Oh, I liked it a great deal. I'll be reading the others soon. I'm probably being a bit tough on the grade tbh and I've been meaning to read him for several years now, just never gotten around to it.
I'll be reading American Nations as soon as it is returned to my local library branch. Right up my alley.
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) 4. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley (8/10) *reread* 5. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia #5) -- CS Lewis (10/10) *reread* Sat around for hours this weekend and did nothing but read this whole book. I'm reading a nonfiction book about the history of slavery that's really heavy right now so I had to lighten the mood. I haven't read Harry Potter -- Chronicles of Narnia was my favorite English fantasy series growing up. Man I love these books
1. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling 8/10 2. Ring of Fire by Brad Taylor (Pike Logan Series #11) 7/10 3. Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne 10/10 4. 1984 by George Orwell 8/10 It was my first time reading it, I actually finished it last week and still am not sure how I feel about it. There were some very good parts and then some parts that I struggled reading through and I think I would enjoy it more reading it for a second time at some point.
I am going to read 52 books this year. Gonna do it. Any questions or want a review about the books let me know. 2018 1. The Lost Gate *8.0 2. The Gate Thief *5.0 3. All our Wrongs Today *7.5 4. Children of The Fleet *7.0 5. End of Watch *6.0 6. House of Chains (Malazan4) *8.0 7. Wind Through the Keyhole *8.5 8. The Dog Stars *7.0 9. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing *8.0 10. The Story of Your Life *4.5
Only 8/10 for House of Chains? The first 20% of the book makes it a 10/10 Spoiler Karsa fucking Orlong
1984 - George Orwell - 7/10 - Enjoyed for the most part, or at least as much as one can enjoy such a depressing book. Fascinating to see how they break him down in the final third of the book. Highly recommend the Audible reading, i need to see who did the narration because he killed it.
1) The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive # 1) by Brandon Sanderson 9/10 2) Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive # 2) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10 3) Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive # 2.5) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10 4) Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson 9/10
Tough book to grade. Since it’s a collection of short stories, I gave stories I liked a 1.0, just ok 0.5, and hated a 0. So, even though I really loved a couple of the stories, other were pure shit.
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) 4. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley (8/10) *reread* 5. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia #5) -- CS Lewis (10/10) *reread* 6. The half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism -- Edward E. Baptist (8/10)
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) - JK Rowling (9/10) Finally got around to finishing it. Really enjoyed it. Great series. Thought this last book was a great end to everything and was very pleasing throughout. Only thing that sucks for me is I was spoiled about certain plot points, which to be fair, is expected for the most famous book series of all time. But the way those things unfolded was cool to see, and I didn't know all of it going in. Happy I finally read the series.
I finished The Half Blood Prince last Friday and decided to skip a couple books I wanted to read before Deathly Hallows so I could finish it. Never read it before either so these last 250 or so pages should be good
1. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (Phillip Gourevitch) - 9/10 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - 8.5/10 3. The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Isabel Wilkerson) - 8/10 4. The Road To Jonestown: Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple (Jeff Guinn) - 9/10 - A damn good piece of nonfiction. Exhaustive background work on Jones and his family and principal followers. Though I knew a little about Jones' socialist leanings, I can't say that I knew much about his efforts to integrate Indianapolis and the good works done by the Temple throughout its history. I also wasn't aware of his efforts in the political arena. Some of the things he would tell his followers in order to retain their devotion and obfuscate his shortcomings were LOL worthy; in one instance, after having to wear dark glasses daily in order to hide his heavy amphetamine usage, he told them that he wore the glasses to protect them as the energy radiating from his eyes was known to burn mere mortals. Definitely an entertaining read.
1. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5) by J.K. Rowling 8/10 2. Ring of Fire by Brad Taylor (Pike Logan Series #11) 7/10 3. Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne 10/10 4. 1984 by George Orwell 8/10 5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6) by J.K. Rowling 8/10 I obviously enjoyed this penultimate installment in the series, though there were certainly parts that I didn't like. I actually think I was pretty successful in not having any of the books spoiled for me over the time(other than Ron and Hermoine and Harry and Ginny ending up together) The scenes with Harry and Dumbledore going through Voldemort's history were probably my favorites of the book and Dumbledore dying was surprising to me in this book, thought it would happen in the last book. Overall though I think it did a good job of setting up for the final book as I did decide to skip a couple other books to finish the series quickly. 6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) by J.K. Rowling 9/10 Like the Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows did tie up almost all the loose ends of the series and brought it to a satisfying conclusion, though I think there were numerous parts of the book that could have been better. This probably isn't the place to talk at length about the things that were disappointing in it, or more fairly maybe that didn't live up to the first few books for me. Overall I really enjoyed the series and will want to read it again sometime in the future, but for me books 2-4 were the best part of the series.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) - JK Rowling (9/10) 2. The Chalk Man - CJ Tudor (6.5/10) I enjoyed darn near the whole thing a lot more than my final grade indicates. I just... don't like the ending. Didn't feel earned and was weird. An easy read otherwise. Story was pretty interesting for the most part.
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) 4. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley (8/10) *reread* 5. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia #5) -- CS Lewis (10/10) *reread* 6. The half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism -- Edward E. Baptist (8/10) 7. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently And Why -- Richard Nisbett (8/10) Title pretty self explanatory. Pretty interesting. Wondered if the author was reaching too far at some parts but know a Chinese American guy and asked him about a few of the ideas and he considered them valid so, checks out! Finished the book yesterday which was day 49 of the year...7 books in 7 weeks, I'm on pace this year!
1. Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie (8/10) 2. Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie (7/10) 3. Red Country - Joe Abercrombie (7/10) 4. The Way of Kings (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 5. Words of Radiance (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 6. Edgedancer - Brandon Sanderson (9/10) 7. Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson (10/10) 8. Scorched Shadows (Hellequin #7) - Steve McHugh (8/10) 9. Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson (8/10) 10. Elantris - Brandon Sanderson (9/10) 11. Arcanum Unbounded - Brandon Sanderson (8/10) - Enjoyed all of the short stories
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) - JK Rowling (9/10) 2. The Chalk Man - CJ Tudor (6.5/10) 3. All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire - Jonathan Abrams (9.5/10) Great book about a great show. Quotes were great throughout and I found myself laughing out loud more than I expected. Can't wait to watch the show again.
Couldn't agree more. Closest thing to it would be this one, but it's reviews of eps, not an oral history: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25855218-mad-men-carousel
Edinburgh Twilight - An Ian Hamilton Mystery - 7/10 - I was looking for something with the free Audible edition along with it, this popped up so I went for it. Fairly entertaining, interesting characters. The narrator's voicing of the characters was somewhat overwrought, or maybe that's what they actually sounded like back then. Interesting portrait of the city as much as anything. I'm about 3 hours into the Audible version of Fellowship of the Rings. Have not read before, enjoying it.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) - JK Rowling (9/10) 2. The Chalk Man - CJ Tudor (6.5/10) 3. All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire - Jonathan Abrams (9.5/10) 4. Dark Matter - Blake Crouch (10/10) Read this almost two years ago. Just read it again in three days. Still holds up. Phenomenal book.
1. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (Phillip Gourevitch) - 9/10 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - 8.5/10 3. The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Isabel Wilkerson) - 8/10 4. The Road To Jonestown: Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple (Jeff Guinn) - 9/10 5. All The King's Men (Robert Penn Warren) - 9.5/10 - What a great novel. As a southerner, I'm somewhat embarrassed that I haven't read it until now. I take a bit of offense when I see this book described as a "political novel" as it's much more than that. The author can be long-winded at times but it works in this one. Reading other reviews, I know some folks don't like the Cass Mastern section but it really works well as a backdrop against Jack's transformation throughout the book. Feel like this is one book every American should read.
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #9) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/10) Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) - James S.A. Corey (8.5/10) Strange Dogs (The Expanse #6.5) - James S.A. Corey (7/10) Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas Trilogy #1) - Steven Erikson (9.5/10)
1. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2) - Brandon Sanderson **Re-read** 2. Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive #2.5) - Brandon Sanderson **Re-read** 3. Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) - James S.A. Corey (8.5/10) 4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #1) - C.S. Lewis **Re-read** 5. Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) - C.S. Lewis (6/10) 6. The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia #5) - C.S. Lewis (6.5/10) 7. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (The Chronicles of Narnia #3) - C.S. Lewis (7/10) 8. The Silver Chair (The Chronicles of Narnia #4) - C.S. Lewis (6.5/10) 9. Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera #1) - Jim Butcher (7/10) 10. The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia #6) - C.S. Lewis (6.5/10) 11. The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia #7) - C.S. Lewis (6/10) 12. Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive #3) - Brandon Sanderson (9.5/10)
1. Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie (8/10) 2. Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie (7/10) 3. Red Country - Joe Abercrombie (7/10) 4. The Way of Kings (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 5. Words of Radiance (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 6. Edgedancer - Brandon Sanderson (9/10) 7. Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson (10/10) 8. Scorched Shadows (Hellequin #7) - Steve McHugh (8/10) 9. Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson (8/10) 10. Elantris - Brandon Sanderson (9/10) 11. Arcanum Unbounded - Brandon Sanderson (8/10) - Enjoyed all of the short stories 12. Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera #1) - Jim Butcher (8.5/10)
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) 4. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley (8/10) *reread* 5. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia #5) -- CS Lewis (10/10) *reread* 6. The half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism -- Edward E. Baptist (8/10) 7. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently And Why -- Richard Nisbett (8/10) 8. Mind Sculpture: Unlocking Your Brain's Untapped Potential -- Ian Roberson (8/10) I like books about neuroscience, aka all the cool shit science is learning about our minds by studying brains with scientific instruments. This isn't the absolute best book I've read on the subject but it did add to my understanding. Learning about the brain is about the coolest shit in the world to me. The title "mind sculpture" refers to learning...any time you learn something new it resculpts your brain. By you reading these words, I just resculpted your brain
1. The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu. (8/10) 2. Fire and Fury - Michael Wolff (4/10) 3. To The Back of Beyond - Peter Stamm (7/10) 4. Love in the Ruins - Walker Percy - Love Percy so much. (9/10)
I really, really liked it. Really cool mix of science, history, and philosophy. And the sheer size of the novel was awesome. About to start the second in the series soon. The translation made the dialogue a little weird at times, and the second book is translated by someone else which is...odd. So we'll see
Now that I've posted here guess I'll contribute. 1. Hegemony or Survival-Noam Chomsky 6/10 2. Diamonds Are Forever-Ian Fleming 6/10 weakest in the series so far 3. American Nations-Colin Woodard 9/10. This is a fantastic book that tracks immigration patterns through American history and shows how that explains America today. Really interesting and engaging.
I loved American Nations. What's the best Bond so far? I read Live and Let Die and thought it was fairly enjoyable
1. Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie (8/10) 2. Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie (7/10) 3. Red Country - Joe Abercrombie (7/10) 4. The Way of Kings (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 5. Words of Radiance (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 6. Edgedancer - Brandon Sanderson (9/10) 7. Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson (10/10) 8. Scorched Shadows (Hellequin #7) - Steve McHugh (8/10) 9. Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson (8/10) 10. Elantris - Brandon Sanderson (9/10) 11. Arcanum Unbounded - Brandon Sanderson (8/10) - Enjoyed all of the short stories 12. Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera #1) - Jim Butcher (8.5/10) 13. Academ's Fury (Codex Alera #2) - Jim Butcher (9/10)
1. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5) by J.K. Rowling 8/10 2. Ring of Fire by Brad Taylor (Pike Logan Series #11) 7/10 3. Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne 10/10 4. 1984 by George Orwell 8/10 5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6) by J.K. Rowling 8/10 6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) by J.K. Rowling 9/10 7. Pegasus Bridge by Stephen Ambrose 7/10 Overall interesting read about the earliest soldiers to land in Normandy on the morning of D-Day though it felt light in content about the battle for the bridges. Still worth the little time it took to read though. 8. Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10) by Agatha Christie 7/10 Had never read this before and been intrigued since the movie came out, nice easy read that went by quick and was fun.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) - JK Rowling (9/10) 2. The Chalk Man - CJ Tudor (6.5/10) 3. All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire - Jonathan Abrams (9.5/10) 4. Dark Matter - Blake Crouch (10/10) 5. Breaking Bad 101: The Complete Critical Companion - Alan Sepinwall (8.5/10) 6. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (9/10) Breaking Bad: I have always enjoyed Sepinwall’s writing. But man, following the book on The Wire, I wanted more from this. Wanted more behind the scenes on the creation and less recaps. Which isn’t fair for my grade because that’s not what this is. Blame my review on timing I guess. Still enjoyed it. Was fun following again during my rewatch. Ready Player One: Didn't enjoy it as much as I did the first two times I read it but still had a blast. Wanted to give it one more read before the movie. Some of the faults shined brighter the third time around, but the story is still so fun, and the world so immersive.
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) 4. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley (8/10) *reread* 5. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia #5) -- CS Lewis (10/10) *reread* 6. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism -- Edward E. Baptist (8/10) 7. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently And Why -- Richard Nisbett (8/10) 8. Mind Sculpture: Unlocking Your Brain's Untapped Potential -- Ian Roberson (8/10) 9. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape -- James Howard Kunstler (10/10) My first 10 out of 10 of the year...this book was incredible. It's about urban sprawl and how cars (and television to a lesser extent) have wrecked America's landscape. It's 25 years old now but still held up very well except when he talks about peak oil and assuming we'd have already hit that by now. If people are interested I can say more about the book but yeah, it's incredible and you should read it. Just driving around this weekend I saw the world in a whole new way
Does it discuss Robert Moses much? I got a copy of The Power Broker for XMas but it's a bit far down my TBR list.
Yes, it did have a little info on him and how he was famous for "getting things done." What the book shows is how misguided everyone's faith in that is...people seem to just want "development" without worrying about what it is. Ok this neighborhood's in, do the next one. Get the roads done to open up the next section. What is our goal here, to replace all of nature with subdivisions, highways and strip malls? Oh but look at the economic development numbers! Wow look at these "gains" in my stock portfolio! (What have you gained if you turned your whole environment into somewhere shitty to live?)
My wife is an urban planner for a quickly-growing suburb of Raleigh. This kind of discussion dominates town politics.
Interesting. Well from what I understand from the book, at this point it's not simply a matter of what individuals/communities want to do...in many cases there are laws against doing the kind of growth the author says is "good." Stuff that gets built isn't necessarily anybody's idea of what would be best to build but what can fit the minimums of the law and make money. So I bet a lot of your wife's job is just figuring out legal bs and such instead of using her expertise to plan legit communities
Your assumption is correct. I should probably read the book before commenting further; it sounds like it goes a bit deeper than what I currently understand. It's probably fairer to say, "The discussion around how much development is sustainable is a common one here."
1. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (Phillip Gourevitch) - 9/10 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - 8.5/10 3. The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Isabel Wilkerson) - 8/10 4. The Road To Jonestown: Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple (Jeff Guinn) - 9/10 5. All The King's Men (Robert Penn Warren) - 9.5/10 6. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Matthew Desmond) - 9.5/10 - Read this based on TC recommendation and glad I did. Both heartbreaking and informative; Desmond is a skilled writer and researcher. The poor are really fucked in America today. Highly recommend to the general reader.
1) The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive # 1) by Brandon Sanderson 9/10 2) Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive # 2) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10 3) Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive # 2.5) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10 4) Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson 9/10 5) Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson 10/10