culturalhistory

O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner" | Mark Clague

so-so

This book tells the history of the US national anthem. The highlight is the story behind the song and Francis Scott Key‘s retelling of the attack on Fort McHenry. It was also interesting to learn about how the song evolved to include verses being added/subtracted to attempts to standardize it. The problem was the book never found a happy medium. The first half was too exhaustively detailed at times while the latter half had too much filler.

JoeMo The historical use of the anthem for protests was very interesting. However, I don‘t think a full breakdown of Roseanne Barr‘s performance of it before a baseball game in the early 1990s was a good use of my time. I often found myself spacing out during long swaths of this book. #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks (edited) 4d

Amiable That‘s a shame —it would be an interesting topic if done well. 4d

29 likes2 comments

JenniferEgnor

Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell about the End of the World | Dorian Lynskey

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I think we all think about the end of the world or ourselves, if only briefly, at least once a day. We imagine how it will happen—quick, painful? With warning, time to prepare and make final rounds? We consume film, literature, and headlines that talk about it—because we love it. We think we will get the time off from work, lose our worries, lose our financial debts, our jury duties. If we lose these things, will we also lose our sense of⬇️

JenniferEgnor self? If we survive, will we retain our humanity? Humans have been obsessed with this ‘great escape‘ for as long as we have existed. Our oldest myths tell us that. We fantasize about the end—but when it comes, will we actually be ready for it? Will we accept it? What if it isn‘t the kind of end that we want? What makes one more terrible than another? With all we have done and continue to do to each other, do we deserve to go on existing? 2mo

JenniferEgnor Each chapter discusses a different way we think our doom will arrive, using art, literature, film, history, modern events. The world seems an uneasy place these days, with sociopaths in the halls of power. The real question is, what will we choose to do with what we have? 2mo

9 likes2 comments

RowReads1

La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada--A Cultural History | Peter N Moogk

“My first encounter with the originality of Canadian French-speaking cultures came at an early age, when living in Ottawa during the 1950s. It was immediately apparent that the French taught in English- language public schools belonged to a world apart from the everyday French spoken in the streets.” #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

30 likes

RowReads1

La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada--A Cultural History | Peter N Moogk

33 likes

JenniferEgnor

Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell about the End of the World | Dorian Lynskey

A conversation with the author about his latest book.

Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-book-club/id1158913265?i=1000652169412

12 likes

Chelsea.Poole

Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell about the End of the World | Dorian Lynskey

pick

“Everybody dies, everything ends—but not now. Not now.”

This book covers the end of the world as we know it, or at least the end of humanity, and how that may come to pass. Chapters feature ways we‘ll go out like pandemics, nuclear weapons, climate change, overpopulation, war, cosmic events and more. Far from depressing, this was a fun look at the way humans have thought about the end of times over many years, through books, movies, etc.

AmyG Sounds fun 😳🤣 4mo

JenniferEgnor I was thinking about checking out this book when I saw it… 4mo

Chelsea.Poole @amyg ok, maybe the “fun” in my review wasn‘t the right word 😂 4mo

Gissy Sounds so interesting 👍Stacked! 4mo

72 likes2 stack adds4 comments

The_Penniless_Author

Haunts of the Black Masseur: The Swimmer as Hero | Charles Sprawson

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A deep dive (no pun intended, I swear) into swimming's history - both its modern incarnation as a recreational activity during the early 19th-century, and the Classical era from which those 19th-century Romantics drew their inspiration, when swimming was infused with heroic, and even divine, qualities. I love to swim, and I also love books where an obsessive examines the subject of their passion in detail, so this one was perfect for me.

40 likes