What Are We Reading? 4 January 2021

[AB76]

Mach and Andy seem quiet, what are you guys reading?

[Georg]

Tom wrote: "Blue wrote: "Tom wrote: January will be spent (mostly) reading contemporary Irish books. Partly as I've had good experiences with Irish writers in recent years and also because I kind of feel like ..."

I'd second @Blue's recommendation for "Star of the Sea" by Joseph O'Connor.

[Hushpuppy]

AB76 wrote (#201): "Mach and Andy seem quiet, what are you guys reading?"

Andy has made many comments recently (last was 2d ago I think). On the other hand, Mach has not for 12d, but worse is that he has not even logged in GR for almost a week (hence my worry). I hope everything is well with him and his family.

[scarletnoir]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote (184): "I am reading La Promesse de l'Aube by Romain Gary..."

I've never read any Romain Gary but from all the posts on TLS and here about him I'm determined to remedy that in 2021."

Haha!

Well, you'll probably find that most of those came from me - or in response to my comments.

I have never read a Gary book all the way through yet, but I'd guess that his autobiography Promise at DawnPromise at Dawn would be a good place to start - my first Gary.

I have enjoyed it very much, so far, though a recent chapter in which he digresses (yes, indeed!) to take a pop at Freudian psychoanalysts is a little dull and longer than it needed to be.

In my usual style, I digressed to find out more about Gary, and came across this fascinating article (a couple of points seemed dubious to me, but it's mostly pretty fair):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Bill]

Practically the first thing I read this morning, this letter to the NY Times Book review:

To the Editor:

Would it be possible for your book reviewers to take points off for excessive length? I give you the latest biography of Sylvia Plath, a doorstop that weighs in at 1,118 pages. I, like every other member of my book club, would not think of reading a book of that length, no matter how compelling.

I do make the occasional exception and recently read Obama’s new 700-page memoir, which was a pleasure. But I can’t imagine reading the latest tome about Ted Kennedy, for example, which clocks in at 928 pages and is only the first installment of two volumes.

Who, really, has time to read books of this length? Biographies in particular are prone to go on at great length and so will generally not find the audience their subjects deserve. I consider myself a lover of biography, so I hope publishers will ask themselves what they can do to curtail this unfortunate practice.

Barbara Matusow
Bethesda, Md.

[Bill]

[AB76]

Gladarvor wrote: "AB76 wrote (#201): "Mach and Andy seem quiet, what are you guys reading?"

Andy has made many comments recently (last was 2d ago I think). On the other hand, Mach has not for 12d, but worse is that..."

thanks glad

[AB76]

Bill wrote: ""

brilliant!

[Hushpuppy]

scarletnoir wrote (#204): "Well, you'll probably find that most of those came from me - or in response to my comments.

I have never read a Gary book all the way through yet (...)"

Well, there was Ongley recommending The Kites. Then Rick2016/AlbyBeliever backing this up. Then there was this thread started by Andy who had read La vie devant soi (to be read threaded), with in particular @auroreborealis making some great contributions https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo.... As you'll see from my own posts in the same thread, I fucking hated the Gopnik's New Yorker piece and I would encourage people to read it only after having been more acquainted with Gary's oeuvre and life. Then MachenBach read La promesse de l'aube after I recommended it earlier in the year.

So as you can see there have been many mentions of Gary and Gary's books themselves on TLS/RG over the past year or so, even without considering the Désérable's book 😉.

[Justine]

MK (168) wrote "I'm awaiting The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War this from the library. Perhaps a follow-on after Goldwater"

My library doesn't have this, but I've requested that they purchase it. Thanks for the tip.

[Slawkenbergius]

Tam wrote: "but I also acknowledge that there was a lot wrong with the EU, in terms of democratic representation"

In what sense, if I may ask?

[FranHunny]

Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I watched a clip of the awful Tucker Carlson about the Capitol Hill riot and witnessed the smooth, eloquent voice of the right offering many small "winks" to the exact people who storm..."
Lisa, let's hope nothing will happen. This time the authorities are warned, the Secret Service will have to safeguard President and Vicepresident (and hopefully the de-elected Vicepresident will be there, too, since Trump prioritises playing golf over attending this).

[Tam]

Lack of transparency. All top level meetings (these are the meetings that decide over all EU policy) are held behind closed doors. No minutes are taken, no one else apart from the council itself is allowed to attend, and they are not filmed, so there is no account that would enable the public to find out how and why certain policy decisions are made, which I think makes this very top level of the EU into an oligarchy?... The EU has withheld information from the public in the past, (one example being scientific advice given to them on biofuels). I think thy are trying to improve accountability but Im not really up on this subject. I just know a bit about the history of renewable energy policy in general.

[FranHunny]

Pomfretian wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "I did feel the book comments were getting swamped..."

I agree. Its good to read the discussions on other things and I do enjoy the points of view. But unlike the TLS thread..."

I think (merely my opinion) for two days it was ok to generally stray from books given the things we had to witness. But now we should be a little more cautious and get back to mainly discuss books.
The discussion about Hawley's book not being published is book related. It will certainly contain some political context. That is ok, I'd say. To justify a book not being published you need some context.

And the odd straying comment can be endured, too, can't it. What is on our minds, should be fair game, normally it's books.

Just let's not completely forget - we are here on goodREADS ... not gooddiscussions. Now that those appalling actions have been discussed for several days, we CAN mainly get back to our books or even books, audiobooks, shows and films.

If something else of that scale happens again, we will stray again.

If we had had this board in 2001 we would have strayed, too. But we also would have come back to books, because that is what we are - a book afficinados-group.

[FrancesBurgundy]

Georg wrote(200): "FrancesBurgundy - you mentioned an upcoming book review some weeks ago?.."

You didn't miss it Georg - it's the one I mentioned in my moody/mardy comment earlier today which I have maybe promised for next week if I can be asked to do it (have you ever come across that delightful homonym(?)?).

In fact I only finished reading 'it' on January 5 and I'm quite daunted about writing something worthwhile, as well as slightly nervous at what reactions it might provoke. I don't enjoy confrontation and recent events here have made me wary of sticking my head above the parapet.

George Saunders' views on social media in the Graun interview I cited earlier resonate so much with me. It's great we had TLS and now have ETLS but comments fired off with little thought in the heat of the moment shock me. I would hope that were the posters to be sitting together IRL the conversation would be a world away from what they feel able to say anonymously online.

Sorry to bring this up but I'm still reeling actually - y'all must think I've led a sheltered life. I must learn to let go - is that it?

[AB76]

Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency. All top level meetings (these are the meetings that decide over all EU policy) are held behind closed doors. No minutes are taken, no one else apart from the council itself is..."

i am an admirer of technocratic governments and ideas led by experts, the EU has some elements of this but as you correctly state Tam, there is almost zero accountability and documentation coming out of the ECJ, Commission or Council, while the parliament is nothing compared to the Reichstag, Commons or Assembly Nationale

i dont actually have a big beef with the EU though, in spite of this, i always saw it as a loose union directing 28 soverign states. I never felt it was an arrangement i was unhappy with, to me it might be like board of directors appointed to oversee the bosses of my company....let them rule.

[Tam]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Georg wrote(200): "FrancesBurgundy - you mentioned an upcoming book review some weeks ago?.."

You didn't miss it Georg - it's the one I mentioned in my moody/mardy comment earlier today which I ha..."

I ,for one, am looking forward to your book review, whenever you decide to let it fly! Don't be discouraged... we are all here to learn about, and appreciate, thoughts about books...

[Max (Outrage)]

Although I've enjoyed commenting on the books that others are reading I haven't posted much recently about my own, the reason being that although enjoyable, they've mostly been fairly light and haven't lent me enough energy to discuss them. Some I've simply forgotten.
A couple of years ago I read Mick Herron's Slow Horses, and said then that although entertaining, I didn't think it was going to pull me into the rest of the series. A few of you responded that they thought the series improved, and that I should give it a go, so a couple of months ago I bought a second-hand copy of the next in the series: 'Dead Lions'. You were right, guys.
The series is about a section of the British Secret Service, based in a dingy office building not at all like the famous, sexy, high-tech MI6 building on the South Bank. It is where agents, cryptographers etc are sent when they have in some way, either fairly or unfairly been seen as failures. Their boss is a rude, overweight, chain-smoking-hard-drinking, sweary, cynical old-time spy on the scrap heap. They have been sent to 'Slough House' and given boring things to do so that they will resign, thus saving all the effort of sacking them. Their sharp-suited, high-flying, South Bank colleagues look down on them and they don't like it.
The thing is (of course) that although every one of them is awkward, unconventional, or just plain weird in many respects they are all have at least one redeeming skill which, when a job comes up that nobody else wants, they employ to great arguing, bumbling, often illegal effect, surrounded by crumpled coffee cups etc.
And because we don't want any spoilers here, no way, that's all I'm going to tell you apart from the obvious fact that it was a really good read. a clever, engaging plot, witty, very funny in places, with a twist-ette at the end. Read the first one (a lot of people liked it), and try the series.

[Max (Outrage)]

Bill wrote: ""

I love it.

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "Practically the first thing I read this morning, this letter to the NY Times Book review: To the Editor:

Would it be possible for your book reviewers to take points off for excessive length? I giv..."

i think length is not an issue for me with biographies, if you are choosing the right topic, a long life or a biography that mixes a kind of novelistic style with digressions

The De Gaulle biography i am reading is 900 odd pages, i'm only on page 80 but its enthralling stuff.

Is 1000 pages excessive length? Over a long life i'm not sure, if it was a biography of a writer or person who died at 35 maybe, but for a long life, 1000 pages is fine, though i wouldnt opt to read two colossal biographies in a row!

[AB76]

Gladarvor wrote: "AB76 wrote (#195): "i read this [Reading in the Dark] about 5-6 years ago and loved it"

I remembered one other person had read it on TLS, couldn't remember whom. That's a big recommend from you co..."

true, if i'm reading something post 1990 and i liked it...its rare!
Matterhorn by Maralantes and The Colonel by Dowlatbadi remain my favourite modern novels of the last 10 years

[AB76]

On my dislike of complementary fiction i think there is something i dislike about our modern literary world though, novels that seem doused in sexual references and quirkiness that drives me away, the acclaim given to dull prosaic books about relationships etc

Maybe i feel there is some of the magic of literature stripped away in these books or it could be i prefer to retreat to past times and study how people lived and thought. I guess its the historian in me in some ways, i studied history at uni and that focus has never left me, in fact the historical sources in the fiction i read(primary and secondary) always fascinate

But i have a few modern novels lined up for 2021, the first which is on the side but not started is a syrian novel written in 2016 called "Death Is Hard" by Khalid Khalifa. I will keep you all posted when i start it

Maybe we could start our own prize called "The AB Modern Fiction Prize" with a very very short list.....(also planned for 2021 is Mcgregors "Reservoir 13" and Slimani's "Lullaby")

[Justine]

AB76 (220|) wrote: "Bill wrote: "Practically the first thing I read this morning, this letter to the NY Times Book review: To the Editor:

Would it be possible for your book reviewers to take points off for excessive ..."

I read a much shorter biography of De Gaulle about ten years ago (and sorry, I can't recall the author's name). What struck me was something you touched on a few posts ago: his tender relationship with his disabled daughter. It moved me to learn that such a proud, seemingly rigid and even arrogant man could be so loving and attentive with that vulnerable child.

[Bill]

AB76 wrote: "i think length is not an issue for me with biographies, if you are choosing the right topic, a long life or a biography that mixes a kind of novelistic style with digressions"

There’s probably a market for books that present “brief lives”; I’ve seen various series come and go over my years of book buying. Anthony Burgess did one on Ernest Hemingway for a Scribner series in the 1970s. I tend mainly to read biographies of composers, with an artistic, literary, or historical figure of particular interest occasionally thrown in. When I do turn to a biography, I like authors who go big; in music I’ve read Newman’s four volumes on Wagner, Walker’s three on Liszt, and Cairns’ two on Berlioz.

I think serious biographers try to be definitive in their works, which almost always means length. It seemed naïve to me that the letter writer thought it proper to put the demands of readers, as represented by her book club, above those of scholarship and justice to the subject and her importance. I think the kind of brief life she’s looking for is generally the work of the modern day equivalent of “Grub Streeters”, literary work-for-hire, in which category I’m sure Anthony Burgess would have classified his Hemingway book.

[Bill]

Elon Musk, now the world's richest person, is selling all his possessions so people know he's serious about colonizing Mars

And lest you think a trip to Mars is too pricey for most people, Musk has said he intends for there to be "loans available for those who don't have money," and jobs on the Red Planet for colonists to pay off their debts. Some critics say Musk's plans resemble an interplanetary form of indentured servitude.

Oh, man, having vintage SF flashbacks to The Space Merchants.

[Tam]

Bill wrote: "Elon Musk, now the world's richest person, is selling all his possessions so people know he's serious about colonizing Mars And lest you think a trip to Mars is too pricey for most people, Musk ha..."

I cant resist it, and is way past my bed time, but you brought up the subject of colonisation of Mars. This is a Russian you tube offering which proved that there are still some Russians with a sense of humourhttps://www.facebook.com/russiabeyond...

[Hushpuppy]

Bill wrote (#225): 'Musk has said he intends for there to be "loans available for those who don't have money," and jobs on the Red Planet for colonists to pay off their debts.'

A lifetime working for his company, against food and shelter, what's not to like? They might also make sure the health of their permanent employees is in tip-top shape to optimise productivity. Perfect really. Has anyone here seen Sorry to Bother You? A film that has made me distinctly and lastingly uncomfortable. (That was its aim I believe.)

[Hushpuppy]

For the West Wing fans, we've watched Two Cathedrals tonight, where there are flashbacks to a young Bartlet and Mrs Landingham. There is also this unpleasant confrontation between young Bartlet and his dad ("a prick" as Mrs Landingham would rightly define him), played by Lawrence O'Donnell, who was given his first gig in front of the camera for that scene. I thought the forest dwellers might appreciate it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Zie....

[SydneyH]

Thomas Pynchon’s V. is a bit like a collection of linked stories, connected by words beginning with the titular consonant. Does “V.” represent a name, like Vanessa? Or a place, like Valletta? The chapters take place all over the world, returning occasionally to a couple of central characters. There is plenty of good writing, but I feel the novel is a bit baggy for my taste. I like Pynchon enough that I’m interested in reading further, though I’m daunted by his three largest tomes, Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason and Dixon and Against the Day (the last of these is the one that tempts me most). I may take up Inherent Vice or Pynchon’s story collection, Slow Learner, sometime in the next year.
For now, I’m turning to Portnoy’s Complaint, by Philip Roth.

[AB76]

Justine wrote: "AB76 (220|) wrote: "Bill wrote: "Practically the first thing I read this morning, this letter to the NY Times Book review: To the Editor:

Would it be possible for your book reviewers to take point..."

Yes, apparently he doted on Anne (born in 1928) who was born with downs, she apparently only learnt to walk at 12 and couldnt really communicate but he was always with her. In the book there is a great photo of him on the beach with her , he is in a jacket and is holding her on his lap, her hands clasped in his

Jackson says that both De Gaulle and his wife were conscious of privacy for their youngest daughter, apparently she suffered from terrible anxiety attacks.she died aged 20.

[AB76]

Justine wrote: "AB76 (220|) wrote: "Bill wrote: "Practically the first thing I read this morning, this letter to the NY Times Book review: To the Editor:

Would it be possible for your book reviewers to take point..."

i think that might have been Fenbys book on De Gaulle. I had lined that up last year but then Jacksons was in all the reviews and i thought, lets go for that one

[Justine]

AB76: The General: Charles De Gaulle And The France He Saved: Yes, that's the one, thanks!

[scarletnoir]

Justine wrote: One last (?) word on Josh Hawley: The man went to Stanford and Yale Law School. He was the attorney general in Missouri, and taught at the University of Missouri School of Law. Don't tell me he doesn't know the First Amendment!! He is being not so much disingenuous as deliberately duplicitous, just as he was in continuing to try overturning the election right to the bitter end, even after the invasion of the mob. He's not stupid or ignorant; he is close to being a traitor.

I knew nothing about Hawley, and had never heard of him until the other day.

I am happy to confirm that I agree (from an American perspective) he is a traitor rather than an idiot!

[Justine]

scarletnoir (233) wrote: "Justine wrote: One last (?) word on Josh Hawley: The man went to Stanford and Yale Law School. He was the attorney general in Missouri, and taught at the University of Missouri School of Law. Don't..."

I hadn't really heard of him either. I had to look all that stuff up! Anyway, we can agree he's a bad'un.

[scarletnoir]

Gladarvor wrote: Well, there was Ongley recommending The Kites. Then Rick2016/AlbyBeliever backing this up. Then there was this thread started by Andy who had read La vie devant soi (to be read threaded), with in particular @auroreborealis making some great contributions https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo....

Indeed - that was some monster digression, I think - which I much enjoyed re-visiting.

No - I wasn't trying to say that Gary hadn't been mentioned by others. I was sort-of apologising (in a sneaky, indirect, British way) for my persistent and (in reality, unapologetic) promotion of Deserable's wonderful book. I do suspect that most Gary-related comments in our new 'home' at Ersatz TLS have come from me, though - but will be happy to back down if you can be bothered to prove different! (AuroreB's comments in that thread were fascinating and informative, as usual; pity he's not 'jumped' over here.) I wasn't referring (back) to TLS when I wrote that.


As you'll see from my own posts in the same thread, I fucking hated the Gopnik's New Yorker piece and I would encourage people to read it only after having been more acquainted with Gary's oeuvre and life. Then MachenBach read La promesse de l'aube after I recommended it earlier in the year.

I indicated that I had problems with Gopnik's article, though - initially - fewer than yourself (I think). On re-reading it, I saw more comments to dislike, but this is the section that had stuck in my memory, and impressed me as being very much to the point of Gary:

His fabrications hold a particular fascination because of the moral authority asserted by his novels, and by his actions. Gary’s example defines a fundamental distinction between the fabulist and the fraud. The higher forms of fiction and the lower form of fibs were, no doubt, born within minutes of each other. Anyone who is an inspired storyteller, as Gary was, knows that the essence of good storytelling is not assembling a heap of facts but having the imagination to leap through an arc of bright truths to create a great curve of invention. A story is a constellation of stars, with a recognizable shape made from shining bits of fact that may exist, empirically, at different levels and different spatial depths.

Yet even if the will toward art and the will to deceive others can be closely aligned, we readily distinguish between the liar and the littérateur. The fabulist wants to convey the dramatic experience of events, while the fraud wants to convey a false evaluation of them. The fabulist wants to dramatize himself; the fraud, to deceive others…

At one point in his memoir, he tells a story about promising a little Jewish neighbor of his to repeat his name in the presence of anyone famous he ever meets, and then insists that he did, even to the Queen of England. As Bellos tells us, Gary is adapting a well-known story by Gogol for his purposes. Did an old man say something like that, and did Gary then say something to the Queen? It almost doesn’t matter; the moral point of the adapted anecdote is apparent: there are no little lives, or little people. For Gary, this truth cuts both ways. If there are no little lives, there is no one too small to remember, and also no one too small to take responsibility for what is happening. In one of Gary’s most forceful images, he says that just as offensive as Dachau is the picture of the little town going on harvesting and planting and eating alongside it.

This, especially, affected me - the 'little Jewish neighbour' (Piekielny) whose life 'is not a little life' because no-one's life 'is too small to remember'.

How true.

[Bill]

Justine wrote: "I hadn't really heard of him either. I had to look all that stuff up! Anyway, we can agree he's a bad'un."

This morning I read a piece by Adam Liptak in the NY Times that clarifies some of the 1st Amendment issues around book publication and Twitter bans:

“The First Amendment doesn’t require any private forum to publish anyone’s speech,” [law professor Gregory P. Magarian] said. “Neither Twitter nor Simon & Schuster has any obligations under the First Amendment.” He added: “Any suggestion that people like Trump and Hawley, and the viewpoints they espouse, will ever lack meaningful access to public attention is ludicrous. We should worry about private power over speech, but presidents and senators are the last speakers we need to worry about.” …

As it happens, the Supreme Court may decide as soon as Monday whether to hear a case about Mr. Trump’s Twitter account, one that nicely illustrates some of the distinctions raised by the recent developments. Lower courts have ruled that Mr. Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking users from his account.

Since Mr. Trump is a government official who used the account to conduct official business, a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, ruled in 2019 that the account was a public forum from which he was powerless to exclude people based on their viewpoints. …

Had the account been private, Judge Parker wrote, Mr. Trump could have blocked whomever he wanted. (For instance, the user who observed that “the same guy who doesn’t proofread his Twitter handles the nuclear button.”)

But since he used the account in his official role as a government official, he was subject to the First Amendment, which prohibits discrimination based on viewpoints.

And this, relevant to the "bad'un" in question:

It is certainly possible to violate the values embodied in the First Amendment without violating the First Amendment itself. But the basic legal question could hardly be more straightforward, said RonNell Andersen Jones, a law professor at the University of Utah. And, she said, it should not have been lost on Mr. Hawley, who graduated from Yale Law School and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

[AB76]

Unknown Soldiers by Vainno Linna is matching Marlantes' "Matterhorn" as the best close combat war novel i have read

Like with Marlantes time stands still as the tense action unfolds, a finnish machine-gun unit advancing into Karelia, in the midsummer sun, through deep forests and open meadows. Soldiers streaming down the roads in the sun towards Lake Lagoda and the old Russian border

Young lads up front, wearing a mixed uniform, field caps,cynical and irritable, shouting obscenities at passing Lotta Svards(female finnish volunteers) and fighting through the russian lines. Behind them come the older men, the reserve, as if pulled from every finnish household. Linna remarks that finland was giving its all in this northern wing of Operation Barbarossa

Slowly, after 132 pages, a week has elapsed in the haunting forested word of skirmishes and death. Finland has regained the land it lost to the evil empire only a year before, now they are in Russian territory. (though interestingly there were quite a few Ingrian Finns fighting with the Russians, these were Finns who had lived in Russia for over 100 years, though mostly Lutheran)

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Unknown Soldiers by Vainno Linna is matching Marlantes' "Matterhorn" as the best close combat war novel i have read

Like with Marlantes time stands still as the tense action unfolds, a finnish mac..."

I'll put a plug in for Marlantes latest - - which won the Washington State Book of the Year in 2020. How about Finns leaving home when Imperial Russia was in charge there and their moving to a logging community in SW Washington? I don't know if the book cover is sharp enough to see that little person standing on huge logs - I hope so.

[Clare de la lune]

I know that I'm probably a bit late with this review but it is a huge book and is pretty heavy to handle but well worth it!

Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light

Hilary Mantel must surely be the best storyteller of all time.

Her writing is beautiful, her observations are razor sharp. It as if she sits on the reader's shoulder adding what is unsaid on the pages, an aside, a glance, a thought. An additional story behind the story written down. I can still hear her voice, this great storyteller, adding this extra dimension to the book.

There are hundreds of quotes that reflect her style and each reader could easily pick many examples and there would be plenty left for others -

'Her visit marks her place in the book of his life - a book which falls back into loose leaves. Printers can read as if through a mirror. It is their trade. Their fingers are nimble and their eyes keen. But examine any book and you will see that some characters are upside down, some transposed.'

'Wyatt has never mentioned the phantom child that saved his life. But it's abscence hovers, a mild haze, behind Wyatt's shoulder where his guardian angel skulks.'

'His word is just what a diplomat's word should be: as clear as glass and as unstable as water.'

'If Henry is the mirror, he (Thomas) is the pale actor who sheds no lustre of his own, but spins in a reflected light. If the light moves he is gone.'

The book is almost 900 pages long but is easy to read. The characters are clear, their personalities well formed. She makes great use of their many different names and pet names to help with the flow of the story. The descriptions throughout of the settings, the clothing, the food, are very detailed but done with a light touch that the reader is transported easily to the taste and smells and colours that are the life of Thomas Cromwell in 1500's London.

She says that Henry is 'the mirror and light of all other kings and princes in Christendom'. And that he, Thomas, is 'the mirror and light of all councillors that are in Christendom'.

But on on reading this exquisitely written book it is also she, Hilary Mantel, who 'is the mirror and the light' of the world's great storytellers.

[Slawkenbergius]

Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency.

Well, a certain degree of opacity is inevitable in the higher echelons of executive power, and the decision-making of twenty eight - or rather twenty seven - chiefs of state must be terribly difficult to harmonise. In any case, that lack of transparency can also be found in the inner circle of advisers surrounding modern world leaders like Trump, Macron or Johnson.

[Toril]

‘The Mirror and the Light’ is the novel I will remember best from the weird year of 2020. And I will re-read it in a not too distant future. I don’t know why, but I am usually not too keen on ‘historical novels’, but Mankell’s portrayal of the times of HenryVIII and Thomas Cromwell’s role really made the whole ‘thing’ come alive to me. The end of Cromwell, well, I still get goose pimples and a lump in my throat. (Yeah, yeah, I DID know ‘the end’ before I read the novel, but even so...).

Mankell’s descriptions and scene-settings are unique! An absolute DIAMOND of a novel!

[Max (Outrage)]

Bill wrote [225]: "Elon Musk, now the world's richest person, is selling all his possessions so people know he's serious about colonizing Mars And lest you think a trip to Mars is too pricey for most people, Musk ha..."

When I first read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles I thought how great it would be to climb into one of those spaceships and go and discover Mars. I was young then. I recall a short story by, I think, Theodore Sturgeon where there is a man lying on a sunny, grassy hill, watching the white trails of rocketships arc across the sky as they leave Earth. That memory stays with me because it was not just attractive, it was fantastic - you didn't see all that many high-flying aircraft at all back then and there there simply were no jetliners to pollute the sky with white lines. It all sounded wonderful, but now? I'm not so sure. I think in reality I'd rather spend a month in Greece.

But anyway, the reason for my post was really to say that I've remembered something that the journalist Katherine Whitehorn, (who sadly died yesterday) once said:

"The best way for a child to learn about money is to have parents who haven't got any".

[Max (Outrage)]

MK wrote:[238] "I don't know if the book cover is sharp enough to see that little person standing on huge logs - I hope so. ..."

It is if you click on the book cover - nice!

[MK]

#239 - completely off topic, but irresistible given your moniker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea2Wo...

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Unknown Soldiers by Vainno Linna is matching Marlantes' "Matterhorn" as the best close combat war novel i have read

Like with Marlantes time stands still as the tense action unfolds, ..."

i had forgotten Marlantes was of finnish descent.

The Finns in Imperial Russia are very interesting, when Finland was part of Imperial Russia the 1897 census records about 200,000 living in the St Petersburg Governate, mainly Ingrian Finns(descendents of historical finnish immigrants). While never more than 10% of the governate population, in nothern rural areas of the governate near the old finnish border, Finns were almost 50% of the population

Apparently the finns were favoured by the Imperial Russian authoirities as hard working farmers and traders. another interesting fact is that the Russian authorities would house foster children with Finnish couples in the governate, this was a good earner for the Finns and was a solid tradition between the 1860s and 1900s

St Petersburg Governate covered the borders with Estonia and Finnish Karelia, mostly surrounding the city.

Finnish Karelia was lost in 1940 and 400,000 Finns were evacuated, it was re-conquered in 1941 and then lost again in 1944. The Finnish population of this area fell massively due to this from 25% down to about 10%

[giveusaclue]

Clare de la lune wrote: "I know that I'm probably a bit late with this review but it is a huge book and is pretty heavy to handle but well worth it!

Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light

Hilary Mantel must surely be t..."


Couldn't agree more with your post Clare - a brilliant book and

His word is just what a diplomat's word should be: as clear as glass and as unstable as water.' some things never change!🤣

[Clare de la lune]

Thanks for your replies (toril) and (giveusaclue) re 'the mirror and the light'
It's a book (and she is a storyteller) that I wont ever forget. She is able to portray a complex historical narrative and turn it into an accessible for all 900 pager (who could possibly do that)?
Amazing!

[Tam]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency.

Well, a certain degree of opacity is inevitable in the higher echelons of executive power, and the decision-making of twenty eight - or rather twenty seven - chi..."

That is true, but it doesn't make it right!.. as a policy, with no public knowledge or accountability in the decision. Some of us wondered how it was that the EU managed to fund a whole brand new airport in Extremadura, in Spain (the hint is in the name), hardly anyone lives there as the desert like landscape is so hostile to supporting large communities of people.

It is still there, wrapped up in deep hibernation, like a giant white elephant. I think something like 3 planes ever landed at the airport. Millions of public EU money spent, with no accountability, and to no purpose. Perhaps the decision was made in one of those 'top' closed off meetings?...

[giveusaclue]

Tam wrote: "Slawkenbergius wrote: "Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency.

Well, a certain degree of opacity is inevitable in the higher echelons of executive power, and the decision-making of twenty eight - or ra..."
I did say I wouldn't post on this again but in view of both your comments, and my distaste for more and more federalisation, less simply EEC, perhaps you can understand why I objected to AB's use of the word pondlife?

Right, I must desist from more on the subject.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote: "Slawkenbergius wrote: "Tam wrote: "Lack of transparency.

Well, a certain degree of opacity is inevitable in the higher echelons of executive power, and the decision-making of twenty e..."

i hope my explanation sufficed giveusaclue.....no issues with the peeps who lived in a pre-EEC world...