Uncle Toms Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852

The very best book so far on my current to read list.  Terrific all the way through 519 pages.  Now I very much appreciate what the negro slaves put up with before the civil war in this country. Stow wrote it  before the war but she had some contact with Abraham Lincoln near the beginning.  A lot of Christian references throughout the story.  Highly recommended to anyone not having read it.
Completed reading it today, 6/11/2017.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein
by Mary W. Shelley,

In the story Frankenstein created a monster, who pestered him most of his life but in the end outlived him.  His creation was outrageous and an impossibility.  So of what value is the story?  The writing is easy to read and follow the characters. Not a waste of time but almost so.

Finished reading 5/25/2017

Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969

This book contains essays written by 9 writers in review of the original Vonnegut book.
Harold Bloom - Introduction
Peter J. Reed - The End of the Road
 Peter G. Jones - At War with Technology: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
James Lundquist - The "New Reality"
Robert Merrill and Peter A. Scholl - The Requirements of Chaos
Lawrence R. Broer - Pilgrim's Progress
Leonard Mustazza - Adam and Eve in the Golden Depths: Edenic Madness
William Rodney Allen - Slaughterhouse-Five
Jerome Klinkowitz - Emerging from Anonymity

Science Fiction defined:  fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.
Original Slaughterhouse-Five contains story about bombing of Dresden Germany near end of WW 2, extraterrestrials Tralfamadorians,  and a backwards running war movie ending with Adam & Eve. Science Fiction at its best.

Completed reading this review book on 5/21/2017.

Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited

Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley, copyright 1932 & 1946

Very ridiculous book about all babies produced in a factory, no marriages at all with everyone doing whatever and with anyone, and all people divided into 7 classes from A to G.  Class A the most intelligent and class G the most dumb. The world Ford instead of Lord or Christ throughout the book.  Ford = Henry Ford maker of Ford autos.

Brave New World Revisited
by Aldous Huxley, copyright 1958

Various chapters in the first book are analyzed showing little movement of the world toward those practices.  In the final two chapters suggestions are written regarding action and practice in the future: Education for Freedom and What Can be Done"

Completed reading both books on 5/15/2017.

Life in the Crystal Palace

Life in the Crystal Palace
by Alan Harrington, copyright 1958

This is a review of the book found on Google:
Harrington saw that corporate employee as a new species, one that “may be distinguished from other American working people at least in one way, by an absence of nervousness.” This was the era when people could join a company and talk about having “a job for life”.

From my personal experience I can easily relate to much in the book.  I worked for  only one large manufacturing company all my life as a mechanical engineer.
I retired from that company after 43 years.

The author wrote about his experience working for 3 years at a very large unnamed corporation. He worked in the public relations department.  He called that company the Crystal Palace.  Most of what he wrote about the company was positive.  But a major part of the book describes negative experiences by others in other companies and work places.

Finished reading the book on May 6, 2017.