In her memoir, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, Lea Ypi chronicles her childhood growing up when Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha was in power and through the era of Albania post-Hoxha. With wit and insight Ypi recounts how she trusted Hoxha like a grandpa while questioning her parents’ lack of enthusiasm for the government.
I was pulled in with her stories of her family obtaining and losing a prized possession, an empty Coke can, of how her family talked in code about neighbors and relatives who disappeared, of her best friend who ran off with a neighborhood tough guy.
The book continues through the 1990s when Albania transitioned to a free market economy when her mother got political, her father found himself working for a corporation and having to implement World Bank policies and when it seemed that everyone who could fled to Europe or North…
At the library yesterday I overheard a rather loud conversation between two local people who’ve written a book and wanted the library to purchase a copy since they live in this town. The librarian at the desk congratulated them and went on to explain that the library will accept a donated copy of the book, but wouldn’t purchase it unless it had been recommended by a professional reviewer like Book List.
She went on to tell them how to get their self-published book reviewed and that the library buys about 3,000 books a month.
I was disappointed and a bit shocked that our hometown library wouldn’t support residents who’ve written a book by purchasing one. Instead it’ll take months to go through a lot of rigamarole. Clearly, not everyone in town publishes a book every month.
I think that unless the book costs over $100 or is absolutely full of…
We’re fortunate to have Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. Thank God they weren’t destroyed by fire or flood in the 500 some years ago. However, we don’t have a diary or narrative of da Vinci (1452 – 1519) so biographer Walter Isaacson can’t be expected to provide with certainty the details he presented to readers of his Steve Jobs or Einstein books.
It’s not that we don’t learn about Leonardo’s status as an illegitimate birth, his relationships with older painter Verrocchio, patrons de Medici and Borgia, rival Michelangelo, and assistant cum lover Salaì. But the experiences and information are presented more or less chronologically, but it’s something of a patchwork rather than a woven tapestry akin to a narrative.
The real facts of Leonardo’s life experiences are foggy at best so Isaacson focusses on the notebooks, which contain his plans for inventions, his musings, his expenses, and his musings. Isaacson also includes long descriptions of Leonardo’s artwork with comments from art historians from long ago and today. I listened to this book on CD from the library. There is a PDF that the narrator refers to throughout the
I would have preferred a narrative, but I did find the book fascinating; I did learn more about this fascinating man, who was a great artist who hated painting, who was an engineer whose inventions more often than not didn’t work, who procrastinated, daydreamed and dabbled.
I learned how fathers could acknowledge the lineage of children born out of wedlock, though Leonardo’s father didn’t acknowledge him. It was interesting that in that culture people illegitimacy wasn’t so harsh. Leonardo’s father did support him and had a relationship with Leonardo, albeit a challenging one. I did learn that Leonardo’s mother did marry and had children.
I enjoyed learning a little about how the Renaissance art workshops worked, how apprentices learned, how different painters sometimes worked on a painting. I wonder what modern art would be like if we had that.
I did sometimes tire of the long descriptions of the paintings from Isaacson’s point of view. I would rather get more from Leonardo, but there just aren’t many primary sources available.
Premise: A scientist discovers that the waters of the baths, which pull people to travel to a village, are polluted and cause illness. He wants the town to spread the news, acknowledge the problem and fix it. Naively, he expects to be hailed as hero, but instead he’s loathed as the “enemy of the people.”
My take: This play is extremely preachy and the characters seem wooden. Writers like Emile Zola, Upton Sinclair and Ernest Poole do a superior job writing about social causes. I started reading because it was chosen for a book club. Then I had to miss that meeting. I figured I’d finish it anyway. If it weren’t a play and was a novel, I wouldn’t have slogged through it.
Ibsen, add some satire to leaven the play. You can still make your point with some humor.
What a lively discussion! I learned a lot about Exodus from Dennis and Michael. I enjoyed that two people of different faiths can discuss Exodus and share their insights.
Peter Schweizer’s Red-Handed, How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win explains how powerful government, business and academic leaders cash in with big pay offs from China. I already knew about many of the examples, like the NBA, the Bushes, Mitch McConnell and the Bidens. I also knew that American colleges will sweep problems under the rug to continue lucrative deals with China. (I could write a book on that.)
However, I wasn’t aware of how Former Secretaries of State, Kissinger and Albright cashed in on their relationships formed when in office as they opened up consulting firms focused on China. They made fortunes bowing to China’s best interests.
Because I worked in higher education the bulk of my teaching career and spent more time teaching in China for an American college, I was most interested in the chapter on academics. I was saddened to learn that though Yale admitted Hong Kong dissident Nathan Law when he was in danger in China, they tried their best to keep him quiet on campus since their donors from China only wanted the party line discussed. Other colleges try to protect China and it’s propaganda by limited what speakers and guests come to campus. Many won’t invite the Dali Lama because China doesn’t want him to. (Hats off to my alma mater Loyola University Chicago who did have the Dali Lama speak on campus in 2012.)
Red-Handed is thoroughly researched with scores of citations. While it’s not exactly a quick read, it’s not a slog either. It’s a good book for anyone who wants to understand the somewhat sordid world of international business and foreign affairs. These folks are in it for themselves. “The system ain’t broken; it’s fixed” as the adage goes.
Rumer Godden’s Miss Happiness and Miss Flower introduces young readers to Japanese culture. The short novel focuses on Nona, a British girl who was born in India and whose father has sent her to live with relatives and get an education. Living with her aunt, uncle and three cousins, Nona feels lonely and out of place as a newcomer. The traffic, school, her natural introversion and her bratty cousin Belinda make life tough. It’s not till the children receive a package from an old aunt in America that things look bright for Nona. Her aunt has sent the children two Japanese dolls. This gift sets Nona on a quest to create a Japanese doll house. Her endeavor leads to friendship, creativity, and purpose.
The author provides clear explanations of Japanese culture and defines words young readers probably don’t know. The style is old fashioned. I was surprised that it was written in 1961. The narrator’s tone is like a kind, old aunt or grandmother.
Bantam Rahman’s The Library Bus tells the simple story of Pari, an Afghan girl who’s about 5 years old. Pari’s mother drives a bookmobile to villages and refugee camps where girls have no schools.
It’s a cute story to introduce children to Afghanistan, but I’d like more character development. Even small children have distinct personalities.
The story with its charming illustrations is worth a read.
In False Alarm! How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor and Fails to Fix the Planet, Bjørn Lomborg describes the problems and misinformation surrounding many of the climate change strategies, such as the Green New Deal. Throughout the book Lomborg used solid data from the UN,
From the start Lomborg states that the climate is changing. We do have a problem, however he proceeds to explain the problem we face and how it’s likely to change in time while persuasively debunking the alarmist predictions such as how the world will end in less than 12 years. One of his most convincing arguments is how humans are good at adaptation and predictions that don’t take that into account. Moreover, time and time again the predictions are way off base and don’t pan out. (See: https://medium.com/discourse/a-brief-history-of-incorrect-climate-change-predictions-3664e4054ee6.)
The book includes several graphs that clearly present Lomborg’s points illustrating how various remedies impact the poor and how effective a particular initiative is likely to be.
We absolutely must address climate change, but we should do so rationally in a way that makes sense. Washington tends to like to throw money around on programs that are costly and don’t do what they promised. Whether it’s a scam or not, the world needs results not waste.
Innovations on the horizon include improving storing wind and sun energy and air capture, i.e. machinery that sucks excessive CO2 from the air. Note: CO2 is mainly good and has increased the amount of plants on earth. Air capture is more efficient than planting more trees, which is a consequence of increased CO2.
I recommend False Alarm to anyone who wants to round out his view of the climate change issue. You might want to read it twice and then find more books from all sides of the issue.
OmoresOtempora
smkelly8
![12113 - Apprentissage - [EXPLORED 1/6/2022]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52942938865_3719dcdea7_s.jpg "12113 - Apprentissage - [EXPLORED 1/6/2022]")
Xingu, Volume 2 
You must be logged in to post a comment.