dankeck rated All the Light We Cannot See: 5 stars
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and …
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From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and …
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 …
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 a problem, and then want to engineer and sell a solution.
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.
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.
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.
I enjoyed reading about this Bengali couple adjusting to life in late-20th century suburban United States. The details about day-to-day life and their family interactions are great. Less entertaining are their son’s Gogol’s misadventures among Gilmore Girls-ish northeastern Ivy Leaguers. But the book is very well written and has a perspective worth discovering.
There's a chapter where Boyd lays out his disagreements with the theologian Karl Barth. This chapter is hard to understand and gets into confusing philosophical terms. It sticks out like a sore thumb in this book that is otherwise clear and written for a lay audience.
I enjoyed his personal story of wrestling with scripture, and his central idea of comparing the Bible to Jesus's crucifixtion.
We (Russian: Мы, romanized: My) is a dystopian novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, written 1920–1921. It was first published …
Not as preachy as 1984, a tighter and more exciting story than Brave New World. I appreciated the vagueness of the dystopia, with the narrator only providing as much background as necessary. Also I enjoyed how the narrator often left his sentences trailing. Besides being distinctive and interesting, I think it actually helped things move along. Kudos to the author for inventing the Borg, predicting ChatGPT, and dreaming up a beautifully flaky protagonist.
I'm glad Rohr wrote this book, and I hope it means a lot to some readers. It just didn't do a lot for me.
There were some opinions I already agreed with, such as his opposition to modern idolatry, individualism, escape theology, and determinism.
But I like when a book convinces me of (or at least makes me consider) something new. I didn't get that with this book. I suppose the closest was his intriguing argument that the walking on water miracle was misplaced, and actually took place after Jesus's resurrection rather than before. Interesting idea but not particularly important.
Maybe it's my lack of understanding, but Rohr seems to take words—such as Christ, universe, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection—and have them mean something else, not metaphorically but literally. I guess that's part of the mysticism of the book, but it didn't feel satisfying to me.
Also sometimes the book seemed to …
I'm glad Rohr wrote this book, and I hope it means a lot to some readers. It just didn't do a lot for me.
There were some opinions I already agreed with, such as his opposition to modern idolatry, individualism, escape theology, and determinism.
But I like when a book convinces me of (or at least makes me consider) something new. I didn't get that with this book. I suppose the closest was his intriguing argument that the walking on water miracle was misplaced, and actually took place after Jesus's resurrection rather than before. Interesting idea but not particularly important.
Maybe it's my lack of understanding, but Rohr seems to take words—such as Christ, universe, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection—and have them mean something else, not metaphorically but literally. I guess that's part of the mysticism of the book, but it didn't feel satisfying to me.
Also sometimes the book seemed to be an advertisement for a think tank he runs. And he throws in references to pop psychology stuff like Enneagram and Myers-Briggs, that give the book an unfortunate self-helpy sheen.
But different books work for different people. If this book inspires someone to stay Christian, to try to bring God's kingdom by loving all their neighbors, to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly, then thanks to Rohr for writing it!
This book is great as long as you know what you're getting into.
Some video games histories, like Console Wars and The Ultimate History of Video Games, are about individuals and story. Phoenix IV is not. The author loves sales figures and hardware. The former gets a little boring, although I'm happy he's cataloging it for posterity.
The hardware, however, is great. The author aims to describe as many video game consoles, controllers, and peripherals as possible, with photos. If you've ever walked into a used video game store and marvelled at a strange old piece of tech, then prepare for that to happen every couple of pages in this book!
I'm most fascinated by the number of times console manufactures tried to slap a keyboard peripheral onto their machine and call it a personal computer. It happened for decades.
Thanks to the author for all his years monitoring video …
This book is great as long as you know what you're getting into.
Some video games histories, like Console Wars and The Ultimate History of Video Games, are about individuals and story. Phoenix IV is not. The author loves sales figures and hardware. The former gets a little boring, although I'm happy he's cataloging it for posterity.
The hardware, however, is great. The author aims to describe as many video game consoles, controllers, and peripherals as possible, with photos. If you've ever walked into a used video game store and marvelled at a strange old piece of tech, then prepare for that to happen every couple of pages in this book!
I'm most fascinated by the number of times console manufactures tried to slap a keyboard peripheral onto their machine and call it a personal computer. It happened for decades.
Thanks to the author for all his years monitoring video game news, and compiling it into one volume.
On my airplane ride across the country to and from this year’s CSUN conference, I had the privilege of reading the most extraordinary book: At The Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches by Naomi Lawson Jacobs and Emily Richardson.
Through the personal stories and delving into the Old and New Testaments, this book has opened my eyes to the ways that disabled Christians have been excluded from the body of Christ, and sometimes even hurt by well (or not-so-well) meaning fellow believers.
I hate to even say much about the book. These powerful testimonies and inspired reading of Scripture should be discovered for themselves. But here is my favorite quote from the book, followed by a few spoiler-y highlights:
“The Kingdom of God is meant to look really different to a well-run organization. Jesus, our King, rode on a ridiculous unbroken donkey. He looked like a fool. And therefore that’s …
On my airplane ride across the country to and from this year’s CSUN conference, I had the privilege of reading the most extraordinary book: At The Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches by Naomi Lawson Jacobs and Emily Richardson.
Through the personal stories and delving into the Old and New Testaments, this book has opened my eyes to the ways that disabled Christians have been excluded from the body of Christ, and sometimes even hurt by well (or not-so-well) meaning fellow believers.
I hate to even say much about the book. These powerful testimonies and inspired reading of Scripture should be discovered for themselves. But here is my favorite quote from the book, followed by a few spoiler-y highlights:
“The Kingdom of God is meant to look really different to a well-run organization. Jesus, our King, rode on a ridiculous unbroken donkey. He looked like a fool. And therefore that’s our model of power.”
• Health, physical prowess, tradition, and conformity are idols in this world, just like wealth and status, Leaders in the church have often been chosen not for their ability to fellowship with and minister to others, but for their ability to perform specific physical tasks, and reassuringly look the part.
• In following these idols, the church often has its goal to eradicate the apperance of physical ability that don’t meet these standards. Rather than asking disabled people what they need prayer for, non-disabled people will try to “pray away” the disability that makes them uncomfortable, disturbed, or even disgusted.
• These attempts to cure are often flashy spectacles, making disabled people into a tool for marketing churches or inflating egos.
• Even worse, association of physical and mental disabilities with demons or sin have resulted in driving away or horrifying disabled Christians who either leave the church or grow to hate themselves.
• Most depictions of Jesus show him as clean, physically healthy, and unblemished. But at the height of his servanthood, he was badly wounded and deformed. And after he was killed and raised, he did not discard his wounded body but retained it.
• Some (though certainly not all) people with disabilities do not imagine Heaven as a place where their disability is taken away, but a place where their disability is perfectly accommodated. And while we could be doing the same, to help bring the Kingdom of God now, many churches have refused to break tradition to make church buildings and other facilities more accessible to all.
If you are Christian but, as I was, ignorant of the extent of these problems faced by disabled Christians, please give this book a read!
The King, tired of rain, snow, sun, and fog, commands his magicians to make something else come down from the …