Genlis, Abazov, Khan, Ely, Descartes

Gee, almost a month since my last post. I was in Italy visiting my partner's extended family, but since i returned I've been busy. I've read Genlis' Mademoiselle de Lafayette, which ends on the famous heartbreaking scene of the Sun King gazing at a nun, his former mistress. I also read the proceedings of a conference on the pedagogy of the long war. I read Democracy and Distrust, which is actually about constructivist judges in the US, by John Ely. It's an older book, and I disagree with even the existence of the label 'constructivist', but it was pleasantly written. I also read Rafis Abazov's The formation of post-Soviet international politics in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, which was really informative for me since I hadn't read a word about the "Stans". I also read four issues of The New Yorker, and four issues of The New Scientist. Now I'm in the middle of a book of essays on Muslim democracy, edited by Muqtebar Khan, which is also informative. I also read with interest about 100 pages of Descartes' philosophical works, and I'm learning a great deal, but I'm not very far along: there are three volumes of about 1000 pages each.