book

Rated Wizard and Glass 10/10

Rated The Empathy Exams 8/10

Leslie Jamison is an exceptionally talented writer. She's better when she has something really concrete to talk about than something abstract, but her voice is really powerful and she's a sharp observer. This set of essays is mostly on sad topics - pain, oppression, heartbreak, diseases people might not have, crimes people may not have committed, and in particular the way Jamison herself reacts emotionally to all of these things she encounters.

Rated Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds 4/10

Rated Authority 8/10

Rated The First Bad Man 8/10

Every Miranda July story is about two or more people whose ability to function in a social setting is deeply compromised in a distinct, different way, and how they react to each other. It's always a little disorienting and it's a weird place to spend a lot of time. I mean this in a good way; she is a lovely and clever writer.

Rated The Last Samurai 6/10

Rated The Tiger's Wife 8/10

Doesn't quite hang together like I was hoping - it seems a little scattered between four or so storylines - but so beautifully written and evocative that it hardly matters.

Rated Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe 8/10

Loved this! Freewheeling, dry-witted, not-especially-comprehensive history of the very weird Hapsburg Empire. He's a really digressive writer, sometimes to the point of being rambly, but he makes up for it with an eye for the strange and a way of conveying just how arbitrary and contingent the borders of modern Europe are. I read this in preparation for a trip to Vienna, Budapest and Prague - the imperial cities of this no-longer-existing empire - and it gave me a lot of great guidance on where to go and what to look for.<br/><br/>Highly recommend to history buffs, though not if you're looking for something crisply academic. Delightful and sad.

Rated Northern Wrath 6/10

Rated Dave Baum's Definitive Guide to LEGO Mindstorms (Technology In Action) by Dave Baum 10/10

Wants to read Acceptance

Wants to read Capital in the Twenty First Century

Rated Cuckoo 10/10

A horny, gory, delight

Rated Hands 6/10

<a href="https://smus.com/books/john-napier-hands">Full review on smus.com</a>

Rated Exhalation 10/10

Rated The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 10/10

Wants to read Over Tumbled Graves

Rated So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures 10/10

Wants to read Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers

Wants to read Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Wants to read My Name Is Asher Lev

Rated Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History 6/10

I think I would have gotten more out of this book had I been familiar with all of the historical figures discussed. However, if one is a history nerd who enjoys thinking about <i>What might have been</i>, then I’d recommend this odd, short-ish book. True to its name, there are even textbook-like questions at the end of each chapter. Despite this not being entirely for me, I’m still glad I gave it a look.<br><br>(Review also appears at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2015/05/the-delight-in-reading-lists-and-challenges-20-suggestions/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)

Wants to read Capital and Ideology

Wants to read My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok | Summary & Study Guide

Wants to read The Dome