Ataraxia

  The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver the was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1999, it is placed on the 865 th spot on The Greatest books of All Time site, and what is crucial for this space, it is already one of my Top 200 Favorite Oeuvres, and I have only read a quarter of it, the plan is too have a few notes on it – you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the GOAT and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html and YouTube channel   10 out of 10   Another Barbara, Barbara Fredrickson https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/positivity-by-barbara-fredrickson-life.html has written a psychology classic, Positivity, and you find there the ingredients of, well, Positivity: awe, interest, hope, inspiration, pride, serenity, joy, gratitude, love and…amusement, which is what The Poisonwood Bible is about   This was my own attempt at a feeble, failed joke...

  Wag the Dog written by Larry Beinhart, David Mamet, a motion picture that seems to have changed, it is now on the news, what with the ‘special operation’, the name given by the tyrant in the Kremlin to his war in Ukraine, or the war in Iran, which was won on day one, according to another lunatic, the self-proclaimed ‘greatest president of the US’; you have thousands of notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html and YouTube channel   8 out of 10   Glengarry Glen Ross https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/glengarry-glen-ross-by-david-mamet.html by David Mamet has won The Pulitzer Prize and it has been adapted for the big screen, that is one of the best films I know, with Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, the latter, in fact all are superb   Alec Baldwin is Blake, and he has been sen...

  Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, except it is only 2969 th on The Greatest Books of All Time, but what matters most in this corner, it is still one of my Top 200 Favorites, after a second reading; you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   10 out of 10   Hideous Kinky was mesmerizing https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/hideous-kinky-by-esther-freud-10-out-of.html the first time, and I was somewhat skeptical for the second encounter, especially given that Changing Places by David Lodge was no longer the euphoric experience, when tested for a second time, last week   Esther Freud was the ‘daughter of acclaimed (if absent in the childhood of the girl, at least as depicted in the opus) painter Lucien Freud and great- granddaughter of the titanic Sigmund Freud’, ...

  Melania si Ceilalti or Melania and The Others by Alex Stefanescu – a book that does not exist on The Greatest Books of All Time site…I have developed a habit of searching for what I read on the GOAT, sometimes the results are   appalling because a great work is at the bottom, or worse, and then there are amusing surprises…for more reviews, you could visit my blog   https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html and/or YouTube channel   8 out of 10   George Constatin https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/09/vassa-zheleznova-by-maxim-gorky-is-not.html was the best thespian I have seen, better than Jack Nicholson, though this would only be in my book, and his presence in this play makes it more than worthwhile, the segments where he talks are fantastic…   This was a version for the National Radio, in which he plays the upset, disturbed husband of Marta, Titi Enachescu, the latter had been trapped in ...

  Changing Places by David Lodge is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but just 1716 th on The Greatest books of All Time site, it has just fallen out of my Top 200 Favorite Books, perhaps by the end of this note I will know where to place it; you have six reviews of oeuvres by David Lodge and hundreds of others on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   8 out of 10   When I first read Changing Places https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/about-magnum-opus-changing-places-by.html I was so exuberant and dazzled – other less faltering words come to mind – that I have rated it 14 out of 10, and placed it within my Top 200 Favorite Novels, now, after the second encounter, there is less euphoria   On the contrary, even if I will not dismiss this and say it is bad, I am left with some images that may have been mirthful, maybe some ten years back, I cannot recall when I had read this for...

  Is This Anything by Jerry Seinfeld shows up when you search for it on The Greatest Books of All Time site, although without any ranking, not even 17003 rd , which is where I found Student Dima, a work that is already reviewed on my blog   https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html ‘Pretentious, moi?’ seems to me to define Seinfeld 8 out of 10   Jerry Seinfeld https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-seinfeld-scripts-by-jerry-seinfeld.html is one of the most successful comedians in the world, he may be one billion dollars’ worth – I was going to say by now, but he could have reached that figure years ago, this may explain in part his sarcasm, albeit he had been like that in the past   His humor is contagious, except there is an element there that I don’t find exhilarating, not that it matters, except in this corner, and even this ‘critic’ must confess that he has watched Seinfeld with pleasure, and no...