Books tagged with 'communism': 12

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The Thorn of Lion City: A Memoir

by...Lucy Lum     average rating...3.0 / 5
tags...china communism memoir nonfiction
shelved by...bethied83
viewable entries...none
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Red Azalea

by...Anchee Min     average rating...4.0 / 5
tags...china communism memoir nonfiction
shelved by...bethied83
viewable entries...none
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The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

by...Kang Chol-Hwan, Yair Reiner     average rating...3.5 / 5
tags...autobiography communism korea memoir nonfiction war
shelved by...bethied83 judith_richards
viewable entries...none
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First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.)

by...Loung Ung     average rating...4.3 / 5
tags...autobiography cambodia communism genocide memoir nonfiction war
shelved by...bethied83 judith_richards mclauer
viewable entries...1

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entry by...mclauer     updated...May 26, '07     spoilers...minor

In 1975, Ung, now the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World, was the five-year-old child of a large, affluent family living in Phnom Phen. As well-educated Chinese-Cambodians, with the father a government agent, her family was in great danger when the Khmer Rouge took over the country and throughout Pol Pot's barbaric regime. Her parents' strength and her father's knowledge of Khmer Rouge ideology enabled the family to survive together for a while, posing as illiterate peasants, moving first between villages, and then from one work camp to another. Her restrained, unsentimental account of the four years she spent surviving the regime before escaping with a brother to Thailand and eventually the United States is astonishing. She describes the physical devastation she is surrounded by but always returns to her memories and hopes for those she loves. Her joyful memories of life in Phnom Penh are close even as she is being trained as a child soldier, and as, one after another, both parents and two of her six siblings are murdered in the camps.Twenty-five years after the rise of the Khmer Rouge, this powerful account is a triumph.

In the epilogue, Loung thanks her editor, because she's says without the editing, we'd all be reading a much longer book. In this case, I would love to read "the much longer book".... I can't say enough positive about the book, even though I know it has received criticism. It's a first hand account of the same stories I've heard first hand over.. Stories that deserve to be retold so that hopefully they never have to be experienced again. Whether you are an academic with an interest in Cambodia / Southeast Asia or the casual reader, you will be haunted a young girl's life..

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Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos

by...Emily Wu     average rating...4.0 / 5
tags...china communism memoir nonfiction
shelved by...bethied83
viewable entries...none
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The People's Act of Love: A Novel

by...James Meek     average rating...4.0 / 5
tags...cannibalism communism fiction love religion russia russian war
shelved by...miserablizm oceanlistener
viewable entries...2

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entry by...oceanlistener     updated...Jul 30, '08     spoilers...n/a

It had such great reviews, and was supposed to be amazing, but I couldn't get into this book as much as I felt I should have. Some of the individual chapters were interesting, but they didn't fit into a story that I was particularly interested in, or felt compelled by.
I seem to have read a series of these "beautiful" books that have highly symbolic characters and story lines that don't mean much to me. The characters in this book were so abstract, and I didn't understand the role of several of them.
Interesting, though, I had no idea the Czech soldiers played a role in the Russian Revolution, or the existence of the castrate groups. Some of the conflicting groups in this book felt a bit over the top.
Took me a long time to read.

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'[entry title]'

entry by...miserablizm     updated...Jul 14, '08     spoilers...none

Usually I hate reading books with 'international best seller' plastered all over the front (I know I'm a snob), but I just didn't care with this one. It is so beautiful, so cruel, so slow - you get to see every side of a moment with complete lucidity throughout. My only main gripe is that I think it was over-egging the pudding a bit to have the cannibal AND the castrate AND the communists - had the communists not been in it it still would have served as an ample reflection of the horrors of that kind of extremism. But, still, amazing amazing. So well-written. So affecting.

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The Master and Margarita

by...Mikhail Bulgakov     average rating...4.6 / 5
tags...communism deep fantasy fiction magicalrealism russian university
shelved by...guardedeyes kuratkull miserablizm sanctionedmadness the_denton_affair
viewable entries...3

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entry by...the_denton_affair     updated...Apr 03, '07     spoilers...n/a

All right. I admit it: this is my favourite book.

I'm going to give you/myself some space to get over this revelation.













I'd like to add that this translation is even sexier than I ever thought it could be, especially the notes. So alive! And calming. Wonderful.

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'Wonderful'

entry by...kuratkull     updated...Mar 23, '08     spoilers...none

One of my favorite books. I love the fact that this book can be viewed from different angles: political(anti communism), (love story), fantasy, etc.
A MUST read. You won't regret it.

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'[entry title]'

entry by...miserablizm     updated...Apr 07, '08     spoilers...none

All right. I admit it: this is my favourite book.

I'm going to give you/myself some space to get over this revelation.













I'd like to add that this translation is even sexier than I ever thought it could be, especially the notes. So alive! And calming. Wonderful.

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Animal Farm and 1984

by...George Orwell, Christopher Hitchens     average rating...3.0 / 5
tags...communism dystopia orwell
shelved by...kuratkull Lizzey Vasilly
viewable entries...none
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We the Living

by...Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff     average rating...3.0 / 5
tags...communism revolution russia
shelved by...mclauer
viewable entries...1

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entry by...mclauer     updated...Feb 13, '08     spoilers...none

Ayn Rand's We The Living is a novel set in Russia right after the revolution and explores the lifes and times of primarily three individuals: Kira, the female who wants to be an engineer and is passionately in love with Leo, the son of former Army General and the immistakable Andrei, who has risen from streets to become a formidable communist. To complete the cast is Victor, Kira's cousin, who does the needful to shed his bourgeois past and rise through the ranks; Pyerov and Sonia, who in their own way use communism to become richer and powerful, and other members of Kira's family. The novel dwells on how revolution alters not only their daily lifes, morals, ambitions but also reveals their base and basic human character. It is a tale of falsified hopes, broken dreams, corruption, love, and of the struggle of someone to survive a political system that is of utmost dislike to him/her.

Perhaps as the first book to come out of communist Russia, We The Living has gained more respect than it merits on basis of just literary qualities. Like all her heroes and heroines, Rand's prime suspects here are three idealists who seek to justify their different means for their selfish ends. The love triangle between Andrei, Leo and Kira is stifling reminder of how some people try to lead a dual life, hoping they can let two people be happily in love with them. While the novel is a great treatise on how and why communist Russia squandered the dreams of early revolutionaries, Kira fails to impress. Her convictions are full of contradictions, as are her means and methods of achieving them. If I really want someone to read about communist Russia, I'd ask them to pick Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. If Ayn Rand's objectivism or invidualism is the ideal, stop after reading Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

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The Communist Manifesto

by...Karl Marx, Martin Malia     average rating...3.0 / 5
tags...communism politics socialtheory
shelved by...BlackViolin mallyland weeshawoo
viewable entries...1

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entry by...BlackViolin     updated...Aug 16, '08     spoilers...n/a

I figure I would have more interest towards this manifesto if I was interested in Communism, but it was a curious to see the pros and cons of communism.

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