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1
Sep

#2024 New books and reading lists – September

  • Love the first day of September!
  • Time enjoy one of my favorite times of the year
  • …Indian Summer.

 

  • I’ve a new rule:  no more wasting good reading time!
  • I’ve decided to post my monthly planning with
  • …links to my short reviews on Goodreads.
  • It saves time and there are so many reviews of books
  • …on other blogs.
  • I’ll keep mine KISS (keep it short stupid).

 

  • I found a great list on the New York Times (dd. 30.08.2024)
  • …Best books about Politics chosen by the readers.
  • I would like to see if I can finish this list.
  • I”ve read a few and have ordered Robert Caro’s book. (…BTW, expensive, ouch!)
  • I’m old enough to remember  the name  of Robert Moses
  •  in the 1960s…but have no idea…what all the commotion was around him.
  • Time to find out!
  • Another yearly favorite of mine is: Australian Political Book of the Year!
  • The Judges are busy reading, and will determine a
  • ….longlist of 10 books to be announced in October!
  • #AusPolBookAward

 

Reading Lists:    Best books about Politics

  1. READ – “All the King’s Men,” Robert Penn Warren (1946): OK. You guys love this book, which is a fictional tale of a populist governor in the Deep South inspired by Huey Long.  EXCELLENT
  2. READ – “The Last Hurrah,” Edwin O’Connor (1956): This book about the political machine, as told through a fictional mayor of a city that seems a little like Boston, is “a reminder that everything old is new again.” EXCELLENT
  3. READING – “The Making of the President 1960,” Theodore H. White (1961): This account of the 1960 presidential campaign shaped political coverage for decades to come. I have an original hardcover edition from a 2nd hand bookstore! Collector’s item!
  4. ORDERED – “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,” Robert Caro (1974) – READ
  5. “The Hunger Games” trilogy, Suzanne Collins (2008-2010): Look, if this is not a series about politics, I don’t know what is — though it’s not one that will make you feel good about them. “The books show that those who seek power are often the worst people for the job, whether they know it or not,”
  6. “Wolf Hall,” Hilary Mantel (2009): It’s the first novel in a trilogy about the rise and fall of Oliver Cromwell.
  7. READ – “The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015): This book is about a nameless mole spying on South Vietnam’s secret police.   REVIEW –  Good…but not great.
  8. READ – “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” Jane Mayer (2016): Is it too soon to call an eight-year-old book a classic? Mayer’s searing look at the billionaires who have reshaped American politics….and it is all true! EXCELLENT!!
  9. READ – “Caste,” Isabel Wilkerson (2020).  – REVIEW – Good…but not great.
  10. “A Fever in the Heartland,” Timothy Egan (2023): A story of the expansion of the Ku Klux Klan across the country in the 1920s. The manner in which the Klan won the public over with patriotism and religion. Similarities to our political climate today were striking.
  11. ORDERED – “An Unfinished Love Story,” Doris Kearns Goodwin (2024): Many of you have found this book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian’s personal history of the 1960s, to be deeply touching.

 

  • Another list I’d like to finish is Obama’s Summer Reading 2024.
  • I don’t always agree with the 44th President…but we’ll see what happens this year!

Fiction

  1.  READ – “James” by Percival Everett — Inspired by “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: by Mark Twain, Everett’s novel follows Jim, the character in the original story who is escaping slavery.   – REVIEW – Somewhat disappointed…. “Erasure” was better.
  2. “Headshot” by Rita Bullwinkel — This debut novel follows eight teenage girls who take part in a boxing competition in Reno, Nevada.
  3. “The God Of The Woods” by Liz Moore — Barbara Van Laar’s disappearance from her family’s summer camp eerily mirrors her brother’s disappearance 14 years earlier. As the search intensifies, the seems of the Van Laar family’s tightly woven secrets begin to unravel.
  4. “Beautiful Days” by Zach Williams — A couple wakes up in a remote cabin, rapidly aging, while their toddler stays the same. Across ten stories, Williams explores different characters who struggle with nightmare scenarios.
  5. “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar — A troubled poet explores the mysteries of his past in order to discover the truths of his family’s dark history.
  6. “Memory Piece” by Lisa Ko—Set in the 1980s, Ko’s novel follows three teens — Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen — who find solace in their shared alienation and dreams of the future. Later, as adults, their friendship faces turns and challenges.
  7. “The Ministry Of Time” by Kaliane Bradley — In the near future, a civil servant is hired by a government ministry that determines if time travel is possible. Tasked with living and working alongside Commander Graham Gore, a man who died in 1845, she doesn’t expect their relationship to grow deeper.
  8. “Help Wanted” by Adelle Waldman — A group of low-wage employees at a big-box store in upstate New York tough it out through exhausting shifts, all the while hoping for better opportunities.

Nonfiction

  1. READ– “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball And Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib — From the author of “Little Devil in America,” “There’s Always This Year” explores the pinnacle of success through the lens of basketball’s prime era, focusing on the rise of players like LeBron James. – REVIEW   – EXCELLENT
  2. READ – “Everyone Who Is Gone Here: The United States, Central America, And The Making Of A Crisis” by Jonathan Blitzer —Blitzer explores the decades of flawed policies and corruption that have fueled this crisis of Central American migrants seeking safety at the US-Mexico border.  –  REVIEW  – EXCELLENT
  3. “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook” by Hampton Sides — The novel explores British explorer Captain James Cook’s fatal encounter with Indigenous Hawaiians and the broader impact of the Age of Exploration.
  4. “When The Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, And How America Cracked Up In The Early 1990s” by John Ganz — John Ganz dives into the heated era of the early 1990s, following the fall of Reagan. He explores the rise of domestic upheaval.
  5. “Reading Genesis” by Marilynne Robinson — In her new book, Marilynne Robinson challenges traditional and fundamentalist interpretations of Genesis.
  6. “Of Boys And Men: Why The Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, And What To Do About It” by Richard Reeves — Reeves shares his take on the future of masculinity and what it can look like in an equal world.
19
Aug

#Trump Tired of Winning

 

  • Author: Jonathan Karl
  • Title: Tired of Winning
  • Genre: non-fiction  (335 pg)
  • #20BooksOfSummer24 (second list)
  • Rating: C
  • NOTE: I used the cover of R. Cooke’s book
  • …b/c I liked it better than J. Karl’s cover!

 

  1. “Tired of Winning” by ABC news journalist J. Karl…about Trump starting
  2. his next attempt to become president.
  3. So interesting to read about how Trump’s race
  4. …for the White House (15 November 2022) started
  5. and how it is now….just 77 days before the election 2024!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. There were a few tidbits of new info
  2. but as the book progressed it felt like I was
  3. just reading the news again. Been there, done that.
  4. Books about Trump….
  5. ….they all seem to be blending together now.
  6. It is time to see him go.
  7. Audio: 8 hr 32 min
18
Aug

#Biography King: A Life

 

  • Author: Jonathan Eig
  • Title: King: A Life
  • Genre: non-fiction  (688 pg)
  • #20BooksOfSummer24 (second list)
  • Rating: A++++++

 

Conclusion:

  1. MLK pivoted his work from a civil to a political movement.
  2. August 1966 King: ” If people from Mississippi wanted to feel hate, go to Chicago.”
  3. Under the pressure of marches in white suburbs…
  4. …mayor Daley  agreed to changes in Chicago’s housing.
  5. The marches helped galvanize support for the passage of the
  6. …Civil Rights Act of 1968 against discrimination to private housing.

 

  1. I reached the biography’s final section.
  2. I had an awarness of the clock ticking down (April 1968),
  3. …a terrible feeling that I couldn’t save him.
  4. The book gave me purpose for many summer days during my morning walk,
  5. 2-3 chapters in an hour.
  6. It was at times a comforting read to compare 1960s civil rights struggle
  7. and the progress, yes progress …Obama, Kamala Harris, the USA
  8. …has made all thanks to the couragous
  9. …MLK and the people how believed in the cause.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This book included more information about MLK
  2. …recently revealed in released FBI files.
  3. The next information will be made public in 2027.
  4. We will get the tapes and transcripts of wire taps done by the FBI
  5. Who autorizied these taps….who collected the information and
  6. …most importantly why did the government
  7. …want to weaponize MLK’s private life.

 

Notes:

July 31, 2024 –

page 344

50.0%“Audio book “King:A Life” – ch 21-22 – Strange to listen to the civil rights struggles on the 1960s while we are at the moment in time when a woman of color could become president!  The words are true: “…we shall overcome…someday!””

August 3, 2024 –

page 404

58.72% “Ch 26-27-28: What was King’s greatest strength? He could speak with great eloquence and move people’s hearts and minds with
POETRY-PRAYER-PATRIOTISM!”

August 4, 2024 –

page 475

69.04% “Ch 29-30: Kennedy was shot in November 1963. Harry Belafonte noticed in the summer of 1964 that King developed a “twitch”…but it disappeared a few months later. Belafonte asked why King stopped “twitching”. King said: “I’ve come to peace.” His friend pressed him…peace with what? King said:
“…with death”. This was one of the most moving parts of the book!”

August 5, 2024 –

page 500

72.67% “Ch 30-31 – LBJ wanted the “salacious ” material J.Edgar Hoover was collecting (wiretaps) about MLK but did not want to appear he was getting it. That is why he had Hoover’s letters sent to LBJ’s private secretary and she stored them in LBJ’s secret safe.
On a lighter note…MLK visted the Vatican in Aug 1964. He told Pope Paul VI that is was remarkable that the Pope was willing to meet a man named Martin Luther!!”

August 8, 2024 –

page 560

81.4%“Ch 32-33-34 – February 1965 – King knew what it meant to be maladjusted, psychologically, because he was not normal, psychiatrically. He had multiple periods of severe depression. Near the end of his life, some of his staff tried to get him into psychiatric treatment, but he refused.”

August 10, 2024 –

page 600

87.21%“Ch 35-36-37 – A vivid description of the marches in March 1965 to Selma and Montgomry Alabama. King was so torn between the warnings of violence and his determiation to stand by his people and make sure th movement went forward. The marchers showed such courage…even when threatend by state troopers on the Selma “bridge”.”

August 11, 2024 –

page 650

94.48%“Ch 38-39-40-41-42 – MLK pivoted his work from a civil to a political movement. August 1966 King: ” If people from Mississippi wanted to feel hate, go to Chicago.” Under the pressure of marches in white suburbs… the mayor Daley agreed to changes in Chicago’s housing. The marches helped galvanize support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 against discrimination to private housing.”

August 12, 2024 –

page 650

94.48% “Ch 43-44 – December 1967 MKL preaches at his church that he felt a victim of dreams deferred and blasted hopes. Since 1963 …his “Dream” had turned into a nightmare: Bombing in Birmingham church, racial riots in Los Angles and Detroit, LBJ sent 500.000 young men to fight in Vietnam. But MLK is not giving up and dreams when men will be judged based on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.”

17
Aug

#Truman Capote In Cold Blood

 

  1. Just some short literary notes….
  2. …thoughts while enjoying some summer reading.
  3. After watchting the mini-series “Feud: Truman Capote vs The Swans
  4. and the Oscar winning movie “Capote” (Philip Seymour Hofmann, best actor)
  5. I was curious about the book In Cold Blood….again.

 

  1. #20BooksOfSummer24
  2. I read this book in 1967 during a summer filled with babysitting jobs.
  3. The Daniel’s family had it in their library on Centerview Drive…
  4. ..my mother didn’t buy the ‘best selling’ books.
  5. I was developing my love of adult reading.
  6. (….no more Nancy Drew).
  7. I am still in awe how well Truman Capopte could write.
  8. Too bad it was the last book
  9. …he’d ever finish before his death 1984.
  10. If you haven’t read this book…
  11. #MustRead
13
Aug

#Update: 13.08.2024

That’s It. That’s the blogpost!

 

August 2024:   (…enjoying some vacation days with less reading)

  1. Trump’s Peace – Barak Ravid – REVIEW
  2. #Election USA 2024 “…they’ve had enough.”
  3. #Election USA 2024 –  Tim Walz VP candidiate
  4. #Election USA 2024 – “The Look”
  5. #Update: 01.08.2024
  6. King: A Life – J. Eig (…almost finished 43/45 chapters!)
  7. #UPDATE: 13.08.2024
  8. Tidal Waters – Velia Vidal – REVIEW

 

NEW BOOKS

  1. The Mirage – Dr. Jamal Al Suwaidi – NF
  2. Cruelty is the Point – Adam Serwer (essays)
  3. The Debt Trap – Josh Mitchell – NF
  4. Tired of Winning – Jonathan Karl (audio) – NF
  5. In Praise of Shadows – Junichiro Tanizaki (essays)
  6. Between Eternities – Javier Maria (essays)
  7. The Unreality of Memory – Elisa Gabbert (essays)
  8. Leopoldstadt – Tom Stoppard (play)

 

 

 

Film challenge:

Finished     Feud: Capote vs The Swans      (8 episodes on Disney+) – Excellent!!

Acclaimed writer Truman Capote ruins his friendships with the Swans, a socialite group of New York City high society, by writing a thinly veiled fictionalized account of their scandalous and hedonistic lives in his (ultimately unfinished) novel, Answered Prayers. When Esquire publishes the chapter “La Côte Basque 1965”, after the restaurant of the same name frequented by the Swans and Capote himself,  several vow to ruin his life in revenge.

 

2
Aug

#Update: 01.08.2024

LITERATURE: Edna O’Brien

  1. The novelist and playwright died on July 27th, aged 93.
  2. They burned her book.
  3. Priests denounced it from the pulpit.
  4. In her hometown they burned it in the parish grounds,
  5. after the rosary.
  6. Some people, Edna O’Brien’s mother told her,
  7. …had even fainted as it was burned.
  8. That must have been the smoke, she had retorted.
  9. #MustRead

 

01.08.2024 –  TEMP 20C  …not so hot today.

MORNING: After that awful Tump interview yesterday by NABJ  attacking Harris’s race watching CNN …comments!

READ: FINISHED  “Trump’s Peace – Barak Ravid (good…but too, too long)

NEWS:  Gershkovich, Evan (Wall Street Journal journalist) +  Paul Whelan…released from Russia!

Funny, having just read a tweet from Trump.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump said that Gershkovich, whom the U.S. State Department deems wrongfully held, would be released almost immediately after the presidential election “but definitely before I assume office.”“Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!” the post said.

Well, Putin had something to say about that today!  BOOM!  Huge PR boost for Biden Administration…and  very bad day for Trump’s inflated ego!

FILM CHALLENGE: Veep SE 4 episodes 5-6

ELECTION: This is the projected electoral map  01.08.2024…with Democratic win

  1. “Holding the blue wall”   MI-WI-MN 
  2. “Holding”  NV-AZ-GA
  3. Losing  PENNSYLVANIA (…but what happend if Shapiro (Gov Penn) becomes VP pick?
  4. So let’s see what happens in November!  HARRIS 284 – TRUMP 254

This is what happened in November 2020

29
Jun

#Reading Journal June 2024

While I’m engrossed in a book and not watching Ben & Jerry…this happens!

 

  1. This new habit of mine to make a daily reading list has been a success.
  2. I pick and choose different books, short stories, a poem or essay to read.
  3. It is the best way to keep me from being  ‘bogged down” in one book for a long time.
  4. There were some great short stories by Kevin Barry, Alice Munro and found  a new writer
  5. …from Canada (born in Trinadad).
  6. I read André Alexis’s short story “Consultation”  in The New Yorker and as very impressed.
  7. I ordered his first books: Fifteen dogs and Pastoral…fell in love with the covers!
  8. Fifteen Dogs won the Giller Prize 2015.
  9. The is about 15 dogs gifted by gods with human traits — was praised by
  10. Giller Prize jury members as an insightful meditation on the nature of consciousness.
  11. Sounds like a fun read!

NEW BOOKS: Pastoral  and Fifteen Dogs both by André Alexis and 2 of the five books in his The Quincunx Cycle is a series of novels written by Trinidadian-Canadian author André Alexis. While loosely interconnected with various characters and places recurring in various novels each novel is written as a stand alone piece and is based on one of the themes of faith, place, love, power and hatred. All take place in and around Southern Ontario with Fifteen Dogs and The Hidden Keys both set in Toronto. Alexis began the series in 2014 with Pastoral and completed it in 2021 with the publication of Ring

  1. My #20BooksOfSummer24 is progressing nicely (see LINK Monthly Planning).
  2. I decided to make more use of my Dutch library card.
  3. A few books were added to my June list…the titles are in Dutch but reviews in English.
  4. If your curious what the Dutch are writing about…have a look!
  5. Also I selected an “alternative” DUTCH  #20BooksOfSummer24 list.
  6. …see at the end of the  blogpost.
  7. There are some current topics like the rise of Populism in Europe
  8. …that I’m sure will be an eye-opener.
  9. Marijn Kruk’s book Opstand was published this week.
  10. With all the elections this summer…
  11. European Union 2024 European Parliament election June 9
  12. the UK  elections 4th July and
  13. two rounds of elections in 30 June and 7 July France.
  14. …I will be curious to see where these countries will lean
  15. ….center right or shift to more “populism”.
  16. How  does the bookcover relate to the story!
  17. Classical conservatives, right-wing Christians, dark ethno-nationalists and
  18. …all kinds of conspiracy thinkers are simmering in Europe.
  19. The Hungarian capital Budapest serves as an intellectual breeding ground and as a model.
  20. Viktor Orbán leads the battle for the ‘ owner ’ amid a modernity that erodes this.
  21. Does this rebellion stand a chance of success, and if so, at what price?

Marijn Kruk (1971) studied history in Utrecht and political philosophy in Paris. He worked as a France correspondent and reported on the Arab Spring in North Africa. He was subsequently a correspondent in Istanbul and made numerous reportage trips through Europe.

MORE NEW BOOKS:

Nothing’s Mat  by Jamacian writer Erna Brodber. She received a Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in 2017. – 128 pages NOVELLA for #NovInNov 2024.

Duncan Macmillian – Every Brilliant Thing (play) – REVIEW – EXCELLENT!! 

I have a subscripton for Charco Press.…and received the collecton for 2023 and 2024.

Claire @ Word by Word blog brought this publishing house to my attention. (her review of the thriller “Cattle and Men”) Charco Press is an independent publisher based in Edinburgh that specialises in translating contemporary Latin American fiction into English. I’m anxious to start the following books…and Charco Press wins my prize for “beautiful book covers!”

 

DISAPPOINTMENTS:

Peter Schjeldahl  – (1942 – 2022)  They say The great New Yorker art critic writes like an angel about everyone from Vermeer to Picasso, Donatello to Andy Warhol, in beautiful, enjoyable, accessible essays but Hydorgen Jukebox (essays) was absolutely awful!! NOT wasting my time with these essays from the 1980s. Just awful! I will give Schjeldahl another chance but will find some essays in the The New Yorker archive from 2000-2020. Perhaps the art critic has mellowed in is last years at the magazine.

John Updike – (1932-2009) “The Persistance of Desire” (short story) – great writer, I have a Collection of stories (1953-1975) an I struggle to ever finish it. He writes of another era about  an elite class with questionable morals. He was one of them!

SUMMER:  This is the summer month and a  local marching band just paraded down my street. Scard the bejesus out of the cats! So, it is official the summer season in the neighborhood has started!

It is also the start of the European Soccer Championships…and my reading was put on a “back-burner” while I watched the teams play some great matches. Major upsets: Belgium lost to Slovakia; Netherlands lost to Austria; Portugal lost to Georgia. MAJOR battles: Czech Republic vs Turkey (winner)  (18 cards: 16 yellow and 2 red…the pitch it looked like a battlefield!) and Croatia (suprise elimination) vs Italy (1-1). Croatia’s Euro 2024 exit marks the end of an era – even for immortals like Luka Modric.

Good news: I still managed to read while watchting the TV and finally finshed Fintan O’Toole’s  (review) prize winning book of essays We Don’t Know Oursleves. I started it in March for #ReadingIrelandMonth24 hosted by @746CathyBooks...but 43 essays in one month was just too much! The book won the 2021 Book of the Year award at the Irish Book Awards. It was selected as one of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2022.

 

RIP: Alice Munro (1931 – 2024)

Alice Ann Munro was a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work is said to have revolutionized the architecture of the short story, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time, and with integrated short fiction cycles. I bought 6 of het books this month and want to read ALL of her stories over time.  I’m reading her stories very slowly, no taking notes or underlining anything. I just want to immerse myself in her writing…in her.

READ: Start Alice Munro’s collection Too Much Happiness.

  1. Dimensions (excellent) – (60 min) – Woman gazing out bus window…her tragic life passes before her eyes and …only 23 yrs old.
  2. Fiction (excellent) – (70 min) – Joyce…and her marital relationships She used a child’s adoration to pry into his domestic life.
  3. Wenlock Edge (excellent) –  The nding will feel strange to readers who have not discovered this clue. Read page 90…very carefully!
  4. Deep-Holes – Slow starting short story…with an unexpected turn.  Mother and estranged son meet years later….bittersweet.

 

DUTCH READING LIST – #20BooksOfSummer24  (…or my own administration)

  1. Etty Hillesum – J. Koelemeijer – (2023)  (bio and diary; killed in Auschwitz)
  2. Ontaard land – Ineke Noordhoff –  (2023)
  3. (…bureaucracy crushes people in Groningen; exploitation of that landscape to drill for gas)
  4. Sywerts miljoenen – J.Strop,  S. Vermeulen –  (2023)
  5. The Corona-mask affair is a Dutch affair in which
  6. Sywert van Lienden sold masks to Dutch department of health
  7. …deal was worth100 million euros.
  8. At least 20 million euros ended up with Sywert’s  private company.
  9. De Indische doofpot – M. Swirc –   (Cover-up war crimes) – READ
  10. Rotterdam – Arjen van Veelen – (2023) (…everything that makes Rotterdam beautiful)
  11. Bij ons in Auschwitz  – Arnon Grunberg  –  (2020) (Holocaust lit) – READ
  12. Japan in honderd kleine stukjes  (travel)  – Paulien Cornelisse (2020)
  13. Mijn ontelbare identiteiten (migrant memoir)  (2020) – Sinan Çankaya – READ
  14. De Vastgoedfraude – V. v d Boom en G. v d Marel  (real estate fraud case)
  15. Een woord een woord (essays about terrorism) – Frank Westerman – READ
  16. De rekening voor Rutte  (Dutch government affair..launder drugs money) – Bas Haan – READ
  17. Het recht van de snelste – T. Verkade en M. te Brömmelstroet
  18. (Who owns the street?  the role of mobility in public space)
  19. Het zijn net mensen (memoir Middle East journalist) – Joris van Luyendijk – READ
  20. Het Drama Ahold (Dutch multinational) –  Jeroen Smit
  21. XTC ( …biography of a drug)  – P. Zandstra en W. Pottjewijd 
  22. Wees onzichtbaar (migrant memoir)  – Murat Isik
  23. Opstand:  De populistische revolte – (2024)  (Rise op populism…)

 

READING LISTS:

READ: – I found a great list of books  #20 Book of Summer on the blog BOOK AROUND THE CORNER. I must admit this is one of the few blogs with books in English AND French…and that interests me.  I look at it reguarly! I’ll have to see which books I can read in the course of the year!

  1. Crime fiction from Québec: Boundary – Andrée A. Michaud. (Bondrée)
  2. French Historical crime fiction: Le bureau des affaires occultes – Eric Fouassier  – Ordered paperback
  3. American Nature Writing: USFS 1919:
  4. The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky by Norman McClean (Montana 1919)
  5. Mystic River –  Dennis Lehane
  6. The Scared Stiff  – Donald Westlake (Mort de trouille)
  7. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
  8. Ping-Pong by Park Min-kuy
  9. Wilderness by Lance Weller – Ordered paperback
  10. The Names of the Stars – A Life in the Wilds by Pete Fromm (Le nom des étoiles)
  11. Out of the Woods – Chris Offutt (Sortis du bois)
  12. The Relive Box and Other Stories – T.C. Boyle (Histoires de couples)
  13. In Wyoming with Trophy Hunt-y C.J. Box (Sanglants trophées)
  14. In Louisiana with The Missing – Tim Gautreaux (No disparus)
  15. In North Carolina with Serena – Ron Rash
  16. In Western Virginia with Razorblade Tears – S.A. Cosby (La colère)
  17. Tenir jusqu’à l’aube – Carole Fives
  18. Celle que vous croyez – Camille Laurens (Who You Think I Am)
  19. Les faibles et les forts – Judith Perrignon
  20. Troubles – J.G. Farrell (Hôtel Majestic) –  Ordered paperback
  21. Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip),
  22. dealing with the political and human consequences of British colonial rule.
  23. Mistouk – Gérard Bouchard, historical fiction from Québec
  24. Le Messie du Darfour – Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin
  25. Le Sillage de la baleine by Chilean writer Francisco Coloane.
  26. Three-Day Road – Joseph Boyden (Le Chemin des âmes),
  27. to Victorian England with New Grub Street – George Gissing,
  28. to Albania with Doruntine –  Ismail Kadare (Qui a ramené Doruntine?)
  29. to Nigeria with The Fishermen – Chigozie Obioma (Les pêcheurs)
  30. NOT – Belle du Jour – Joseph Kessel
  31. ….Reading L’Armée des ombres instead – Ordered paperback

 

Have a great July!!

25
Jun

#Cover-up Dutch government

 

  • Author: Bas Haan  – Dutch investigative journalist = Bravo!
  • Winner of the Brusse Prize (see Google) 2018

  • Title: De Rekening van Rutte
  • Genre: non-fiction  (241 pg)
  • Language: Dutch
  • #20BooksOfSummer24

 

Conclusion:

  1. Unbelievable…I’m just speechless.
  2. Yet another cover-up in Dutch government.
  3. I read about the Indonesian cover-up (review) concerning war crimes
  4. …during 1945-1949 committed by Dutch forces.
  5. Now this:  February 2000 “illegal deal”
  6. …to launder drugs money with the help of Dutch government.
  7. The plan was “catch a bigger thief by helping another thief”…but still
  8. …the plan was NOT approved by the all departments in the cabinet.
  9. Cabinet Rutte-II was determined to conceal unflattering facts…
  10. to preserve the “honest” image of the political ministers at the time.
  11. “Damn the facts….just lie”!
  12. What is Rutte’s next challenge?
  13. Mark Rutte will be the next NATO secretary-general after all
  14. 32 members of the alliance agreed that the
  15. outgoing Dutch prime minister will succeed Jens Stoltenberg.

24
Jun

#My Life

 

That’s It. That’s the blogpost!

 

22
Jun

#Essays Fintan O’Toole

 

  • Author: Fintan O’Toole
  • Title: We Don’t Know Ourselves
  • Genre: essays  (570 pg)
  • #ReadingIrelandMonth24 (…could not finish in March!)
  • #20BooksOfSummer24

 

Conclusion:

Very good – 15
No – 8
Okay – 13
Excellent – 7

  1. Well, I finally finished 43 essays by Fintan O’Toole.
  2. The book won the 2021 Book of the Year award at the Irish Book Awards.
  3. It was selected as one of The New York Times’s “10 Best Books of 2022
  4. I started in February – 6 essays
  5. March – 7 essays
  6. …and decided I  had to finish the book this month.
  7. June – 30 essays.
  8. Selections that I gave a ‘NO’ were mostly about Irish politics that I did not
  9. completley understand and one selection about the scandal “The Kerry Babies”.
  10. I did not even read that one….just skimmed the wikipedia page about it.
  11. That was enough.
  12. The book was an excellent read  to learn about “modern Ireland”.

 

Important subjects that Fintan O’Toole wrote about

  1. The strangle-hold the Catholic Church had on all aspects of Irish life
  2. political, social and economical and especially on personal lives
  3. …contraception, abortion.
  4. Scandals that the Irish just turned a blind eye to, the known unknowns.
  5. Industrial school – “….the hinterland of dread”
  6. Magdalene laundries
  7. Mother and Babies Homes
  8. The Kerry Babies
  9. The Troubles
  10. How political power had been working in Ireland.
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