Stalingrad

What Hacker News says

1. arethuzaAug 2021
   I've almost finished reading Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman after seeing it mentioned on HN:

   https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568340

   It's a stunning book - has had me in tears more than once.

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2. k2enemyJun 2021
   I also recommend Vasily Grossman's books. Life and Fate, Stalingrad, Everything Flows, etc. Life and Fate is one of the most powerful books I've read.

   https://www.nyrb.com/products/life-and-fate?_pos=1&_sid=f10e...

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3. libraryofbabelMar 2020
   It's interesting seeing how many of my touchstone books turn up in other people's lists. Here are some I didn't see yet:

   Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness. My favorite Le Guin (the Dispossessed is pretty good too). Shockingly original when it was published in 1969; the portrait of the society and culture on Gethen still feels unique. A slow burn at the beginning, but builds to a dramatic conclusion.

   Patrick O'Brian, Aubrey-Maturin series. Probably the best historical fiction ever written. Rich tapestry of life during the Napoleonic Wars. Set in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail, but that description doesn't do it justice; O'Brian's great inspiration was Jane Austen, and the focus is on characters and people, particularly the brilliantly contrasting personalities of the two main characters.

   Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate. Like Tolstoy's War and Peace, but set in Russia during WWII. Explores the dark heart of the 20th century (the Battle of Stalingrad, concentration camps, the gulag) through the eyes of a wide cast of characters from different walks of life. Grossman wrote about Stalingrad from firsthand experience as a war journalist, and is able to uncover moments of hope and human kindness amid horrifying world-historical events.

   Books others have already mentioned:

   * Tolstoy, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. * Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (interesting how several people mention this one; I used to think it was my own private discovery). * Neal Stephenson, especially Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle

   And the obligatory Tolkien and Douglas Adams that I read and re-read as a teenager.

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4. MrBingleyAug 2021
   Recently I've been reading Vasily Grossman's A Writer At War, which is a collection of his journals from the Eastern Front, and the depths of Stalin's brutality are staggering. In the Battle of Stalingrad he forbade that any citizens flee the city since he thought it would motivate the troops, and special battalions were set up behind the front line to shoot any who retreated. In the battle itself Soviet snipers targeted the German water carriers, and so the Germans bribed children with food to fetch water for them, who were promptly shot since any collaboration with the enemy was punished with death.
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5. jriotJan 2021
   Completed this year:

   Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

   Providence: God's Loving Care for Men and the Need for Confidence in Almighty God by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

   Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming by Dusty Phillips

   Currently reading:

   Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman

   The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking by Saifedean Ammous

   Financial Shenanigans by Howard M. Schilit

   Up next:

   Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

   These Truths by Jill Lepore

   Understanding Machine Learning: From Theory to Algorithms by Shalev Shwartz and Ben David

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