This is one of the best books I've read in a long, long, time. Gorgeous prose, with beauty just falling off of every page. This is one that will stay with me for a long time.
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Arts grantmaker living in Austin, TX. Jazz, museums, pre-Kurtzman Star Trek, so forth and such as. Also in the fediverse at @5easypieces@social.coop.
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Koven Smith rated Into the black: 4 stars
Koven Smith reviewed Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in …
Review of 'Idaho' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Koven Smith rated Built to Last: 4 stars
Koven Smith reviewed The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Winner of the Man Booker Prize of 2013. Wonderful novel taking place in New-Zealand during …
Review of 'The Luminaries' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Stunning prose, in service of a so-so mystery. Catton can invest her characters with so much definition and life with just a few turns of phrase, which kept me going despite the central plot never quite getting out of third gear.
Koven Smith rated The ghost map: 5 stars
Koven Smith rated Rework: 3 stars
Rework by Jason Fried
First edition
Review of 'Area X' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Stunning. The best sci-fi I’ve read in who knows how long.
Koven Smith rated The nix: 4 stars
Koven Smith rated Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945: 5 stars
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 is a 2005 non-fiction book written by British historian and scholar Tony Judt …
Koven Smith reviewed Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein
Acclaimed historian Rick Perlstein chronicles the rise of the conservative movement in the liberal 1960s. …
Review of 'Before the Storm' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I cannot recommend this (or Perlstein's other books in the "conservative trilogy") highly enough. If you want to understand the origins of the modern conservative movement, and how it came to be, you will not find a more thoroughly-researched exposition. This book is fantastic.
Koven Smith rated Locomotive: 5 stars
Koven Smith rated The dark: 4 stars
The dark by Lemony Snicket
Laszlo is afraid of the dark which lives in the same big, creaky house as him, until one night the …
Koven Smith rated Journey: 5 stars
Journey (2013, Candlewick Press)
Journey by Aaron Becker
A lonely girl draws a magic door on her bedroom wall and through it escapes into a world where wonder, …
Koven Smith rated Legacy of Ashes: 4 stars
Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, …