Mara

In ways that are simple and straightforward, this book stated many of the things that make me uncomfortable about budget culture. Thinking about it as just another spin on diet culture made a lot click. I think I'll continue to think about and apply things from this book for a long time.

The writing in this book hurt it some, it was clumsy and in some places riddled with grammatical errors that one would hope an editor might have dealt with. The story of Lobo's life was interesting once it got going, but the beginning of the book took some time to work through boring lead up and side information that I'm still not convinced was needed. I liked, in concept, that the biography meshed so personally with the author's own family, but the connections drawn didn't feel particularly rich, they mostly amounted to passing references to having been to the same parties, or would briefly hint at deeper friendships but then veer away from the topic.

I imagine a large part of why I found this book interesting was my connection to Santa Fe and their home particularly, being a current caretaker of the property. There were useful insights into its evolution and the work done on the house that will inform my work. I found Charlotte a little insufferable, at least on the page. The habit of complaining about something, then shortly thereafter complaining about the exact opposite, is a theme here - such as complaining that it's so dry and rain is needed very badly, then the next entry is whining that it's been raining all day. I just want to tell people in that habit that they don't get to have it both ways.

This is an important book on a topic that most would rather ignore, it seems. Like it or not, things are not well in the architectural world. I do wish it hadn't used internet comments on blogs and articles as examples of backlash, even if those same sentiments are shared professionally it makes it easy to dismiss them as trolls.

Engaging read on the early history of Europeans in New Mexico. Putting the frontier exploration in the context what was happening in Mexico and Spain how strongly it was influenced with all that had been happening with the Moors for decades.

This is an interesting glimpse in to the way someone in this time self described what was happening in New Mexico. There are clearly issues of unreliable narration but those reveal biases and give insight of their own in to the way the Spanish thought about the various native tribes of the area, the landscape, and their role in inserting themselves.

The reader of the audio version is not great, very monotone and has weird pronunciations of local place names.

What a mindfuck. I wouldn't bother sitting down and reading it in the traditional sense, but if you can find a group of people willing to take some abuse, read it aloud with them, it's great entertainment. There are a lot of really terrible 60s lessons to be learned.

Rybczynski is as always wonderful at spinning design in to a narrative. I love that about him. The early part of the story, when FLO is a young man searching for himself, is a little slow going, which is odd because he does amazing things like sail to China and explore “wild” southern and western parts of America. Once we get in to more of the landscape work, however, the spinning of design in to narrative kicks in. I also found it fascinating how Olmsted's life intersected with so many other fascinating and famous figures of his time.

The older I get, the less I believe in respecting elders just because they're old. The aged have really pushed their agenda of forced status based on smoke and mirrors for a long time, and frankly, I'm over it. Whenever I pass the age of someone I looked up to or got advice from (especially if it was a sort of “you'll understand when you're older, poppet” format) I realize that I don't know anything yet, and neither did they, it was all hollow bravado. That said, this book was refreshing, because it didn't use dumping on younger people to build up the old. It just talked about living well and doing what you can for as long as you can. Recommended for all ages.

I only read this because so many people recommended it to me, and I literally cut all ties with some of them after I finished it, that is how belittled I felt by the suggestion that I might enjoy this piece of crap. Anyone who thought so clearly did not know me at all, or did not hold me in very high regard. Of the people I did not sever all ties with, some said, “oh, Angels and Demons is much better, you should try that one.” Clearly I am a fool, because I did try it. The Da Vinci Code was the single worst book I have ever read... until I read Angels and Demons.

The biggest problem is Dan Brown's writing, or lack there of. I'm fairly certain that he wrote out four pages of scribbled notes on a half formed plot idea, three of which were word trees, probably while drunk or very hung over, then had an intern stretch that in to vaguely coherent sentences and call it a day. No descriptions, no style, no pacing, just bullet points.

It is very rare, in my experience, that a movie adaptation is better than the book, but this is one of those cases. The film is still an unwatchable wreck, but it is better than the book.

I feel like I know a decent bit about Germany of this era - not that I have any real level of expertise, but I have studied it as just about much as any historic era and place, and there is a wealth of information and scholarship out there on the subject. This book approached Hitler's Germany from an angle I hadn't considered, and brought numerous events that in my mind had just come to be one after another into a broader context. It showed the gradual rise of the Nazi regime, the events that led to some of those “inevitable” points of interest which are most often listed. There were many more people shaping events than are usually mentioned, and a shocking amount of it comes down to casual interpersonal interactions rather than rigid formal government actions.

It's hard to compare to Devil in the White City, at least in my mind, but when thinking of Larson's work in general, this has not quite as compelling a narrative as that one does. It's thoroughly researched and the history is presented in an easily approached manner, I just never quite got as invested in the “story line” of the main characters.

Full disclosure, I did not make it all the way through. I made it around 1/3 of the way. The story was decent, but the whole thing dragged on and on. I am not afraid of a four inch thick book, there are some great ones, but sometimes there is just no reason for it to be that thick. I checked it out from the library, and had gone the full month check out time plus a renewal of another month, and I figured as I was approaching the end of that, if I was barely that far into it and not that thrilled to keep going, there wasn't much point in keeping it out longer.

The main chunk of this story, where Ayla and Jondalar are at odds and no one is communicating, is maddening. It's like back in book 3, the long standoff between those two where they're both thinking things that would totally resolve themselves if they'd just talk to the other one, but they continue to not do so. Ugh. At least this book wrapped up the story and all.

This book is a nice consolidation of all the things I like about listening to Maintenance Phase (except Mike, whom I enjoy but who is not represented here). Gordon's writing is thorough, well researched and empathetic.

This is a fun, light read. It has a clear storyline, which makes it nice to read cover to cover, but integrates recipes into that. Normally I don't read cookbooks all the way through, I jump around and pick things up a little at a time, and honestly there are some recipes in even the most interesting cookbooks that I never really look at, and the format of this got me to at least skim all of them. While I won't be making koolickles any time soon, I appreciate that Alton Brown at least got me to learn what they are.

Fun and engaging story, kind of plays around the edges of magical realism without diving deep into it, and I liked the inclusion of the historical characters.

I like the setting and concept of this story but it's so painfully obviously written by a man that I couldn't get in to the story. Everything is in such gendered boxes, and even though the main protagonist is a convention bucking woman he just can't muster giving her a three dimensional inner life.

My main wish for this book would be for it to be more overt with the supernatural elements, and earlier on. They were quite subtle until near the end, and the parts that were just following the main characters through their lives dragged a bit at times. I enjoyed the way the narrative was laid out, it took some time to parse points of view but when it came clear whose perspective we were following when, the earlier vagueness paid off.

Eh, it was alright. The writing wasn't exactly top notch, which couple by the underdeveloped plot gave me a few eye rolling moments. The historical tie ins felt like they were done by Wiki'ing a few people and their related pages, fairly shallow. It never helps when I find the main character insipid and irritating either, and the character of Dee was pretty much just a narrow minded dickbag who never wised up. This was particularly annoying in relation to women, most of all the character of Magdalena, who was clearly his superior in every way and his head was too far up his own ass to understand that. There were continued hints that maybe he'd broaden his worldview, but they were repetitious and never went anywhere, which just made them irritating - foreshadowing without a payoff is lame. A lot of his prejudices were probably historically appropriate to have, but if historical accuracy of world view is the aim, the hints and him changing his views become inappropriate.

All in all, probably fine as light reading to pass the time on say, a long flight, for those who aren't into the Nicholas Sparks style light reading, but don't expect much.

Listened to this as an audiobook.

The structure of this book was a little strange, because of the journey aspect. It felt like there were lots of smaller peaks spread throughout the book, that could have almost been fully separate stories. They did in the end all build up to the climax at the end, but during the events they felt fairly self contained. This book did what the second in the series did, it ended basically in the middle of a scene. I'm glad I didn't read these as they were released, that would have driven me absolutely insane. Cliffhanger-ish chapters are maddening enough, but when going from one book to the next, I would like at last some sense of closure.

The mammoth sex was um, quite a thing.

I kept this on as mindless background noise far longer than I paid attention to it, so I give it some credit for that. But I kept zoning out and realizing I hadn't been listening for probably whole chapters, and when I realized I didn't care enough to go back and restart those, it was time to turn it off.

There are passages in this book that are still very relatable and I understand why it's such a classic, but also chunks of it are pretty boring. All in all worth reading.

Excellent spooky story, enhanced by being read aloud. I rolled my eyes a bit at the romance subplot, this being written by a man with a male protagonist the description of the women was a bit classically sexist, but it's not much of the book so it didn't detract much.

Important topic, good to have actual numbers laid out, but all throughout you can tell this was written by a man. There's very little said about the unpaid, unseen labor (almost always of women) required for a lot of the “utopian” pasts listed, which would be the same in the utopian futures envisioned in the book. It very cursorily notes the concept in a few instances and then frustratingly dismisses it and moves on. Yes, reduce consumption and stop producing wild amounts of garbage and excess, but consider the other side of that lifestyle adjustment and who will be darning those longer wearing socks and washing those non-disposable dishes. It doesn't have to be women, but the way things are these days it usually is - what if these dudely perspectives encouraged the other environmentally minded dudes to take on those tasks themselves rather than only looking at the big picture economics of it? To make real change, both are necessary.

First, the caveats: yes, this is a popular science book, written by a non-scientist for a non-scientist audience. There are plenty of conclusions that essentially boil down to emotions. It is, however, well researched, with many good sources.

Keith was a vegan for many years and there are parts that slip in to a familiar cadence of appeals to pity, only with a different point of view. This makes sense, as the book is at least partly aimed at vegans, vegetarians, and former vegan/vegetarians.

The basic takeaway of the book is that vegans do /not/ have a clear cut moral high ground, it's not as simple as “cute fuzzy animals are not food.” Not to be too simplistic, but humans are part of a larger system, we can't remove ourselves from that - all life requires death. The most compelling parts of the book are those that delve in to agricultural systems, the history of them, and how they operate today. It fits in nicely with Michael Pollan's work (Pollan is referenced on occasion, as well as Joel Salatin), with a slightly different angle, definitely more doom and gloom.

I finished the book still thinking about many topics. I wouldn't say it left me utterly changed, I knew a good amount of this already, but it brought up some difficult realities that most of us choose to ignore, and we're privileged enough to have that option for now. I recommend it, with the caveat that there are a handful of places where it made me roll my eyes.