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    Dune: Imperium

    Dune: Imperium

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    Tabletop Game

    Dune: Imperium is a game that finds inspiration in elements and characters from the Dune legacy,...

The Line Becomes a River
The Line Becomes a River
Francisco CantĂș | 2018 | Biography
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Haunting, disturbing, an essential read
This novel is beautiful, fiercely honest, while being deeply empathetic, looking at those who police the Mexican-American border, and the migrants who risk and lose their lives crossing it. In a time of often ill-informed or downright deceitful political rhetoric, this book is an invaluable corrective.

The book follows author Francisco Cantu while he was a US Border Patrol agent from 2008 to 2012. Working the desert at the remote crossroads of drug routes and smuggling corridors, tracking humans through blistering days and frigid nights across a vast terrain. Hauling in the dead and detaining the exhausted, Cantu is plagued by nightmares, opting in the end to abandon his position. Line Becomes a River is a timely look at this arbitrary landscape, bringing home to us the destruction that US policy inflicts on countless lives, and the violence it wreaks on the humanity of us all.
  
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood | 1998 | Essays
9
8.3 (112 Ratings)
Book Rating
Grippingly written - you're always looking for signs as to who is a friend/foe (2 more)
Considered sci-fi in some circles but would appeal to non-sci fi readers just the same
Equally good read as a "thinking" book or just as an ordinary lazy afternoon read
Classic Atwood - read it before you watch the series!
A cautionary tale (to the extreme) of what could happen when people fail to uphold a "fair" society and keep an increasingly authoritarian ruling class in check, told from the perspective of a reproductive servant/slave.

   The story is timely given the theme of reproductive rights and women and social equality issues that have sprung up around certain political arenas in the recent news - which makes the tone of the story even more sardonic in this light. The plot and setting could comfortably fit in as a neighbouring country, say, of other dystopian novel settings such as 1984, Brave New World, and A Clockwork Orange.
  
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson | 2015 | History & Politics
8
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
I stumbled on this book quite by accident while on one of my hours long "grocery shopping" treks through Target. I have had several Erik Larson books on my To Read list for awhile. It was just one of those, "I'll get to them one day," kind of things. I saw this on the shelf & bought it on a whim. I found it it be a truly engaging narrative, not just about the tragic torpedoing & sinking of the Lusitania, but about the passengers & crew too. The human side of the story is what really grabbed me. I will admit that it started off a bit slow for my taste, but I did get immersed in the day to day lives of those aboard the ship. The tales of survival are amazing along with all the political maneuvering that occurred in the wake of the sinking. This is a fascinating snapshot of world history told from a very personal perspective. Well word the read.