I did not know this was a short story... great novel.
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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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I'm going through Flannery O'Connor's short stories as part of my Southern Gothic kick.
hmmp
I've never read any of her work.
I'll check her out.
Any short story collection you'd recommend?
Churchill And The Irishman - The Unbelievable Life of Brendan Bracken - by Charles Lysaght and Trevor White.
SPQR A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. I had purchased it on the Google Play Books app years ago, but saw it in paperback and picked it up.
Excellent choices; do, please, let us know what you think of them.Two right now...
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I've read "One Litre of Tears", it's the diary of Aya Kito, a teenage Japanese girl diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia, her entries follow her disease as it progresses until she's no longer able to write, with her thoughts and fears.
It is the saddest book I've ever read. A film and a TV series were also made from this book (same title as the book), they're also extremely hard to watch.
Notwithstanding the crushing sadness of her story, I feel to recommend it to everyone, not for the predictable reason "you need to appreciate what you have" or "be strong in the face of adversity", but to raise awareness of how horrific neurological diseases are, the painful need to fund research to cure diseases that are still incurable and an inescapable death sentence.
It is the saddest book I've ever read. A film and a TV series were also made from this book (same title as the book), they're also extremely hard to watch.
Notwithstanding the crushing sadness of her story, I feel to recommend it to everyone, not for the predictable reason "you need to appreciate what you have" or "be strong in the face of adversity", but to raise awareness of how horrific neurological diseases are, the painful need to fund research to cure diseases that are still incurable and an inescapable death sentence.
Have been reading "Masters of the Air - America's Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany" by Donald L. Miller.
This is a surprisingly good and actually, a very interesting read, and - greatly to my surprise - I learned some new stuff, and material (along with some unexpected facts, and historical analysis, actually, the economic history elements of the book are particularly good) that I hadn't come across before.
This is a surprisingly good and actually, a very interesting read, and - greatly to my surprise - I learned some new stuff, and material (along with some unexpected facts, and historical analysis, actually, the economic history elements of the book are particularly good) that I hadn't come across before.
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Is from where the new Stephen Spielberg series is based on?
Watch Masters of the Air - Apple TV+ (UK)
From Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman—the producers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. During World War II, airmen risk their lives wi…
Yes.Is from where the new Stephen Spielberg series is based on?
Watch Masters of the Air - Apple TV+ (UK)
From Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman—the producers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. During World War II, airmen risk their lives wi…tv.apple.com
I was curious about the series, and thought to read the source it derived from.
To be candid, to a certain extent, I was expecting to read some macho nonsense - along with the sort of uncritical work that glorified the US contribution to War in the Air in the way that is found in some works from the decades immediately after the war, - but, in fairness, it is an awful lot better than that.
Actually, (and I write as someone who has taught modern European History at university, and who has read widely on WW2), it was very good in parts, and particularly good in its analysis of economic history, the economic profile of Germany, the development of the air war - and the reasons why it developed as it did.
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Thanks for recommending Kapuscinski! He was a fine and insightful writer. Somehow I ended up reading Travels with Herodotus instead of Imperium. I'll have to see if my local library has Imperium.
In any case, Travels with Herodotus is very interesting, both as a time capsule and as a travel journal. It's a time capsule because, in line with the era in which most of the journeys were taken as well as the lens through which Kapuscinski views non-European cultures (I couldn't help repeatedly thinking of Edward Said's book Orientalism), the text is thoroughly infused with Cold War attitudes and thinking. A glib blurb for the book could be "Ian Fleming, if he was from a Warsaw Pact country and a hayseed instead of English and worldly."
The travel journal aspect of the book is the most compelling and the most timeless because Kapuscinski weaves the writings of Herodotus into his own journeys. He uses Histories to frame and to analyze his experiences on the road. So, Travels with Herodotus, in addition to being a great book on its own, can also be an entry point to Herodotus for those unfamiliar with Herodotus or a thought provoking side trip for anybody already familiar with Histories.
Agreed.
Really glad that you enjoyed it.
I must say that I really liked Travels With Herodotus, but was utterly bowled over by Imperium (which I must re-read, as I expect that it must have dated somewhat; nevertheless, it has some absolutely brilliant chapters, made all the more compelling as I have travelled to many of the places described in the book).
For those who read fantasy (I am one, I read fantasy for relaxation, sometimes), I am looking forward to the release of the latest work by Robert Jackson Bennett - who is a brilliant, if (criminally) under-rated, fantasy writer.
His Divine Cities trilogy is outstanding, I cannot recommend it highly enough - as is his Foundryside trilogy, which is superb - and a further (and very welcome), bonus, to my mind, is that he writes terrific female characters, and his plots, characters (his male characters are excellent, as well), narratives, dialogues, and (fantasy) world-building are all invariably excellent.
Anyway, it is called The Tainted Cup, and is due to be published on 6th February.
I am awaiting the appearance of this work with interest.
His Divine Cities trilogy is outstanding, I cannot recommend it highly enough - as is his Foundryside trilogy, which is superb - and a further (and very welcome), bonus, to my mind, is that he writes terrific female characters, and his plots, characters (his male characters are excellent, as well), narratives, dialogues, and (fantasy) world-building are all invariably excellent.
Anyway, it is called The Tainted Cup, and is due to be published on 6th February.
I am awaiting the appearance of this work with interest.
I also read and throughly enjoyed the Foundryside trilogy.
Excellent.
In that case, might I take this opportunity to reiterate my (strong, very strong) recommendation of the Divine Cities trilogy, which I also thought superb?
Several years ago, I read "Kaffir Boy" by Mark Mathabane, a brilliant and compelling account of his life growing up under the apartheid regime in South Africa. (Highly recommended, by the way).
Yesterday, and last night, I read one of his subsequent works, co-written with his wife, Gail.
This is "Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love Over Prejudice and Taboo" by Mark Mathabane and Gail Mathabane, and is (well, anything by Mark Mathabane is worth reading, for both style and content, his prose style is clear, intelligent, lucid, and compelling, powerful yet understated - and when speaking, he speaks in complete sentences with an exquisite precision, while his content is awesome) is well worth reading as it describes their relationship (theirs is a mixed race marriage), but also places it in a fascinating discussion of a wider socio-economic-cultural context.
Yesterday, and last night, I read one of his subsequent works, co-written with his wife, Gail.
This is "Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love Over Prejudice and Taboo" by Mark Mathabane and Gail Mathabane, and is (well, anything by Mark Mathabane is worth reading, for both style and content, his prose style is clear, intelligent, lucid, and compelling, powerful yet understated - and when speaking, he speaks in complete sentences with an exquisite precision, while his content is awesome) is well worth reading as it describes their relationship (theirs is a mixed race marriage), but also places it in a fascinating discussion of a wider socio-economic-cultural context.
Just about midway through Biased (truncated title, 2019) by Jennifer Eberhardt. It is very interesting in that it blends what are otherwise considered disparate and even mutually exclusive methods--interviews, "scientific" literature on bias and exclusion (which the book mostly deconstructs), "field" observations. Reviews seem to suggest that the book hasn't produced anything new, but that only misses the point the book makes about the "contemporary condition."
Isn't there a new league that is a combination of the now defunct USFL and XFL?
Ahh... here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Football_League_(2024)
I'm re-reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for my course on Latin American literature.
An excellent and compelling work.
How do you find it on a re-read? Some books age well, others, less so. In any case, I've not read it since I read it originally, around three decades ago.