Currently Reading

I am currently working my way through the following books. As I am somewhat vision impaired, I do all of my “reading” via audiobooks.

• By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett – translator
• Narrated by: Anthony Heald
• Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins

The Audible Publisher’s Summary of this book is as follows:

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

In this intense detective thriller instilled with philosophical, religious, and social commentary, Dostoevsky studies the psychological impact upon a desperate and impoverished student when he murders a despicable pawnbroker, transgressing moral law to ultimately “benefit humanity”.

©1866 Public Domain (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

• Unabridged Audiobook

Here is the Wikipedia summary and I will warn that it includes some spoilers:

Crime and Punishment (pre-reform Russian: Преступленіе и наказаніе; post-reform Russian: Преступление и наказание, tr. Prestupleniye i nakazaniye, IPA: [prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje]) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky’s full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing and is often cited as one of the greatest works of world literature.

Crime and Punishment follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable objects in her flat. He theorises that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds, and seeks to convince himself that certain crimes are justifiable if they are committed in order to remove obstacles to the higher goals of ‘extraordinary’ men. Once the deed is done, however, he finds himself wracked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust. His theoretical justifications lose all their power as he struggles with guilt and horror and is confronted with both internal and external consequences of his deed.

I started this book quite a while ago, and through no fault of the book’s own, I just put it down and stopped reading it. I was enjoying it, but my brain just did not want to continue on just then. Does that ever happen to anyone else?

Anyway… I finally picked it back up, but started over from the beginning so that it would all be pretty fresh in my mind before I do the review. So far, so good!

Current Progress: 40%

• By: Richard J. Dewhurst
• Narrated by: Nick McDougal
• Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
• 4.4 out of 5 stars (111 ratings)

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

A study of the substantial evidence for a former race of giants in North America and its 150-year suppression by the Smithsonian Institution. It:

• Shows how thousands of giant skeletons have been found, particularly in the Mississippi Valley, as well as the ruins of the giants’ cities
• Explores 400 years of giant finds, including newspaper articles, first-person accounts, state historical records, and illustrated field reports
• Reveals the Stonehenge-era megalithic burial complex on Catalina Island with more than 4,000 giant skeletons, including kings more than nine feet tall
• Includes more than 100 rare photographs and illustrations of the lost evidence

Drawing on 400 years of newspaper articles and photos, first-person accounts, state historical records, and illustrated field reports, Richard J. Dewhurst reveals not only that North America was once ruled by an advanced race of giants, but also that the Smithsonian has been actively suppressing the physical evidence for nearly 150 years. He shows how thousands of giant skeletons have been unearthed at Mound Builder sites across the continent, only to disappear from the historical record. He examines other concealed giant discoveries, such as the giant mummies found in Spirit Cave, Nevada, wrapped in fine textiles and dating to 8000 BC; the hundreds of red-haired bog mummies found at sinkhole “cenotes” on the West Coast of Florida and dating to 7500 BC; and the ruins of the giants’ cities with populations in excess of 100,000 in Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Louisiana.

Dewhurst shows how this suppression began shortly after the Civil War and transformed into an outright cover-up in 1879 when Major John Wesley Powell was appointed Smithsonian director, launching a strict pro-evolution, pro-Manifest Destiny agenda. He also reveals the 1920s’ discovery on Catalina Island of a megalithic burial complex with 6,000 years of continuous burials and more than 4,000 skeletons, including a succession of kings and queens, some more than nine feet tall – the evidence for which is hidden in the restricted-access evidence rooms at the Smithsonian.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2013 Richard J. Dewhurst. All Rights Reserved. (P)2019 Inner Traditions Audio. All Rights Reserved.

• Unabridged Audiobook
• Categories: History

I am loving this book so far. Dewhurst put together an enormous list of archived local newspaper articles reporting on the finding of giant skeletons, in and around (usually) North American indigenous mound building sites. The conventional narrative is that the 19th century was filled with practical jokers, but that story just does not hold up when you really look at the reporting.

I’m not far enough into the book yet to make a determination as to whether these were “advanced” giants, or not. However, the explanation about how and why the Smithsonian has covered this up makes a lot of sense – and doesn’t resort to (at least not yet) a vast conspiracy. It’s amazing what one or two opinionated people can do to an organization.

Current Progress: 50%