What are you reading?

[knight]

The Rohingyas by Azeem Ibrahim

This is a very disturbing book about the suffering of the Rohingyas people by the most unfortunate hands of some self claimed Buddhists. Each one of us has Buddha nature, no matter where we come from or what we do. Much Meta to all!

Knight

[Kobi]

From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage-and a life, in good times and bad-that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support.

Days later-the night before New Year's Eve-the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary.

In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over.

Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.

[2qt]

Mind by Daniel J. Siegel


Neuroscience studies the brain. A full examination of what we mean by the term “mind” has traditionally been the province of philosophers but here Daniel Siegel explores what neuroscience can teach us about it-how the mind differs from consciousness and how we know who we really are. In Mind, Siegel, The New York Times best-selling author, brings his characteristic sensitivity and interdisciplinary background to this most perplexing of topics. He explores the nature of the who, how, what, why and when of your mind-of your self-from the perspective of neuroscience. Mind captures the essence of our true nature, our deepest sense of being alive, here, right now, in this moment. How science explains it is one of the most exciting journeys into knowledge we can take.

[dark_crystal]

I read this last Sunday and never wrote the review! Which is due today!



This is the catalog for an exhibition of the Bodleian library's Tolkien collection. The exhibited items include photos, letters, drawings, maps, notes, etc,

I do not know whether i am supposed to review the exhibition itself or the book about the exhibition

Or what the difference would be.

One thing i learned from this book is that the novels were kind of beside the point for Tolkien.

His main deal was inventing the language. After that he cared most about inventing the mythology. The novels seem like kind of an afterthought.

What i need to know now is whether this is emphasized as heavily in existing Tolkien biographies. I have pulled three out of the stacks, but this seems like a lot of research for a 175-word assignment

[Greco]

"The Shallows What the internet
is Doing to Our Brains"
by Nicholas Carr

Clarifying, Challenging


"The Undressed Art Why we
Draw" by Peter Steinhart

Good conversation with a writer who
draws...good one.

Greco

[homoe]

I've just started reading this heist thriller and yes the 1983 TV series was based on this book. The characters are well developed but total opposites of each. I hope Viola plays the role of Dolly.

Sidebar:Widows is soon to be made into a film directed by Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) from a screenplay by him and Gillian Flynn. The film will features an ensemble cast including Viola Davis. . 20th Century Fox will release the film around November of this year.

[Medusa]

I just finished "The Outsider" (the new Stephen King) and it was entertaining...Classic King but a good background listen while cleaning the house.

Also just wrapped "Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston. VERY good read.

I just downloaded a new audiobook and one for the Kindle since I have 2 going almost all the time.
The audiobook is "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis"

And one for the Kindle: "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg"