Tag Archives: Books

Books & Reading, Pleasures, Travel

The Function of Train Travel in Books | Book Riot

By Neha Patel, Jan 14, 2022

From article…

I grew up in Los Angeles, which is not exactly known for its public transportation.

My first time on a train wasn’t very romantic, but what it lacked in romance it more than made up for in adventure. The first time I was on a train was in my motherland: India.

And yes, everything you’ve heard about Indian trains being hectic, confusing, and overcrowded is absolutely correct. I honestly don’t even remember how my family found our cabins or even got all of our luggage on before the train screeched to a start.

It was a funny conversation with my classmates once I got back to California. Their eyes were wide and amazed. You were on a train?

Apparently it wasn’t cool to read about the Hogwarts Express, but it was cool to sleep on a train cot in India watching the countryside whiz past and eating chaat handed to me through the window by a vendor while headed to Rajasthan (actually, it was cool).

Source: The Function of Train Travel in Books | Book Riot

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Science & Health

Offbeat | 5 books that made me get out of my own way – The Pitt News

By Jillian Rowan, Staff Writer January 9, 2022

From article…

If there were ever a time to get reading, the start of a new year is it.

Here are five publications, both traditional books and guided journals, that are sure to make 2022 your year for mental, physical and emotional wellness.

1. 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think” is one of my favorite books of all time.

Brianna Wiest’s 2016 publication appropriately comprises 101 essays detailing how to pursue purpose, find peace in the daily routine and discover peace and awareness within you. Wiest, known for her philosophical works, creates literature to realign people’s inner narratives with their higher selves and potential.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Offbeat | 5 books that made me get out of my own way – The Pitt News

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries

The best fantasy and sci-fi books of 2021 – Polygon

From sweeping space operas to deadly, magical schools

By Nicole Clark, Sadie Gennis, and Tasha Robinson, Dec 12, 2021, 10:13am EST

Graphic: James Bareham/Polygon

This year we read tons of books. Whether we bought a hard copies at the local bookstore or checked out audiobooks from a library app, or consumed them via e-reader.

Lots new authors wrote fantastic debuts in 2021, while many of our favorite authors continued their sprawling series — ones we were extremely excited to jump back into.

If you love books then you know: They aren’t just escapism, they also inspire introspection, making us think harder about the world we live in.

This is precisely the promise of great science fiction and fantasy — categories we’ve chosen to consider in a list together, as fantastic books continue to blur the line between the two speculative genres (and besides, we love to read them all). These 20 books span genres and perspectives — from space operas, to Norse mythology retellings, to romances with a dash of time travel.

But all of them gave us something new to consider. In a year with so many incredible choices, it was hard to narrow down the list. So we’ve also included some of our favorite runners up.

Source: The best fantasy and sci-fi books of 2021 – Polygon

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Games, Sports

100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written – The Best Books About Baseball | Esquire

Baseball is the writer’s game, and these indispensable books prove it.

By Alex Belth Nov 30, 2021

From article…

There are more good books written about baseball than any other American team sport—and that’s not just because baseball has been around the longest.

“This ain’t a football game,” manager Earl Weaver once said. “We do this every day.” Through baseball books, we’ve come to understand the game and its history.

The sport is catnip for writers: a game of contemplation and strategy that lends itself beautifully to numbers and analysis as well as poetry.

As longtime Washington Post writer Tom Boswell once wrote, “Conversation is the blood of baseball. It flows through the game, an invigorating system of anecdotes. Ballplayers are tale tellers who have polished their malarky and winnowed their wisdom… this passion for language and the telling detail is what makes baseball the writer’s game.”

Source: 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written – The Best Books About Baseball

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Times They Are A-Changing

Letters: What Ray Bradbury has to teach about banning books – Chicago Tribune

By Chicago Tribune | Nov 29, 2021 at 3:44 PM

Photo by Joy Marino on Pexels.com

In agreeing with the editorial about book banning in school libraries (“Book banning at school libraries blinkers children in the worst way,” Nov. 28), we turn to Waukegan-born Ray Bradbury who wrote “Fahrenheit 451,” the classic novel about firefighters whose job is to start fires — to burn books — not put them out. Bradbury wouldn’t have been surprised that banning books is still in the news. At the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum in Waukegan, visitors including students dive into book banning through an exhibit that honors the novel. It displays banned and challenged book titles submitted by people from all over the country.

Source: Letters: What Ray Bradbury has to teach about banning books – Chicago Tribune

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Politics, Religion & Spirit, Times They Are A-Changing

Robert Bly, Poet Who Gave Rise to a Men’s Movement, Dies at 94 – The New York Times

His most famous, and most controversial, work was “Iron John,” which made the case that American men had grown soft and feminized. It made him a cultural phenomenon

By Robert D. McFadden, Nov. 22, 2021

Robert Bly in 1975. He was a prolific poet, essayist and translator and had been a galvanizing force in the antiwar movement of the Vietnam era. Credit…Gerard Malanga

Robert Bly, the Minnesota poet, author and translator who articulated the solitude of landscapes, galvanized protests against the Vietnam War and started a controversial men’s movement with a best seller that called for a restoration of primal male audacity, died on Sunday at his home in Minneapolis.

He was 94. The death was confirmed by his wife, Ruth Bly. From the sheer volume of his output — more than 50 books of poetry, translations of European and Latin American writers, and nonfiction commentaries on literature, gender roles and social ills, as well as poetry magazines he edited for decades — one might imagine a recluse holed up in a North Woods cabin.

And Mr. Bly did live for many years in a small town in Minnesota, immersing himself in the poetry of silent fields and snowy woodlands.

Source: Robert Bly, Poet Who Gave Rise to a Men’s Movement, Dies at 94 – The New York Times