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    If you decide you want more like that, there's a good little english language bookstore in one of those east-west streets just south of the Piazza del Popolo which has a decent selection of books on ancient Rome.

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      A coupe of weeks ago I read Mo Yan's Red Sorghum. It was OK but hard to imagine it as Nobel-Prize worthy especially because it seemed to have been specifically written with the world-record for use of the word "sorghum" in a work of fiction in mind (471, according to my kindle index).

      Now, about half way through Never Let Me Go, and I have the same feeling. It's good but - Nobel? I mean, if this gets the Nobel then we have to consider the possibility of David Mitchell going to Stockholm at some point and that doesn't seem right.

      Relatedly, this is still one of my favourite Books threads.

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        It's not specific books/literary works that are awarded the Nobel though, it's the author/writer.

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          I really liked The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, but haven't read anything else by him.

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            Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
            It's not specific books/literary works that are awarded the Nobel though, it's the author/writer.
            Oh, I know. But usually the two or three best-known works by the author gives an indication of overall quality and I'm just feeling a little underwhelmed here.

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              China Under Mao, by Andrew Walder, is *really* good. It's excellent at a) putting developments in CPC history in context of developments in intl communism, b) tracing the history of how Map went from the Hundred Flowers to the cultural revolution via the great Leap Forward without getting bogged down in bullshit and c) this one is most remarkable - describes the start of the cultural revolution and the proliferation of batshit factionalism among workers and students in a way that is both understandable and does not involve just leaving it at "there were a whole bunch of batshit factions beating the crap out of each other for no very good reason". Thumbs up.

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                Someone here recommended Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, but damned if I can 'search' who it was. Anyway, thank you. Just excellent. The real-life rescue of American POWs from a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines in WWII. Gut wrenching and thrilling.

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                  A painful but obligatory read IMO, painstakingly researched. In summary, it shows and exposes the extent of the damages that the constant, almost uninterrupted onslaughts on the state since the 1980’s have done to British society. It also brilliantly demonstrates – if it was still necessary – the close interdependence of public and private sectors ("private" to be understood loosely here as nothing is as clear-cut as it initially appears) as well as the complexity, and duty of care, of the state with regard to its remit & purview as well as its traditional, regalian roles. (eg the state often has to mop up when the private sector gets into difficulty/screws up and washes its hands of the whole thing.)

                  It’s a book that certainly makes you think of the very complex - increasingly complex I should say - role of the much-decried state in our societies, and just for that reason it’s well worth a read.

                  As obvious as it seems, I think it's worth explicitly pointing it out that advocating a strong state is not tantamount to putting capitalism to the sword of course, and this book is not an attack on capitalism, as this Guardian review makes clear:

                  Dismembered is, however, not a polemical book, and it is not anti-capitalist. Toynbee and Walker start from the premise that market capitalism, when it works, works well, but when it doesn’t, works badly. In particular, it skews income distribution to the benefit of the few, and distorts social and economic structures in ways that harm everybody, even the few. The dynamism of capitalism needs an active state to keep it on the rails (literally) and to correct the inequities that inevitably accompany the operations of the free market.
                  Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 28-10-2017, 12:55.

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                    For Imp: Two books on Rome - Mike Duncan's "The Storm Before the Storm" which is a mostly political history of the period from the Gracchi (roughly 103 BC) to the reign of Sulla (high 70s) and Tom Holland's the Dynasty, which is political/family history of the Julio-Claudians (Augustus/Tiberius/Caligula/Claudius/Nero) laced with a lot of stuff about Roman customs and mores. I preferred the former - it was more tightly written and it's about a period which was a little less familiar b/c it doesn't get quite as much love as later eras - but both are worth reading.

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                      Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith is a much smarter read than you'd suspect it might be.

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                        I'll bite: how low was your bar to begin with?

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                          Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
                          For Imp: Two books on Rome - Mike Duncan's "The Storm Before the Storm" which is a mostly political history of the period from the Gracchi (roughly 103 BC) to the reign of Sulla (high 70s) and Tom Holland's the Dynasty, which is political/family history of the Julio-Claudians (Augustus/Tiberius/Caligula/Claudius/Nero) laced with a lot of stuff about Roman customs and mores. I preferred the former - it was more tightly written and it's about a period which was a little less familiar b/c it doesn't get quite as much love as later eras - but both are worth reading.
                          Read and devoured both Rubicon and Persian Fire by Holland, so will certainly search out The Dynasty too in due course. Half-way through, and really enjoying, SPQR. Departure for Rome is tomorrow - city promises to be sunny and 20 degrees.

                          I have a terrible confession to make. We have tickets for Roma v Chelsea on Tuesday night. But I can make this confession in Books and get away with it because no sod ever comes in here, right?

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                            Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
                            I'll bite: how low was your bar to begin with?
                            Anything Mrs WOM recommends is suspect. But Grahame-Smith ties in a lot of neat little historical points, like the lost colony at Roanoke and Emancipation, so it's been a fun read with lots of "hah...that's clever" moments. It's not making the syllabus at any of your ivy league schools, but it's much better than I thought it'd be.

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                              I found 'Seinfeldia' in a charity shop yesterday and am a few chapters in. I suspect it will be of no interest to anyone who's not a fan. But if you want to know why the show had a slap bass theme tune then I've already read about it.

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                                Originally posted by imp View Post
                                I have a terrible confession to make. We have tickets for Roma v Chelsea on Tuesday night. But I can make this confession in Books and get away with it because no sod ever comes in here, right?
                                Say hi to...oh God completely forgotten his board name. Terry. The one who wrote that brilliant piece on his experience of workplace popidol in Rome. He wouldn't miss that.

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                                  Never heard of him or read that post - can it be easily unearthed?

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                                    The Liquidator (aka Terry or Spangly Princess' husband), last seen in these parts as Er Liqudatore

                                    I don't recall the specific post, but this is his whole set on this board and its immediate predecessor.

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                                      It's this one . Great stuff. And yes, Mr. Spangles. Former Chelsea, now Roma.

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                                        Oh yeah, thanks for that - a magnificent read. I wonder if he's still working for the same glorious company.

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                                          I finished this quite fascinating book yesterday, called China Shakes the World, by Jack Belden (Martin Jacques ripped off the same title 50 years later - completely different book). Written in 1949, it describes his time going back and forth across the lines during the latter stages of the Chinese civil war. It is fascinating on two levels:

                                          1) It's brilliant at describing the rot of the Chiang Kai Shek regime, and utterly fantastic at describing how the communists promoted social revolution well in advance of actually taking power - I don;t think I've seen a better explanation of how the communists drew women into the revolution by challenging traditional gender roles. And also, it shows quite clearly how the communists took a very broad tent view of China pre-1949. Most of the areas in east-central china which were outside KMT control were really only partially communist - to the extent the communists ruled at all, it was through and with allies. Read the first 460 pages and you will realize how moderate and reasonable the communists would have appeared to most Chinese people at the time and how popular and inevitable their victory would have seemed.

                                          2) In the last 60 pages, it goes on to make some predictions about what the immediate future will bring, and this section is 100% completely and utterly wrong. It seems never to have occurred to Belden that all that broad popular front stuff would go out the window the minute the communists seized power. He genuinely thought there would continue to be small-scale private enterprise, participation of non-communists in public, an end to revenge killings and - my favourite - a permanent end to famines because now there were no more landlords who would oppress the people. It would be funny if it were not so terribly, terribly sad. But it's an excellent reminder of how power corrupts and how ideology can blind us to faults.

                                          Also, Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads. Enjoyed that much more than Red Sorghum.

                                          Also, Masha Gessen's new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. 100 pages in and it's great so far. Might be one of the ten best of the year for me.

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                                            Cheers, AG, that Belden book goes straight on the Christmas wish list.

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                                              Check charity shops (or the internet), the last edition was printed in 1971.

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                                                I have 3 books on the go at the moment and haven't read any of them for well over a week now

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                                                  Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                                  I have 3 books on the go at the moment and haven't read any of them for well over a week now
                                                  Oi, bugger off to the 'Current Non-Reading' thread.

                                                  I finished SPQR - especially enjoyed the chapters about people's every day lives. Left me wanting to read more about various emperors and their eras. Have started a bulky graphic novel 'A Chinese Life', my only complaint being that it's too heavy to hold and really needs to be read while sitting down at a table.

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                                                    Currently reading Killers of The Flower Moon about the Osage Indian murders during the Oklahoma oil boom the '20s, and the birth of the FBI. So far, excellent.
                                                    By David Grann, who also did Lost City of Z, which I really liked.

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