Oldest alliance in the world

Anglo-Portuguese alliance, signed in 1376

Reaffirmed in 1386, 1643, 1654, 1660, 1661, 1703, 1815, 1889, 1904, 1914.
Cited by Britain during the Falklands War in 1982.

Napoleon on suppressing brigandange

Actually brigandage was a serious problem from time immemorial.  The French loved Napoleon for managing to suppress it.


How did he do it? By effective policing. He reorganised the gendarmerie(paramilitary police), increased its numbers, paid them well, improved its moral, stamped out corruption...


What's the American way? Selling guns to the public...!

Napoleon on selling Louisana to USA

"I know the price of what I abandon..renoune it with greatest regret: to attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly"


Such a contrast against the British lol.


"I have just given to England a maritime rival that sooner or later will humble her pride."


Result? 1812 war lol.  And on both World Wars later USA fleeced Britain, so..USA should be so thankful to France, along with assisting them in the War of Independence!

Napoleon on religion

"I do not see the mystery of Incarnation, but the mystery of the social order. It associates with Heaven an idea of equality that keeps rich men from being massacred by the poor....Society is impossible without inequality; inequality intolerable without a code of morality, amd a code of morality unacceptable without religion."

Napoleon on conquest

"The true conquests, the only ones that cause no regret, are those made over ignorance."

Napoleon's love letter to Josephine

"A kiss on your breast, and then a little lower, then much much lower"

Tantalizing, lol.

Japanese Internment during WWII

Of course it's a shameful episode.


Yet, I've found out that it was in part a response to an urgent request from MacArthur; he was purturbed by the atrocities being committed by the Japanese Army in Asia.  In fact the Japanese brutality was well known throughout all those years. Nanjing massacre anyone?  The dreaded 731 unit? 'Comfort Women'?  For sure it was a hysteria, the internment, but considering the savage reputation of the Samurai war-race..you get the gist.

The greatness of Douglas MacArthur

He was such a great commander that his deeds was recorded to posterity;


Dugout Doug MacArthur lies ashaking on the Rock
Safe from all the bombers and from any sudden shock
Dougout Doug is eating of the best food on Bataan
And his troops go starving on.


Chorus


Dugout Doug, come out from hiding
Dugout Doug, come out from hiding
Send to Franklin the glad tidings
That his troops go starving on!

Books on Philip II

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Strategy-Philip-II/dp/0300082738/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1418541237&sr=8-5&keywords=philip+ii+

http://www.amazon.com/Imprudent-King-New-Life-Philip-ebook/dp/B00O56PUGO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418541237&sr=8-1&keywords=philip+ii+spain

Is the new book a rehash of an earlier one lol. Anyway, interesting subject for sure.

3 good movies on GM

The Damn United

Sheen always delivers. And another nice movie by Hooper.

Moneyball

Numbers don't lie.

Draft Day

GM is not an easy job! And character counts.
By the by, did Garner have an 'eye job'? Lol.

Russian Revolution: Nicholas II to blame

Unlike the French Revolution, in which various reform proposals by the government were wrecked by the vested interests including the nobles, the Russian Revolution happened mainly because Nicholas II refused every compromise attempts; he was a firm believer of the traditional autocracy of the Tzar. You could say that he dug his own grave.

Many say that Orlando Figes' new history of the Russian Revolution is a rehash of his earlier book

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 ,

but strangely this book is not in my local library system(which is normally excellent), so am enjoying the new one anyway, pertains lots of insights(or that I'm just a novice in Russian history lol).

Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History

Love the cover design too;

All things Russian

After finiding out that Sixsmith wrote a history of Russia, borrowed it and reading it now, it's an engaging read.

Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East

Robert Massie's book won a Pulitzer and read the first chapter some time ago lol, so should take it up again;

Peter the Great: His Life and World

And a new Stalin bio came out; read Montefiore's 1st book but not the 2nd. Wonder if I can read both;

Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928

Nov 6, 2014

by Stephen Kotkin

A promise(2013)

Was reading the synopsis of A promise, intending to borrow it: the storyline seemed eerily familiar.

But of course, it's Stefan Zweig! :)

Looking forward to it, starrs Rebecca Hall.

Philomena

Enjoying this(praise the library! So fast making recent? films available).

The Jane character looked familiar, and yes, she's the lead actress in the Bletchley circle!

And the scene in which the reporter confusing Jane Russell with Jayne Mansfield was a gem lol. British? humor abounds!

Disappointed in A.N. Wilson

As one who enjoyed his books on Britain, am pretty disappointed on reading his tasteless attack disguised as an obituary to Eric Hobsbawm.

Actually am reading his 3rd British history book Our Times, and he also expresses his hatred toward Hobsbawm in p. 28. One can disagree of course, but his attack is so...puerile. Stil should persevere(to finish the book) lol. What I most enjoyed about his British books were literature and arts section anyway, and I am curious about the Modern British history after WWII.

Anyway he is an another example of those conservative 'attack dogs': always vicious and arrogant in their posture and writings.

Books on Israel

Finished Richard Cohen's rant, Israel: Is It Good for the Jews?

Passionate defence of Israel, mostly concentrates on Holocaust, and it's sorta polemic, not a scholarly book(He's not really an expert in this area, unlike Friedman et. al).

Unlike Thomas Friedman, puts the ball squarely on the Palestinians(Arabs) to solve the stalemate (Friedman's book From Beirut to Jerusalem is more in-depth and impartial, and puts the ball on the stronger Israel). Some interesting viewpoints though.

If you want an opposite viewpoint from Cohen, I recommend John Judis' Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict

and Patrick Tyler's Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country--and Why They Can't Make Peace

The French Revolution happened because

It's the nobility's own undoing lol. William Doyle's OUP Very Short introduction(these aren't really a primer, methinks, it's not easy, in fact quite authoritative) stresses this aspect, like Schama did as well in his bestseller Citizens(Schama is in fact quite critical of the Revolution, from the Conservative's point of view, following the Burke tradition; unlike Israel)

The government in fact tried various financial reforms; the nobility rejected them all, fearing the encroachment of their privileges(for example Frenchy nobles didn't pay tax).  Everybody feared of the resumption of the Estate General; nobody knew what would happen. But when the government's reforms got blocked, the only way left was to reconvene it.

The rest is history of course.

Since I'm suitably impressed with Doyle's Short one, so am looking forward to reading his
http://www.amazon.com/The-Oxford-History-French-Revolution/dp/019925298X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

Currently reading

Glad I finished Jonathan Israel's 800-page tome http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Ideas-Intellectual-Revolution-Robespierre/dp/0691151725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416962650&sr=8-1&keywords=israel+french+revolution.


& Robert Mayhew's considerably shorter lol http://www.amazon.com/Malthus-Robert-J-Mayhew-ebook/dp/B00KIHO4HA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416962694&sr=8-2&keywords=malthus as well.


Currently reading;


Geoffrey Parker's another tome, Global crisis : war, climate change and catastrophe in the seventeenth century /


Richard Cohen's Israel : is it good for the Jews?


Corrado Augias' The secrets of Italy : people, places, and hidden histories


Frederic Morton's Thunder at twilight : Vienna, 1913/1914


Most of these books, already finished about half.


---------------


And plan to read about;


Spinoza, so A book forged in hell : Spinoza's scandalous treatise and the birth of the secular age


More about French Revolution, so;


William Doyle's The Oxford history of the French Revolution


Peter McPhee's  Robespierre : a revolutionary life


From the Conservative Britain's point of view; The savage storm : Britain on the brink in the age of Napoleon


Early modern history of China, especially on the Chinese Civil War;
The Penguin history of modern China : the fall and rise of a great power, 1850 to the present


http://www.amazon.com/China-1945-Revolution-Americas-Fateful/dp/0307595889/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416963610&sr=1-8&keywords=1949+china


Also curious about Sperm Whale lol, so
The great sperm whale : a natural history of the ocean's most magnificent and mysterious creature


And about Ulysses, Joyce's masterpiece
The most dangerous book : the battle for James Joyce's Ulysses

Munich] Conservatives' rant

From Lynne Olson's Troublesome Young Men, p. 172-3


"I should like to crush Duff Cooper's head to a jelly."


Lady Willingdon, wife of former viceroy of India. Cooper resigned the minestry office over Munich.


--


At Kenneth Clark's house, over the issue;


"I look forward to using your skull as an inkpot!"


An Oxford don.


Clark had to banish both participants.


--


"Those traitors- Churchill, your brother, and hsi like- should be shot."


A society matron to Barbara Cartland, Ronald Cartland's sister.


British people were wise to support Churchill during the wartime, then to support the Labour party after the war.  Because the Conservative Party utterly failed to lead the nation during the critical 1930s, and many Tory grandees were even very fond of Hitler(a rare exception was Lord Salisbury).
Especially Chamberlain, who had a distinctly authoritatrian trait, even wiretapping telephones and threatened Tory rebels.  Actually most of the press magnates cooperated with the Tories as well, BBC too. 
If the leader's foremost quality is to inspire, Chamberlain utterly failed in its task.

Reissue of the year: Trotsky bio

http://www.amazon.com/The-Prophet-Life-Leon-Trotsky/dp/1781685606/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1YKCJWS0TCMC5ZQY23J6

Trotsky's history of the Revolution and autobiography are pretty highly regarded as well.

Haven't read any of 'em, so am curious at the least.

Clergy endorses war

" War caused all industry and trade to grow and prosper: peace makes them wither and decline."

" War became a bond of union and unity: peace brings quarrels and disunity."

Dutch Calvinist pastors, 1650

quotes from The Enemy

p.210 res ipsa loquitur


p. 212 The triumph of disengagement


no hay de que


Balzac; "Laws are spiderwebs through which big flies pass and little ones get caught"


p. 217 Herbert Marcuse on Law and Order

The horror of the heat in Texas

The 1st impression you get while reading Lee Child's Echo Burning is..


'Thank God I'm not living at Western Texas'  lol. The author constantly reminds us of the unbelievable heat and humidity of the environs!


I do have a good memory of College Station(the weather there was pretty extreme to be honest), but that kind of extreme humidity wouldn't be popular..

Otto Preminger

Was browsing the photos on the book,The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger, and once again marvelled at his productivity.

Nature books by Pliny and Aristotle

Found this book by Aristotle, History of Animals, while reading Octopus!: The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea.  Aristotle is really a keen observer; and some passages seems to be quite hilarious lol.


Pliny's Natural History is of course famous, and vast. In some passages he is known to depart from dispassionate explanations and fulminate about the state of things(mores, etc) lol.

August: Osage County & Hateship Loveship

Enjoyed those two movies.




Osage felt a bit like Lumet's masterpiece Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). Streep was particulary delightful in the movie.


HL, nice subdued atmosphere, didn't seem to try too much on selling humor as well. Everybody was good imo, Pearce included.

Ulmer at LACMA

http://www.lacma.org/series/after-expressionism-versatile-edgar-g-ulmer

Books related to the French Revolution

http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Ideas-Intellectual-Revolution-Robespierre/dp/0691151725/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415069316&sr=1-1&keywords=revolutionary+ideas


In depth analysis of the deological battle of the French Revolution


http://www.amazon.com/Savage-Storm-Britain-Brink-Napoleon/dp/1408701928/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415070692&sr=1-5&keywords=savage+storm


British hysteria upon the French Revolution






http://www.amazon.com/Malthus-Life-Legacies-Untimely-Prophet/dp/0674728718/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415069511&sr=1-2&keywords=malthus


Malthus' reaction to the French Revolutionary idea

Jack Reacher series

It's so...American, in a way.  Child says it's a bit like the Medieval tales and Western, but I detect a hint of Noir in it as well.


How popular is this series? The most recent output of Lee Child,


http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Jack-Reacher-Lee-Child/dp/0804178747/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415070261&sr=1-3&keywords=lee+child+jack+reacher+series


 has 60 on hold at the local the pubilc library.

Andrew Robert's bio of Napoleon?

Was waiting of Philip Dweyer's vol. 2 of Napoleon,


http://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-Power-Dr-Philip-Dwyer/dp/B005M4WM5U/ref=pd_sim_b_21?ie=UTF8&refRID=1EG3Z1GDFCCFH8BBM071


yet conservative historian Roberts published first lol.


http://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-A-Life-Andrew-Roberts/dp/0670025321/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=0P43ASZ8F5EA3Z9C0K2G


 No doubt Dweyer will be better, but until he publishes, should take a look at Roberts'.


Damn I'm not the only one, the books already has 4 holds when it's still on order lol.

Books on (ban on ) books

http://www.amazon.com/The-Most-Dangerous-Book-Joyce%C2%92s/dp/1594203369/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1414634776&sr=8-11&keywords=joyce+ulysses




http://www.amazon.com/The-Zhivago-Affair-Kremlin-Forbidden/dp/0307908003/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414634818&sr=8-2&keywords=zhivago




http://www.amazon.com/Careless-People-Murder-Mayhem-Invention/dp/1594204748/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414634853&sr=1-1&keywords=careless+people

Churchill on ethnic cleansing, and the Potsdam Declaration

Started to read Richard Cohen's Israel: is it good for the Jews?

p. 163-4

" There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble..A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by the prospect of disentanglement of populations, not even of these large transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions than they have ever been before."

At the House of Commons, 1944.

Potsdam Declaration, Article XII:

"The 3 governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken."

About 95,000 ethnic Germans were killed in the bedlam, by Czechoslovakians and Russians. Across Europe, 14 million Germans were banished, and more than 2 million died on the way.  Drastic times.

Another aggression from WSJ contributors

Review section Sept. 27, onWilliams James by Joseph Epstein.

"It's a pity James wasn't alive to demolish the callow arguments of the atheist school of Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens & Co."

What a puerile argument from otherwise a reasoned article. This kind of needless agression always turns up in those Conservatives' articles.

Nil admirari

Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici,
Solaque quae possit facere et servare beatum.

1. Horace, “Epistulae” (1,6,1)

Wicked Woolf

"My real delight in reviewing is to say nasty things."

Virginia Woolf

John Foster Dulles praises Hitler

"One who from humble beginnings, and despite the handicap of alien nationality, had attained the unquestioned leadership of a great nation."

John J. McCloy recalled that Dulles spent much of the 1930s rationalizing the Hitler movement. Foster's younger brother Allen Dulles was more astute in that regard.

Famous clients of Le Sphinx

Le Sphinx was an elegant brothel in Montparnasse.


Famous clients included;


Lawrence Durrell, Hemingway, Proust, Henry Miller,
Bogart, Grant, Dietrich, Picasso, Alberto Giacometti,
Prince of Wales(later Edward VIII), Allen Dulles(this precious info is culled from Stephen Kinzer's bio of the two Dulles bros. I'm reading right now lol), and that martinet Walter Bedell Smith!

Flaubert says

"Great achievements always require fanaticism"

Gustave Flaubert

Gwendolen Harleth

Finished book 1 of Daniel Deronda and am wondering why Eliot chose the male character as the title: love this Gwendolen character, I'm not sure Deronda could be much more interesting than her.

So Romola Garai played Harleth : wonder how she acts in the movie.

Reading 3 novels

The Red and the black(Beyle), Blood Meridian(McCarthy), Daniel Deronda(Evans).

But can I finish even one lol.

Still learning French

A Concise history of France is a bit dry, not for the faint of heart lol: strong focus on socio-economic factor is one of the book's characteristics.

Interesting that Simon Schama's Citizens is not on the bibliography. Tackett is, so put his book

http://www.amazon.com/When-King-Flight-Timothy-Tackett/dp/0674016424/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409939226&sr=8-1&keywords=tackett+when+king

on hold.

Anyway just started the 19th century section, and high time, since I also borrowed Stendhal:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Black-Modern-Library/dp/0679601627/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409892137&sr=8-2&keywords=stendhal+modern+library

Scott-Moncrieff(famous for Proust) version is a bit old, but they say it's closest to Stendhal's French(I do have other versions), so looking forward to it.

Allez!

Nature and Ecology books

Got a bit tired of reading all those histories including political ones, so got sidetracked recently lol.




Finished Charles Mann's excellent book on pre Columbian America,


1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus


Also read the portion on Polar Bears from


Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America


And also on the Deep Sea,


Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves


Now on to


The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change






                                

Policy makers

I'm now a bit hooked in eminent political advisers;


Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet

Henry Kissinger and the American Century

After finishing those, should attack;

Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

How about

The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made

on  Averell Harriman, Dean Acheson, George Kennan, Robert Lovett, John McCloy, and Charles Bohlen?

But I've already read
George F. Kennan: An American Life by Gaddis..

Modern Library Chronicles

Enjoyed reading this series, most are about 200 pages, a light read; except for Frank Kermode's Shakespeare one(that is not an introductory book by any means), pretty informative for novices in respective areas;


The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings


The Age of Napoleon by Alistair Horne


The Balkans: A Short History by Mark Mazower


Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History by Margaret MacMillan


Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory


The Age of Shakespeare


There are plenty more but for now, read those thus far.

Jeremi Suri's weird notion on the correlation of democracy and Facism

Started reading Jeremi Suri's Henry Kissinger some time ago,

and frankly am uncomfortable with his assumption that the democracy was at fault for all the horrors of the 20th century, especially on Fascism and Nazism.


He cites various authors, such as Arendt, Freud, Adorno, Steiner, Kennedy, Mazower, Spengler..and of course Kissinger.  And argues that authoritative regime was 'less violent' and stable, etc..a quintessential Realpolitik approach?


Maybe the assumption that Kissinger 'thought' like that could be plausible, but I'm not sure democracy itself should be blamed.  Difference between Germany and England/France/USA..isn't that a more rational approach?


Can't but think that UW(Wisconsin) has notable conservative historians like Stanley Payne..interesting he didn't quote him, when Payne is an authority on Fascism.

Different views on Rathenau

Remarkably different view of Walther Rathenau from Zweig and Pynchon(GW)?

Powell on draft dodging

"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and we'll placed and so many professional athletes..managed to wrangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units."

-Colin Powell, My American Journey, p. 143-5

The irony, that he served..Bush Jr.

Brzezinski' 'wisdom'

"Islamic revivalist movements are not sweeping the ME and are not likely to be the wave of the future."

to Carter, after Khomeini's triumphant return to Iran in Feb. 1979.

He was the head of NSC. Conservatives and Kissinger, Rockefeller supported the Shah and denounced Carter as leaving the shah in the lurch.

But Carter has voiced support even after the Jaleh Square massacre in Sep. 1978(his administration was known to have committed to...human rights).

The story of US-Israeli relation

Brzezninski:

" Dayan intimidated Carter by threatening to denounce the president to American Jews'"

Same old story from Truman to Obama.

Reagan endorses dictators

"The most important reality facing us today is the shrinking global influence of the West." Hence, USA should cling to dictatorships "which, despite not always behaving precisely as we might like, have nevertheless been our friends."

Reagan in 1977.

Hence his administration was friendly with authoritatian regimes such as South Korea, Pinochet's Chile(who followed the economic policies of Milton Friedman), Apartheid South Africa, Argentina("the dirty war")....quite similar to Margaret Thatcher, in fact.

Heather & MacMillan

Downloaded Tess free from Amazon so am more interested in finishing Mann's The Magic Mountain (which is not free) lol.


Enjoying Peter Heather's Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Restarted after a long hiatus, and his argument on the Gothic invasion is pretty exciting; history IS a lot like a detective work; cogent reasoning is a must.
And reading this part really made me long for purchasing loeb edition of Ammianus Marcellinus lol(I do have the Penguin pbk edition, methinks?).


Also enjoying Margaret MacMillan's http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Games-History-Library-Chronicles/dp/0812979966/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408579853&sr=1-4&keywords=margaret+macmillan


It's a short book, but a must for every reader interested in history; she comments on every aspect of writing and reading history, so it's pretty useful.

Amis lecteurs

Amis lecteurs qui ce livre lisez,
Depouillez-vouz de toute affection,
Et le lesant ne vous scandalisez.
Il ne contient mal ni infection.
Vrai est qu'ici peu de perfection
Vous apprendrez, si non en cas de rire:
Autre argument ne peut mon coeur elire.
Voyant le deuil, qui vous mine et consomme,
Mieux est de rire que de larmes ecrire.
Pour ce que rire est le propre de l'homme.


- Francois Rabelias, Gargantua

Started today

Light reading

http://www.amazon.com/Heretics-Heroes-Renaissance-Artists-Reformation-ebook/dp/B00CNQ7G7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408429286&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+cahill



More serious reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Barbarians-Fall-Birth-Europe/dp/0199735603/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408429171&sr=1-1&keywords=peter+heather+empires+and+barbarians

http://www.amazon.com/Gravitys-Rainbow-Domination-Freedom-Herman-ebook/dp/B00HNQ6M4C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-1&keywords=rainbow+freedom+gravity

Novel

http://www.amazon.com/Tess-dUrbervilles-Library-Classics-published/dp/B00E29ASXY/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408429436&sr=1-3&keywords=tess+modern+library

winner of prop 13

Kalman, p. 234:

"Homeowners received less than a quarter of savings, rest went to owners of biz, apartment houses, and commercial property"

Ave Caesar

 "Ave Caesar, nos morituri te salutamus" 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Imperator,_morituri_te_salutant

St. Jerome says

"If an offense come out of the truth, better is it that the offense come than that the truth be concealed"

quoted by Thomas Hardy, 1891.

It would've been better not to write it

Melius fuerat non scribere.

Hardy on his subtitle to Tess: 'a pure woman'

Compliment or not: toughest industrialists

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that Politburo admires toughness, and in order to negotiate with them in economic matters, she would put the very toughest ones in her mission:

Ernest Weir, Tom Girdler, Alfred Sloan.

Wonder if those 3 felt it as a compliment!

Already bought

The Education of Henry Adams byFranklin library for $5

The Ambassadors by Henry James by Konemann

Normally u don't hesitate buying those editions, but since I've already bought those in another editions..alas.

Novels for August

I keep deferring resuming Proust and Joyce lol, still reading histories and for novels, read Kafka's the Castle and D.H.Lawrence's Chatterley..for the last few months.

Borrowed Mann's the Magic Mountain some time ago yet haven't read much so far, and just borrowed Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles upon borrowing Polanski's movie version. Can I finish the book before resuming watching the movie? Lol(did that mad stint for Vanity Fair, loved the novel)

3 books on the American Right

http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Hell-Crisis-1970s-Populist/dp/1400042623/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1408034291&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Rule-Ruin-Moderation-Destruction-Development-ebook/dp/B005UFCPHG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408034416&sr=1-1&keywords=kabaservice

http://www.amazon.com/Right-Star-Rising-Politics-1974-1980-ebook/dp/B003UD7JL2/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408034490&sr=1-3&keywords=laura+kalman

10th on queue for Perlstein's new book

Read a short review of

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

by Rick Perlstein


on the Entertainment magazine, so decided to put the book on hold at the library website:

I am 10th on queue lol, Perlstein must have some faithful readers, should check his earlier outputs(he does seem to focus on the recent American Right).

Discovered S.N. Behrman

Recuperation time after 'the stint' lol.

Started to read the New Yorker compilation of the 1940s(can't renew, someone already put it on hold -_-), and really enjoyed his The suspended drawing room.

Napoleon on religion

"Society cannot exist save with inequality of fortune, and inequality of fortune cannot be supported wiithout religion"

Napoleon in 1800.

Matchbox toycar ads during the Energy Crisis

Started reading Laura Kalman's Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974-1980



" We sell more cars than Ford, Chrysler, Chevrolet, and Buick combined"

Hilarious.

Hilarious Frenchies

Almost finished Mary McAuliffe's Twilight of the Belle Epoque.

Year 1917

p. 330

Critic Jean Poueigh lambasted Parade and Satie.

So Satie sent postcards saying rude words to Poueigh.

P in turn sued Satie for libel, arguing that his concierge read it, and the magistrates had to repeat those words on the postcards at court lol(which Arthur Honegger found hilarious).

In retaliation Cocteau hit P's lawyer and was roughed up by the police.

LMAO!

p. 331

Debussy tried to cure insomnia by reading the French Civil Code:

But he just found those sufficiently disturbing to keep him awake!

Proust was notorious for waking his friends at night with midnight visits for consultation of his magnum opus(verifing some facts, etc)

French Intifada

An exposé on current racism and anti semitism in France, an absorbing read.

http://www.amazon.com/French-Intifada-Between-France-Arabs-ebook/dp/B00F1R0RYQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406645142&sr=1-1&keywords=french+intifada

Was interested in French-Algerian relation after watching The Battle of Algiers(1966) ages ago, and glad that I grabbed it up at the library.

Rodin as prey

Auguste Rodin is reputed to have a calculating look, but as a lover of women, was susceptible to 'machinations' too lol.

Claire de Choiseul is famous, but when he was in dotage in 1916, a mother and daughter tried to gain influence:

" I want to be your slave". Jeanne Bardy

" My dear little papa" Her daughter Henriette

Fortunately his friends posted guards around Hotel Biron to bar them lol!

But his drawings and small bronzes had already disappeared...!

Did the movie Stargate(1914) get inspiration from

Churchill's advocation of bombing the 'rebellious' Imperial 'subjects' around 1920?


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111282/?ref_=nv_sr_3


The scene in which the aliens bomb the rebellious tribes with their fighter airplane...isn't it the same?


A chilling thought..

Modern Library Chronicles

MLC


Nice series.


Currently reading this


The Korean War: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) by Bruce Cumings (Jul 27, 2010)


Belatedly, and it's quite an embarrassing account in many ways...

Robert Dallek

Should read his two books;

Nixon and Kissinger by Robert Dallek (Oct 13, 2009)

Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House by Robert Dallek (Oct 8, 2013)

July reading

I'm glad that I've finished most of the June readings.


Now onto new ones;

Sampled some Tacitus(of course in the original latin), and borrowed

Churchill and empire : a portrait of an imperalist /

by James, Lawrence, 1943-

39009040480010
06/21/2014
08/01/2014
1

Faces in the crowd

by Magnat, Julien

39009039774787
07/11/2014
07/18/2014
0

Hiroshima mon amour

by Resnais, Alain, 1922-2014

39009039805573
07/11/2014
07/18/2014
0

Hundred days : the campaign that ended World War I /

by Lloyd, Nick

39009050786934
07/11/2014
08/01/2014
0

The Korean War : a history /

by Cumings, Bruce, 1943-

39009038582850
07/10/2014
07/31/2014
0

The magic mountain : [a novel] /

by Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955

39009035128269
07/11/2014
08/01/2014
0

Right star rising : a new politics, 1974-1980 /

by Kalman, Laura, 1955-

39010039107812
07/12/2014
08/02/2014
0

Train your mind, change your brain : how a new science reveals our extraordinary potential to transform ourselves /

by Begley, Sharon, 1956-

39009035765771
06/17/2014
07/26/2014
1

Twilight of the Belle Epoque : the Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust, Renault, Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein, and their friends through the Great War /

by McAuliffe, Mary Sperling, 1943-

Tit for Tat; Jowett & Tennyson

1860.


Tennyson was invited to Oxford and read a poem to Benjamin Jowett, a distinguished classicist, friend of Tennyson and who was becoming formidable by that time.


J gravely said after the recital;


"I think I wouldn't publish that, if I were you, Tennyson"


After a moment of frigid silence Tennyson retorted;


"If it come to that, Master(Jowett was the Master of Balliol), the sherry you gave us at luncheon was beastly"

3 Arabian Nights editions

Oxford pbk.

Everyman's hardcover edition, which is actually a compilation of various translations.



Penguin pbk

Massie & Proust

Books I'm dying to buy;