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Merissa (12030 KP) created a post

May 25, 2022  
"17 authors have come together to write 16 different romance stories of all sub-genres and tropes."

Blitz: LOVE, NOT WAR — A charity Anthology for the Ukraine Crisis Fund - @Archaeolibrary, @XpressoTours, #Adult, #Romance,

https://archaeolibrarian.wixsite.com/website/post/love-notwar-acharityanthologyforukraine
     
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Sarah (7798 KP) created a post

Oct 14, 2019  
This weekend I've been in the Ukraine, visiting Kiev and Chernobyl. Chernobyl and the surrounding areas of Pripyat and beyond are a truly fascinating place to visit and such a wonderful experience. I'd highly recommend taking the opportunity to visit if you ever can. The below pictures are only a few of many highlights!
     
Show all 6 comments.
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Andy K (10821 KP) Oct 15, 2019

OMG Sarah thanks so very much! I have always been interested in this and recently watched and was moved by the HBO miniseries. I hope I get to go there someday!

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Sarah (7798 KP) Oct 16, 2019

I hope you do too @Andy K , it's a place you'll never forget!

Peter the Great: His Life and World
Peter the Great: His Life and World
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"I try to read as much history as possible, and around Russia’s invasion of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, I devoured this massive tome… and cheekily: I even sent the Russian language version to Vladimir Putin! He’s from St Petersburg and likes to claim Peter the Great’s mantle. The revelation is that Peter was very progressive and Westward-looking. Massie is a fantastic historian-storyteller. I’ve also read his “Catherine the Great,” and of course, “Nicholas and Alexandra.”"

Source
  
Command Authority (Jack Ryan Universe, #16)
Command Authority (Jack Ryan Universe, #16)
Tom Clancy | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It is a shame the world lost such a great story teller as Tom Clancy. I have loved the Jack Ryan series and the latest installment [Command Authority] did not disappoint.

The characters are so good they are like meeting old friends and I love how Jack Jr. has grown into his own. Also the plot of this one with the Russians returning as the antagonists, especially attacking the Ukraine, was timely.

As with all Clancy's books a must read!
  
Chernobyl
Chernobyl
2019 | Action, Drama, History
Everything (0 more)
Nothing (0 more)
Wow!
Contains spoilers, click to show
Chernobyl is a great watch, especially as it's a true story about a nuclear power plant in Ukraine in the 80s.
Its gripping from the minute you watch start watching it, you can just tell something is going to go wrong and when it does, it's many people pay the price with their lives all because of a very stubborn man and his decisions to carry out test that came be done properly.
Chernobyl the city has to be abandoned straight away and still remains radioactive to this day.
It's not just about the explosion but how so many was affected and the trail when finding out who was to blame.
  
AT
All That is Solid Melts into Air
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<b>My rating: 3.5</b>

<i>I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.</i>

<i>All That is Solid Melts into Air</i> (the title taken from a Karl Marx quote) is the debut novel from Irish author Darragh McKeon. Set mostly in 1986, it follows the lives of several people in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.

On reading the blurb I thought that the plot would be solely focused on the Chernobyl disaster however this was not the case. In fact it is difficult to pick out what the actual plot line was. Each character has individual storylines, some of which connect up, but the disaster is not completely the entire focus of the novel.

Beginning in April 1986 we read about Yevgeni, a nine-year-old piano prodigy and his life in Soviet Russia. We also discover his aunt, Maria, who, although through third person narrative, describes her life, thoughts and difficulties at this period of time. The person who appeared to be the main character for the majority of the narrative was Grigory Ivanovich Brovkin, a surgeon who so happens to be Maria’s ex-husband that gets sent out to Ukraine to assist with the clean up after the Chernobyl incident. In Ukraine lives Artyom, a thirteen-year-old boy who is forced to evacuate his home to get away from the radiation. Here, while not until November 1986, Grigory and Artyom’s storylines merge together.

The novel ends in April 2011, but by this point Artyom’s story has fizzled out, his sole purpose being to show the reader what life was like for the evacuees: shockingly terrible.

As I have said, there was not really a main plotline, however the book gives a good account of what happened and how things were dealt with after. That is, of course, if it is historically accurate. Despite studying the Soviet Union at school, my knowledge of the Chernobyl disaster was virtually non-existent. There is also a hint of romance regarding Grigory and Maria.

Overall it was incredibly well written, full of description and very interesting.
  
The Resistance Girl
The Resistance Girl
Mandy Robotham | 2022 | History & Politics, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The first book I have read or listened to by this author and if her others are anything like this one, it won't be the last.

Following the lives of a small group of people in Norway during WWII, this is a compelling story of their bravery as part of the resistance movement.

With exceptionally strong characters and a powerful story, this is an important part of history that I was not familiar with and although this is historical fiction, it does weave actual events into the story which gives it a sense of realism and shows you what lengths 'normal' people will go to to protect freedom and whilst they have a strong regard for the danger they are putting themselves and, potentially, others in, the bigger picture is far more important. A poignant read given the current events in Ukraine.

The narrator told the story with ease and kept me engaged and enthralled from beginning to end; her voice was perfect.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys a great story of bravery, love and the importance of family, friends and freedom.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK Audio and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
  
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ClareR (5716 KP) rated Perestroika in Books

Mar 10, 2024  
Perestroika
Perestroika
Joao Cerqueira | 2024 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Perestroika by João Cerqueira is the story of a fictional country’s turn away from Communism.

We start off in Slavia in 1978 before any of the massive changes that will eventually take place, and we meet the inhabitants of the country: from the corrupt politicians to the men incarcerated in concentration camps. We see how people live on next to nothing and lies from the government that tell them all of their woes are because of the wicked Capitalist West.

The tables are turned on these corrupt Communists with the advent of Perestroika, and instead of Communists governing the country, an all-out crime boss finds himself in charge. But make no mistake: this was engineered by Ivan Fiorov (the crime boss) and his lackeys.

This is a story that is as relevant today as it always has been - especially with what is going on in the Ukraine at the moment. Some of the story arcs in this are horrific, and not just those that take place in the concentration camps. There’s child abuse, sexual coercion, drug abuse, neo-Nazis, violence. The people in this country experience a lot of change in a short period of time. But at the same time, everything stays the same.

Well worth a read.
  
I have never been too interested in historical accounts of disasters, natural or man-made. I got this book free from Amazon for Kindle and I genuinely could not put it down from start to finish. It is a really harrowing modern account of one of the worst man-made disasters in world history and it takes you though the entire history and backstory of nuclear power and the Chernobyl disaster, including what became of everyone involved at the time, the global political backlash and comparisons with much more recent nuclear accidents such as Fukushima.

In between chapters, the narrator simultaneously includes his own first-person account of his visit to Chernobyl and the neighbouring ghost town of Pripyat, some 32 years after the fallout which killed, injured and displaced so many people in the Ukraine.

Included in the text are photographs of the sarcophagus, the ghost town of Pripyat and documentation from the official enquiry (in translation from the original Cyrillic text). One of the most enthralling chapters is a very stomach-churning, matter-of-fact detail of what actually happens to a human body when affected by radiation poisoning. This chapter is seriously not for the faint-hearted!!

Leatherbarrow has done an absolutely fantastic job here, over 5 years of research to build an account of something I have heard of all my life but no writing has quite enthralled me like this book did. The juxtaposition of the historical and the modern help to transform this text from the dryly historical account that it could have been into a thoroughly readable and dare I say unputdownable account of one the the worlds biggest nuclear disasters.
  
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Creed II (2018) in Movies

Dec 1, 2018  
Creed II (2018)
Creed II (2018)
2018 | Action, Drama, Sport
An Outstanding Sequel
The first Creed movie breathed fresh life into the tired Rocky franchise, introducing Michael B Jordan as the son of Apollo Creed and having Rocky Balboa mentor him through to becoming a professional boxer. All the familiar key elements were there from previous Rocky movies - the training montages, the love interest, the opponent you can't wait to see defeated. But this new take on it all worked well, resulting in a hugely enjoyable movie, and a sequel was inevitable.

With Creed 2, we get even more ties to the Rocky movies. In a bleak looking Ukraine, Ivan Drago lives with son Viktor. In Rocky IV, Ivan was the man responsible for killing Apollo Creed in a boxing match, before suffering defeat at the hands of Rocky in his hometown of Russia in the epic finale. In terms of cinematic experiences, Rocky IV was the absolute peak of the franchise. So intense, drawing unified cheers and applause from the audience I was watching it with, something you don't very often get in the cinema.

That defeat in mother Russia brought shame on Ivan and he and Viktor now live a simple life, with Viktor being trained daily by Ivan and participating in small local boxing matches, pummeling his opponents and drawing the attention of an American boxing promoter. When Adonis Creed wins the heavyweight title over in America, you can almost see the dollar signs flashing in the promoters eyes, and bringing these two together to settle old scores forms the basis of the rest of the movie.

Those familiar plot beats I described earlier, they're all here again, but that's not to say that they're any less enjoyable than when we've seen them before. At times they're even more exciting, with the added intensity coming from knowing that this is a fight that's been over 30 years in the making.

Despite the traditional halfway lull, with our hero experiencing a period of doubt and self reflection, this is once again another intense and uplifting movie. Brilliant.