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. Also, 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.
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Success! Phil in SF has read 45 of 28 books.
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.
Phil in SF
boosted
I absolutely love these poems. I want to reread these over and over.
Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one …
Someone should write an erudite essay on the moral, physical, and aesthetic effect of the Model T Ford on the American nation. Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears than the solar system of stars. With the Model T, part of the concept of private property disappeared. Pliers cease to be privately owned and a tire pump belong to the last man who had picked it up. Most of the babies of the period were conceived in Model T Fords and not a few were born in them. The theory of the Anglo-Saxon home became so warped that it never quite recovered.
— Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (35%)
Phil in SF
boosted
The eccentric detective Ana Dolabra matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant …
This book reminds me a lot of the second book in Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy. Both are set out in the hinterlands, with a different focus and locale than the first book, but crucially both are there to establish the thematic question for the series. Here, that question is around the human nature of kings and emperors, and the complicated human desire for them.
Unsurprisingly, this series continues to be solidly in the mystery genre despite being blended with kaiju fantasy worldbuilding. It opens with a locked room murder mystery (and a missing body), has a brilliant Moriarity-adjacent mastermind, and ends with a dramatic reveal. This was true in the first book as well, but I quite appreciate how the details and clues are meticulously laid out for the reader to spot; even when there is a "our investigator must go into a fugue state to find answers" …
This book reminds me a lot of the second book in Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy. Both are set out in the hinterlands, with a different focus and locale than the first book, but crucially both are there to establish the thematic question for the series. Here, that question is around the human nature of kings and emperors, and the complicated human desire for them.
Unsurprisingly, this series continues to be solidly in the mystery genre despite being blended with kaiju fantasy worldbuilding. It opens with a locked room murder mystery (and a missing body), has a brilliant Moriarity-adjacent mastermind, and ends with a dramatic reveal. This was true in the first book as well, but I quite appreciate how the details and clues are meticulously laid out for the reader to spot; even when there is a "our investigator must go into a fugue state to find answers" moment, her revelations are all something the reader could have intuited themselves.
One friend who has been reading this series (and crucially has not read any mystery books) has been disappointed at the "small-ness" of the plot threads, where the climax is a mystery rather than a fantasy escalation, and the terror of the leviathans only looms in the distance. These books certainly do not have the escalation of ideas from his previous series The Founders Trilogy. However, following the Divine Cities example above, my prediction is that the final book is going to satisfyingly tie together the themes from the first two books while answering our questions about the nature of the leviathans and the silent Khanum emperor.
Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one …
Lee Chong did not give it these things, with the result that the truck stood in the tall grass back of the grocery most of the time with the mallows growing between its spokes.
— Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (32%)
new vocabulary: mallow
A herbaceous plant with hairy stems, pink or purple flowers, and disc-shaped fruit.
Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one …
He picked up a piece of excelsior and put it in a garbage can and then he looked at Doc where he worked labeling specimen bottles containing purple Velella.
— Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (29%)
new vocabulary: excelsior
softwood shavings used for packing fragile goods or stuffing furniture
Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one …
He was concupiscent as a rabbit and gentle as hell.
— Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (15%)
new vocabulary: concupiscent
filled with sexual desire, lustful
Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one …
But to get back to the evening, Horace was on the trestles with the embalming needles in him, and his two wives were sitting on the steps of his house with their arms about each other (they were good friends until after the funeral, and then they divided up the children and never spoke to each other again).
— Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (7%)
oh, this is such a good sentence.
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, …
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.
Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times. His grip on life is disintegrating, his pistol hand shaking, his …
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history …
Going to see what the hype and criticism is all about.
Phil in SF
boosted
Downgrading this to 2 stars. A few weeks have gone by and I'm finding myself more and more annoyed at some (many?) of the choices the authors made in the framing of this book.
Giving this 3 stars instead of 2 because reading it seems useful to keep abreast of The Discourse, and it was a reasonably quick read (I reserve 1 star for "didn't want to waste time to finish this").
Despite all the footnotes and references, this book has the superficial vibe of the early Internet "Let's make more Progress with Technology and then we will have Luxury for Everyone!" manifestos, but applied more broadly to also housing, energy production and some nebulous "innovation". It's hard to take seriously as a stance in 2025.
I hope it spurs more conversation and deeper thinking about these themes, but I fear its lack of thoughtfulness about trade-offs might take us …
Downgrading this to 2 stars. A few weeks have gone by and I'm finding myself more and more annoyed at some (many?) of the choices the authors made in the framing of this book.
Giving this 3 stars instead of 2 because reading it seems useful to keep abreast of The Discourse, and it was a reasonably quick read (I reserve 1 star for "didn't want to waste time to finish this").
Despite all the footnotes and references, this book has the superficial vibe of the early Internet "Let's make more Progress with Technology and then we will have Luxury for Everyone!" manifestos, but applied more broadly to also housing, energy production and some nebulous "innovation". It's hard to take seriously as a stance in 2025.
I hope it spurs more conversation and deeper thinking about these themes, but I fear its lack of thoughtfulness about trade-offs might take us in an even worse direction.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth …
