Author: rrn69

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Can leaders steer the course of history

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American scientist, historian and Pulitzer Prize winner, Jared Diamond poses the big question whether leaders or luck play a greater part in steering the course of history. In Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, Diamond announces at the start that he will pursue a middle path- more realistic than taking one side, but a warning that what follows will fall short of a resounding theory. Researching the life of one striking individual creates a temptation to attribute more influence to them than is justified. Inspired by the rigour of laboratory scientists using controls, he cites as a natural experiment- thrown up by … Continue reading Can leaders steer the course of history

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Cohn’s feistiness, surly defiance and charm of a rogue lawyer

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Roy Cohen is a super-lawyer and political fixed, whose shocking exploits over four decades have shaped the modern political era, most prominently the ascent of Donald Trump. In October 1973, Donald Trump was an ambitious 27-year-old from Queens trying to push his way into the world of Manhattan real estate. He met Roy Cohn, the notorious New York lawyer whose clients included mobsters and celebrities, one evening at the members-only Le Club Restaurant. Trump and his developer father had just been sued by the US government for discriminating against Black people seeking apartments in their properties. Trump asked Cohn “What … Continue reading Cohn’s feistiness, surly defiance and charm of a rogue lawyer

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New Dawn: Imperial wreckage, war’s chaos, and suffering supercharged anti-colonial movements

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Sinologist at the University of Cambridge, Hans van de Ven, in Blood Dawn, complains while Western histories of the second World War, focuses on the events in Europe, the US and the Russia, Asia remains “insufficiently examined, inadequately narrated, and rarely remembered in public discourse”.  In Blood Dawn, he offers a vital corrective restoring the Asian war to its proper place, and tracing the destruction of empires and the emergence of the nation-state in Asia. van de Ven tells the Asian story deftly, including the depression which helped finish off the parliamentary experiment of Taisho democracy in Japan, empowering soldiers for … Continue reading New Dawn: Imperial wreckage, war’s chaos, and suffering supercharged anti-colonial movements

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101 Princesses

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Imagine what New York-based, British writer Jon Ronson did when he received a series of disquieting texts after his 24-year-old son Joel and his friends had been lured to a mysterious castle in the  rural Connecticut (forests of New England) under false pretences late one evening. Ronson Sr. off on an extraordinary adventure into a world of unmoored men on a desperate search for purpose, whatever the cost. Why did the wealthy scion of a gilded age tycoon Jon’s son to his castle on the pretext of a party, when the reality was something else entirely? Could Jon uncover what was … Continue reading 101 Princesses

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Dolly Parton: Her legacy

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Dolly Parton, the country singer from the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, died aged 80 after a brief battle with cancer,  will be remembered for her songs that told beautiful stories so honestly, such as Coat of Many Colors, Jolene and Will Always Love You. In her seven-decade career, Parton won 10 Grammy awards, sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and wrote in excess of 3, 000 songs. Dolly Parton in1980 was filming her first Hollywood movie, 9 to 5, her idea for the tune title song that would become the movie’s theme song. Her guitar was banned from the set, … Continue reading Dolly Parton: Her legacy

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Diana: My Sister….

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In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, a memoir by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer  about his sister Lady Diana Spencer. Diana became the Princess of Wales when she married Charles III, then heir to the British throne. The book published by Michael Joseph an imprint of Penguin Random House, and released simultaneously in the United States and Canada ahead of the 30th death anniversary of Diana in August 2027 and translated into 12 languages. The memoir chronicles their childhood including their upbringing at the Spencer family estate, their parent’s divorce. It examines Diana’s marriage to Charles, her rise to global prominence, her humanitarian … Continue reading Diana: My Sister….

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Aimless rituals and shortlived romances

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Éric Rohmer, the French New Wave’s most prolific and beloved filmmaker’s first and only novel Elisabeth featuring witty banter, lust, ennui and an undercurrent of violence underlie a seemingly paradisiacal summer on the eve of World War II. Fifteen years before completing his first feature film- and ten before beginning a transformative editorial stint at Cahiers du cinema that would usher the journal, and French cinema, into a new era – the man who would become known worldwide as Éric Rohmer published a single novel. Released byÉditions Galimard alongside the early works of Claude Simon and Marguérite Duras, Élisabeth was … Continue reading Aimless rituals and shortlived romances

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Real value of life might lie not in beauty but in ugliness

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Acclaimed author of Outline trilogy (an irresistible novel of fame, power, beauty, and truth- Rachel Cusk’s new novel, is about an unnamed but apparently female author undertakes to write a biographical portrait of her friend, a world  famous actress referred to as M. The film star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time, and her image is everywhere, which has been like that since she was a child. With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the … Continue reading Real value of life might lie not in beauty but in ugliness

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Hope, Anger and Exhaustion – lack of despair causes despair

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Two friends meet in an art gallery after decades of silence. The idealism that once bound them together fissured and fractured under the weight of collective and personal griefs. Through their memories of youthful certainty, the antagonism of their conversation and the embers of their enduring kinship, they navigate the wreckage of our world today- the hope, the anger the exhaustion.Jamaican-American poet and playwright Claudia Rankine best known for “Citizen” (2014), her prize-winning work of prose poetry about black experience in the US, which explored microaggressions, police violence and Serena William’s treatment by tennis officials and exposed the depth of … Continue reading Hope, Anger and Exhaustion – lack of despair causes despair

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Who can survive?

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Scottish Irvine Welsh, by now quite American, after 17 years since the Trainspotting author one-time provocateur-in-chief of the British literary scene first moved stateside to Chicago, home city of his second wife, and since their divorce he has kept a house in Miami. In what ought to be constitutional impossibility, there are times when Donald Trump, recumbent in Mar-a-Lago, is just 70-miles from the man who once wrote that “Whin yir oan Junk, aw ye worry aboot is scorin”. A divided Las Vegas family is forced to confront the past and reckon with a dangerous future, although Trump is seldom … Continue reading Who can survive?