Sunday, September 29, 2024

Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (1995)

Junichiro Tanizaki.
The Makioka Sisters.
Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.
New York: Vintage Books (Penguin Random House), 1995.
This translation was first published in 1957.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Wikipedia Articles:
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Nakajima, The Moon Over the Mountain and Other Stories (2011)

Atsushi Nakajima.
The Moon Over the Mountain and Other Stories.
Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner.
Bloomington, Indiana: Autumn Hill Books, 2011.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Author Information:
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Saturday, September 07, 2024

Mearsheimer, The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities (2018)

John J. Mearsheimer.
The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities.
New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Author Information:
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Other Books by John Mearsheimer:
  • John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato. How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • John J. Mearsheimer. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, Updated Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014. (First edition 2001.)
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • John J. Mearsheimer. Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • John J. Mearsheimer. Liddell Hart and the Weight of History. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1988, 2010.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • John J. Mearsheimer. Conventional Deterrence. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Selected Articles by John Mearsheimer:
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Wikipedia Articles:
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Friday, September 06, 2024

Akutagawa, Rashōmon and Other Stories (2018)

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
Rashōmon and Other Stories.
Translated by Takashi Kojima.
Forward by Seiji Lippit.
Introduction by Howard Hibbett.
Tokyo; Rutland, Vermont; and Singapore: Tuttle Publishing [Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.], 2018.
(This collection of translations was also published in 1952 by Liveright Publishing Corporation and reprinted in 1999 under the Liveright imprint by W.W. Norton & Company.)

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Wikipedia Articles:
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Notes:

The Tuttle Publishing (and Liveright/Norton) edition of Rashōmon and Other Stories contains only six stories. In contrast, the collection of Akutagawa stories first published by Penguin in 2006 (and reprinted in Penguin "Deluxe" and "Vitae" editions) has eighteen stories. On the basis of numbers alone, in hindsight I would have rather purchased one of the Penguin edition first (although Tuttle generally uses higher quality paper and binding than Penguin).
  • Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories. Translated by Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 2006.
    [Publisher; Amazon.com.]

Tuttle recently published a Manga version of these stories:
  • Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Akutagawa's Rashomon and Other Stories: The Manga Edition. Adapted by mkdeville. Illustrated by Philippe Nicloux. Tokyo; Rutland, Vermont; and Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 2024.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Friday, June 21, 2024

Diesen, The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World Order (2024)

Glenn Diesen.
The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World Order.
Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press, 2024.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Author Information:
  • Glenn Diesen, University of Southeast Norway.
  • Glenn Diesen (b. 1979), Wikipedia.
  • Glenn Diesen, YouTube channel.
  • Glenn Diesen. EU and NATO Relations with Russia: After the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2015. London: Routledge, 2016.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. Russia's Geoeconomic Strategy for a Greater Eurasia. London: Routledge, 2018.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia. London: Routledge, 2019.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. Russian Conservatism: Managing Change under Permanent Revolution. Lanhan, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. Europe as the Western Peninsula of Greater Eurasia: Geoeconomic Regions in a Multipolar World. Lanhan, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Geoeconomics of Technological Sovereignty. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Glenn Diesen. The Think Tank Racket: Managing the Information War with Russia. Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press, 2023.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Wikipedia Articles:
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Diesen provides a very good summary of international relations theory, contrasting realism and liberalism, which then provides a very insightful framework for understanding geopolitical events over the last 500 years. He then describes events since the late-1980s end of the Cold War, how the West's/USA's dismissal of Russia's security concerns and aggressive expansion of NATO eastwards eventually provoked the recent war in Ukraine, and the consequences this has for the now emerging (already emerged) multipolar world order and the end of previous world order of liberal hegemony dominated by the USA. This book is an excellent introduction to understanding past events and the approaching future.

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Monday, June 10, 2024

Lao-Tzu; Addiss & Lombardo trans, Tao Te Ching (2007)

Lao-Tzu.
Tao Te Ching.
Translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo.
Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, 2007.
Originally published: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Wikipedia Articles:
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
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This edition of the Addiss and Lombardo translation has these dust jacket blurbs by Gary Snyder:
  • "Of the many translations I have read in English, this is unquestionably the best."
  • "This crystalline translation of the Tao Te Ching is accurate down to the nuance and is as concisely poetic as the original. It preserves the quirks and flavors of the original text. The translators harkened to the message of the book itself, and kept it clear and gently strong."
I chose this book on the basis of these endorsements by Gary Snyder (also, it's a nice little hardback, printed on nice paper). While this translation is very poetic (how would I know that it follows the original text very closely?) I also found it very terse and cryptic. This edition has no explanatory notes or commentary; the Introduction by Burton Watson provides some historical context but is of no help in understanding the text. As a beginner encountering the Tao Te Ching for the first time I often found this edition too cryptic and occasionally, to me, incomprehensible. I think an edition with added commentary or explanatory notes would be very helpful. Here are some alternatives. The Wikipedia article on Tao Te Ching contains a list of "notable translations". The Bibliography of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article "Laozi" includes many translations.

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Thursday, June 06, 2024

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1991)

William Shakespeare.
Measure for Measure.
Edited by N. W. Bawcutt.
The Oxford Shakespeare.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
This edition was first published in 1991.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; Amazon.com.

Book Series: The Oxford Shakespeare; Oxford World's Classics.

Some other noteworthy editions of Measure for Measure :
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Editor: N. W. Bawcutt
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Wikipedia Articles:

Shakespeare: English Renaissance Literature, Drama: England during Shakespeare's Time:
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Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Engel & Martin, Russia in World History (2015)

Barbara Alpern Engel and Janet Martin.
Russia in World History.
New Oxford World History.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Book Series: New Oxford World History.

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Author Information: Barbara Alpern Engel Author Information: Janet Martin
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Wikipedia Articles:
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Friday, May 31, 2024

Lessing, Prisons We Choose to Live Inside (1987)

Doris Lessing.
Prisons We Choose to Live Inside.
New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987.
First published: Montreal and Toronto: CBC Enterprises, 1986.
Also published: Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 1991, 2006.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Wikipedia Articles:
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CBC Radio:
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Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Tesdell, editor, Cat Stories (2011)

Diana Secker Tesdell, editor.
Cat Stories.
Everyman's Library Pocket Classics.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin Random House), 2011.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Book Series: Everyman's Library Pocket Classics Series.

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Contents of Cat Stories :
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Afterword (last updated 09 June 2024): What stories were left out from Tesdell's book?

A little while after reading Tesdell's book I wondered: What stories were left out? After all, in compiling anthologies there are space limitations, and the editor must certainly have had an abundance of stories to choose from, and some of them would likely be considered the equal or even superior by some readers to those included by the editor.

One can begin to get an idea of this from another recently published anthology of cat stories: What is the overlap between the books edited Tesdell and Brown? Out of 19 stories in Tesdell and 23 stories in Brown, they share 6 stories: those by Poe, Freeman, Kipling, Saki's "Tobomory", Benet, and Runyon. Otherwise Brown's anthology seems oriented towards older "classic" stories while Tesdell includes several more recently written stories (for example those first published since 1950 by Calvino, Leiber, Lessing, Le Guin, Highsmith, Carter, Adams, Brennan, Gaiman, Millhauser).

I would also like to note that there is a strong Japanese cat literature that is completely ignored by these two anthologies edited by Tesdell and Brown. For example, see my posts for Sōseki, I Am a Cat (2001); Soseki Natsume's I Am A Cat: The Manga Edition (2021); Hiraide, The Guest Cat (2014). What else is there to be found in the literatures of Russia, China, India, Africa, Latin America?

A random list of other cat stories in neither Tesdell or Brown that I have stumbled across:
  • Colette (1873–1954), "The Cat", 19??.
    Reprinted in: Colette, Gigi, and The Cat, Translated by Roger Stenhouse, London: Vintage Classics (Penguin Books), 2001.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
    Note: It appears "The Cat" was not included in The Collected Stories of Colette, Edited by Robert G. Phelps, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984. London: Vintage Classics (Penguin Books), 2003.
    [Publisher USA; Publisher UK; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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