Our Towns by James and Deborah Fallows. An uplifting walk thru towns and cities across America, each of which is finding its way and wrestling successfully with renewal, growth, education, immigration. There is a lot of great stuff happening everywhere […]
The Library Book by Susan Orlean. A peek inside the history, operations, and stories behind the LA Public Library, written by someone who loves books and libraries. Really enjoyable. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Surprisingly fantastic tale of a […]
Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit by Christof Spieler. Oh I love maps, and this book is chock full of them, and a great overview of transit in the US. It is easy to focus just on […]
These seem interesting — from five books
Age of Fracture by Daniel Rodgers. I really really wanted to like this book, it is well-regarded and seems to have an interesting thesis about what has happened in the last 50 years in our country. But overly wordy and […]
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn. Excellent detective tale set in a future America devastated by ecological change. The protagonist is an investigator who travels town to town, and finds herself caught up in a mystery that drags up issues from her […]
I just reviewed all my books I read over the last year. Here are the ones that stick with me. Fiction: All Systems Red by Martha Wells. The first in a super fun science fiction series Still life by Louise […]
Every year we play a couple board games over the holiday season. This year’s winner was Dead of Winter. The combination of collaborative play with individual secret objectives is great — encourages a lot of dialog but you never quite […]
A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias. Ugh, how did this thing get decent reviews? Reads like Asimov from early 70s which I enjoyed when I was 12 but hasn’t aged well. The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian. Sad story […]
Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. In depth story about homicides in the poorer parts of LA. The author makes the strong case that the high rate of crime is a consequence of poverty and lack of strong government, not surprising. […]
Aware by Daniel J. Siegel. A recommended text on meditation, but too much handwavey pseudo science for me. Did not find worthwhile at all, rather found it annoying. Buddha’s Brain by Rick Hanson. Another text on meditation, way better with […]
Waking Up White by Debby Irving. A lot to process in this book. I am probably just a few steps along the path to really understanding race in the US and my own role in the issues. This is definitely […]
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Award winner, and an interesting precept about a future human diaspora to the stars, but oh my gosh did it drag on. Editor please. Educated by Tara Westover. A nearly unbelievable memoir, an incredible […]
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Great retelling of the cholera epidemic in 1854 London, and the detective workto find the source. We look back andthe infectious mechanism for cholera seems so obvious to us — and yet we are […]
Origin Story by David Christian. Great story about the long waves of development over the entire course of history. Focusing just on the human development part of the story, human societal development has been characterized by increasing energy consumption and […]
The Legacy of the Civil War by Robert Penn Warren. The book is almost 60 years old and still super relevant. And demands careful reading, he doesn’t cater to the reader who isn’t willing to think or work. The Power […]
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso. Graphic novel, odd little story which wanders around and doesn’t really go anywhere. Reviews were excellent but I found it dull. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. The Theranos story. Wow. Unalloyed ambition, the worst of Silicon […]
CSNY’s “Ohio” (Wikipedia, Youtube ) hits me hard every time I hear it. I still see the bodies on the news, the classmates in anguish. “How many more” resonates through my head. CSNY pushed that record out in 3 weeks. […]
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. This settled down into basic space opera but some fun language and ideas about an era in which we have dramatically more control over the physical world. Have You Tried Working? By Anthony Gardner. […]
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. Awesome tale of 6 travelers on a space ship, trying to figure out who among them is trying to kill all of them. Agatha Christie in space! The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt. Space opera […]
