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Aubrey's avatar

For me it has to be Jane Austen. Not only her books but all of the art and culture that has been created as a result - the movies, TV adaptations, retellings, regency romance novels, etc. It's hard to underestimate the impact she has had on culture even 250 years on. Everything Austen has brought so much joy to my life.

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Kevin's avatar

I'm thankful for books that send or extend a journey on learning something. "Gone with the Wind", was a great read but also maybe the centerpiece of the "Lost Cause" theme during reconstruction. It sent me down a rabbit hole reading Dr. Gates and several biographs on the south. Leading me to an different understanding of the subject than I previously had. "Band of Brothers" scraped the Hollywood version of WWII and gave me a glimpse of what my father lived through. He would not tell us stories of the war. "Salt Fat Acid Heat" changed the way I look at cooking. I now cook the family dinner for 12 almost every Sunday. " Hamilton", which I was reading during the Jan 6th riot showed me a perspective of political history. It gave me the theme there has always been division of political thought in this country. There has always been media sources espousing their conflicting version of events, strong disagreements and misinformation about ones opponent. The good news is we shoot words not bullets, mostly, and every two years each side gets a chance to be in charge. Currently, "From Beirut to Jerusalem" is freshest in my mind. From Oct 7th 23 I and my Saturday morning coffee group have tried to understand history of the Middle East situation. Each of the group read different books, myself 6 different ones and 3 online courses of development of the religions of Abraham. This book explained the complexity of the different cultures involved and how difficult a situation it is to find peace. Finally two books I read every 5 or six years, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Dune". Just because I need to escape.

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