Mary Brodd
Very amusing, but lightweight - no analysis - author is no longer particularly religious - why?
Takeaways - the more things change the more things stay the same - people have been bitching about “they” as a second-person singular pronoun since at least the 18th century. Who knew. Debate over dictionaries/grammar books being prescriptive vs. descriptive also nothing new. Title of this book somewhat deceptive as it continues into 20th-century dictionary debates, but still a bit of a fun read if the subject matter is of interest.
You'll like this if you are a completist - it's like a nice short visit with friends, no drama, just catching up with things. I'll likely not be buying a copy of this for my own. Glad I read it but generally “meh.”
OK for what it was, I guess - a brief overview (mentioned his 15 kids by his two wives, but nothing on his children with his slaves?).
This was pretty dreary. I need to stick to more modern bios - one too many references to “squaws” and “savages.”
Nice collection of homebrew green (for the most part) cleaning recipes, with clear explanations regarding the chemistry (including the occasional need for something that isn't so green, or safe for kids). I didn't pay as much attention to the recipes, but they looked good!
Read as a companion piece to her sister's book - TM's book much more of a complete memoir, starting with life in Russia, their various escapes, life in emigre outposts throughout Europe. I'm happy to have read it, but probably wouldn't re-read. The end of the book, describing their travels from Königswart to Johannisburg, escaping mere hours before Czech border controls were put in place, is pretty gripping though!
My word, that certainly didn't go where I expected it to go. I thought I was reading near-future Le Carre, but it turned into...well, something else. Definitely looking forward to the inevitable sequel.
More conversational, or meditative, than practical, I would say. She does make a strong argument for clutter being unmade decisions, something I agree with. Contains good ideas and resources for recycling rather than throwing away, which I appreciate.
I remember reading this book probably fifteen years ago and being absolutely amazed - “you mean, there's a reason the batter bunts in a particular situation?” “there's a reason he's pitching like that?” “there's a reason (this person) is doing (that thing)?” This book is a mesmerizing combination of history, philosophy, kinesiology, social commentary, business analysis... If you have any interest in baseball at all, you will not be able to put this book down.
Interesting overview written recently, but not recently enough to incorporate COVID-19 info (author's observations on what is likely to occur during next pandemic and what will need to be done to fight it induced much hollow laughter in this reader).
My takeaways:
Truly global scale of pandemic still not fully appreciated - possibly as many as 100 million people died from this! Author examines situation in various parts of the world (Brazil, S Africa, Persia, India, in addition to US and Europe)“Cytokine storm” may not have had as much to do with deaths of younger healthier victims - more likely due to virus mutating between spring and fall, becoming more human-transmissible and less bird-transmissible.
*Earlier epidemics (Russian flu in the 1880s[?], etc) may have provided some measure of immunity to certain populations/age groups, explaining otherwise strange patterns of morbidity/mortality.
Mind-blowing takeaway:
So many native Americans may have died in the first few centuries of European arrival that the reforestation as farmed land returned to the wild and sequestered more carbon actually CAUSED the little Ice Age.
Written before the great crash of 2008-many institutions mentioned in this book no longer exist.
One of the first books I read in my quest for financial literacy. Good overview. Possibly first mention I came across of Vanguard.
Money Market accounts for emergency funds instead of savings accounts?
Save, save, save, even if it's not much at first.
AUTOMATE your savings.
This book describes a horrible world with terrible people who do terrible things to each other and yet I was compelled to finish it, even though I had to take it in small doses (which probably didn't help me keep the various plot threads clear in my mind). The writing was brilliant. I honestly can't say right now whether I hated it or not.
Glad I read it but wouldn't buy it. As seems to be usual with KSR, lots of thought-provoking stuff and action right up the end, which is somehow flat.
Pratchett's last book, not really finished when he died. Very rough around the edges, like the last 3-4 Guards novels. Endings, beginnings, and edges....
If you enjoyed the “Planet Money” podcast, this book will be right up your alley. It's got the same breezy style, going off on tangents that turn out not to be so tangential after all. It's a quick read, but the “Notes” at the back look to be rich source of further reading material.
“The essence of finance is time travel.” (quoting Matt Levine)
Counterfeiting money is as old as money :-)
Sickly fascinating. First, the rain. Seems like it never ended. Has there been a flood like this since 1927? Then the people. The blatant grotesque racism - sharecroppers being charged money by their landlords for the Red Cross items given freely. Murders and rapes by the National Guard troops. The New Orleans upper crust blowing up levees in Saint Bernard and Plaquemines parishes to save their own city, swearing to rebuild (guess what - they didn't). Hoover's duplicity regarding the “colored.” (Beginning of the end of alignment of African Americans with Republican Party)
Subtitle “...and How It Changed America” - exodus of African-Americans north and west really picked up from this point - destruction wrought by the flood was so widespread that many sharecroppers just left, dispirited too by decline in race relations (Nat'l Guard had been used at times to FORCE sharecroppers to stay on the “plantations” where they farmed, white families who were displaced by flooding were free to go where they pleased of course...)
Also - Fed Gov't accepted responsibility for controlling the river in the future - first time such a sweeping project was undertaken by federal gov't, precursor to TVA New Deal etc? First “Big Government” project?
long political career before presidency.
swore to be one-term president, and stuck to it!
(re?)created treasury (doesn't this sort of conflict with being an heir of Andrew Jackson though)
micro-managed - didn't trust underlings to do things right.
likely died of cholera (!) w/in a few months of leaving office.
This continent populated much earlier than 12,000 years ago. Earliest European contacts record post-epidemic population levels; North and South America had millions of people before earliest visitors from Europe brought pigs and diseases. North American populations had less diverse genetic ability to fight disease, so more died in epidemics than Europeans would have done.
Berengia land bridge - theory that Siberians crossed while chasing mastodons is questionable given gatherer nature of other people from similar era.
“Mother cultures” (Olmecs) of middle American weren't - “sister” cultures may have developed in parallel.
p. 311 (conclusion) “Faced with an ecological problem, the Indians fixed it. Rather than adapt to nature, they created it. They were in the midst of terra-forming the Amazon when Columbus showed up and ruined everything.”
Early occupants adopted agricultural methods that would work in the environment. Fruit cultivators and breeding not recognized as “farming” by Europeans but it was. Yanomami can survive “in the wild” because their ancestors created the landscape around them.
Huge numbers of e.g. bison and passenger pigeons resulted from predators (Indians) dying from European diseases - they did not exist in such disproportionate numbers before 1491.
“Virgin forest” created in 18th century when Indians who controlled the growth died and growth was no longer planned and controlled.
There is nothing here that will be news to anyone who was cast into despair by the 2016 election, or the rise of the alt-right, or the weaponization of social media, but this book will, for a while as you read it, let you laugh through the rage.
lots of contrasts between Lewis and Tolkien
difference between a “romance” and a “novel” (older, medieval meaning of “romance”)
same rules don't apply
Lewis blended genres, annoyed Tolkien
Brisk and educational read about the hardships and pleasures of life in Colorado 100+ years ago. Hard to imagine leading such a life!
Fascinating quick read covering the 1918 pandemic, state of research, and financial shenanigans relating to research over the past 50 years or so. Written in 2018, the warnings at the end of the book are freakishly prescient here in the midst of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.