Septuagint in Context

Gallagher, Edmon L.  Translation of the Seventy: History, Reception, and Contemporary Use of 

        the Septuagint (LXX).  n.p.: Abilene Christian University Press, 2021.  ISBN: 

        9781684269198

What do you know about the Septuagint (also call LXX)?  The Septuagint is often used to refer to a Greek language version of the Old Testament used by Jews and early Christians which is still used in some parts of the world today.  Edmon Gallagher provides a detailed examination of the origin, importance, and use made of this translation of the Bible.

 

Gallagher divides the book into three sections - Starting Points, Cannon and Text in Early Judaism and Earliest Christianity, and The Text of the Septuagint among the Fathers.  Each section has three or four chapters.

 

Section 1: Starting Points provides the history of the Septuagint and what ancient Jewish authorities and modern scholars think of the origins of LXX.  It is called the Septuagint because Ptolemy II of Egypt wanted a copy of the Jewish Law for his Alexandrian Library, but since he could not read Hebrew, he commissioned a translation team of seventy-two men. Early Christians by tradition refer to the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures as the Septuagint whereas the Jews use that only for the translation of the Pentateuch.  

Section 2: Canon and Text in Early Judaism and Earliest Christianity delves into the role the LXX played in shaping what books to include as canon in the Christian Bible.  A chapter looks at the LXX in relation to other Jewish texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Masoretic Text.  A third chapter looks at how the LXX is quoted in the New Testament.

Section 3: The Text of the Septuagint among the Fathers looks at how early Christian authors used and viewed the LXX.  There are two chapters dealing with Greek Christian Fathers including Justin Martyr, Origen, and Irenaeus among others.  Then there are two chapters for  Latin Christian Fathers - specifically one for Jerome who translated the Bible into Latin and one for Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo.

If you have an interest in Biblical scholarship or the history of Biblical translations, you ought to take the time to read this title.  Edmon Gallagher has take great care to make this title readable and interesting for all readers.

Eywitness from Kyiv

Ponomarenko, Illia.  I Will Show You How it Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv.  New York: 

         Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.  ISBN: 9781639733873

The war in Ukraine was unavoidable for anyone paying attention back in 2022.  But the snippets that made it on national and local news were just that snippets, not the broader picture.  Illia Ponomarenko, a reporter for the Kyiv Independent, offers the reader a much fuller and richer experience of what was happening in Ukraine and especially Kyiv during the first months of the Russian invasion.

Illia Ponomarenko opens the book with being embedded with the 72nd Mechanized Brigade on a patrol outside Kyiv in March 2022.  His remembrance of earlier times spent with this unit in the Donbas area duing 2017 and other years sets the context for the most recent Russian invasion.  Ponomarenko then takes you back to December 2021 and sets the stage letting you in on how life in Kyiv was before the war and what people were ding and thinking.  He guides the reader through the time before the invasion and then the opening days in February and March when all was confusion and chaos.  Ponomarenko, his mother, and his roommate fled to western Ukraine and stayed with Illia;s girlfriend's parents.  But after a couple of days, Ponomarenko and his roommate Ivan return to Kyiv.  Ponomarenko continues reporting for the Kyiv Independent media service visiting the front-lines when possible, but also providing background information and home-front stories as well.  He brings the book to a close in May 2022 after Kyiv has been saved.

In I Will Show You How It Was, Illia Ponomarenko provides a first-person account of the opening days of the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.  This title will be of interest to anyone interested in Ukraine, recent European events, or life in a war zone.  A story that everyone should read!

Scouts, Rangers, and Secret Services in the American Civil War

 O'Donnell, Patrick K.  The Unvanquished: The Untold Story of Lincoln's Special Forces, the 

          Manhunt for Mosby's Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America's Special 

         Operations.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9780802162861

 

How up are you on American Civil War History?  If you have read any histories, you have likely encountered Mosby, the Gray Ghost of Northern Virginia.  But what do you know of the Jesse Scouts?  The Blazer Scouts?  The various plots ran by the Confederate Secret Service out of Canada to burn down New York City, raise up an insurrection in the Midwest, and blow up the White House?  You didn't know about these?  Well then pick up The Unvanquished and dive into the heart of these operations!

 

 Patrick O'Donnell opens The Unvanquished with a preface and prologue linking the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and their activities to the "shadow war" conducted by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War.  He then divides the book into three broad sections - Part I: The Jesse Scouts, Part II: The Confederate Secret Service, and Part III: Sheridan's Scouts and "Come Retribution."  While the headings provide some structure, the book basically starts in what is now West Virginia when Union General John Frémont brought the Jesse Scouts (named after his wife) from Missouri  in 1862 and turned them loose to scout ahead of his forces, conduct raids behind enemy lines, and deal with local guerrillas.  Under various names the Jesse Scouts played a role until the end of the war.  In northern Virginia, John Singleton Mosby formed his Independent Ranger Company to operate behind Union lines, raid supply trains, and disrupt anything and everything that he could.  In response to the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid that aimed to kill President Jefferson Davis and burn Richmond, the Confederate Secret Service tried to burn New York, raid Northern banks from Canada, promote dissent and rebellion in the Midwest, and sow discord.  They also worked on several schemes to blow up the White House, kidnap President Lincoln and other officials, and finally to decapitate the Federal government.  

 

While Patrick O'Donnell does a wonderful job of detailing the exploits of the various Jesse Scouts, Mosby's Rangers, and various members of the Confederate Secret Service, he doe not provide any sources that show a link between the ACW "shadow warriors" and the OSS or current special Forces.  Despite that caveat, if you want juicy stories of daring Civil War exploits, The Unvanquished is the book for you!

 

 

 

A Flying Chinese-American W.A.S.P. in WWII

 Ankeny, Susan Tate.  American Flygirl.  New York: Citadel Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9780806542829

In World War II, the United States had a big problem.  They were growing the Army Air Corp, churning out planes by the thousands, but they needed pilots to get planes from the factories to the air units.  Male pilots were needed overseas, so was born the Women Airforce Service Pilots program which trained women to fly the military aircraft across the country.  In American Flygirl, Susan Ankeny tells the story of Hazel Ying Lee, the first female Chinese-American to obtain her pilot's license and train as a member of  W.A.S.P. 

 

Hazel Ying Lee grew up in Portland's (OR) Chinatown facing all the "normal" racism of the time, but she had a dream of flying.  In 1932, she managed to get a job running an elevator to pay for flying lessons and obtained her private pilot's license.  She later joined the Chinese Flying School to train for lying in China against the Japanese.  But when she arrived in China in 1933, she was not accepted in the Chinese Air Force.  She did manage to fly commercial aircraft and served a a security guard at a Chinese air force base.  Then in 1934, she moved back to the United States to work with the Universal Trading Corporation getting war supplies for China.

 

In December 1942, Hazel heard about an opportunity to fly.  Jackie Cochran had made a deal with General "Hap" Arnold to allow women to be trained to fly military planes in noncombat roles, specifically from factories to exit points or permanent units.  Hazel joined the fourth training class in 1943 - the first class that trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.  After learning to fly the Army way, Hazel and the other member of her class joined the Ferry Command to fly military aircraft all over the country.  They flew B-17s, B-29s, P-51, P-47s, and P-40s along with A-24s.  Hazel was flying a P-63 Kingcobra from New York to Seattle in November 1944 when her plane was struck by another plane while landing in Great Falls (MT).  Both planes burst in flames and crashed.  Hazel died two days later due to her injuries.  

In American Flygirl, Susan Ankeny provides a life history of Hazel Ying Lee in historical context while also providing an interesting look at the training that Hazel and other members of W.A.S.P. received.  If you are interested flying, female aviation or the WWII home front, this is a book for you!

Diving on 12 wrecks!

Gibbins, David.  A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 

         2024.  ISBN: 9781250325372

Who is not intrigued at exploring a shipwreck?  Come on, there might be treasure!  Or at least very cool stuff, right?  Well, David Gibbins, an archeologist and diver, strongly believes that the stuff found in a shipwreck reflects the trade history and economic environment at the time the ship went down.  In A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, he provides the reader a chance to explore that history.

The first shipwreck was found in Dover during a excavation below the road.  This boat was used to trade across the Channel during the middle of the Bronze age (about 1550 B.C.).  The next shipwreck comes from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey from the time of Tutankhamun or Nefertiti based on a gold scarab found in the wreck.  Also in the wreck were copper and tin ingots, jars of terebinth resin, glass ingots, various Cypriot dining dishes, and ivory from elephants and hippopotamus.  The third wreck was also off of Turkey, but on the Aegean coast and dated to be from the classical age of Greece.  The wreck had 196 wine amphoras and associated drinking-ware. 

Wreck number four was a cargo ship with olive oil and fish sauce from A.D. 200 during the reign of Septimius Severus off the coast of Sicily right near where the author's grandfather had landed in WWII.  Wreck number five was also off the coast of Sicily filled with prefabricated marble elements for a church sent out from Constantinople by Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century A.D.  For wreck number six, the reader travels to Indonesia to explore a wreck that could have been featured in the tales of Sinbad the Sailor.  The wreck had 57,000 Tang Dynasty Chinese bowls created for export to Abbasid Persia along with other cargo.

 

Next David Gibbins uses several Norse ships found in scattered locations to talk about the trade, explorations, and conquests made by the Vikings that culminated in the invasion of England in 1066 A.D.  Wreck number eight looks at the sinking (1545 A.D.) and recovery of The Mary Rose, King Henry the VIII's flagship.  Wreck number nine has Gibbins diving on the Mullion Pin Wreck (1667 - Santo Christo de Castello) off Cornwall and discussing the cargo lost in that wreck which included lost paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, thousands of brass clothing pins, spices, hides, and other trade goods.

 

Wreck number ten was The Royal Anne Galley (1721) which sank off Lizards Peninsula in Cornwall while conveying the new governor of Barbados and then off to pursue pirates such as Bartholomew Roberts.   Wreck number eleven has Gibbins returning to Canada to dive on the HMS Terror which sank in 1848 as part of the John Franklin expedition disaster.  Wreck number 12 covers the story of SS Gairsoppa which was sunk in 1941 by a U-Boat while carrying 17 tons of silver from India to Great Britain.

In each chapter of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, David Gibbins provides the reader a chance to experience the thrill of undersea exploration while providing a context for the wreck and its place in world history.  So read this title and find out for yourself!

Textbooks - Misinformation or Disinformation?

 Loewen, James W. and Nate Powell.  Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaption.  New York: 

            The New Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9781620977033

 

How well do you remember your elementary, junior high, and high school history textbooks?  Were you ever confused because facts did not seem to be in the right order or contradicted each other?  If so, get hold of this graphic adaptation of James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me and find out what has been missing in all those textbooks!

 

Over the course of twelve chapters Loewen dissects the problems he has identified in a variety of textbooks.  One of the first issues he raises is the sheer amount of facts that are poured into students' brains and the sheer size of the textbooks (18 most popular textbooks he examined averaged 975 pages)!  Then there is the fact that most textbooks have an agenda that is focused on telling a heroic story of American history, not a balanced telling.  The role and status of Christopher Columbus is explored in its own chapter as is the First Thanksgiving.  Loewn spends two chapters looking at the invisibility of racism and antiracism in textbooks (think Gone with the Wind, John Brown, and Abraham Lincoln).  Then there is a exploration of The Land of Opportunity trope in textbooks, a look at how the concept of the Federal government is taught, and two chapters that discuss the avoidance of the Vietnam War and the recent past in textbooks.  Loewen and Powell finish out the book by looking at how history could and should be taught in textbooks.  In the afterword, Powell discusses how he and Loewen created a format with the  author breaking the fourth wall by talking directly to the reader in a fashion that makes the reader a participant, not just an observer.  

 

If you ever questioned your school textbooks, Lies My Teacher Told Me could be the answer you are looking for!  You might not agree with everything in this book, but this is a book that everyone should read and discuss.

 

An Author on His Love of Reading Providors!

 Patterson, James, Matt Eversmann, and Chris Mooney.  The Secret Lives of Booksellers and 

         Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading.  NY: Little, Brown, and Company, 2024.  

         ISBN: 978031656734

Do you know a bookseller of a librarian?  Are you interested in learning about what booksellers or librarians do all day?  No, they do not get to sit and read all day - that is just a myth, unfortunately!  World famous author James Patterson has a great love of reading and spends a lot of time at and in bookstores and libraries.  So he and two collaborators decided to gather and share stories from booksellers and librarians.

The first section has booksellers and librarians discuss being book detective.  This involves either trying to figure out what book a patron/customer is trying to find based on what little information they have  (it was a red book on birds or it had vampires and airplanes and World War I) or trying to find a book that meets the needs/tastes/desires of the patron (I want a cozy romance set in Rome that involves baking).

The second section interviews librarians and booksellers on books.  All sorts of stories about books - their favorites, the first books they read, what books they tend to recommend, etc.  

The third section dives into booksellers and librarians reminiscing on the role that books and reading plays in their lives.  One librarian talks about how she learned about interlibrary loan when she was seventeen and working on an art project.  Another has a plan for world domination via children's literature. 

 

Section four is all about reading!  Booksellers and librarians are more interested in getting people hooked on reading and less worried about what they are reading.  Because, as one bookseller states, "a kid who reads is a kid who thinks."  Not to mention that adults who read tend to think as well.

 

The fifth and final section is talking about everything that librarians and booksellers do behinds the scenes so that the books and other items/services are easily found by the customers/patrons.  Did you know that some libraries have tools you could check out?  Or job resume services?  How about tax forms?  The list of services just grows and grows!  

Okay, the title is a bit misleading.  Not all librarians and booksellers are super heroes or keeping rare and strange artifacts safe from evil doers (see The Librarians for a fun watch).  But if you enjoy reading about why people enjoy their jobs, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians is a good place to start!