Wants to read A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
book
Finished reading I'm Glad My Mom Died
Edited 43d ago
Rated Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past 6/10
A good overview of the state of the art of archaeology today, looking at the practice and the issues that surround it, especially (as noted in the title) the new avenues being opened by satellite imagery. The author is passionate about the subject and asks great questions - her values and enthusiasm are obvious and admirable. I found myself wishing the book itself was a little more engaging, though - it falls a little short of what I was hoping for as writing. Still, if you think you’re interested in archaeology, this is a bright and interesting read.
Faust’s Lament - from the front matter of The Anarchist Medical Book
by Wolfgang von Göthe, translation by Four Thieves
Alas! I have completed study of Philosophy,
Law, and Medicine,
And tragically, also Theology
I have taken great pains to study thoroughly,
Yet here I stand, poor fool that I am,
And am no wiser than before.
I am called Master, even Doctor,
I reflect on these ten years:
Up down, criss cross
Have I led my students by the nose—
And seen there is nothing we can know!
Inevitably, this will burn my heart.
Indeed I’m smarter than all those morons:
Doctors, Masters, Scribes, and Priests;
I am not plagued by scruples or doubts,
I fear neither Hell nor the Devil—
For this though, all Joy is torn from me,
I do not pretend that I know a single truth,
I do not pretend that I could teach a single thing
To improve or save humanity.
Also I have neither goods nor money,
Nor honor or glory of the world;
No dog would want to continue living this way!
So I have devoted myself to magic,
In hopes that through force of will,
No secret will evade me;
That I no longer need embarrassingly admit what I do not know,
That I recognize what the world holds at its innermost core,
Show all my strength and greatness,
And toil no more with words.
—Faust
Edited 43d ago
Rated Circe 10/10
Wow, what a knockout. A brilliant, engaging and beautifully-written riff on classic stories of Greek mythology, as narrated by the immortal witch Circe, one of the key figures in the Odyssey. Like [a:Emily Wilson|478455|Emily Wilson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1523444389p2/478455.jpg]'s Odyssey, this book looks at the sex, violence, and social norms of these stories from a new perspective, surfacing all kinds of emotional and sociological insight from within the tropes. Particularly good in this book is the sense of the world of the Greek gods and heroes as both epic in scale and like a small town, ruled by grievance, whim, and pettiness - and the way that mortals given access to godlike powers almost instantly abuse it. There are so many great questions raised about the stories we tell and what we value and choose to emphasize and how the norms of power shape our stories and vice versa. I could go on and on about this book. Highly highly recommended.
Wants to read The Bear and the Nightingale
Wants to read Asunder: A Vatan Chronicle
Edited 42d ago
Finished reading Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches
Rated On the Road with Hillary: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Journey from Arkansas to the U.S. Senate 6/10
A fun, anecdotal memoir from one of HRC's advance staff, giving a nice mix of the nuts and bolts of political travel, delightful stories of misadventures and an overview of the 1992-2000 period in politics and history. Utterly hagiographic, but doesn't suffer for it.
Wants to read Seven Blades in Black
Rated The Hobbit, or There and Back Again 10/10
Wants to read On Immunity: An Inoculation
Rated Any Other Name 4/10
Wants to read The Parking Lot Attendant
Rated The Power 10/10
Really compelling, absorbing and thought-provoking. I'd heard a lot about this book and knew the basic gist but wasn't quite prepared for this to have the ominous, almost Biblical force it has. It really leans into the dark, unpleasant aspects of its argument, so it's *a lot*, but of course the point is to be confrontational; this isn't so much dystopian sci-fi as a mirrored reflection of a dystopic state of affairs that already exists. Grimly engaging as you watch the stories unfold and root for a better outcome even as you know from the beginning that you're not going to get it. Cleverly executed and well worth reading. I tore through this in three days but one might prefer to get it in smaller doses -it's heavy.<br/><br/>Weirdly enough, the book this reminds me of the most is [b:World War Z|8908|World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War|Max Brooks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528312647s/8908.jpg|817], which is a lot lighter but similarly takes a global view of an emergent phenomenon. It also made me think about the movie "Sorry to Bother You," which similarly uses a speculative and uncanny story to talk about power and social relations.
