Category: Uncategorized

Do You Try to Warn Readers Away From Books You Dislike?

March 17, 2023 Uncategorized 2

 

The next NY Times cultural criticism prompt that I’m writing a response to is “What Work of Art or Culture Would You Warn Others to Avoid?”. I may yet try to write a post that better answers that question, but I first wanted to chat about how hard I find it to come up with an answer. I very rarely think of myself as warning people away from a book, even one that I didn’t like. People’s tastes are so different, I can often easily imagine a reader liking a book for the same reasons I hated it. Read more »

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True Crime Review: Red Notice

March 13, 2023 Uncategorized 2 ★★★★

True Crime Review: Red NoticeTitle: Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Author: Bill Browder
Source: Library
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:four-stars

Summary: This was a gripping true crime story, but even the more finance-focused sections were engaging and easy to follow.

This book starts as a business memoir about Bill Browder’s career as a hedge fund manager in Russia. Later, when he takes on corrupt Russian officials, this reads more like a gripping true crime story. Browder is eventually forced to flee Russia and tries to persuade the people he worked with to do the same. Tragically, his young and idealistic lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, chose to stay and fight for justice. This gave Russian officials time to arrest him and they later had him killed in prison. Browder then spends the next half decade fighting to impose some consequences on Sergei’s killers.

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Should Reviews Be Written By Professionals?

March 6, 2023 Uncategorized 14

As an amateur reviewer myself, I was always going to answer “no” to this question from The New York Times prompts on cultural criticism. However, I am glad that both professional and amateur reviewers are writing online. These two types of reviews serve different purposes for me and I enjoy them both. Read more »

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Nonfiction Review: You Look Like a Thing and I Love You

March 1, 2023 Uncategorized 2 ★★★★★

Nonfiction Review: You Look Like a Thing and I Love YouTitle: You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place
Author: Janelle Shane
Source: Bought
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

Summary: This was a delightful, hilarious, clear introduction to AI that I’d recommend to anyone with any interest in the topic.

“‘You look like a thing and I love you’ is one of the best pickup lines ever… according to an artificial intelligence trained by [artificial intelligence researcher] Janelle Shane, creator of the popular blog AI Weirdness.” (source). Using other equally funny, accessible examples, Shane gives a fantastic intro to artificial intelligence. She identifies activities where we’re probably already interacting with some form of AI; explains how AI are trained; and shows where that can go wrong. Read more »

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Do You Use Book Reviews to Pick Your Next Read?

February 23, 2023 Uncategorized 14

One of my favorite parts of blogging is reading other bloggers’ book reviews. However, I typically read reviews as they’re posted and not when looking for opinions on a particular book. They serve the purpose of discovery for me. If a book review appeals to me, I’ll add it to my to-read list (reason #1 my to-read list is so long!). I’m more likely to then read that book if I read several reviews from bloggers, so it sticks with me. There are also topics I love enough that I’ll seek out relevant books immediately. Read more »

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Narrative Nonfiction Review: Maybe Esther

February 17, 2023 Uncategorized 2 ★★★½

Narrative Nonfiction Review: Maybe EstherTitle: Maybe Esther: A Family Story
Author: Katja Petrowskaja
Source: from publisher for review
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:three-half-stars

Summary: The sentence-level writing in this book was beautiful and I enjoyed the unique look at WWII history, but parts were too surreal or too poetic for me to follow.

Ruminating. Obsessive. Anxious. These are the words that come to mind if I try to capture Maybe Esther in just one word. There are obvious subject matter words I could reach for – Holocaust, family, WWII. These feel generic to me though. The unique part of this book is the style and tone in which it’s told. It made me feel as though I had joined the author in a claustrophobic room, pacing around her memories of her ancestors and the horrors inflicted on them during WWII. Read more »

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An Update on Reading, Blogging, and Life

February 12, 2023 Uncategorized 14

Oh… fancy meeting you here! It’s been awhile. As a whole, 2022 was a challenging year for me and the first week of 2023 looked like a turning point. I read 3 books and wrote several blog posts, all while having a great visit with family. Then in the next two weeks of January, my wonderful manager went to a different company; my volunteer group hosted our biggest event of the year; and I adopted a new cat. It has been a month. Fortunately, things are starting to settle down again and the break gave me a chance to think about what I want out of reading and blogging in the new year. Read more »

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Nonfiction About Biotech Drama in Review

January 10, 2023 Uncategorized 2 ★★★★★

Nonfiction About Biotech Drama in ReviewTitle: For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug
Author: Nathan Vardi
Source: from publisher for review
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

Summary: A fascinating insider look at cancer drug development, full of cool science and people drama!

There are few topics I enjoy reading about more than drama at a biotech company. Bad Blood, about the Theranos blood testing fraud, is still one of my all-time favorite reads. So, when I was offered a chance to review this story of a startup developing a cancer drug, I couldn’t say no. First this small company developed an incredible cancer treatment. Then, researchers who were crucial to the company’s success, but who were let go before receiving much compensation, went on to found another company and create another successful drug.

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Historic True Crime in Review: The Red Widow

January 4, 2023 Uncategorized 4 ★★★★

Historic True Crime in Review: The Red WidowTitle: The Red Widow: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind it All
Author: Sarah Horowitz
Source: from publisher for review
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:four-stars

Summary: This delivered the drama I expected plus thoughtful analysis that made this a book I’ll keep thinking about.

In Belle Époque Paris, Marguerite Steinheil ambitiously strives for acceptance into high society, despite the limited finances of her artist husband. She manages a careful balancing act, sleeping with elite men while maintaining a sophisticated reputation in order to become part of the elite. Her strategy falls apart when she becomes a murder suspect after surviving a home invasion in which both her mother and husband were killed. Her escapades quickly become public gossip as she is put on trial. Read more »

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A Gothic Novel I Loved: Small Angels

January 2, 2023 Uncategorized 2 ★★★★½

A Gothic Novel I Loved: Small AngelsTitle: Small Angels
Author: Lauren Owen
Source: Bought
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:four-half-stars

Summary: This wasn’t obviously my kind of book, but I found suspense thrilling and enjoyed all of the characters.

I picked this book as my Book of the Month read and immediately regretted it. It’s primarily shelved as horror on goodreads, which is not my thing. Fortunately, I think the ‘gothic’ label this book also gets is more apt and had a ghost-story suspense that I enjoyed very much. It’s the story of Chloe, a woman who plans her wedding for a small church near the creepy woods in her fiancé’s hometown. It’s also Kate’s story, as she returns for her brother’s wedding and has to face the forgotten terror she encountered in the woods. And it’s Lucia’s story, the misfit child of a family whose job it is to placate the woods, which have recently reawakened.

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