book review podcast

book review podcast

Book Review Podcast

1. Introduction

Welcome to the Modern Scholars Podcast, where we will be exploring the topic of agency relationships under the heading of The Law of the Land. At present, we do not have a specific introduction for the course, so I would like to take this chance to look at the subject matter from the 10,000-foot level. This is a course that has particular relevance and practical application for students as all of us are or will be engaged in contractual relations with any number of agents. These agents may be husbands, wives, or children, employees, partners, brokers, or attorneys. We may work as agents ourselves, and we may have to deal with cases where it is unclear as to whether an agency relationship really exists. Understanding the law of agency can also be very useful as it provides a great framework for understanding some of the core concepts of the common law such as how to determine if there has been a binding agreement or the extent of the contractual obligation. This is also a course that surfaces on the bar exam from time to time, so it is of interest to students who have ambitions of getting the JD and passing the bar. So with all that in mind, let us now proceed to an overview of the subject matter and its organization in The Law of the Land.

2. Book Reviews

It is important to remember the main aim of the review: to create a better understanding of how soccer can be best taught, coached, and presented at varying levels of the game. To provide a forum on techniques, tactics, game analyses, and practice regimens. To review quality instructional materials and resources that can be used to improve teaching the game to both the player and the coach. To question the traditions of the game that can hinder more quality instruction and performance for players and the game itself.

2.1 Aim of the review

In this section, the standards are given for a good quality book review. The objective is to guide and support those authors who are writing reviews. It will be useful to all those who write reviews, whether they are experienced or beginners. The aim is to make the review-writing task much easier, fulfilling and satisfying.

3. Author Interviews

The author interviews section of my Book Review Podcast will have interviews with different authors so they can have a chance to speak to their audience on a more personal level. I will be asking the authors a series of questions which will range from asking about their book, why they became a writer, likes and dislikes, their experiences with publishers or self-publishing and how their personal lives have affected their writing. These will help the audience better understand where the author’s coming from with their book, and have a better understanding of the author themselves. Each interview will go for an average of 30-45 minutes depending on the length of the material the author wishes to share with the audience. I will usually introduce the author and their background prior to getting them to talk about their actual material to give the audience a better understanding of where the author’s coming from in terms of their experiences. This section of my podcast will be a real eye opener for the audience, to see how different things in life will affect your writing, and the different twists and turns authors have taken along their journey to becoming published.

4. Recommendations

We only recommend two of the books discussed in the podcast. These are “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers and “This Is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Both have a strong story focus which would make them accessible to most readers. They discuss complex and difficult concepts in a way that is easy to understand and engaging. Becky Chambers’ book has a strong focus on the development of her characters and their relationships with each other, and she admits that she has drawn on her experience with autism to show how she believes someone growing up in a more austere upbringing would have to relearn how to relate to people in a very different social context. This is shown through the Sianat, a reptilian creature who becomes close to one of the humans on the ship. Heavily coded as having Aspergers, he is discovered to have undergone the equivalent of ABA therapy (an often harmful therapy aimed at permanently altering autistics’ behaviour by ‘reprogramming’ them) to become more socially acceptable, and in order to try to stop him from being further hurt, his friends keep him hidden in their quarters. This narrative arc serves as a commentary on past treatment of autistic people in our own society. “This Is How You Lose the Time War” indirectly addresses material conditions, as Red and Blue leave behind them different artefacts in different timelines, to make the other smile as they travel back to their own time. Although we do not always see direct evidence of the results of these actions, it is clear that they have positive impacts and add depth to the characters’ relationships with each other.

5. Conclusion

For the normalization of war, the conclusion sums up O’Brien’s view of a soldier as an individual and as a writer. At the beginning of the chapter, O’Brien describes how being a soldier is not the most significant role of a soldier, despite the soldiers actually being in a war. For most soldiers, the war may have been the most serious part of their lives, but every soldier had a life prior to this event. When a person passes away, will they be immediately recognized as a soldier? The individual doesn’t just suddenly become a great soldier in order to serve his country. The soldier had to have been a well-rounded individual to even be considered going into service. The soldier probably had a job, a family, hobbies. When thinking of that person, it won’t be solely in the context of being a soldier. O’Brien goes deeper by asking questions about the soldier’s life when the war is long over. In speaking of Curt Lemon’s death, O’Brien admits that he does not wish to commemorate the soldier, but instead the individual. He goes on to say, “That story is not Curt Lemon’s. It is mine.” (O’Brien, p. 171) With all that he writes, O’Brien’s intention is to preserve the memory of the war and the people involved in it. This is because generations from now, people will quickly forget what had happened between the years 1960 and 1975 in Vietnam. Everything involving the war will just simply be the football game. The only way to prevent this from happening would be to pass on story upon story. This serves as the motivation for this book, which is a continuous effort from O’Brien to recollect and analyze the war. According to O’Brien, there is no catharsis for the Vietnamese or the American soldiers. That is because the war has never been really validated. This is an explanation as to why protestors of the Vietnam War were not guilt-ridden. The acceptance of the war was slightly unoriginal. The government didn’t want to commit to war or abolish the action. It wasn’t much of an issue until deaths were reported, and by that point it was already too awkward to declare a retreat without shame. O’Brien argues that the war was just a tactic of trading blows. O’Brien tells readers, “I was a coward. I went to the war.” (O’Brien, p. 76) By confessing to poor organum, O’Brien shows that he realizes that the a priori justification of the war was too weak. There was no quest or a satisfactory cause. The fact that the war lacked meaning had overshadowed the soldiers. This was the reason for Tim O’Brien’s fourth squad’s incident withdrawal, which had marked the lifelong disturbance of O’Brien. He finishes by asserting that the involvement in the war was not horrible, rather it was an inopportune debacle memo and one that is difficult to review with the clarity of what actually occurred. Overall, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried describes the vast implications of the Vietnam War on a particular social group. The stories relate information about the war in Vietnam and insights into veterans’ memories. Though O’Brien portrays the war with a grim intensity, he at the same time explains his desire to tell the stories anew but to alter the past with clearer understanding.