Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in Prehistoric Times

At the time of the first European contact, North and South America may have been populated by more than 90 million indigenous peoples: about 10 million in America north of present-day Mexico; 30 million in Mexico; 11 million in Central America; 445,000 in the Caribbean islands; 30 million in the South American Andean region; and 9 million in the remainder of South America. These population figures are a rough estimate; some authorities cite much lower figures. Exact figures, of course, are impossible to determine; when colonists began keeping records, the native populations had already been drastically reduced by war, famine, forced labor, and epidemics caused by the new pathogens brought by Europeans.

Evidence indicates that the first peoples to migrate into the Americas, coming across the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia) from northeastern Siberia into Alaska, would have been carrying stone tools and other equipment of types exemplified by Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic styles. These lithic (stone-tool-using) peoples would have lived in bands of about 100 individuals, fishing and hunting herd animals, such as reindeer and mammoths. They would have used skin tents for shelter, and they would have tanned reindeer skins and sewn them into clothing similar to that made by the Inuit: parkas, trousers, boots, and mittens. 

These people would have been nomadic, moving camp at least several times each year to take advantage of seasonal sources of food. It is likely that they gathered each summer for a few weeks with other bands to celebrate religious ceremonies and to trade, compete in sports, and visit. At such gatherings, valuable information could be obtained about new sources of food or raw materials, such as stone for tools. Sometimes, such news might lead families to move into new territory: eventually into Alaska, and then farther south, into America.

Evidence for the earliest migrations into the Americas is scarce and usually not as clear as archaeologists would wish. In the Yukon, bone tools have been discovered that have been radiocarbon dated to 27,000 BC, but it is possible that a native at a later time picked up pieces of bone that were already ancient to make into new tools. Campfire remains in the valley of Mexico have been radiocarbon dated to 21,000 BC, and a few chips of stone tools have been found near the hearths, indicating the presence of humans at that time. In a cave in the Andes Mountains of Peru near Ayacucho, archaeologists have found stone tools and butchered game bones that have been dated to 18,000 BC. A cave in Idaho in the US contains similar evidence – stone tools and butchered bone – dated to 12,000 BC.

In none of these sites do distinctive American styles characterize the artifacts. Artifacts having the earliest distinctive American styles appeared about 11,000 BC and are known as Clovis stone blades. Clovis culture represents the first widespread, continent-wide society in North America. They are named after the type-site discovered in the 1920s near Clovis, New Mexico, where their signature artifacts were first unearthed.

Why I Gave Up on The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

My Summer Book Report of Rank, Stinking Defeat

The Magic Mountain, written by German author Thomas Mann in 1924, is one of those books that always lands on the “greatest books” lists, so as I have been trying to broaden my grounding in the classics, I checked it out of the library and had a go. It’s a hefty tome at 706 pages (at least in this translation), but that didn’t scare me; I read pretty quickly—about a page a minute—so that only meant fewer than twelve hours of actual reading. Feeling cocky, I didn’t even get to it for the first two weeks of the three-week checkout period because I was finishing up other things.

Sometimes I read the author forewords (yes, I’m that person), and Mann’s foreword was very witty and engaging. I looked forward to diving right in, so I did. Unfortunately, I dove back out repeatedly. It was all too easy to keep putting this book down, and I can sum up the reason in one word: digression. Before I explain that, let me just set up the story a little: Mann’s novel concerns the experience of a young German man named Hans Castorp, who takes a three-week holiday to visit his cousin Joachim, who is staying as a patient in a sanitorium in Switzerland. (Heh—okay, my Spell Check doesn’t like ‘sanitorium’ and wants me to write ‘sanitarium’. Tough nuts, Spell Check. That’s what they were called.) Aaaaaanyway, almost immediately upon arrival, Hans himself begins to suffer mysteriously from an assortment of physical infirmities, even as he holds himself apart as simply a vacationer among the real patients, whom he observes with a critical, bemused eye.

Mann is, as I mentioned, a witty writer, and he is an excellent hand at character development. The protagonist, from whose perspective we experience the story, is fully-fleshed (the third-person narrative allows us to share Hans’s viewpoint while allowing the author to freely make asides about his character to us) and the supporting characters are colorful and intriguing. But then there’s the digression: frequently, the action of the story is interrupted as we take a trip into Hans’s mind, either witnessing as he internally toys with some idea or theory of his, or as he experiences a memory from his childhood. These are not off-putting at all, as they serve to add dimension to his character and explanation for his actions and motivations, but they are an easy point at which to exit the novel for a while (after all, we do all have lives, I think).

So, it can be slow going. And I started running out of time and renewing the book repeatedly. After all, I had to read it; it was on my list! Alas, I finally had to give up completely, and what did me in was, in one different word: bloviation. Now there’s a word you don’t hear often (my Spell Check just threw up its little electronic hands and stalked out of the room), so I will provide a definition as I understand it: when some long-winded cuss yammers on just to hear himself talk, or a person with a pedantic streak lectures at great length about some lofty concept using pretentious and obscure terminology, that’s bloviation. Mann has a character, Settembrini, who is continually guilty of the former, and I cringed inwardly whenever he made an appearance on the page—I was only about a hundred pages in when, in the middle of another one of Settembrini’s rants, I wondered why the author found it necessary to subject me to this person and whether I could handle much more.

But the final straw came about 20 pages later, in the form of the other type of bloviation, when I was treated to the actual text of the florid and baffling lecture given by the sanitorium’s psychiatrist, Dr. Krokowski. This was the point at which I experienced not mild irritation, but true despair. The author himself was the perpetrator of all this! Was I to expect the next five hundred pages to be miraculously free of any further fits of lengthy punditry? I was not. So I admitted defeat, which was especially bitter because after I snapped the book closed in disgust, I noticed the words “Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature” winking mockingly up at me from the cover. But frankly, I ain’t gettin’ any younger, and there are plenty of other books out there.

But what of Hans Castorp? Is he being made sick on purpose? Much mention was made of people who didn’t expect to stay long ending up there for years and even dying. Also, the money-hungry nature of the industry was vilified at length (by—you-guessed it—Settembrini). Was that foreshadowing as to Hans’s fate? Why is the book called The Magic Mountain? Do things get exceptionally weird and trippy? Despite all the circumlocution, the story itself had enormously creepy potential. So, I did something I have never, ever done before, as I consider it cheating and spoiling: I turned to the end to see what happened.

And of course I will not spoil the book for you, gentle reader, because you may have a higher tolerance for bloviation. I should think you do, if you have reached the end of this article. Cheers!

Other books I disliked, but at least read:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-of-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-review-of-boston-darkens-by-michael.html

Other books I read and liked: 

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2025/12/book-review-ja-konraths-murder-mystery.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/08/review-of-king-in-tree-by-steven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/review-of-your-head-is-houseboat-by.html

Improve Your Vocabulary-Today’s Lesson: Greek Roots, Part 4

Getting Through Lambda and Mu

Our first root today is log or logy, meaning “speech”, “study of”, or “collection of”. For example, dialogue, as all writers know, is when characters speak to one another in a written work. People also use it rather pretentiously to refer to speaking aloud, as in “Let’s have a dialogue”, or, more execrably, “Let’s dialogue”. (Your grammar goddess frowns upon using nouns as verbs. As Calvin said, “Verbing weirds words.”). Moving on to the other definitions of log, we have astrology, study of the stars, zoology (pronounced ZOE-ol-o-gee, not ZOO-ology; after all, there are only two Os in it), study of the animal kingdom, and of the third definition, “a collection of”, I am sure we can think of words like anthology. The cool thing about roots is that they are still used to form new words: for example, the term discology to refer to the collected recordings of a musician or band is a recent but accurate coinage.

Our next root is mega or megalo, meaning “great” (in the sense of “big and powerful”, rather than “neato”), hence words like megalopolis, “great city”; megavitamin, one vitamin pill constituted of a large number of vitamin and mineral ingredients; and megalomaniac, one who is obsessed with greatness (think Lex Luthor or pretty much any James Bond villain). There’s even an interesting word that is composed of two roots, acro (“high”) and megal (“great”): acromegaly, a scientific term for giantism that literally means “great height”. Unfortunately, giantism is a very painful disease that kills people fairly young, so even though its sufferers look impressive, you wouldn’t want to be them.

Let’s go the opposite way with micro, the Greek root meaning “small”. In modern times we have specialized micro to refer specifically to things that are not just small, not just miniscule or tiny or diminuitive or even teeny-weeny, but so little they cannot be seen with the naked eye, hence the term microscopic. Microbe and microorganism are fairly interchangeable terms, both meaning “tiny life”, but I tend to think of microbes more as germs and microorganisms as amoebae and other tiny critters that have a bit more personality. Microcosm is another cool word, combining with the Greek word cosmos to mean “tiny world”.

Our last root today is morph, meaning “form”, and this has spawned some interesting terms like amorphous (“without form”), metamorphosis (“outer change”), and polymorph (“many forms”). The aforementioned blobby amoebae would be a good example of amorphous things, as they shift and flow without a defined form; a mist or fog would qualify as amorphous, as well. Metamorphosis is well-exemplified by the change a caterpillar undergoes to become a butterfly, and the Christian idea of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost as being different aspects of one being is also polymorphism. Ancient Egyptians also worshiped gods with polymorphic natures, and other major religions, such as Hinduism and Shinto, feature them, as well.

Okay, we are now halfway through. Until next time, keep expanding that vocabulary!

Previous articles in the series: 

Three Steps to Improving Your Vocabulary

Step 1 - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/03/improve-your-vocabulary-in-three-easy.html

Step 2 - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/03/improve-your-vocabulary-in-three-easy_20.html

Step 3 - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/03/improve-your-vocabulary-in-three-easy_28.html

Greek Roots Series

Part 1 - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/04/improve-your-vocabulary-roots-part-one.html

Part 2 - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/05/improve-your-vocabulary-todays-lesson.html

Part 3 - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/05/improve-your-vocabulary-todays-lesson_0820175771.html

Image Credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/sculptures-in-garden-12398109/

Exploring Primary Education in the United States: Public, Magnet, Charter, and Homeschooling

 

Choosing the right primary education for a child is one of the most significant decisions a parent can make. In the United States, the educational landscape has evolved far beyond a one-size-fits-all model, offering families a variety of pathways tailored to different learning styles, needs, and philosophies. While traditional public schools remain the most common choice, alternative publicly funded options like magnet and charter schools, as well as the entirely independent route of homeschooling, have gained immense popularity. Understanding the fundamental definitions, advantages, and disadvantages of these four primary education types can help parents make informed decisions for their children's foundational years.

Traditional Public Schools

Traditional public schools are publicly funded institutions managed by local school districts that are legally mandated to accept all students living within a specific geographic area (“attendance zone”). The primary advantage of these schools is their accessibility; they are entirely free to attend, typically provide transportation (also free), and offer an environment that reflects the local community. Furthermore, public schools are strictly regulated by state standards, ensuring a baseline of accountability, state-certified teachers, and a wide array of special education services. However, a major drawback is that the quality of traditional public schools is often heavily tied to local property taxes, leading to stark disparities in funding, resources, and quality of facilities between higher- and lower-income neighborhoods. Additionally, they often struggle with large class sizes and a generalized, standardized-test-driven curriculum that may fail to provide individualized attention to primary students who learn differently.

Magnet Schools

Magnet schools are free public institutions that are operated by local school districts, but, unlike traditional public schools, they draw students from across designated zoning boundaries and focus on a specific theme, such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), the performing arts, or foreign languages. A significant pro of magnet schools is their ability to provide highly specialized, rigorous academic programs and exceptional resources that nurture a child’s specific talents and interests early on. Originally designed in the 1970s to help desegregate school districts, they also boast intentionally diverse student populations from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. On the downside, admission into a magnet school is highly competitive, often requiring entrance exams, auditions, or strict lotteries, meaning not every interested child will secure a seat. Furthermore, attending a magnet school can result in long daily commutes for young students and may drain high-performing students and critical funding away from neighborhood traditional public schools.

Charter Schools

Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free schools that operate independently of the local school district under a "charter," or contract, with an authorizing body, such as a state agency, non-profit, or university. The main benefit of charter schools is their flexibility and autonomy. This allows them to bypass many bureaucratic district regulations to employ innovative teaching methodologies, distinct educational philosophies (like Montessori or project-based learning), and specialized behavioral models. Because parents actively choose to send their children to charter schools, they often foster tight-knit communities with high levels of parental involvement. Smaller class sizes in charter schools also contribute to this feeling of closeness. The disadvantages, however, include a lack of standardized oversight, meaning educational quality and teacher certification requirements can vary wildly from one charter school to the next. They also typically rely on lottery systems for admission due to limited space, and if they fail to meet the academic or financial benchmarks outlined in their specific charter, they risk being abruptly shut down, potentially displacing primary students in the middle of their education.

Homeschooling

Homeschooling is an educational model in which parents or guardians take full responsibility for directing and providing their children's education at home, completely outside of a formal public or private school setting. The greatest advantage of homeschooling is the ultimate level of personalization it offers; parents can tailor the curriculum to their child's unique learning pace, interests, and family values, all while maintaining a highly flexible daily schedule that allows for frequent field trips, real-world learning, and strong family bonding. However, the cons of homeschooling are substantial, primarily concerning the immense time, energy, and financial commitment required from the parents, which often necessitates a single-income household. Additionally, parents must proactively seek out socialization opportunities, such as homeschooling co-ops or community sports, to ensure their children develop crucial peer-to-peer social skills, and the lack of strict state oversight in many regions means there is little safety net if a child falls behind academically.

Ultimately, there is no universally perfect choice for primary education in the United States. Whether a family prioritizes the community integration of a traditional public school, the specialized focus of a magnet school, the innovative approach of a charter school, or the personalized flexibility of homeschooling, parents must weigh these pros and cons against the specific needs and personality of their child.

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-a-boy-outside-the-classroom-8500412/

A Calendar of Japanese Festivals

Japan has a wealth of amazing sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, from ancient temples and beautiful silk kimonos to roaring waterfalls, fragrant cherry blossoms, and delicious native foods. But one of the most interesting parts of Japanese culture is the festivals.

Japanese festivals, known as matsuri, are traditional celebrations deeply rooted in Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, often involving energetic music, dance, and elaborate processions. These events are frequently held to honor kami (the deities, divinities, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the Shinto religion) to pray for a good harvest, protection from natural disasters, or to ward off evil spirits. With an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 festivals held annually across the country, many have been recognized as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage for their historical and cultural significance.

Visitors to these festivals can expect a vibrant atmosphere, filled with traditional games, local entertainment, and food stalls selling treats like takoyaki (deep-fried dumplings made with minced octopus). While many festivals feature the parading of mikoshi (portable shrines) and dashi (large floats), others center around seasonal milestones, like the blooming of cherry blossoms, the summer heat, or the first snowfall of winter.

Here is a guide to some of Japan's most famous festivals, grouped by time of year and location:

Winter (January – February)

Nationwide

• New Year (Shōgatsu): The most important holiday in Japan, where families visit shrines, eat lucky osechi foods, and pray for a prosperous year.

• Coming of Age Day (Seijin Shiki): Held on the second Monday of January to celebrate those who have reached the age of adulthood.

• Setsubun: A February festival marking the division of seasons in which people perform rituals to drive away evil spirits and welcome good luck.

Nara

• Wakakusa Yamayaki: On the fourth Saturday of January, the grass on the hillside of Mount Wakakusayama is set on fire in a dramatic display.

Sapporo (Hokkaido)

• Sapporo Snow Festival: One of Japan’s largest winter events, featuring hundreds of massive, intricate snow and ice sculptures in Odori Park.

Okayama

• Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri: A "naked festival" where thousands of men wearing only loincloths compete for lucky charms thrown by a priest. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival in hopes of gaining luck for the entire year.

Aomori/Akita

• Lake Towada Snow Festival: A February event featuring snow mazes, Japanese igloos, local food, and a nightly fireworks show over the lake.

Okinawa

• Yaedake Cherry Blossom Festival: Held from late January to mid-February, this is one of the earliest opportunities to see cherry blossoms in Japan, owing to Okinawa's tropical climate.

---

Spring (March – May)

Nationwide

• Hinamatsuri (Doll Festival): Families display tiered platforms of traditional dolls to pray for the health and happiness of young girls.

• Hanami (Flower Viewing): A major spring tradition where people hold picnics and parties under blooming cherry blossom trees.

• Hanamatsuri: Held on April 8th to celebrate Buddha's birth, featuring rituals where hydrangea tea is poured over Buddha statues.

Kyoto

• Aoi Matsuri: An elegant May festival featuring a large procession of people dressed in Heian-period (AD 794-1185) costumes traveling between shrines.

Tokyo

• Kanda Matsuri: One of Tokyo's "Big Three" festivals, featuring a massive parade of portable shrines to honor the spirit of Taira no Masakado.

• Sanja Matsuri: A wild and high-energy festival in Asakusa where dozens of portable shrines are paraded through the streets to honor the founders of Senso-ji Temple.

Kawasaki

• Kanamara Matsuri: Held in April at Kanayama Shrine, this unique festival centers on a phallus-shaped shrine to pray for fertility and easy childbearing.

Fukuoka

• Dontaku: A massive May festival featuring colorful costumes and performances that attracts millions of visitors to the city.

Various Locations (Cherry Blossom Festivals)

• Matsuyama, Ehime: The Shiroyama Koen festival takes place in early April in the park surrounding the castle.

• Joetsu, Niigata: The Takada Koen festival is famous for its evening illumination of thousands of cherry trees.

• Hirosaki, Aomori: Held from late April to early May, this is one of the most famous locations in Northern Japan for viewing blossoms.

---

Summer (June – August)

Nationwide

• Tanabata (Star Festival): Based on a legend of two celestial lovers, the weaver princess Orihime (Vega) and the cowherd Hikoboshi (Altair), people celebrate by hanging wishes on bamboo branches.

• Bon Festival: A Buddhist observance in August to honor the spirits of ancestors, often featuring traditional Bon Odori dances.

• Tōrō Nagashi: A beautiful ceremony where floating paper lanterns are set adrift on water to guide the spirits of the deceased.

Kyoto

• Gion Matsuri: Kyoto’s most famous festival, lasting the entire month of July and featuring a world-renowned parade of massive, ornate floats.

Osaka

• Tenjin Matsuri (pictured above): One of Japan's top three festivals, it features a land procession and a boat parade on the river accompanied by fireworks. 

Aomori

• Nebuta Matsuri: One of the most famous festivals in Japan, featuring massive, glowing paper lantern floats shaped like warriors and mythical figures.

Tokushima

• Awa Odori: The largest dance festival in Japan, where thousands of dancers take to the streets in traditional costumes and straw hats.

Akita

• Kanto Matsuri: Performers balance long bamboo poles decorated with dozens of lit paper lanterns on their foreheads, shoulders, and hips.

Fukuoka

• Hakata Gion Yamakasa: An intense race where teams of men sprint through the streets carrying heavy, elaborately decorated floats.

Kōchi

• Yosakoi Matsuri: A high-energy modern dance festival where teams perform synchronized routines using wooden clappers called naruko.

---

Autumn (September – November)

Nationwide

• Momijigari: The traditional autumn pursuit of visiting scenic areas to view the changing colors of the maple leaves.

• Shichi-Go-San: A festival for children aged three, five, and seven, who visit shrines in traditional clothing to pray for health.

Nagasaki

• Nagasaki Kunchi: A dynamic festival reflecting the city's multicultural history, featuring famous dragon dances and ship-shaped floats.

Kishiwada (Osaka)

• Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri: A thrilling (and somewhat dangerous) festival in which large wooden floats are pulled through the streets at high speeds.

Himeji

• Nada no Kenka Matsuri: Known as a "fighting festival," participants slam portable shrines against each other in a display of strength and spirit.

Kyoto

• Jidai Matsuri: Held on October 22nd, this festival features a massive "Festival of Ages" parade showcasing costumes from every era of Kyoto's history.

---

Year-End (December)

Nationwide

• Year-end Fairs (Toshi no Ichi): Markets held at shrines and temples where people buy traditional decorations like kadomatsu, which incorporates pine and bamboo, for the New Year.

• Ōmisoka (New Year's Eve): People visit temples to hear bells ring 108 times to dispel earthly desires and eat "long" soba noodles for longevity.

So if you are planning to travel to or in Japan, you can probably catch a matsuri. As you can see, there are festivals all throughout the year and in many locations. Make sure to include one in your travel plans for an experience you won't forget!

Image credit: Midori, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Books List, Part 14

20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

The weather is starting to warm up and Memorial Day is right around the corner! Time for another Books List post, because we are gonna head to the beach and read our little hearts out!

My likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in which I read them.

1. Survivor – Chuck Palahniuk

2. Tokyo Travel Sketchbook – Amaia Arrazola

3. Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov

4. Atonement – Ian McEwan

5. The King in the Tree – Steven Millhauser – read my review: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/08/review-of-king-in-tree-by-steven.html

6. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

7. What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety – Cole Kazdin

8. Marvel 1602 – Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert

9. Bombshells vol. 1: Enlisted – Marguerite Bennett

10. Just After Sunset – Stephen King

11. JLA Earth 2 – Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely

12. The Shifting Tide – Anne Perry

13. The Face of a Stranger – Anne Perry

14. A Dangerous Mourning – Anne Perry

15. Defend and Betray – Anne Perry

16. My Headless Son Fred and His Head Baby Brother Headley: The Curious Tale of Filmon Trout – T. Hudson Roberts

17. Dietland – Sarai Walker

18. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

19. The Mermaid Chair – Sue Monk Kidd

20. All that Remains – Patricia Cornwell

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

1. The Pocket Powter – Susan Powter

2. Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance

3. Lolita -Vladimir Nabokov

4. The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

5. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

My Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the reasons they made it onto my list:

1. They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;

2. They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or

3. I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.

#1 can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks of stuff by author (apologies).

1. How We Think – John Dewey

2. Humboldt's Gift – Saul Bellow

3. Humphrey Clinker – Tobias Smollett

4. Hyperion – Friedrich Hölderlin

5. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith

6. I Hate Other People's Kids – Adrianne Frost

7. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

8. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov

9. Idyls of the King – Alfred Tennyson

10. If Not Now, When? – Primo Levi

11. If On a Winter's Night a Traveler – Italo Calvino

12. If This Is a Man – Primo Levi

13. Ignorance – Milan Kundera

14. I'm Not Stiller – Max Frisch

15. Impressions of Africa – Raymond Roussel

16. In a Free State – V.S. Naipaul

17. In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu

18. In a House of Dreams and Glass – Robert Klitzman

19. In Parenthesis – David Jones

20. In Sicily – Elio Vittorini

21. In the Forest – Edna O'Brien

22. In the Heart of the Country – J.M. Coetzee

23. In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan

24. Independent People – Hallidor Laxness

25. Indigo – Marina Warner

26. Inside Mr. Enderby – Anthony Burgess

27. Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi

28. Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino

29. Ironweed – William Kennedy

30. Islands – Dan Sleigh

31. Jack Maggs – Peter Carey

32. Jacob's Room – Virginia Woolf

33. Jacques the Fatalist – Denis Diderot

34. Jahrestage – Uwe Johnson

35. Jazz – Toni Morrison

36. Jealousy – Alain Robbe-Grillet

37. Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding

38. Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne

39. Journey to the End of the Night – Louis Céline

40. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

41. Julie, or The New Eloise – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

42. July's people – Nadine Gordimer

43. Junkie – William Burroughs

44. Justine – Lawrence Durrell

45. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

46. Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell

47. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson

48. King Lear of the Steppes – Ivan Turgenev

49. King Solomon's Mines – H. Rider Haggard

50. Kingdom of this World – Alejo Carpentier

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these links:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-books-list-part-11-20-books-i-would.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-books-list-part-12.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-books-list-part-13-20-books-i-would.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-dslr-camera-on-white-sand-near-brown-woven-bag-8093191/

Improve Your Vocabulary-Today’s Lesson: Greek Roots, Part 3

 

You will recall that we left the festivities at the letter D, so let’s leave E in the dust (there’s no F in Greek) and move right along to G and H, shall we? Lots of things to do!

Today, we will cover the root gam, which refers to marriage. You will recognize this root in the words bigamy (married to two people, which is generally illegal), and polygamy, which denotes marriages to more than two people, also generally illegal. People who practice bigamy and polygamy are known as bigamists and, uh, Mormons. Just kidding!! There’s also the lesser-known word, misogamist, meaning one who is against marriage.

Secondly, we have gen, Greek for birth, race, or kind. Congenital denotes a characteristic one has at birth, such as webbed toes or attached earlobes. Often you will hear of things such as congenital heart defects. “Con” means “with”, so congenital literally means “with birth”. It's closely related to genetic, which refers to a trait or condition that runs in your family (therefore also related somewhat to birth, but more in a long-term way, so closer to the “race/kind” meaning). Other words with the root gen are genealogy, the study of your family ancestry (your race or kind), and progenitor (pro meaning “first” or “prior”), which is a fancy way to say “ancestor”, which is already kind of a fancy way to say “forefather” (also not as sexist).

Lastly, let’s dip our toes into the H's and come up with hydr, meaning simply “water”. Hydraulic things are mechanically operated by water or other liquids, hydroponics is the science of growing things in water, rather than soil, and we should all make sure to keep well hydrated, especially if you live or work in dry air or lose moisture from sweating.

I hope you had fun with this installment of Greek roots. There are many more to come, so stay tuned! Opa!

Did you learn the basic steps to building your vocabulary?  here’s step one, here’s step two, and here’s step three.

Lesson 4 just dropped! Get it here! 

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ancient-statue-at-acropolis-in-athens-31376221/