Reviews and Comments

Perhaps all you know of Saint Etienne is as vendors of a fantasy London. This certainly is true of their early career. Chapter 4 describes their recalibration and provides a pull-no-punches account of how different UK's two main parties really are not, and how they all serve the same masters. Fan or not, this is essential reading, for the music, the history, and the politics.

There aren't many travel books that focus specifically on L.A., and even fewer that offer anything at all for the traveller on foot. This one isn't bad and isn't expensive, though it does date from 2018 and hasn't been updated since Covid.

I rarely review books I don't finish, as I generally feel it's unfair to the author. For this book, though, I felt as though I was a choir being preached to. The author said all the things I believe, many of which I'm sure I've heard before - but the documentation was spare, generally noting only direct quotes. Such a book aimed at an audience I don't agree with is one I'd call dangerous, making people more confident in their biases but not making them more informed. I can't support such a book just because it's speaking to Us rather than Them; it's just as dangerous a vehicle.

a quick trip through the columbus chapter. i remember her having interesting things to say…

Through no fault of the author's, I learned little but became angry. The concepts in this book, wrapped up in the tidy and accurate WMD moniker, are ones I've read about at length. She provides concrete examples and receipts. I just ended up with incrementally more knowledge but substantially more rage.

Author Talk with Ann Leckie - 11/28/2023, zoom (registration info below)

Enjoy an exclusive conversation with critically acclaimed science fiction author Ann Leckie. Ann will discuss her new novel Translation State and answer questions about her writing process. Attendees will also have a chance to submit questions to the author.

@ann_leckie@mastodon.annleckie.com is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Award winning novel Ancillary Justice. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Date: Thursday, September 28, 2023 Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm (Pacific Time presumed, sponsored by Mountain View, Calif., public library) Register at: mountainview.libcal.com/event/10946845

Other MV Library Sci-Fi September events: mountainview.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/?t=d&q=sci-fi%20september&cid=8800&cal=8800&inc=0

and just like that, it's about new york, grounded in geography and action but – you realize only at the end – unmoored from time. i know more about these faces and places than some of my friends. staying at the algonquin was a bucket-list item i satisfied as covid began to recede. i kept checking my phone as jazz tunes were named. but i'm no historian, and the fluidity of time snuck up on me.

'we now take liberties with the script', @sarahpinsker@wandering.shop wrote at the start, just before putting an f-bomb in george gershwin's mouth. it would take a year of research, the year she probably spent, to determine exactly what those liberties were. it's a lot easier to just let it envelop you, like the tickling of ivories up an air shaft on a hot day.

it is disconcerting how often the author, in 2016, tries to warn us of a hideous future dystopia that has turned out markedly worse than what she must have thought was chicken-little talk. much like walking through tomorrowland today.

i am notoriously slow with fiction right now but had to check in - the first two of these stories are surreal and amazing, sliding you from a world you understand to one that is gradually revealed to twist in upon itself @sarahpinsker@wandering.shop