Love that it opens with a promise of giving you thinking tools and doesn't not promise to make you a "super productive rockstar millionaire astronaut".
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concise, approachable, understated, and motivating
hobs set a goal to read 12 books in 2022
Bubble by Anders de la Motte
Game Over: Will the conspiracy collapse or conclude with a deadly end-game in the concluding part of the Game Trilogy. …
hobs reviewed News of the World by Paulette Jiles
In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, …
Review of 'News of the World' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Extremely evocative of an innocent, simpler time. Our guide and bearer of news from the world after the civil war, Jefferson Kidd, is a wise, brave, grumpy grandfather and widower. The diverse characters that come in and out of his life are intriguingly rendered by Jiles, to the point that she must satisfy the reader's curiosity, explaining the fate of them all in detail. And Kidd's sidekick, Johanna, is rendered in such detail that her internal, unspoken struggle brought me to tears as I read out loud to my parents. My mother and father had to repeatedly take over for me when I got choked up. And the intellectual linguist in you will delight at the intricate explanations of the Kiowa language and culture, not to mention the now arcane language of preindustrial Texas and the southeastern US. Normally this would be a 5-star for me. The only detractor is …
Extremely evocative of an innocent, simpler time. Our guide and bearer of news from the world after the civil war, Jefferson Kidd, is a wise, brave, grumpy grandfather and widower. The diverse characters that come in and out of his life are intriguingly rendered by Jiles, to the point that she must satisfy the reader's curiosity, explaining the fate of them all in detail. And Kidd's sidekick, Johanna, is rendered in such detail that her internal, unspoken struggle brought me to tears as I read out loud to my parents. My mother and father had to repeatedly take over for me when I got choked up. And the intellectual linguist in you will delight at the intricate explanations of the Kiowa language and culture, not to mention the now arcane language of preindustrial Texas and the southeastern US. Normally this would be a 5-star for me. The only detractor is the relatively basic and cliche writing of the first few chapters, as Jiles sucks in the average reader, before unleashing the spoils of her research on the persistent reader in the later chapters. She does eventually unleash her deeper creativity and illuminates the human condition without cliche or boring soundbites. Hang in there. The journey is worth the knocks of the bumpy road at the start.
hobs reviewed Blindsight (Firefall, #1) by Peter Watts
It's been two months since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming …
Review of 'Blindsight' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Probably the most mind-blowing book I've read this year. Difficult to untangle, but riveting and suspenseful. I hope Watts continues this thought experiment on intelligence and consciousness and new ways of thinking about thinking.
hobs reviewed The dog stars by Peter Heller
Review of 'The dog stars' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Suspenseful page-turner that explores what it would be like in the US if civilization collapsed. Unfortunately it seems to have been written by a billionaire prepper and private pilot with a love for guns. Adventure and romance with a John Wayne protagonist. Quick read. Very entertaining. Thought provoking about the nature of human ethics/values/morality when the **it hits the fan.
hobs reviewed The Forever Bridge by Greenwood, T.
Review of 'The Forever Bridge' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Couldn't put it down -- not for any contrived anticipation or urgency, rather Greenwood's sincerity and bravery. I read with excitement and nervousness, enthralled by the crafting of something lasting, inspired -- piece by beautiful piece.
hobs reviewed 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 …
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
As intricate and well-crafted as Helprin's Soldier of the Great War, or Sunlight and Shaddow, only more enthralling and accessible. Loved the skipping around in time and place, fullfilling the thesis that mind and spirit aren't restricted to the linear progression of time and can fly through the air like birds or radio waves.
hobs rated Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1): 5 stars
Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) by Ernest Cline
Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, …
hobs rated Fahrenheit 451: 5 stars
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires...
The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books …
hobs rated pride and prejudice and zombies: 5 stars
Jane Austen: pride and prejudice and zombies (2009, oxford university)
pride and prejudice and zombies by Jane Austen
Great first line, it had to be polished, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of …
hobs rated Ender's Game: 5 stars
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date …
hobs rated The Diary of a Young Girl: 5 stars
Cherry Gilchrist: The Diary of a Young Girl (1998, Addison Wesley Longman)
The Diary of a Young Girl by Cherry Gilchrist
Anne Frank's extraordinary diary, written in the Amsterdam attic where she and her family hid from the Nazis for two …