Eva
Un recit sinueux d'observations et de reflexions, tandis que l'autrice voyage en sac a dos dans la France de 1951. Comme ce livre etait un cadeau, je l'ai fait jusqu'au bout, mais ce fut une corvee. Il y n'a pas beaucoup d'intrigues auxquelles s'interesser, evidemment. De Temps en temps, elle rencontre et reste dans un episode avec plusieur paysans, puis l'histoire devient soudainement plus qu'un journal intime. Mais, la plupart de temps, c'est juste un carnet de voyage plutot fastidieux.
First, it reads like a alcohol-tinged popculture road trip straight from the 90ies, and I felt I should have probably read this back when it came out, in the 90ies. Reading books about people who are constantly partying and on drugs, while being aloof and feeling superior ... very 90ies. Come to think of it, the poop and similar (yoghurt) accident-related stories felt very Trainspotting.
But, then it sprinkles in pokes at German WWII history and critiques of the wealthy class, while the main character's life and journey unravel themselves to be hollow and meaningless. And suddenly it just clicks. And I see why this book is considered somewhat of a cult classic.
Obviously, this is a very context-heavy book, and I think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd known more of the very German geograpic and cultural references. (let me now google ‘barbour jacket').
If you blend out the authors' slightly new-age-y tone, this is a good resource for various studies and initiatives that deal with the positive impact of arts practices and arts experiences.
The range of what is considered ‘art' or ‘aesthetics' is wide in this book. A walk in nature, gardening and coloring helps calm our minds. Humming helps release endorphins. Storytelling, singing and dancing helps us form connections. Encounters with art pieces challenge and widen our state of mind. Carefully designed Virtual-Reality experiences can help soothe pain.
I especially enjoyed the chapter on ‘flourishing', which focuses on ‘awe' research done by Beau Lotto and his Lab of misfits, the architecture of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the multisensory adventures of the Nomadic School of Wonder.
What's missing from the book is a more critical perspective. That art practices help ease physical and mental stress hasn't been a secret. Yet it's clearly now gaining more acceptability, in light of more tech-equipped and ‘professional' studies.
It also doesn't help the book that they're mixing hippie-practices with science studies and unironically call algorithms ‘sophisticated'. Every time they cited a study about the positive effects of art, I wanted to ask if the control group also had the resources and care that equals the resources and care provided by arts programs?
I clearly would have enjoyed a more scientific version of this book, but it's still a great overview, and offers lots of departure points if one wants to go dig into the mentioned research or projects.
Intriguing portrait of one of the biggest family and nation-controlling experiments out there, the cruel ways it was implemented and a somber look at its many unintended consequences. Fong looks at the effects of the policy from multiple fascinating angles.
Guided by the threat of overpopulation and the drive for economic progress, from 1979 to 2015 China's One Child Policy allowed the majority of its citizens to only have 1 offspring. Paired with China's patriarchy and low standing of women, this has now led to a population with a high gender imbalance. The gender ratio is so tipped towards an abundance of men, that Chinese parents pay doweries to find brides for their sons. Populations with more men than women are also said to be highly aggressive, and have historically often led to wars.
Low birth rates and advanced healthcare lead to a Chinese population where soon 1 out of 3 people will be over 60. In the land where filial piety still rules, the single child of single-child parents now find themselves sole care-taker of 2 ageing parents and 4 grandparents. As the only offspring of a family, children are simultaneoulsy coddled (the “little emperor” phenomenon, producing solipsistic low-risk takers) and also put under enormous pressure (the need to succeed, to support all elderly family members).
Once China realised these trends and tried to reverse course by adapting the policy to allow every family 2 children (nuclear families only!) it was too late. Only a small portion of families are currently opting for second children, due to economic considerations.
A woman looks back on a questionable affair she had during her school years. Abuse or a young woman learning how to take control? The answer is being kept vague. But what's definite in this tale is how much society changes within one's lifetime, as the protagonist contrast yesterday's sexism and everyday habits with today's feminism, social justice and sustainability concerns.
Good middle story, but I shouldn't be able to page through a whole graphic novel in 10 minutes
This novella from the beginning of the 19th century contains the “most famous dash of German literature” and the less one knows about it while reading it, the better. Because it leaves one puzzling over what actually happened. Definitely an interesting tale to dissect, with its social conventions and quite shocking dirty family secrets (that strangely get glossed over, whatever was Kleist's intention here?)
Loved how this book slowly transformed into a form of meta fiction. Britta meeting Ruth and her folders of historical research, to her searching for a bigger medium to tell Abelke's story. Culminating with the author's afterword, telling us about the work of many female historians who uncover the truths about historical women whose fates and records were dictated by men. Women burnt as witches to further men's causes and to frighten women back into their homes.
Je connais, mais je n'ai jamais lu ni regarde aucune adaptation de ce celebre conte canadien. Parce que c'est une conte pour enfants ou jeunes adultes, et donc un recit direct utilisant des mots simples, j'ai pense que ce serait un bon exercise d'ecoute de livre audio pour moi. Et du success! J'ai vraiment aime ecouter ca. Meme si Anne etait un peu trop bavarde dans ses premieres annees, j'ai apprecie son caractere curieux et studieux. C'est une histoire chaleureuse, ce n'est pas une surprise si elle est si populaire. J'etais un peu consterne de voir il ya 8 volumes de histoire de Anne. C'est evidemment trop pour continuer, j'ai en fait ete choque a decouvrir que l'histoire la suive meme jusqu'a un age avance. Helas, c'est a cela que servent les resumes Wikipedia ;)
Sara Maitland's “Silence” is a solitude, experienced in a wide open nature exempt of the sound of humanity. She spends 1-2 decades exploring and searching for the perfect space, and the perfect silence. The book recounts her explorations (in deserts, and moors, on walks and lock-ins), the practical and the psychological, and mixes it with quotes and stories about other famous hermits and solitude-seekers.
She learns that there are 2 different ways of seeking solitude/silence: the romantic and the religious way. While the religious seekers attempt inner emptiness, a purging of the self, the romantic seekers attempt to find and strengthen their own self while in solitude. A writer in profession and also deeply religious, Maitland wants to find a way to combine these two opposing usages of silence.
Reading this book made me very aware of the city noises around me, and made me long to own a little cottage far from civilisation.
Ce livre est inspire par la vie de l'autrice Rwandaise mais n'est pas une autobiographie.
On rencontre trois generation d'une famille Rwandaise: Immaculata, la mere, qui vit et survit le genocide de 1994. Blanche, la fille d'une pere Francaise, qui a fui le pays avant le genocide et vit depuis lors en France. Et Stokely, le grand-fils, qui commence a apprendre et a donner un sense a l'histoire de sa famille.
L'histoire parle de les repercussions et les blessures des atrocites du genocide, mais aussi de ce que signifie avoir deux couleurs de peau et de appartenir a deux mondes.
Un livre magnifiquement ecrit sur un sujet incroyablement triste.
What it's like to be a kid during war. Suddenly you're constantly hungry, your biggest wish is a set of batteries for your radio, you wear your skisuit nonstop because there's no electricity and heat, and you go on adventures scavenging for dirty magazines that you can trade for candy with the UN soldiers. There's a lightness in the anecdotes, showing how children can live through hardness without remembering just the pain. But the novel's somber undertone talks of war never ending, and that the true hardships are the demons that remain.
I loved a lot about this.
My second Keun. This one's a portrait of pre-WWII German society, seen through the eyes of 19-year old Sanna, who struggles in this new world where neighbors denounce neighbors, colleagues denounce colleagues, aunts denounce nieces. Set in 1936, published by Keun in exile in 1937, and yet it reads like a novel that's been written after WWII, with so much hindsight.
As before, Keun writes with so much wit and charm, an again, the German audiobook is exceptionally narrated by Camilla Renschke.
A masterful novella about a rotten marriage, that questions how complicit you are if you do nothing to combat evil in order to keep up the appearances. Didn't produce the magic for me other Haushofer novels managed to in the past ([b:Die Wand 1132217 Die Wand Marlen Haushofer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597578944l/1132217.SY75.jpg 573687], [b:Himmel, der nirgendwo endet 586855 Himmel, der nirgendwo endet Marlen Haushofer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1176052585l/586855.SY75.jpg 573690]), but it clearly is a very well executed character study.
Randomly reading poetry and feeling a lot more at home in the first half which is a German Ukrainians freestyle diary about the war and immigration. The second half, actual poetry.
Love good historical fiction that also teaches me parts of history I didn't know about (see Demmin (spoilers)).
A fantastic book chronicling the history of sonified electromagnetism in the arts (and sciences). Kahn coins the term “Aelectrosonics” - the sounds created by the natural electromagnetic activity on earth and in space. All because we included the earth and space in our communication circuits (earth as electrical ground, the atmosphere as transmission medium for radio). From accidental listening - hearing the Aurora Borealis or whistlers on the telegraph and telephone lines of the 19th century - to sonifying brainwaves (Alvin Lucier) - to earth hums and moon bounces, to Alexander Graham Bell's photophone and Robert Barry's energy art.
Sometimes Kahn's documentation might be too thoroughly (too many quotes of people categorizing weird noises) but this book is wonderful, full of inspiration and I'll definitely have to go over it again.
Une autobiographie difficile dans laquelle l'autrice raconte comment elle a ete preparee et exploitee sexuellement pendant son adolescense par un auteur celebre de plusieurs decennies son aine. Le livre accuse evidemment G. Matzneff de ses delits, mais met egalement en examen l'establishment litteraire francaise pour son soutien continu aux exploits tres connus de l'auteur.
Cela etait tres bien fait et je suis heureux d'entendre que cela a provoque de nombreuses repercussions sur la scene literraire en France.
Well done, Dame Agatha Christie. I thoroughly enjoyed being surprised by the final reveal.
Une linguiste islandaise est en train de changer sa vie. Pour compenser son empreinte carbone, elle doit planter des milliers d'arbes. Elle trouve un terrain apparemment inhospitalier, elle l'achat a une ecrivaine de polar, et commence a planter ses rangees de bouleaux, suivant les conseils du meilleur ami de son pere qui est forestier. Elle quitte meme Reykjavik et son ancien travail et s'installe sur sa nouvelle terre. Elle rencontre les habitants de son nouvelle village, son voisin qui est eleveur de moutons, le gerant de la friperie, et un jeune immigre en train d'apprendre l'islandais. Pas a pas elle construit sa nouvelle vie, qui ressemble parfois a une evasion et parfois a un paradis paisible.
J'ai beaucoup aime, et je dois continuer a explorer davantage les oeuvres d'Olafsdottir.
Je suis toujours intrigue lorsque la traduction d'un livre apparait d'abord dans d'autres langues que l'anglais. Il parle d'une variete de popularite d'ecrivains dans differentes cultures, ce que je trouve fascinant.
A story of belonging and of independence.
Of a mother and her daughter, and of a whole region.
South Tyrol / Aldo Adige was given to Italy after the first world war. Over the next couple of decades Italy tried to rule over and make sense of this new province that looked and sounded so very Austrian. In a typical first move for annexed territories worldwide the Italian government moved in a bunch of Italians to dilute the population, and tried to suppress the local language (mainly German, but also Ladin). Locals reverted to secret schools to teach their children their mother tongue. The second world war and Austria's annexation by Hitler presented the South Tyrolians with an ultimatum of loyalty (the ‘option'), and the 60ies and 70ies were marked by attacks from terrorist groups fighting for the region's independence.
Guiding us through the history of the region is the story of Gerda and Eva. Beautiful Gerda who stands up against conventions and raises her daughter Eva fatherless. And Eva who follows her mother's example of independence, but who also secretly laments the loss of the only man she every came close to regarding as a father.
As people constantly questioned to choose their allegiance (see WWII options, or the ‘Sprachgruppenzugehörigkeitserklärung' in the 70ies), I really liked the answer the novel ultimately gives: that South Tyrolians see themselves as neither Austrian nor Italian, but rather belonging to the Alpine folk of this wider region that encompasses South Tyrol, Tyrol and even some of Bavaria.
As an Austrian who grew up after South Tyrol's fight for independence made waves, this was a fascinating and very educational read for me. Even though I found Vito's story came a bit late, considering how much of Eva's travel hinges on it, the ending ultimately really got to me.
Very happy to be done with this. I acknowledge that it's a well executed graphic novel but it's so depressing.
The life story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, who was dissatisfied with the career opportunities the study of literature gave a young driven woman in the early 20iest century and set out to find a challenge, and found it on the estate of a wealthy science and conspiracy lover. She learns the ropes of codes and ciphers by first investigating Shakespeare's plays, and then contributes crucially to the invention of cryptology as WWI presents more pressing puzzles to be solved. Over the years - together and separately - Elizebeth and her husband William Friedman invent code breaking methods, document their craft in numerous influential pamphlets, and go on to spearhead several government institutions focused on the decryption of criminal and enemy communication. The era didn't make it easy for Elizebeth to fulfil this role in a world of men, yet her skills and her successrate continue to get her jobs in the business. During WWII she and her team help bring down a Nazi spy ring in South America, but no one can talk about it as it falls under top-secret classification. Head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover and his misogyny (he fired the few female FBI agents when his leadership began and didn't allow women to join for the next 40-50 years) and his perfect publicity stunts to claim other people's achievements, was part of the problem. So slowly Elizebeth is forgotten, while her husband continues to be celebrated.
A clever woman in a men's world, who is also a code-breaker, this was absolutely a book for me. It had a bit too much detailing on the Nazi spy activity during WWII, and sometimes too many assumptions about her and her husband's interior lives, but else this was a great read.
First hand account of the genocide and atrocities committed by ISIS against the religious minority of Yazidis in Northern Iraq. Murad tells us of her upbringing, Yazidic traditions, Iraq's many communities divided by religion and ethnicity, the tumultuous years of the Iraq war, the rise of ISIS. In 2014 ISIS takes her village, kills most of the men, and takes her and all young females to become sex slaves for Islamic State militants in Mosul.
A hard book to read. Not the best written book. But absolutely worth it.
Very chilling and conflicting: Murad first had a hard time talking about what happened to her, as victims of rape bring shame to families in her culture, and honor killings do sometimes happen.
