Reading Wednesday

I finished Bloodlands just before going on vacation. Holy cow, I had no idea about all of the post-war ethnic cleansing that Stalin did in Eastern Europe. (Basically they moved all the Poles to Poland, all the Germans to Germany, all the Ukrainians to Ukraine, and a few more that I forget, not to mention that Jews were increasingly in peril until Stalin died. Plus a bunch of people were sent to gulags, of course.) I returned the book, so I have no quotes to offer, but Snyder is such a great writer. One thing to remember is that Hitler's plans for starving people to death in Eastern Europe were way, way worse. As awful as Stalin was on other stuff, Soviet resistance to the Nazis prevented an even greater catastrophe, if you can imagine. Unfortunately, that means that Hitler turned towards solving the Jewish problem then to feel like he won at something, so there is never any silver lining in this story. I'm actually going to buy the book.

To pair with this, I bought Anne Applebaum's Gulag in New Orleans. :P Won't read it now.

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What are you currently reading?

Fiiiiinally started Cascade! It's amusing knowing the author well, so I can pick out what many people and items are inspired by. :)

Pirate Book Club continues with a few pages read from Pirate Utopias