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Anna Begins 2017


Anna Begins

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On 10/1/2017 at 12:30 AM, bobblybear said:

I've added No God But God to my wishlist, as I know next to nothing about Islam. 

Don't know how I missed these two posts! The Reza Aslan is great, I just finished his book about Jesus, review below :)

 

On 10/4/2017 at 10:23 AM, Little Pixie said:

Anna, I don`t know if you`d be interested in cosy mysteries set in the world of climbing, but there`s a vintage series by Glyn Carr ( I have one of them, not read it yet). :)

That sounds interesting :D, I'll check it out.

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Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan (354 pages)

Equally as interesting as No God, But God, (his biography of Muhammad) Reza Aslan gives his views on just who Jesus was.  Using historical references and his own translations of original Greek texts, Aslan paints a different Jesus than the Christian Jesus. The Jesus Aslan portraits upset a Christian minister so much, he published a 95 page (!) rebuttal. The minister brags about his "4.0" from Lee University (private, religious college) and the rebuttal is laughable. In my knowledge and debating with my mother who knows way more than me, Reza Aslan's work is convincing. The notes at the end of the book count for about 100 pages, but I learned more from them, than the opinion of Aslan, as he justifies his research and views. I can't wait for his God: A Human History in November. 5/5

 

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum ( 496 pages)

I've been interested in the history of Ukraine for at least 10 years, especially in the years of Stalin's genocidal famine of this country in the 30's. The Holodomor is one of the saddest chapters in modern times.  Red Famine is filled with the stunning impact of starvation- cannibalism, psychosis, hallucinations, murders- unbelievable terror. Applebaum gives a great account of the history of politics and government policies leading up to the Holodomor, an explanation of the background of the word itself, and why it isn't called a genocide by many Russians- in fact, few view it as a famine at all. 

 

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize winning Polish journalist, known for her excellent book Gulag and also Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944- 1956. Both were good, Imo, Gulag is her masterpiece so far- but I expect lots more from Applebaum! All three are highly recommended, this one gets a 4/5

 

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (304 pages)

Tender Branson is the last survivor of a cult that committed mass suicide. This is his story, as told to the black box recorder of Flight 2039, just before it crashes into Australia's outback.

 

Just like always, I read Palahniuk with a smile of glee on my face. This was a great book. 4/5

 

2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut (12 pages)

2BR02B (To Be Or Naught To Be) is an interesting little story, I love Kurt Vonnegut and enjoyed this one- as all so far!

2BR02B refers to to the telephone number future citizens dial to schedule assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination, which keeps the population in check. 5/5

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On 10/20/2017 at 6:20 PM, Anna Begins said:

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (304 pages)

Tender Branson is the last survivor of a cult that committed mass suicide. This is his story, as told to the black box recorder of Flight 2039, just before it crashes into Australia's outback.

 

Just like always, I read Palahniuk with a smile of glee on my face. This was a great book. 4/5

 

Is this the one where the pages count backwards down to 1?

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Endurance by US Astronaut Scott Kelly (400 pages)

 

I can't say enough about this book! I found out about this book a few days before it's October 17th release and it didn't't take me long to get to it, nor to finish it. BTW- if you didn't know, astronauts are extremely brave and supremely intelligent (sarcasm). I am in awe of Scott Kelly. His words inspire a lot of heart stopping moments- and they are not particularly dangerous moments (some, I would not be first in line for, however!). In fact, that is yet another reason to admire Kelly- he has no emergencies. He is trained in every variable. It all comes naturally for Kelly, who struggles with the books but not the piloting.

 

Scott Kelly, and his twin astronaut brother Mark, took part in a NASA experiment which took Scott into space for a year. While at the International Space Station, he would compare vitals with his brother on Earth. All to some day, send humans to Mars. This is the story of Scott's year in space aboard the International Space Station and everything it took to get there. This is also not Scott's first venture into space, so you get to experience some of his past space adventures as well.

 

In the run up to the release of this book, I deliberately avoided interviews and reviews- I didn't want any surprises or experiences spoiled. It's a really good book- I did manage to read a cool part of the book in a headline though. While waiting and reading, I've come across everything from a Google news story about astronauts in the Space Station using figet spinners to an actual PBS documentary about the Scott Kelly flight that starts this month.

 

I came away with a deep appreciation of peace, actually. This book contains Scott Kelly's story and his amazing career in space. But I think even he would agree- as seems the message of the book, that all are equal in space, dependent on each other, helping each other in one of man's greatest accomplishments.

 

5/5 Definitely.

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Great review of Endurance :)! I'm glad you liked it a lot. I have An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield on my TBR (based on Nollaig's recommendation). I'm not sure how that compares or anything, but Endurance sounds good too :).

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