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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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Eight Dates
Navigating the challenges of long-term commitment takes effort—and it just got simpler, with this empowering, step-by-step guide to communicating about the things that matter most to you and your partner. Drawing on forty years of research from their world-famous Love Lab, Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman invite couples on eight fun, easy, and profoundly rewarding dates, each one focused on a make-or-break issue: trust, conflict, sex, money, family, adventure, spirituality, and dreams.
My gf and I are reading it. I highly recommend it in any stage of a relationship
Navigating the challenges of long-term commitment takes effort—and it just got simpler, with this empowering, step-by-step guide to communicating about the things that matter most to you and your partner. Drawing on forty years of research from their world-famous Love Lab, Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman invite couples on eight fun, easy, and profoundly rewarding dates, each one focused on a make-or-break issue: trust, conflict, sex, money, family, adventure, spirituality, and dreams.
My gf and I are reading it. I highly recommend it in any stage of a relationship
Are you reading all three books in the trilogy?
The first book in the trilogy was published two years ago, the second yesterday, (or, rather two days ago), while the third has yet to be written (let alone published), hence, I am reading the first two books of this trilogy.
However, for the sheer enjoyment or perusal of trilogies written by this author, (Robert Jackson Bennett), allow me to passionately recommend his earlier (and brilliant) work, the Divine Cities trilogy; it is seriously good.
Well, it was enjoyable. I would have liked a better look at the Anarchist America than I got, and less of the history of the Reich and Goebbels, but it was pretty good.
Now, I have moved on to the 2018 Prometheus Award winner "The Powers of the Earth" (Aristillus #1). This is a tome of a book (663 pp), but the text is not small, which is a blessing! So far it's pretty good.
On the fiction side, just started:
The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
I’ve finished this book, We are Legion (We Are Bob) walked into it blind and was pleased with the story. I’d categorize it as a light read, under 400 pages, but a very creative premise, in fact maybe a unique premise in the way it is presented as to how mankind finds incentive to colonize space.I could swear there was a 2020 post about We Are Legion, but I can’t find anything later than this post. I’m established in the middle of this story, and it’s a good read that surprised me where it went, into A.I. Territory, raising questions about sentience, consciousness, and self awareness. I’ll report back after I’ve finished it.
It starts with a present day computer programmer who signs up to have his head preserved in case of an untimely death so he can be reborn when technology allows it. He wakes up in the future, not in a way he imagined, faced with shocking developments as to changes in how the world is organized, and a space race, which he plays center stage, in a way you would most likely not guess.
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Received this as a Christmas gift and have only now gotten around to it. I also have a much heftier volume of Chomsky, but I'm going to start with this.
I am very interested in this. Let me know if it's any good (I mean, Pinker is somewhat of an assurance of quality..)
(I'm almost finished). It is good and I would recommend it. It's not a surface-skimming "popular" exploration of linguistics, but goes into the nitty-gritty while keeping it accessible. Now, the fact that I am studying linguistics in college means that a lot of the information in this book I am already familiar with, but I am still learning new stuff from it and it explains it all in a way that would appeal to non-linguists.
Prompted by acquisition today of a new release of some lesser known works by the English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934), I picked up an ebook version of Michael Short's writings about Holst and his music.
Holst's best known work has been his orchestral suite The Planets. I figure it's time to dig a little past that, as I'm thoroughly enjoying my Apple Music find: a major ensemble work (from his Sanskrit period), The Cloud Messenger, Op.30, H.111 plus his 5 Partsongs, Op.12, H.61.
Holst's best known work has been his orchestral suite The Planets. I figure it's time to dig a little past that, as I'm thoroughly enjoying my Apple Music find: a major ensemble work (from his Sanskrit period), The Cloud Messenger, Op.30, H.111 plus his 5 Partsongs, Op.12, H.61.
Me at my masochistic best.
May at 10…
Anthony Seldon
Awful woman, completely out of her depth… but her advisors beggar belief! Nick Timothy especially should be hung drawn and quartered. In a nutshell, he was Theresa May's brains, for as far as a single novel idea or strategy was concerned, she was completely devoid of the like.
Each time she opened her mouth his words and strategy came out. "Brexit means Brexit"
Guess who came out with that humdinger. Yup. Not May.
I think few if us realise the excessive powers these "behind the scenes advisors" wield. It makes me really worry about the poison Cummings pours into Johnson's ear.
It is as if I am reading a horror story.
Very revealing and, yes, interesting… Though I have to put it away every few pages before I get too angry. Steam coming out of my ears angry.
My poor husband bears the brunt of my carpet chewing ire.
May at 10…
Anthony Seldon
Awful woman, completely out of her depth… but her advisors beggar belief! Nick Timothy especially should be hung drawn and quartered. In a nutshell, he was Theresa May's brains, for as far as a single novel idea or strategy was concerned, she was completely devoid of the like.
Each time she opened her mouth his words and strategy came out. "Brexit means Brexit"
Guess who came out with that humdinger. Yup. Not May.
I think few if us realise the excessive powers these "behind the scenes advisors" wield. It makes me really worry about the poison Cummings pours into Johnson's ear.
It is as if I am reading a horror story.
Very revealing and, yes, interesting… Though I have to put it away every few pages before I get too angry. Steam coming out of my ears angry.
My poor husband bears the brunt of my carpet chewing ire.
I rather fear I'm going to feel like that when, on this side of the pond, further memoirs emerge about the Trump administration... after the owner of that hot mess departs the office he occupies at present. I want to read those accounts. I want to live long enough to read them! But I fear sometimes that my anger while keeping up w/ current events will do me in.
The book about May sounds like a compelling read. Maybe being in and from the USA would lend me enough distance to read it with less emotional impact than you're experiencing. Still the decisions taken in both the UK and in the USA in the past few years may have put our two countries and the whole world in one, interestingly leaky boat. Interesting in the proverbial, "Chinese curse" sense of the times we live in.
More than enough said here I guess... except that this is why I turn to stuff like music to regain some of what passes for mental health in this household.
I admit I really only know The Planets. I'd like to become familiar with more of his music.
Heh... "so many composers, so little time" keeps happening... especially the time factor. ?
I read books by and on Henry Kissinger (*) for breakfast so this is probably mild reading for me... plus I am one of the behind the scenes people myself in my little world of government.
At any rate, is the book seriously biased pro/anti May, or is the rage due to your own interpretation of a factual book? While some bias is inevitable, I don't want to read a book that is either hagiographic or just a rant.
(*) just purchased a newly released book on the man; great reviews on the NYT and other papers.
And yet, the current administration may turn out to be even worse.
Sounds a fascinating - if deeply frustrating - read.
Mrs May always struck me as being on of those people who, when offered a choice between the "the right option", "the less right option" and "the catastrophically wrong option" inevitably and invariably, with unerring precision, chose the latter. Always.
And - however ominous her advisers - she also seemed to me to be someone who did not appear capable of listening to advice. Or, rather, advice from sources she preferred not to have to hear, or listen to.
Yes: I think that there will be a bizarre tone to some of those works, (when they finally are written and published) a surreal sense reminiscent of Berlin round about mid April 1945, the knowledge of inescapable impending catastrophe, the sort of thing that you read in almost stupefied disbelief, wondering, was it really like that? Only to realise, belatedly, with dawning horror, because you lived through it, that yes, actually it was. And then comes the sobering realisation, that no, actually, it was worse than you could ever have imagined.
It's hard not to at least touch on such matters when posting about a book one has read that does deal with politics, government, history... culture... where does one leave off thinking "oh I don't know if I should post this about that in here..." -- and I also think when that question arises, we tend to note it in the post, so it's not like we're ignorant of being in a kind of DMZ between a book review and more intentionally political observations.
On balance in this thread, seems to me that members who post in it do make an effort to write about the books in question without adding a level of opinion that would force the thread itself into PRSI subforum for a debate of political issues rather than comment on a book.
I've sometimes thought about opening a thread in PRSI for a more no-holds-barred sort of take on books that deal explicitly with politics, government, history... but there are so many housekeeping sorts of considerations about something like that, not least that a fair number of us spend far less time in PRSI than we used to do -- certainly not because we decided to make this books thread into a political subforum: all of us posting most recently here have posted about books in a variety of fields.
And at this point I'm starting to feel like I've broached something belongs over in SFF so I'll quit while I might still be ahead of the curve lol.
Excellent and thoughtful post.
Actually, there are (and were, and have been) societies and political cultures (and actual cultures) where it is considered easier (and safer) to discuss history (and history books, and works of history) than books on modern politics, or people in modern politics.
However, even there, for those who understood such things and could navigate the exquisite subtlety of such labyrinthine, nuanced and subterranean conversations, (which meant knowing and understanding the history pretty well, in addition to a basic familiarity with more contemporary and current matters), one could have deep discussions (entirely lacking in either rancour or danger) over dinner about reformers (and their fate, and the fate of their reforms) in that country's history, discussions which were carried on simultaneously (if still unspoken) at an entirely different (but mutually understood) level.
In one of the Baltic states/countries that emerged from the former Soviet Union, I knew a man who had been an exceptionally talented poet, as a young man in the old USSR, but who found refuge in philology (preferably ancient philology), who explained to me that not only did it grant him safe, academic tenure, - he was a famous full professor when I knew him, one of his country's leading authorities on the grammatical history of their language - but that "they" would never follow him (could never follow him) into disputing the ideological purity of medieval philology, so - professionally, too, - and personally - he was completely safe there. Philology as sanctuary. At the cost, or price, of no longer writing any poetry, which might have touched on contemporary topics uncomfortable for readers of an official disposition.
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Is the book about Kissinger that you mentioned this one? I had stashed the NYT review but hadn't even got around to reading it (the review) yet.
THE INEVITABILITY OF TRAGEDY
Henry Kissinger and His World
By Barry Gewen
Yep. I've read the intro and part of the first chapter. I am impressed thus far, it's promising to become one of the best books I've read on the subject.
[automerge]1588283008[/automerge]
For those interested, here's the NYT review https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/...inevitability-of-tragedy-henry-kissinger.html
Yes, one sometimes cannot be too careful if wishing to preserve either career or sometimes one's life and that of one's family. Exposition of parallels or allegories based in earlier times is one way to try to get around danger zones... as in the history behind Nguyên Du's epic poem of Vietnam, The Song of Kiêu: A New Lament.
That poem was written near the close of the 18th century. When the then Vietnamese emperor later got around to reading it (as a work written by a far-flung relative), he commented that it was definitely good that the author was already dead since it spared him having to execute the guy.
Meanwhile the poem had been based, if apparently not subtly enough, upon an obscure Chinese novel written in the Qing era, about internal conspiracies and battles with external enemies a full four generations earlier, sometime during the Ming dynasty.
So "A New Lament" was indeed part of the title of the Vietnamese poem. New, and removed from country of origin, China, but recognizable enough in its bones, let's say, to have endangered the author had he run into his own country's ruler once it had been read in the palace.
The fascinating thing to me all these centuries later is that the Chinese novel itself was considered subversive enough in its own time that it had been published under a pseudonym, even if after four generations, any of the historical principals adopted as characters in the fiction would all long since have been dead. So far the author has still not been outed, and the novel is not well known in China.
In Vietnam, however, the poem that had been spun from that piece of fiction as its underpinning was eventually circulated throughout the country in the form of readings, song recitals and roving theatrical adaptations. Long after the end of Vietnam's eventual French colonization, the American intervention and the country's ensuing struggles to unify and define its independence, "everyone" in Vietnam today knows of the poem, and one can buy copies on the street. Yet the author of that epic poem by his own kinsman's royal assertion would have been murdered had he still been alive when the emperor had happened to read the work.
Most of what I know about this work sprang from interest in Timothy Allen's notes about his translation of the poem; think I posted something about his book sometime last year in this thread.
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