Ataraxia

  Dissolution by C.J. Sansom, adapted for BBC Radio – the oeuvre is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, albeit the algorithm for The Greatest Books of All Time site has it in the 5959 th place; for more of my reviews you can access https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html this is where you see more pictures and videos of my macaws, one photo is inserted here   8 out of 10   The Daughter of Time https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-daughter-of-time-by-josephine-fey.html is the Best Book in The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, which is a list published in 1990 by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA), and it came to mind while reading Dissolution, which is also one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read   One of the Six Principles of Influence is Conformity, explained in the psychology classic by Robert Cialdini, manifest in the way we reciprocate when we receive something, this happens t...

  Le Corsaire aka The Privateer by Marcel Achard – if you search for the author on The Greatest Books of All Time, which goes to 20,000 entries or more, you get…Marcel Proust, presumably, because Marcel Achard is not relevant enough, although he was elected, at the age of sixty, as member of The French Academy; you find more of my notes at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html     8 out of 10   George Constantin https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/09/vassa-zheleznova-by-maxim-gorky-is-not.html is the reason I have listened to this play, for the name of Marcel Achard was not familiar, when looking for him on The Greatest Books of All Time, the result is Marcel Proust, because Achard had little impact   I just realized that the next line could well serve as a spoiler alert, George Constantin was the greatest thespian for the under signed; as for spoiler alerts, they represent a moment of hilari...

  Tragedian in Spite of Himself by Anton Chekhov, his Short Stories are included on The Bokklubben World Library’s Best 100 Books of All Time list, and they are ranked 127th on The Greatest Books of All Time site…you have thousands of reviews on magnum opera from the aforementioned and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html and YouTube channel, where my macaws are the stars   9 out of 10   Anton Chekhov https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-short-stories-of-anton-chekhov-are.html is one of my favorite authors: I was talking just a few hours ago, at the jacuzzi downtown, about oeuvres, to a femme charmante from Moldova, who was listening to an audiobook, and my advice was to focus on The GOAT, Greatest of All Time   Coming from the Republic of Moldova, she had read Russian classics in their own language, I failed to get into politics, but just touching on the subject, ...

    Rabbi Avraham – Abba Seligman              link to positive3 Those who study to observe see new wonders every day Every day he marvels anew at how the sun rises and how it sets, the storm’s lightning… Period of mayhem, when territory passed from one to the other: Germans Russians Polish people   One was not permited to gaze directly at a woman other than his wife It is forbidden to len to a person who has no thought of repaying   Zalman Rappaport cllaed the rabbi one week before his death Says to wife of dying man that one must not lie to a him Rabbi was known as ‘The Divorced Rabbi’ and had the repuation of a pious and righteous man   Zalman wants his son, Gavriel aka Gabik Rappaport, to leave university and study with Rabbi Seligman but then he starts working with Godl in growing cucumbers cabbage shiksas swoon over him – then, because of the advise of the rabbi, he is sn...

  As Good As It Gets written by Mark Andrus and James Brooks, directed by the latter was the 1998 Winner of The Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Jack Nicholson, and The Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Helen Hunt took this one; here is the link to my blog, for more notes on films and books, and my macaws https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   8 out of 10   Jack Nicholson https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/12/a-few-good-men-directed-by-late.html is one of my favorite thespians, winner of three Oscars, though he has one for the supporting role in A Few Good Men, whereas Daniel Day Lewis has three Academy Awards, all for leading roles, not that this is an issue on which to compare them   He is the freak at the center of the plot, a hypochondriac with an attitude problem, obnoxious, at least to begin with, arrogant, demanding, he only wants this waitress to serve in the restaurant ...

  A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, it is 65 th among Modern Library’s Best 100 Novels, it is also ranked 153 rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, a chef d’oeuvre   10 out of 10   I have read, listened to, or watched the marvelous adaptation of A Clockwork Orange a few times https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/11/a-clockwork-orange-by-anthony-burgess.html and it was a glorious experience this, last time, when I have listened to the play, which has excellent music, Beethoven and original compositions   In one of my notes, I have referred to Orange Alex, it was just before the elections, won by this loathsome idiot, who loves Putin and other such like monsters, while attacking Canada, Ukraine, The European Union, allies, and I saw parallels between the main character of the novel and the Convicted Felon, who rules over the free world The wonderful Belles Lettres Papers https://realinibarzoi...

  Laybe Lazar’s Courtyard by Chaim Grade is the second narrative in Rabbis and Wives, which was shortlisted for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, albeit I could not find it on The Greatest Books of All Time site at all, never mind seeing it near the top…you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT and other prestigious lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   8 out of 10   I have enjoyed the first part https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/10/rebbetzin-by-chaim-grade-is-first.html of Rabbis and Wives, called Rebbetzin, and the second novella, Laybe Lazar’s Courtyard follows the same pattern, if not ecstatic, I have been pleased to immerse in this place, I need to amend that, it was not an immersion   There are similarities, which may even make sense, we have the book under the title which may have to describe all three narratives contained therein, though I have to...

  This is an interesting love story, which used to be weird, even forbidden one hundred years ago. Come to think of it, even today, this kind of thing and many others are unthinkable in Saudi Arabia, the Islamic State (a new horrible apparition), Brunei and many other places, where the Sharia dictates that infidelity is punished by stoning. In the past few days, many people have lost their heads, literally- in the Middle East and everybody talks with disgust and loathing of the Islamic State. However, an ally of the West gets away with murder. Saudi Arabia has beheaded 12 people recently for: hashish trafficking and…witchcraft. One was killed even if he had been declared mentally ill. Coming back from the desert to Paris, we have a love triangle, which turns into a square at times.  The heroine, Paula Tessier is 39 years old and loves a man close to her age- Roger Demarest. Alas, he is more than interested in young women, with whom we may say that he cheats on his partner. Phi...

  Seven written by Andrew Kevin Walker, directed by David Fincher, and starring Morgan Feeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey is the Top-Rated Movie Number 20 – you find reviews from this, 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   Brad Pitt https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-river-runs-through-it-by-norman.html is one of my favorite thespians, he has a leading role (or maybe he is the main character here) in Se7en, which by the way, may be Seven or Se7en, I am not sure, I have seen it both ways, he is detective Mills, who wants to be in this narrative   That is, he asked for this job, though the results are quite awful for him – spoiler alert, though I am not yet sure how much I will divulge, and more importantly, who gives a damn – the monster at the center of this mystery fea...

  Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow was the finalist for The 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, notwithstanding the fact that it is only 8988 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – 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 and YouTube channel   8 out of 10   E.L. Doctorow https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/ragtime-based-on-novel-by-el-doctorow.html was a celebrated writer, albeit he was failed to overwhelm this reader, moreover, all the three oeuvres that I have read have all the same 8 out of 10 rating in my ledger, with a plus for Billy Bathgate, read for the first time years back   Billy Bathgate is a likeable enough character- nay, leading I was going to say, except he is not yet sixteen when we meet him, even if he has an adult in the background, the one telling us the crime story – but the is...

  Dune written by Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, based on the novel by Frank Herbert, which is ranked 101 st on The Greatest Books of All Time site, it is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, although it is not a story I get; you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT, 1,000 Novels and other pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html   7 out of 10   I have tried https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/09/dune-by-frank-herbert-my-other-note-on.html the celebrated Dune before, in book format, that is audiobook, and I did not find the oomph, stamina, determination to get on with it, I was thinking that perhaps the movie adaptation will catch my attention, appreciated as it is   Alas, it did not happen, granted, we seldom have a motion picture that is better than the original, it happened to me in the case of Doctor Zhivago, where the film is phen...

  Poems by Paul Verlaine – we find the Selected Poems at 7100 on The Greatest Books of All Time site and The One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine even lower on that page, nonetheless, they are among my favorites…you have thousands of reviews on 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   ‘Words create worlds’ https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/happier-by-tal-ben-shahar.html I don’t know the source of the original quote, but I have heard this in the YouTube videos of the most popular courses at Harvard, which you could, maybe should access for free, Positive Psychology from the wondrous Tal Ben Shahar   Paul Verlaine is nec plus ultra for yours truly, who has learned three of these masterpieces by heart, decades ago, and then enjoyed them ever since, even during…swimming, I used to take laps for about half...

  Evelina by Frances Burney is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, it is ranked 818 th on The Greatest Books of All Time, nevertheless, it failed the capture my attention, and this is mea culpa…you have thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT, 1,000 Novels and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html and YouTube channel   7 out of 10   Alice Adams https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/alice-adams-by-booth-tarkington.html came to mind when reading about Evelina, I thought reading the latter would be as elating as the former, alas, it did not happen, and this is because of the under signed, I did not find it engaging enough, granted, there may be some reasons:   LibriVox is the site where generous volunteers donate their time, they read great works (probably some lesser ones too) that are in the public domain, one such is Evelina, and despite the kudos for the...

  La Force de L’Optimisme by Martin Seligman, who is considered one of the most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century. Founder of positive psychology, he was the president of the American Psychological Association. However, his only book with a ranking on The Greatest Books of All Time site sits at 17297; you have thousands of reviews on books from The GOAT and other sites 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   Martin Seligman https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/flourish-by-martin-seligman.html was the co-founder of Positive Psychology, and with that, he will be more consequential than the Orange American Psycho – as I write this, I have Jimmy Kimmel in the background, ridiculing the latest absurdities from the GOAT   He brags that he is the best of all time, while saying that Iran could take two blue cities, LA and San Diego, in jest, his ...

  The Checklist by Atul Gawande is ranked 13799 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – 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   9 out of 10   Blink https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html is the marvelous psychology classic by Malcolm Gladwell that came to mind in connection with The Checklist, mostly because they both seem to explain how you can get to fabulous outcomes in ‘the blink of an eye’, or under one minute   One dazzled me in The Checklist was the segment regarding airplanes, how it became crucial in the operating of these flying machines, especially as they became more complicated: once pilots had to turn on a good number of switches, see that various systems were working, it was very easy to forget once crucial operation Ergo, the checklis...