Rated XO 6/10
book
Rated 1989 10/10
<div>This is my favorite of Val McDermid's books that I've read so far. </div>
Edited 48d ago
Rated Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion 8/10
Tolentino is a great writer - her project is taking the tools of literary criticism and applying it, deftly and clearly, to non-literary texts: broad cultural trends, institutions, her own life. These essays vary from bright and fun to heavy, but they all come from the same sharp critical eye.
Rated Throne of Glass 8/10
Fun and engaging, if a little too romance-tropey for me to be totally on board. More or less tells a story with a beginning/middle/end but has some of that "we expect you to read this whole series" structural frustration.
Rated Thinking in Systems, A primer, Donella H. Meadows 8/10
very interesting, though i think a lot of the insights of this book are less striking now than they may have been in the 1990s when Meadows was first writing it. the fact that some of this mode of analysis feels familiar and baked-in or like common sense is a tribute to Meadows and her peers. interesting politics here - it's like an argument made to technocrats from a technocratic-eye-view about the importance of skepticism of technocracy, and while some of it reads conservative she's also explicitly hostile to the Reagan-era ideological paradigm shift. a lot of insights here that feel very relevant today, in an era of both sclerotic, fumbling systems and authoritarian attacks on them.
Rated Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity 8/10
Very striking - journalism that reads like a novel. A few years in the lives of families living at the edge of subsistence in a slum in Mumbai, right behind the airport and luxury hotels that symbolize a rising global upper class. Boo, the author, mostly removes herself from the story and narrates from the perspectives of her protagonists as they deal with poverty, corruption, religious conflict and their efforts to carve out a space for themselves. Beautifully done.
Rated The Inferno of Dante Alighieri 10/10
Feels weird to give a classic of the Western canon a star rating, but it’s my first time with it and I think the translation and commentary Ciardi offers is very good.<br/><br/>An inspiration to petty people everywhere: you can create something enduring, resonant, widely beloved and taken seriously for centuries and still have it basically be a burn book to settle a bunch of esoteric political and personal scores. <br/><br/>It’s not going to be a surprise that so much of Western culture is downstream of this, from religious imagery to fantasy literature to heavy metal lyrics, but it’s interesting as always to be able to see the well-worn references and images in their original context. And if there’s anything I want to explore in more detail I certainly don’t need to wonder if there’s an explanatory essay I could read. There’s seven centuries’ worth! <br/><br/>Glad I read this, and it’s more engaging and less chore-y than I expected.
Rated All the Birds in the Sky 8/10
Earnest, weird, dark, clever, surreal story that mixes sci-fi techno-dystopia and a well-thought-out fantasy magical system. Probably more of a 3 1/2 * than a 4 *, but well worth reading. Lots of great moments, ranging from funny to poignant to gee-whiz speculative; it's a future similarly convincing and vivid as something like "Super Sad True Love Story" or "Her," but with a great paranormal angel and a better, less hackneyed story.
Wants to read The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth
Wants to read [(Selected Stories)] [Author: Alice Munro] published on
Rated A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) by George R. R. Martin (2-May-2006) Paperback 8/10
GRR Martin blazes new trails in introducing you to characters, getting you to identify with and root for them, getting you invested in their plans, and then messily thwarting those plans. He also enjoys tormenting you with having characters act upon information you know to be untrue, or fail to discover information that you know would help them. <br/><br/>Great fun, really.
Rated The Iliad 10/10
remarkable - and it’s trite to say that the mark of great literature is that it always tells you something about the time you’re living in no matter when it’s from, but…reading about a culture where masculinity is the central value and it’s defined by whiny, belligerent men, fixated on pride, recognition, deference and control of women’s bodies, who don’t give a moment’s thought to whether these things are worth imposing suffering on others to secure? It hits, folks
Wants to read The Essex Serpent
Wants to read How Can I Help?: Saving Nature with Your Yard
Rated The Spirit of Aikido 8/10
not the best writing but a good quick intro to the history and principles/practices of aikido.
Rated How Did You Get This Number: Essays 6/10
Very nicely written, and Crosley is charming and a great observer, though these essays don't quite close the deal for themselves - you might be left asking "so what?" A quick and pleasant read.