#April: Mini reviews

 

 

1. Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission – Y. Katz – READ
2. Update: Excellent
3. Major events with massive geopolitical impact are
4. …often ‘Shadow Strikes’.
5. We hear the news but there is SO much we don’t know.
6. Yaakov Katz tells us how it all played out:
7. Operation Outside the Box
8. …was an Israeli airstrike on a suspected nuclear reactor
9. …in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria,
10. …which occurred just after midnight (local time) on 6 September 2007.
11. This book was an eye-opener! 
12. Finished: 24.04.2022
13. ———————–

 

1. Les délaissés   (2020)- Thomas Porcher (non-fiction) – READ
2. Update: book is a difficult read…
3. …but well worth the effort!
4. Polishing my French reading skills this morning  @PorcherThomas
5. Chapter 2 “La France de Banlieusards” is impressive
6. …love Pocher’s insights.
7. The man knows what he’s talking about…and it shows!
8. He grew up in a “banlieu”…and through hard work and study
9. …was able to become one of the best writers in France!
10. Finished: 18.04.2022
11. ———————–

 

1. La Guerre des idées (2021) – Eugenie Bastié (French journalist for Le Figaro) READ
2. Update: another book that was a difficult read…in chapter 2  I had to look up
3. 20 names, mostly French philosophers and historians.
4. I hope all this hard work pays off as I continue my reading.
5. Can you name 3 French philosophers?  I can.
6. Finished: 06.04.2022
7. ———————–

 

1. The Age of The Strongman (2022) – G. Rachman – READ
2. Update: Huge disappointment!
3. Mr Rachman is an excellent writer (correspondent Financial Times
4. but his profiles of world leaders…the “Strongmen”
5. are just a re-hash of what we already know!
6. #MovingOn…nothing new to see here!
7. Finished: 12.04.2022
8. ————————

 

1. The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018) – T. Snyder – REVIEW
2. Update:  Excellent!!
3. This book is worth a LONG review…see link.
4. Finished: 10.04.2022
5. ———————-

 

1. The King of Warsaw – T. Szczepan – READ 
2. Update: HUGE disappointment…waste of time!
3. I had high hopes for this book.
4. Rising novelist in Poland…I’m sure he had
5. new things to tell us.
6. Unfortunately I was wrong.
7. It is just dirty, pre-war Warsaw…
8. filled with cheap and exaggerated erotic and violence.
9. There are so many good books to read
10. …don’t waste your time with this rubbish.
11. Finished: 23.04.2022
12. ————————

 

1. Tiger Girl (2020)  – P. Pascale – READ
2. Update: HUGE disappointment
3. I tried to snatch some reading by catching up on my poetry collections.
4. Love the cover…but that is where the love ended.
5. Deep mother-daughter issues..and an obsession with “leopard-gran”.
6. Glancing back a few comments I made on the margins:
7. “God, awful” – “This girl needs a therapist” – “Again with the grandmother….”
8. “Who told this girl she could write”….and last but not least:
9. “What is this girl smoking?”
10. Believe me…there are better poets in bookstores!!
11. Finished: 23.04.2022
12. ———————–

 

1. The Browning Version (1948) play – R. Rattigan – REVIEW
2. Update:  Excellent!!
3. This book is worth a LONG review…see link.
4. Finished: 10.04.2022
5. ———————-

 

1. Tunnel 29 (2021)- H. Merriman – READ
2. Update: HUGE disappointment
3. Is it just me?
4. I found this an average book
5. …not worth 5 stars!
6. It’s hard to dislike this book as it is to defend it.
7. Finished: 21.04.2022
8. ———————-

 

1. Le fagot de ma mémoire –  (2021) S. B. Diagne – READ
2. Update: book is a difficult read…
3. …but in this case NOT worth the effort!
4. S. B. Diagne may be one of the 50 greatest thinkers of our time
5. …but his memoire did not impress at all,
6. Finished: 19.04.2022
7. ———————-