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GenericMoniker

GenericMoniker@bookwyrm.social

Joined 6 months, 2 weeks ago

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David Grann: Killers of the Flower Moon (2017, Vintage) 4 stars

Even when you win you lose

No rating

Content warning Spoilers (but it is history, so...)

Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Paperback, 2021, Vintage) 4 stars

In his most extraordinary book, “one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century” …

Taking our brain for granted

3 stars

The case studies of patients who had strange neurological conditions was fascinating -- people who couldn't sense their bodies, people who couldn't form new memories, a pair of twins who could perceive numbers of things without counting them and several others. The author's philosophizing was less interesting.

Brandon Sanderson: The Sunlit Man (Hardcover, 2023, Tor) 4 stars

Years ago he had comrades in arms and a cause to believe in, but now …

Something strange about this planet

3 stars

A Bridge 4 soldier from the Stormlight Archive is skipping across the Cosmere and ends up on a planet whose sun destroys (nearly) all life it touches. The planet's inhabitants live in cities that are made up of a bunch of conjoined hovercraft that keep the people moving perpetually within the safety of night.

The soldier joins up with a small group of revolutionaries as they seek out a refuge that would allow them to stop constantly moving while resisting an evil dictator who wants to unify/enslave all the planets inhabitants.

As a story the book was fine, but I had a hard time accepting the setting. I wouldn't expect life to have been viable on a planet where the sunlight destroys what it touches, yet somehow there are indigenous animals that live there (mentioned only briefly). The humans living there aren't native, but assuming some of the people that …

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, J. M. Cohen: The Conquest of New Spain (1963, Penguin) 5 stars

Recollections of the conquest of New Spain describes the various expeditions, marches, embassies, important leaders, …

Learning of the conquest

4 stars

Content warning Spoilers (but it is history, so...)

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (Hardcover, 2023, Tor Books) 4 stars

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a …

Yumi and Painter

3 stars

Yumi and Painter, "practical" artists in two different cultures become somehow bound to each other such that they experience each other's worlds.

This story took me a little while to get into, and required a fair amount of "let me explain what is going on..." from the narrator to understand some Cosmere concepts that in other books/series are meted out more slowly.

Still, I enjoyed the characters and their self-exploration as well as the imaginative world.

Charlie Bird: Without the Mask (Paperback, Deseret Book Co) 5 stars

A positive outlook

4 stars

The author, Charlie Bird, had been Cosmo, the Cougar mascot at Brigham Young University while he was a student there, and had some of his dance videos with the Cougarettes go viral.

He is also gay and struggled to reconcile that at a religious school and as a member of a conservative faith that didn't have a very good track record of accepting that. Things were very difficult at times.

Ultimately he came to feel that his religion and orientation didn't have to be in conflict, that being faithful and gay is being true to his entire self. Also, while he had tremendous anxiety coming out to his friends and family (usually one-at-a-time), it was a positive and affirming experience when he did. Charlie was lucky to have people who loved him and supported him, even when it took some learning on their part to understand Charlie's experiences.