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dankeck

dankeck@bookrastinating.com

Joined 1 year, 7 months ago

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reviewed The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings (2))

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Two Towers (Paperback, 1982, Houghton Mifflin) 4 stars

The Two Towers. Book Two in J.R.R. Tolkien's acclaimed trilogy, a masterpiece of high fantasy. …

Better than I remembered

5 stars

Content warning Spoiler

Ashley Shew: Against Technoableism (2023, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.) 4 stars

Useful and important book for the right audience

4 stars

Shew shows how technoableism, the goal of using technology to "fix" disabled people is intertwined with the flawed Medical Model of disability and with eugenics. She deftly interweaves her own personal experience with the overall cause of disability justice.

Her chapters on amputees and autistic folks are especially detailed and enlightening.

Although I was already familiar with the Medical and Social Models of disability, I think this book could serve as a good intro to these ideas, for a reader who doesn't mind wading through a bit of jargon and heady discussion. I wouldn't recommend the book to my right-wing friends due to the author's left-wing orientation being on full display. But for a reader already in political agreement with the author, this book could be a good way to argue for the rights of disabled people, and for caution when dealing with those who frame groups of people as …

Matt Alt: Pure Invention (2020, Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale) 4 stars

The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that …

Fun book

4 stars

Matt Alt's book is part love letter to Japan, part argument that Japan has had an outsized influence on the world's pop culture. Easy, fun, light reading, aside from the serious political turn in the last chapter.

Steve Silberman: NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (2015) 4 stars

Humans treating humans badly

4 stars

This book feels like it is 80-90% about horrible ways that autistic people have suffered throughout history--including getting killed in ancient times and Nazi Germany, or getting institutionalized in the United States for being "feeble-minded," which really meant not conforming to the behavior that polite society expected. Near the end of the book, there start to be some positive stories, and some autistic people start to get a voice.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring : being the first part of The Lord of the Rings (Paperback, 2011, Harper Collins) 5 stars

This edition is based on the reset edition first published 2002 which is a revised …

Enjoyable revisit

5 stars

This is my first return to the Lord of the Rings in over 20 years. These characters are so iconic, and it's a pleasure to spend time with them again.

What stands out to me this time is: the best part of the book is the beginning in the Shire. The hobbits are more fun and colorful than the elves and heroes we meet later. When I was a kid, I just wanted to get past the boring Shire stuff to the exciting parts. As an adult I appreciate the glimpses at human nature through the hobbits of Tolkien who aren't on epic quests.