alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

Great if you want to get up to speed on a basic political history of Russia. 3 hours and the narrator talks fast. Covers migration of Slavic peoples into Russia thru 1991, so I was left hanging on more recent events. Deffinately not without a pro-American bias, but still good for the basics.

Such a bittersweet story. I think this belongs on the Christmas classics list because it has an important message about gratitude and contentment in the face of disappointment.

Ultra contemporary and streamlines with discussions currently happening in the visual arts. But you really have to be up on your understanding of pop culture and Blackness to see what is going on here. #sundaypoetry

These modular origami designs are so fun and chill to fold. The book delivers on its promises of getting your brain to slow down. Today I folded a 30-piece sphere and it was perfect to do while listening to an audio book.

None of the folds here are difficult and the instructions are easy to follow. The hard part for me was wrapping my brain around the 3D geometry involved in correctly putting the modules together. A lot of the models are scalable--12, 24, or 30 units--so there is plenty of room to play around.

I would recommend this for math teachers to use as a project or homework, or for origami enthusiasts who would like some awesome modular designs to fold.

Made my eyes misty--such a beautiful thing that happened for a brief night of peace in the midst of WWI.

I am reading this bit by bit on archive.org. As I finish books in the Bible, I read what the commentary says after. This is an essay-style commentary, not line-by-line, and it makes for much better reading. Besides, the content of this commentary is to specifically look at women present (or absent) in the Bible, so it doesn't make sense to do a line reading.

Each essay is written by a different woman, and they necessarily vary quite a bit in their presentation styles. The book introductions provide interesting historical and literary analyses, then the essays diverge into specific women characters in the book, the role or responsibilities of women in the book, or maybe the absence of their responsibilities. For example, the essay on Mark is divided into: women characters shown in a positive light, women characters in a negative light, and women in the Passion story. But the essay on 1 Corinthians goes into a discussion about why there might be a distinction between the groups of women that Paul refers to: unmarried women vs virgins, then moves on to the next chapter, etc.

This commentary is very easy to follow and to browse through. It is meant for the layperson to be able to pick up and grasp quickly. I would recommend it if you are looking for something interesting to ponder while you read the Bible. For people who have grown up in church and find they know the stories so well that it is hard to read with attention, this might be a good tool to get your brain engaged in the text.

45 years later and this book still comes off as relevant in mainstream churches today. Snappy editing, practical, interesting, full of examples. The end of the book has discussion questions for group facilitation but I'm excited to dig into the references like the nerd I am.

Me falaram que o realismo mágico da Ruth Guimarães precede o do Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Infelizmente, a obra seminal dela nunca foi traduzida para outras idiomas (pelo que eu saiba). É uma pena que a autora negra permanece desconhecida pelo mundo afora, e é uma honra conseguir lê-la na sua lingua materna.

Uma honra porque muito da atmosfera da romance vêm da linguagem caipira de Minas, e a história toda é estruturada pela linguagem. Estou imaginando Huckleberry Finn sem sotaque—não dá. Mas essa mesma linguagem me inibiu a entrar totalmente no livro, porque não sou falante native de português e foi muito difícil entender os regionalismos sem uso constante de um dicionário.

Mesmo assim, gostei da romance. Eu falaria que fica mais no lado de um conto de terror porque tem uma espírita que causa destruição nas vidas das personagens.

Para continuar com a minha ideia de sugerir um prato para os livros que leio: baião de dois e uma caipirinha clássica. Eu ia sugerir uma dose de cachaça pura, igual as personagens no livro, mas gente, desculpe, não sou Mineira não.

I appreciated this translation: it's quite modern and slightly abridged to cut down on the repetition a bit. Even so, there is a lot of repetition and circling back. In a way, I'm glad there was so much repetition because it took me over a year of occasional reading to get through it! (thanks to #AxeTheStacks I finally finished it off).

Teresa's personality shines so earnest and true, it is hard to believe that she wrote this nearly 500 years ago. She must have been so full of energy and zest. And her blunt honesty made me smile.