The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“There’s no worse thief than a bad book.”
“Strange thing, time. It weighs most on those who have it least.”
“There was an unspoken prejudice among book-learned people, a secret conviction they all seemed to share, that life as we know it is an imperfect vision of reality, and that only art, like a pair of reading glasses, can correct it.”
“The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong.”
“The greatest violence in the world was against art, against knowledge.”
The Rule of Four is about a manuscript that is about 500 years old and the people that are enthralled with it. The main character is Tom. He is the son of someone who was obsessed with this work and ended up dying in a car crash when Tom was younger. We also have Tom’s friends which include Gil, Charlie, and Paul. Paul has become enamored with this text and spends almost all of his time digging into the secrets. He purposefully became friends with Tom. We follow Tom as he navigates school and the quest to discover the secret of the Hypnerotomachia. He must manage his relationships with the book, girlfriend, and his friends, especially Paul. This work has been around hundreds of years, but no one has been able to figure it out. The group must dodge untrustworthy characters and death. Who will survive? Will the secret finally be revealed? Who will remain friends?
This book has two authors. Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason did a great job of coming up with an engaging and engrossing story. This is the type of story I love. I get to learn about history and cultural things as well as be a part of a kind of treasure hunt. The different pieces of information that are provided gives me a jolt of excitement like when belladonna, Procrustes, and the etymology of sarcophagus are described. There were also several platitudes sprinkled throughout that caught my attention. I know I start these posts with quotes but I also like to sprinkle some throughout the text as well like “never invest yourself in anything so deeply that its failure could cost you your happiness” and “a good friend stands in harm’s way for you the second you ask – but a great friend does it without being asked at all.” It is funny the way it appeared in the book. It is the main character relaying things he learned from his parents. One chapter ends with what his father taught him and the next chapter starts with something his mother said. Another is, “The two hardest things to contemplate in life…are failure and age.” There was a section in the book that discusses the concentration of geniuses in Florence, and that really struck me. I am like that seems like a good premise for a book. Some of the words I came across and took note of were Nilotic, crapulent, autodidact, steganography. and ersatz. Something that bothered me though was how the timelines seemed sort of muddled. It was hard to discern if something happened before or after the main storyline. The details and stories involving girlfriends and school seemed unnecessary. They didn’t add to the story, and felt like sections you had to sludge through to reach the exciting puzzle work. Paul was also sort of annoying and selfish. I also found the ending sort of lacking. It was anti-climatic and boring. No resolution. I wanted the treasure hunt to have a finale. I did fly through this book, somewhat thanks to a snowstorm. This is exactly the type of book to read if you like Dan Brown or art history or literature in general.
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Tag: History
The Secret Affair And Musings From The Legendary Set
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“This isn’t a hairdo, it’s a hair don’t.”
“I never had what I wanted because I would never want what I had.”
“I need a vacation from myself.”
“I wish you would love me more so that I could love you less.”
The Princess Diarist is a book written by Carrie Fisher. It is based around the journals she wrote while filming the first Star Wars film. It also covers the affair she had with Harrison Ford. It is a personal and emotional look at what she was feeling and thinking during that time in her life. It also shows some actual excerpts from her writings from that time. It touches briefly on her childhood and her famous mother. Carrie talks about fame, drugs, and alcohol. It is an intimate look at her and the time she spent on the most famous film set of all time.
This was a quick read. Carrie tells a lot of stories. I liked how she referenced old Hollywood especially surrounding her parents. She also talked a lot about sex. When she referred to gay men, that made me happy. Especially during a time when it wasn’t as readily accepted in public. She started the book describing events of 1976 and there were a lot of things mentioned. It was information overload but some of it was cool to delve deeper into online. There were some points she made and thoughts that she expressed that resonated a little bit with me like “Back then I was always looking ahead to who I wanted to be versus who I didn’t realize I already was”. There was one specific event that she recalled that I was surprised to read about because it was so closely aligned to something I said. A few years back at a friend’s wedding during the summer, when it was exceptionally hot, and I was standing up, I walked up to the bar to ask for the largest legal-size glass of water they could serve me. Carrie asked “’Could I have a Coke with ice, please? In as big a glass as you’ve got?’” and I smiled. She was kind of funny too but overall I felt she was trying too hard. The book, in general, seemed very manic and all over the place. It was like she was desperate for the reader to like and understand her. There were a lot of parts that felt like rambling and using too many words. Was she just needing to write so she had enough for a book? I think she even hinted at it too when she said “I try to put the feelings into thoughts or words but it always seems to come out in disjointed sweeping statements. Adolescent jargon peppered with random selections from a fairly gaudy vocabulary.” However, when the actual diaries were brought in, I thought that much of her writing was very insightful and revealing. Some of the words I liked were brogue, garrulous, assignation, and louche. A couple whole pages really resonated with me but here is a small excerpt from page 117. “How do you think people see you? Or don’t you let them near enough to see. You make up their minds for them…You make people come to you and, when they eventually do, you punish them with your smugness.” There was also a part about spending time making mountains out of molehills. One of the rare instances I grabbed something from the Acknowledgements…when she was acknowledging Paul Slansky. “We row-row-rowed these words gently till I screamed – wearily, wearily, and finally cheerfully, this manuscript we redeemed.” I thought it was ingenious. I like Carrie Fisher as a person and her work in Star Wars but I am not sure about this literary side of her. This is exactly the type of book to read if you are in love with Princess Leia or Star Wars.
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Extinguishing Fires And Finding Buried Treasure With Friends
The Unbreakable Code by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Unbreakable Code is the second in the Book Scavenger series. The first one was great and this one was just as good. It continues the story of Emily and her best friend James. This time they are tracking down The Unbreakable Code which has existed for over a century. No one has been able to solve it thus far. It brings together gold rush, the origins of San Francisco, and obviously solving puzzles. With a narrow escape with a fire, or two, the two code-breakers must deduce who is setting these fires, how a teacher’s past comes into play, and where the buried treasure is. Will they be able to figure it all out before it all burns to the ground? I think you should find out!
I didn’t take a lot of notes with this one as I was just wanting to find out what happened. It was a quick, easy, engaging, and fun read! Jennifer Chambliss Bertman continued her formula without it appearing too redundant or like she was phoning it in. The writing was relatable and easy to understand as obviously this book was not written for my age range. The kids were juveniles and at times acted that way. It was kind of annoying but I get it. It didn’t ruin the book but at moments I was frustrated that they just didn’t get it or that they thought/said this thing. Nevertheless, I loved it. One thing that really got me excited was the historical aspect. Jennifer did this in the previous novel but after the novel concludes, she adds what was historically accurate and what she made up. It does touch on some despicable parts of the past of the United States but for the most part it is light-hearted. I love learning about new things, so I found this fascinating. I didn’t know very much about San Francisco, but I was surprised to find some information out. I will leave the reader to discover these things on their own so they can be as pleasantly entertained as I was. The author introduces some fun new ciphers, codes, and cryptograms, which is always fun to try and figure out for yourself. If you read the first one, I don’t need to tell you that you should read the second book in the series but you should, and I am just as excited to read the third!
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Interesting Boredom And Destroying The Written Word
The Vanished Library. A Wonder of the Ancient World by Luciano Canfora
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Vanished Library is about ancient libraries, specifically the one located in the famous city of Alexandria as well as one located in the tomb of Ramses II. It also talks about a contemporary, antagonistic library in Pergamum several times. There were many historical figures mentioned including Alexander the Great, Aristotle, and many of the members of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Tons of old writings were also referenced.
This book was not what I thought it was going to be. It touched on many other things and I thought the focus would be on the Library of Alexandria. Luciano Canfora brought in a bunch of additional information that seemed to have a peripheral association with the library. From what I notice, the first use of the phrase “library of Alexandria” was on page 74. The threads of connection were weak in my mind and I was hoping for a deeper focus on the actual place. Instead, we were exposed to other works that mention the library to try to deduce what happened to it. This is a deeply scholarly work. It read like a textbook and it was extremely dense. There were tons of names, places, and events that were divulged. As a result of this I, as a person who likes to google everything that interests me, spent a lot of time getting additional information on a lot of pieces. As a person who loves antiquity and history in general, there were moments of shock and dismay. It is still uncertain what actually happened to the library, but there is a legend that Caliph Omar ordered the destruction of its contents. In this book, there was a supposed letter that stated “proceed, then, and destroy them.” I was just apoplectic at the mention of the destruction of any written word, let alone any historical artifact. I get sad and it just hurts to imagine all that has been lost to history. I recently just finished the show Rome, years after starting, and I love how I could make connections between that and what I just read. There was mention of Caesar, Antony, and Cleopatra as well as battles that I could relate to the show. This is what intrigued me about the book, the history and how things correlate with each other. I ended up learning a ton, more than I ever thought I could ever want. I just wish it was presented in a more cohesive and direct manner.
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This Is Not A Shipwreck Of A Novel
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. David Grann is a great author and really knows how to tell a story. He interweaves facts & quotes well and brings the characters to life. He has this awesome ability to pick riveting subject matter and animate it. I cannot wait to see what he comes out with next. I absolutely loved Killers of the Flower Moon. The Wager was something that caught my eye at Barnes and I had to pick it up. It was a monthly pick and one of the best books of 2023 plus I love history. The drama and characters kept this book tied to my hand until I had to finish. The way the story was structured and the viewpoints that were used helped to give different perspectives. The added information sprinkled through the storytelling on how life on a ship looked and the struggles was flavorful. The pictures and maps added something as well. I am a person who must have his phone next to him when he reads as I am constantly looking things up. If there is a location, figure, or topic mentioned that sounds remotely interesting I pull up the search engine. I like to learn a little more about what I am reading. I did this a ton with this book. The way that history connects is fascinating. I also do this with words I don’t know or think I know but want confirmation and the true, full definition. Now I was unsatisfied by the ending and the imperialism angered me, but this is hardly the fault of the author. He is bringing a story to life and the fact that I had a strong reaction strengthens my thoughts on Mr. Grann as an author. The follow-up, research, and commentary were top-notch. Pick this up and read it.
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