Derek Caelin finished reading Radical Suburbs by Amanda Kolson Hurley
“Radical Suburbs is a revelation. Amanda Kolson Hurley will open your eyes to the wide …
"Suburbia is what we make it."
Reviews and Comments
Seeking a Solarpunk Future
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Derek Caelin wants to read To Catch the Rain by Lonny Grafman
This book is for everyone, especially:
- Community members: Get inspired and take action. Learn from …
Had this recommended to me!
Derek Caelin started reading Radical Suburbs by Amanda Kolson Hurley
“Radical Suburbs is a revelation. Amanda Kolson Hurley will open your eyes to the wide …
this was shared with me by a friend. As someone who'd like a radical suburb, this is an interesting read.
Derek Caelin finished reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is wonderful.
Derek Caelin finished reading A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown …
i'll need to think more about this one.
Derek Caelin commented on Less Is More by Jason Hickel
The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now …
Proposals from this: - Mandatory extended warranties for products - right to repair legislation
"If washing machines and smartphones lasted four times longer, we would buy 75% less of them."
- introduce quotas for advertising
- shift from "ownership" to "usership" models, especially with transportation
- end food waste
- scale down ecologically destructive industries (beef, arms, private jets, single use plastics , SUVs...)
Derek Caelin finished reading A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)
I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my …
I read this at the recommendation of @mara@glammr.us. Pretty good. :)
Derek Caelin rated The Midnight Library: 4 étoiles
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Nora’s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on …
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange …
a teapot in a tempest
5 étoiles
"This is How You Lose the Time War" asks the reader to perch on the shoulders of two operatives on opposing sides of a time-traveling war.
Each chapter follows "Red" or "Blue" as they scurry up and down timelines and across dimensions. The book is both sweepingly broad and extremely contained and personal.
The settings flit by, dizzying: a temple for mechanized humans, an ancient holy cave, the assassination of Caesar - each sketched with broad, emotional strokes to give the setting an aesthetic. One gets the sense that a great web of cause and effect is being constantly constructed, altered, and destroyed, without ever seeing the full picture.
Against these backdrops, the characters "Red" and "Blue" write to each other - as nemeses, then as friends, ever deeper entangled even as they demolish each other's plans and forces. The letters make up an enormous part of the experience, and …
"This is How You Lose the Time War" asks the reader to perch on the shoulders of two operatives on opposing sides of a time-traveling war.
Each chapter follows "Red" or "Blue" as they scurry up and down timelines and across dimensions. The book is both sweepingly broad and extremely contained and personal.
The settings flit by, dizzying: a temple for mechanized humans, an ancient holy cave, the assassination of Caesar - each sketched with broad, emotional strokes to give the setting an aesthetic. One gets the sense that a great web of cause and effect is being constantly constructed, altered, and destroyed, without ever seeing the full picture.
Against these backdrops, the characters "Red" and "Blue" write to each other - as nemeses, then as friends, ever deeper entangled even as they demolish each other's plans and forces. The letters make up an enormous part of the experience, and they are comic, intimate... poignant. I didn't give a damn about the war - I just wanted these two characters to be alright.
I loved it. I stayed up past midnight every day I was reading, which wasn't long because I had to see what came next and kept reading.
Derek Caelin commented on This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange …
It's been a while since I've gone to bed late reading a book. The format is straight up mean to the reader. Each chapter begins with one of the two main characters writing a letter to the other, so if you want to see the other character's reaction to what just happened... gotta keep reading.
I'm enjoying this!
Derek Caelin started reading This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange …
Oh boy. I read the first few pages. This is going to be good.
Derek Caelin finished reading Planting in a Post-Wild World by Rainer, Thomas (Landscape architect)
An "alternative to traditional horticulture: designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities. Thomas …
Takeaways: - I am uninterested in the sort of maintenance described by these designers - I may have made my flower garden too dense and crowded out some species - I have no idea what kind of soil I have - Clover is a good cover crop - Hard edges to wild spaces made a pleasing aesthetic
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
astounding
5 étoiles
Content warning Spoilers
I wasn't sure what I expected when I started reading this book, but I was astounded by how explorations of philology, patricide, colonialism, and revolution were all elegantly tied together. How the author managed to write this and work on her PhD is beyond me.
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
Content warning Comments on the story's midpoint, comparisons to 1984 and hypocrisy
There's a point where Robin is caught and hauled before his father that reminds me of 1984, when O'Brian is interrogating Winston. In both books, the protagonist tries to argue with a more powerful, more ideologically grounded captor, and in both, they are unable to match wits with their foe.
In Babel, Professor Lovell is able to defeat his son by playing on the fact that the Hermes society has blood on their hands, and by praying upon his son's own dependence on Babel. Robin is unable to reconcile the fact that he revels in the privileges he has a Babel scholar, even as he wants to spread access.
There's a great Bill McKibben quote that lives rent free in my head. When critics pointed out that McKibben, an environmentalist, owned a car and flew in airplanes, despite these things producing carbon, he points out that purity is not the point of activism - it's changing the system.
"My house is covered in solar panels, and I plug my car into a socket those panels power. But environmentalists also live in the world we’re trying to change: We take airplanes and rent buses for rallies; we make a living, shop for groceries.None of this should demand an apology. Changing the system, not perfecting our own lives, is the point. 'Hypocrisy' is the price of admission in this battle."
Hypocrisy is the price of admission in this battle. Expecting purity from ourselves is not the point, whether we are trying to head off the worst of climate change or participating in some other revolution.
So, as I look forward to the second half of this glorious book, I say "chin up, Robin". Don't expect a perfection in conduct and creed that was never possible for you to embody.
Derek Caelin rated Annihilation: 5 étoiles
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges …