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FM
Former Member

Three years ago, posting as Bookman, I created GNI BOOK CLUB. The response was encouraging.

Following Bookman's self-exile in late 2011, however, the book club faded into the netherworld.

Today I'm pleased to launch GNI BOOK CLUB [2]. All members are invited to share information about books they're reading and discuss book-related matters.

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I just finished reading "MY LIFE WITH CHE: The Making of a Revolutionary" by Hilda Gadea. She was the first wife of the legendary revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. This book was first published in 1972, five years after Che was assassinated in Bolivia. Hilda Gadea died of cancer in 1974.

Last week I also read another memoir by Che's second wife, Aleida March. That book, "REMEMBERING CHE:My Life With Che Guevara", was first published in 2008.

Together, these two books open windows into the personal and professional aspects of a larger-than-life character who made a mark in history and died at the youthful age of 39, fighting for a more humane world.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by Sunil:

Did you see the Motocycle diaries of Che?

Yes, Sunil. And I read the book too.

I also read Che's Bolivian and Congo diaries.

In December 1969, I read REMINISCENCES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Ernesto Che Guevara. I was 18 years old and impressionable. That book changed my life with the result that I joined a leftist political party and became an activist for many years.

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Sunil:

Did you see the Motocycle diaries of Che?

Yes, Sunil. And I read the book too.

I also read Che's Bolivian and Congo diaries.

In December 1969, I read REMINISCENCES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Ernesto Che Guevara. I was 18 years old and impressionable. That book changed my life with the result that I joined a leftist political party and became an activist for many years.

so you a commie

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Sunil:

Did you see the Motocycle diaries of Che?

Yes, Sunil. And I read the book too.

I also read Che's Bolivian and Congo diaries.

In December 1969, I read REMINISCENCES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Ernesto Che Guevara. I was 18 years old and impressionable. That book changed my life with the result that I joined a leftist political party and became an activist for many years.


I lived in  Caracas for a few year where I met a lot of Argentinans contemporaries of the Che who were in exile there, I also met a lot of Chileans including Isabella Allende who were also in exile. We used to hang out every Saturday evening discussing politics and listening to Cuban music of Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes.

Sunil
Originally Posted by Sunil:
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Sunil:

Did you see the Motocycle diaries of Che?

Yes, Sunil. And I read the book too.

I also read Che's Bolivian and Congo diaries.

In December 1969, I read REMINISCENCES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Ernesto Che Guevara. I was 18 years old and impressionable. That book changed my life with the result that I joined a leftist political party and became an activist for many years.


I lived in  Caracas for a few year where I met a lot of Argentinans contemporaries of the Che who were in exile there, I also met a lot of Chileans including Isabella Allende who were also in exile. We used to hang out every Saturday evening discussing politics and listening to Cuban music of Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes.

LUCKY GUY!

FM
Originally Posted by warrior:
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Sunil:

Did you see the Motocycle diaries of Che?

Yes, Sunil. And I read the book too.

I also read Che's Bolivian and Congo diaries.

In December 1969, I read REMINISCENCES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Ernesto Che Guevara. I was 18 years old and impressionable. That book changed my life with the result that I joined a leftist political party and became an activist for many years.

so you a commie

Warrior, where reading is concerned I'm open-minded. Some of my favorite authors were apologists for colonialism and imperialism. Just two examples: Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard. I love good writing, regardless of ideology.

FM

GNI crime fiction fans must have heard by now that US writer Elmore Leonard passed away today at age 87. He had suffered a stroke last month.

Elmore Leonard was a prolific novelist who started writing westerns and then settled for crime stories. Some of his books made for great action movies, e.g., "Get Shorty" starring John Travolta.

I've read only one of his books: CUBA LIBRE.

Elmore Leonard in 1983

FM



Racing With The Rain: A fast moving rain cloud in an otherwise clear sky triggers a sudden downpour and people run for cover. Is it possible to outrun the rain? Can one ever really escape the past? Guyanese born and Canadian naturalized Carl Dias will find out as he returns for his father’s funeral.  His visit will bring him in conflict with a government that is facing threats from an expat group intent on overthrowing the dictatorship. It will also evoke the events of the Kennedy Administration/ British Government manipulation of the internal politics of the former colony, an era where the CIA promoted an attempted coup, causing riots and the virtual destruction of the commercial district of Georgetown, the Capital. It was also a period where the Dias family imploded due to divided loyalties, resulting in scars that never healed.(AMAZON)




Just finished reading this one...

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by warrior:
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Sunil:

Did you see the Motocycle diaries of Che?

Yes, Sunil. And I read the book too.

I also read Che's Bolivian and Congo diaries.

In December 1969, I read REMINISCENCES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Ernesto Che Guevara. I was 18 years old and impressionable. That book changed my life with the result that I joined a leftist political party and became an activist for many years.

so you a commie

Warrior, where reading is concerned I'm open-minded. Some of my favorite authors were apologists for colonialism and imperialism. Just two examples: Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard. I love good writing, regardless of ideology.

just joking my brother

FM

This is another good read - true story... I recalled one ot the incidents in this book...


"Conrad- I finished reading your manuscript, it was riveting! I think it should be made into a movie. You provided me with an enlightening look into a country I knew very little about, and into a fellow West Pointer who, after reading his work, I feel I could call a friend and a compatriot." - Kevin Mckeown, West Point Class of 1977

  • Archived in The Smithsonian Institute's Anacostia Library
  • Won 2nd place at Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Literary Award(2011)

Little about Taylor's primitive upbringing, in a remote mining town in the Amazon jungle, prepared him for a first-of-a-kind scholarship to West Point. An extraordinary opportunity for most, his was a life-changer. PATH to FREEDOM charts a sometimes-humorous journey of perseverance, resilience, hope, survival, and love. It traverses between Guyana and the United States Military Academy - at the height of the Vietnam War.
The narrative sums up rude awakenings, especially after West Point - because of West Point. Taylor offers up a ringside seat to a dictatorship obsessed about him being in cahoots with the United States. His was the impossible task of proving that he was not - or else!
More than a memoir, this historically-accurate book provides a unique prism through which to see the cultural trauma of emigration, the unique experience that is West Point, the personal side of Cold-War-era geopolitics, and the mayhem of Third World politics. Its subtly-threaded love story sets it apart.

 
PATH to FREEDOM: My Story of Perseverance was selected for the Anacostia Museum Library of the Smithsonian Institute to support work on the history and culture of the African Diaspora in the Western Hemisphere. It's on display there as a reference resource.(AMAZON)
 
FM
Originally Posted by IGH:



Racing With The Rain: A fast moving rain cloud in an otherwise clear sky triggers a sudden downpour and people run for cover. Is it possible to outrun the rain? Can one ever really escape the past? Guyanese born and Canadian naturalized Carl Dias will find out as he returns for his father’s funeral.  His visit will bring him in conflict with a government that is facing threats from an expat group intent on overthrowing the dictatorship. It will also evoke the events of the Kennedy Administration/ British Government manipulation of the internal politics of the former colony, an era where the CIA promoted an attempted coup, causing riots and the virtual destruction of the commercial district of Georgetown, the Capital. It was also a period where the Dias family imploded due to divided loyalties, resulting in scars that never healed.(AMAZON)




Just finished reading this one...

IGH, this book is on my "to read" list. I have a pile of books lined up...

FM
Originally Posted by IGH:

This is another good read - true story... I recalled one ot the incidents in this book...


"Conrad- I finished reading your manuscript, it was riveting! I think it should be made into a movie. You provided me with an enlightening look into a country I knew very little about, and into a fellow West Pointer who, after reading his work, I feel I could call a friend and a compatriot." - Kevin Mckeown, West Point Class of 1977

  • Archived in The Smithsonian Institute's Anacostia Library
  • Won 2nd place at Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Literary Award(2011)

Little about Taylor's primitive upbringing, in a remote mining town in the Amazon jungle, prepared him for a first-of-a-kind scholarship to West Point. An extraordinary opportunity for most, his was a life-changer. PATH to FREEDOM charts a sometimes-humorous journey of perseverance, resilience, hope, survival, and love. It traverses between Guyana and the United States Military Academy - at the height of the Vietnam War.
The narrative sums up rude awakenings, especially after West Point - because of West Point. Taylor offers up a ringside seat to a dictatorship obsessed about him being in cahoots with the United States. His was the impossible task of proving that he was not - or else!
More than a memoir, this historically-accurate book provides a unique prism through which to see the cultural trauma of emigration, the unique experience that is West Point, the personal side of Cold-War-era geopolitics, and the mayhem of Third World politics. Its subtly-threaded love story sets it apart.

 
PATH to FREEDOM: My Story of Perseverance was selected for the Anacostia Museum Library of the Smithsonian Institute to support work on the history and culture of the African Diaspora in the Western Hemisphere. It's on display there as a reference resource.(AMAZON)
 

IGH, I read this book recently. Conrad Taylor gave a first-hand account of the victimization and harassment he and another West Point grad Chaitram Singh were subjected to in the GDF. Taylor was not a member of any political party. Just because he and Singh were Queen's College cadets who got scholarships to study at West Point, they were suspected of being CIA spies. After spending only a few days in Guyana, Conrad fled to the USA.

FM
Originally Posted by IGH:

Gibakka, the incident I remember was when Conrad made LFSB his daughter's God-Father ... the tight security at Republic Park...

Both Conrad & Chait were denied top positions by personnel in GDF. Why because of a paranoid leader...

 

IGH, I should have pointed out that even though Conrad Taylor didn't belong to any political party, his mother-in-law was a PNC activist in Kitty and very close to comrade Burnham who also knew Conrad's wife since she was a little girl. That's how LFSB offered to be god father to Conrad's child.

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by IGH:

Gibakka, the incident I remember was when Conrad made LFSB his daughter's God-Father ... the tight security at Republic Park...

Both Conrad & Chait were denied top positions by personnel in GDF. Why because of a paranoid leader...

 

IGH, I should have pointed out that even though Conrad Taylor didn't belong to any political party, his mother-in-law was a PNC activist in Kitty and very close to comrade Burnham who also knew Conrad's wife since she was a little girl. That's how LFSB offered to be god father to Conrad's child.

Yes, Conrad's MIL held the party card ...

FM
Originally Posted by chameli:

summer time I rarely read more than gni

most of my sparetime is in the garden or sitting on the swingΓ©glider with my lover

Well...here are some books you and your lover could read on the glider and have a swinging time too:

LOVE STORY by Erich Segal

KAMA SUTRA by Anonymous Hindu

THE PERFUMED GARDEN by Anonymous Muslim

Good luck!

[Note to self: duck from Chameli's belna]

FM
Originally Posted by TI:
Originally Posted by Observer:

I have a huge picture of Che in my house.  My son asked me who's that rebel?  

 

TI, Ignatius reminds me of D3.

Hahahaha yu guessed

 

 

It is good to see to eraser heads on opposite spectrum  taking pot shot at me. At least it is a good thing to see you both read good books if but you understand little. The characters in the book are not people but extreme archetypes of philosophical  viewpoints. As caricatures they do not grow or transform or have any personality as humans but is known for the eccentricities of the philosophical positions they represent. Now you two twits, go and re read the book.

FM
Originally Posted by chameli:
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
[]Well...here are some books you and your lover could read on the glider and have a swinging time too:

LOVE STORY by Erich Segal

KAMA SUTRA by Anonymous Hindu

THE PERFUMED GARDEN by Anonymous Muslim

Good luck!

[Note to self: duck from Chameli's belna]

Sir, i  CAN wrIte the revised kama sutra

Pls send me your copy of LOVE STORY

 

i am sure that i have read ,or have at home, the Perfumed Garden

I regret to inform you that my copy of LOVE STORY was left in Guyana. Come to think of it, I wonder who has it.

FM

Finished reading THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck. This realist novel, first published in 1938, is set against the background of the Great Depression in the United States eight decades ago.

It tells the story of a tenant-farming Oklahoma extended family, the Joads. Driven from the land by drought and economic hardship, the family is enticed by a yellow handbill to travel all the way to supposedly green and fertile California. The handbill promises jobs as fruit pickers, and the Joads hope to settle down with nice house and land.

By story's end, however, the family has suffered two adult deaths, one desertion, a stillborn child, exploitation, near starvation and no hope of realizing the big dream.

The Joads are representative of thousands of other poor farmers in a similar plight, who are forced to face heartless banks and big farmers.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH is regarded as a classic of American literature.

 

FM

A friend asked me to read this book. The author is a friend of his...
Just started reading it...

 

 

 

It seemed a normal spring morning in Savannah until Jonathan Rayburn heard an angelic voice on Monterey Square. Within moments of setting eyes upon the exceptionally beautiful Keri McGuire, he welcomed her to his beloved city and into his heart. In the days ahead, his faith is severely tested because of one homeless man and a civil lawsuit. Daniel Stanton, a busy attorney in St. Augustine, arrived at Mrs. Quinn's home, questioning why his father's client has requested his legal advice. One portrait upstairs caught his attention; one nearly identical portrait in the music room captured his wishful thoughts. Never in his life had he been so disappointed when he actually met the granddaughter from Milwaukee. While Laura Martin challenged his ethics, he prayed to be a man of conviction.(AMAZON)



Editorial Reviews

 

About the Author

Gail Warner's parents joined the family of God five years before she was born, and they faithfully attended a large rural Nazarene Church named Richfield, near Flint, Michigan. For thirty-five years, Gail's varied roles as a minister's wife brought her great fulfillment and opportunities to witness for Christ. With fond memories, she recalls the years in a parsonage setting, where she and her husband, Richard, raised three outstanding daughters. Gail finds joy in traveling with their family, singing in a quartet, working in her flower garden, participating in Beth Moore Bible studies, and connecting with friends on Facebook. Though she is a five-time cancer survivor, she thanks God for giving her good health. Gail lives with her husband in Illinois, but because of Eugenia Price's novels, she has a love for historical places.



FM
Originally Posted by chameli:

I was sitting in a waiting area today and the book I started to read is CALL OF THE WILD!!!

 

nothing deep like what you folks reading

Our GNI Book Club is open to readers of all preferences. No one will be judged on the basis of his/her reading tastes.

 

Let's make our club a fun place where we simply share whatever we're reading, even if it's a slim comic book. BTW, I loved comic books and encouraged my son to read them when he was growing up.

Whether you're reading a romance novel, crime fiction, a western, an adventure story, a biography or whatever, I urge everyone to participate in our conversations on books.

Chameli, while CALL OF THE WILD might appear at first glance to be a simple tale about a sled dog named Buck, it is full of deep layers of meaning relating to philosophy and the environment.

FM

Read both of these books about 5 years ago..

I did not want to put these two book down, ocne I started reading it... 

 

 

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.  How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. .... (Amazon)


A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster.(Amazon)

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

Just finished " The Old Man and the Sea" again because I had to teach it to a group of students. That marlin is some piece of work! 

What a coincidence! Last night I started reading THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.

This is the third time I'm reading it.

Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors. I visited his house in Cuba 24 years ago.

FM
Originally Posted by Ronald Sugrim:

This is crazy because it was just reported on CNN that a young man read " Into the Wild" and decided to follow Christopher. The young man's body was discovered, apparently wasted from starvation.  

On Saturday, Claire Jane Ackermann, a 29-year-old from Switzerland, died trying to reach the bus while crossing that same river, Alaska State Troopers report. The AP reports: Troopers say 29-year-old Claire Jane Ackermann attempted to cross  the Teklanika River with a 27-year-old man from France on Saturday when they  lost their footing and were pulled under by the current, according to the  Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. The man survived.The old Fairbanks city bus was where 24-year-old Chris McCandless  camped out and starved to death in 1992. It has become a destination for  adventurers - See more at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...sthash.Oc2HSo0G.dpuf
http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...-wild-fan-dies-.html


The events of the missing Arizona teen is being investigated  - probably suicide...
http://www.nydailynews.com/new...de-article-1.1437974

FM

Finished reading Ernest Hemingway's 1952 novella THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA; third time. Short and sweet.

Santiago is an old Cuban fisherman.  He has two obsessions: fishing and baseball.

For 84 straight days he sailed his tiny boat to the ocean north of Havana but returned home every day without a catch, not even a gilbakka. But Santiago was born to fish and doesn't give up.

He returns to the ocean, to a point where he can no longer see land, and hooks a fish that feels big and strong on his line. It takes him a day and a night to pull the big fish in and strap it alongside his boat. The fish, a marlin, is 18 feet long and Santiago estimates it weighs about 1500 pounds. He figures he can sell 1000 pounds good fish in a Havana market at 30 cents a pound.

Before Santiago returns to his ocean-front village, however, ferocious sharks attack and only the marlin's skeleton is left hanging on his boat.

On land, the skeleton becomes an object of wonder; one fisherman says it's the biggest fish ever caught.

Will the old man ever fish again? Sure. As he nicely puts it, a man can be destroyed but not defeated. Something to think about.

FM

FREE TOLSTOY BOOKS ONLINE

MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) – Celebrated Russian author Leo Tolstoy’s entire body of work – all 90 volumes – along with comprehensive biographical materials has been posted online and will be available for free, a descendant says.

β€œWe wanted to come up with an official website that will contain academically justified information,” said Fyokla Tolstaya, the writer’s great-great-granddaughter. 

The Tolstoy.ru website will feature the 90-volume edition that was scanned and proofread three times by more than 3,000 volunteers from 49 countries, Tolstaya said.

All of his novels, short stories, fairy tales, essays and personal letters will be available online for free and be downloadable in PDF, FB2 and EPUB formats, recognized by most e-book readers and computers, she said.

Tolstoy’s epics β€œWar and Peace” and β€œAnna Karenina” still top most of the lists of greatest novels of all time.

 

 

Tolstoy’s works were part of the obligatory high-school curriculum in the Soviet Union and Russia. Generations of Russian students have had to read the more than 800-page β€œWar and Peace” – with boys preferring the war and girls the peace, according to a popular saying.

 

FM

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