Derek Caelin finished reading The Seep by Chana Porter
Thanks to @jessamyn@glammr.us for sharing. I read it, and I was sad, and also thought the world was lovely.
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76% complete! Derek Caelin has read 40 of 52 books.
Thanks to @jessamyn@glammr.us for sharing. I read it, and I was sad, and also thought the world was lovely.
Children of Ruin is a 2019 science fiction novel by author Adrian Tchaikovsky, the second in his Children of Time …
All her life, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the destruction of planet Earth. Raised on Gaea …
This is my fourth Michael Chrichton book, and I am beginning to understand the template. An expert in his field, pulled away to an isolated location, where humans are meddling with forces beyond their full understanding. The under water setting was unnerving. It worked. I turned the pages.
In the South Pacific, 1000 feet beneath the surface, a spaceship rests on the ocean floor - a spaceship at …
@sohkamyung That's so cool! Adding to my TBR. Riding the Shinkansen half a lifetime ago was one of the things I remember clearly about a childhood visit to Japan.
Big takeaways from reading this book:
Aggression was the reason for Nazi Germany's success. In rearming against the contraventions of the Treaty of Versailles, in seizing the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudetenland, in charging through France's defenses, Hitler grabbed what he wanted and built a myth of invulnerability which made the next conquest more possible. At any point, if he had been seriously opposed, he would have crumbled, but his aura of strength made opposition hard to do.
Aggression was also the reason for Nazi Germany's downfall. Each one of the conquests was a diceroll Hitler won - eventually, the pattern broke and was disasterous. Throughout history Germans had feared the prospect of a two front war, but Hitler started one by simultaneously fighting against the west and invading Russia. Constantly demanding more of his troops than they could do pushed them to their limits, and they achieved a lot …
Big takeaways from reading this book:
Aggression was the reason for Nazi Germany's success. In rearming against the contraventions of the Treaty of Versailles, in seizing the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudetenland, in charging through France's defenses, Hitler grabbed what he wanted and built a myth of invulnerability which made the next conquest more possible. At any point, if he had been seriously opposed, he would have crumbled, but his aura of strength made opposition hard to do.
Aggression was also the reason for Nazi Germany's downfall. Each one of the conquests was a diceroll Hitler won - eventually, the pattern broke and was disasterous. Throughout history Germans had feared the prospect of a two front war, but Hitler started one by simultaneously fighting against the west and invading Russia. Constantly demanding more of his troops than they could do pushed them to their limits, and they achieved a lot of his goals, but eventually those limits were surpassed, and once armies began to lose, the myth of German invincibility was gone. Hitler demanded that his generals split their forces to win more territory, and the division destroyed them. He demanded that his armies not cede an inch of ground when they should have retreated, and they were lost when they could have been saved.
Developing a fanatical culture around Nazism and himself allowed Hilter to exercise supreme power. People believed in him and supported him even as his actions ultimately brought about their destruction.
Up until he broke from this rule, Hitler dealt with his enemies piecemeal, and successfully prevented people from banding together against him. He failed when he could no longer divide his enemies.
The Nazis were good at co-opting other movements to gain power. They somehow absorbed socialists and communists even while courting industrialists.
People are capable of inflicting horrors on other people, if they are convinced that other people are subhuman.
I think this will be my last World War II book for a while. In addition to Rise and Fall, I've read Blackout/All Clear and Churchill's memoirs. WWII is a fascinating era, but I am now, finally, spent.
I thought it would be satisfying to watch Nazis of another era get annihilated, but all the attrocities they committed beforehand made the ending a relief more than anything.
At the root of human conflict is our fundamental misunderstanding of who we are. The illusion that we are isolated …