1 hour agoBook Review: The Inland SeaI wanted to dabble in reading some cli-fi (mixed feelings about declaring this a genre but curious nonetheless), and so I picked up The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts, after reading Regina Marler’s review in the New York Review of Books. I have mixed feelings. [Warning: some spoilers ahead.] Watts…2 min read
Nov 7, 2020Book Review: Calling BullshitWell, hmm, why would one want to read a book on calling bullshit in 2020? Ok, jokes aside, I’ve just finished Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data Driven World, by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, two professors at the University of Washington. …2 min read
Nov 7, 2020Book Review: Battle Cry of FreedomI have long wanted to read James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom and with the temperature rising nation wide, and even febrile talk of a new civil war, now in the fall of 2020 seemed the right time for some historical perspective on the Civil War. First, some logistics on…2 min read
May 17, 2020Book Review: Girl, Woman, OtherI was excited to read Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, so much so that (perhaps with the Booker Prize in mind) I might have had excessively high expectations. This is a fine book — it was enjoyable to read, and I loved the loose structure of the book, sort…2 min read
May 8, 2020Book Review: Julius CaesarNot really a book review; more of a note to self that I re-read Julius Caesar again this year. I hadn’t read it since I was in middle school, and then read it last year, and now again this year. Turns out that for some reason tales of a populist…1 min read
May 7, 2020Book Review: Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918The full title is a mouthful: Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It. I picked this book up for pretty obvious reasons: we are in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic now in 2020 and I went looking…2 min read
Apr 5, 2020Appreciating Barbara GinsbergMy mom passed away on Thursday April 2nd; she went quickly at home in bed. She was 89 with various ailments and, amid this global pandemic, I should note that she did not die of covid-19; the paramedics said it was likely a cardiac event. (We will not know the…4 min read
Apr 2, 2020Book Review: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean VuongThis was an amazing book and it has taken me a long time to digest it. In fact I’m not sure I’m done digesting it now. …2 min read
Mar 24, 2020Book Review: Mindset by Carole DweckFor years now I’ve heard about Carole Dweck’s work on mindset, specifically on the difference between a “fixed mindset” and a “growth mindset”. This has always sounded resonant to me and I’ve wanted to circle around to reading up on it. …Mindset3 min read
Feb 17, 2020Book Review: Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, by Peter PomerantsevI’ve had Nothing is True on my to-read list for several years now — I think I first put it on that list in 2016 when Russia’s interference in US elections was becoming well understood. …Russia3 min read
