Ignacio M từ Güzelhisar/Erzurum, Turkey

ignms

05/03/2024

Dữ liệu người dùng, đánh giá và đề xuất cho sách

Ignacio M Sách lại (10)

2019-10-26 17:30

Tuyển Chọn Những Bài Văn Miêu Tả Lớp 2 Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi:

There are several homages pointed out in the historical note for this book, and a number of throwaway allusions that aren’t mentioned (notably the two doctors named “Kibbles” and “Bitts,”) but what I most noticed was a drawing room comedy style that made me think of writers like Oscar Wilde. It’s actually a bit exhausting at first, so many bon mots and dry turns of phrase, and I wondered how well it would hold up for an entire romance. Luckily the style calms down a bit when our heroine Linnet meets our hero Piers... or actually, calm down isn’t the right term at all. Because sparks definitely fly. James made the most unexpected things work for me in this book. Historical anachronisms seemed charming; the bickering couple were delightfully engaged in an offbeat flirtation. This is one of those lovely, all too rare romances where the main characters spend lots of time together. For much of the book, Linnet wakes up to find Piers perched on her bed, poking at her things with his cane or dripping hot chocolate on her face, in a wonderfully friendly-enemy sort of way. (This improbable scenario in a historical romance is somewhat more plausible in context.) I won’t bother going into the plot, but amongst all the other homages, the most obvious one of all -- to “Beauty and the Beast” -- seemed very weakly drawn and pointless at first. But James had a surprise in store, and I absolutely loved it. This was an unique and uniquely engaging story. I keep thinking of a review of Robin McKinley (though not, unfortunately, of one of her two “Beauty and the Beast” rewrites): "Any book that, at one point or another, reminded me of The Sheikh, Gunga Din, Islandia, and The Lord of the Rings can't be anything but a true original." Come to think of it, any book that reminds you of "House," dogfood commercials, and Oscar Wilde could easily be the worst book ever written. Happily, it’s not.

2019-10-26 18:30

Công Chúa Sắc Màu (Tập 2) Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi:

Sounds dull, doesn't it? But it's not. I borrowed this book because I was hoping it would shed some light on why the Japanese Occupation and transition to democracy apparently went smoothly, while the Iraq adventure, clearly, has not. However, the introduction, about the prosecution of the war, which I had planned to skip, turned out to be so interesting that I read it (1/3 of the book) in a single evening. Australia was keen to assert its role as an independent nation in WW2 and was alert to the slightest implication that she was being treated as a colony. Under Fadden, Curtin and then Chifley, with Foreign Minister Evatt, they repeatedly demanded the right to control Australian troops, insisted that they be deployed as an undivided unit, and made a grand fuss about representation at the Yalta & Potsdam Conferences. That Britain was fighting for her survival and needed to deploy troops as needed seems not to have been considered; that meeting Australian demands would have set a precedent for all the other Commonwealth nations which would have been absurd seems to have cut no ice at all. Churchill was undoubtedly arrogant, and there was the weight of foolish and disastrous decision-making in WW1 to be overcome, but the Allies must have become very tired of Australia yapping at their heels like a terrier. When it came to the Pacific War, things got worse, culminating in Curtin's famous speech orientating Australia to look for help to the USA. But the implication is that Britain just abandoned Singapore out of caprice, arrogance and incompetence, and while there may have been all three, there were also precious few resources left to spare. Was it unreasonable for Britain to have considered Australia expendable, if it were too stretched militarily and financially, to take on Japan? Of course, as we all know now, Japan had no plans to invade Australia and Churchill rightly scoffed at the idea. But the struggle for PNG and our Malaysian and Indonesian neighbours must been a bit rattling to say the least, and the bombing of Darwin, while intended only to knock out the allied fleet and airforce, only confirmed Australian fears. What did the Americans think? The book doesn't tell us. Other things I found surprising: in the chapter called 'The Parties Principal' Davies compares the relative contributions of the Allies, in support of his argument that Australia should have had more of a say in the (political) spoils of war. They punched well above their weight... I wrote pages about this book in my journal. It really is very good reading for anyone interested in the role of smaller nations when the big players are moving the chess pieces around the globe.

Người đọc Ignacio M từ Güzelhisar/Erzurum, Turkey

Người dùng coi những cuốn sách này là thú vị nhất trong năm 2017-2018, ban biên tập của cổng thông tin "Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn" khuyến cáo rằng tất cả các độc giả sẽ làm quen với văn học này.