• nevermind@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    I’m reading ‘ The Little Prince’ in Polish and learning a lot of new words.

  • nesc@lemmy.cafe
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    15 hours ago

    Max Kidruk - Colony. The New Dark Ages

    Dunno if it was or ever will be translated into english. It’s a hard sci-fi book about challenges of established and semi-autonomous martian colony and other problems and challenges earth-side. It was great, if a bit longer than I prefer.

    Last english language one was “Matt Dinamon - Dungeon Crawler Carl” great humor, somewhat unexpected story.

  • Hugin@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Algorithms to Live By.

    It takes various well studied problems and applies the solution to common problems. So using the best strategy for the secretary problem to select parking when driving to a popular event.

    It’s ok. Well researched and straightforward. However it spends more time on each problem than the depth it goes into deserves. Plus some of the solutions are only marginally useful.

  • HollowNaught@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Mogworld by Benjamin Croshaw

    7/10, it was fine I guess.

    Ending was good tho, in an uncomfortable kind of way

  • theblips@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Way lower brow than other entries, but I just finished the last Stormlight Archives book that released, Wind and Truth. Pretty on beat character moments and a few unexpected turns. Very cool page turner to settle down in the evening

  • ninjaturtle@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    Finished or current?

    Last finished book was “Oynx Storm”. A book from the Empyrean series. Book was OK, didn’t seem like much happened for such a long book.

    Current reading “Empire of Silence”, book 1 of the Sun eater series. So far not bad. Writing style gets a bit confusing at times, but subject is good. Waiting to see where the story goes.

      • ninjaturtle@lemmy.today
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        1 day ago

        If you are that far into the series already then I say yes. It wasn’t a bad book.

        I just personally felt like not much distinct events happened for such a long book. There are still good parts of the story and twists.

  • unbanshee@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    I reread Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

    Obviously the second time around I didn’t get to experience the same burning curiosity about the setting, nor the joy of piecing things together, but I still really enjoyed it.

    Also currently about halfway through Quinn Slobodian’s Crack-Up Capitalism. Looking forward to his new book in a couple weeks.

  • Palacegalleryratio [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Just read Dubliners by James Joyce. A very interesting series of short stories telling a wider story about Ireland at the time, nationalism, alcoholism, decline, struggle and ambition. Would recommend.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    1 day ago

    Open Veins of Latin America. Finished reading it today. It’s a 1973 book that explains some of the reasons for the massive underdevelopment of Latin American colonies. The general gist can be summed up as “it is a place full of riches, and the colonizers only want to extract everything and send it back to their masters” - that still applied to the industrialization efforts funded by foreign capital.

    Although Spain and Portugal were the nominal masters, they, too, were fucking themselves over with debts to Dutch and English bankers back in 16th and 17th centuries, not to mention bad trade deals, effectively killing their own industries and those of their colonies.

    EDIT: Galeano also exposed a lot of the shady deals made mainly by USA companies with governments in order to “develop” the southern countries, like ensuring that they’d get less taxes, better exchange prices and better credit options, that their goods would only be shipped by USA owned ships, etc. Not to mention that, during 1950-1970, the price of the commodities sold by Latin American countries kept falling (probably growing below inflation) and the income from the exports kept getting lower, despite larger volumes.

      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 day ago

        I enjoyed it, it’s not exactly a light read considering the subject but it’s well paced and tightly written. Its depiction of war and trauma may be triggering for some people.

        Your experience may vary depending on the translation. Most English translations are based on the 1929 translation that made the odd choice of switching German slang and cultural references with rough English equivalents as well as trying to tone down some of the darker parts.

        I read the 1993 translation which tries to be a bit more accurate to the original book, but does do the thing with swapping the slang around which comes across a bit odd especially earlier on where it’s layed on a bit thick imho.

  • pratikgems@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    does it white?

    this was the last one which i read. don’t try to find this book on google because this was written by my previous and previous grandma.

  • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    ‘Death in the City of Light’ by David King. It’s a true crime story about a serial killer in Nazi occupied Paris. Dude would trick Jews into thinking he was smuggling them out, then kill them. Truly diabolical.

  • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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    1 day ago

    I read a book called The Spiritual Tourist by Mick Brown. Very easy read. It’s sort of half a travel story with some great moments and scenes from exotic locations and half an exploration of fringe religion.

    Very enjoyable, although in an effort to remain neutral and open minded in tone he might have given some of the subjects a little too much benefit of the doubt. Still a very fun read, would recommend.