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Book Club

I thoroughly enjoyed the book club of the brown women authors. One woman dominated the discussion and I didn't find her quite as insightful enough to do that, seem more of a need on her part. The women who attend regularly didn't seem too put out by it, and were polite. I felt quite fond of these women. Another man joined late, younger, perhaps somewhere from the Asia minor may, couldn't exactly place his accent, he snuck out before I could ask him.  The next book they chose was The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali. I don't really see Iran as brown colored people, but it's a brown women writer book club. I talked about it with my close Iranian friend, who I've talked to almost every day the past 3 years, except for the months when the Iranian government cut off internet access due to the war. He does see himself as brown. There's plenty of non-white women authored books and they deserve attention. The brilliant woman who leads the group is black, and I ...
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Eugène Ionesco

Someone referenced  Eugène Ionesco  (1909-1994) in their review of Digger, an interesting film out this year, and I realized I needed to experience him.  So I watched a play of his and read it: The Bald Soprano. Then I saw it live, and it was wonderful. I watched the 1974 movie Rhinoceros.  The Bald Soprano has been running continuously since 1958 at Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris, and claims to hold the world record for the longest-running play in the same theatre. Links The Bald Soprano YouTube Rhinoceros YouTube Interview of Ionesco dubbed into English YouTube . It sounds a bit weird. 
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Saara El-Arifi

Saara El-Arifi wrote Cleopatra (2026). Now I'm not one to chase Cleo, though I have quite enjoyed Shakespeare's Cleopatra and Antony . I have read some history on her, and I do like things set in Egypt.  I like  Hatshepsut after going to the Met Museum, and read the wonderful book by Kara Cooney . I loved her book on what we know from archaeology, and what we can speculate wisely about based on an expert, and what we don't know. I felt her book had epistemic character, and telling the truth and being epistemically transparent is important to me now. I even like Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, looking at the old monuments along the river. I know I'm casting a wide net, too wide of a net, but it's become a category in my head.  I want to get that all out into the world so I don't force it on people in the book club. I'm blasting through this book because the book club is coming up soon, and I'm determined to go to a black and brown women's book...
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Luminous by Silvia Park

Already fascinated, reading Luminous by Silvia Park, by an imaginary future Bodhisattva called the Buddha of the Miasma . I'm not even sure what miasma is, but it was pretty big in Hellenism, the idea that is kind of putrid fog would pass diseases on. Like things that smelled bad would cause sickness. We know it's germs or fleas or whatever now, but it's possible that the smelly vapor had germs or fleas sometimes. Today it's mostly used as a metaphor for despair. Korea has a strong Buddhist culture, they have the two best Buddhist movies ( Mandala (1981) and Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall ... Spring (2001)). It's just a detail in this sci-fi novel, that is also a police procedural, and a family novel, three in one.  Ms. Park teaches in Kansas and lives in Korea when she's not teaching.  Notes on things I've learned, had to look up: There is a shopping center in New Zealand called Silvia Park.  Joseon architecture (1392–1910) is defined by simplicity, balan...
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The pile

This week I'm reading my pile, not focusing on one book, moving on when I get tired of what I'm reading. I start my day with Blind Owl by  Sadeq Hedayat . A surreal, dark, and cyclical novella about a pen-case painter caught in an opium-induced state of alienation, heartbreak, and madness. Reread some of Meeting The Buddhas by Vessantara on the Vajrasattva sadhana, and he pulls up short, you need a teacher to get this full sadhana. This is a book for understanding Tibetan Buddhism and the panoply in their mythology, which you can use to supercharge your understanding of Buddhism. Rereading Boundless Heart by Christina Feldman. It's not a robot's disinterest, it's human not getting too caught up on the results. Sort of the opposite of capitalism that measures and expects and demands profits. She doesn't say that, I'm riffing off her. She dwell in the brahma viharas of metta, karuna, mudits and upeksha.  Reading  Itivuttaka for the first time. It's a s...
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Platform Decay

The 8th MurderBot novel by Martha Wells is another entry into this fine series of books at a security unit that isn't all machine, and also isn't all human. It has organic parts and looks mostly like a human. And yet it's pure killing machine, designed to keep it's assets alive, get them out of dangerous situations in a science fiction future where corporations are at war with each other, and do dastardly thing.  There's an Apple tv show that is okay, based on it. It kind of shows that a minimalist non-human narrator can run an action novel. Many of the 8 are pretty short, which is good. Does it's constant risk assessment tell us about our present? Does it's ruthless focus on saving individual lives tell us something?
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Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

  That this won the Nebula, Hugo and AC Clarke awards, a first, doesn't mean it's necessarily the best scifi novel.  From St. Louis Missouri, she studied with Octavia Butler. There are 3 novels and 3 spinoffs from the same universe.  I like it so far.
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