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Wants to read Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Rated Crooked Kingdom 8/10
I enjoyed [b:Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1651710803l/23437156._SY75_.jpg|42077459] a lot, but was annoyed at how abrupt of a cliffhanger it ended on. All is forgiven because this one is even better. Fun, engaging, rich, a quick and compelling read, and aspirationally, the kind of thing I'd like to be able to write. You *do* need to read Six of Crows first, but they're both well worth it.
Rated Sejong Korean Student Book 1B - English Edition 10/10
Rated Passing 8/10
A soapy, fast-reading novel about two childhood friends, one living as a Black woman in a Black community, the other living as white. It's about people and not ideas, but never loses sight of the essential absurdity of a system that assigns status and merit based on ancestry. Predates - both in writing and in setting - [b:The Vanishing Half|51791252|The Vanishing Half|Brit Bennett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1577090827l/51791252._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73423787], but shares its themes and concerns.
Finished reading Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival
Rated Walking on the Ceiling 8/10
I like the way this starts out like it’s going to be one thing and then expands out. The narrator’s relationship with an older writer is the structuring device but it’s really about her relationship to her family, Turkey, and her Turkish identity. A little meandery, but a quick and enjoyable read.
Rated The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win 8/10
Really well done. Over the course of researching and writing this book, the writer became a genuinely successful professional poker player, and there's lots about poker in here, but she also achieves her goal of extracting from poker valuable lessons about psychology and decisionmaking. It's well-written and engaging, though with some repetitiveness. When Konnikova gets an insight she really works it over - I definitely found myself highlighting some points only to see them rephrased a few pages later. Highly recommend; admittedly, you may need to already be open to the idea that poker is interesting and that its principles are transferrable. I was already there on both points. <br/><br/>I much preferred this book to the similar [b:Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts|35957157|Thinking in Bets Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts|Annie Duke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513351600l/35957157._SY75_.jpg|57513167], which felt much less like memoir or analysis and much more like a business self-help book.
Wants to read The Shadow of the Wind
Rated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 8/10
Rated Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 10/10
Rated The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History 10/10
Rated The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House 10/10
Rated The Donut Legion: A Novel 8/10
A very silly, enjoyable beach read. Breezy and clever with a little sex and violence, some twists and turns, and a lot of down-homey similes.