Book reviews serve a lot of functions, but it’s important to read and think about them with care, because they aren’t infallible, no matter where they appear.
In which I review a book review
Category: Everything
Please vote in local races
Happy primary day, California (and Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota)! You already know that I’m going to tell you to vote* — please do, don’t let complacency about which candidate you think will win or the alleged futility of elections keep you from the polls — but what I actually […]
How to Lose a Customer in Ten Minutes
Until very recently, I was a very loyal ATT customer. I took my membership across multiple moves, I used ATT for both phone and internet services, and I used the company as my primary telecommunications service provider for over fifteen years. If you want to get technical, I’ve been using ATT for even longer, given that […]
In the Garden: Dispatches From the FUTURE!
I’d love to tell you all about what’s doing in the garden this month, as is my wont on the first, except for a small problem: I’m in a different hemisphere, living in the future. Today I’m on Stewart Island, which is just off the very tip of New Zealand’s South Island, where it is […]
Book Review: Siege and Storm, Leigh Bardugo
Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone and followup Siege and Storm have been catching my eye for a while, but I hadn’t had time to sit down and actually read them. And when I say they were catching my eye, I don’t just mean the gorgeous covers; they were attracting very favourable reviews, and they were […]
Book Review: Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce
Confession: I actually read Sisters Red a long time ago, but I never got around to reviewing it. So this could really more properly be termed a belated book review. Because I know you are all dying to hear what I think of a book that came out in 2010, right? Actually, the reason I […]
Vice Presidential Debate!
It’s liveblogging time! Welcome the fabulous Anna Hamilton and Everett Maroon!
Book Review: Chime, by Franny Billingsley
Poor Chime got a lot of attention after the National Book Award mixup with Shine (also an excellent book), so I was glad when I finally hit it in my stack of books to be read. I suspect the furore over both books will eventually fade and they’ll be remembered as great works, which they […]
Unsaleable Crops, Subsidies, and Food Deserts
Among the many charming Google Alerts I maintain to torment myself with when the regular headlines just aren’t enough is one on crops destroyed after they’re unsaleable. Not unsaleable because they are contaminated or diseased and they are not safe to eat, but unsaleable because the price the farmer can get at market is too […]
Stories From My Father: I Laugh Your Plates to Scorn
One of my father’s girlfriends when he was living in Chicago was a French woman, whom we shall call, for the purposes of this story, Antoinette. Whenever my father describes Antoinette, the words ‘quintessentially French’ seem to pop up; she was Parisian, and stylish, and a bit snobby, and bemused by her life in the […]