I missed last’s week TT theme on spring tbrs, so instead of following the prompt for today (titles with adjectives), I’m going to be sharing some upcoming books!
Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. An entry for my Classics Club Strikes Back list. Currently reading.
Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy. Planned for around Easter (the title suggests that timing). Another CCSB entry.
Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America, Tom Vanderbilt. Bit of an impulse buy inspired by reading about the wildly irresponsible nuclear experimentation of the 1950s.
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution, Menno Schilthuzen. A science/TBR double play. It will fill either the Ecology or Wildcard slots in my science survey for 2022.
Why Balloons Rise and Apples Fall: Physics in Bite-Sized Chunks, Jeff Stewart. Another science/TBR twofer, filling the Physics slot of my science survey.
A Brief History of Motion, Tom Standage. A pop history of transportation!
Liza Picard’s “Life of London” series, with titles like Restoration London and Elizabeth’s London. Will feature in April’s “Read of England” theme.
Lionheart, Ben Kane. A novel of Richard I, another Read of England entry.
No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men, Anthony Esolen. From the author of Defending Boyhood, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, and similar works defending human life and culture from noxious postmodernity. A May release..
The Oil Kings: How the US, Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East, Andrew Scott Cooper. Started reading this last year and I really need to finish it off. So many meetings…
Reading Freely 
Interesting list. ‘Survival City’ looks good and ‘Darwin Comes to Town’ is already on my ‘of interest’ list (naturally).
The Darwin book is already interesting! Started reading it last week before Cancer Ward arrived.
Cool! I’ll look forward to your review.
Why Balloons Rise and Apples Fall: Physics in Bite-Sized Chunks sounds intriguing, and I must say I’m startled by No Apologies.
A defense of masculinity is startling….and welcome!
Oh, the debate we could have…………. [lol]
I sat up when I saw your first 2 titles. 😀
There’s actually a Resurrection readalong going to happen in April, hosted by Tristan from YouTube. I’m not sure if I can do it yet, but FWIW: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbTBTuPr8GC/
And Cancer Ward… that has been on my physical TBR forever. I don’t think I can access it at the moment, but I will be looking forward to your thoughts and maybe it will inspire me to finally pick it up!
P.S. Kinda interested in hearing about No Apologies as well… I feel the trope that “women are the civilizers” is super silly and (coming from a slight feminist angle) an excuse for men not to step up. Anyway I won’t soap box here, but all that to say it’s cool you post these kinds of reviews, too.
The timing is partially inspired by the bovine urge to purge every bit of Russian culture from western media. How would Americanskis like it if American cinema and lit had been purged from European and Chinese markets because of Iraq?
Esolen is always fun to read. He’s harder to review, though…I’ve read everything he’s written and only reviewed one book here! That’s why earlier this year I began re-reading some of his works, because I’d like to do an Esolen-themed week when that one releases. His lectures and interviews on YT are worth watching.
Agreed on the silliness of women being sole civilizers. I wonder if it was a Victorian conceit? I’m looking forward to listening to your latest youtube post on The Lord of The World — I was off the last couple of days in Madison/Huntsville doing another around of transplant evals.
Yeah… I’ve seen things like “Tchaikovsky got cancelled from this concert program,” and I’m like, WHY… he literally has nothing to do with the current situation.
This has happened before — particularly during the Great War, with sauerkraut being renamed Liberty Cabbage. Homo sapiens rarely lives up to its self-appointed name!
LOL- It’s *symbolic* – to publicly show support/opposition. It isn’t ‘meaningless’ in any real sense its just not as direct as handing over a Stinger missile or even banning a soccer team. It’s a bit like wearing yellow and blue or things like that. I don’t think anyone is ‘blaming’ Tchaikovsky for the invasion of Ukraine! [grin]
Russian musicians and Russian athletes are paying the price for that symbolism — barred from concerts and games. Where has this passion been for Yemen, the people of which have been starved and bombed by the Saudis and DC for the last fifteen years? Where’s the love for the Uyghurs, who are being penned-in and executed like cattle by the Chinese state? This saccharine display is more anti-Putin (and pro-American World Empire) than pro-Ukraine, I think.
Probably all true. Innocent Russians are indeed paying the price for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But I think that average Ukrainians are paying a far bigger price don’t you? Not being able to play football or perform in public doesn’t really compare to losing your home, your family or your life. No doubt concerts and football matches will resume when the Russians have been expelled, have paid reparations and are finally let back into civilised society.
To be honest the strength of the reaction to the invasion of Ukraine is probably based on the fact that its right on the border with western Europe so it has regional importance, the fact that its being filmed so much and by so many people and, to be brutally honest, because the people being killed and displaced are white and are, therefore. ‘relatable’ to western audiences. Early on in the conflict reporters where being criticised for pointing this out but, horrible as it is, it’s probably a factor.
On the subject of Ukrainians paying a price, yes. Persecuting Russians who have no connection to Putin’s government will not help Ukraine in the least, however. We do not alleviate human misery by increasing it. If DC was so concerned about Ukrainian suffering, it should have refrained from turning Ukraine into a pawn in its anti-Russian obsession to begin with.