Imperial Twilight by Stephen Platt

For a book ostensibly about a war, this slow burning buildup of geopolitical diplomacy, drama, and intrigue detailing British-Chinese relations in the early 1800s doesn’t actually find its climax in battles, but rather in the very dryly funny political maneuverings that led to the war, which I found to be entertaining and ultimately quite worthwhile, altho it was a dense read along the way at some points, and I wish it had detailed more of the Chinese history alongside the British. 

land of bad (2024)

It’s important to watch contemporary mass market schlock action movies to keep abreast of current trends in spectacle-making, and after watching this particular schlocky action movie the trend is: the decaying american empire is no closer to understanding itself, but it’s very good at suspenseful gore-fests with homoerotic undertones. 

the quiller memorandum (1966)

I can see why this is a lesser known 60s spy thriller I mean it’s got the intrigue and the atmosphere but it just doesn’t really have the stakes, I think because of a weak plot. 

the killer (2023)

Imagine a movie with 1/4 of the plot of kill bill and also 1/4 of the rizz and you might be asking yourself why would anyone bother and if so we have something in common.

The country of the blind by Andrew Leland

This interesting combination of history, biography, travelogue, and ethics is chock full of useful and mind-expanding information about blindness, disability, and accessibility - unfortunately it’s also meandering, overdone, and long, and needed some sharper editing. 

ringworld by larry niven

I think in 1970 this kind of hard sci-fi worldbuilding was novel enough, and this kind of heinlein-style reactionary politics was attractive enough, that people happily overlooked the utterly banal characters, ridiculously cluttered plot, nonsensical technical details, and general misogyny. 

Fire on the Prairie by Gary Rivlin

I’ve recently seen this book compared to Robert Caro’s classic The Power Broker which I would say is accurate in terms of subject, caliber of writing, and deeply fascinating political anecdotes, but where Caro goes deep and wide, Rivlin is more focused, and the tighter result is in some ways better: a masterpiece encapsulation of the ugliest and most inspiring aspects of human governance. 

3 women (1977)

A moody, mysterious, opaque, ambient, meandering, burning drama and really honestly I’ve never seen anything quite like it. 

watership down (1978)

There’s just no way to fit even a quarter of the plot of the book into a 90 minute kid’s movie, and unfortunately this 70s edition tries to fit a third, and so altho the animation is gorgeous and the movie does have a certain ineffable greatness, it suffers a bunch from pacing and plot issues. 

watership down by richard adams

Older children’s books like this one ask a lot of the reader, from plot complexity to vocabulary to attention span, and like other enduring classics this one earns it and then some; there are enough deep ideas to can keep any adult entranced, and the dramatic intensity of the characters and setting will reward everyone alike. 

The spectacular failure of the star wars hotel by Jenny Nicholson

In this incredibly detailed, well researched 4+ hour deep dive into a Disney theme experience I’d never heard of before, I discovered once again a funny truth about art, and culture, and entertainment, and fandom, and maybe even the human experience as a whole, which is that the Quality of a thing, the craft, the passion, is 98% of the experience - and what it’s about, or whether you agree or think you ought to care, hardly even registers. 

Richie Rich (1994)

It may be nonsensical, completely obvious, and unoriginal, but the characters are fun and the over the top acting works for the genre, and if you, like me, saw it 100 times between 94 and 97, it gives you a big ole dose of nostalgia. 

Cribsheet by Emily Oster

I appreciate Oster’s approach to data driven decision-making, so even tho I actually disagree on how she handled the discussion on co-sleeping / bedsharing, which is probably the most impactful decision new parents make, I still think this book is a valuable resource. 

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Cute quick sci-fi fantasy, fun little thing, couldn’t put it down, gone too soon. 

The Enigma of Clarence Thomas by Corey Robin

It’s amazing to consider that the news that Thomas had been caught taking undisclosed gifts from a conservative billionaire came out only 2 years after this book, but it does highlight my single issue with what is otherwise an excellent, impeccably written and thoroughly researched investigation - this wacky supreme court justice is interesting to the extent that his twisted belief system makes any sense, but the more it comes out that he’s just a corrupt death cultist, the less relevance there is to his future jurisprudence (and his past, retroactively) that he was once a black nationalist. 

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Brilliantly crafted, elegantly plotted and full of poignant moments and sparkling insight with just the right amount of delicious surreality, and still, despite all that, overwrought, moralizing, and long.