Nonfiction Friday
Nonfiction Friday is a link-up where you can find all of the awesome nonfiction happenings of the week. Be sure to link-up your nonfiction posts too! Read more »
Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
Nonfiction Review: Weapons of Math Destruction
Summary: This was interesting and the author made some good points, but it was repetitive and not very technical.
More and more aspects of our lives are being dictated by hidden algorithms. In theory, this should eliminate human biases and lead to more fair decisions. Unfortunately, the reality is that models are made by biased human beings. Models are also built on data describing the way the world is now and so may codify existing inequalities. This is particularly dangerous because algorithms often escape the regulation human decisions would have to follow. The reasons for their decisions may never be revealed to people whose lives are influenced by those decisions. Read more »
Three-Star Fiction in Mini-Reviews
I hate to be a downer, but both of these books had great premises and yet reading them, I felt like something was missing. Neither really grabbed me and the endings felt anticlimactic. I suspect this was mostly personal preference though, so I’ll explain what I didn’t like about them and you can figure out if they might work better for you. Read more »
Nonfiction Friday
Nonfiction Friday is a link-up where you can find all of the awesome nonfiction happenings of the week. Be sure to link-up your nonfiction posts too! Read more »
Sci-Fi Review: Robot Uprisings
Title: Robot Uprisings Author: Daniel H. Wilson, John Joseph Adams, Julianna Baggott, Alastair Reynolds, Alan Dean Foster, Ian McDonald, Robin Wasserman, John McCarthy, Seanan McGuire, Nnedi Okorafor, Scott Sigler, Charles Yu, Anna North, Genevieve Valentine, Hugh Howey, Ernest Cline, Cory Doctorow, Jeff Abbott
Source: Library
Links: Indiebound |Goodreads
Rating:
Summary: There were some awesome ideas in this collection, but many of the stories felt under-developed or incomplete.
I don’t read a lot of sci-fi any more, but it’s one of the genres I read the most in high school and I still often love it when I pick it up. So, even though short stories aren’t always my thing, I thought there couldn’t be much better than a collection all about robot uprisings. I also recognized the names of a number of authors in the collection, including Nnedi Okorafor, Ernest Cline, and Cory Doctorow. Read more »
Graphic Nonfiction Review: Persepolis
Title: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1) Author: Marjane Satrapi, Mattias Ripa
Source: Library
Links: Indiebound |Goodreads
Rating:
Summary: The images made it easier to learn from this story and made it more moving, but it was disappointingly short.
“Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.” (source) Read more »
#TheReadingQuest Wrap-Up
I’ve had so much fun with this event! It turns out that there’s nothing like a game to motivate me to read more. I read 12 books for The Reading Quest and leveled up my character 4 times:
Nonfiction Friday
Nonfiction Friday is a link-up where you can find all of the awesome nonfiction happenings of the week. Be sure to link-up your nonfiction posts too! Read more »
Fun Fiction Review: Shades of Milk and Honey
Title: Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories, #1) Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Source: Library
Links: Indiebound |Goodreads
Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed the idea behind this book and the hints of Austen, but there wasn’t much depth or originality.
Billed as Jane Austen plus magic, I could resist picking this book up. As in Austen, the characters’ main concerns focus on society and especially marriage arrangements. Unfortunately for our main character Jane, although she is skilled in the womanly magic of glamour, her younger sister’s beauty attracts all the attention. Her sister lacks Jane’s good sense though and so it will fall to Jane to use her magic to protect her sister from less than honorable suitors. And in doing so, she just might find her perfect match as well. Read more »
#RIPXII – Readers Imbibing Peril Sign-Up
I spoke too soon about not having any events to look forward to in the coming month! I just found the announcement post for the Readers Imbibing Peril challenge, which will be hosted by Andi of Estella’s Revenge and Heather at My Capricious Life this year. I’m signing up for Peril the First, where readers pick four books that fit into one of the following genres: mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, or supernatural. Personally, I’m looking for recommendations in these sub-genres:
- historical mystery
- cozy mystery
- horror
- thriller or suspense – something realistic and with a creepy atmosphere
Do you have any suggestions? Will you be joining in too? If so, sign-ups are here.
