Parce qu'il permet de partir loin sans perdre de temps et de voyager plus "responsable", …
thirty trains!
4 stars
(2022 review reposted from dead bookwyrm instance)
Even though the subtitle promised me 30 unforgettable journeys, I was still unprepared for how many overnight trains the authors had unearthed, nor for how far they went (think Arctic Circle).
A bit breathlessly cheerleader, this book is still one I'll keep for the next time I need a novel trip idea.
A concrete jungle surrounded by abundant nature, Los Angeles is surprisingly more than just celebrities, …
You'd never guess L.A. was this interesting
5 stars
(2022 review reposted from dead bookwyrm instance)
The house from the Thriller video. Abandoned missile control sites. The graves of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable… and their lovers. The steps down which Laurel and Hardy dropped a piano.
This is not your Fodor's L.A. With lots of offbeat sites - A street steeper than Lombard! Dine with cops! A fiberglass chicken! - there's something in here to interest any L.A. unbeliever.
Worth the trip? Don't know. But the book got me thinking seriously about whether L.A. could be fun, and that's a 5-star lift.
(2021 review resposted from dead bookwyrm instance)
Tyson is the most objectionable writer I've encountered all year. I'd like to fill in my science knowledge gaps, in an entertaining way, but he's picking fights with the New York Times (over Pluto as planet) and J.R.R. Tolkien (over the plural form of "dwarf"). It's tiring and self-centered. It's a very bad year when I give out two one-star reviews, but this is a very bad year.
Engaging writing, interesting subject, well-documented. On paper, this history of pronouns across time and languages should have been a perfect read for me, but it left me flat.
The author travels through history to gauge the evolution of modern pronouns, showing that their usage (and quantity) are different across tongues, including English itself and languages both adjacent and distant.
"They" is saved for the last chapter; the singular "they" brings the most receipts but feels the least convincing from him, who clearly is coming to terms himself with the concept.
It's littered with pop-culture references that are on point, but taken together, they carbon-date him even before he states his own age. By the time he reveals that he was 22 in 1988, your response is, of course you were.
It felt like being cornered at a cocktail party with an earnest elder scholar from the East Coast who has …
Engaging writing, interesting subject, well-documented. On paper, this history of pronouns across time and languages should have been a perfect read for me, but it left me flat.
The author travels through history to gauge the evolution of modern pronouns, showing that their usage (and quantity) are different across tongues, including English itself and languages both adjacent and distant.
"They" is saved for the last chapter; the singular "they" brings the most receipts but feels the least convincing from him, who clearly is coming to terms himself with the concept.
It's littered with pop-culture references that are on point, but taken together, they carbon-date him even before he states his own age. By the time he reveals that he was 22 in 1988, your response is, of course you were.
It felt like being cornered at a cocktail party with an earnest elder scholar from the East Coast who has far too many stories in his head and a desire to show himself as able to evolve, keeping up with the kids. I'm modern, he says. You can be too.
It's been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, …
A warm holiday fire
5 stars
I normally take weeks to get through a book. I devoured this one in days. It pushed a Kleenex box in front of me just often enough that I couldn't set it down. These are two profoundly flawed women, yet also practically perfect in every way. Through it all I just wanted to wrap them in blankets, bring them tea and cookies, smooth their hair by the fire.
The jacket blurb already gives away more than I would prefer. And you know how it ends. But the journey is an E-ticket ride and worth every penny. You might not want to read it at the coffeeshop though.
From Adelaide in Guys and Dolls to Nina in In the Heights and Elphaba in …
don't mind me, just perusing wikipedia's reminder of what critics said about wicked, and seething again. gonna read this book again. the critics continue to slight the material, while being careful to praise the performances of (this time round) ariana grande and cynthia erivo
don't freaking listen to old critics. which is all of them.
'AllMusic rated the score three out of five stars, deeming it "tuneful and the lyrics often witty"… concluded that the music was "craftsmanlike and certainly efficient for this somewhat questionable project."'
'Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence Frascella gave the album a negative rating of C+, expressing that it was "fresh evidence that Broadway needs a new, galvanizing musical direction." Frascella lambasted the songs as "a dreary melange of Disney and Sondheim", though he praised the "lushly produced CD" and the performances of Chenoweth and Menzel.'
A voluminous reference guide on many networking subjects. While somewhat dated (it's from 2005, before widespread adoption of SSL/TLS), networking changes slowly, and most things you need to know are in here. Very much a reference book to have on the shelf; not something to read cover to cover.
Focused on suburbs and local chains — not a single general-interest shop in the Mission is listed — this is a guide for the Bouquets to Art crowd. Suburban chains take up space that could have been used for more independent shops. (I say this as a frequent customer of Books Inc., who got nearly all of the business I would give to Amazon.) All I know of Bookshop West Portal is its politics, but it's enough to make me wish someone else had gotten the featured slot.
A good skim through some hundred travel destinations that are at risk of being less attractive in the future. Most are threatened by climate change, but some face more direct stupidity — war, neglect, bad planning. Each place is visited only briefly, but it is a useful calibration for your own bucket list. You're unlikely to choose a new destination just because you see it here. But you might not realize that Stonehenge is at risk of being felled by rodents, or that Machu Picchu — already with twice the visitor load recommended by UNESCO — will be more crowded many times over after a new airport is completed.
"Discusses how to protect personal information from online privacy violations. Covers how to set and …
Still good for big picture a decade on
3 stars
The overall concepts in this 2015 book are sound, if actually not paranoid enough for our times. Most of the details — particularly in what software to get — are necessarily dated.
There's occasionally the observation that nobody could have anticipated would be a groaner in 2025, like the characterization of Chrome and Firefox as the best browsers for privacy. The basic behaviors for keeping yourself out of harm's way (as much as possible) remain valid, as are the reminders of all the ways that "we are the product" for social media companies.
