What Book Are You Currently Reading?

[lei.talk]

she based this selection on "Genetic Purity is the Politics of Human Survival."

incredibly, after this book was published
one evening hitler was complaining to his long-suffering companion and stellvertreter des führers
that the english were being stubborn: "Do they expect me to fly over there and offer peace-terms?"

After five attempts over eight months,
he finally made the flight to scotland.

[calxpal]

Fate: The Winx Saga

[lei.talk]

she based this selection on socialism - the dream/the reality
and my favorite philosopher?

Spoiler!

One interview that particularly fascinated me was with June Kurisu, who worked for Rand as a secretary in the late 1940s when Rand was living in Chatsworth, California. It became quickly apparent that there was much more to the Kurisu story than I originally knew. I never knew that June’s parents were in the employ of Rand as well and lived at the house with her.

As I read the interview it seemed that the whole picture came into view. June and her family were Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in FDR’s concentration camps for Americans for Japanese descent. When the federal government rounded them up, they lost everything. June’s father was a small business who lost his business. After the war these people found it difficult to start all over again as the federal government felt no need to compensate them for the confiscation of their property and their unconstitutional incarceration due entirely to their ethnicity.

Rand hired June’s father to work on the ranch with her husband, Frank O’Connor. June also mentioned that her mother was hired by Rand to be a cook, in spite of her having limited cooking skills. And June, who was a high school student attending a church boarding school, was hired to come to the Ranch on weekends to do typing for Rand. June’s younger brother also lived in Rand’s home. While June never said so, it appeared to me that Rand had hired the entire family, except for a 10-year-old brother, in order to help people who had been unjustly treated. At the same time, June recounts the presence of an elderly Russian woman living at the house as well.

This woman would have been Ayn’s English teacher from Russia who Ayn tracked down after the War. Ayn sponsored bringing the woman to the United States and allowed her to live with Rand for about a year.

Numerous other accounts show the side of Rand that her critics pretend didn’t exist—her benevolence. We read of children who meet Rand and said she was kind to them and would actually stay in touch with them, often calling them to see how they were doing. Another girl recounts how she lived with Ayn and Frank in a one-bedroom apartment when her parents were having marital problems. Over and over individuals recount an Ayn Rand who was benevolent and gentle.

in a post-script,
she added that she was thrilled to discover
the url-links hiding in my signature-space.

bé quiet mon coeu

[Cossack]

Invasion of the Mongols (Historical Trilogy)-the historical trilogy of the Soviet writer Vasily Yan about the conquests of the Mongols (the Mongol conquest of Central Asia and the Western campaign of the Mongols) and about the resistance to them of the peoples who inhabited the lands of Central Asia and Eastern Europe in the first half of the XIII century; the largest and most famous work of the author. It consists of novellas (novels):" Genghis Khan "("Genghis Khan", 1939)," Batu "(1942), "To the" Last Sea" (1955).
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[Rafael Passoni]

[Laly]

The latest books I’ve read are those of a trilogy that my husband gave me, on the amazing queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was queen twice, firstly the queen of France, wife of the king Louis VII the Pious and then, the queen of England, wife of the king Henry II Plantagenêt. She was extremely intelligent, witty, with a special focus on political matters and with a remarkable artistic flair. And she even participated to the First Crusade! Nevertheless, her life is in several aspects tragic, as she was put aside and humiliated so much by both her husbands and Henry II even imprisoned her during fifteen years! Furthermore, most of her numerous children died before her. She died actually very old, at more than eighty years old. Her life was really harsh and it feels like her greatest consolation and glory is constituted by her grand-daughter Blanche of Castile, who became the queen of France, an exceptional woman, also mother of Saint Louis (Louis IX of France), certainly one of the greatest kings of the Middle Ages.







Now, I’m reading, in parallel with children’s literature, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, by the Jew Bruno Bettelheim, 1976. It’s really the work of reference on the topic (with Morphology of the Folktale, by the Russian Vladimir Propp, 1928, which I’ll read after). Bettelheim analyses deeply classical fairy tales and explains that they enable us to accept the problematic nature of life, without being discouraged, facing life as it is, putting the emphasis on resilience, without resorting to red herrings. But there’s just a little problem of coherence and credibility because Bettelheim actually committed suicide regardless of what he praised… So because of that, it’s a bit bizarre to read that book.

[Tannhauser]

Serotonina - M.H.

[Incal]

[butterburger]

I just started it today...an audiobook I bought from Audible.com :-)

[lei.talk]

easier reading than this set: