disasters, and that people overwhelmingly devoted their energies toward the good of the community rather than just themselves.” The book made me think about the Church and how local wards (helped along by the law of consecration) foster the kind of belonging and community mentioned, at least when things are working as they should. I also found food for thought in the part about it being more natural for children to sleep in the same room as their parents and not by themselves.