#misha glenny

[yugocar]

the balkans: nationalism, war and the great powers 1804 -2012, misha glenny

[anamon-book]

ユーゴスラヴィアの崩壊 ミーシャ・グレニー、井上健・大坪孝子＝訳、千田善・解説 白水社 装幀＝伊勢功治

[csuitebitches]

2024 reading list

The $100 StartUp

The E-Myth Revisited 

The Four Steps to the Epiphany

Hooked

The Checklist Manifesto

The Lean Startup

Creativity Inc. 

Who - smart and street

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker

The School of Life: An Emotional Education by Alain de Botton

Rapport: The Four Ways to Read People by Emily and Laurence Alison

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) Third Edition: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris

Upstream: How to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

The Revenge of Geography by Robert D. Kaplan

The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard 

The Quest by Daniel Yergin

Who Rules the World? by Noam Chomsky

Day of Empire by Amy Chua

India’s China Challenge by Ananth Krishnan

How to Stage a Coup – Rory Cormac – 2022

Secret History of the Five Eyes (2022) – Richard Kerbaj

Xi: A Study in Power (2022) – Kerry Brown

The India Way by S. Jaishankar

Michael Lewis: Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

David Rubenstein: How to Invest: Masters on the Craft

Elon Musk by Isaacson, Walter

The Man Who Knew - Sebastian Mallaby

Blood and Oil - Bradley Hope, Justin Scheck

Brazillionaires - Alex Cuadros

Empire Of Pain- Patrick Radden Keefe

The Match King - Frank Partnoy

McMafia - Misha Glenny

[azspot]

The historian Misha Glenny has talked about the “four horsemen of the modern apocalypse.” One is nuclear, another is other global warming, then pandemics, and finally, our dependence on networks that may stop working at some time. If they stop working, then the human race stops functioning, and a lot of it simply starves and disappears. These particular threats worry me enormously, and I think they’re real.

Robert Skidelsky

[bermudianabroad]

Everything I Read in 2024

*reread* didn't enjoy would recommend short stories, novella or multi-author anthology (with editor credited) listened to audiobook version

Favourites of the Year: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff; James by Percival Everett; Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh (Fiction) / Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham (Non-Fiction)

And, without further ado and in no particular order, the rest under the cut. Links to goodreads pages.

Thoughtful thoughts to follow.

Graphic Novels/Non-Fiction

1. Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug (trans. from German) 2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, artist Renee Nault 3. Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh 4. Fatherland by Nina Bunjevac 5. Palestine by Joe Sacco

Fiction

1. West by Carys Davies 2. *The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy* 3. *The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster* 4. Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq 5. Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart 6. All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby 7. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff 8. Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au 9. The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan 10. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee 11. Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford 12. Glitterland by Alexis Hall 13. These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever 14. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 15. Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang 16. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Mosfegh 17. Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh 18. Greek Lessons by Han Kang (trans. from Korean) 19. *The Complete Short Stories by Muriel Spark* 20. Idol, Burning by Rin Usami (trans. from Japanese) 21. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh 22. The Mercies by Kiran Milwood Hargrave 23. The Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura (trans. from Japanese) 24. James by Percival Everett 25. American Dirt by Jeanie Cummins 26. Open Secrets by Alice Munro 27. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell 28. The Question Mark by Muriel Jaeger 29. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 30. Olive Ketteridge by Elizabeth Strout 31. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (trans. from Palestinian Arabic) 32. There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak 33. Dark Constellations by Pola Oloixarac (trans. from Spanish) 34. Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Anthology of Dark Fiction ed. Shane Hawk 35. Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid 36. On Java Road by Lawrence Osborne 37. Recitatif by Toni Morrison 38. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson 39. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang 40. The Darkest of Nights by Charles Eric Maine 41. History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Non-Fiction

1. Midnight in Chernobyl: The True Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham 2. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up A Generation For Failure (!!!!) by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff [emphatic exclamation points blogger's own] 3. Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin 4. The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny 5. Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster at the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham 6. The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, TREACHERY, and the HUNT for the PERFECT BIRD by Joshua Hammer [emphatic CAPITALISATION blogger's own] 7. What Does Israel Fear From Palestine? by Raja Shehadeh 8. The Anxious Generation: How the Great 'Rewiring' of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt 9. The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance by Robin Wall Kimmerer 10. Don't Let's Go to the Dog's Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

[marinetti-dinner-party]

i finally--FINALLY!!!!-- finished misha glenny's book on the balkans. i can't say much of it stuck but i did learn a little bit. i still would like to go to croatia though. i need to learn more. really make the history come alive. and not to be a sex pest tourist or anything but croatian women are beautiful. it turbosucks that the game of thrones show was filmed partially in split, but i'm glad they're getting that bag i suppose.

next reading projects: payne's book on fascism, francis parker-yockey's IMPERIVM. and you all wanted to journey with me into fascist and general far right filk music. so i guess we're all going to learn the 'italians aren't honkies' song together. i already know it of course, but now it is YOUR turn

[ourwaveofhistory]

My brief 2024 end of year round up

In family research terms, 2024 has been more of a trickle rather than the wave of things I found during my first year of research. I knew things would slow down after finding all the "easy" stuff, but also trying to balance this in between busy work and life, 2024 has not been nearly as fruitful as I envisaged.

But I've not been slacking! Here is what I have been able to do this year.

One thing I have managed in those brief moments I have amongst everything else, is reading. And although quite a few other books have been stealing my attention (especially this, this and this) , I have still been able to read around Second World War in detail (as told in this 2 part series) as well as Misha Glenny's The Fall of Yugoslavia.

Discovering more about Yugoslavia has played a big part of my year. I have been emailing family in Slovenia, listening to the Remembering Yugoslavia podcast, and also thinking about what role my grandfather and my family heritage play in shaping my identity. I wrote about that here:

Finding documents and research on Yugoslavia's role during the second world war is difficult whilst based in the UK and not being able to speak any Slovenian or Serbo-Croat. Or Italian for that matter (as it is my belief that my grandfather operated, and was subsequently interned, in Italy somewhere between 1941 and 1945). Many of the wartime records and archives from Italy during this time have been destroyed or suppressed (some have suggested this was to help Italy rejoin the EU and NATO post war), or records were destroyed during the breakup/breakdown of Yugosalvia in the 1990s.

However, I have stumbled upon academic researchers exploring topics, themes and activities of Yugoslavia during World War 2. Using Academia.edu I am working my way through many papers which are already shedding light on the context and history of Italy and Yugoslavia during the 1940s.

When reading or web research feels a bit too much, I can watch documentaries through YouTube or other streaming services. I am also most of the way through the 26 part BBC documentary The World At War, a very thorough, detailed and brutal examinaton of all aspects of the second World War. Cannot recommend highly enough.

Other than all of this contextual research, trying to find where my grandfather was captured and interned has been the primary aim of my research this year, with a particular focus on Italian POW Camps. I am far from concluding anything here, but after researching Gonars I am now moving on to the camps at both Rab and Bari. Others may follow in coming months and I will write about each in turn.

I wrote this post as a reminder to myself that although disappointed I haven't "cracked this case" yet and I haven't got that full picture of my grandfather's activities during the war, I have done what I can and even 2 years in, this family research is never far from my mind.

I wish I could take the time away from work to explore more thoroughly, visit all the places my grandfather was or could have been, and really take my time to document all of this. But like most family historians, I will have to make do with my approach of doing what I can when I can and living with this mystery just a little while longer.

[tracksterman]

Three episodes in, this latest iteration of 'The Invention of...' is shaping up well and should be of interest to anybody curious about China.

[rahulrainbow]

MCMAFIA CAST, DOWNLOAD & REVIEW IN ENGLISH & HINDI

MCMAFIA WEB SERIES - THE STORY OF INTERNATIONAL DRUG CARTEL.

PHOTO CREDIT : AMAZON PRIME THE REVIEW OF WEB SERIES : – MCMAFIA Here i have written about “McMafia” Web Series.It is available only on Amazon Prime.It is a thrill,suspense,crime based Drama Web Series.”McMafia” is the fight story of the international syndicates of crimes.”McMafia” is based on Book “McMafia” written by Misha Glenny (A BBC Central Europe correspondent). DESCRIPTION:-“McMafia”…

[yugocar]

likely thing for him to be

[kkintle]

McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny; Quotes

For no organized criminal is as successful as the one who enjoys the backing of the state.

Trust is essential to the smooth functioning of any organized criminal activity. Except, that is, when the commodity being traded is a human being. In this instance, deceit must masquerade as trust.

Those ties referred to one of the five key commodities from which organized crime groups around the world make their largest profits: diamonds. The other four are arms, narcotics, energy products, and cigarettes.

“American policy in the Middle East is held hostage to the fear that if you push someone too much, then you might end up with someone a lot worse.

Capital itself is neither dirty nor clean—it is human activity and human values that determine the color of money.

“I dove under the truck, careful to place a little blanket underneath so I didn’t pick up too much dirt—it’s those little touches that make the difference between professionals like me and the amateurs who will at some point get caught.”

“It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white,” mused Deng Xiaoping when he was explaining the need to introduce economic reforms in the 1980s. “It only matters if it catches mice.” 

“It doesn’t matter whether the mice are black or white,” as Deng’s saying has now been paraphrased, “as long as they avoid the cat.”

[jamesginortonblog]

by Michael Hogan

[...]

A second series of McMafia has been commissioned. What can you tell us about that?

It’s currently in the writer’s room. It’s set two years later and Alex Godman [played by James Norton] is now a proper organised crime figure. He’s grown into the job and it’ll be a much more confident, less tight-lipped Alex than we saw before. It’s going to be great fun.

TheGuardian.com

[beatrixacs]

The Falcone/Borsellino coin does really fit well into my book collection 👌 Thank you for your work and your sacrifice, gentlemen...

[end-of-the-world-optimist]

Well, color me confused. Anyway, I would rather have hope and belive this version ☝️😊

[norton-addiction]

James Norton and Juliet Rylance at a photocall for BBC OneÕs McMafia at BAFTA in London.

[j-august]

Misha Glenny, McMafia