2020 50 Book Challenge

[Geoffrey Firmin]

@Fueco I know a couple of therapists and they regularly go and have sessions with other therapists to maintain equilibrium. What I was interested in is what school of thought the author is applying to their work.

 

[Fueco]

@Fueco I know a couple of therapists and they regularly go and have sessions with other therapists to maintain equilibrium. What I was interested in is what school of thought the author is applying to their work.

Sorry, I’m not a therapist. The book is good though.

 

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. The Tangled Land
2. The Test
3. Grace of Kings
4. Wall of Storms
5. Where there was Still Love
6. The Secret Commonwealth
7. Children of Ruins
8. Hunger
9. Legacy of Ash
10. When we were Vikings
11. The Yellow Notebook
12. A Couple of Things Before the End
13. Agency
14. Sword of Fire
15. How to Fix the Future
16. The Topeka School
17. Beijing Payback
18. The Lucky Country
19. A horse walks into a bar
20. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
21. The Secret Scripture
22. Stone Sky Gold Mountain
23. The Return
24. The Lost Decade
25. Shop Class as Soulcraft
26. Makers
27. Between the World and Me

27. Between the World and Me

A friend had lent this to me and I finally got around to reading it. While this seems a well loved book, it's charms were lost on me, I find a lot of formal American writing fairly bland and uninspiring, with federalist touches and vocabulary harking too much to an era of language that doesn't interest me at all.

It's impossible to fault the book on its points, which are all reasonable and clear, that slavery existed, still exists and that inequality is a poison in many intangible ways.

 

[Journeyman]

27. Between the World and Me

Matt, have you read "The Fire Next Time", by James Baldwin?

It contains two essays by Baldwin, the first one in the form of a letter to his teenaged nephew on the destructive experience of being black in the United States. He exhorts his nephew to channel his anger at the way he, as a black man, is treated and to use that anger to be passionate, to have a broader outlook, to achieve.

I haven't read Coates' book but it sounds as though it may have been deliberately inspired by Baldwin's essay and so if you haven't read The Fire Next Time it could be interesting to compare the two.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

@Journeyman my understanding of Coates is that he is inspired by Baldwin but their is his fathers connection to The Black Panthers and he also has written a very good Black Panther series for Marvel.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

33. QUARTERLY ESSAY 78 The Coal Curse Resources, Climate and Australias Future by Judith Brett

This is a comprehensive indictment of the stupidity, greed and political ambition of those mining corporations who willfully exploit the political stupidity and gullibility of the conservative political class and their lackey’s in Australia. The mining sector does it for the money and Liberal and National Parties do it for power. A marriage made in Hell.

As for climate change its a lie, worse according to these fools its religion which has replaced the great Satan of Communism.

Judith Brett is emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University and provides an insightful essay on vision (of lack thereof) leadership and economic history.

To say the least it made me exceptionally angry, f..k the lie of political correctness and woke culture. History if the planet remains, will clearly condemn these insipid myopic poltroons and lies they have proliferated in their quest for riches.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

34.SOLARIS by Stanislaw Lem

I recently watched the Clooney/Soderbergh film version before picking the book up. Tarkovsky‘s version I saw at the Valhalla Cinema in Richmond in 1979.

The book is high concept speculative science fiction, its an ideas driven story which focuses on a central character and his philosophical and psychological reaction/interaction with the supporting scientists, a disturbing mystery that defies explanation and ever present but changing surface and light of the planet Solaris and its enigmatic Ocean.

The story unfolds on an orbiting space station above the planet which gives it a claustrophobic psychological edge within the narrative.

At times it does get a bit turgid as it recounts the history of human interaction with the planet and what the ocean actually is or is not. Overall an interesting read of a genre I have paid little attention too for years.

 

[samtalkstyle]

27: Biggles, Air Detective - W.E. Johns

I found this in a box at the house I grew up in, alongside two others. Thought I might re-read it, and the other two to come, for a little nostalgia hit.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

35.The Overlook by Michael Connelly

A tensely wound tale involving LA Detective Harry Bosch investigating a murder most foul, the FBI and a potential terrorist attack involving a dirty bomb. The narrative takes place over twelve hours and is concise, dramatic and entertains.

This was the thirteenth book in the series which was initially run as a series in the NYT Sunday Magazine. The book formed. the basis for season six of the BOSCH TV series.

 

[Fueco]

53. A Ranger Pure And Simple: The Evolution Of Parks and Park Rangers in America, by Thomas A. Smith

I’ve been pondering a career change, possibly back to what I studied in college a quarter-century ago. Smitty (the author of this book) was one of the founders of the program I got my degree in at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA. He retired before I started, but the program now uses this book for the introductory course, and was recommended by a friend who teaches in the program.

This is an overview of what it means to be a park ranger and what the job historically entailed as well as what it might look like in the future. If nothing else, it was a flashback to when I took Intro To ParkManagement in the fall semester of 1993...

 

[Fueco]

54. The Art Of Happiness: A Handbook For Living, by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, MD

A compilation of thoughts from conversations between a psychotherapist and the Dalai Lama. This book contains some gems of advice on how to become happier in life, regardless of what religion you practice.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

@Fueco anything either written or cowritten by The Dali Lama is well worth reading.

He is also an amateur horologist, although in his words its not wise to trust your watch to him for reparis.

 

[Fueco]

@Fueco anything either written or cowritten by The Dali Lama is well worth reading.

He is also an amateur horologist, although in his words its not wise to trust your watch to him for reparis.

I saw that one at a thrift store for a dollar and had to buy it. I’ll keep my eyes out for others. I’m on to James Joyce now...

 

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. The Tangled Land
2. The Test
3. Grace of Kings
4. Wall of Storms
5. Where there was Still Love
6. The Secret Commonwealth
7. Children of Ruins
8. Hunger
9. Legacy of Ash
10. When we were Vikings
11. The Yellow Notebook
12. A Couple of Things Before the End
13. Agency
14. Sword of Fire
15. How to Fix the Future
16. The Topeka School
17. Beijing Payback
18. The Lucky Country
19. A horse walks into a bar
20. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
21. The Secret Scripture
22. Stone Sky Gold Mountain
23. The Return
24. The Lost Decade
25. Shop Class as Soulcraft
26. Makers
27. Between the World and Me
28. How to do nothing

28. How to do nothing

A wide ranging book that covers the importance of not always being entertained or active and, through doing so, being more aware and present. Sprawling content and a lot of overlapping messages, a bit longer than I wanted it to be.

 

[Journeyman]

Sprawling content and a lot of overlapping messages, a bit longer than I wanted it to be.

...because reading it stopped you from doing nothing?!