What are you reading right now?

[Hope]

"What if we didn't consider death the worst possible outcome? What if we discussed it honestly, embraced hospice care, and prepared for the end of our lives with hope and acceptance?
In this compassionate and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden—known online as "Hospice Nurse Julie"—shares the valuable lessons she's learned in her fifteen years as an RN in the ICU and in hospice. Expertly interweaving emotional insight and practical advice, Nothing to Fear demystifies end-of-life care for both patients and caregivers, covering topics including:
the biological details of dying
which medical interventions help and which only make things worse
the otherworldly beauty of deathbed phenomena
financial and logistical preparations for death
facts and myths about hospice care
the most important conversations to have before you die
the grieving process, before and after death
Sure to be a go-to resource for years to come, McFadden's first book proves a better death goes hand in hand with a better life." - From Goodreads

[Lucem Ferre]

I finished the Mussolini book. Really interesting. He was kind of clueless on ideology, not knowing what he believed in and just appropriating what ever he thought would be most opportune at the moment. He was almost like a political Diddo that reflected what ever personality made the biggest impact on him at the moment. His fragile ego landing him in a position where he basically became Hitler's bitch was almost satisfying. Even though he created Fascism, and political nihilism is definitely a key feature, I think Hitler really seemed to give Fascism a real identity when Mussolini couldn't because he didn't exactly know what he wanted be himself.

[SGR]

I finished the Mussolini book. Really interesting. He was kind of clueless on ideology, not knowing what he believed in and just appropriating what ever he thought would be most opportune at the moment. He was almost like a political Diddo that reflected what ever personality made the biggest impact on him at the moment. His fragile ego landing him in a position where he basically became Hitler's bitch was almost satisfying. Even though he created Fascism, and political nihilism is definitely a key feature, I think Hitler really seemed to give Fascism a real identity when Mussolini couldn't because he didn't exactly know what he wanted be himself.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! How'd you read it by the way? Did you need to order a physical copy?

I've read a few Mussolini biographies, and for whatever reason, Kirkpatrick's book seems to rarely get mentioned. I'm not sure why, his writing style kept me constantly engaged while being very informative on the war and the political shenanigans of the time.

[Lucem Ferre]

Nah, I pirated that shit.

So many PDFs. @YorkeDaddy would be proud.

[SGR]

Nah, I pirated that shit.

So many PDFs. @YorkeDaddy would be proud.

Are you also a libgen fan? 

[Lucem Ferre]

Yeah, I've used a lot of sites. That particular book was harder to find, though. I'm not a quitter, though.

[SGR]

Yeah, I've used a lot of sites. That particular book was harder to find, though. I'm not a quitter, though.

[Lisnaholic]

"What if we didn't consider death the worst possible outcome? What if we discussed it honestly, embraced hospice care, and prepared for the end of our lives with hope and acceptance?
In this compassionate and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden—known online as "Hospice Nurse Julie"—shares the valuable lessons she's learned in her fifteen years as an RN in the ICU and in hospice. Expertly interweaving emotional insight and practical advice, Nothing to Fear demystifies end-of-life care for both patients and caregivers, covering topics including:
the biological details of dying
which medical interventions help and which only make things worse
the otherworldly beauty of deathbed phenomena
financial and logistical preparations for death
facts and myths about hospice care
the most important conversations to have before you die
the grieving process, before and after death
Sure to be a go-to resource for years to come, McFadden's first book proves a better death goes hand in hand with a better life." - From Goodreads

^ That book looks like a very interesting, but also very sombre, read; I'm not sure if I'm ready for something which (demystified or not) is prob pretty depressing.
___________________________________________

This excellent memoir by Alan Bennett also has a lot about people's deaths and hospice care, as AB remembers his parents and how his mum spent 15 years of dementia in a nursing home: a mere existence rather than a life:



I suspect that AB is not much known in the US, but he is a small-scale celeb in England due to his playwriting and career in  TV comedy. His writing style is the opposite of flamboyant: his speciality is plodding dispassionately through humdrum details that other people overlook. To get an idea of his writing, here he is summing up his impressions of the funerals he has attended during the course of the book, most of them conducted in municiple crematoriums:-

The building will be long and low, put up in the sixties, probably, when death begins to go secular. Set in country that is not quite country it looks like the reception area of a tasteful factory or the departure lounge of a small provincial airport confined to domestic flights. The style is contemporary but not eye-catchingly so; this is decorum-led architecture which does not draw attention even to its own merits. The long windows have a stylistic hint of tracery, denomination here a matter of hints, the plain statement of any sort of conviction very much to be avoided.
       Related settings might be the waiting area of a motor showroom, the foyer of a small private hospital or a section of a department store selling modern furniture of inoffensive design: dead places. This is the architecture of reluctance, the furnishings of the functionally ill at ease, decor for a place you don't want to be.
       It is neat with the neatness ill-omened; clutter means hope and there is none here, no children's drawings, no silly notices. There are flowers, yes, but never a Christmas tree and nothing that seems untidy. The whole function of the place, after all, is to do with tidying something away.

[Guybrush]

now I've started this:



A colleague has talked at me about the greatness of this series at least twice now, so hey.. why not. I enjoy fantasy 👌

I'm only ten pages in or so.

Finished this one - it took a while - and am now on to the second book in this series. Despite a few minor annoyances, the first book was actually very good and the ending of it impressed me. Definitely worth a read for fantasy fans.

[Lucem Ferre]

I finished Dracula & am 22 chapters into Stalin retsarded or what ever that book is called.

[SGR]

I finished Dracula & am 22 chapters into Stalin retsarded or what ever that book is called.

[Guybrush]

Ah, Stalin. He always looks like such a happy and warm individual. It's hard to believe he could do anything bad.

[SGR]

Ah, Stalin. He always looks like such a happy and warm individual. It's hard to believe he could do anything bad.

He was a really nice guy, once you got to know him. That's what I hear anyways.

[Lucem Ferre]

I never liked Stalin and this book so far just reinforces my dislike for him.

He seems like less of a socialist and more like a fascist. Why would anybody who wants to liberate the working class start a war with the working class? And they had farting contests while their people starved.

[Lucem Ferre]

I finished the Stalin book and I stand on the perspective that Stalin was far more fascist than socialist.