Books 9 & 10 - 2015
Book 9: Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton - 596 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
'All of us face hard choices in our lives,' Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the centre of world events. 'Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.' In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the Unites States Senate. To her surprise, her formal rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had to decide how to repair fractured alliances, wind down two wars and address a global financial crisis. They faced a rising competitor in China, growing threats from Iran and North Korea, and revolutions across the Middle East. Along the way, they grappled with some of the toughest dilemmas of US foreign policy, especially the decision to send Americans into harm's way, from Afghanistan to Libya to the hunt for Osama bin Laden. By the end of her tenure, Secretary Clinton had visited 112 countries, travelled nearly one million miles and gained a truly global perspective on many of the major trends reshaping the landscape of the twenty-first century, from economic inequality to climate change to revolutions in energy, communications and health. Drawing on conversations with numerous leaders and experts, Secretary Clinton offers her views on what it will take for the United States to compete and thrive in an interdependent world. She makes a passionate case for human rights and the full participation in society of girls, youth and LGBT people. An astute eyewitness to decades of social change, she distinguishes the trendlines from the headlines and describes the progress occurring throughout the world, day after day. Secretary Clinton's descriptions of diplomatic conversations at the highest levels offer readers a masterclass in international relations, as does her analysis of how we can best use 'smart power' to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world - one in which America remains the indispensable nation.
Thoughts:
So I am studying International Relations at a Masters level, which stemmed out of an increasing interest in politics, particularly American politics (which itself probably stemmed out of my increasing love for the United States, though after spending seven weeks there over Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years 2015/16, I am thrilled to be back home in my humble little far-away island home of Australia (the food’s better!)). Anyway, I am probably more a Democrat in my political leanings, though I can see the merits of the core ideas behind the Republican Party (just don’t engage me in a conversation about the comparison between Australian and American political parties - if I have to explain to one more Australian why our Liberal party is not the same as the Republican Party I will scream!). Anyway, I have to admit, I’m hoping for a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016, for reasons many and varied, and I’ve always been a fan of good old cheeky Bill (I have his biography too!), and after seeing this book on the bookshelf of a lecturer I respect from the university I work at, I decided I should read it. It took me a good six months to slog through it, but it was an interesting experience. Part exercise in writing history, part political spin, part education piece to a market that already knows and another that will never read the book anyway (she literally has to explain that Australia (and the whole Southern Hemisphere) has summer when the Northern Hemisphere has winter - how do people not know this?!), this is an interesting piece of non-fiction. Hillary has put her own spin on things, ensuring she comes out relatively clean (not too clean, because that would look suspicious), and in writing a book clearly aimed at justifying herself to the American public, shows international readers why America can often rub the rest of the world up the wrong way (Freedom and democracy aren’t unique to America, FYI). Nonetheless, I learnt a lot about international political events, and understanding Hillary’s view helped me understand why certain events have attracted certain reactions. I will also say that I was consistently impressed by Hillary’s work ethic, passion for the public sector, and drive. I think books like this one are important, as are reading books from other varied view points on the events described, in order to ensure one never goes along with the public discourse purely due to lack of knowledge. I also think it’s a book one should definitely go into with a very open and critical mind - not because anything Hillary says is inherently wrong, but simply because one must always be conscious of bias. One of my most important reads for the year. A worthwhile slog.
9 / 50 books. 18% done!
2999 / 15000 pages. 20% done!
Book 10: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the Thirteenth: The End by Lemony Snicket - 324 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Like an off-key violin concert, the Roman Empire, or food poisoning, all things must come to an end. Thankfully, this includes A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The thirteenth and final installment in the groundbreaking series will answer readers most burning questions: Will Count Olaf prevail? Will the Baudelaires survive? Will the series end happily? If there s nothing out there, what was that noise? Then again, why trouble yourself with unfortunate resolutions? Avoid the thirteenth and final book of Lemony Snicket s international bestselling series and you’ll never have to know what happens.
Thoughts:
Alas, I find myself at the final Series of Unfortunate Events book. It’s been a long slog over a good five years, but I finally made it. Boy, this story did not pan out how I thought it was. I think I genuinely thought the name was a misnomer and things would turn out fortunate in the end. Spoiler Alert: they don’t! Well, not really. It’s a very wistful, melancholic kind of ending, that seems to elude to a sort of resigned acceptance of the fact that people are neither good nor bad, only corruptible and unwilling to fight the status quo. Now that its over, I’m not really sure if I know how I feel about the series as a whole. It’s an interesting read, but perhaps not one I would otherwise imagine should be targeted at children, if it hadn’t have had children/young adult protagonists. Would I recommend it? No, probably not. Would I discourage readers from it? No, probably not. It’s a strange kind of series that ultimately feels like it’s about nothing much at all. Then again, maybe that’s not a bad message for kids! A series that ends as enigmatically as it begins.
10 / 50 books. 20% done!
3323 / 15000 pages. 22% done!
Currently reading:
- Work’s Intimacy by Melissa Gregg - 198 pages
- The Rise of the Creative Class: Revisited by Richard Florida - 465 pages
- Guernica by Dave Boling - 368 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson - 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer - 324 pages
- Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich - 301 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
'All of us face hard choices in our lives,' Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the centre of world events. 'Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.' In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the Unites States Senate. To her surprise, her formal rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had to decide how to repair fractured alliances, wind down two wars and address a global financial crisis. They faced a rising competitor in China, growing threats from Iran and North Korea, and revolutions across the Middle East. Along the way, they grappled with some of the toughest dilemmas of US foreign policy, especially the decision to send Americans into harm's way, from Afghanistan to Libya to the hunt for Osama bin Laden. By the end of her tenure, Secretary Clinton had visited 112 countries, travelled nearly one million miles and gained a truly global perspective on many of the major trends reshaping the landscape of the twenty-first century, from economic inequality to climate change to revolutions in energy, communications and health. Drawing on conversations with numerous leaders and experts, Secretary Clinton offers her views on what it will take for the United States to compete and thrive in an interdependent world. She makes a passionate case for human rights and the full participation in society of girls, youth and LGBT people. An astute eyewitness to decades of social change, she distinguishes the trendlines from the headlines and describes the progress occurring throughout the world, day after day. Secretary Clinton's descriptions of diplomatic conversations at the highest levels offer readers a masterclass in international relations, as does her analysis of how we can best use 'smart power' to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world - one in which America remains the indispensable nation.
Thoughts:
So I am studying International Relations at a Masters level, which stemmed out of an increasing interest in politics, particularly American politics (which itself probably stemmed out of my increasing love for the United States, though after spending seven weeks there over Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years 2015/16, I am thrilled to be back home in my humble little far-away island home of Australia (the food’s better!)). Anyway, I am probably more a Democrat in my political leanings, though I can see the merits of the core ideas behind the Republican Party (just don’t engage me in a conversation about the comparison between Australian and American political parties - if I have to explain to one more Australian why our Liberal party is not the same as the Republican Party I will scream!). Anyway, I have to admit, I’m hoping for a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016, for reasons many and varied, and I’ve always been a fan of good old cheeky Bill (I have his biography too!), and after seeing this book on the bookshelf of a lecturer I respect from the university I work at, I decided I should read it. It took me a good six months to slog through it, but it was an interesting experience. Part exercise in writing history, part political spin, part education piece to a market that already knows and another that will never read the book anyway (she literally has to explain that Australia (and the whole Southern Hemisphere) has summer when the Northern Hemisphere has winter - how do people not know this?!), this is an interesting piece of non-fiction. Hillary has put her own spin on things, ensuring she comes out relatively clean (not too clean, because that would look suspicious), and in writing a book clearly aimed at justifying herself to the American public, shows international readers why America can often rub the rest of the world up the wrong way (Freedom and democracy aren’t unique to America, FYI). Nonetheless, I learnt a lot about international political events, and understanding Hillary’s view helped me understand why certain events have attracted certain reactions. I will also say that I was consistently impressed by Hillary’s work ethic, passion for the public sector, and drive. I think books like this one are important, as are reading books from other varied view points on the events described, in order to ensure one never goes along with the public discourse purely due to lack of knowledge. I also think it’s a book one should definitely go into with a very open and critical mind - not because anything Hillary says is inherently wrong, but simply because one must always be conscious of bias. One of my most important reads for the year. A worthwhile slog.
9 / 50 books. 18% done!
2999 / 15000 pages. 20% done!
Book 10: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the Thirteenth: The End by Lemony Snicket - 324 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Like an off-key violin concert, the Roman Empire, or food poisoning, all things must come to an end. Thankfully, this includes A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The thirteenth and final installment in the groundbreaking series will answer readers most burning questions: Will Count Olaf prevail? Will the Baudelaires survive? Will the series end happily? If there s nothing out there, what was that noise? Then again, why trouble yourself with unfortunate resolutions? Avoid the thirteenth and final book of Lemony Snicket s international bestselling series and you’ll never have to know what happens.
Thoughts:
Alas, I find myself at the final Series of Unfortunate Events book. It’s been a long slog over a good five years, but I finally made it. Boy, this story did not pan out how I thought it was. I think I genuinely thought the name was a misnomer and things would turn out fortunate in the end. Spoiler Alert: they don’t! Well, not really. It’s a very wistful, melancholic kind of ending, that seems to elude to a sort of resigned acceptance of the fact that people are neither good nor bad, only corruptible and unwilling to fight the status quo. Now that its over, I’m not really sure if I know how I feel about the series as a whole. It’s an interesting read, but perhaps not one I would otherwise imagine should be targeted at children, if it hadn’t have had children/young adult protagonists. Would I recommend it? No, probably not. Would I discourage readers from it? No, probably not. It’s a strange kind of series that ultimately feels like it’s about nothing much at all. Then again, maybe that’s not a bad message for kids! A series that ends as enigmatically as it begins.
10 / 50 books. 20% done!
3323 / 15000 pages. 22% done!
Currently reading:
- Work’s Intimacy by Melissa Gregg - 198 pages
- The Rise of the Creative Class: Revisited by Richard Florida - 465 pages
- Guernica by Dave Boling - 368 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson - 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer - 324 pages
- Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich - 301 pages