Berengaria > Recent Status Updates

LFL find. Pretty good so far! Lovely New Kingdom descriptions.

6-CD set. So far, typical Jonasson.

Absolutely phenomenal so far. A highly readable blend of science, history, sociology and workplace expose. A lot to take in, but extremely informative.

The family are now at the house for their summer holiday, and it would appear as if both the wife and husband are being greatly affected by whatever is still lurking. Wonder if the boy and the aunt will be affected, too? Or do they not fit into the scheme? Hmmmmm.

I'm not a fan of Japanese lit at the best of times, but thought an anthology of short stories about Tokyo might not be so bad. About at the midway point, I can only give 1 story more than a 2-stars. Other reviews say the best are at the back. Let's hope so!

Very good set up at the opening of the novel. All the elements in perfect balance: the character personalities, the stresses, the goals, the motivations....and then the making of an offer they can't refuse. They don't write 'em like this any more.

So far, not much to write home about. The translator is going too much for actual word accuracy and not target language flow. Which is a problem with the Germanics, as they -- literally translated -- can sound extremely choppy in English. (very different style)

This book was not just written for the general reader, but the general general reader. That is, those with zero knowledge of anything past where countries are located, King Tut and the story of the Exodus, can still follow along. Amazing. Wasn't expecting that.

Interesting and fairly down-to-earth, but nothing that's really grabbing my attention. We'll see what lies down the road.

An okay police thriller...but I really hope there's no romance here. A gruff old male cop gets partnered up with a young, attractive female FBI agent? I'm already shaking my head and hoping the plot doesn't go there.

"Hittite king named Mursili I marched his army all the
way to Mesopotamia, a journey of over 1000 miles, and attacked
the city of Babylon in 1595 BC... Then, instead of occupying the city, he simply turned the Hittite army around and headed for home, thus effectively conducting the longest drive-by shooting in history. " 🤣🤣🤣

There won't be a rating on this book because I do not know enough about world economics to comment, but his argument is persuasive.

Classic Swift!

Though this would be much harder to follow, but it's written as a letter to his dad, so the economic knowledge thresh hold is much lower and it's in mostly conversational style, thank goodness!

Re-read and buddy read with Barbara K and Paul A.

A tour through the Majors, Minors and court cards with an emphasis on creating your own connections with the cards and your particular deck. Okay for that and with some decent exercises, but nothing to write home about.

The title translates to "Dawn: And Other Chilling Stories for Older Learners". I assumed "older learners" meant adult learners of Welsh, but judging from the protagonists in the stories, I think the author meant older teens, not little kids. Looks like this book from the '80s has been out of print for forever. Not very entertaining or chilling, but good reading practice.

Many of the articles are rather wordy and assume a large amount of topic-relevant knowledge, but are written in an accessible way so that the newbie can follow along.

Target audience: academics, school teachers and those within the system, rather than the lay reader.

A much longer version of Hourly History (4-Hour History?) with a lot more detail. Things were pretty tumultuous in the 700s-600s BC in Egypt. A little late for my interests, but the story is pretty action packed!

Much more for people who'd like to start communicating with their guides, but don't know how to get started, or are afraid of what will happen.

For those who already do talk to their guides but are looking for a stronger bond, this is a nice reminder of the whys and what fors, but very "your mileage will vary" and to not force the issue. A fast read and well put.

"To take another recent example of socially determined trajectories in technology, the 20th-century dominance of the gasoline-powered car, as opposed to electrically powered vehicles, can be seen to have its origins not in decisions made on the basis of pure efficiency but in the economics of early 20th-century gender relations – thus women drivers clearly preferred electric cars, but it was primarily men...

Not a De Cock mystery, but from the same author and still pretty enjoyable. And I'm getting able to read Dutch faster, so we're making progress!

Unfortunately, very US-based with the typical American blinders of mentioning 1000 things in the US, 1 thing in Mexico and 1 in India = global perspective. 🙄

Also full of political rhetoric and bizarre PC phrasing. Wild animals are "un-enslaved, non-human animals", for example. Ffs. 🙄 Published in 2015 so much has changed and some figures proven inaccurate.

Fascinating discussion of the difference between our "inventor" mindset, where we are interested in WHO invented something, vs the AE mindset in which **the invention** itself was the point of interest -- didn't matter who came up with it.
This is what made the Egyptians the Japanese of their day. They didn't invent much, but they vastly improved on everybody else stuff.

Chapters on how the police fail to protect women/are the perps -- the 2nd most common complaint about police after excessive force is sexual violence against women in custody!!! -- and how often police harm & kill those having a mental health crisis or who are cognitively impaired...esp if they are POC and/or female.

Old Konni isn't showing us his best side in this one. His sister says he has more of his criminal father in him than he wants to admit, and it seems as if...when pushed, that's exactly who he turns into: Seppi Jr!

Internationally, "police discretion" is a huge problem as it allows local law enforcement to decide who is a 'worthy victim' / 'worth the police's time'.

This leads to low crime reporting by minorities in the belief that "they won't do anything anyway" or that the police will harass the reporter of the crime due to being a minority and fitting a 'profile'.