wheelspinner
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Jan 25, 2011 4:25:38 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Jan 25, 2011 4:25:38 GMT -5
The Memory Chalet was extremely good. In a way it's impressive that it was ever written at all - Judt wrote it while dying from a motor neurone disease that had totally incapacitated him.
Once you get past that, the book consists of a collection of essays recounting Judt's childhood, youthful radicalism and early acdemic career. In the process he shows us how he ended up on his path as a historian, and talks about the shifting notion of "home" in his life. This is a really good book.
My next ebook is Anh Do's The Happiest Refugee. Do is a standup comedian here, and his book is the memoir of a Vietnamese who fled Saigon and arrived here by boat. (His younger brother Khoa, a film director, was Young Australian of the Year a few years back).
It's a serious story, but it's mostly told with the very light touch you'd expect, albeit with some sobering moments. Still, Do can't resist a gag at times, and there are quite a few laughs so far.
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wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Post by wheelspinner on Feb 2, 2011 4:52:41 GMT -5
Finished The Happiest Refugee. It's a great story of a family who had it very tough, first during the war in Vietnam, and then as refugees trying to make a life in Australia. Do is a comedian, so he can't resist tossing in a few gags and lightening the book up a little, but it is a very affecting story.
My next eBook is The Hare With the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. The book is about de Waal researching the history of a collection of Japanese antiquities that he inherited to find out more about his ancestors.
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wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Feb 10, 2011 4:12:35 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Feb 10, 2011 4:12:35 GMT -5
Finished The Long Song. A good read, which Levy writes with a patois that seems convincing for the period she is writing about (Jamaica at emancipation). I wouldn't say it surpasses Room as my Booker pick.
I've moved onto Tom McCarthy's C, the final shortlisted book. Liner notes indicate he is a Tintin fan, so I like him already.
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wheelspinner
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Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
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Feb 20, 2011 5:26:05 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Feb 20, 2011 5:26:05 GMT -5
I finished The Hare With the Amber Eyes. Interesting vehicle for a family history - de Waal researches the history of a family heirloom - a vast collection of Japanese netsuke carvings - and unearths a tale of a Jewish family that ranges from the highest echelons of Paris society hob-nobbing with Renoir and Proust, to '30s Vienna and ultimately to the tragedy of the Nazi invasion of Austria and the ramifications for the family.
I'm now reading The King's Speech, by Mark Logue. No need to tell you what it's about, I'm sure. I've also picked up Steven Sondheim's treatise on lyric-writing, Finishing the Hat.
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wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Feb 24, 2011 7:18:14 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Feb 24, 2011 7:18:14 GMT -5
Read The Bomb, Howard Zinn's last book before he died. This is mostly a reprint of Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence supplemented by an essay recalling how Zinn flew a mission to carpet bomb a French village with napalm in the dying days of WW2. It seems an inescapable conclusion that this mission was not necessary; it was just that somebody wanted to test the USA's cool new weapon. Zinn draws a parallel between this incident and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which are also considered to be probably unnecessary.
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wheelspinner
Are We There Yet? Member
Nobody's perfect, I'm a nobody, so ...
Posts: 4,103
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Feb 24, 2011 7:18:46 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Feb 24, 2011 7:18:46 GMT -5
Just curious ...
Is there anybody out there?
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