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Jacob Petersen
https://www.goodreads.com/petecanread
There’s a Kanye West song playing, the one with the Curtis Mayfield sample.
"Touch The Sky" from the 2005 album Late Registration. The first line of the song is literally: " Gotta testify, come up in the spot looking super fly." Rooney literally just xescribed what everyonr in the club was wearing. Someone just made fun of Marianne's outfit, and this is clearly one of the first times she has tried to look good. Kanye sas in the song: "I just wanted to shine!"
“Was it important that the United States possessed, to take one example, Howland Island, a bare plot of land in the middle of the Pacific, only slightly larger than Central Park? Yes, it was. Howland wasn’t large or populous, but in the age of aviation, it was useful. At considerable expense, the government hauled construction equipment out to Howland and built an airstrip there—it’s where Amelia Earhart was heading when her plane went down. The Japanese, fearing what the United States might do with such a well-positioned airstrip, bombed Howland the day after they struck Hawai‘i, Guam, Wake, Midway, and the Philippines.”
― How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
― How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan” is how Roosevelt’s speech began. Note that in this formulation Japan is an “empire,” but the United States is not. Note also the emphasis on the date. It was only at Hawai‘i and Midway, of all Japan’s targets, that the vagaries of the international date line put the event on December 7. Everywhere else, it occurred on December 8, the date the Japanese use to refer to the attack.”
― How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
― How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
“I knew I’d do anything for money. Throughout college back in Ireland, I’d kept a savings account that I charmingly termed “abortion fund.” It had €1,500 in it by the end. I knew some women who saved with their friends, and they all helped whoever was unlucky. But I didn’t trust anyone. I got the money together by waitressing, then kept adding to it after I had enough for a procedure in England. I liked watching the balance go up. The richer I got, the harder it would be for anyone to force me to do anything.”
― Exciting Times
― Exciting Times
“Some mornings I didn’t leave the bed because then I’d have to brush my teeth, followed by a series of actions that amounted to living my life as the person I was. I was unable to drum up positivity about either dental hygiene or the rest of my day, so I told myself I was disgusting and lazy and I’d be late and they’d fire me, and then I got up. If you were really sick you couldn’t just harness your self-loathing like that, so I knew I was fine.”
― Exciting Times
― Exciting Times
“Who drew Mona Lisa?” asked one of the girls. “Leonardo da Vinci,” I said. No matter how dire everything else was, I could get immersed enough in their world that I was pleased with myself for knowing things like that. It wasn’t just famous people either. I’d provide the verb for what you did with a knife (“cut”) and I’d feel I’d been handed one of the good brains. This was why people became teachers, I thought. It wasn’t to help people. It was to be the cleverest person in the room, always, or at least to have people sufficiently confident you’d be that they’d call it your job and pay you for doing it. Really, it was more impressive that my eight-year-olds knew Mona Lisa existed than it was that I knew who’d created her.”
― Exciting Times
― Exciting Times
New & Noteworthy book club
— 51 members
— last activity Apr 26, 2018 01:50PM
This is an off-shoot for the in-person New & Noteworthy book club. We do meet in person monthly every fourth Thursday at BookPeople in Austin, Texas. ...more
Jacob’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jacob’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
487 books
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8 friends
508 books
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3 friends
536 books
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936 friends
596 books
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2,050 friends
1,156 books
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2,739 friends
1,615 books
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170 friends
1,862 books
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59 friends
1,466 books
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73 friends
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