Brandon Meredith > Recent Status Updates

I’m in Chapter 3 “The Catalans” on LibriVox.

Pretty interesting, though pretty much like a text book. I’ve made it to Ch 10 Part 1 of the first book. Using LibriVox.

Oh! I just realized it’s two famous actors reading these parts 😂

I found an interesting performance of these debates on Audible: BBC Audio starring David Strathairn and Richard Dreyfuss, if you’re curious. In it, Lincoln eviscerates incumbent Sen. Douglas with regard to slavery, setting himself up to lose the race for Senate, but to win the Presidency shortly after.

Listening to the audiobook. Thought I would make a note of it. Read it several times before.

Haven’t read this in two months! I’ve renewed it 10 times, so I have to return it. Hopefully they’ll let me check it out again 😬

Starting to get difficult (ok, boring), but soon we’ll be out of the Iron Age and into the Roman era with history and writing and language and woohoo!

Great, so far!

It’s starting off really well. Well written, compelling, full of new information, and a bit damning of the empire of the United States.

Did you know that George Washington referred to New York as “the heart of the empire”? And that may be why NY is know NL as a the Empire State?

Ok, I picked it up again! But as an audiobook! It's included on Audible for free! Ok, too excited... Anyways, this book makes sooooo much more sense when it's read by someone else. I just didn't get the rhythm of it. Maybe I'll try Huckleberry Finn like that too... Oh, Twain was a raging racist. It's hard to cope with that. But it's not like he's making money from me reading it. Sigh.

Honestly, apart from the long introductions to the 3 non-Lincoln characters, this book has me on the edge of my seat

I’ve totally lost the thread of this audiobook. It’s both convoluted and not so interesting. The author tries to obscure this by writing fun dialogue, but it doesn’t really work.

I’m re-reading this because all the terrible news out there requires an escape into a Victorian novel.

This is an audible original. It’s a light comedy centered around a superhero universe. Ahhhh.

Wow, this is both illuminating and gut wrenching. I’m listening to the audiobook.

I have a theory that the Evremondes of "A Tale of Two Cities" were based on Enguerrand de Coucy, who is up to all sorts of mischief in the 1300s and who was both an earl in England and baron in France, simultaneously. You see, he had been "captured" by the English and then managed to marry the King of England's older, spendthrift daughter.

Anyway, that's happened, and now we're on to marauding bandit squadrons!

I really like this "No Fear" version (though it seems to be a bit bowdlerized). Let's see if I can make it through the whole book this time!

Uh oh! I had to return this to the library! (I started reading too many other books and ran out of time. Sigh.)

Welp, the king of France had been caught by the Brits. England rained down terror upon France during the interregnum, and the three estates (1: dauphin and regent, 2: nobility, 3: peasants) were too busy fighting each other to fight back effectively. After an insane ransom and a swap for a whole bunch of french nobles, England returned King Jean to France. And then he left town to go on a crusade! Wtf, Jean?!

Man, things were a mess after the Great War in Germany

The Jaquerie lasted less than a month :( But they killed a good number of nobles!

Also, the author seems to hate gay people. He claims that many of the early nazis were gay. (Irony, my friend. Irony.) Including Roehm who was in the military.

The author refers to “homosexual perverts” at one point. Sigh.

The political world was a MESS in Germany following WWI. Bavaria was a separatist region with its own government and capital in Munich. That’s where Hitler got his political start.

Tryna figure out the environment that led to Trump... I mean Hitler’s rise to power. So far it seems like he was the head of some tiny, far right anti-Semitic group. Something like the tiny bands of neonazis or KKK today. Strange that this guy took over the country.

Also, he surrounded himself with really awful people. He somehow got use out of them. This does remind me of Trump. Lev Parnas, anyone?

The Jaquerie is going for it!

Oo, they’re making their way on the English roads now. What’s gunna happen, eh?

I put this down for a bit and am now just picking it up again. It’s a fascinating period. One that shapes our image of the Middle Ages. The Black Plague and European wars and monarchies and nobility and raiders and the Church. It’ll probably take me several more years to finish. Ha.

Omgoodness, there’s finally kites! And running!

Whew! That scene was dramatic!

Oo, scary! And nasty! I’m enthralled

I’m skurred. 48/418 pages