Educational Book Journey (part 5) ...

The last book (for now) is titled Circling the Midnight Sun: Culture and Change in the Invisible Arctic by the Canadian geographer, writer, speaker: James Raffan.

I found this book riveting ... it's about the four million people in eight countries, speaking dozens of languages and representing almost as many indigenous ethnicities.

Yamalo Nenets -
 autonomous region
in Russia

It highlights that we (in the middle latitudes - as Raffan describes it)  may be worrying about climate change - but they (the indigenous peoples) are concerned about their loss of language, cultural decay, loss of land - which we purport to own - yet they have travelled and accessed those lands for millennia ... their lands are their home - their soul ...

Nomadic Nenets - reindeer hunters

I made lots of notes ... but as I was leant this book - I need to get my own copy ... that says it all really.

Raffan decides to circumnavigate the globe at 66.6 degrees latitude: the Arctic Circle.  He is Canadian,  but starts his journey in Iceland, and on via Norway, Sweden, Finland, various places across Russia, over to Alaska and then into Canada ...

... this is where having read Island of the Blue Foxes, as mentioned in part 2, was really helpful ... I had some notion about Siberia ... and now recognise some of the names.

Yes, I have other books on the go ... but I thought you'd be interested to know about these ... back to normal posts in the future - but more books will follow anon!

The Yamalo Nenets Autonomous Region - Russia's most important source of Natural Gas ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Educational Book Journey (part 2) ...

After Vancouver ... came this book:

Stephen Bown's book on Vitus Bering ... 'Island of the Blue Foxes' I found via a review in the paper ... I was enticed as it looked as though it would introduce me to Russia, Siberia, and the Bering Strait ... named for Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741) ...

... I found it fascinating and informative, especially about Siberia, the eastern side of Russia, down into China and Asia: particularly geographically and settlement-wise ... and the Europeans' early search for the Northwest passage and Alaska ...

Moving right on to more Eastern Europe -

The next book I read, having had access to one of the book club's books, was Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder;

Browder's Russian tax accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in prison ... the Magnitsky Act, promoted by Browder, was passed into USA law in December 2012.

I found Red Notice a really informative read - disconcerting to say the least ... but I'd worked in this sort of life in my early days in London and Robert Maxwell features in the book - another fleeting personal connection ... his home was next to my school in Oxford.

Then I was able to read Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism ... how salutary: of the world we live in today ... (by a former three-star general in the Secret Police of Communist Romania, Ion Mihai Pacepa, and law professor Ronald J. Rychlak).  There's a companion film: Disinformation: The Secret Strategy to Destroy the West (which I haven't seen).

Some of the back blurb - the sentence by
R James Woolsey is worth noting

Upcoming in the fifth post ... Circling the Midnight Sun: Culture and Change in the Invisible Arctic by Canadian James Raffan.  This I was given by the lady who'd introduced me to the book club - she'd studied nursing at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington, Oxford - where I'd been at school ... we'd just about overlapped. 

Midnight Sun, Altafjord, Norway

Small world - she'd been up in the Yukon ... so I asked if she could bring me some information back - sadly my email to her was sent as she was on her way back ... but she lent me Raffan's book, and to change the subject,  inspired me to write the post about Salmon in the Yukon from some information she had given me.

The fifth post will be about the book 'Circling the Midnight Sun' - but otherwise here I have mentioned:

Island of the Blue Foxes by Stephen Bown

Red Notice by Bill Browder

Disinformation by a former three-star general in the Secret Police of Communist Romania, Ion Mihai Pacepa, and law professor Ronald J. Rychlak

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories