What are you currently reading?

[PSmith08]

As of right now:

Fascinating bio of Uncle Joe; you see the flesh and blood, while not having the faults extenuated.

Great book, that. So is Young Stalin, the follow-up book that deals with Stalin's rise to prominence. I can say, honestly, that Montefiore's books on Stalin are up there with Lord Norwich's Byzantium trilogy (though you'd want Ostrogorsky or Treadgold as a supplement to Norwich).

[greg]

great literature : high school students :: pearls : swine

ha, i like that!

[mn dave]

I had to read that in middle school.  Murder, witchcraft, mayhem, fraud, greed, and true love -- sounds like a bad movie -- but so well written! 

Didn't Shakespeare deal with these components as well? When did they get a bad name? And why?

[karlhenning]

Didn't Shakespeare deal with these components as well? When did they get a bad name? And why?

Macbeth alone traffics neatly in murder, witchcraft, mayhem & fraud . . . .

[Harry]

Swieta Gora Grabarka, Zdjecia, (Pictures) Marek Dolecki, Tekst Anna Radziukiewicz.
Bialystok, 1995.

A beautiful picture book, about Russian Orthodox faith.
The Holy mount of Grabarka, which lies in the Mielnik Forest, in the South Eastern part of the Bialystok region, not far from Sie-miatycze, is a Orthodox sanctuary. It is in the heart of Orthodoxy in Poland. Daily prayers are raised by the nuns from the convent of St Martha and St Mary, which existed here since 1947.
Many of my friends are pictured in this book, all of them priests our monks, as well as nuns.

[uffeviking]

Of course it is good, how can it be otherwise when written by Thomas Mann! It's one of his short stories: The Blood of the Walsungs with Richard Wagner's Die Walküre as theme. Mann showed his sense of humour be describing the typical grand opera singers, the buxomly soprano and the chunky tenor. Describing Hunding he was a bit nasty: "Hunding came, knock-kneed and big-bellied like a cow. . . ..

Fascinating story for any opera lover, especially any Richard Wagner lover! 

[Danny]

Great book, that. So is Young Stalin, the follow-up book that deals with Stalin's rise to prominence. I can say, honestly, that Montefiore's books on Stalin are up there with Lord Norwich's Byzantium trilogy (though you'd want Ostrogorsky or Treadgold as a supplement to Norwich).

So far it has been a wonderfully researched book and I never thought I would enjoy reading so much about the big guy.  What fascinates me is how everyone in his circle wanted and needed his approval yet, at the same time, Stalin always relied heavily upon those around him (am thinking especially of his relationship with Kirov and later Zhadanov).

Along with this book now have decided to read a novel closely associated with Stalin and the Stalinist era:


Right now, cannot make heads or tales of this one (about 200 pages through).

[SonicMan46]

Well, finally finished a couple of books, including the George Enescu bio - now starting a new one by an entertaining author:

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (2008) by Tony Horwitz - for comments & description of the book, checkout Amazon; Horwitz visits the places of early American discovery from the Vikings around 1000 A.D. up to Plymouth in 1620 - this prose is a mixture of history and modern day commentary, often done w/ a lot of humor; he also had a video blog on USA Today, which I viewed all too briefly (might return to it later?).

If interested in the Civil War, one of his first well known books is also shown below - Confederates in the Attic - loved this one not only because I'm a Civil War buff, but I've visited many of the places discussed - Horwitz writing does not please all, but I enjoy his approach; and these are not really 'in-depth' history books, but more historical travelogues! 


 

[mn dave]

New subscription. 

[val]

HARALD WELZER:   "Täter"

The complete title is, "Killers, how normal people become mass murders".
A very detailed and disturbing essay, centered in the Sonderkommandos of the SS, responsable for thousands and thousands murders of Jews, including those in Babi Yar.
Years later, subjected to tests, this men were considered completely normal - as it was the case of Himmler himself. Most of them were not violent, less yet sadists, they were people like us. But, they did not regret their actions. They tried to explain and justify them !!!

A very strong and disturbing book, in some moments even frightening, when we discover in recent murders in Rwanda or Bosnia the same kind of persons, the same arguments and justifications.

When we finish the book the question that remains is terrible: in their situation, would we act different? As the book shows, the answer is not easy.

[M forever]

You may also be interested in the classical (in some respects not quite up-to-date anymore, but still fundamentally very valid) "The Mask of Sanity" by Hervey Cleckley.
Yes, these impulses are in all of us, and the more they get suppressed and covered up, the more dangerous they can become. We are by default an extremely violent species. Killing each other in warfare is our second, maybe not even second, maybe our first, nature. "Civilization" (whatever that may exactly mean) with its "values" is one set of measures against that, but the most important thing is that we recognize and acknowledge that, then we can learn to handle it. That is why I often say the people who act the most normal, nicest, harmless are often the ones who have the greatest potential for harming others in many ways, once they are transplanted into a situation in which that is actually allowed and sanctioned by society. Hannah Arendt aptly called that appearance of complete normality "the banality of evil".

[val]

I understand your point. One of the books that most influence had in my way of thinking was Konrad Lorenz famous "Das Sogenannte Böse - zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression".

But the problem is always the same: normal people put in a social context where a part of the population is excluded, sometimes not even considered as human, get used to think and act, even morally, according to new system of values. First we accept that the excluded loose their jobs and are forbidden to enter in certain places. Then we accept that they should be deported. Then, when this situation is no more possible, we accept that they go to the camps. And finally, there is war, not many ressources, why not the final solution?

Himmler said to an Assembly of the SS: all German are against Jews. But each German comes to us saying that he knows a Jew that is an exception, a great guy. And the same goes to 80 million Germans.
That is why we must do this (the Final Solution) and do it in secret, not because we love to kill, not because we hate this Jew or that Jew, but because Jews are our greatest problem and we must solve it, with competence and efficiency.

I find this much more terrible. It is not the human tendency to aggression, an evolutionary tool. It is a very quiet statement, as if Himmler was talking about an accounting problem. And perhaps he imagined it so.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Val, there is a book (among many, but this one is very good) that deals with all this - Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust.

Recommended.

[mn dave]

[Norbeone]

Anna Karenina - Tolstoy



Very rich and intriguing plot so far, though i'm not sure the translation (in the Wordsworth Classics edition) is the best. I hear penguin classics has the 'definitive' translation. Oh well.   

[karlhenning]

Just started it; already it seems an improvement upon the Barry Miles book.

[Anne]

Anna Karenina - Tolstoy



Very rich and intriguing plot so far, though I'm not sure the translation (in the Wordsworth Classics edition) is the best. I hear penguin classics has the 'definitive' translation. Oh well.   

You will eventually encounter an entire chapter(s), a dissertation on Russian farming or similar.  It has nothing to do with the story as far as I could discern.  You can ignore that entire part and be just as well off.  It's like 60 - 100 pages if I recall correctly.

You're reading a wonderful book.  I enjoyed it also.

[knight66]

I can say, honestly, that Montefiore's books on Stalin are up there with Lord Norwich's Byzantium trilogy (though you'd want Ostrogorsky or Treadgold as a supplement to Norwich).

Oh, I have never encountered anyone else who has read JJN's trilogy. I read it many years ago and it really fired my imagination. I have not heard/seen him for a long time, then encountered him on BBC radio last week, he sounded as ever. A hidden national treasure.

Mike

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Oh, I have never encountered anyone else who has read JJN's trilogy. I read it many years ago and it really fired my imagination. I have not heard/seen him for a long time, then encountered him on BBC radio last week, he sounded as ever. A hidden national treasure.

Mike, could you refresh my memory - was JJN on Round Britain Quiz (BBC Radio 4) in the 'eighties? I know he was always on Radio Four...

[knight66]

Yes, that's right. He was also over the years a leading light in the Venice in Peril campaign.

Mike