Review:
This was a good book. The world building was brief, but clear. The interactions were good and there was some character development. This book made me hungry for more. A return to these worlds would be welcome.
Review:
I enjoyed most of this book. I was led to believe that this was a comedy, but it is not. This is a tear jerker and it certainly jerked tears from me. I don't like sorrow and I would much prefer something purely uplifting. This book is not that. It is, however, well written and the characters are truly something else. So, normally, I would recommend this book, but I cannot in good conscious fully recommend a tear jerker.
Review:
This is a truly odd book. An "old man's" letter to his young son is not a format I would have thought to write. Certainly not a pastor. Nope, not me. All the same, this book came across as authentic to me and I enjoyed it. It seemed a tad like As I Lay Dying (Faulkner) except it was much, much easier to understand and there was less of the ghoulishness of that book.
Review:
The material in this book is well collected. I have read it across many other sources, but this book collects together all of that material and methodically walks through it with a welcome set of end notes for virtually each passage. As such, for me, where the references were sometimes books that I had already read, this did not bring particularly new information, but, rather brought many thoughts together as one compelling thought.
Review:
Wow. I truly enjoy Taylor. This was just a fantastic story. I like the whole concept stem to stern and this is just a pleasure to enjoy.
Review:
I played a little bit of World of Warcraft when it first came out. Probably on the recommendation of my brother-in-law. It was interesting, but not compelling and not something that I found irresistible as some people did. I wasn't particularly interested in the other games that they had, but I was aware of Blizzard. I thought it would be interesting to read about how they came up with their ideas. This book isn't that. It is an odd sort of corporate biography. One person did this and another did that. Major personalities who had long term employment drove the company direction. The focus became making money (shock) and everything kind of fell apart. The more the company focused on monetizing the product, the worse things went. When they wanted to build games that people would like, they were killing it. When they wanted to build games that made as much money as quickly as possible, they crashed.
Review:
I am not a horror guy. I also tend to write terse reviews just for myself. Here is a time when neither is particularly appropriate. So, I'm going to try to write a more standard review.
Review:
Usually the Booker Prize requires something ghastly to happen in the book. My hopes for this book were dashed when it won. Nothing particularly ghastly happens. This is a "day in the life of" kind of book. I find that very hard to pull off. Harvey has some truly poetical paragraphs and some of the descriptions are awesome. This is the artsy-fartsy kind of thing that seems to appeal to judges. And, yes, there is a death (I don't think this is giving anything away, happens relatively early in this short book). Oddly the death doesn't seem to affect the plot. I truly dislike the ending. Absolutely hate it. Thus, in my petty way, I do not recommend this book. So there.
Review:
This book has some horror mixed in, but was enjoyable nonetheless. I found the characters compelling and the story developed nicely. The victim perspective is a little unusual in fantasy magic novels and it was very interesting in this one.
Review:
I have watched BTC on the Meidas Touch Network for a while. He is an ardent and passionate supporter of democracy, progress, and Democrats. This book is well written and while it documents the Republican shame, it feels like too little too late given the election outcome. I definitely wouldn't feel that way if the election had gone against Trump (maybe I would have said it is a repeat of what has been clear to everyone). So, the list of shameless hypocrisy from the right continues and we are stuck with at least two more years of it. Worth the read if you need the proof or find the proof comforting.
Review:
This book is a personal look at how Mary was affected by her family's disfunction. It dwells mostly on her parents and how they struggled to manage in a toxic environment that eventually led to her father's death. There is a dramatic skip between Mary as a teenager and Mary as an adult with a teenage daughter with few details. Mary picks up with some of the ways her life parallels her parents' lives and goes on to a hopeful look at her and the country's future which ends prior to Donald's second election success.
Review:
This is a physical book I am reading and as I started to read it, I noticed that there was a sticker on the spine that caught my hand. That is both the problem and the promise of a physical book. It has a tactile quality that an audio book and an ebook lack. In this case, that sticky area was both annoying and distracting. I peeled the sticker off and it left goo behind. I removed the goo with an orange based cleaner (that works great on goo) and it took a little while to get it all gone without ruining the finish on the book at the same time (Apply cleaner, remove cleaner quickly, find that not all the goo is gone and it is now smeared. Iterate as necessary.) I picked up the book, when complete from a new angle and noticed more goo on the back (not the spine this time). Back to the citrus cleaner and removing that goo. Now I checked the whole book and made sure that I'd gotten the last of it and realized that where I had removed the goo on the back cover, it seems like it was the finish that had become goo, so now there was a spot on the back cover that just felt different then the rest of the book. So, yes, this is sounding like OCD, but I've had tacky stuff on book covers before and just ignored it. Maybe, the deal here is the subject matter of the book which is kind of making me uncomfortably aware of how I feel. Maybe. It would be nice if that was the explanation and I wasn't just a mess. So, I'm going with the subject matter and my goo obsession, because, well, otherwise....
I put a large sticker on the back of my Kobo a few weeks ago (the sticker is an old NASA sticker I had lying around, well, not lying around, it was in a fire proof box--because, that, I guess is where stickers go. right?) and I am now concerned that this sticker is going to start bugging me when I'm reading the ebook instead of serving its purpose and helping me distinguish an all black Kobo from the surrounding black at night. Probably not going to be a problem, though, right? On to page 1. I did read the introduction, but those are all Roman numerals. So it is both page 1 and "on to" at the same time. In case anyone is wondering, this is all Catherine's fault, because, like I said, I've ignored stickiness on the back of books before. Additionally, that is not displacement. That is just pointing out a random fact which conveniently shifts responsibility. It is really just shifty.
Also, I do realize that this review is already longer than most of my other reviews and I haven't started page 1. Probably the coffee. Or, am I just being shifty again? (Yes, I get that pun.)
This book is a relatively quick read. It is a look at a much larger problem--depression, within the context of a runner's world. I anticipated that this would use the metaphor of running within the context of running away from one's problems. That is not what this book does. Instead, the author talks about freeing himself to look closely at his problems and to ask for help from those around him. The running metaphor is more one of life being difficult (like a loooong, 340 mile run). The metaphor sort of breaks down around the finish line, but it generally holds up. The fundamental concept is that of a "pain cave" where the runner is simply exhausted but opts to continue on and finds resources (other runners, internal strength, and even "road angels") that enable the runner to find a way to continue moving forward. This carries over into everyday life in the form of family, finding reasons not to succomb to suicide, and professional help. It is, in many ways an apt metaphor and the author presents the analysis using a conversational manner that makes it much less of a lecture and much more of a journey.
Words for which I sought help:
rataplan -- a drumming or beating sound
Review:
I enjoyed this book. I liked the world that Henderson built and though the interactions between some of the characters on occasion seemed stilted. This book felt much more complete and was a much better read than The Year of the Witching. Sometimes authors seem to fall into a habit which a good editor should be able to help resolve. In this case, Henderson liked for her characters to pause, "for a beat," repeatedly. It was so frequent and shared by so many different characters that it started to pass for punctuation for me. Aside from that this was a quick and easy read which I broadly enjoyed. The life and death struggles were contrived, but they were within the concept of the book and so, despite feeling artificial from a distance, were consistent with the narrative and helped forward the book. The way that things were left, it feels like there is a sequel coming which I would welcome though it is not something I would spend my time monitoring.
Review:
"Blame is really credit for what has gone wrong." This quotation epitomizes this book, I think. Context matters and this book is a look at context in general and context in the scope of what it means to be intelligent. I have found this series fascinating and this book does not disappoint thought it flies off in a wholly unexpected direction (as though the previous books were not equally novel). Tchaikovsky keeps me thinking and that is a wonderful and fun thing. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Review:
I feel like John Adams left us a rich legacy. I have several books about him on my shelves, several on the wish list at the library, and even more sitting on my Kobo. I find his story compelling and I especially like "perspectives" which take a single angle on the man and then dive deeply into that. This book focuses on Adam's presidency which is nice because it is often dusted off, briefly addressed as though everyone knows the details, and then put down. Just like Abigail. This book, however, dives into the intrigue, the decision making, and provides a fresh perspective. I really appreciated it, particularly in the throws of both Trump and the Broadway show that celebrates "the little general." This book does not take on the complicated relationship he had with Jefferson in particular detail, but focuses largely on Adams as president.
Review:
I spent a year trying to listen to this book in the car (it is on CD). It just never worked out. I was not in the car as often as I have been in the past, but every time I went to turn on the radio I had a reason not to listen to this book. I had another book that I was trying to finish and I'd plug in my phone. Somehow the CD had lost its place and I'd spend most of the trip trying to find my spot. In the end, this book is boring because it is so dated. It is not wrong and I'm sure that it has relevance, but I just couldn't fight through the Bush and Clinton references to get there.
Words for which I sought help:
oleaginous -- rich in, covered with, or producing oil
Review:
This series really looks a different ways to see intelligence. It is really quite amazing and Tchaikovsky does a really good job of showing how things might look dramatically different to different forms of intelligence. I have really enjoyed this series.
Review:
Sometimes you need particular examples to better understand the whole problem. This book fills that void. Cook has done a great job of talking with individuals on both sides of QAnon (believers and those who love the believers). This provides a perspective into how people started to follow Q so quickly and also how they got out. Meanwhile, the examples provided covered the range fairly well of how family members reacted. Calling for mental health and some way for children to deal with difficulty being caught in schools is undoubtedly the correct answer. In the current environment, however, it is hard to imagine this will happen any time soon.
Review:
This brings the lessons of Hitler's Germany to the future. It makes some of the moves of the Russians into Ukraine more understandable. Snyder argues that it is anarchy that results in mass killing--the elimination of the state as a protector of the minority results in the attack on the minority. Russia is pursuing this strategy with the gay community particularly in Ukraine. Israel is using Hezbollah as a means to destroy the state of Palestine and, presumably, occupy that land to prevent its return. Trump is talking about "the enemy within" as a reference to his political opponents as did Stalin. Snyder does a good job of identifying and referring to the parallels. May God help us not repeat them.
Review:
I got through 60 pages. This is hard, academic reading. I thought that maybe it would be uplifting and it would be optimistic about how wars could end. Instead, it is a book about leverage and negotiation. This book works on the tipping points where a peace deal is possible while identifying that the tipping points must be sufficiently small that both combatants agree it is basically a stalemate and the "loser" is at least relatively confident that the "victor" will not just turn around and attack again. While this is eminently practical and surely how the mechanics of peace actually work, for me, it was just depressing. I could not keep reading (which is a reflection of my thoughts on Ukraine and Palestine and not a reflection of the quality of the book).
Words for which I sought help:
caravanserai -- a group of people travelling together
cataleptical -- affected by a characteristic of catalepsy
chiaroscuro -- an effect of contrasted light and color
circumambient -- surrounding
clabber -- curdle or cause to curdle
clavis -- a pair of hardwood sticks used to make a hollow sound when struck together
delectation -- pleasure and delight
effulgence -- full of bright radiance
empyrean -- relating to heaven or the sky
halcyon -- denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful
illimitable -- without limits or end
inutile -- useless; pointless
irrefragable -- not able to be refuted or disproved
Kali -- the most terrifying goddess wife of Shiva, often identified with Durga and in her benevolent aspect with Parvati. She is typically depicted as dark-skinned, naked, old, and hideous
laconic -- using very few words
landau -- a horse-drawn four-wheeled enclosed carriage with a removable front cover and a back cover that can be raised and lowered
lugubrious -- looking or sounding sad and dismal
martinet -- a person who demands complete obedience; a strict disciplinarian
maya -- the supernatural power wielded by gods and demons
pauciloquy -- economical speech; the use of few words when speaking; laconism
perspicacious -- having a ready insight into and understanding of things
prolixity -- the act of using too many words to convey a point, making it difficult to understand
proselyter -- a person who converts others from one opinion, religion, or party to another
puissant -- having great power or influence
quiddity -- the inherent nature or essence of someone or something
refulgent -- shining very brightly
sepulchral -- relating to a tomb or interment
supernal -- of exceptional quality or extent
umbrageous -- providing shade
unction -- the action of anointing someone with oil or ointment as a religious rite or as a symbol of investiture as a monarch
vatic -- describing or predicting what will happen in the future
veracious -- speaking or representing the truth
verity -- a true principle or belief, especially one of fundamental importance
Review:
It is challenging to accept this book on face value. The idea of people materializing here and there (sort of a religious Star Trek) is exceedingly hard to believe, but is a fundamental component of this book. This book, like other books about saints, is full of miracles that strain the imagination. I guess I am just a skeptic.
Review:
This is an easy read with multiple venues (book shops and former book shops, apparently bookstore is not preferred) described. Friss has visited these places and provides a certain sense of the space. When that is not possible he has looked for reviews, reminiscences, and interviews to provide a feeling for the place. Friss also tracks the development of book stores (ironically both real and fictional--Parnassus is both) and book sellers (not always collocated). Not exactly interesting, but worth reviewing and remembering.
Review:
Godfrey-Smith takes a hard look at what it means to go on living on the Earth. He considers many angles, but I think he kind of whiffs on co-dependence. Perhaps his feeling is that, aside from food, we don't really need the other animals on the planet. I think we do. Other than that, I really enjoyed his insights and the presentation. He did not present these as truths, just reasoned analysis. Very enjoyable.
Review:
This is an interesting book, but it is pretty predictable. Again, I am not terribly fond of the "magic" especially when it is inconsistent (salt water makes a plant grow that has been extinct, but the coast which is in constant contact with the salt water doesn't have this characteristic despite proof that "the presence" goes to the coast). I'm not sure how to make this story tighter (I'm not an author), but I can see how it could have been more interesting and less predictable with only a few changes.
Review:
I thought that this book might be interesting, but since it is written basically before Jackson had begun work on the Supreme Court, I was expecting an autobiography rather than an analysis of thinking. In that sense, I was correct as this book covered her personal life (with occasional professional interludes) up to becoming a Supreme Court Justice. All very interesting and I felt like I learned a lot about the newest Justice.
Review:
The audio book is read by Butler who sounds a lot like Martha Stewart, so the topic is initially jarring in that voice. The arguments are truly stellar and the mechanical workmanship which goes into the refutations of particularly conservative and Catholic positions on gender is excellent. This gives me a whole new perspective on how to talk about gender with those who have not really spent much time thinking about their positions. What a wonderful work!
Review:
The author attributes pretty much everything to the mosquito. Of course, that is not correct, but this storm through human history looks at an awful lot of places where the mosquito was undoubtedly involved. I am not inclined to disagree. It is pretty shocking the level of human death attributable to the mosquito.
Review:
I just could not figure this book out and it was exhausting me trying. I gave up.
Review:
Grossman is pretty clear in his understanding of Arthur and is well aware of all the things that simply could not be in his telling. He includes a historical note that explains all this. So, despite the anachronisms, or maybe because of them, this is a romping tale that is fun to read. Like many Arthurian tales, this one changes perspective throughout the book. I find Grossman's portrayal of Guinevere to be particularly compelling. Addressing sexual orientation in the book, Grossman does a good job of making this an LGBTQ+ novel of sorts without going overboard and throwing in things that would likely have led to a swift death if revealed in this era. Grossman highlights closeted life and details how horribly frustrating it is to be born the incorrect gender as well as how hard it can be to be a homosexual. Grossman alludes to bisexuality in the one character who could truly be bisexual without reproach. In general, from a heterosexual point of view in the 21st century, it feels to me like Grossman did a good job of including a wide range of sexual identities in a tale that has generally ignored such things without making sex the center of the book. I liked this book, but I feel like it was a little long and maybe could have been reasonably shortened without the tales of the Red Knight (I really don't understand the inclusion of this character at all).
Review:
Tóibín is pretty amazing. This book is very well written, but it was hard for me to come to like any of these characters. They all are fundamentally flawed--I guess, like Shakespeare; nobody really likes Hamlet. Having said that, also like Shakespeare, these characters all suffer from a fundamental character flaw that then moves the story forward. At the end of the book, Buckley comments that the most important part is what is not said and that all these characters seem to get in their own way. That is characteristic of the Irish. I don't really know what to think about that, but there is no doubt that reading this is kind of like watching a slow-motion boat capsize. I looked Brooklyn better and should there be a sequel to Long Island, I'm not sure I'd want to go back into the swamp of character flaws to read more.
Review:
A fair portion of this book is Brill defending his company. That is less than satisfying. It seems like it is a decent company with good intent. It also seems like the company is having a hard time finding customers in an environment where it should probably have lots of customers. OK. Tell me once. It also seems like the GOP has tried to eliminate the non-partisan company. That completely sucks. Tell me once.
The idea that there should be a single objective truth, is not controversial. Brill makes the argument well, that everyone wants "their truth" instead of "the truth." He argues this on several levels and the arguments are compelling. Understanding at least a little bit about what people are able to accept helps guides his methods to fixing this problem. I have to admit that I don't think that the fixes he offers are going to work, but clearly I'm not the expert.
Review:
I have read too many books recently that document the horribleness of American foreign policy in very personal terms. I just don't have it in me to read another.
Review:
This book is well written. The characters undergo major development. There are even lines that are truly funny, "Noel was a repressed Presbyterian, or just a Presbyterian." There are scenes that are truly repulsive. None of the characters are likeable. I found none relatable. I simply did not enjoy this book and cannot recommend it.
Review:
Psaki was such a breath of fresh air in the White House briefing room, I simply cannot describe how important her appearance there was. In addition, her deft handling of Steve Doocy was wonderful. I was so very impressed that when I read she had a book coming, I immediately put in for it at the library (after about 45 other people had already had the same idea). Her quick little book is approachable and focuses on communications strategy using vignettes from her time at the white house, state department, and home. I enjoyed it though I have no plans to become an interviewer or do press relations.
Review:
This has nothing to do with how language works. It seems to be a collection of essays by language experts who are slamming people who have bad opinions. Nothing wrong with that in principal, I kind of like hearing what experts consider silliness. I'm just not that into language. I don't care if people say French is more "logical" than any other language. I don't care if a language is considered "dying" because it does not support words for technical physics. None of what they were talking about mattered to me, so I stopped reading it.
Review:
This is a quick wallow into the world of autocrats. It is, as one might imagine, slimy. Autocrats do not hide in the shadows. They are big, bold, and literally attacking democracies on many fronts. This quick read offers a good flavor of autocratic behavior without getting caught up in the details of each dictator. Rather, the book looks at what they have in common, how they support one another, and what democracies can do to defend and go on the offensive. The steps are pretty obvious and can be summed up with: Do Not Tolerate Corruption. That goes a long way and it is amazing the many little ways that democracies do, indeed, tolerate corruption. We must stop!
Review:
What a great book! Future dystopia, but from the robot's perspective. Pretty darn awesome. I love how quickly Tchaikovsky got me to believe that something which was clearly a robot was also sentient. Dystopia bad. Robot perspective, excellent!
Review:
This is a sort of "day in the life" though it is more than a day. I did not enjoy the subject matter. I did not enjoy the characters. The experience of reading the book felt like being "stuck in the mud." It just did not make sense to me.
Review:
C'mon, it isn't even socialism. This is about putting rails on capitalism. It is also about trying to maintain "clean money." There are some really good ideas in this book and Robeyns is no slouch in presenting them. Basically, the super-rich have too much. It is likely that the very rich have too much. Society giveth and society needs to boundeth. Well worth the read.
Review:
This is a beach book. Don't expect too much of it, it is an easy, breezy read. The mystery is decent and I have to admit that anything that addresses the Book of Kells is interesting to me (no matter how obliquely). I'm not sure if I will continue to read the series. The will they/won't they romance is not really to my taste and, well, how many mysteries can involve the Book of Kells when set in Maryland?
Review:
This book is becoming a bit dated as it was released in the midst of the Trump presidency. Nonetheless, it offers invaluable insights into the Religious Right (Christian Nationalists), how they are organized, and what their goals are. They would truly like to have an autocratic theocracy. So, when Trump appeals to them for their votes and then says that after this election they won't have to ever vote again, this cries out to their hearts, though it sends shivers down the rest of our spies. They identify their enemies simply be determining whether a secular government is considered good (enemy) or whether there should be a separation between church and state (enemy). The organization is not simply national, but international organizations seem to be comingling. Given the historic past of how this failed to work (and lead to constant bickering) it could be their undoing, but, for now, it is making the movement even more powerful. Ugh.
