Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Darya Silman

@daryasilman.bsky.social

630 followers 210 following 290 posts

A reader obsessed with history (mostly WW2 and time after it) and classics 📚 languages: Russian/English/Estonian (plus rudimentary Bulgarian, German, Turkish and Finnish) 📗 occasional writer

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · May 11

It is the duty of the writer to report a terrible truth, and the duty of the reader to learn it. Anyone who turns away, closses his eyes and passes by, violates the memory of the murdered. - Wassili Grossman #Holocaust #WWII #history

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 3d

My short #bookreview of SEVEN THOUSAND DAYS IN SIBERIA by Karlo Stajner is on Goodreads. 5 stars! #memoir #history #gulag

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 9d

I'm reading a memoir of an Austrian communist who had spent 20 years in various camps of gulag

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 9d

Not much has changed in Russian prison system. During Stalin's purges, prisoners were kept in the dark about their fate.They had 15-20 min (now an hour) of walk in an enclosed prison yard. Walking had to be in circles, no talking.

#Currentlyreading '7000 days in Siberia' by Karlo Stajner #memoir

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 9d

My #bookreview of THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON AND OTHER STORIES by Francis S. Fitzgerald is on Goodreads. 4 stars! #classics #shortstory #bookreviewer

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Darya Silman's review of Загадочная история Бенджамина Баттона

4/5: Collection of short stories by Francis S. Fitzgerald: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Diamond as Rich as the Ritz The Rich Boy Hot & Cold Blood Bernice Bobs Her Hair The Sensibl...

www.goodreads.com

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 10d

My #bookreview of THE WORST DAY: A PLANE CRASH, A TRAIN WRECK, AND REMARKABLE ACTS OF HEROISM IN WASHINGTON, DC by Bruce Goldfarb is on Goodreads. 5 stars! Publication date: Dec 2, 2025 #netgalley #theworstday #history #bookreviewer #nonfiction

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Darya Silman's review of The Worst Day

5/5: Publication date: December 2, 2025 I usually give 5 stars to exceptional books: a thorough historical research that took years to complete, a book that left me speechless with its emotional impa...

www.goodreads.com

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 11d

My #bookreview of THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT by Oliver Sacks is on Goodreads. 4 stars! #nonfiction #medical #memoir

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Darya Silman's review of Человек, который принял жену за шляпу

4/5: Our brain is a complex organ that enables us to perform many tasks that we often take for granted. For example, we can comprehend abstract concepts, learn massive amounts of information, and retr...

www.goodreads.com

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 12d

My latest used book purchases:

PARADISE LOST by John Milton,
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON AND OTHER STORIES by Francis S. Fitzgerald

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 14d

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 20d

Oh yes! Books and educating baby toys are my soft spots too!

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 20d

It's a hell of a topic to cover in one book

1 1

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 20d

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

1 1

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 20d

How is your reading going? Years ago, I received a pre-publication copy of 'Sexual Misconduct' to write a review yet couldn't read it. I like nonfiction, but this one was too academic

1 1

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 20d

#Currentlyreading (simultaneously with Stalin's biography) an YA novel by L.J.Baines (professionally known as Luke Baines; he starred in the #shadowhunters series)

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 22d

I have it on my TBR list :)

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 23d

#Currentlyreading STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR by Simon Sebag Montefiore.

My nan (who's almost 91) remembers her childhood from the early age. She lived with her Red-Army-officer dad on a military base near Irkutsk. When she was 3, Lazar Kaganovich visited the base and talked with her

1 5

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 23d

Highly recommend the book!

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 24d

#Currentlyreading #TodayImreading THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT by neurologist Oliver Sacks. It's case studies of people with different irreversible brain damage. It's very engaging and readable and doesn't require a degree in medicine #nonfiction

1 2

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 26d

I'll start reading my new paperback, 'A Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat' by Oliver Sacks, case studies of neurological diseases

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 26d

I finished this book in 3 days. The book reads as a newspaper article, and the author clearly knows how to create tension and touch heart strings.
Publication date: Dec 2, 2025
#netgalley #theworstday

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · Sep 15

Thank you #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC, THE WORST DAY: A PLANE CRASH, A TRAIN WRECK, AND REMARKABLE ACTS OF HEROISM IN WASHINGTON, DC by Bruce Goldfarb. Publication date: Dec 2, 2025
(I watched an episode of 'Seconds Before Disaster' about this plane crash)

1 1

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 26d

Nonfiction is always interesting 📚

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 27d

I bought 6 paperbacks today to add to my 100+ unread collection: Oliver Sacks (2 books), Handi, Nikolai Berdyaev, Sophocles, and Richard Dawkins. I've never read these authors

1 3

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · 28d

I finished #reading DEATH OF AN OFFICER by Mark Elllis. 5 stars! #historicalfiction #WW2 #detectivestory

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · Sep 20

My #bookreview of INTO THE REICH: THE RED ARMY'S ADVANCE TO THE ODER IN 1945 by @dienekes.bsky.social is on Goodreads. 4 stars! #history #WW2 #WWII

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Darya Silman's review of Into the Reich

4/5: INTO THE REICH: THE RED ARMY’S ADVANCE TO THE ODER IN 1945 by Prit Buttar describes the disintegration of the Wehrmacht in the face of the numerical and materiel superiority of the Red Army and e...

www.goodreads.com

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · Sep 20

My #bookreview of SURPRISED BY NOTHING: SURVIVING THE ER WORLD OF WORST-CASE SCENARIOS by Kathryn Kyker is on Goodreads. 3 stars! #netgalley #surprisedbynothing #memoir #medical

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Darya Silman's review of Surprised by Nothing

3/5: SURPRISED BY NOTHING: SURVIVING THE ER WORLD OF WORST-CASE SCENARIOS by Kathryn Kyker is a philosophical and insightful glance behind the scenes of the medical institution. What is missing from t...

www.goodreads.com

Darya Silman @daryasilman.bsky.social · Sep 19

'My Next Breath' by Jeremy Renner. If you are into audiobooks, then this book is better in an audio version, with real 911 calls