book

Wants to read Virtue

Rated A Game of Thrones 8/10

Rated Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity 8/10

Very striking - journalism that reads like a novel. A few years in the lives of families living at the edge of subsistence in a slum in Mumbai, right behind the airport and luxury hotels that symbolize a rising global upper class. Boo, the author, mostly removes herself from the story and narrates from the perspectives of her protagonists as they deal with poverty, corruption, religious conflict and their efforts to carve out a space for themselves. Beautifully done.

Wants to read Virtue

Wants to read Dust

Rated The Invaders 6/10

Well-done, and nicely balanced on the line between literary-MFA-ish and soapy, but doesn't quite land as hard as it wants to. It's told from the perspective of two unhappy people in a wealthy Connecticut town - a lonely second wife and her college-age stepson. The writing is skillful and there's a lot of plot to stay engaged with but it seems a little self-focused and small-scale, and it's definitely a bummer.

Rated The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction 6/10

Not a lot I didn't know already, but nicely done - efficiently walks through the major points while still having room for a little analysis of what did and didn't work.

Wants to read Happiness

Rated The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach 6/10

Rated A esperança de Pandora: ensaios sobre a realidade dos estudos científicos 8/10

Wants to read Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach

Wants to read Happiness

Rated A Common Pornography: A Memoir 8/10

Everyone has stories, brief anecdotes relating to our history. Our memories are at once humorous and heartbreaking, some retold again and again, some kept private forever. In <i>A Common Pornography</i>, Kevin Sampsell gathers his stories and assembles them into an atypical memoir, and the results are both intimate and intriguing.<br><br>Sampsell’s descriptions of the people he encounters are perfect in their spareness. He has a way of making a person clear within two sentences that might take other writers two paragraphs. I also appreciate his candor when it comes to more private moments, moments most people would hesitate to share at all, but still had an effect on their lives. From near-wordless encounters with other men to nights spent alone, he details his search for affection in a very real, honest way.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/04/common-pornography-by-kevin-sampsell.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)

Rated A Wrinkle in Time 8/10

Ah! Finally I have read the book that pretty much everyone read as a kid, and I somehow never picked it up. (I was probably too busy with R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike, tbh). Enjoyed this a lot, and I enjoyed how this edition gave some additional facts about L'Engle and the genesis of the book itself.

Finished reading Sistema novo da natureza e da comunicação das substâncias e outros textos

Rated Empty 8/10

Wants to read Djinn

Finished reading Night Watch

Rated Filthy Animals 8/10

<div>I liked this a lot, though I admit to some discomfort with some of the violence. And that feels sort of intentional, theme-wise, which is fine. Ymmv</div>

Wants to read A Queer History of the United States

Finished reading The Silmarillion

Wants to read A Line Made By Walking

Rated A Study in Scarlet: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Classic Introduction to Sherlock Holmes 6/10

Wants to read A Certain Hunger

Rated Fugitive Telemetry 10/10

<div>I think this might be my favorite of the bunch?</div>