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Chapter 26: The Month of the Great Slander

After the July demonstration, Lenin was accused by Russia's coalition govt of working with the Germans.

“Lenin has fought thirty years for the revolution…And we [Trotsky and Lenin] cannot but cherish a hatred for German militarism…. A suspicion against us in that direction could be expressed only by those who do not know what a revolutionist is. " -Trotsky

Chaptee 25: "Could the Bolsheviks Have Seized the Power in July?"

"...the leadership of the party was completely right in not taking the road of armed insurrection. It is not enough to seize the power—you have to hold it…The proletariat of the capital, although inclining toward the Bolsheviks in its overwhelming majority, had still not broken the February umbilical cord attaching it to the Compromisers.”

Very disorienting, but I think that's the point: that authoritarian bureaucracy is disorienting, flawed by human error, and impossible to navigate. It's a little too rambling and detailed, but I'm still engaged.

Chapter 24: The July Days: Culmination and Rout

“Skirmishes, victims, fruitlessness of the struggle, and indefiniteness of practical aim—that describes the movement. A public reaction set in against the Bolsheviks"

I listened to this before the liveshow, but I wanted to reread it with eyes on the page. I've officially decided I prefer reading this on ebook - the chunky physic copy is just too intimidating.

Finished chapter 23! My physical copy and ebook call it chapter 23, and my audiobook calls it chapter 24 bc the latter counted the introduction to part 2 as a chapter.

On July 3 & 4 1917, armed workers and soldiers flock to a demonstration at the Tauride Palace to demand "All Power to the Soviet" in protest of the government's resistance to their demands.

“Trotsky inquired for the last time: Can we nevertheless try to make it an unarmed demonstration? No, there can be no question of that.”

Gripping! In college, Patric Gagne attempts to self-diagnose and treat her sociopathy. In an attempt to control her violent behavior under stress, she does all sorts of illegal things that are slightly less offensive e.g. stealing the car keys of drunk frat peers and going for joyrides. I don't believe all of the details she shares, but she is clearly making an effort to handle her OCD-like impulses.

Sando is having so much fun writing Allomantic - Feruchemical action scenes in Era 2 🤣

I heard this memoir was a bit manipulative, so I was hesitant to pick it up; but it has been very instructive and truly frightening so far 😱

“This universal wild cry of spite and rage against the Bolsheviks is the common complaint of Kadets, Social Revolutionaries, and Mensheviks against their own flabbiness. They are in a majority. They are the government. They are all together in a bloc. And they see that nothing comes of it. What can they do but rage against the Bolsheviks?”

Finished ch 22! I decided to be less painstakingly thorough and read quicker

The fact that I didn't know about water deer and now I dooo 😍 "Vampire deer" caught me LOL

“Just feeling listened to can make someone love themselves. And love you for making them feel that way.”

"How are we to avoid those in office becoming deeply corrupt when everything is devoid of meaning?"

I did not expect a memoir about life in North Korea to start with colonization at center stage.

Learning about Equatorial New Guinea, where this author was from before her father sent her to school in Pyongyang: it's roughly the size of Hawaii but with a much smaller population.

I was hoping this graphic novel would have as much history as book 1, but this one seems more focused on character development? Still only a quarter through. I'm finding it tough to read devices with blue light at night, atm.

Finished Chapter 21: Shifts in the Masses!
Underlying big moments of the revolution, such as the February revolution in the July days, “molecular processes were taking place, welding the heterogeneous parts of the working class into one political whole. In this, again, the chief role was played by the strike.”

Now that a...certain character...is *SPOILER*















dead, I'm actually enjoying the story! I like the Seidensticker trans for physical reading. My library copy has a few notes, here and there, but nothing earthshattering thus far. At this point I'm not too fussed about missing details; as an English Major, you have to know when to skim read 😜 It's impossible read everything you want anyway.

My Enneagram 9 radar picks up political hostility very strongly. It's a little frustrating to hear Conservatives blamed for everything from lack of library funding to the homelessness crisis 😅 -29%

I cannot picture 2,000 people showing up today at a library to volunteer in an emergency 🥲 So touching

"Ex-secretary of agriculture Earl Butz...believes that we should adapt to the machines, that humans should be forced to conform to technological conditions or standards. I believe that the machines should be adapted to us – to serve our human needs as our history, our heritage, and our most generous hopes have defined them."

From "Horse-Drawn Tools and the Doctrine of Labor Saving"

The stress 🥲

I've never quite wrapped my mind around the Allomancy, but I enjoy the process of discovering new metals. I don't think I've ever read this one with my eyes, so I don't remember it well; it's kind of exciting 😄 Sazed's religious arc has always been extremely compelling to me, as is Hemalurgy. Maybe #3 will end up being my new favorite?

The author is so smart, sometimes, about the way she criticizes Genji. I mean, using an evil spirit of jealousy (from a previous lover) to haunt Genji and ruin his life?! So appropriate and realistic. No wonder Genji tried to groom Murasaki to not become jealous. It also checks that all of Genji's women suffer the effects of his previous lover's jealousy. I mean, just the STDs alone would have been terrible.

"I had sixteen friedrichs d’or, and there…there, maybe, lay riches! Strange thing, I haven’t won yet, but I act, feel, and think like a rich man, and I can’t imagine myself otherwise."

Pevear and Volok trans.
I struggled to wrap my brain around the opening, so I've been forging ahead and then rereading chapters. It's also missing the philosophy of his later great works 🥲 However, I'm definitely seeing inside the head of a gambling addict, which is fascinating. He's still funny and he still loves to make you guess at his meaning instead of just SAYING what he means right out. Love that.

"As with everything in life, reading is about the right timing."

LOVING THIS SM AH

Despite the fact that I have exactly opposite taste in books to the main character 🫣

IDC IT'S SO GOOD

Finished chapter 20: The Peasantry! About how peasants in rural areas began to follow the lead of the city workers and soldiers, often at the urging of soldiers home from the front. They demanded that landlords give up their land to those who actually WORKED on the land, and then took it when the govt took too long parceling it out. “The [rural] districts had their Miliukovs, their Kerenskys, and their Lenins.”

A mysterious explosion in Tokyo begins world war iii; set decades later, in a dystopia futuristic Tokyo, a teenaged biker and gang member develops mysterious, explosive powers...

I was intrigued by the setting, but superpowers and gritty urban landscapes aren't really my thing. It's well-put-together, but more aimed at male readership. I might have finished this if I didn't have such a busy month.

The way I giggle every time Dr. Grant says, "I don't think so, Tim"

Reading For Emma's Bookish Kingdom book club!