Reviews and Comments

A very good overview of Boeing's history particularly after its merger with McDonnell Douglas, which the author argues was a turning point from an engineering worldview to one of bean-counting. It chronicles the spinoff of engineering functions and the way the American FAA allowed Boeing to be its own regulator and inspector. It was written in the wake of the twin 737 Max tragedies, which are a primary focus, but the seeds are sown for all the bits falling out of the sky that we've seen of late.

There aren't many travel books that focus specifically on L.A., and even fewer that offer anything at all for the traveller on foot. This one isn't bad and isn't expensive, though it does date from 2018 and hasn't been updated since Covid.

The good parts of this have stayed with us, though often having become clichés; the not-so-great parts, well anything looks a bit musty a generation later, doesn't it. This was a 5-star game changer for me; it created the market for (admittedly not always quality) 'chick lit', but turned the stage a bit for female authors, who were thin on the ground at the time because of how the industry was (is…) run.

With very few exceptions I rate books as I would have when they came out, not as I see them now. Two decades ago I was smashing the *** and !!! keys. And so it stays.

This and a prior edition are the only books I've found to cover Mt. Tam properly, with detailed terrain and history discussions as well as clear maps. Printed on heavy, glossy stock, it's a bit heavy to carry on a major trek. But no other book I've found serves me as well.

I threw away most of my travel books from before the pandemic. This 2016 guide is one of the few I kept.

Packed with photos of the beautiful Palau de la Música Catalana, this is my favorite keepsake from an early noughties Barcelona trip. Brief descriptive text in Catalan, Spanish, and English mostly lets the pictures speak for themselves.

I loved this book and devoured it quickly. But five years on I'd forgotten I had read it. That could dock a star, but I try to rate things as I would have right after I read them.

Definitely keeps you guessing, and the answer is never what you thought ten minutes prior - just as it should be.

By the makers of the 99% Invisible podcast, this book offers dozens of bite-sized views of the built environment, its limitations, and those who would transcend them.

It has a particular worldview, one somewhere between New Urbanists and City Beautiful. But it acknowledges and calls itself on this view continually, noting that improvement to some is gentrification to others.

I can't be bothered to read war history, and when in London I'm the last to seek out the Churchill War Rooms. But I do love my maps, and when I do need WWII info, this book fits me nicely.

It breaks the war into campaigns at particular places and times. Each campaign gets a spread with maps on the right and prose on the left.

Each time I look I come away with a little more information than I originally went in for. Eventually information, in sufficient quantity, becomes knowledge.

I highly recommend this book. Written back in 2015, it opens with a geographic thesis on why Russia would want to invade Ukraine. (It's for a warm water port. )

The author's voice — earnest and sometimes dad-jokey without hysterics — is the reason you should make room on your shelf for yet another book on the environment. Sure, some of the chapters will cover ground that you may already know pretty well. But the other twenty will open your eyes, like revealing a sick forest behind a felled tree.

The first perhaps ⅔ of the book, which is about one of the author's favourite bands, is a lovely romp down Memory Lane. Eventually it becomes the tale of how one song and one album made him a superfan, and that's rather more relevant to his mates than to fans of Saint Etienne.