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Starting another book from the large backlog of stuff in my ebook library.

The origin story of the dragon Temeraire, captured from the French by the captain of an English ship, William Laurence. The person who drew the short straw is rejected as a rider by Temeraire, and Laurence becomes the rider in his place, but must give up his career in the navy. Training and battles in the dragon air service follow.

It is well-written, but the extended treatment of the proper relationship between riders and dragons was not interesting enough for me to want to seek out the sequels. People who like tales of manners will find this more enjoyable.

Man this dude was lucky; this could be a tale of warning (at one point he heads off into the hills with a cyclone coming)… but he wasn’t the only one doing this. He makes this walk seem accessible, which is inspiring, but also worries me a bit. But on the flip side, it’s an easy and beautiful and inspiring read. I think he benefitted from the hospitality of the girls more than he let on, but it was also cool to see how things worked for them. Will give this to my mum, I know she will enjoy it a lot. Very pretty book.

new vocabulary: knout

(in imperial Russia) a whip used to inflict punishment, often causing death

This book was fantastic. It was rage-inducing and awe-inspiring. Anyone who wants to understand German migration politics needs to start with who is most affected: by listening to stories of the refugees and asylum seekers who deal with Germany's racism and institutional violence every day.

This is a propaganda book passed off as nonfiction and written to discourage kids from doing drugs. I know a lot of people had a connection to the book and that it did impact some growing up so that's why I don't want to rate it. I'm an adult with a whole lotta life experience and it's not a book that was written for me. I do feel it's more antiquated at this point because fear tactics are not the best way to discourage drug use in teens, so it's not something that I would ever give to my kids to read. I understand now why my library does not have a physical copy of this book available.

I'm surprised that a book written in 1974 is this correct about urban planning.

These six amendments are easy to understand and eminently reasonable. In fact, they are barely amendments — they mostly just clarify existing text which unreasonable judges have decided to deliberately misunderstand in order to achieve unpopular policy goals. Indeed, it is an indictment of the US and our legal system that we do not currently act as if these clarifying amendments are in place. Stevens provides plenty of context about the events and cases which demand these amendments. But a reasonably-informed person would probably get most of the context just from reading the proposed changes.

new vocabulary: travertine

White or light colored calcareous rock deposited from mineral springs, used in building

new vocabulary: solecism

• a grammatical mistake in speech or writing. • a breach of good manners; an instance of incorrect behavior.