Swing Parade of 1946 is a 1946 musical comedy film directed by Phil Karlson. - starring Gale Storm, Phil Regan, and The Three Stooges.
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Swing Parade of 1946 is a 1946 musical comedy film directed by Phil Karlson. - starring Gale Storm, Phil Regan, and The Three Stooges.
Swing Parade of 1946 is a 1946 musical comedy film directed by Phil Karlson. - starring Gale Storm, Phil Regan, and The Three Stooges.
Monday, January 29, 2024
There's No Business Like Show Business- A 1954 Musical Directed by Walter Lang -Music by Irving Berlin - Starring Ethel Mernan, Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe
There's No Business Like Show Business- A 1954 Musical Directed by Walter Lang -Music by Irving Berlin - Starring Ethel Mernan, Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe
Available on YouTube
The film follows the Donahue family, a vaudeville act turned family troupe called "The Five Donahues." Led by the flamboyant Molly (Ethel Merman) and the stoic Terry (Dan Dailey), their children Katy (Mitzi Gaynor), Tim (Donald O'Connor), and Steve (Johnnie Ray) each navigate their own desires and ambitions within the confines of the family business. The film explores themes of family, ambition, self-discovery, and the allure and challenges of show business.
With music and lyrics by the legendary Irving Berlin, the film boasts an incredible soundtrack. From the title song's infectious energy to the poignant ballad "After You," each number is a testament to Berlin's genius. The film also features spectacular dance routines, showcasing the talents of its star-studded cast.
This film boasts a true ensemble of Hollywood powerhouses:
Ethel Merman: Delivers a powerhouse performance as the strong-willed Molly, commanding the stage and screen with her vibrant energy and vocal prowess.
Donald O'Connor: Known for his athleticism and comedic timing, O'Connor shines as Tim, the tap-dancing son who grapples with his place in the family act.
Marilyn Monroe: In one of her early leading roles, Monroe brings both charisma and vulnerability to the role of Vicky, a nightclub singer who catches Tim's eye.
Dan Dailey: Provides the film with a grounded presence as Terry, the dependable father who struggles to balance his own dreams with the needs of his family.
Mitzi Gaynor: Exudes charm and talent as Katy, the daughter who yearns for a life beyond vaudeville.
Johnnie Ray: Adds a touch of dramatic depth as Steve, the son who chooses a different path, pursuing a life of faith
Despite its lavish production and star power, "There's No Business Like Show Business" was a box office disappointment and received mixed reviews upon release. Some critics praised the musical numbers and performances, while others found the plot melodramatic and the pacing uneven. However, the film has gained a cult following over the years, appreciated for its nostalgic charm, energetic performances, and iconic soundtrack.
I found the plot kind of tedious at times, The three children somehow did not develop well as characters, to me in the best of the musicals I have seen in the last few months the songs are very intergral to the story line, here they seemed just interludes, if not the best part of this film.
Saturday, January 27, 2024
To Be or Not to Be - A 1983 Film Directed by and Starring Mel Brooks with Ann Bancroft - inspired by the 1938 Film by Ernst Lubitsch
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Sold Into Marriage- A 1916 Silent Film Starring Lillian Gish - Directed by Christy Cabanne - 59 Minutes
Sold Into Marriage- A 1916 Silent Film Starring Lillian Gish - Directed by Christy Cabanne
Available on YouTube
Sold for Marriage (1916) is a silent film drama directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Lillian Gish. The film tells the story of Marfa, a young Russian woman who is forced to marry against her will. Marfa is in love with a poor peasant boy named Jan, but her greedy uncle arranges for her to be sold to a wealthy older man named Colonel Gregarioff. Marfa refuses to marry Gregarioff, and she is eventually sent to America, where she is sold to another man. However, Marfa eventually escapes and reunites with Jan.
Sold for Marriage was a popular film in its day, and it helped to solidify Gish's reputation as one of the leading actresses of the silent era. The film is notable for its use of melodrama and its sympathetic portrayal of Marfa's plight. However, the film has also been criticized for its stereotypes of Russians and its simplistic view omarriage
Sold for Marriage is a classic example of the "woman's film" genre, which was popular in the early 20th century. These films often featured strong female characters who were forced to overcome obstacles in order to achieve their goals.
Sold for Marriage is also notable for its use of expressionistic cinematography, which helped to convey the emotional turmoil of the characters.
" Christy Cabanne! He was quite a figure in the early days of Hollywoodp
Who he was:
Multifaceted film industry professional: Christy Cabanne (born William Christy Cabanne) was an American film director, screenwriter, and silent film actor.
Prolificacy: He is considered one of the most prolific directors in American film history, alongside names like Sam Newfield and William Beaudine.
Notable collaborations: He worked as an assistant to the legendary D.W. Griffith and discovered child star Shirley Temple.
His achievements:
Directed over 300 films: His filmography spans various genres, including westerns, comedies, mysteries, and dramas.
Early talkies: He successfully transitioned from silent films to talkies in the late 1930s" from Bard
The Jazz Singer - A 1927 Musical Starring Al Jolson - 1 Hour 29 Minutes
Available on YouTube
Release date: October 6, 1927 (USA)
Director: Alan Crosland
Producers: Jack L. Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck
Awards: Academy Honorary Award
Screenplay: Alan Crosland, Alfred A. Cohn, Jack Jarmuth
Music composed by: Louis Silvers
Box office: 2.6 million USD
First Feature-Length "Talkie": While not entirely a talkie (silent intertitles were still used), it contained synchronized dialogue and singing sequences, marking a major turning point in film history and ushering in the era of sound films.
Impact on the Industry: Its financial success cemented the dominance of sound films and effectively ended the It tells the story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man torn between his family's religious tradition and his passion for jazz music. This cultural clash explores themes of identity, assimilation, and personal ambition.
Family Drama: The film delves into the complicated relationship between Jakie and his father, a cantor who expects him to follow in his footsteps. This emotional conflict adds depth and resonance to the story.
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Oklahoma - A 1955 Musical Directed by Fred Zimmermann - A Rodgers and Hammerstein Production - 2 Hours 25 Minutes
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Florida Founder William P. Duval: Frontier Bon Vivant by James Denham- 2015
A post in honour of the birth anniversary of
Friday, January 19, 2024
Un Chien Andalou (An Andulsian Dog) - A 1929 Film - directed by Luis Buñuel with script cowritten by Salvador Dali - 16 minutes
Available on YouTube with English Captions
Chien Andalou is a 1929 French silent short film directed, produced and edited by Luis Buñuel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Salvador DalÃ. Buñuel's first film, it was initially released in a limited capacity at Studio des Ursulines in Paris, but became popular and ran for eight months.
The film is a series of unconnected images and scenes that explore the subconscious mind and the irrational. It is often shocking and disturbing, and it has been interpreted in many different ways.
One of the most famous scenes in the film is the opening scene, in which a man cuts a woman's eye with a razor.
Other scenes in the film include a man dragging a piano down a street, a woman's hand being covered in ants, and a man being attacked by a swarm of locusts. These scenes are all surreal and disturbing, and they create a sense of unease and anxiety in the viewer.
Un Chien Andalou has been interpreted in many different ways. Some critics see it as a commentary on the irrationality of the human mind. Others see it as a reflection of Buñuel's and DalÃ's own personal obsessions and anxieties.
Luis Buñuel Portolés (22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Buñuel's works were known for their avant-garde surrealism, often infused with political commentary.
Buñuel was born in Calanda, Spain, into a wealthy family. He received a strict Jesuit education, which sowed the seeds of his lifelong obsession with religion and subversive behavior. After moving to Madrid to study philosophy and literature, Buñuel became involved in the Spanish Surrealist movement. In 1929, he collaborated with Salvador Dalà on the short film Un Chien Andalou, which is considered to be one of the most important Surrealist films ever made.
After the Spanish Civil War, Buñuel fled to Mexico, where he made a number of films, including Los olvidados (1950) and El (1952). These films are considered to be masterpieces of Mexican cinema, and they helped to establish Buñuel's reputation as one of the world's leading filmmakers.
In the 1960s, Buñuel returned to Europe, where he made a number of his most acclaimed films, including Viridiana (1961), Belle de Jour (1967), and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). These films are known for their subversive humor, their exploration of taboo subjects, and their challenging and innovative filmmaking techniques.
Buñuel died in Mexico City in 1983 at the age of 83. He left behind a body of work that is considered to be among the most important and influential in the history of cinema.
Some of Buñuel's most notable films include:
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
L'Âge d'or (1930)
Los olvidados (1950)
Viridiana (1961)
Belle de Jour (1967)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Tristana (1970)
The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
This Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
Buñuel's films continue to be studied and admired by filmmakers and film scholars alike. His work has had a profound influence on generations of filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, " From Bard
In time I hope to view all of these films
One interpretation of the film is that it is a metaphor for the sexual act. The image of the man slicing the woman's eye could be seen as a representation of the male penetration of the female. The image of the woman walking down the street with a severed hand in her pocket could be seen as a representation of female castration.
Another interpretation of the film is that it is a commentary on the nature of reality. The film's dreamlike imagery could be seen as a way of exploring the idea that reality is not always what it seems. The image of the cloud cutting the moon in half could be seen as a representation of the fragility of reality.
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Land Without Bread (Las Hur Des) - A 1933 Documentary directed by Luis Bunuel - 30 Minutes
Land Without Bread (Las Hur Des) - A 1933 Documentary directed by Luis Bunuel - 30 Minutes
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Cronus -Directed by Guillermo del Toro- 1993 - His First Feature Film - 1 Hour 29 minutes
Cronus -Directed by Guillermo del Toro- 1993 - His First Feature Film - 1 Hour 29 minutes
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
"Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass" - A Short Story by Carol Shields - included in The Collected Stories of Carol Shields - 2004
'In all of her fiction, Carol Shields excels at character creation. She conjures up a character in a few lines of dialogue, in a pungent authorial aside." Penelope Lively
This year, Buried in Print, a marvelous blog I have followed for over ten years,will be doing a read through of the short stories of Carol I hope to participate fully in this event.
http://www.buriedinprint.com/
"Mrs Turner Cuts the Grass" is the third story by Carol Shields I have so far read, I like her work so much I am planning to do a post on all 60 of the stories in the collection.
This story begins with a 19 year old woman being, in 1930, expelled from the family home for having an affair with a married man. She left her small town birthplace and travelled to New York City.
"The journey was endless and wretched, and on the way across Indiana and Ohio and Pennsylvania she saw hundreds and hundreds of towns whose unpaved streets and narrow blinded houses made her fear some conspiratorial, punishing power had carried her back to Boissevain. Her father’s soppy-stern voice sang and sang in her ears as the wooden bus rattled its way eastward. It was summer, 1930. New York was immense and wonderful, dirty, perilous and puzzling."
The story ends nearly 50 years later, back in her home town, a widow, mowing her yard,
I do not wish to relay much of the plot. Along with her siblings she begins to travel the world. There is an interlude concerning a poet they meet.
The Carol Shields Literary Trust Website has an excellent biography
https://www.carol-shields.com/biography.html
Monday, January 15, 2024
Crimson Peak - Directed by Guillermo del Toro- 2015- Starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, - 1 Hour 59 Minutes
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Hell Boy II: The Golden Army Directed by Guillermo del Toro. - 2008 - Starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair
Hell Boy II: The Golden Army Directed by Guillermo del Toro. - 2008 - Starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair
Hellboy- Directed by Guillermo del Toro - 2004- Starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair - 2 Hours 1 Minute
Hellboy- Directed by Guillermo del Toro - 2004- Starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair - 2 Hours 1 Minute
Available on Dailymotion and HBO Go
Films Directed by Guillermo del Toro I have seen
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
The Shape of Water (2017) - This film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for del Toro. It was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and seven BAFTA Awards.
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Pinnochio (2022)
Hellboy (2004)
Hellboy is based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name. It's a film that blends action, fantasy, and dark humor in a way that's both thrilling and visually stunning.
Set in the present day, the film follows Hellboy (played by Ron Perlman), a red-skinned demon raised by humans and working for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD).
As Hellboy investigates the reappearance of Rasputin, the mystic who summoned him, he uncovers a plot to bring about the end of the world.
He must team up with his allies, the amphibious Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), to stop the forces of darkness.
Hellboy was the first live-action film based on the Hellboy Comics
Del Toro is a longtime fan of the comics and had been wanting to make a Hellboy movie for years.
The film is full of Easter eggs and references for fans of the comics, including appearances of familiar characters like Lobster Johnson and Sammael
Friday, January 12, 2024
City Lights - A 1831 Silent Film Directed by and Starring Charles Chaplin- 1 Hour 21 Minutes
Available on YouTube
"If if only one of Charles Chaplin's films could be preserved, “City Lights” (1931) would come the closest to representing all the different notes of his genius. It contains the slapstick, the pathos, the pantomime, the effortless physical coordination, the melodrama, the bawdiness, the grace, and, of course, the Little Tramp--the character said, at one time, to be the most famous image on earth.
When he made it, three years into the era of sound, Chaplin must have known that “City Lights” might be his last silent film; he considered making a talkie, but decided against it, and although the film has a full musical score (composed by Chaplin) and sound effects, it has no speech. Audiences at the time would have appreciated his opening in-joke; the film begins with political speeches, but what emerges from the mouths of the speakers are unintelligible squawks--Chaplin's dig at dialogue. When he made “Modern Times” five years later, Chaplin allowed speech onto the soundtrack, but once again the Tramp remained silent except for some gibberish." from Roger Ebert
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-city-lights-1931
City Lights (1931) is a silent romantic comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. It tells the story of a lovable tramp, played by Chaplin himself, who falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) and tries to help her regain her sight. Despite being released during the Great Depression, the film is a beautiful and touching story about hope, resilience, and the power of love.
He embarks on a series of hilarious and often dangerous exploits to raise money for her to undergo a sight-restoring operation.
Along the way, he develops a turbulent friendship with a drunken millionaire and faces numerous hardships, showcasing both the comedy and pathos of his life.
Although sound films were already gaining popularity, Chaplin chose to stick with the silent format for City Lights, believing it allowed for a broader emotional palette.
The film's score, composed by Chaplin himself, features the hauntingly beautiful "La Violetera," a leitmotif for the flower girl.
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Battling Butler- A 1926 Silent Film directed by and starring Buster Keaton - 1 Hour 16 Minutes
Alfred Butler (Keaton), a spoiled and pampered millionaire, takes his loyal valet, Snitz Edwards, on a camping trip. Alfred is smitten with a beautiful mountain girl named Sally O'Neil, but her family disapproves of his weakling ways.
In a desperate attempt to impress Sally, Snitz lies and tells her that Alfred is actually "Battling" Butler, a famous boxer. This sets off a chain reaction of hilarious chaos.
Alfred, clueless about the lie, gets entangled in a boxing match against the real Battling Butler, leading to a series of slapstick mishaps and acrobatic stunts.
Through it all, Alfred tries to win Sally's heart while avoiding the wrath of the real boxer and navigating the confusion caused by his mistaken identity.
It was directed by Keaton himself, along with Edward F. Cline.
The screenplay was written by Joseph Farnum and Carl Roberts.
The film was shot on location in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
It was released on September 19, 1926.
Monday, January 8, 2024
Diaghilev's Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World) - by Rupert Christiansen - 467 Pages -2022
Diaghilev's Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World by Rupert Christiansen- 2022 -467 Pages
Sunday, January 7, 2024
"The Rebbetzin’s Sense of Justice" - A Short Story by Lilly Barger -1955? - translated from the Yiddish by Ronnee Jaeger - 2020
Lily Berger
Born December 30, 1916 in Bialistok, Poland
Died November 30, 1996 - Paris
The story is set in a small shetl, we do not really learn precisely where or when it is set. Like many a Yiddish story, it centers on a married couple:
"He was small, skinny, timid, eyes always downcast. She the opposite, big , fullbodied, a Jewish Cossack who tolerated no injustice. A big talker! These were my teachers, Reb Fishel and his wife Khaye.....Behind his back they called him “Fisheleh hunchback,” although he was not a hunchback, merely bent over. And her they called Big Khaye. We, the seven-year-old pupils, called Big Khaye “Rebbetzin.” How two such opposites were brought together, only God in heaven knows. In our shtetl there was a story told that when Fisheleh saw his be- trothed for the first time, under the bridal canopy, he almost fainted from fear. Opinion had it that this first scare pursued him all his life, not because Big Khaye was a miserable or wretched wife, quite the opposite. She had a good heart and could bear no injustice. She protected her husband like a mother hen protects her chicks, as if , without her , Fisheleh Hunchback would, God forbid, have drowned in the waves of life like a leaky ship in the ocean."
The narrator is a seven year old girl enrolled in Reb Fishel's supposedly boys only class. The pupils range from children from rich families to kids who are only given a piece of stale bread for lunch. His wife sees to it that everyone has a decent lunch. She adjusts tuition based on family wealth. She also maintains class room discipline.
The story gave me a good feel for not just the class room but with the mothers as well.
Lili Berger (1916– 1996), born in Malken, Poland, was a prolific literary critic and essayist, novelist, and playwright. She settled in Paris at the end of 1936, teaching Yid- dish and contributing to important periodicals. During the Nazi occupation of France, she was active in the Resistance and was involved in the rescue of Jewish children from deportation. She returned to Warsaw after the war but left in 1968 during the great exodus, returning to Paris and resuming her literary activity until her death in 1995. Her many articles and essays were often about writers and artists, many of whom she had known personally.
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Seven Chances - A 1925 Silent Movie Directed by and Starring Buster Keaton- 59 Minutes
Seven Chances- A 1925 Buster Keaton Film
Thursday, January 4, 2024
The Cameraman- A 1928 Silent Film Directed by Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick- 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Available on YouTube
The Echo and the Nemesis" - A Short Story by Jean Stafford - included in The Complete Short Stories and and Other Writings of Jean Stafford - 2019
Jean Stafford
Born - July 1, 1915 - Covina, California
Married 1940 to 1948 to Robert Lowell . One of three marriages.
She published three novels but most now regarded for her wonderful short stories, most of which were published in The New Yorker or The Psrtisian Review as her Glory.
1970 - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Died - March 26, 1979 - White Plains, New York
Today's story, "The Echo and the Nemesis" is a delightful story. I am quickly becoming enraptured by Stafford's exquisite prose, the brilliant way she incorporates her characters reading life into the stories.
I do not want to give away much of the extraordinary plot of this story. It is set in the late 1930s in Heidelberg, Germany:
"Sue Ledbetter and Ramona Dunn became friends through the commonplace accident of their sitting side by side in a philosophy lecture three afternoons a week. There were many other American students at Heidelberg University that winter— the last before the war— but neither Sue nor Ramona had taken up with them."
The relationship of Sue and Ramona is complex, sometimes seeming like just a convenience, sometimes the core of their lives.
"Soon after the semester opened in October, the two girls fell into the habit of drinking their afternoon coffee together on the days they met in class. Neither of them especially enjoyed the other’s company, but in their different ways they were lonely, and as Ramona once remarked, in her highfalutin way, “From time to time, I need a rest from the exercitation of my intellect.” She was very vain of her intellect, which she had directed to the study of philology, to the exclusion of almost everything else in the world. Sue, while she had always taken her work seriously, longed also for beaux and parties, and conversation about them, and she was often bored by Ramona’s talk, obscurely gossipy, of the vagaries of certain Old High Franconian verbs when they encountered the High German consonant shift, or of the variant readings of passages in Layamon’s Brut, or the linguistic influence Eleanor of Aquitaine had exerted on the English court. But because she was wellmannered she listened politely and even appeared to follow Ramona’s exuberant elucidation on Sanskrit."
Ramona comes from a very wealthy family. She is obsessed by food and extremely heavy. We gradually learn about her parents, brothers and twin sisters.
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Non-fiction Featured in 2023
January
1. The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston - one of the very best works of narrative non-fiction I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. It is a brilliant combination of adventure travel, Meso-American history, contemporary Honduran politics, jungle archaeology, a precis upon tropical diseases, as well as a look about the work and politics of modern archaeology.
2. Caeser:Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy- 2006 - 583 Pages
3. South to America : A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry. - 2022 - 410 pages
National Book Award Winner for Non-Fiction -2022
4. This Torrent of Indians: War on the Southern Frontiers by Larry Ivers - 2016 - 266 Pages
February
1. And There Was Light:Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meachem- 2022- 1268 pages
2. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meachem- 2012- 1196 Pages-
March
1. THE APPRENTICE OF BUCHENWALD THE TRUE STORY OF THE TEENAGE BOY WHO SABOTAGED HITLER’S WAR MACHINE by Oren Schneider- 2023 - 212 Pages
2. The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn- 2006- 530 Pages
3. The 1619 Project : A New Origin Story - created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine. - 2021 - 559 Pages
4. War Diary by Yevgenia Beloruset - 2022- translated from the German by Gregg Nissan offers an explication of this deeply moving memoir of the first 41 days of Russia's attack on The Ukraine.
5. Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racism in America by Ibram X. Kendi - 2016- 582 Pages
April
1. Mr. B : George Balanchine’s 20th century by Jennifer Homans. -2022 - 1234 Pages
On Saturday, May 20, winner of this year's Plutarch Award, presented to the best biography of the year. One of my favourite works of 2023. This book is a masterpiece. If you have been into ballet all your life you will treasure it, if like me, you have never seen a ballet you will be overwhelmed by the extreme cultural depth of the world Jennifer Homans has presented. The cast of characters is immense, fascinating. The story begins in pre-revoluntunary Russia,suffers through the fall of the Tsar,with young George eating rats, lingers for a while then proceeds to Paris, travels in Weimer Germany, spends a bit of time in London then settles in New York City with some interludes in Hollywood.
2. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisted by Vladimir Nabokov - 1947 - 352 pages
"THE present work is a systematically correlated assemblage of personal recollections ranging geographically geographically from St. Petersburg to St. Nazaire, and covering thirty-seven years, from August 1903 to May 1940, with only a few sallies into later space-time." From the Preface
3. How to hide an empire: a history of the greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr.- 2019 - 517 pages
4. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow - 2021- 674 Pages - an instant classic- The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.
6. Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
By Siddharth Kara -January 31, 2023 - 288 Pages
This powerful account of how and why cobalt especially along with other minerals like uranium found almost exclusively in the Congo brought great misery to millions of Congo residents and great wealth to international corporations like Apple and Tesla will shock anyone of integrity who reads it.
May
1. Insurgent Empire : Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent by Priyamvada Gopa - 2019 - 628 Pages
2. In the Forest of No Joy : The Congo-Océan Railroad and the tragedy of French Colonialism by J. P. Daughton. -2021- 368 Pages
3. Apollo’s Angels : A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans- 2010- 1103 Pages
4. The Frequent Troubles of Our Days-The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner - 2021 - 577 Pages - Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
5. Vilna, The End of the Road by Sarah Shimonovitz -2021- 158 Pages - Vilna, the End of the Road is the story of the survival of a mother and daughter from a large Jewish family firmly established in Vilna, who, with the rest of the family, were also destined to be murdered and thrown into the pits at Ponar. The path of suffering began with the deportation of the Jews from their homes to the ghetto, and from there to the killing forest and the death camps. In the dead of the night, the writer boldly and with determination, jumps from the death train into the unknown, into the surrounding horror.
June
1. The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel - 2023 - 624 Pages
The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature.. De Hame details their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge.
The Manuscripts Club provides details about men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years
2. Travellers Through Time- A Gypsy History by Jeremy Harte -2022- 320 This is the only work that focuses on the history of the Gypsies in England. It is a very valuable addition to Romi literature.
3. The World Is Blue:How Our Fates and the Ocean's Are One by Sylvia Earle - 2010- 320 Pages
4.Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze - 2008- 829 Pages - must reading
5. The Ruling Familiies of Rus: Clan, Family and Kingdom by Christian Raffensperger and Donald Ostrowski - 2023- 300 Pages - Pre-Romanav Russian History
July
1. DOCTORS AT WAR:THE CLANDESTINE BATTLE AGAINST THE NAZI OCCUPATION OF FRANCE:by Ellen Hampton-2023
2. The Ruble: A Political History by Ekaterina Anatolʹevna Pravilova -2023- 435 pages - I highly recommend this work to anyone with a serious interest in pre-revoluntunary Russian History.
3. Paper Bullets - Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis - 2021 - 326 Pages by Jeffrey Jackson is the first book to tell the history of an audacious anti-Nazi campaign undertaken by an unlikely pair: two French women, Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, who drew on their skills as Parisian avant-garde artists to write and distribute “paper bullets”—wicked insults against Hitler, calls to rebel, and subversive fictional dialogues designed to demoralize Nazi troops occupying their adopted home on the British Channel Island of Jersey. Devising their own PSYOPS campaign, they slipped their notes into soldier’s pockets or tucked them inside newsstand magazines.
4. The Written World : the Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization by Martin Puchner.- 2017 - 567 Pages
This is a wonderful book for anyone who wishes to increase their understanding of how, from the days of Gilgamesh up to Harry Potter, literature has shaped society as much as the reverse.