Tom Randall

The spiritual precursor to the zombie genre, and it happens to be better written than anything I've read in the genre.

Very good, but seemed more heavily focused on TR's foreign policy achievements, at the expense of the domestic. Maybe this is an accurate picture, but I suspect it has more to do with the author's interests.

Foodie jerk schoolteacher gets run out of town by a guy who throws a pumpkin at him. Not great.

Thorough history, but the topic is maybe too broad.

Excellent and important. Need to remember to reread my highlights on this one periodically.

Somewhat overhyped. The main point, praising “monopolies” in certain contexts, is interesting (though he is sloppy with the word). The back half rambles a bit and doesn't quite connect to the main premise. Still worth reading for startup founders and others interested in the subject.

Loved the pacing and the dark psychology. I rarely like a book where I hate all the characters but this is an exception.

A fun book filled with interesting pieces of history. Not rigorous by any means, but if you like Bryson's way of providing bits of history tied together by a somewhat-arbitrary common narrative, you'll like this.

Somewhat run-of-the-mill fantasy, with some engaging storylines and some disappointing ones (e.g. the forced and sometimes cringe-worthy romance). Overall pretty good; I'll probably finish the series eventually.

The agriculture practices get all of the attention, but the worst aspects to me were the rampant scams targeting the poor and immigrant communities (maybe because I recognize the same scams still being run). Didn't love the writing style and the characters were hollow, so it wasn't a great read, but obviously this isn't intended to be a character-driven story.

Not as interesting as I expected.

The ending was a little weak, but the buildup was great. Excellent ghost story overall.

Very much looking forward to starting Proust now, thanks in part to this excellent book. Well worth reading even if you never intend to actually read Proust.

Loved the style. McCarthy's writing works well for what is essentially an old western novel set in 1940s Mexico.

More narrow in scope than the show. The narrower focus allows for a better focus on the themes of multiple parallel realities bleeding into one another. The Man in the High Castle as a foil for PKD is obvious but interesting in the context of the novel.

Smarter and more horrifying than I expected.

Very awkward plane read

Just not that interesting, though not poorly written.

Is this the best book I've ever read?

Pretty damning picture of the war on drugs and addiction from a 1970s perspective. The “loss of identity” theme was the most interesting to me.

Excellent picture of a topic that I already loved. I would have enjoyed it even without the compelling storyline, but it has that too.

Spoiler alert: they don't make it to the center.

Not really at all scary if you don't buy that it's a true story (and it's clearly not).

Devoured this book - it made me want to start my career over as a materials scientist. I'll never look at concrete the same way again.

Ultimately everything here ends up being a dystopia. I get why - it's almost impossible to imagine any other kind of future now - but what we need from sci-fi is a vision of something livable.