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Nowadays most people think that the only two civilzations that made the West are the Romans and the Greek, but this non-fictional )audio)book proves them wrong. There have been Egyptians, Asyrians, Minoans and many more. Even though I already knew a lot of the information because I am fascinated by ancient civilisations in general, this book gives and extensive overview and a lot of interesting, sometimes funny facts and stories.

Qualified pick, only because it does get into the weeds with respect to the level of detail in parts. But, absolutely pertinent in a world with bent toward fascism.

Do mental illnesses and/or personality disorders account for mass cruelty and disregard for human life & suffering? We seem reluctant to admit normally adjusted people can join or tolerate monstrous movements and actions.

Apparently the new film covers a shorter time period.

Went with my son to his favorite gluten free bakery and had some great coffee and read a little.

98/100 This took me longer to finish than the average audiobook, not because its not well written, it's just that the book recounts an ugly, brutal part of American history. I've always had a low opinion of Woodrow Wilson, and nothing here changed that. Wilson was a bigot and a hypocrite, who betrayed his so-called progressive idea. While preaching liberty, freedom and Democracy for the rest of the world, his administration was jailing ⬇️

Queen Elizabeth I ‘s court was ruthless! 😂 (And yes, I‘m immature enough to laugh out loud at this!)

Solzhenitsyn effectively described the prison and work camp system that incarcerated millions of Russians to suppress the population and obtain free labor. He covers arrest and interrogation, initial imprisonment, the brutality of camp life, various escape attempts, the addition of women and children, and release and exile. The abridged version has plenty of information on the subject (21 hours vs 60+ listening hours for the 3 volume series)

Soothingly completely unrelated to anything I'm normally interested in. Has black-and-white images which helps illustrate the features of the churches it talks about.

Some poor editing (sentences don't make sense, spelling mistakes), it jumped out at me quite a bit. Did also jump around a bit, sometimes mentioning a new term randomly, only defining it a few pages (or chapters) later.

Making good progress on #10BeforeTheEnd.

This is a light pick for me. I enjoyed it but didn‘t love it. I appreciated the early history of how bookstores developed in the U.S. and found the stories of well-known independent bookstores interesting. However, this is an incredibly broad topic, and hearing about a few specific bookstores I know or have visited just made me want to learn of more variety for my list.

#audiobook #Nonfiction #NonfictionNovember #NFNovember #LitsyBookClub

#WeeklyForecast

Continue my yearlong reads on the right

Continue A Thousand Feasts

Continue The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

I‘ve just started the tagged chunkster which would translate into The Seafarer about the lost empire of Portugal

I understand why Humphreys titled the book The Ghost Orchard. It is absolutely the strongest section (followed by that on Robert Frost, and The Imagined Discovery of the White Winter Pearmain). The way in which she grafts the story of her relationship with both her friend and her father, and their deaths, onto the story of the apple is brilliant. The Parafilm that seamlessly binds the stories is Frost‘s friendship with the poet Edward Thomas.👇🏻