When the time came for Victor Hugo to be born (1802), most of Europe's cathedrals were falling into grave disrepair. Unlike man, cathedrals do not have a voice of their own, and no one was speaking for the aging gothic buildings. By the early 1800s, many cathedrals fell out of favor, were forgotten, and were letting the ivy in where mankind used to enter. By 1830, Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral became so neglected and disused that it became dangerous to even enter for fear of falling pieces. By all appearances, the gothic age seemed to have finally closed, and many ancient buildings, including the Notre Dame Cathedral, were slotted for demolition

The first few years of young Victor Hugo's life were spent following the army with his father, who was a general under Napoleon's brother Joseph. Young Hugo was taught to hero-worship Napoleon, and in consequence, idealism and politics were to occupy his mind for the duration of his life. By 1812, he was living in Paris with his staunchly Royalist mother, which must have made a confusing impression on Victor Hugo's mind. I believe the two extremes, Napoleon-worship, and loyalty to the monarchy, gave Victor Hugo the complex foundation that he needed in order to write with the breadth that he did. He understood both worlds fully, which meant that he was one of the few to fully understand France given the time that he was living in.

He grew up in a Paris that was Post-Revolution. He didn't experience any of the Revolution himself, but show more the adults around him did. During Hugo's time, the gibbet still stood on the hills on the outskirts of town to hang criminals as warmings. Hugo was living in the new Paris, the people's Paris, the Paris inherited by the legacy of Napoleon's code. It was to be an Enlightened era, but it was Victor Hugo who helped make it a Romantic era as well.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was Victor Hugo's rallying cry to save the large crumbling gothic building that stood in the center of Paris. To read it is to understand what it means to revere the people of the past and admire their incredible achievements. show less

This book is a slow burn that explores the theme of culture, humanity, and ones place in this world, amongst other things. This story has a very broad scope that is hard to condense in very few words. "If money equals happiness, happiness is lost" is one theme among many that the author explores. Indeed, author Stefan Eberhard is a very deep thinker and this book is an exhaustive read that cannot be completed in a single sitting. One needs to read this book in snippet portions and allow his thoughts to sink deep into the soul.

Author Eddie S Glaude Jr eloquently describes his respect for James Baldwin throughout the pages of this book. In it, he reminds readers that Baldwin "always believed we could be better than what we are." He also reminds us that Baldwin had to fight for that insight. Baldwin was not a man who was afraid. He was someone who ran toward the trouble because he knew that facing our fears was the only possible path to salvation. "If you're scared to death, you walk toward it." Author Glaude does well to remind us readers that Badlwin's words still ring true today.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. With travel being on indefinite hiatus, this book allowed me to armchair explore the British Museum with a tour guide. The book is quite sizable, and the binding did start to fall apart mid-way through. I got the book from the library, so it might have been mishandled prior to my reading it, though. Overall, it was an easy book to conquer despite its intimating size as I kept it by my bedside and read a chapter or two a night.

I owned this book for YEARS before I actually sat down to read it. For the longest time, I simply treated it as a reference book, but I got a wild hair a few months ago and really started to read it from the beginning. The version that I read dated from the year 2000, and it was interesting (or should I say shocking) to learn how much the climate has changed in the intervening 21 years. Most of the information in the book stands the test of time, but certain passages did read like an environmental time capsule. I truly love the Sonoran Desert, and this book is a must read for those who want to preserve it for the future.

Living in Phoenix, AZ as I do, I burn through quite a few cacti related books. This one was surprisingly decent. I dare say that it was one of the better ones that I've read recently. Pictures were fantastic and the write ups were inspiring enough that I went to the internet quite a few times to learn more about certain species. Climate change might make more of us appreciate drought tolerant plants, and this book is a good place to start learning about some of the most popular cacti and succulents.

This book was a difficult read in the sense that it was hard to read about what happened to the Native American peoples. It's one thing to have heard about The Trail of Tears, but it's entirely something else to read first-hand accounts that describe the horrors with such phrases as, "I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew." Most of this book reads matter-of-factly, which gets dry at times, but I encouraged myself to get through the whole thing. The United States doesn't have the best history in the world, and this book exists to remind readers that it didn't have to be this way.