Gar Petterson

decent academic volume, but lacked synthesis and diversity.

Best SF novel I've read this year, enjoyed more than Expanse

Shallow and weirdly non-reflective and the pros and cons of having scholars and librarians become spys.

• for settling - for light plot and character arc - would read a follow-up

Good review of recent research on empirical economic impact of heat, and climate shocks on people.
Popular, but technical non-fiction about economics of climate change impacts.

well done audiobook

Not bad, but too long.
Could have taken more advantage of the setting.

Engagingly written but book is not well-integrated and covers fairly familiar ground (if you have read previously on these topics).

Good English spy novel. Non-cold war or world war 2 spy novel. Contemporary spy fiction on Russians in London, money laundering, and London as Butler to the World

Buildings on characters in series, which was both a plus and a minus.
Didn't really like the meta-fictional aspects
Effectively set during Covid

Four stars for people reading the series, or interested in covid in fiction.
Three for others.

Reminded me of “Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here”
which is also about a flooding and family in Texas

I liked both, but this one is more straight-forward

good style - but story didn't really cohere for me

Was reading this book as the same time as “The House of Government Book” by Yuri Slezkine, which is about the Bolsheviks and the Russian revolution (and interprets them as a apocalyptic religious millennial movement). I was surprised at the number of parallels between the story of Bridgewater and the Bolshevik leadership of the USSR, even before the part of the book where Ray Dalio established a Politburo within Bridgewater.

Evocative, full of feeling but not of insight

A rare sustainable development novel.
A more young-adult adventure companion to The Deluge, Termination Shock, or Ministry of the Future.

Add a star if you want a story about adapting to climate change.

CBC interview with “Fire Weather” author John Vaillant
Massive '21st-century' fires are here to stay — and we need to update how we fight them
https://cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/q-a-john-vaillant-wildfires-bc-nwt-1.6942576

the book is about one fire, and it zooms out on that to discuss

“what we're seeing are these massive, explosively energetic fires that are the result of centuries at this point of relentless CO2 generation from industrial fossil fuels ... The boreal is really going through a massive, slow-motion transformation right now and turning into a much more flammable place.” - John Vaillant, in above interview

my score - rounded up from 4 1/2
found a bit long

3 1/2 rounded up
liked the atmosphere, but found it a a bit long and character motivations not totally convincing + missed opportunity to connect to bigger themes

Rounded up
Powerful in parts but felt too long

4 1/2 rounded up to five.

An indirect take on oil and climate.

Really popular book gives evolutionary perspective of cats

A short book that is a collection of short essays.
Interesting perspective on life in modern China, but only moderate compelling writing.
probably +1/2 star if interested in universities in China.

Fine, but I was hoping it would be a bit more weyward.

Boring, predictable with shallow Wikipedia quality background.

Weird translation

i didn't expect to enjoy this so much - enthusiastic film memories