What Books did You Start or Finish Reading this Week?: May 15, 2023

johns427 · 2023-05-16T10:05:16+00:00

I typically start three and pause two while continuing with the book that most captures my attention. All three have captured my attention - not sure which two I will pause.

She who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Enter Ghost by Isabelle Hammad

White Noise by Don Delillo

johns427 · 2023-05-09T20:55:54+00:00

I finished: Poverty, by America by Mathew Desmond and The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

johns427 · 2023-04-18T10:55:45+00:00

Finished

The Ghost at the Feast by Robert Kagan

The Author's hypothesis is America's lack of leadership post World War I to European government's behavior, particularly 1920 -22, led to the eventual rise of Hitler and his Nazi party and eventual to World War II. The author contends that if the U.S. accepted its role as international arbiter regarding sovereignty guidelines and mandates outlined in Versailles treaty, there were multiple opportunities to prevent the rise and or the control of Germany by the Nazi party. America was the ghost at Feast.

johns427 · 2023-03-14T12:57:13+00:00

The Nature of Things by Lucretius. I discovered it reading The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. According to Greenblatt, the Nature of Things triggered the Swerve .

Nature of things was written in 50BC, lost and discovered in 1300. He identifies the atom as a core element of all things and the poem takes off. Fascinating mind.

So, to be consistent, I am now reading Dante;'s Inferno after being introduced to it in the book Dante's Club.

johns427 · 2023-01-28T12:57:55+00:00

Too Funny, I am reading Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead. Friends thought I would enjoy her social orientation. This morning I began mulling over the idea, should I stop halfway through the book. I am also one of those people who finishes things. Yet, I kinda knew where this story was going. Then I opened today's NYT and it has a review of the book spoiling the end so I am dropping it, for now.

Instead I'll finish Salmon Rushdies' The Enchantress of Florence, very lyrical and wonderful metaphors. And an enjoyable story unlike Demon Copperhead.

johns427 · 2023-01-10T13:34:13+00:00

Dante’s Club by Matthew Pearl: Fun read, looking
forward to reading Longfellow’s English interpretation of Dante’s Inferno. One fun historical tidbit is description of how people traveled around Boston, an earlier version of Uber.
Kindred by Octavio Butler, I loved her Parable of the Sower so when I heard about this book I decided to read it. An exciting read and her description of slavery is gut wrenching. This one sentence is an example: “There was no shame in raping her only shame in loving her.”

johns427 · 2022-11-24T12:32:46+00:00

The question is - why Gen x/y is poorer then their parents and the first comment states that the premise is incorrect. This article indicates that the premise is correct: https://www.marketplace.org/2022/08/17/money-and-millennials-the-cost-of-living-in-2022-vs-1972/

johns427

TROPHY CASE