Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Arakhor]

I just finished Garth Nix's Sabriel, which I've owned for years, but never actually read until now. It was pretty good.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Why do I feel like that book won't tell me anything new? There's have always been things smaller businesses are more adept at than larger ones.

It's an argument for why locally-owned businesses are a securer foundation for communities to build on than chasing chains and throwing subsidies at them. Although there's a little economics (the author doesn't want to run too much afoul of comparative advantage), it's mostly advocacy aimed at different segments of the population. There's a section on small business owners, for instance, and how they can use cooperatives to compete with the titans more easily, and another segment on how it is possible to invest in local firms. I was predisposed to like it, given my passion for restoring towns and cities to health, so I enjoyed it with reservations.

I'm now moving on to Antifragile, which I stopped reading at some point.

 

[Phrossack]

A translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I'm barely into it, but so far his philosophy is too heavily based in the belief of gods for me, and a lot of his beliefs don't make sense.

 

[sophie]

Working my way through 4 books right now:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch (still: ugh )
Lynda Mugglestone - The Oxford History of English
Tom Tango - The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
R.W. Scribner and C. Scott Dixon - The German Reformation

 

[dusters]

Salman Rushdi - "Midnight children", Alessandro Barico - "Oceano Mare", some australian writer - "Book thief", Standhal - "Le Rouge et Le Noir"

 

[Antilogic]

Working my way through 4 books right now:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch (still: ugh )
Lynda Mugglestone - The Oxford History of English
Tom Tango - The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
R.W. Scribner and C. Scott Dixon - The German Reformation

Was the second book written by a character in the first?

 

[Cutlass]

Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World. by Steven Mithen. Interesting concept for a book. Not too deep into it yet. Remember the Hydraulic Hypothesis from earlier versions of Civ?

 

[Smellincoffee]

I am just starting The Men Who Lost America. a series of biographical essays on George III, his prime ministers, his generals, and other members of British leadership during the American bolt for independence.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Finished Contemporary Islamic Finance: Innovations, Applications, and Best Practices, a series of essays edited by Karen Hunt-Ahmed. Two main thoughts: the focus on ethics and preventing unnecessary risk is nice, but some of the instruments seem to be conventional finance with smokes and mirrors (i.e. following the letter but not the spirit of Sharia).

It's about time to get back to the project. Andean South America is mainly coloured red and that needs to be rectified. The History of Peru by Daniel Masterson is an excellent introductory text to the subject matter. One thing of note is how a particularly significant historical name was appropriated by an entertainer born centuries after the original bearers. I kind of feel bad for the Peruvians, honestly.

 

[Traitorfish]

You mean Tupac? That's actually his given name. His parents were Black Panthers, so they were big into anti-colonial struggles and all that.

 

[Masada]

Tupac's aunt is also one of the world's most wanted terrorists.

***

Just finished:

The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki: Absolutely fantastic. This is now one of my favorite novels.

Now onto:

Hard Times - Studs Terkel
The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
Fantastic Night and other stories - Stefan Zweig

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

You mean Tupac? That's actually his given name.

True. I get the feeling that mentioning "Túpac Amaru" will get responses of "Shakur" or "Oh, the rapper", as opposed to "last Sapa Inca" or "hero of the Peruvian struggle for independence".

 

[Ajidica]

Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers by James Ferguson: As someone who knows very little about Haiti, it was a well written book if not particularly detailed. The author appears to know what he is talking about it but a major knock against the book is that the author does absolutely no citations unless he happens to say it in the text. So, no going back to see where he gets his statistics from or many of his statements.
It doesn't appear that bad for a brief introduction to the Duvaliers but I can't really recommend it due to the poor job the author does with citations. Even Robert Fisk does better in his books, and that's saying something.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Tupac's aunt is also one of the world's most wanted terrorists.

"terrorist"

The terrorist label is so melodramatic. She probably killed or helped kill a few cops like 40 years ago [the trial where she was convicted, of the New Jersey Turnpike shootout, was pretty badly botched, it's really questionable whether she could have killed the guy] and has been on the run ever since she escaped from jail. She's a communist [like Tupac, and like her fellow Black Panthers] and has vocally advocated revolution against the US government. Now she lives in Cuba to escape extradition.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Finished:
The global arms trade : a handbook , edited by Andrew T.H. Tan. Learned a bunch of things, such as Chinese deals with Russia for the goal of technology transfer and the trend towards consolidation of arms companies.

A history of Australia , by Mark Peel and Christina Twomey. General Monash isn't a very humble fellow, is he? He wrote to his wife that Australian forces were apparently the "backbone" of the Great War Allied forces.

Reading:
The Kurdish National Movement by Wadie Jwaideh. Good introduction, but apparently I'll need another book to read about post-1959 Kurdish developments.

 

[Flying Pig]

Currently reading Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars in Robert Graves' translation

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Rereading The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 by Eric Hobsbawm. Hope to complete all 4 of the series in the next few months.

 

[Antilogic]

Rereading The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 by Eric Hobsbawm. Hope to complete all 4 of the series in the next few months.

Read that awhile ago, waiting to start the 4th volume.

Have you read them before? I could have sworn we were discussing his work at one point.

 

[dusters]

"Quantum Physics, an introduction"

 

[JohannaK]

So since this week in Tunis we spent lots of hours on the road I had plenty of time to read. Thus, I finished Tai-Pan at last and also Crime and Punishment.