aka @kingrat@sfba.social. I'm following a lot of bookwyrm accounts, since that seems to be the only way to get reviews from larger servers to this small server. I make a lot of Bookwyrm lists. I will like & boost a lot of reviews that come across my feed. I will follow most bookwyrm accounts back if they review & comment. Social reading should be social.
A young man caught between two disparate worlds searches for his place in the universe …
Decent except for the incredibly predictable end
3 stars
On a space station, no one knows you are the former Patty Hearst. Kidnapped by terrorists, Patty Heart shoots her adoptive father when the rescue mission arrives and is convicted of that. In some sort of deal, Patty gets probation and anonymity on a distant space station university. OK, It's not really Patty Hearst, it's Ira and his adoptive father is a senator in a race of alien conquerors of Earth, and this is somewhat of an analog for indigenous kids getting adopted by White colonizers. OK, but the story is too short to get into Ira's inner life and that's needed to make the ending not feel didactic.
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no …
I wish I could have skipped the "Deep Web" parts
4 stars
After a string of less than enjoyable Reacher novels, this was one I liked. As frequently happens, Reacher stumbles into a town based on its name ("Mother's Rest"). Turns out there's crime happening there, and Reacher is a one man A-Team. Reacher and former FBI Michelle Chang form a duo looking for her partner, Keever who stumbled on something happening and then disappeared. Reacher and Chang go from Mother's Rest to Oklahoma City to Chicago to Colorado Springs to Los Angeles to Phoenix to Menlo Park and finally back to Mother's Rest mostly because the actual criminals in Mother's Rest are very Keystone so Lee Child has to introduce lots of other elements to fill out the book. Which is all acceptable to me… except that the Menlo Park dude is someone building a super secret search engine for the "Deep Web" which Child explains is the Tor project. Searching …
After a string of less than enjoyable Reacher novels, this was one I liked. As frequently happens, Reacher stumbles into a town based on its name ("Mother's Rest"). Turns out there's crime happening there, and Reacher is a one man A-Team. Reacher and former FBI Michelle Chang form a duo looking for her partner, Keever who stumbled on something happening and then disappeared. Reacher and Chang go from Mother's Rest to Oklahoma City to Chicago to Colorado Springs to Los Angeles to Phoenix to Menlo Park and finally back to Mother's Rest mostly because the actual criminals in Mother's Rest are very Keystone so Lee Child has to introduce lots of other elements to fill out the book. Which is all acceptable to me… except that the Menlo Park dude is someone building a super secret search engine for the "Deep Web" which Child explains is the Tor project. Searching Tor project web sites is not hard. Anyway, as long as I don't know how something works it's easy enough for me to suspend disbelief and enjoy it! And I did, other than the stupid "search the Deep Web" parts.
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history …
I agree with them, but this is underwhelming
2 stars
I agree with many of the authors' conclusions and political positions, but this book is mostly a facile argument for "abundance". It's best feature is the articulation of an "abundance" (as opposed to scarcity) political theory. But the chapters arguing that it is right rely on anecdote and suffer from severe survivorship bias (the logical fallacy that examining winners reveals how to succeed). As I noted in a comment, they also subject degrowth to a pretty withering critique that they do not subject their own theory to: degrowth is a political dead end because it includes policies like vegetarianism that are political non-starters. Nowhere in the book do they talk about how one of their core positions, subsidize things you want like heck, is a really hard sell because it means giving a lot more money to people who have money. Another of their core positions is that liberals value …
I agree with many of the authors' conclusions and political positions, but this book is mostly a facile argument for "abundance". It's best feature is the articulation of an "abundance" (as opposed to scarcity) political theory. But the chapters arguing that it is right rely on anecdote and suffer from severe survivorship bias (the logical fallacy that examining winners reveals how to succeed). As I noted in a comment, they also subject degrowth to a pretty withering critique that they do not subject their own theory to: degrowth is a political dead end because it includes policies like vegetarianism that are political non-starters. Nowhere in the book do they talk about how one of their core positions, subsidize things you want like heck, is a really hard sell because it means giving a lot more money to people who have money. Another of their core positions is that liberals value too many things, and because of that don't do any of them, especially building stuff, particularly well. But they do not really articulate what goals liberals should give up in favor of building things. Is it the environment? Is it equitable distribution of wealth? Is it diversity? About the only thing they are clear that should be given up is lengthy process. And I kind of agree with them on that, but process is what ensures those other goals are considered. If not process to accomplish goals, what is the alternate way to achieve those goals. If that's not figured out, we give up all those other goals, just so we can build some shit.
And as a side note, the authors are very positive about "AI" in the book, and that's another thing they may not have wrestled with to the extent they should. But I'll critique that if they ever write a book where the main topic is AI.
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no …
Ugh. Reacher goes to someone who's built a super secret search engine for the "Deep Web" and it's several pages of "reverse the polarity" level of hacker cliche. Dude, I don't want to see you butcher my profession! Just butcher professions I don't know anything about!
Dark Lord Davi rules the kingdom, but she must now break the time loop that …
Fun take on "Chosen One" fantasy
4 stars
After Davi becomes Dark Lord, she leaves her horde in the hands of Mari and heads to the Kingdom to see if she can broker a peace between the wilders and humans. Humans in power don't really want peace though. And neither do most of the wilders Davi has left behind. And behind all of it is the question as to why she kept being reborn whenever she died, with the same mission to save humans every time.
A fun plot and the characters are still fun. Wexler intersperses the story with lots of bawdy, footnoted asides. But not as good as the first book, sadly. I think that's because the first book didn't need to answer the questions. The final book kind of needs to, and those answers are too convoluted, and only hold together if I didn't think too hard about them. Still fun, so it gets a …
After Davi becomes Dark Lord, she leaves her horde in the hands of Mari and heads to the Kingdom to see if she can broker a peace between the wilders and humans. Humans in power don't really want peace though. And neither do most of the wilders Davi has left behind. And behind all of it is the question as to why she kept being reborn whenever she died, with the same mission to save humans every time.
A fun plot and the characters are still fun. Wexler intersperses the story with lots of bawdy, footnoted asides. But not as good as the first book, sadly. I think that's because the first book didn't need to answer the questions. The final book kind of needs to, and those answers are too convoluted, and only hold together if I didn't think too hard about them. Still fun, so it gets a bunch of stars.
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history …
Halfway through, and so far it's argument by anecdote. Also, so far it's just a litany of what's wrong, with little in the way of policy recommendations beyond "do more of the things you want" and "pick some goals, not all goals" and "judge by outcomes, not process". Well, tell us which goals you think we should have! Much like I think people who think we should cut budgets should recommend cutting specific programs.
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history …
Has a pretty good criticism of degrowth (winning elections on degrowth policies such as vegetarianism isn't likely to happen), but then transitions into a description of an energy techno-utopia that is also significantly hard to win on politically. Massive subsidies for green energy are also a pretty hard sell. Maybe they'll get to that part shortly though.
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history …
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.
In a few paragraphs on zoning, there's only one sentence on the racist origins and long running practice of zoning.
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.
Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one …
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.
Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times. His grip on life is disintegrating, …
Fitting finish
4 stars
Hank Thompson owed money to a Russian mobster, but couldn't pay. The mobster has Hank's face changed with cosmetic surgery and uses him as someone to break legs or kill. But Hank needs more and more drugs to get through it and is still not able to do the job properly.
I didn't think I would like this one very much. Hank as a reluctant but effective hit man? That's sorta what the ending to book 2 promised. If that didn't come about, I didn't think I wanted a rehash of the previous two stories where Hank goes on the run for extended chapters, barely able to get through each encounter with a bad guy and there are so many bad guys. There's a little of that, but it doesn't drag on. Huston must've figured that would be tiresome.
If you've read the previous Henry Thompson books, you know how …
Hank Thompson owed money to a Russian mobster, but couldn't pay. The mobster has Hank's face changed with cosmetic surgery and uses him as someone to break legs or kill. But Hank needs more and more drugs to get through it and is still not able to do the job properly.
I didn't think I would like this one very much. Hank as a reluctant but effective hit man? That's sorta what the ending to book 2 promised. If that didn't come about, I didn't think I wanted a rehash of the previous two stories where Hank goes on the run for extended chapters, barely able to get through each encounter with a bad guy and there are so many bad guys. There's a little of that, but it doesn't drag on. Huston must've figured that would be tiresome.
If you've read the previous Henry Thompson books, you know how this will end. But it got there in a satisfying manner, and none of it wore out its welcome for me.
