September 27, 2021 at 3:39 pm (Books, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, favorites, irony, Mondays, novel, reading lists, translation
Quote of the Day, Last Monday of September 2021:
Dr. Yakunin administered medicines strictly in inverse proportion to their necessity. He kept chloroform from the dying and let them writhe in agony, whereas patients overcoming mild infections were given sedatives in high doses. Surprisingly, this absurd system worked because all his patients tried to show signs of recovery, to obtain prescriptions if nothing else. This spared Dr. Yakumin from having to deal with the usual charades of screams and groaning, and his clinic was consequently an oasis of tranquillity.
The Slaughterman’s Daughter, p. 258
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September 9, 2021 at 2:30 am (Books, Recommended, Surprises, Women Writers)
Tags: COVID Reading, dystopia, irony, novel, pandemic, reading lists, science fiction
Almost every man in Moscow has died but Mikhail.
The End of Men, p. 182
And Mikhail, unfortunately, is a wife beater. Almost every day, his victimized wife goes to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and prays for her husband’s imminent demise. But God does not hear her prayers.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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June 28, 2021 at 8:35 pm (Books, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, history, irony, Mondays, reading lists, World War II
We are just a little past halfway, dear blog readers. So you will not be forever reading about WAR WAR WAR. Self’s next book is Rules of Estrangement, by Joshua Coleman, which is about “broken families.” The angst will be pure.
Without further ado:
- Their plan of attack was significantly different from previous operations, and reflected their growing confidence in their destructive abilities.
The RAF prepares for a fourth wave of bombing raids on Hamburg (at this point, seems like overkill). Once again, the Brits send out a tiny little Mosquito to do recon. The Mosquito takes off at 6:45 p.m. and returns three hours later. Report: Skies “looked relatively clear” but there was “a huge cumulo-nimbus to the southwest . . . moving briskly . . . “
Stay cool, dear blog readers. Stay cool.
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March 1, 2021 at 6:21 pm (Books, Explorers, Personal Bookshelf, Philippine History, Surprises)
Tags: COVID Reading, irony, Mondays, Spain
Apologies, dear blog readers, self’s veering between the Philippines in 1600 and Grimdark must be causing whiplash!
Anyhoo, here is the Sentence of the Day, from Blair & Robertson’s A History of the Philippine Islands, vol. 14:
Letter from Governor General Don Pedro de Acuña to the Viceroy of Nueva España:
- Since the Spaniards are a sensible and prudent people, we must therefore be grieved for having slain so many people, and repent thereof.
After reading which, self can only say, Hell’s Bells. The “so many people” slain — indios, right?
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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August 31, 2020 at 9:54 pm (Books, Recommended)
Tags: COVID Reading, historical novel, irony, Mondays, novel, reading lists, Stendhal, summer
Sometimes her eager imagination concealed things from her, but she never entertained those deliberate illusions produced by cowardice.
— Chapter Six, The Charterhouse of Parma
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March 30, 2020 at 5:57 am (Books, Sundays)
Tags: Brideshead Revisited, England, English writers, irony, novel, Oxford, reading lists
- I returned home for the Long Vacation without plans and without money.
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March 14, 2020 at 7:06 am (Books, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: crime, Fridays, humor, irony, nonfiction, praise, The New Yorker
p. 155:
That night I took the red-eye home to New York (The in-flight movie was Naked Gun 33 1/3, starring, among others, O. J. Simpson)
There is a rich vein of irony running through The Run of His Life: The People vs O. J. Simpson. Toobin mines this for all it’s worth.
This book: classic with a capital ‘C.’
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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Kanlaon 