Do you mean The Fall of Yugoslavia or The Rebirth of History? I thought the first was very good, but haven't read the second.

His later book trying to put the Balkans in a broader historical context seemed to me to be a step too far for someone who is a terrific reporter, but not really a historian.

The Fall of Yugoslavia. I've never heard of the other one, to be honest.

It came out earlier than "The Fall" and is supposed to be less focused on the Balkans then on the Velvet Revolution (he worked closely with Havel) and developments in what is now (again) called Central Europe.

Glenny would have done a much better job with a "New Europe" television series than Michael Palin did.

Having now looked up the second book on Amazon I realize that not only have I heard of it, but I have actually read it. An eminently forgettable book, apparently.

ursus arctos wrote:

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the Landmark Herodotus, which hasn't arrived yet).

Is this a new release? I'm familiar with the Landmark Thucydides but went with the Grene/Hobbes' instead. I assume the Herodotus is same format and all. Any particular reason you're reading Herodotus?

Also I just wiki'd Misha Glenny and apparently he is the son of Michael Glenny who must be the same guy as translated my copy of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (hence my deciding to look up Misha).

The Herodotus is relatively new, and is by the same guy who did the Thucydides (which I also have).

Every now and then I like to get back to my roots as a historian (though I never did ancient history seriously), and ursus minor is going through a bit of a classical phase at the moment.

Roughly how old is ursus minor if I may ask.

He just turned 10; he's a somewhat unusual child.

Wow, wish someone had got me started at that age. Good for him. If he needs to feel any better my 2nd grade niece is always asking me to quiz her about Greek mythology. It's a bit of a challenge navigating all the mature content with her.

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Having now stared at this pile of books for awhile, I've narrowed it down to The Great Lakes of Africa (it has over a dozen references to the Kingdom of Toro, which must be worth something)

I'm putting it on my list right now...

Bruno, have you encountered D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths?

It was my favorite book as an 8 year old, and ursus minor loves it too, though he has now moved on to the Stephanides Brothers' series from Greece, which is really terrific. Their versions of the Iliad and Odyssey weigh in at about 400 pages each, and provided him with sufficient detail to take on the fanciful "Ljubljana variant" of the Argonauts story during our recent visit. "Papa", he said, "that just didn't happen."

Looks like a perfect gift idea for her. I know she had some illustrated compendium with artwork by the guy who does all the Tolkien illustrating (Alan Lee). Thanks for that, I will definitely check it out.

sufficient detail to take on the fanciful "Ljubljana variant" of the Argonauts story during our recent visit. "Papa", he said, "that just didn't happen."

Just, you know, make sure and throw a ball with him sometimes, too. ;)

It's really a great book (so much so that it has been adopted by The New York Review of Books as one of their childrens' book reprints). The same couple also have one on the Norse gods.

One of ursus minor's other favourite pastimes is making his father look like an idiot with a cricket bat. He even decided we needed to put on an exhibition of this form of parental humiliation for our visiting relatives. We only play baseball in North America (where he ruthlessly exploits my disappearing ability to run).

I refuse to understand what cricket is. Fucking cabalistic and best left that way. My son's only 1 1/2...suffice to say the prospect of his one day saying something similarly priceless would be worth a hundred ball and bat sessions. His main literary accomplishment is 'Stop sign!' minus the p.

Toro De France wrote:

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Having now stared at this pile of books for awhile, I've narrowed it down to The Great Lakes of Africa (it has over a dozen references to the Kingdom of Toro, which must be worth something)

I'm putting it on my list right now...

You might want to hold off - it's pretty heavy slogging. This is history for peoples with no written language, so it's a mix of linguistics, agriculture, archaeology and interpretations of mythology up until 1850 or so, mixed in with a large dose of historiography of works I've never heard of. Plus the guy's French, and either French academic works need better translators, or they're written like ass in the first place.

Oh, and there's no mention of Toro through the first 130 pages. So a slow start all around.

I took a break to read Sebastian Moffett's Japanese Rules, which all around is a much better book on football in Japan than the earlier Ultra Nippon, I reckon.

(I am, btw, actually going to be in the Kingdom of Toro in about five weeks, provided by clients stop changing their damn mind every two seconds. Send me your address so I can post you something appropriate.)

I forget if we did this in the children's books thread or not, but there is an illustrated Gilgamesh trilogy for children that is quite fantastic for kids about 5-7 years old. Though, admittedly, I tended to spice up the stories for my son by making Ishtar and Enkidu incredibly flatulent.

I finished The Maltese Falcon in the early hours of this morning when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. The ending is the best bit of the book, he deals with it all quite nicely.