Reviews and Comments

This is a book that should validate a lot of my priors, so I'm going to be extra critical. So far, my two criticisms don't necessarily impact the overall thrust of the book, but the lack of rigor bothers me.

1. In a few paragraphs on zoning, there's only one sentence on the racist origins and long running practice of zoning.

2. The authors extol the benefits of cities (something I agree with) by noting how many companies are forcing people back to the office. What the text doesn't note, however, is how little evidence there is for the effectiveness of those return-to-office mandates. I personally think there's huge benefits to working together in an office, and there's evidence for lots of in-office benefits. But I haven't seen anything that specifically validates that the benefits of return-to-office outweigh the costs.

Took the train to LA through Salinas earlier this month. Looking out the window I thought I should get around to reading Cannery Row. I may have read this back in the days when I didn't keep quite as good track of my reading.

Going to see what the hype and criticism is all about.

Joe Reacher interrupts the drive of a promising officer in War Plans. When she stops her car, Joe Reacher executes her.

Jack Reacher is briefly assigned a post where he has to oversee the investigation of who killed the officer. Something is fishy when the local cops nab a recluse with no military background and claim it's a robbery gone wrong.

Will he ever figure out it was his brother? Yes. Yes he will because he's Reacher. He's a pure distillation of competence porn.

Interesting memoir from paleobotanist Hope Jahren. She intersperses short chapters on plant life with vignettes from her life and career. Interesting because she clearly imparts a love for science as well as relates the shittiness of being a scientist. Other than when she identified the minerals that make up opal as the same mineral used by a tree to create nearly impervious seeds, Jahren does not dwell on the actual scientific process she's pursuing. It's mostly the tedium of creating things needed for experiments, the unfortunate discarding of specimens she tried to smuggle out of Ireland from an impromptu collection, and similar tales from being a scientist. I got a great sense of what her life as a scientist is like, but very few details of the actual science. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as I wasn't quite prepared for it. Extremely well written.

Starts off promising but gets progressively worse with every chapter, until at the end I wonder if any of the professional reviewers who rated this so highly actually finished it.

ugh. the author is doing the thing in 1st person where we don't get to hear the important thoughts that would reveal information. just the protagonist's side thoughts.

"i knew that fragrance. I'd smelled it on two different women. one must have given the perfume to the other. i got the message contained in this coat. a communication meant for me alone from an adversary i hadn't realized i was fighting."

The Semaphore Society imagines a world where people who cannot communicate easily with "normal" (for want of a better word) people due to such maladies as lock-in syndrome find an online community where they communicate with each other through drawing. Good premise. Uninteresting plot.

Slippery Slope imagines a universe where body parts can be replaced & upgraded and sees how this plays out on a school playground where a bully can beat up another kid and steal their tongue (for instance). It ends with some overwrought hand-wringing from a bullied kid who turns the tables.

Good Numbers explores the concept that employed people might be expected to be good at their jobs and have "good numbers". Yes, capitalism expects people to be productive for the benefit of others. This doesn't have anything particularly interesting to say about it.

Frankenstein in the US West? sign me up.

The new Kobo has a lot more room than the old Kobo, so I added all my old issues of magazines that I haven't gotten around to reading (Lightspeed, LCRW, Crossed Genres, etc.), and I'm going to try to get through a few of them now and then.

None of the characters were interesting by 23%.

New book on the If Books Could Kill podcast!