User Profile

Brett Hodnett

BrettHodnett@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 3 months ago

Reader. Writer.

This link opens in a pop-up window

Brett Hodnett's books

View all books

User Activity

"Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are …

Interesting read

4 stars

A clear, pleasant to read book. It's always good to question fundamental assumptions, which is what this book is about. She does a good job of trying to get a variety of viewpoints, though I do think she may be overstating her case, but my lack of understanding of theoretical physics makes this difficult to judge. By suggesting that her critique applies to all science does seem like overreaching, though she only does this tangentially. This is particularly the case because a big part of her argument rests on the idea that theoretical physics has reached a point where it's difficult to obtain data, so a lot of what they do is conjecture, and they can get "lost in math" when there is no data to show if their theories are true in the real world. This is most definitely not the case in most fields of science which have …

Paddling with a Naturalist (Paperback, iUniverse) 5 stars

For anyone who loves the outdoors, Paddling with a Naturalist offers an opportunity to gain …

I wrote it!

5 stars

I try to give readers a deeper understanding of the “why” in a way that I hope is enjoyable and easy to read. I’ve written it as a travelogue of a short canoe trip I took in Algonquin Park, Ontario. You’ll follow me through creeks and lakes, and along the portage trail, where we’ll discuss the things we come across - which is after all how the natural world presents itself on a canoe or hiking trip. By the end I hope you’ll find that you have a better understanding of the forces that make our beautiful natural world possible.

The story of rebuilding civilization after a plague nearly wipes out the human race.

Great book

4 stars

I found it appealing that it is a post apocalyptic story without any weird, crazy things happening. A thoughtful look at how new societies might form through the eyes of one "survivor". A tad optimistic about how long some modern conveniences would continue to last me thinks, but that is easily overlooked. Well written.

reviewed The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

The Candy House (2022, Scribner) 3 stars

The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so …

Didn't like it

3 stars

I liked the concept of uploading your memories to the internet, and having corporate incentives to share them. . However, this entire book felt like an introduction. New characters and new events, often in different time periods every chapter. They did become somewhat intertwined, but not in a way where I felt it all came together. At the end I didn't feel like I had any real sense of any of the characters or why they did the things they did. I also didn't find that it really stimulated my thinking at all about what a world where many uploaded their memories to the internet for all to see would be like. It was all just too disconnected. I have not read the first book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, where many of these characters were first introduced. Perhaps that would have helped, but I wouldn't recommend it as …

Midnight Library (2020, Penguin Publishing Group) 3 stars

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an …

A bit disappointed

3 stars

Cool concept. The story was kind of predictable though, and there was no effort to reconcile the concept of Nora being dropped into these lives, with what happened to the "other Nora" she replaced. Felt like a self-help book in novel format. A bit disappointed.