I’ve just finished Dune, which I read once when I was a kid and didn’t really enjoy. Since the new movie is coming out (eventually!) I gave it another go and enjoyed it. As much as he appropriated (as authors are wont to do) there is still a very original world build here, and now I understand the cult status of the book a little more. About to start Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune is on deck; has anyone here read all six by Frank Herbert?
Read Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune. Loved Dune, didn’t like Dune Messiah, and thought Children of Dune was so bad that I didn’t read the rest. Looking forward to the Villeneuve adaption.
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I was reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens…
…but then I went and bought a Nintendo Switch…
…and discovered Super Mario Galaxy…
…so much for Bleak House.
if dickens had that switch tho
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It was alright alright alright.
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I’m kind of like @MikeN1: read Dune when I was in my early teens and loved it. Read a lot of other Dune books back then and mostly regretted it. Read Dune again in my thirties, still liked it, and happily stopped there.
I figure if my teen self, who liked almost any sci-fi dreck, didn’t like the rest of the series, there’s no way I’d enjoy it as an adult.
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Finished the second, Dune Messiah. A very different book, I can understand why I didn’t get into these when I was younger. Not an action-adventure, but instead really brings the politics, intrigue, and religion to the fore until the bitter ending; still with all the sci-fi stuff. It’s a lot to hold in your head, much more of a mentally challenging book than the first and I’m glad it was short. Totally going to start the third book.
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People are strange, and stranger still with their money.
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I just finished The Handmaid’s Tale. I really enjoyed it. Now I’ve started rereading The Little Prince but this time in Chinese. I was excited to recently find this three-language edition (Mandarin/English/French). When I can’t quite understand the Chinese I’m going to look at the French first and see if I can unstick my rusty high school French.
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Found this by chance the other week and read through it quickly. I enjoy the combination of historical telling and then tracing the routs in the modern day that the author does.
The book isn’t written from a religious perspective. I found the description of the first interactions between Europeans and Japanese fascinating, as well as getting a better sense of Japan’s recent history. As horrible as the persecution the Japanese converts faced, it’s pointed at that at the same time, in Europe, similar things were happening with the Spanish Inquisition and struggles following the Reformation were ongoing. It was surprising to learn that Nagasaki started as a Catholic city It seemed to me weird to read that at times the Dutch aided the Japanese government in persecution, not realising that in that day Protestants and Catholics were often bitter enemies.
The biggest tragedy in the story is that of Urakami village in Nagasaki. Being the first Hidden Christians to reveal themselves when Japan reopened, a few decades later their community of 15,000 or so was almost entirely wiped out by Fat Boy. The author points out that in an instant, the Truman administration killed more Christians than the Japanese had in over 200 years.
There’s an irony that, after Japan reopened, only about half of those hidden christians rejoined the church, more interested in preserving their practices whilst forgetting the reason their ancestors did it, and passed it down, in the first place. These days there are few remaining practicing communities, and they will likely soon die out.
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Always looking forward to another Murakami release. Maybe April.
“these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world”
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I finally quit him last year. It’s was all a bit too much. I’m glad that he’s moving back into short stories though.
I just finished this:
Not bad. Good to great advice if your job or life involves meeting and actually talking/understanding people.
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On the list.
Got it.
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Hmmm … looks interesting, but $15 for the Kindle edition? Think I’ll wait til it drops off the bestseller list.
I’m currently reading Hitchens’ polemic on Mother Teresa (“The Missionary Position”). Enjoying it so far.
no idea what this is about.
It’s a pretty well-known book; many reviews online.
His basic argument is that Mother Teresa was a rather unpleasant nutcase - a hypocrite, a fraud, and the cause of much suffering. He produces some pretty convincing evidence to support his case.
The only gripe I have is that Hitchens tends to go off on long meandering rambles, to the extent that you sometimes lose track of what he’s arguing about. He does that in all his writing. Mostly, though, he sticks to the point.
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Sorry you lost me about halfway through the third paragraph.
Mother Teresa is human just like everyone else.
Not sure what your point is. Of course she’s human. Humans do some dreadful things, especially when they wield political power. I was just describing the book. It’s worth reading even if you don’t agree with the conclusions.
I haven’t read Hitch’s book on MT, but I have heard him speak about her.
He seemed to not appreciate MT essentially asking poor sick people to accept their station in life and not work to improve their lives. Or something like that.
That’s pretty much it.
Worked into that argument is MT’s hardline stance against contraception (ie., it’s God’s will that everyone should have more kids than they can possibly feed or care for).
It’s currently on Kindle Unlimited (which is why I’m reading it) if you’re interested.