The Unfortunate SideEffects Of Heartbreak & Magic
 

I’m only a few pages into this book, but I like the story already.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...eanne-randall/

I've only read the first three chapters of A Book of Life by Peter Kingsley. Honestly, I'm only reading it because it was recommended by Mayim Bialik as her favorite book this year. I haven't yet decided if it's deeply insightful or just sophomorically navel gazing. I'm going to give it at least a few more chapters before I decide if it's worth my time.

The Brothers Karamazov

Like The Jerry Springer Show set in late Tsarist Russia.

The story follows Fyodor Karazamov, his three (probably four) sons, and the women they get mixed up with.

Oldest son Dmitri is engaged but falls for Grushenka, who is also seeing his father.

Middle son Ivan is brilliant and has several key scenes in the book but starts falling for Dmitri's fiance and slips into madness as a result.

Alyosha, the youngest of the "definite" sons, is in a monastery and has the highest moral compass of the entire bunch. He oversees a scene where some boys are throwing rocks at another boy, an event that throws him into spiritual and moral distress for the rest of the book. So does the death of his beloved mentor fairly early on.

Smerdyakov is a servant but it's pretty much a given that he is Fyodor's son.

This is a Russian novel, so no one comes out right. The key event is a Perry Mason-like murder, where most of the characters had motive. Should you wade into this book, don't get attached to the boy whom the bullies were throwing rocks at.

All that said, I love it. Anna Karenina on deck.

I’m more in a comfort zone place so some royal romance of jenny frame and tokyo chaos by Anne rambach

“You’re only as strong as your weakest link” (Granovetter).
 

I’m actually spending time reading back on essays and study’s I wrote during the SOU years and the few short years I was in grad school.

One of the most interesting propositions we discussed in a sociology studies course was the proposition suggested by Sociologist Mark Granovetter who wondered about the strong and weak links he saw in social settings.

Mark Granovetter suggested that the health of any society can be measured in terms of how well a society took care of all its members. Granovetter once said that a society was only as strong as its weakest link.

Which… makes me appreciate the rationale offered by Ram Dass “We’re just walking each other home.

Developing compassion and empathy for others is something we all benefit from. I sure wish we saw this set of choices and behaviors throughout social settings.

The good stuff ☺️
 

I’m going to defer to my winter time reading classics by Charles Dickens:

1) A Tale of Two Cities
2) A Christmas Carol

And….

3) Oliver Twist.

Reading Now
 

The monthly magazine all about my birth place. Has great stories and gorgeous pictures plus things to buy, clothes and foodstuff. Makes me not miss home so much.

Oh, I’ve always been an avid reader. But I’ve noticed I really cut down sharply. Some of it was because of the Internet and social media. Some of it was because of my outdoor time in the gardens. But most of it was because of work. It consumed my day. And it drained me. I needed light stuff after work and the type of things I like to read are intense. Mostly serial killer and true crime stuff. But now that I’ve laid off, I found myself going to Barnes & Noble and picking up a few books on that genre. I’ve got a really good book going that talks about several serial, killers, and how they were caught. And I’ve got a great book on the mother of forensic science!

Well, I’ve finally decided to pick up and read this one book that I’ve been meaning to read for many years now….. Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove”.

It’s over 800 pages long and the movie version, with Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Tim Scott, Diane Lane and a host of more top names has always been one of my most favorite and treasured western movies. My mother had read the book years ago and she just raved about it and said that the book was unquestionably better than the movie. That’s usually the case but this book, especially so.

So, here I go, bookworms!! Wish me luck!!! 😉👍

~Theo~ :bouquet:

I read Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson and I loved it. I so much enjoy the way he explains things. He's so personable and easygoing.

Reading now.
 

The Tudors by G.J. Meyer is Meyers research into the famous period in Britian when France overthrew the British crown and ruled for 50 years during the 1400s until his son Henry V111 rose up and took all in his sight even downing the Catholic Church and seperating Englands power to The Church of England. If there is interest in this era it is quite exposure to the truth behind the throne.

Holly by Stephen King. My client let me borrow it. I forgot what a wonderfully descriptive writer King is…

I just finished listening to a wonderful 12-part PODCAST called "Ride of Passage". It's the story of a young man in his early 20s who rode his horse alone across America, from the west coast to the east coast. Actually, there were several horses and one mule, and it took him about three years to make the trip.

Of course, if you're a horse-loving person, you absolutely must listen to this podcast. If you're otherwise on the fence about listening to it, Matt's adventures are engrossing, from the physical hardships of the journey to the mental trials to emotional triumphs . We meet all kinds of people along the way, most helpful and kind (but a few not). We hear about Matt's solitude and lessons about life, horses, people and himself. I'm a little sad that the podcast is over, and I highly suggest listening to it.

It was produced by Michigan Public Radio, and you should be able to find "Ride of Passage" about Matt Parker wherever you usually find your podcasts.

I spent the afternoon reading a 92 page court document which documented the many ways that a particular person and members of their family defrauded the banking industry, real estate industry and made a mockery of the fine art of accounting. This court document may well become part of text book case law on the many ways con artists commit fraud by moving the goal posts and deliberately lying about all things those in the field of accounting consider cardinal sins worthy of being barred for a lifetime or more.

Three cheers for the judge, his staff, the state of New York and the Office of The Attorney General for their hard work in holding the orange weasel and his co-conspirators accountable.

Today, because as Americans we are experiencing horrific levels of Dis- and Mis-information and also because democracy is under attack by a once-revered political party (the GOP, Republican Party) — the political party that hates social order, they hate immigrants, they hate anybody who is not white, they’re in love with lining their pockets with ill gotten means of income, they hate paying taxes, they just plain hate anybody that does not swallow their load of toxic bullshit, I am reading a post made by a law professor from George Mason University, concerning the most worst dictators who have committed mass murders and starved people to death or just horrifically done brutal things to others, just so they can be “powerful.”

Here is Ilya Somin’s (George Mason Law Professor) post: https://fee.org/articles/who-was-the...er-in-history/


And soon, over on a major news outlet, I’m going to read how a federal court judge denied T——p’s latest request to delay his comeuppance for lying about his taxes and business dealings since the early 1980s (decades of intentional lying).

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trum...y?id=107433418

I need some bubble gum for my brain - something not taxing, something relaxing, something comforting. So I am re-reading an old favorite, Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey. Basically a fairy tale, which I have always loved.