CHICKENS IN A BOOK: BOOK BOOK BGAWK (new book thread)

[elpollodiablo]

I just read a few chapters of Lucile Brockway's Science and Colonial Expansion. Pretty great stuff. She capably gives a succinct overview of the development of early capitalism, the expansion of mercantilism from the 16th c., and a clear picture of how uneven trade established English hegemony, etc. All information I've read in dozens of variations by now, but Brockway's main interest is in the reciprocity of botany & empire, with a special focus on Kew Gardens as a locus for specimen gathering, documentation, classification, cultivation, and ultimately propagation of plants from South America in Asia, moving industry to population centers that could be easily exploited in commodity production. Also a lot of good background on Kew as an incubator for emerging middle class scientific professionalism and (later) a flashpoint in a national debate about the accountability of science & science professionals to government.

[G.C.R]

Maybe for liberal arts grad students. all the grad programs I've looked at for biology have you in the field as much as possible, and that's what I want.

OT: I just started reading The Eye by Georges Bataille  I like it so far. He's a beautiful writer and has changed my opinion of the word cunt forever

Bataille's Blue of Noon is pretty great too. Its drinking debauchery rather then sex debauchery.

[peacocks]

Cool! Until now I have only read his essays on De Sade and Julian Casablancas and parts of The Accursed Share.

[nonotyet]

There is a series of kids' books that I have been trying to remember the name of for weeks, and I have no idea how to even begin googling it. It was about an immigrant Jewish family, and I think there were five kids, and Family may have been in the title of the series. In one of the books they had a Purim play and talked about hamantaschen. I think two of the characters were named respectively Ella and Henrietta? Henny? Something. Either someone's boyfriend or one of the kids, the main characters, went to war but I don't know which war.  Is any of this sparking anyone's memory? Did I hallucinate these books? HELP

[Nick Ink]

There is a series of kids' books that I have been trying to remember the name of for weeks, and I have no idea how to even begin googling it. It was about an immigrant Jewish family, and I think there were five kids, and Family may have been in the title of the series. In one of the books they had a Purim play and talked about hamantaschen. I think two of the characters were named respectively Ella and Henrietta? Henny? Something. Either someone's boyfriend or one of the kids, the main characters, went to war but I don't know which war.  Is any of this sparking anyone's memory? Did I hallucinate these books? HELP

Never heard of them, I must admit, but my googling skills came up with the All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor

[nonotyet]

THAT'S IT

[peacocks]

those are some great googlin skills ya got there

[hannah]

I read all those books, so I can doubly confirm that you are not hallucinating

[G.C.R]

Welp, I am damn bummed that Diana Wynne Jones died. There's a lot of her books that were pretty important to me in my early teens.

[elpollodiablo]

Just finished The Satanic Verses, novel 17 of the semester and the best book I've read this year. Can't wait to re-read White Teeth, now.

[fishjim]

I was working in a chain bookstore when the whole Satanic Verses thing hit, and had to take the book off the shelves because of terror hysteria, which at the time was still unusual, and wasn't exactly hysteria. One of the few stores to keep Verses on the shelves, Berkeley's Cody's Books (RIP), actually got bombed.

I read it then, and loved it, but all I remember is a line from the beginning when the hero's falling to earth and making jokes, "pitting levity against gravity." At 17 I thought that was the cleverest line ever.

[jm]

Dudes, I know I've said this before, but I wicked love that book.  It's super rich, and improves with multiple readings.

[elpollodiablo]

I don't know that I've heard you say it before, actually! I'd love to have a discussion about it, but I think I need another day to recover from the abject terribleness of the discussion in seminar yesterday.

[bethany_m]

I loved the Satanic Verses when I read it, and was very glad that I read it in a very engaged and awesome class in college. I need to reread it.

[RavingLunatic]

Finished reading David Ricardo's On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, which is far and away the dullest economics book I've read yet. I'm planning on reading a book by Rajani Kanth called Political Economy and Laissez Faire: Economics and Ideology in the Ricardian Era, which Chomsky recommended in an old interview of his I was reading a while ago.

Am getting close to finishing this:


I like it quite a bit except for the military strategy bits, which I don't care much about at all, aside from the connections it sometimes has with politics and propaganda. I think I'm going to read several books now about the preiod immediately before and during the Spanish Civil War. I picked up a book called Spain's First Democracy, the Second Republic: 1931-1936 by Stanley Paine for $4 at a used book store today. I've also got a copy of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia that I read years ago but am going to reread and probably get more out of this time. I'll also probably reread Chomsky's writings on the Spanish Civil War and anarchism in American Power & the New Mandarins. Anybody have any good recommendations for Spanish Civil War books? I think Rudolf Rocker wrote a book about anarchism and the war, but I haven't heard much about it.

[jebreject]

I love Homage to Catalonia!

[fishjim]

So do I, so do I. Orwell + guns = goddam.

[RavingLunatic]

So do I, so do I. Orwell + guns = goddam.

Unless you're an elephant.

[fishjim]

So do I, so do I. Orwell + guns = goddam.

Unless you're an elephant.

Especially if you're an elephant. 

[peacocks]

story of the eye update:

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I fear I have reached the point of no return, I read on in short bursts.

[Greg Nog]

Last night:

[coldforge]

Psh. I can tell you anything you need to know about the seven world religions.

[milly balgeary]

Just finished The Satanic Verses, novel 17 of the semester and the best book I've read this year. Can't wait to re-read White Teeth, now.

You jokin bout white teeth right? I ain't been following, if there is some post on back, bout ironic white teeth love. I loathe that book and that writer! I actually don't like Rushdie much but dude can write, even if his personality grinds on me.

[elpollodiablo]

Nope, not joking. I can understand how someone would be anti-Smith; I really dislike all of her subsequent work, but I think that novel is an excellent & important one.

[milly balgeary]

i have it around here somewhere. i was going to throw it away the last time i moved, but at the last minute i gave zadie a mercy. maybe i'll give it to you so you can have 2 copies.