Eva

Pomerantsev spent a decade immersed in the Russian TV industry, making documentaries about characters of the new Russia. Glitz, fairytales, scandals, corruption, money, money, money. There are the documentaries that make it to air as they are sure to keep the public and the government happy, and then there are the documentaries that won't get greenlit when sudden anti-government plotpoints turns up. He leads us into the Gold Digger academy, where young pretty Russian girls learn how to snatch themselves an oligarch. We go to Siberia to meet the Russian gangster who finances and films his own movies. There are the TV executives who fall in and out of favor with the Kremlin, and the company owner who suddenly is imprisoned and disowned when certain chemicals in cleaning products are suddenly declared ‘narcotics'. Everyone plays a part, and the better you playact, the richer you will get. As long as you pay all the bribes along the way. And all along, the state propaganda ramps up, feeds more and more anti-West sentiments, and keeps the public happy and occupied showing quacksalvers and hypnotists on TV. What a portrait of a nation (the part of the nation that's on TV and has all the money). His follow-up book feels like the logical progression: [b:This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality 41717504 This Is Not Propaganda Adventures in the War Against Reality Peter Pomerantsev https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545380013l/41717504.SY75.jpg 65073585].

Our economy is stuck on models and graphs that were created ages ago, when straightforward capitalism and endless growth were the only goal we could imagine. But now we know more, we know that excessive growth depletes and destroys our planet´s natural resources, and we know that countries don´t need to experience extreme inequalities to climb towards success. Raworth understands the power these outdated models still have on today´s world of finance and politics, and proposes new models instead that are guidelines on how to rethink, rebuild and escape the social and environmental traps we have landed in. Raworth draws on [a:Donella H. Meadows 307638 Donella H. Meadows https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1592011479p2/307638.jpg]´s system thinking and suggests we should simply reset the goals instead of tweaking the parameters of our economy. GDP is an outdated model of measuring the success of a nation. We need to take human, cultural and environemtal values into account as well. The book ends on a fascinating and divisive debate: Is green growth possible or do we need degrowth in order to stabilize our world, to build an economy with regenerative and distributive principles. What would a society on a growth-plateau look like? Even if we measure growth with non-monetary values, would humanity be satisfied without a constant striving to go higher, achieve more?[a:Mazzucato Mariana 19431854 Mazzucato Mariana https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is also frequently quoted, and if I had a vote I´d make these women redesign the global economy.

A love story set in British private schools and across the battlegrounds of WWI. Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt, dashing dapper private school boys, constantly reciting poetry and reading Greek epics, are secretly in love. When one of them feels pressured to enlist for England before his time, the other follows shortly behind. What follows are many heartbreaks, of what war does to young bodies and minds.

I feel like I read several books with different tonalities. First we're experiencing the angst of forbidden gay schoolboy crushes (honestly kind of shocked how accepted sexual abuse between the boys seemed to be at those times) with lingering fears and dreams of heroics on the battlefield. Then the cruel No Man's Land reality of WWI is pure tragedy and heartbreak. Followed by suspiciously jolly adventures of a few of the former schoolmates attempting to escape German prisoner-of-war camps while rereading Adam Bede again and again (I had to laugh out loud several times at the continuous Adam Bede jokes). Followed by a final sombre act that makes it very clear how war produces broken men that never can fully heal.

Tonal differences asides, I enjoyed them all, and didn't mind at all how expertly they toyed with my emotions. Winn's writing of the schoolboy charm made me chuckle a lot, and the audio narration was quite excellent as well.

I really liked the book for its social critique at the start and I admired how bonkers it went at the end, and yet I felt adrift in the middle where the book kept the reader guessing as to which way it would turn while stalling with too many mundane rituals and thoughts. This might be one of those, where I like the concept more than some of the execution.

Il me fallut jusqu'a la derniere page de cette trilogie pour comprendre que les noms Claus et Lucas etaient des anagrammes!

Le troisieme mensonge est le dernier episode de la saga des jumeaux, et c'est une histoire de mensonges que nous racontons afin de survivre et de nous proteger ou proteger les autres. Nous entendons un point de vue different sur la vieu des jumeaux et cela contraste intelligemment avec nos souvenir de ce qui a precede.

Les phrases court and l'ecriture directe de Kristof continuent d'etre parfait pour mes exercises de lecture en francais. Dommage que j'ai fini toute la trilogie maintenant.