Quick notes

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks; mostly personal, some reading.

My Noni, one of the most loving, generous people I have ever known, and the maker of the world's best spaghetti sauce, became very ill and then passed away, but only after beating back cancer for 18 years after being told to go home and prepare to die, and not to bother fighting. But nothing could ever stop her from fighting, and her strength and tenaciousness gave all of us who loved her almost two more decades to benefit from her huge heart and inspiring grace and humor in the face of (almost) overwhelming odds.

While this was going on I kept reading; killing time, and trying to escape (both my grief and sometimes my family). Off the top of my head, I read/finished: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, Spider Bones, The Hunger Games, and I think something else.

Clearly there's a lot I need to add in here, but the most pressing issue is Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The West and The Rest, which the library is calling back on me. Suffice it to say, for now, that from the opening lines of the introduction, I kept wanting to heave the book across the room. Ferguson may be smart, but I suspect he is also a pompous, self-righteous, and unimaginative ass. The book really deserves a longer and more vituperative review, but I need to finish the book and then really look at my notes and think about making valid, as well as angry, comments. Since I am already two days overdue with the book, for future reference, pages that I found particularly offensive, problematic, laughably self-centered or small-minded, or in need of further research (to refute his stupidness, obviously) are: 4, 8, 76, 77, 88, 90, 97, 105, 111, 132, 135, 136, 138, 140, 145.