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Sabtu, 22 Juni 2019

Get Free Ebook , by Bernard Henri Levy

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, by Bernard Henri Levy

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File Size: 1537 KB

Print Length: 259 pages

Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1250203015

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (February 12, 2019)

Publication Date: February 12, 2019

Sold by: Macmillan

Language: English

ASIN: B07F6914X3

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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#30,278 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Full disclosure: I only made it half way through this book. I saw the author interviewed on tv which inspired my interest in his book. His thesis is provocative and important, but I found the writing to be rambling, prone to tangents, hard to follow, and as a result, unconvincing. The author is clearly a learned and thoughtful, passionate individual, and perhaps the second half of the book brings his ideas together in a persuasive argument, but the ride was too rough in the first half for me to remain engaged.

I received this ARC copy from the publisher (through Terrance Gelenter at Paris Expatriates.com) and found it a fascinating read sure to broaden one's thinking on geopolitics while having an intellectually rollicking good time! Thank you for the book. French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy (BHL) provides a grand overview of civilizations in tumult if not overarching conflict. He positions five rising powers, the Five Kings in the title, of Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Sunni radical Islam as challenging the American empire, increasingly the detached leader of the West. The West, of which America is and was the champion, is quickly becoming an empire of nothing, of” nihilism squared and a cavalcade of kitsch” (one wonders if BHL has been to Mar-a-Lago?). Levy sets his narrative argument out against a backdrop of piquant historical example and his own wide-ranging personal experience of having seen much of the troubled world of today first hand. This is a cri de Coeur of a historically informed witness, one able of fluently putting incident and episode into grand historical context.The actionable premise is that the world has entered an era of “wide-ranging rebalancing of prestige and deterrent power in which a sapped America ceded its influence while its emboldened adversaries pushed their advantage and improvised an unprecedented redistribution of the systems of authority.” And of course the central dramatic character around which dramatic revelations and reversals swirls is “one character’s mediocrity (in this case an America First president indifferent to too-distant events) …”The book’s title comes from the Bible story about a “war of the empire against the five kings.” The empire is of course America and the five kings are Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Sunni radical Islam fed by Saudi Arabia. The common denominator among the five is their taking of seats at the world table of power at the expense of Kurdistan’s brave and noble Pershmerga, that quasi-country’s highly combat capable militia. The activating mechanism is that this is a world where the United States no longer matters, which has been the recent arc of the northern Middle East. This may also be the future arc of American influence and power, if not concern, east of modern-day Greece relative to the Muslim world. One clearly senses that the power duo of Russia and China is the rising external power in the Greater Middle East, but that these imperial powers will also have their difficulties in this intractable region. Levy puts the focal point of the action at the Iraqi city of Kirkuk in the fall of 2017 when the Americans abandoned and betrayed the Kurds. The Iraqis rode into Kirkuk in American-provided Abrams tanks and the Americans said nothing when “Kurdish houses in Kirkuk were gassed and ransacked, women raped, people tortured.” Levy puts this in a long line of western betrayals starting with the Popular Front government in Spain in 1936. And Munich in 1938 of course. Levy is a grand partisan of the Kurdish cause and he positions these Athenian-like Kurds against all the other nefarious actors and poisonous movements of today’s Middle East. An existential question posed is whether there is some liberal form of Islam that could be incubated to lead towards some productive accommodation with modernity for this ancient religion. It’s hard to see this future from the incidents recounted in this book.The book provides a vivid tour of the dark currents, poisonous thinking, autocratic power maintenance, and cultural disabilities underlying today’s Greater Middle East. Answers? Levy concludes a fresh reinvention of Europe, an affirmation of Europe as an embodiment of the ideas of freedom and fraternity, is required. So, all eyes should be on the May 2019 European parliamentary elections and whether the Americans truly sell out the Kurds in the Middle East.

Like Jim F., I saw the author on television and was inspired to buy the book, regrettably. I agree with Jim F. that the author is a learned intellectual; however, the author wasted too many lines in every paragraph trying to impress other learned intellectuals and academics. The short version is that the United States is the only country that could have saved the world from Hitler and having done so owes the world continued protection. (Much like the proverbial "save a life and become responsible for it forever".)

The book is biased and really absurd, calling China, Russia, and other nations as "five fangs of a beast" and at the same time praises diversity as long as its western. I was hoping the book explains the reasons behind these wars and hate, and instead the book inflames the hate between nations and cultures. I thought the author is a great thinker until I read this book and after reading it made me feel he might have other special interests and hidden agenda.

This book did not live up to its proclaimed expectation for me. It starts with a story of Kords and their aspirations for self determinations but 99% of book is anything but. In my opinion the books main trust is about delegitimizing, what author refers as the five kings, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi. Eventhough he starts by correctly putting the real blame where it belongs,. When British and France go back on their words after fall of Ottoman and do not recognize Kurdestan. And US after finishing the war with ISIS do not help them with thier aspersions for autonomy.. Non-the-less author starts beating on the five kings relentlessly through out the book for something they had very little to do with. One can not blame Iran and Turkey for trying to keep their country's broader integrate together. In cas of Iran, Kurdistan has been part if iran for over 2500 year. Historically there never been an independent and sovereign Kurdestan. So why is the author is beating his drum so hard ? My other issue with the book and contents is that it has so much of nonsense philosophical, historical, avengilical, Zionists, pro Israeli, and Jewish books references that you even forget what was the argument and the point of the author. Further, Author has rattlerattles off the names of every philosopher, poet, writer, political figure, historical topics from Roman wars to holocaust, from antiquity to present, which is very hard to find the real connection other than to try to over whelm the reader and or perhaps try to legitimize his fault and poorly argued narretive. His conclusion at the end is totally based on a very self serving and erroneous assumption that these five kings are driven by false dream of past glories that can never be achieved. He is falsifying national sentiment for respect from today's imperials (US) and by extension Isreal for aspiration for old glory. His arguments and narretives could have been little more palatable if he would have included a similar criticisms on king Netanyahu and Israelis treatment of occupied lands and running an apartheid state. His pretensions for plights of Kurds who are still in their own land and not being ruled by occupying force and constant humiliation without a single word of solidarity for plight if millions of Palestinians is basically difficult to buy into. All the enthusiasm for plight of Kurds and their self determinations is part of the larger plot of US and isreal to control the oil fields and put in place a popet goverment iin kurdestan under US and isreal hegemony that can keep Iran, Turkey and other Arab/Muslim countries in check.

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Kamis, 06 Juni 2019

Download PDF , by Sydney Allen

Download PDF , by Sydney Allen

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, by Sydney Allen

Product details

File Size: 1809 KB

Print Length: 310 pages

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited

Publication Date: January 28, 2019

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Language: English

ASIN: B07N7N11BG

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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#17,860 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Lots of great ideas, excellent world building!Soo rushed though!There was little emotional impact to anything that happened, because everything happened too quickly. This should have been 2 or three books instead of one fairly short one. I would love to read more from the author, but only if the pace is slowed down.For crying out loud, the main antagonist is vanquished with 1,5 pages!Let the characters build up, the excitement rise, then deliver the battle! Don't be too impatient with the story, let it move on it's own!

Couldn't say I enjoyed this book. It was rushed, the character development was weak, and the central concept of the MC having to be sacrificed was a bit strange for my tastes. Should have taken the cover a bit more seriously. Maybe it could have worked, but the author didn't stick the landing.I would not go in for another in this series, that's for sure.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The way the author spun the stories of the gods in a very interesting way. It’s a great book that I would highly recommend.

Transported into a world separate from our own to save the life force of his nephew from depraved Gods who want to use it to extend their own lives, Steve must team up with Cleopatra and a bevy of Goddesses to upset the order of the universe. A good read with lots of interaction between mythologies.

As with the authors other books, it colors outside the lines a bit . But in a good way . Hope to see more of this authors work....soon

Different story line, but I enjoyed the book.

Interesting characters, looking forward to reading more

good book.

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Rabu, 05 Juni 2019

PDF Download Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King

PDF Download Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King

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Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King


Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King


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Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King

Review

“This amazing book transports the listener back to Italy in the early 16th century. King is able to describe the intricacies of fresco painting while also portraying the day-to-day life of that era . . . Highly recommended.” ―Library Journal“A legend-busting, richly detailed account of the four-year making of the Sistine Chapel frescos . . . Readers looking for the lite version of this tale may still want to fire up the VCR and watch Charlton Heston chew the scenery. Those seeking a richer understanding of Renaissance art-making will find this a pleasure.” ―Kirkus“Scrupulously researched, written with panache, Ross King's Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling is a sublime peek into a remarkable era.” ―The Miami Herald“Ross King expertly wipes away such smudges from the story of this great painting, only to uncover a truth even more exciting and improbable.” ―San Francisco Chronicle“[An] exciting account. . . King chronicles Michelangelo's aesthetic decisions and clarion triumphs over myriad forms of adversity with expertise and contagious enthusiasm.” ―Booklist, starred review“Splendid, thorough and detailed.” ―Publishers Weekly

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About the Author

Ross King is the bestselling author of Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism, Leonardo and The Last Supper, Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies and others. His work has won the RBC Taylor Prize, and been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, the Charles Taylor Prize, and the National Award for Arts Writing. He has lectured at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian, the Aspen Institute, and the Frick Collection, and in Florence, Milan, Paris, and Giverny. He lives near Oxford with his wife, Melanie.

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Product details

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; Reprint edition (October 14, 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1620408406

ISBN-13: 978-1620408407

Product Dimensions:

6.1 x 1 x 9.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.3 out of 5 stars

295 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#240,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

As a new art student I've taken a real interest in the lives of artisits. This has been one of the best books so far. What I really liked about this book was the fact you didn't have to know anything about Michelangelo or the time period to enjoy and understand this book. It's more than just the story of the Sistine Chapel, it also goes into the things that were going on around Michelangelo while he was working on it. It also gives you some insight as to how he felt about himself (not the nicest guy) and how his confidence grew inspite of the fact he was competeing with Rapheal (who was a nice guy)and other factors including the weather and the effect it was having on the ceiling. If you want a good all around book on Michelangelo this would be a really good one to start with. My only complaint is it could of had a few more pictures of some of the paintings described in the book.

Pope Julius II was a fastidious man whose eye for the arts was always set on his lofty standards of beauty and perfection that few artists could satisfy. So when the pope saw the Pieta whose beauty surpassed the ancient Greek and Roman sculptures adorning the tomb of a French cardinal, he wanted the same awe-inspiring adornment for his tomb, whereupon one Michelangelo Buonarroti from Florence was summoned for the commission for the work. From then on, that’s how Michelangelo at age thirty-three reluctantly embarked on his Herculean task of frescoing the vault of the Sistine Chapel. This book by Ross King recounts such background stories of the making of the Sistine Chapel frescoes and descriptions of the personal traits of Michelangelo.Michelangelo’s work on the frescoes resulted from part Divine Providence of endowing the humanity with an awe-inspiring masterpiece of art to delight the senses of mankind through the ages and part secular ambitions to mark the names of both the commissioner and the artist themselves. Pope Julius II also wanted to renovate the Sistine Chapel that had been used as a living quarter for the guards, a fortress against papal enemies, and a jail. As no one pours new wine into old wineskins as said in the bible, the pope’s plan to revert the chapel to its original place of worship, which made him drop his tomb project, was met by his idea of frescoing the vault in its entirety. Michelangelo, who was a breadwinner of his family, accepted the commission with sumptuous amount of salary and commenced four-year of labor of woes and dramas on the vault of the chapel.There are revealing truths that should be known concerning the process of frescoing the Sistine Chapel as follows: Contrary to popular belief that Michelangelo did the work while lying prone on his back, he worked with his upper body bent backward like a bow. Also, it wasn’t done by solely by Michelangelo but a work of concerted efforts made by a contingent of his assistants chosen by Francesco Granacci, a close friend of Michelangelo. Michelangelo was innately a solitary worker who had a strong distrust of others who worked with him. As a matter of fact, Michelangelo was never a jolly fellow whose sociability would have endeared him to all, as in the case of his contemporary Raphael Sancti.It is also interesting to pay special notes on the figures Michelangelo used for the frescoes, which shows his ingenuity of selecting unique subject matters distinguished from his contemporaries. To illustrate, he used 7 prophets from the Old Testament and 5 sibyls from pagan myth to decorate the Sistine vaults. He was fascinated with prophetic knowledge of the sibyls who dwelled in sacred shrines and predicted the future in fits of inspired madness. This offered a compelling link between the sacred and the profane, the church and the esoteric pagan culture by reconciling pagan mythology with orthodox Christian teachings.From this book, readers will find that the position of a painter/sculptor was not esteemed highly; he was more of a skilled laborer, a craftsman, given exact orders how to produce his work by his commissioner or patron. As a matter of fact, the image of a solitary genius who would wield his brush and pallets to portray his world of imagination from the fathoms of his soul was a romantic fable. In Michelangelo’s time, an artist’s creativity was fettered by the demands of marketplace or his patron. Nevertheless, Michelangelo often disagreed to the pope’s own artistic direction and even had a temerity of broaching the shipping charges incurred in transporting the marbles from Carrara for the aborted tomb project at a dinner table with the pope .Michelangelo was said to be a man of aesthetically unpleasing appearance without sociability; his direct altercation with Leonardo da Vinci as described in this book was amusing to discover. Both of the masters of the arts did not like each other publicly, but it was on the part of da Vinci who instigated such heated feud. He disregarded sculptors, including Michelangelo, as mechanics in the appearance of unkempt bakers.King’s research into this daunting subject matter is indeed impressive and highly laudable. Reading his account of how Michelangelo worked on his frescoes enabled me to envision the scene very vividly. The descriptions of the streets, alleys, and the Sistine Chapel are realistically rendered as if they were pictures. However, I could not help but feel a subtle tone of anti-papacy or even a remote sense of anti-Catholicism in this book. Evidently, there were corruptions among the church officials, clerics, not to mention the laypersons. But I wonder if King should have spent several chapters about Pope Julius II to discern just what kind of person he was in a negative shadow, the fallacy of his character, of the papacy in general. I ascribe such tendency to culturally transmitted anti-Catholicism in England, a home of the Episcopal Church, from the time of Henry VIII because this is not the first time I recognize such sentiment in English writers.Notwithstanding the above sentiment, the book has its magical way of transporting readers to Italy in the early 16th century and invites readers to meet with Michelangelo as he was in his disheveled hair and untidy outfit dripped with colors from the unfinished fresco. Despite all his personal foibles, he is indeed a person bizarre fantastico whose muscular nudes in frantic but graceful gyrates have both the beauty and the sublime that produce in the spectator a kind of astonished wonder so formidable and so fantastic throughout the ages.

The topic of this book is an artistic and historic blockbuster: Michelangelo's famous frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The author tells the story in great detail -- arguably in too great detail. Every artist and assistant artist and many of their relatives and patrons are given, along with their towns and some of their history -- often with little relevance to the story. This is a lot to wade through and is more than is necessary. Their names are long and hard to pronounce, at least for a non-speaker of Italian. There is a fair amount of repetition as well. For example, we are told at least three times that, contrary to (supposed) popular belief, Michelangelo did not do his painting solo and while lying on his back (as in Irving Stone's "The Agony and the Ecstasy"): He built elaborate scaffolding to make his work and that of his assistants easier. We are told about the sexual reputations of not just Michelangelo (meh) and Raphael (stud), but of many of their friends and associates. This sounds promising but is actually not that explicit and hence a bit disappointing when the book could have used a bit of pizzazz...Arguably, the person who has the most developed and interesting character is not the artist but the man who commissioned him: Pope Julius II -- a domineering and vain and aggressive person, who was perhaps more interested in the power struggles among the Vatican and the Italian city-states (and against France) in the 16th century than in the finer points of the Catholic faith. We never get a definitive idea of how Michelangelo himself felt about Julius -- though it seems negative in balance. We also don't get much info on Michelangelo's attitude toward religion, though it is suggested that he was a believer (with little supporting evidence).Although the book is about Michelangelo as a painter, he considered himself primarily a sculptor (and is perhaps remembered that way). Yet there is not much about his work with stone and its relation to his painting.One of the book's major shortcomings is the lack of good illustrations. There are just a few color plates and not that many black and white ones. I had to go to the Wikipedia entry on the Sistine Chapel to get decent close-ups so I could follow the descriptions in the text. The author should have included at least this link (and probably others that might be even better). The author's analysis of the frescoes artistic features does not seem authoritative and at times seems sketchy. Of course, to be fair, there are plenty of expert analyses to be had.I had previously read the author's "Bruneleschi's Dome" which is more streamlined and easier to digest. "Pope's ceiling" was, though interesting, rather ponderous. Sometimes less is more as they say.

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