Back on line

It has been nearly a month since my last posting. I guess I didn't have much to say, but I did have a lot to read since Christmas.
I have just finisned "The Island at the Center of the World" by Russel Shorto. This is a must read book for anyone who has an interest in American history. Shorto tells the story of the New Netherlands, starting in 1624 and ending in 1673 when it became an English colony named for the Duke of York. Much of the story is tied to a Dutch lawyer, Adriaen van der Donck. We have much that we aquire from the the work of van der Donck, including the basis for the 1st and 2nd amendment to the Constitution. Freedom of speech and feedom of religion were ideas that van der Donck worked hard to preserve in the Manhatten colony and these were preserved for us under the colony of New York.
I have also finshed "Mysteries of the Middle Ages - The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the cults of Catholic Europe" by Thomas Cahill. This is the fifth book in Cahill's "Hinges of History" series. The other four are: Sailing the Wine Dark Sea; Desire of the Everlasting Hills; The Gifts of the Jews; How the Irish saved Civilization. In my view all are worth reading. Mysteries ranges from Alexandria to Rome, Paris, and London. In it you meet Pluto, Philo, Clement, Constantine, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Augustine, GregoryII, Hildegard, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aqino, Frances of Assisi, Roger Bacon, and Dante. It is an easy read but it will require a second time through to capture the relationships.
I have lined up on the shelfwaiting, "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama; "On Being Christian" by Hans Kung; "Saveges" by Joe Kane; "One Christmas in Washington" by David Bercuson & Holger Herwig and 'Foreign Aid" by Carol Lancaster.