What is the last book you read, and your rating?
- Redlegs
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Re: What is the last book you read, and your rating?
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn has been around a while, so it doesn't include any Presidents from this century, but it does cover the period from 1492 to the late 1990s, into Bill Clinton's Presidency.
This book provides an alternative record of American history, a "peoples" history, which is not the version taught in schools, and is therefore not widely known to most people with a passing knowledge of American history, its key events and prominent characters.
This is the story of oppression, degradation, institutionalized suppression to the point of mass slaughter and even genocide of the American population, with the aim of preserving an progressing the capitalist aims and ideals of the rich and powerful at the expense of general citizens.
It wasn't until the major mass movement uprisings of the 1960s and 1970s, with protests against the Vietnam War, black rights, gay rights, women's rights and even a revival of native American protest, that any real concessions toward a genuine democracy were achieved. The protests were so large and vehement they couldn't be ignored.
If you want to understand America today, read this book. It shows that Trump is not an aberration oj substance, just a minor diversion in style. It should be compulsory reading for every young American student, and it makes fascinating and enlightening reading for non-Americans who are interested in understanding the so-called most powerful nation on earth.
5 stars out of 5
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
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- Gingerbo0ks
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― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel
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- Ana Njeri
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- alwaysdaddygirl
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This book is the first in a series entitled Descendant, by A.L. Knorr and Martha Carr, and it hooks you from the start. The story is beautiful. Jordan's mother disappeared when Jordan was a child. Years later, not long after Jordan earns her masters, she is given something that sends her on a long quest. I was with her all the way, unable to put the book down. My only issue is the cliffhanger ending, which left me with the sense that the thrilling final scene was missing a few pages. Nevertheless, I give this book four stars, because of its captivating story and the touching father-daughter bond at the heart of the narrative. I am craving the follow-up.
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Mitch Albom
- IanYanny
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- Leonidas Ndeta
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- Fran
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Brilliant read on the incidious nature of racism and the damage children carry into adulthood.
Can't recommend it highly enough 4/4*
A world is born again that never dies.
- My Home by Clive James
- Elle Howard
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- MsTri
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or you Think you can't,
You are Right
Napoleon Hill
- Redlegs
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My Antonia is based on a real girl from Cather's childhood, Anna Sadikek Paveka, but is narrated in the novel from the perspective of Jim Burden, a fictional childhood friend who developed a deep affection for Antonia. The story is told retrospectively by a middle-aged Jim.
Antonia Shimerda is the young daughter of Bohemian (Czech) migrants, one family of a significant wave of European and Scandinavian migrants that flooded to America in the latter part of the 19th century.
Antonia, was a pretty, stoic and determined girl in a poor family that struggled to raise themselves above poverty. Jim, living with his grandparents after the death of his own parents, befriended Antonia and her family from a young age, and developed an innocent affection for her as well as helping her to learn English and adjust to the ways of her new country.
As Jim reminisces on his childhood and adolescent memories of Antonia and life in Black Hawk, Nebraska, we are introduced to many of the characters that make up this nascent community, including several other migrant families, and especially Antonia's female friends. Lena Lingard, the seemingly flirtatious Swedish girl, whose personality and demeanour are in stark contrast to the more earnest and chaste Antonia, plays a significant role in the narrative.
In many ways, this is a pastoral novel, as Cather effuses eloquently on her deep love for the expanses of the Nebraska prairie, portraying the harsh depths of snow-bound winters, the extreme heat of long dry simmers and the lush bounties of spring, full of wheat and corn and cows.
I found this to be a very engaging, completely charming novel that I enjoyed even more than her later 1923 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, One of Ours.
4.5 stars out of 5.
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
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Roadmap to the End of Days by Daniel Friedmann. Rated it 4/4Daily Alice wrote:I just finished Jack of Kinrowan by Charles De Lint. I give it 4/5 stars.
Fun, fast-paced reading for those who love urban fantasy.