Arsene
varishangout.com
What are you reading, what are you interested in, what do you recommend, etc.
Recently I've been reading "Talleyrand" by Duff Cooper, which is a great biography on Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord. He was a diplomate active before, during, and after the French revolution and served for 5 regimes (Lous XVI, The First Republic, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and advise Louis-Philipe), perhaps because of that he is often overshadowed by other figures during those time but he was still one of hte most audacious, affluent, and skilled statesmen in European history and his life story is super fascinating.
I also recently started listening to audio books after thumbing my nose at the for a long time, though I've definitely changed my mind after listening to "Prophet's Prey" by Sam Brower. It is a first-hand account of Brower, a P.I. hired to help a family in Short Creek who has been ex-communicated from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) by their "prophet" Warren Jeffs. The FLDS is an offshoot from the mainstream Mormon church that chose to not abandon polygamy and child brides in the late 1800s and has become and extremely insular and fucked up cult that exists and is still widely ignored up to this very day. Brower goes through his experiences investigating them, as well as some history about them and their crimes, and how he helped bring Warren Jeffs to some justice. It's also worth noting Brower sounds like he is straight out of a movie, I'm sure he embezzles a bit about his story but if even 10% of it is true he is a bona fide badass. I highly, highly reccomend Prophet's Prey to anybody into true crime and/or cults.
And speaking of true crime I'll just give out a GOAT non-fiction reccomendation: In Cold Blood. If you haven't read it, go and start it asap, I think it should be mandatory reading.
Recently I've been reading "Talleyrand" by Duff Cooper, which is a great biography on Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord. He was a diplomate active before, during, and after the French revolution and served for 5 regimes (Lous XVI, The First Republic, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and advise Louis-Philipe), perhaps because of that he is often overshadowed by other figures during those time but he was still one of hte most audacious, affluent, and skilled statesmen in European history and his life story is super fascinating.
I also recently started listening to audio books after thumbing my nose at the for a long time, though I've definitely changed my mind after listening to "Prophet's Prey" by Sam Brower. It is a first-hand account of Brower, a P.I. hired to help a family in Short Creek who has been ex-communicated from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) by their "prophet" Warren Jeffs. The FLDS is an offshoot from the mainstream Mormon church that chose to not abandon polygamy and child brides in the late 1800s and has become and extremely insular and fucked up cult that exists and is still widely ignored up to this very day. Brower goes through his experiences investigating them, as well as some history about them and their crimes, and how he helped bring Warren Jeffs to some justice. It's also worth noting Brower sounds like he is straight out of a movie, I'm sure he embezzles a bit about his story but if even 10% of it is true he is a bona fide badass. I highly, highly reccomend Prophet's Prey to anybody into true crime and/or cults.
And speaking of true crime I'll just give out a GOAT non-fiction reccomendation: In Cold Blood. If you haven't read it, go and start it asap, I think it should be mandatory reading.