Reviews

The Good Life Method by Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 0 Comment

The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning by Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko is the perfect early January book to review. In this time of New Year’s resolutions, what better to discuss than a book on pursuing the good life:

Two Philosophers Ask and Answer the Big Questions About the Search for Faith and Happiness

For seekers of all stripes, philosophy is timeless self-care. Notre Dame philosophy professors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko have reinvigorated this tradition in their wildly popular and influential undergraduate course "God and the Good Life," in which they wrestle with the big questions about how to live and what makes life meaningful.

Now they invite us into the classroom to work through issues like what justifies our beliefs, whether we should practice a religion and what sacrifices we should make for others--as well as to investigate what figures such as Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Iris Murdoch, and W. E. B. Du Bois have to say about how to live well. Sullivan and Blaschko do the timeless work of philosophy using real-world case studies that explore love, finance, truth, and more. In so doing, they push us to escape our own caves, ask stronger questions, explain our deepest goals, and wrestle with suffering, the nature of death, and the existence of God.

It also fits in rather well with my post from yesterday:

Like many during the never-ending ongoing pandemic I was trying to figure how I wanted to structure and approach my life. What would I spend my time on? Where would I put my focus and energy? What ultimately brought joy and meaning into my life?

And this approachable and engaging look at virtue, ethics, and the good life will reward careful reading and contemplation. While the book begins with a contrast between virtue ethics and consequentialism, it is really about how to go about a thoughtful, active and meaningful life; wrestling with the big questions and coming to grips with partial and contingent answers as best we can.

But like so many non-fiction books I have read in the past, I am struggling to organize my thoughts into a concise review.1 But will try to recap the main ideas and offer what I liked and learned.

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Lessons Learned in 2021: Less busy is easy, more meaning is hard

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 1 Comment

As indicated in my Happy New Years post, I feel like I have learned somethings about myself in 2021 and that I am in a better position to post to this blog as a result. Obviously, I did not set out to learn things simply so I could blog here.

Like many during the never-ending ongoing pandemic I was trying to figure how I wanted to structure and approach my life.  What would I spend my time on? Where would I put my focus and energy?  What ultimately brought joy and meaning into my life?

There were a number of factors involved:

  • I am now working from home for the foreseeable future while my wife has a longish commute.
  • I continue to focus on my health. Having lost nearly 45 pounds, my focus is on finding a workable balance when it comes to diet and exercise. Not losing weight or gaining it back but finding a healthy stability. I run three or four times a week but still eat too much sweets and carbs.
  • I still read quite a bit but seem to struggle retaining knowledge and information from what I read.
  • I have a rather large library at home and yet still struggle not to buy more books and check out books from the library.
  • Despite wrestling with what you might call digital minimalism for many years now, I still find myself distracted by electronic devices and gadgets.

What has been reinforced for me time and time again in 2021 is that distraction is easy and focus is hard. A cliche right?  But nonetheless true.

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Happy New Year! 2022 is a brand new year (literally)

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 1 Comment

I have decided to attempt yet another return to blogging on this site.  I feel like I have learned somethings about myself in the last six months or so.  I also fixed an issue that was making the site very slow.

What better time to make a fresh start than the first day of the year?

I hope to once again post my favorite books from 2021 and I have few other posts in the works. I had planned to read fewer books in 2021 because I wanted to read bigger books and re-read books (more about that later).  But I ended up at 84, between the 100 of the previous year and the 60 I had set as a goal.

So playing the optimist, here is to a great 2022! Happy reading.

Reviews

The Winter that Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge, 1777-1778 by Phillip S. Greenwalt

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

Continuing to delve into the Revolutionary War some more, I recently read The Winter that Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge, 1777-1778 by Phillip S. Greenwalt. It is an excellent brief history of the American army at Valley Forge.

The Winter that Won the War is part of Savas Beatie’s Emerging Revolutionary War Series. The Series offers an overview of the Revolutionary War’s most important battles and stories.

The Winter that Won the War does not disappoint. It is a succinct history that summarizes the major events and characters that molded the American army into the fighting machine that eventually won the war.

Greenwalt establishes Valley Forge’s place in the timeline of the war – immediately following the disastrous Philadelphia campaign (which had the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown). He follows that with the encampment at Valley Forge and the training under Prussian Baron von Steuben. He finishes the book with a study of a small battle after Valley Forge (Battle of Barren Hill) that illustrated how well the newly trained army maneuvered under stress.

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Reviews

Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

I have been trying to familiarize myself more with the Revolutionary War. I started a few years ago with Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777 by Michael C. Harris. I recently read another book by Harris, Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777.

As I stated in my previous review of Brandywine, Harris did a superb job of bringing that battle to life by stating the facts of the battle in a relatable writing style. However, Germantown misses the mark a little. It is a good read, but seems a bit disjointed at times as Harris tries to seamlessly incorporate quotes from various primary sources. At times, the text is a conglomeration of primary source quotes with no flow.

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