Critiques et Commentaires

An uneven and hopeful set of essays on the history and promise of Usenet as a democratizing and generative space for global discussion. The pre-history of ARPAnet is valuable and inspiring, as is the central warning that coming commercial control and influence would distort and reduce the forms of communication from creatively sparking new ideas through conversations to merely consuming information.

An effective thematic collection of essays (1975-2011) that aren't too repetitive and yet each stands alone well, arguing from an anti-exploitation feminist perspective for housework and carework to a) be recognized as an unpaid foundation of capitalist society, b) organize and refuse being atomized and devalued under this society - from rejecting earlier feminist/leftist legitimizing of only workforce participation to globalization's outsourcing and industrializing of the home, and c) be understood as a collective social responsibility integrally valued in reproducing the society we want. A lifetime's vibrant perspective.

Sharp satire about hubris and business and PKD's mind-bending doubts about what is real and what is in your mind quite explicit here, aged better than most things of this era... and I ultimately didn't care much about where the story went.

Capable biographical memoir, intentionally capturing her personal insights into her parents lives and the varying ways they sought patterns of meaning in the world around them. Both of them are more interesting to me now, and the habits of introspection and analysis they openly developed in their daughter shine through here.

Cinematic whodunnit, some of the turns from dialog to narrated action here are wonderfully written, I might watch the movie, but I'm ready to admit that noir fiction's male navel gazing is not my reading pleasure.

Feminism in rejecting or reversing society's roles in Muslim India 1900... wasn't for me.

Lessons to be learned about hubris and mathematically-backed ideological confidence, Wall Street's internal FOMO and ruthlessness, and just general foolishness. Diversification is misleading when all the same investors are in all the same markets. Title is unsupported in this narrative, there's little genius on display here, and suffers somewhat for being written so soon after the event. The details are clear after 50 pages, followed by a lot of blow-by-blow.

Interplay of subtle and disturbing otherworldly moments to capture so recognizably the transition from high school to college and the variety of struggles to grasp advanced subjects' - maybe math, maybe language, maybe psychology or sociology - beauty and explanatory power.

When I hear M. R. Kowal's "The Spare Man" is "The Thin Man, In Space", I figure I have time to read "The Thin Man" first.

Will have to think on this. Engrossing.

Delightful fun at the expense of colonizers and missionaries, the small Rwandan town inevitably bends with the larger world but their storytellers argue their way to an understanding.

Genuinely gentle, expansive, reverent, mindful, and adorable.

Trauma and forgiveness, misunderstanding and war. "Your tears will be added to the oceans of salty tears that wash in great waves across our planet."

Book club has decided on first of a series which isn't translated after this one? Ok then!

Inside the reporting of the Weinstein story, long unchecked male power and wealth. The additional turns in the story of many layers of media complicity and the extent of resources turned against women and journalists... investigative journalism's importance beyond career or advertising revenue shines here. The audiobook includes one key disturbing original audio clip, and also has Farrow doing the whole range of character accents.