Dad, data analyst, novelist, nature lover. Living in Ann Arbor, MI.
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Good, not life-changing. I've read a lot of books about extinction, I guess. A little slow but well-written.
Highlights include study of the whaling industry, an essential and rarely-discussed chapter in human history, and introspection on the idea of here-ness. The Yiddish word is "doykeit" and while she doesn't draw a parallel with that concept, the discourse covers similar ground.
Describes the principles of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic associated with Japanese tea ceremonies and based …
Nice to read something philosophical that is not bogged down in academic language! Didn't feel ultra-authoritative, it was more of a vibe. But maybe wabi sabi is a vibe, too.
Imagine if Dug, the dog from "Up," wrote a book in the first person. But he lived wild in a large urban park and spoke to other animals. This book is like that, albeit richer.
Well-written, funny, good vibes. The artwork is beautiful - see the note at the end re: how they created it.
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: …
Content warning Ending revealed
The plot and science is compelling 50+ years later. I found the ending unsatisfying: the organism evolved to be no threat to humans, on its own? Does that make all of their research pointless - the outcome for humanity would have been the same if Project Wildfire didn't exist? But I thoroughly enjoyed the book overall.
Minus a star for there being too much academic content that I found too challenging - I would have liked this to be more layperson-friendly. But if you're interested in the idea of not having a self / non-dualism, it's great content. I appreciated the exploration of the implications of not having a self and simply being a person instead.
Station Eleven is a novel by the Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It takes …
A book I have kept thinking of years after reading it. Great prose, plot, characters, universe - it has it all.
My favorite scenes are of Jeevan and Frank in Toronto as the pandemic is unfolding.
This is a three volume slipcased book collection of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips …
As a child I read Calvin & Hobbes in the daily newspaper and paperbacks while the strip was still being written. Now my kids read these big books nightly before bed. So far they are holding up well to wear-and-tear.
Tiny bits of content haven't aged well (the frequent use of "sissy"), but the vast majority of it has. Some commentary - on TV and environmental destruction - is even more on-point today.
The artwork remains stunning. Take a deep look at a panel where Hobbes pounces on Calvin, "POW!" Masterful.