Wordless Wednesday ~ Daily Walk

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Politics

 

Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post. I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Politics.

Politics is always an interesting topic and we should read a smuch about it as we can. I have chosen the last books I read about politics. I can recommend them all.

Clinton, Hillary Rodham "What Happened" - 2017

Harris, Kamala "107 Days" - 2025

Keefe, Patrick Radden "Say Nothing. A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" - 2018

Lanschot, Reinier van "We are Europe" (NL: Wij zijn Europa: een nieuw Europees verhaal) - 2024

Mak, Geert "The Dream of Europe. Travels in a Troubled Continent" (NL: Grote verwachtingen. In Europa 1999-2019) - 2019

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📖 Happy Reading! 📖

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Ephron, Nora "Scribble Scribble"

Ephron, Nora "Scribble Scribble. Notes on the Media" - 1978 

I love Nora Ephron and must have read every novel she ever wrote. And some of her non-fiction publications. A while ago, I read "Crazy salad. Some things about women" which was written in the Seventies, at a time where we had no internet and not as much information about what was going on across the pond as it is now.

Same as in that book, we find articles she wrote for a magazine, this time Esquire. I have never seen that publication and I didn't know many of the celebrities or newspapers or events she writes about. But she has such a lovely way of writing, you want to dig into all those stories and find out what the background was, though she does give quite some information about that already.

So, if you like Nora Ephron, you might want to pick up this book. If you haven't read anything by her, I suggest you start with one of her wonderful novels (see here).

There would be a lot of quotes I could put here, but I just leave it with three:

About "People" magazine:
"A celebrity is anyone People writes about; I know the magazine is filling some nameless, bottomless pit of need for gossip and names but I haven't got room in my life for so many lights."
Nothing seems to have changed here.

About two of my least favourite authors (Capote and Kerouac)
"Russell Baker: Capote's famous comment on Kerouac - that's not writing, it's typing."
I could say that for both of them but I will remember this quote the next time I come across a book like this.

About "Gourmet" magazine:
"I don't actually read it. I sort of look at it in a fairly ritualistc manner." 
I love cook books and cooking and baking magazines. And I think it's that same for me, I just love looking at the recipes and imagine I would make them all. Mind you, I usually try a few of the recipes

Book Description:

"Twenty-five tussles with the American media and its various faults and glories reveal an incisive journalist's dislike of such episodes as Haldeman on CBS and the New York Magazine takeover and her passion for such gifts as Upstairs, Downstairs and the Double-Crostic.

This volume is a collection of the columns the author wrote for Esquire magazine from 1975 to 1977. Her subject was the media, especially print journalism."

Steinbeck, John "Travels with Charley"

Steinbeck, John "Travels with Charley. In Search of America" - 1962

I have always loved the books by John Steinbeck. Until I read "Cannery Row". But that didn't keep me from reading more books by him and when our 1961 Club came up and I found there was one book by him, I chose that immediately. Unfortunately, I had just finished it when I found out that this book was published in 1962 (although it was probably written in 1961). Well, I couldn't finish another one in a day or two, so this will have to do with my contribution to this challenge (but I will read another one later and put a link here).

But I am more than happy that I read this book because it brought back John Steinbeck to me and the way I have always loved his literature.

While I am not a big fan of campervans or camping as such, I enjoyed following the author and his dog Charley through the United States. I doubt I will ever get there but in a way, I have the feeling I have now. He says himself towards the end that "… I have not intended to present, nor think I have presented, any kind of cross-section so that a reader can say, 'He thinks he has presented a true picture …' I  don't. I've only told what a few people said to me and what I saw. I don't know whether they were typical or whether any conclusion can be drawn." I think that is the best anyone can try to do and I am glad we could accompany him on this trip.

He also mentions "I like weather rather than climate." That is one great quote and I couldn't agree more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

And if you think there are better books about travels through the USA, please, let me know.

Book Description:

"To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers."

John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Book Quotes

"And if anyone objects that they are not worth all that effort, I will cite Cioran (not a classic, at least not yet, but a contemporary thinker who is only now being translated into Italian): 'While the hemlock was being prepared, Socrates was learning a melody on the flute. What good will that be to you?, he was asked. At least I will earn this melody before I die.'" Italo Calvino in "Why Read the Classics?" (IT: Perché leggere i classici?)

Italo Calvino has some of the best quotes about reading. And this one could be relating to a lot of things (like learning a melody) but it certainly is valid for reading.

"That Moment as You’re Reading a Book When You Realize… 'Hey I’ve already been doing that.' That’s when you know you’re on the right track." Johnny Hamilton

Happens a lot. And it reminds me of a quote by Kathleen Kelley (Meg Ryan) in You've Got Mail: "So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?" I'm not sure about that, I like it both ways.

"Writers. Unsungs Gods for they are the creators of worlds." N.N.

They sure are. I just would like to know who said this first. If you know, please, tell me.

Find more book quotes here.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Dawn Redwood

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Religion

  

Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post. I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.

Meeghan had to take some time out, but luckily, she's back and has given us new topics.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Religion.

I have read quite a few books about religion, all kinds of religion. So, I tried to list some books about different ones.

Brooks, Geraldine "People of the Book" - 2008

Buddha "The Dhammapada" (Sanskrit: धम्मपद) - ca. 300 BC 

Harari, Yuval Noah "Sapiens. A Brief History of Mankind" (Hebr.: Ḳizur Toldot Ha-Enoshut/קיצור תולדות האנושות) - 2014

Mahfouz, Naguib "Children of Gebelawi" (aka Children of our Alley; arab: اولاد حارتنا Awlād ḥāritnā) - 1959

Schaik, Carel van & Michel, Kai "The Good Book of Human Nature: An Evolutionary Reading of the Bible" - 2016

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📖 Happy Reading! 📖

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