A place of wildly diverse book reviews sprinkled with frequent swears, opinions, and general nerdery
Speak by Louisa Hall was a complex, layered story about Artificial Intelligence, told from multiple points of view that spanned from the 1660s to the 2040s. I found it to be challenging in its discussion of subjects involving AI, such as “what makes something alive?” or “what are the ethics of creating this kind of life vs a machine?” or “can a machine truly be alive if it is only programmed with responses to various input?” It was fascinating. Continue reading “Speak”
As a die hard fan of medieval mysteries, I feel a great deal of gratitude to Ellis Peters for essentially starting the genre with this, the first entry in the Brother Cadfael series.
And what a treat it is! For a tiny book that inexplicably took me an inordinate length of time to read, this was really a fun story. Cadfael is a terrific character, full of quirks and orneriness. Love it! He’d be fun to hang out with.
The secondary characters were nicely developed. Brother John was awesome, and his minor story arc was delightful. Sioned was a strong, wonderful woman and I was glad to see her story have enough twists and turns to give her some adventure during her journey.
I liked that the bad guys weren’t so blatantly bad that Whodunnit was immediately obvious. There were some nice moral dilemmas and grey areas, which are really still relevant today.
Can’t wait to read the rest of the stories in this series.
Recently, my daughter needed to cull her books, because, at five years old, she is a very good reader and has long outgrown many of the board books and younger story books that cluttered her bookshelves. So together, we sat down and went through them, using it as a wonderful opportunity to teach about giving to others because not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have a small home library of their own, and that some other child might really love getting her board book versions of Jane Eyre and Dracula or the 48 point font version of Pixar’s Brave. She had long since mastered those. Then we came across a book that she hadn’t read in ages, but could technically have kept but decided she wanted to get a new book instead, so she opted to part with it in return for a new one. It was The Poky Little Puppy. Before it went into the pile for Goodwill, she wanted to read it again one last time because she loves puppies. Fair enough. We settled onto the couch for a reading.
I remembered then why I never read that book to her. Continue reading “I Really, Really Hate The Poky Little Puppy”
By Carl Sagan
I enjoy science, although I am the first to admit that I don’t know as much as I’d like to about it. I think I know a little tiny bit more than the average schoolchild, at least. So since I am in no way expert on the subject, I can only say that I truly enjoyed this book.
I thought Sagan did a good job discussing the subjects in layman’s terms without dumbing it down entirely, and without talking completely over my head. It took me longer to read this book than it normally would for one this size. It was a bare 400 pages, but there were a few places that I had to read a couple three times before I felt I had a real grasp of what he was saying, but I think I got a handle on it. Except the part with Maxwell and the equations. I tried. I really did. But about all I got out of that section is that 60 mph is not a vector, but 60 mph due north on highway 1 is, and I am relieved that there are plenty of others out there who understand the whole thing. I feel proud that I got that much about the vectors.
Sagan is skeptical and debunks a lot of common myths in this book, which I appreciate. But he is incredibly compassionate about it. He understands, even if he doesn’t necessarily agree with, the human need to believe in something, whether it is a religion or little green men. I tend to take a more hard nosed approach to faith, but Sagan has managed to find a very good balance between the world of science, skepticism, and real facts vs. the world of faith and belief. I really liked his section on logic and critical thinking, the section he labeled the art of baloney detection, or something to that effect.
I wish this was compulsory reading in high school. I agree that our school curricula have been dumbed down unforgivably and that entire generations not only do not know how to think, but they aren’t even aware that they don’t know how to think. I also wish for everyone who has faith in something, such as a religion, would read this and PAY ATTENTION to it. I read a review on Amazon of this book where the reviewer said he wished he could simultaneously give this book 5 stars and 0 stars–5 stars because it made him think and re-evaluate many things in his life, and 0 stars because it created in him a crisis of faith. I think that is perfect–if one’s beliefs do not hold up under actual scrutiny, where aspects are not adhered to simply because we *like* them, then those beliefs *need* to be re-evaluated. This book is an excellent starting point for that re-evaluation.
Win the lottery – the big one – and not have to work and lead a totally hedonistic and self-indulgent lifestyle! Yes. This. Because I want to just write, and work is interfering with my ability to do the writing things, because I have to, like, get up and go to the work place right during my most creative and productive hours. This is a solid life choice, right?
Her Grace's Library 