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One Idiom a Day: Chinese Wisdom in Stories
塞翁失马，焉知非福（Sàiwēng shī mǎ, yān zhī fēi fú） “Sai Weng lost his horse. Who knows if it may not turn out to be a good thing?” During the Warring States period, an old man lived near the northern border of China. People called him Sai Weng .
By Frances Gao18 days ago in BookClub
Notes On A Nervous Planet
Introduction One of the first Matt Haig books was this I am covering this book on my blog, but I have a feeling that I will soon finish it. It is a small book with large print and lots of white space, making it very easy to read, and I needed something less taxing after Simon Singh's "The Code Book" (which is excellent and you can check out here:
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred about a month ago in BookClub
“Deadheaded” Newly Released!
Disclaimer: book reviews are not my forte… this only the second I’ve attempted. Apologies to Poppy in advance! I freely admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this book… which is definitely no reflection on Poppy’s writing skills.
By Angie the Archivist 📚🪶2 months ago in BookClub
Why Andy Serkis Is Wrong: The Shire, Middle-earth, and the Myth of Whiteness in Tolkien's World
Andy Serkis said, when asked by the BBC why the announced cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is, so far, entirely white, that the cast so far is Jamie Dornan, Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Winslet, Lee Pace and Leo Woodall, alongside Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen returning, to the question, the film’s director gave this answer:
By Josh Clements3 months ago in BookClub
Mary Oliver's Tips For Writing Poetry
When I walked into my local bookstore and stumbled across this thin, tangerine and cream-colored guide, I was immediately compelled to buy it. I didn’t bother flipping through the pages. I knew Oliver’s name from her poetry collections Upstream and Dream Work .
By Kera Hollow3 months ago in BookClub
MILITIAMAN'S ROMANCE -- new prose (by Zakhar Prilepin) [beginning of first story/part]
He recently got a white "Lada 5" vehicle. Life turned out strangely, as if he hadn't prepared for class, woke up in a bad mood because of it, and then dragged himself toward school through the gray snowy slush, stomach churning; when classmates shouted to him from the far side of the street, he pretended not to hear; a hundred yards before the school he slipped into a courtyard and decided to skip the day, but even that went badly -- he drifted aimlessly through the city; the satchel on his back seemed to grow heavier by the hour; his shoulders ached; his shoes were soaked; he was hungry, bored, miserable; with no money in his pockets, he searched the ground near some out-of-the-way shops and finally spotted a coin -- for a moment he felt lucky; then another truant appeared, a boy just like him, only two heads taller, without a satchel, with drooling thick lips and a sly grin; "That's mine;" he said, "I dropped it -- give it here;" so he surrendered the slippery fifty kopeks that had briefly promised tea and a meat pie; later he stood behind a bus shelter, staring into the darkness for a long time, stunned by humiliation; snowflakes landed in his eyes; nearby, a man and a woman carried on some impossible conversation, neither hearing a word the other said -- as though both of them were deaf; he delayed going home, knowing his mother was sick; by the time he finally arrived, freezing and so hungry that nausea washed over him in waves, she was beside herself with worry; school had been cancelled that day, it turned out, -- she had waited for him from morning until evening and had even cooked a chicken for him, -- but since he never came home, his older brother had eaten it all, leaving only the neck and a mangled wing.
By ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR3 months ago in BookClub
Dubai-it: The Work Philosophy That Changed Everything
Google it. Uber it. Each one got there the same way. Not through a campaign. Through performance. They did what they said they would, faster and better than anyone expected, until people stopped describing the action and just named the thing.
By Sarath Menon4 months ago in BookClub
