Liliana's personal blog

I've read a lot of fiction, yes, but I haven't branched out that much. Most of it was by a few select authors that I was already comfortable with -- such as Kathryn Lasky, Brandon Sanderson, or Shannon Hale. But I decided to take a leap and try something by an author that I had never even heard of before, in a genre I wasn't the most comfortable with.

Title: Double Star
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Pages: 167
Original Publication Date: 1956
Genre: Science Fiction

Wow. Just wow.

It's an incredible, masterful, thought-provoking work of fiction that I'll definitely be reading again!

Laurence Smith is an actor down on his luck, wasting his life in a bar when a stranger enters, buys him a drink, and offers him a job. Slightly sus, to use some Gen Z slang . Laurence Smith looks into the offer and ends up accepting it, but he has no clue what he's getting into.

It turns out that Bonforte, the giant, the statesman, the linchpin of a movement for respectful inter-planetary relationships, has been kidnapped, and Laurence Smith must impersonate him.

And that's just the beginning.

I won't tell the rest, but it's a fantastic book and I highly recommend you go check it out!

Rating: 10/10

There are a lot of great books out there. A lot. More than I will ever be able to read in my lifetime! However, truly exceptional literature is a lot more rare. Today I am going to review a truly exceptional piece of literature, The Price of Freedom, which is a collection of speeches by Calvin Coolidge. I'm pretty sure it was compiled by Calvin Coolidge too. Yup, that's right -- Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States of America. And, in my opinion, one of the best presidents this nation has ever had.

Now, about the book.

Title: The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses
Author: Calvin Coolidge
Pages: 407
Original Publication Date: 1924

I've read a lot of books, and I have a lot of favorite books, but this is definitely in my top five! (I'll do a post about my top five fiction and nonfiction in the future.) In fact, when I first read this book, I was like, "It could be canonized as TJEd scripture!" (TJEd, as in Thomas Jefferson Education, a method of leadership education that is fantastic!) Seriously, it's that good.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from The Price of Freedom and the speeches they can be found in:

"Of course there is a need of a better understanding of the American form of government. Self-government is still government. There is no such thing as liberty without restraint. My rights are always represented by the duties of others. My freedom is always represented by the obedience of others. Their rights and their freedom are represented by my duties and my obedience."

"There are evil forces at work now. They are apparently organized and seek the disintegration of society. They can always be recognized by a direct appeal to selfishness and nothing else... the answer to this lies in a knowledge of past human experience and a realization of what man is."

"Mankind has always had classics. They always will. That is only another way of saying they have always set up ideals and always will. Always the question has been, always the question will be, what are those ideals to be, what are to be the classics?"

"Independence is exceedingly exacting, self-control is arduous, self-government is difficult. Always there is the temptation that some element of these should be surrendered in exchange for security and ease."

"The fundamental principles on which American institutions rest ought to be clearly understood. Being so understood, the can never lack for defenders."

"We review the past not in order that we may return to it but that we may find in what direction, straight and clear, it points into the future."

Conclusion:

Rating: 15/10