WHAT have you finished reading recently? Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend, Jason Bailey.
WHAT are you reading now? Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba, T. J. English
WHAT are you reading next? Frequent readers should know that’s a silly question, but here’s my Kindle shelf. New York City Cartmen: 1650 to 1850 sounds like exciting reading, no?
Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is books we had to read in school and liked. As with the “not liked” books, I’ll have to go back to college for this one. One of my favorite books from college was A Life of her Own by Emilie Carles: it’s the memoir of a French schoolteacher who taught from the beginning of the Great War until after the end of the Second World War. She encouraged her students to resist the insularity of their little village and to develop a broader perspective. This book was extremely formative for me, as it introduced me to left-wing libertarianism/anarchism: before I’d associated the left only with authoritarianism, and this began a brief period where I read more deeply into the writings of the Frankfurt school and so on. Ultimately the association with libertarianism would end up in me exploring American libertarianism, but that was a junction in the road I’d yet to encounter. This is one I’d like to go back and read, because while I know I’d still find a lot of common ground — especially in rejecting the state’s aggressive wars — after nearly two decades of reading and thinking about politics I’d probably find something to argue with her about.
Reading Freely 
I’ll have to add A Life of Her Own to my TBR. It sounds like an interesting read.
A Life of Her Own does sound good.
That sounds like an interesting book.. will add it to my TBR list. Thanks!
Just ran into Gandolfini on another blog.
Good to see Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives! Loved it!
Last #book I finished: Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll, by Sunny Seki
Amreading: The Last Express (Duncan Maclain Mystery #1), by Baynard H. Kendrick Amlistening to: Les Ombres du monde, by Michel Bussi
TBR Reading next: Les Doigts rouges, by Keigo Higashino
I found I really like listening to Orthodox priests on youtube, and his name kept coming up! Paul Kingsnorth (an Orthodox convert) also mentioned him.
You have to be careful: there are a lot of extreme insane Orthodox people posting on Youtube or podcasts.
But yes, this priest is a saint, wonderful.
You can also listen to lectures by the great Bishop Kallistos Ware – who was Anglican before converting. Alas, he passed away
The dreaded Ortho-Bro?
I avoid these things, so I don’t know by name. But I hear they are not helping at all, to say the least
Michael Penn Warren and a few others have cautioned against them — especially Rod Dreher, who was the Catholic equivalent until it destroyed his faith.
One of my foundational political books (apart from ‘The Dispossessed’ of course!) was ‘Anarchy in Action’ by Colin Ward (1973). I actually got it mail-order, so was probably on a “List” somewhere, from an Anarchist bookstore in London. I read it twice in my late-teens/early 20’s and haven’t looked at it in decades. It might be time for a re-visit to see how much my politics have changed since then… [muses]
By “cartmen” does the author mean deliverymen or pushcart vendors?
PK
Pushcarts! Full wagons were partially barred from the city interior at this point.