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  • Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
    Recently finished Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson. #1 NYT bestseller published in 2015. My daughter, son-in-law, and wife all read it and insisted that I read it. I have to say that this book impacted me more than any book I can remember in recent years. The author is an attorney that has made a career advocating for the poor and oppressed in our judicial system. The main story in the book is his effort to free a man on death row who was wrongly convicted. Absolutely gripping story. Ironically, it occurs in the hometown of Harper Lee. Atticus Finch has nothing on this guy. Discusses a number of other cases. Eventually he argues a series of cases before the Supreme Court.

    After reading this book:

    1. I am against the death penalty. Too many wrongly convicted people on death row, disproportionately discriminates against black and poor people. Life in prison is an adequate penalty.

    2. I am against kids being tried as adults. I have always hated this practice, now I hate it more after learning that we have often thrown 13-14 year old kids in adult prisons, sometimes with life or death sentences. That is barbaric.

    3. I believe mandatory minimum sentencing is one of the greatest mistakes we have made as a country.

    4. No judge should ever be elected. That leads to a system skewed for long sentences, more death sentences, etc to satisfy our collective lust for revenge.

    God bless Brian Stevenson and his organization.
    I have not read this book, but it is one that I will definitely read.

    I agree completely with all of these points.
    As I lead this army, make room for mistakes and depression
    --Kendrick Lamar

    Comment


    • Malcolm Gladwell’s newest, Talking to Strangers. He looks at the reasons why our communication with others fail, often with disastrous outcomes using well-known and obscure historical examples. Not sure I agree with everything but in general it left me wanting to be better; I interact with people who are in the midst of chaos with uncertainty about how they will be affected. Maybe some improvements from my side could be beneficial?

      Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow’s first-person account of investigating the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. I thought the writing was excellent in dealing with an under-recognized and under-reported issue in the entertainment industry. The lengths people have gone to in trying to intimidate, suppress, and discredit is shocking.
      "You interns are like swallows. You shit all over my patients for six weeks and then fly off."

      "Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. It's my fault for overestimating your competence."

      Comment


      • Originally posted by hostile View Post
        Malcolm Gladwell’s newest, Talking to Strangers. He looks at the reasons why our communication with others fail, often with disastrous outcomes using well-known and obscure historical examples. Not sure I agree with everything but in general it left me wanting to be better; I interact with people who are in the midst of chaos with uncertainty about how they will be affected. Maybe some improvements from my side could be beneficial?

        Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow’s first-person account of investigating the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. I thought the writing was excellent in dealing with an under-recognized and under-reported issue in the entertainment industry. The lengths people have gone to in trying to intimidate, suppress, and discredit is shocking.
        Very interested in both of those books.
        "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
        "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
        "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

        Comment


        • I, too, joined the club and finished Just Mercy over the weekend. A couple of years ago, Bryan Stevenson spoke internally at our company following some incendiary local events and here shared some of the same anecdotes and really opened my eyes. Definitely a powerful book and it's inspiring to see people find a cause and make a real difference.

          Originally posted by Northwestcoug View Post
          Force Alabama out of the US. Maybe throw Mississippi and Louisiana out for good measure also. Seriously, how messed up is their judiciary?

          !
          In case anyone needed another reason to not rot for Bama. I thought the same throughout the book and was left slack-jawed when SCOTUS didn't act on some of the cases. I would, however, like to visit EJI's Legacy Museum. Mrs. PH and i were talking vacation plans for next year and she asked where I'd like to go. I said Alabama and she laughed. Then said, "Wait, are you serious?" She appreciated the further explanation but would still prefer a trip over the pond.
          I have nothing else to say at this time.

          Comment


          • Originally posted by Parrot Head View Post
            I, too, joined the club and finished Just Mercy over the weekend. A couple of years ago, Bryan Stevenson spoke internally at our company following some incendiary local events and here shared some of the same anecdotes and really opened my eyes. Definitely a powerful book and it's inspiring to see people find a cause and make a real difference.



            In case anyone needed another reason to not rot for Bama. I thought the same throughout the book and was left slack-jawed when SCOTUS didn't act on some of the cases. I would, however, like to visit EJI's Legacy Museum. Mrs. PH and i were talking vacation plans for next year and she asked where I'd like to go. I said Alabama and she laughed. Then said, "Wait, are you serious?" She appreciated the further explanation but would still prefer a trip over the pond.
            I just looked up the museum. I'd love to go see that. I have a lab supervisor at work who's from Alabama and is nearing retirement. I might have to call in a solid when he returns to the South.
            "...you pointy-headed autopsy nerd. Do you think it's possible for you to post without using words like "hilarious," "absurd," "canard," and "truther"? Your bare assertions do not make it so. Maybe your reasoning is too stunted and your vocabulary is too limited to go without these epithets."
            "You are an intemperate, unscientific poster who makes light of very serious matters.”
            - SeattleUte

            Comment


            • Oh my god. (While moving in and out of Evans's trilogy on Nazi Germany and Moby Dick), I've fallen upon the most amazing novel, Vernon Subutex 1. I'm so grateful it's the opening of a trilogy. It's like being very young again and not being able to put down the book. Here is the WSJ's review.

              https://www.wsj.com/articles/fiction...es-11572619245

              Reading this hugely entertaining and funny French novel, it's reaffirming how much I dislike just about all contemporary American novels with their didacticism, resentments, and stupid first-world preoccupations. Like fantasies about trees.
              When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

              --Jonathan Swift

              Comment


              • Just finishing Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. 21 hours on audible. I started this many years ago (in print) but got bogged down. It is a bit of a slog, but not too bad.

                Now debating if I want to knock over another classic Russian novel.
                "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
                  Just finishing Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. 21 hours on audible. I started this many years ago (in print) but got bogged down. It is a bit of a slog, but not too bad.

                  Now debating if I want to knock over another classic Russian novel.
                  I would. But I just finished Master and Margarita, and I was disappointed. The imagery was very well done, and there is thematic material throughout against totalitarianism, which is a good thing, but not much else. Like the Book of Revelations, all fantastic imagery and thematic material, and no character development or plot. There are some interesting historical set pieces about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, but not really original, and not enough of this to make it a great novel in my opinion. I wonder if this novel would be considered a classic were it not for the context of its publication and the author's dissidence in the Soviet Union. Probably not.

                  The blurbs and dust jacket are misleading. The novel is not much about The Master and Margarita.

                  The Brothers Karamazov is great. And very funny. War and Peace is my favorite among the Russian novels.
                  When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

                  --Jonathan Swift

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
                    Just finishing Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. 21 hours on audible. I started this many years ago (in print) but got bogged down. It is a bit of a slog, but not too bad.

                    Now debating if I want to knock over another classic Russian novel.
                    If you haven't read Anna Karenina you probably should
                    Dyslexics are teople poo...

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by SeattleUte View Post
                      I would. But I just finished Master and Margarita, and I was disappointed. The imagery was very well done, and there is thematic material throughout against totalitarianism, which is a good thing, but not much else. Like the Book of Revelations, all fantastic imagery and thematic material, and no character development or plot. There are some interesting historical set pieces about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, but not really original, and not enough of this to make it a great novel in my opinion. I wonder if this novel would be considered a classic were it not for the context of its publication and the author's dissidence in the Soviet Union. Probably not.

                      The blurbs and dust jacket are misleading. The novel is not much about The Master and Margarita.

                      The Brothers Karamazov is great. And very funny. War and Peace is my favorite among the Russian novels.
                      Thanks.

                      What about Anna Karenina?
                      "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                      "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                      "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
                        Thanks.

                        What about Anna Karenina?
                        Anna Karenina is a great novel and deserving classic. Everyone should read it. But it's not my favorite Russian novel or Tolstoy novel or classic adultery novel (Madame Bovary is). My critiques of Anna Karenina are on this site in some detail in my exchanges with a poster who has had the hubris to name himself after the insufferable AK character Levin. I think that Anna and her brother Oblonsky are the most interesting and sympathetic characters, but I don't think Tolstoy would agree, nor would most Christians. Anna and Oblonsky are sinners and Tolstoy makes them pay dearly for it. Levin, who scholars speculate was Tolstoy's self-portrait, is supposed to be saintly. But I think he's kind of clueless. For example, he's landed gentry who employs serfs, and pats himself on the back for joining them in the fields for a few hours one day. He's also very judgmental of Anna and Oblonsky, who are the ones in the book I'd actually like to hang out with.
                        When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

                        --Jonathan Swift

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by Jeff Lebowski View Post
                          Just finishing Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. 21 hours on audible. I started this many years ago (in print) but got bogged down. It is a bit of a slog, but not too bad.

                          Now debating if I want to knock over another classic Russian novel.
                          I read that for fun during my college days. Found it very interesting, didn't get bogged down at all.

                          Originally posted by SeattleUte View Post
                          I would. But I just finished Master and Margarita, and I was disappointed. The imagery was very well done, and there is thematic material throughout against totalitarianism, which is a good thing, but not much else. Like the Book of Revelations, all fantastic imagery and thematic material, and no character development or plot. There are some interesting historical set pieces about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, but not really original, and not enough of this to make it a great novel in my opinion. I wonder if this novel would be considered a classic were it not for the context of its publication and the author's dissidence in the Soviet Union. Probably not.

                          The blurbs and dust jacket are misleading. The novel is not much about The Master and Margarita.

                          The Brothers Karamazov is great. And very funny. War and Peace is my favorite among the Russian novels.
                          I returned Brothers Karamazov to the library not having finished it again. Got too bogged down. I'll have to try again later - maybe with a different translation.

                          Originally posted by Flystripper View Post
                          If you haven't read Anna Karenina you probably should
                          I watched the movie a few months ago.
                          "I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
                          - Goatnapper'96

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by Pelado View Post
                            I read that for fun during my college days. Found it very interesting, didn't get bogged down at all.
                            I thought the story was interesting and it kept me engaged. There were places where I thought the author was more verbose than necessary.
                            "There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
                            "It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
                            "Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by Pelado View Post
                              I read that for fun during my college days. Found it very interesting, didn't get bogged down at all.



                              I returned Brothers Karamazov to the library not having finished it again. Got too bogged down. I'll have to try again later - maybe with a different translation.



                              I watched the movie a few months ago.
                              I subscribe to the new Criterion Collection streaming service. I learned that the Soviet Union made a many hours-long War and Peace that many critics and scholars believe is the greatest film ever made. It was made as a Cold War tit for tat. There was a 2-3 hour long War and Peace made in America that won Academy Awards. The Soviet Union got its back up, and deployed an unlimited budget and cast of thousands to make a better War and Peace. The USSR took a huge risk, and succeeded. I haven't been able to finish it yet. It is amazingly faithful to the novel and well acted. The battle scenes spare nothing. They requisitioned museums and genuine old palaces and mansions on estates to make it.

                              This USSR War and Peace hasn't been available for decades until this year.
                              Last edited by SeattleUte; 11-14-2019, 01:08 PM.
                              When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

                              --Jonathan Swift

                              Comment


                              • I just downloaded Lonesome Dove a 31 hour book (580 mb) in ten seconds. I can't believe the speeds we get nowadays.

                                When poet puts pen to paper imagination breathes life, finding hearth and home.
                                -Mid Summer's Night Dream

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