Category: Books
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Book: Flatland
Clearly and obviously, the 19th century suffered from similar class and gender struggles as today. That someone would have the audacity to write about them cloaked in science fiction that would read well 140 years later? Remarkable. It is slow in parts, but it’s over before you know it. One of very few classics I’ve enjoyed. A weak 5 stars, but 5 stars nonetheless.…
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Book: Pilgrim Spokes
Trying to get back into the habit sharing of reading notes. This will only be for Kindle items as I don’t highlight physical books. Generally, that’ll mean a heavier dose of fiction than what I’m collectively really reading because I’ve read that helps me fall asleep and I use only my Kindle in bed. Yeah, this one happens to be non-fiction. This was the second…
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Books: The Shattered Sea Trilogy
Whoa. I just read an entire trilogy straight through. I was looking for something to scratch my medieval/fantasy itch, have had the first in the series on my reading list for a long time, sunk my teeth into it, didn’t hate it, and kept going. Across Half a King, Half the World, and Half a War, Joe Abercrombie weaves a tale of cunning, intrigue, broken…
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Book Review: Walden
My annual foray into the classics. This one was about about nature so I should love it, right? I LIKE NATURE. And I did for the first bit that was all about the numbers behind building a home, growing x crop, selling it for y dollars, turning profit, rethinking things the following year, etc. etc., but then it got all existential and borderline looney.…
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Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial
Did you know your posthumous options are greater than pumping your heavy metals into the atmosphere and enclosing yourself in many thousands of dollars worth of metal box inside a concrete box only to turn into a hot stewy mess? For the most part, I didn’t. This book dives into those alternatives, provides the history of them and the current funeral industry (hint: it’s mostly…
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Book: The Oregon Trail
Many men purchase a Corvette to satisfy their midlife crisis. Rinker Buck? Well, he chose to purchase a team of mules, a covered wagon, and began a many month journey to become the first person to drive the entirety of the Oregon Trail by those means in over a century. This turned out to be decent reading for an Oregonian, but like the trail itself,…