The one thing I miss about Twitter is the ability to signal-boost for a book or movie that I liked.
Luckily, I still have a blog.
The Forgotten Soldier, Guy Sajer
- Autobiography of a German (French-German, really) soldier on the Eastern Front.
Ivan's War, Catherine Merridale
- Collected accounts and historical overview of the common Soviet soldier in WW2.
A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo
- Autobiography of an American officer in Vietnam.
A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah
- Autobiography of a former child soldier in Sierra Leone.
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
- Illustrated autobiography of a girl during the Iranian Revolution.
Ayn Rand, Darryl Cunningham
- Illustrated biography of a girl during the Russian Revolution.
An Image of Africa, Chinua Achebe
- A critical essay regarding Heart of Darkness, available here. Criticisms are also applicable to stories that followed the HoD model, such as Apocalypse Now and that one other thing.
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
- The Stoic Emperor's observations on life and existence, which are surprisingly secular in nature.
The Cartoon Histories, Larry Gonick
- Some people don't like reading books with just words in them. Gonick's an alright alternative.
Women In The Military Speak Out About Their Portrayals (Or Lack Thereof) In Video Games, Jacqueline Cottrell
- This is a great article primarily because the two servicewomen bulldoze the interviewer's attempts to make excuses about "well, FEMSHEP,". The last paragraph lines up almost perfectly with the things I believe about games.
Unmanned, MolleIndustria
- This is a weird book.
Jet Set Radio Future
- I have two joys in life: I love to go fast, and I love to build cities.
Thanks for posting the Jacqueline Cottrell article! It's fantastic and shoots so many holes in typical thinking that I constantly see popping up in comment sections.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved Persepolis, both the movie and the book. It made me really want to learn Farsi. Great story yet the western media practically slobbered at the mouth to get Marjane to talk only about the repression, ironically while doing the same on the "homefront" XD
ReplyDeleteThe article about military women talking about video game portrayals sends to a now dead link. Here's a Wayback Machine one to it:
ReplyDeletehttp://web.archive.org/web/20140416192150/http://www.jacehallshow.com/news/gaming/industry/20130913/women-service-feel-portrayals-or-lack-thereof-video-games/
Posting it here since Googling it just sent me to message boards of dudes complaining about it.
Oh, thanks! I'll edit the article.
Delete