Finished reading "Cursed Days: A Diary of Revolution" by Ivan Bunin (1870-1953).

In 1933 Bunin became the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This diary, which he kept in Moscow and Odessa in 1918 and 1919, reflects events in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Not being a supporter of revolutionary leader Lenin and his Bolshevik cause, Bunin was forced to flee his homeland. He settled in France until his death.

Without question, Bunin was a master fiction writer in the realist tradition.

The Rev will peek into this book over the weekend. It has been described as "a witty, lucid and engaging book that makes the complex mathematics of chaos accessible and entertaining."

Rev

 Still looking for Edgar Mittleholzer's books for my RETIREMENT reading...
These are the titles I presently own.


 

Cham, wished that was so... have a few more years to go.

If I go at month end I will lose a huge amount.

Finished reading "The God of Small Things" by Indian woman writer Arundhati Roy.

Ms Roy wrote this novel 17 years ago and it won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1997.

Although she wrote a few more books afterwards, "The God of Small Things" remains her only novel.

The book is set in the south Indian state of Kerala with a three-decade time period starting from the late 1960s. It focuses on extended-family relations, caste and class relations, love, jealousy, intrigue, spite, incest, tragedy.

I'm impressed with the quality of Ms Roy's writing, considering it is her first published book.

I don't doubt you, Chameli. The story is powerful enough to bring out the emotions you experienced. It underscores Ms Roy's exceptional skill as a writer.

I was also shocked at the brother-sister sex at the end. I didn't expect it although I know twins are very close and almost inseparable.

Read that many moons ago, Bookman.

You beat me to it by many moons, IGH.

What amazes me is that Arundhati Roy was trained as an architect, but her first novel shows she has a strong literary sense.

I particularly like her description of village and river scenes in Kerala---the trees, insects, river behaviour, etc. She has an observant eye.

Many moons from now, I shall remember "The God of Small Things."

For the past four or five years I've been following Ms Roy's political activism. She is a leftist like me.

This book is next on my list---will peruse it this weekend.

Nice write up:

In this emotional and heart-warming book Hellen Keller describes her life as a deaf and blind woman. The Story of My Life is a beautifully written memoir that appears fresh to a modern audience.

 

Keller is a vibrant young girl who appears trapped in a body that is discordant with her wild nature and frustrates and angers the author. Her world is truly moving as she describes the dedication of one teacher, Anne Sullivan, who managed to work with the young Keller to break down the difficulties posed by her disabilities.

 

Sullivan taught Keller how to spell words out on the palm of her hand, until she had a wonderful grasp of language. This is clear in the beautiful, sensory imagery that Keller conjures in her text. Smell and touch seem to jump from the page, as she describes her home and the surrounding garden, as you follow this young girl’s journey through adversity.

 

One of the truly most inspirational stories you could ever read and a must in any best autobiography books list!

Rev

Rev, you've made an excellent choice here.

I read this wonderful and inspiring book 45 years ago, while attending Zeeburg Secondary School. I had borrowed it from the school's library.

I recall reading aloud portions of it to the girls in my class, parts counseling young women how to conduct themselves.

Bookman, the book was gifted to me by my daughter as a birthday present...

My sister recently read this book and passed in onto me last week---will read it over the weekend.

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." Randy Pausch

* Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon

 

* He learned he had pancreatic cancer in Sept 2006

 

* In August 2007 he was given 3-6 months to live

 

* He gave an upbeat lecture titled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video and led to other media appearances. He then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme, which became a New York Times best-seller.

 

Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.

This should be a good read---will peruse it this coming weekend.

Rev

Finished reading "The Gentleman From San Francisco and Other Stories" by Russian Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin. Some of these short stories are set in Russia and some in Italy.

Finished reading "The Seashell Anthology of Great Poetry", edited by Christopher Burns.

This collection includes poems from the USA, UK, Ireland, Russia and China.

Some of the poets featured are Carl Sandberg, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Seamus Heaney, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Anna Akhmatova and Joseph Brodsky.

I had lunch with Ms Roy and a girl colleague from Kerala in 1997 or 1998.  She came to NY to do a book reading on that book, and sorted of hinted that the work was part autobiography.  She was a tiny good looking girl and into fitness. I think she did aerobics classes or was a runner. She gave me a signed copy of the book and I loaned it out and never got it back. Last time I lending out a book! 

Set aside half hour a day to walk, run, or dance!

Finished reading "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome.

This novel, first published 124 years ago, centres around a two-week rowing trip by three friends and a dog on the Thames river in England.

When I started reading I did not expect to be entertained with so much rib-tickling humour that I encountered chapter after chapter. And I learned a few things about English history too.

This is a great weekend read after a hard-working week.

"This is a great weekend read after a hard-working week."

Is how much pages so this book got? Sounds like my typea book.

I won't mind readin a lil bit so I figure if it takes a weekend to done it, it must got at least 10 pages.

Oi man Gilly, I clicked to look inside an not a rass happen, is wuh goin on?

* In this thought-provoking book, the acclaimed author Frans De Waal
examines how empathy comes naturally to a great variety of animals, including humans.

* By studying social behaviors in animals, such as bonding, the herd instinct, the forming of trusting alliances, expressions of consolation, and conflict resolution, Frans de Waal demonstrates that animals–and humans–are "preprogrammed to reach out." He has found that chimpanzees care for mates that are wounded by leopards, elephants offer "reassuring rumbles" to youngsters in  distress, and dolphins support sick companions near the water's surface to prevent them from drowning. From day one humans have innate sensitivities to  faces, bodies, and voices; we've been designed to feel for one another.

 

* De Waal's theory runs counter to the assumption that humans are inherently  selfish, which can be seen in the fields of politics, law, and finance, and which seems to be evidenced by the current greed-driven stock market collapse.  But he cites the public's outrage at the U.S. government's lack of empathy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a significant shift in perspective–one that helped Barack Obama become elected and ushered in what may well become an Age of Empathy. Through a better understanding of empathy's survival value in evolution, de Waal suggests, we can work together toward a more just society based on a more generous and accurate view of human nature.

This book looks like it will be an interesting read---it's next up on my list.

Rev

I might add this one to my reading list.

Rev, I used to think that all humans are born with the innate ability to show empathy. I've adjusted my thinking. I strongly feel that empathy is learned. If children don't have experiences with empathy, they grow up not knowing how to show it. As adults, they have to take deliberate steps to learn empathy. What are your thoughts?

The first lady recently read this book and suggested the Rev take a read, so I'll peruse it over the weekend.

Here is the author's analysis in her introduction:

The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us... During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty... Pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers

This ought to be an interesting read.

Rev

Empathy could not exist if the hard wiring for its expression did not pre exist. It is one of those things like language. We come with a mentalese that makes us all receptive to language. As we have a language instinct we have an empathetic instinct.  That is self evident in that we can be thoroughly be defined via reciprocal altruism in everything we do. Yes, it is what generates the misunderstanding that we have a selfish gene and act only if it maximizes a desired return.

Thanks, Danyael!

Finished reading "Stoner", a novel by American writer John Williams.

This is a sad, moving and beautiful book written in smooth and straightforward prose.

The main character is William Stoner, son of a poor farmer in Missouri.

Stoner advances himself thru education and becomes an English Literature professor at the University of Missouri.

He marries a banker's daughter and they produce a girl child.

One would expect Stoner to be a happy man but his life is far from blissful.

Neither his wife nor university colleagues nor his students think much of him. Except one female instructor with whom he has a short extra-marital affair.

Stoner is forced by bad health to take early retirement. Shortly after, he dies at home of cancer.

For me, the novel's last two paragraphs resonate; Stoner dies with a book in his hands. A rare ending.

Finished reading "Interpreter of Maladies", a collection of short stories by Indian American writer Jhumpa Lahiri.

This woman can write well. No wonder she won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for this book, her first.

As expected, the stories are peopled by Indians in the United States, Indians in Britain, and Indians in the homeland, West Bengal mostly. As expected, too, I read about egg curry, fish curry, dhal, samosas and arranged marriages.

Jhumpa Lahiri is not only brilliant, she is also beautiful. I am posting her photo in addition to my usual book cover pic.

Brilliant, beautiful woman, a PhD, ...alias taken..she is married to a journalist , I think.  Rarely do you find brilliant beautiful women, but if you look hard enough, you will

Jhumpa Lahiri is married to a Guatemalan-Greek-American journalist named Alberto Vourvoulias Bush. Here is Jhumpa on her wedding day in India in 2001:

On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the mountain alive. For ten excruciating weeks they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, they were forced to do what would have once been unthinkable...
This is their story - one of the most astonishing true adventures of the twentieth century.

I'll be perusing "Alive" this weekend---was told it will be a gripping and absorbing read.

Rev

Oh rant Rev "Alive" is a ole ole book banna, even Iman aready read dat thing donkey years ago. I hear dem boys so old now, they start workin on another book gonna be named "Dead"

I got real hungry after reading that book many years ago!  

There are hundreds of excellent and interesting books the Rev has not yet gotten to. I try to read one a week. Glad to know you are a fellow reader. A lot of people stop reading after they are done with school.

Rev

I shouldn't mention this but what the heck, it's Christmas

Have you ever been featured in a book, as a main character?

Well, this lady I know wrote a book that is on sale on Amazon. I ain't going to give you the name of the book, but I did buy the book. Damm book features me and is semi fiction. I was tempted to quote a few paragraphs, but Christmas or not, I ain't that brave.

The thing is, the book is exceptionally well written. I saw her in a newspaper recently being interviewed on another book she wrote. If she become rich and famous, i wonder if I should beg for a raise

TI, if you shouldn't mention about the book, why did you? Christmas is not a good enough

I meant to say " not good enough reason"

It is selfish not to mention the name of the book nor the author's name.

Bookman - read many moons ago.

ICIP(yep, that ICIP) & I had a discussion about this book many moons ago right here on GNI.

Glad to hear, IGH. I recommend it to GNI folks.

Never finished reading this book...

Next on my list:

I read both. They're worth re-reading if one has the time.

Haha, yu mean self preservation! . The book is semi fiction, so people might have the wrong impression of poor me. Also she gave me a British accent, whereas I does talk Guyanese

I am presently looking at Imprints in Life's Journey- short stories by:

Barbara Verasami

Dwarka Ramphal

Kennard Ramphal

Edited by Kennard Ramphal

Gilly, do you know Ken Ramphal? His bio says that he was born in Canal Ploder (#2). Infantry officer. Teacher.

I never met him. I heard about him. My mamoo knows him personally.

This book is next on my list---ordered it from Amazon on Christmas day---it will be delivered on Saturday---will peruse it over the weekend.

HERE'S A WRITEUP:

Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. The book intends to answer the question "How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" Part One constitutes Frankl's analysis of his experiences in the concentration camps, while Part Two introduces his ideas of meaning and his theory called logotherapy

Rev