false2414293FThe United States06/200912/200949688true5793115read5true5231704currently-reading3true5231703to-read2false9131188begun-but-put-aside-for-some-reason
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/231824-russian-revolution
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Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:16:14 -0800
(I've got a list, too. And I've heard wonderful things about Young Stalin.) ]]>
Love's Executioner: & Other Tales of Psychotherapy (Perennial Classics) by Irvin D. Yalom]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80805270
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Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:30:46 -0800
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/242748-what-are-some-great-philosophical-novels
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Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:35:47 -0800 But it's not a book one reads and discovers/discerns a philosophy. The philosophy is cover-to-cover...but it's handed to the reader. No effort required. (Which, really, is so un-Randian, yes?)
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http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/252207-8-no-ordinary-time-chapter-11-12-mid-282-333-12-07-09-12-13
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Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:53:48 -0800 Good post.
You know, the impression that I came away with on FDR ---and I liked him, probably more than I liked Eleanor...but, my word, how that woman accomplished things!
Anyway, it seemed to me that FDR possessed such great charm, and affability (spelling?), and seemed to have great relationship skills in work...
But my sense was that these were surface skills. It seemed to me that he didn't have/ or he lacked the ability to form ACTUAL/person-to-person emotional relationships.
Just a guess on my part, but I think that's why I liked to be around the women...I think they provided or seemed to provide for him ... the sense that he had emotional connections with people.
I don't recall reading anywhere of close male friends that weren't in his life as working colleagues (spellling?).
You're probably aware that his mother was against his marriage to Eleanor. And they didn't tell her they were even engaged for the longest, longest time. But FDR was ADAMANT that he was going to marry Eleanor. And perhaps it was because she had the emotional force/or grounding/ or maybe the word I'm looking for is authenticity... that FDR knew he lacked.
Perhaps in building a distance between himself and his mother---who was likely too involved in FDR's life---perhaps FDR just learned the habit and keeping an emotional distance with everyone. Maybe he found a connection with Lucy Mercer. I don't know.
But to me, FDR seemed like a person who kept himself surrounded by people...but who was usually pretty lonely at the same time.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
Now I really MUST go and clean my house.
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Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945 (Hardcover) by Carlo D'Este]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/60374137
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Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:07:43 -0800
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/90445-please-introduce-yourself
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Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:44:49 -0800 I mostly read with my face-to-face book group. (It's pretty much classic, too. We use the Great Books Series as the main part of our reading.)
But this summer they were reading something I wasn't particularly interested in. And someone I'd met online said, "Come over here." [Kinda like the little girls in the movie "The Shining:" "Come play with us." Except not scary. :)] I read the Oedipus trilogy with the Classics group. I AB-SO-LUTE-LY loved it! I've found, much to my surprise, that I really enjoy a number of ancient Greek plays. Agamemnon was outstanding. And SO tragic. I love the tragic-ness. (If truthiness can become an official word, perhaps one day tragic-ness can, too.)
Like you, I like history. But for me, it was the other way 'round. I started reading historical fiction because I already loved the historical period. (The Sunne in Splendour is a great historical read. Or so, at any rate, I had thought.
Edward IV is on the throne. And then he's not. An untimely death. Tragic results. And his brother (known to us as Richard III) holds the power of the throne. And in THIS book, Richard III is not a bad guy. In this book, he does NOT have his nephews killed in the Tower of London. As a reader, I started to have great sympathy for Richard III. (And then, to re-ground myself in reality, I read Alison Weir's The Princes in the Tower...and Richard most probably did arrange to have his nephews killed. There were such compelling reasons why he would.)
Oh, yeah...welcome.
Adelle
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http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79586290
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Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:21:36 -0800 It was the descriptive, adjective-filled, sentences that, to me, didn't sound like Palin. ("With the gray Takeetna Mountains in the distance and the first light covering of snow about to descend on Pioneer Peak" ...) To me, that rubbed me the wrong way... As not Palin. (And yes, in the most of the rest of book, it does sound like Sarah Palin.)
I did try very hard to bear in mind that when she was on the campaign trail with McCain that she probably wasn't given much free reign to be herself.
Reading the book, it did strike me that she's led a very interesting life.
Now in reading the book, I came to the conclusion that for whatever reason, she hadn't been interested in writing a political book. She certainly strikes me as intelligent enough to know where she wants her book to go. But personally, I was LOOKING for a book with a more political perspective...so 'though I enjoyed reading the book, and I feel I came away with a better understanding of Sarah Palin in many ways, I didn't find the political explanations that I had been looking for.
(smile) And, yes, she has the right to write her book with the focus SHE wants.
It's occurred to me to wonder whether writing it this way...as more of a "This is my life" memoir... whether this way might strengthen her position within the GOP... whereas a more explicitly political book might have drawn more controversy and undercut her political power at this point.
I've thought, too, that perhaps she wrote it this way... broader... more general, thinking it would result in a better selling book...and that being a good mother, she is looking at this point in her life in establishing a trust fund of some sort for her youngest son. That would be within her power. That would be a responsible thing for her to do. She strikes me as a responsible woman.
Send me an email, if you like. Let me know your thoughts.
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Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (Hardcover) by Maryanne Wolf]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76412345
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Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:05:02 -0800Thomas Hardy (Hardcover) by Claire Tomalin]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76412846
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Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:58:13 -0800