Reading

Books: on balance, I'm for them. These are most of the ones I've read since 2007 or so. The star ratings correspond more closely to "how worth my time this felt" than "how good this is."

Years | Authors | Titles

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007

Unlikely Stories, Mostly
Alasdair Gray

Gray was a modern Scottish author who I somehow hadn’t heard of. I appreciated his very short stories in this collection even more than the longer ones, in particular for their combination of whimsy and unstable allegory. His writing draws on folks like Swift or even Aesop, but at the... more >>

Made me think about:
- The Ant King and Other Stories

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9781838852733

22 Dec 2023
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John Le Carré

A fun read, but. It’s interesting to read about Le Carré’s reception as the deliverer of a more “realistic” spy than James Bond at the time of publication. His anti-hero in this book is edgier but basically just reads like a nihilistic, alcoholic misogynist in largely the same mold through... more >>

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9780143124757

16 Dec 2023
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Beloved
Toni Morrison

Beloved is every bit as heart-rending, beautiful, and erudite as I expected. It’s incredibly brilliant from a technical, writerly standpoint. I also appreciated its weaponization of the gothic novel genre for racial justice and black feminist purposes. In the gothic novel of the 18th/19th centuries, we often see captured women... more >>

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9781400033416

19 Nov 2023
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Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
Donna Haraway

Haraway is someone I turn to to remind me what reality is like. In this book she continues her journey from feminist cyborg to Significant Otherness to compost-human ecologies, and it does not disappoint! more >>

Made me think about:
- Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9780822362241

06 Nov 2023
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A History of Bangladesh
William van Schendel

I appreciated the thoughtful and de-colonizing approach the author took to Bangladesh’s complex cultural and geopolitical histories. more >>

more context about this book
worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9781108473699

05 Nov 2023
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The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice
Gil Fronsdal

A thoughtful and practical guide to American Buddhist mindfulness and meditation practices more >>

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9780615162867

21 Oct 2023
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir
Haruki Murakami

I don’t often re-read books, but this was a good choice. Murakami’s “running novelist” memoir turns out to also be a meditation on aging. This is not something I picked up on when I first read it, even though it wasn’t all that long ago. Murakami discusses his simultaneous growth... more >>

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9780307389831

21 Oct 2023
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Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu, Ursula K. Le Guin

As a foundational text of human spirituality, philosophy, and politics, The Tao Te Ching is obviously worth reading on its own merits. Let alone that it’s beautiful and succinct. One thing I found especially interesting in reading this translation by noted badass Ursula K. Le Guin is that, as she... more >>

Made me think about:
- The Meditations: A New Translation (Revised)
- Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis
- Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything

worldcat | bookshop | isbn 9781611807240

12 Oct 2023
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