Last book(s) you read?

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gattoparde59
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gattoparde59 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 10:42 am

Svetlana Alexievich, The Unwomanly Face of War.

Very moving oral history of women who served in the Soviet Army in World War II,

"Happiness is beyond the mountains, but grief is just over your shoulder."

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

danielmann861
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by danielmann861 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 2:00 pm

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In the Miso Soup - This is a dark journey into the black heart of a serial killer exploring the sexual playground (or abyss) that is Kabukicho.

The atmosphere in this novel is suffocating. From the moment that Frank and his guide Kenji first enter Kabukicho, it sinks it’s hooks in and just never lets you go. And boy does it escalate. Brutal, nihilistic, harsh, served colder than Vichyssoise but compelling as all hell.

I guess I knew I was in for something good considering my love for Ryu Murakami’s Audition (or at least the film version; I’ve never read the book it was based on but will rectify that soon.)

A fascinating philosophical journey into the mind of one depraved man and the tour guide accompanying him through the shady streets of Kabukicho. It's been under my skin all week since finishing it on Monday night.

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ltroifanatic
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by ltroifanatic » Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:43 am

Beethoven's Anvil:Music in Mind and Culture.by William Benzon.It doesn't ask what is music or how we make it but rather why we make it.
Please Oskar.Be me for a little while.

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gattoparde59
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gattoparde59 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 3:10 pm

Masha Gessen, The Future is History, How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

History of Russia from 1985 to about 2016. The story is told as a group biography of educated Russians which was hard for me to follow. I felt like I needed note cards to keep track of the different individuals.

Two things I noticed had to do with ideology and the persecution of minorities. Gessen never comes out and says this, but the ideology of Putin's Russia could be described as nationalism as articulated by someone like Alexander Dugin. Gessen argues that in a totalitarian state ideology is really of little importance. Official ideology could really be anything as long as it is taken to extremes and obliterates everything, including human beings. The description of the poverty of ideas in the Soviet Union that opens the book is a case in point.

The other thing I noticed is the way in which campaigns against minority groups are organized. Pick out a vulnerable, traditionally unpopular group and present them as an existential threat to the nation. These would be Gays in Putin's Russia, or Jews in Hitler's Germany. Masha Gessen is both Gay and Jewish. Here in the United States immigrants fit the bill very nicely.

A good book if you are interested in the subject of Totalitarianism.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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dongregg
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by dongregg » Sat May 26, 2018 12:52 am

A short story. Saki's "The Open Window." 4 pages

"Romance at short notice was her speciality," :lol:

The text is readily available on the Internet.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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ltroifanatic
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by ltroifanatic » Sun May 27, 2018 5:00 am

"Rainy Day Fairy" :lol: :lol: Yes it's come to this.A pleasant little story about the fun things you can do on a rainy day.There aren't that many words but the drawings are nice and colourful and my 2 granddaughters seem to like them (4 mths and 24 mths).I know this because they stop dribbling on me when I read it to them. :wub:
Please Oskar.Be me for a little while.

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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:12 pm

ltroifanatic wrote:
Sun May 27, 2018 5:00 am
"Rainy Day Fairy" :lol: :lol: Yes it's come to this.A pleasant little story about the fun things you can do on a rainy day.There aren't that many words but the drawings are nice and colourful and my 2 granddaughters seem to like them (4 mths and 24 mths).I know this because they stop dribbling on me when I read it to them. :wub:
lovely! Absolutely lovely. Hopefully I'm a while off from granddaughters, but you're making me a bit envious

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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:14 pm

Here's my pic for this coming week. Looks good but I've yet to start it.

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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:24 pm

Listened to a reading of Raymond Chandler's essay The Simple Art of The Murder.

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An insightful decomposition of detective fiction - well worth the read (or the listen :) )

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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:30 pm

Also read Fredrik Backman's "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" . This is the second of Backman's that I've read. The first was "A Man Called Ove".

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When I picked this up, I thought it'd be a ghost story. Well, I was wrong on that! Yet, it's terrific novel, true to its characters and comes through with a lesson for us all the more you think it through.

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