Deeply moving and relatable to read during COVID. I found it spiritually nourishing, not in the sense of offering comfort, but in the sense of ringing true to me, confronting uncomfortable truths and articulating their social and emotional implications.
Also, Rieux/Tarrou are lovers in my headcanon.
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chrisamaphone rated You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: 4 stars
The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber
The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy is a 2015 book by anthropologist David …
chrisamaphone rated Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1): 5 stars
Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) by Octavia E. Butler
Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final …
chrisamaphone rated Adulthood Rites: 4 stars
Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)
The second book in the Lilith's Brood trilogy, this story takes place years after the arrival of Oankali aliens in …
chrisamaphone reviewed Albert Camus' The plague by Thomas Merton (Religious dimensions in literature -- 7)
Review of "Albert Camus' The plague" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
chrisamaphone rated Imago (Xenogenesis, #3): 4 stars
Imago (Xenogenesis, #3) by Octavia E. Butler
Child of two species, but part of neither, a new being must find his way. Human and Oankali have been …
chrisamaphone reviewed Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
Review of 'Making of a Manager' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This book is basically what I was hoping and expecting it to be: a first-person perspective on management at a modern-day tech company, with accompanying insights on how to do this job in a successful and rewarding way. I frequently had to suspend by annoyance at the general "Lean In"-feminism style of complicity with the dysfunctional and abusive power structures that underlie tech companies like Facebook, so I can't really recommend it uncynically, but it definitely gave me a lot to think about. I especially liked the concrete examples of questions to ask reports during 1:1s and blueprints for successful meetings and interviews.
chrisamaphone reviewed Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
Review of 'Bullshit jobs : a theory' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
My first intro to Graeber. The book is poignant, funny, and well-argued, tying together anthropological, economic, and political theory into a satisfying web of connected ideas about labor, value, and human happiness. I'm not surprised that a lot of readers got mad because they were expecting a libertarian lambasting of government regulation of markets; I, for one, was pleasantly surprised at how well-situated his argument was in anarchism, marxism, and feminism.
chrisamaphone rated The Dune Encyclopedia: 5 stars
chrisamaphone rated Two Cheers for Anarchism: 4 stars
Two Cheers for Anarchism by James C. Scott
James Scott taught us what’s wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to …
chrisamaphone reviewed Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
Review of 'Emergent strategy' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I am giving this book 5 stars because of how it spoke to my heart, even though I don't think I would unilaterally recommend it to everyone, and it has plenty of flaws from an analytical perspective. But the way it put certain intuitions into words, speaking so powerfully to my desire to be a whole and happy person while also contending with the bleak dystopian present and trying to contribute to meaningful solutions... I needed this book. Maybe you need it, too.
You might especially like this book if:
- You are a leader or active member of any organization, whether doing activism, political work, community service, community organizing, or just plain working for a company or institution;
- You're an activist who's tired of feeling depressed and burnt out all the time;
- You are interested in process and people, and in understanding more clearly how people function …
I am giving this book 5 stars because of how it spoke to my heart, even though I don't think I would unilaterally recommend it to everyone, and it has plenty of flaws from an analytical perspective. But the way it put certain intuitions into words, speaking so powerfully to my desire to be a whole and happy person while also contending with the bleak dystopian present and trying to contribute to meaningful solutions... I needed this book. Maybe you need it, too.
You might especially like this book if:
- You are a leader or active member of any organization, whether doing activism, political work, community service, community organizing, or just plain working for a company or institution;
- You're an activist who's tired of feeling depressed and burnt out all the time;
- You are interested in process and people, and in understanding more clearly how people function as part of processes;
- You like metaphors having to do with ecosystems and the natural world;
- You like speculative fiction and think it can be a powerful force for imagining better futures for humanity;
- You're an Octavia Butler fan;
- You don't mind a bit of new-agey "woo" in your books.
chrisamaphone reviewed Order from Chaos by Jaclyn Paul
Review of 'Order from Chaos' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
As someone who wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until age 34 (and even then as a "borderline" case for medication), I found this book very validating and insightful. The experiences ring true to me while also emphasizing the diversity of experiences of people with this condition, and the need for carefully observing and adapting to each of our specific realities.
I was shocked by how similar the author's task-organization system is to mine that I've developed over the last decade or so -- also based on a combination of GTD, bullet journaling, and other philosophies, adapted to the specific quirks of my brain.
Where I learned the most was in physical-space organization. Some of those things still feel way to daunting to me, like keeping everything in files. Others seem like good ideas to try, like a personal physical "inbox" for each family member.
This would be 5 stars, but the …
As someone who wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until age 34 (and even then as a "borderline" case for medication), I found this book very validating and insightful. The experiences ring true to me while also emphasizing the diversity of experiences of people with this condition, and the need for carefully observing and adapting to each of our specific realities.
I was shocked by how similar the author's task-organization system is to mine that I've developed over the last decade or so -- also based on a combination of GTD, bullet journaling, and other philosophies, adapted to the specific quirks of my brain.
Where I learned the most was in physical-space organization. Some of those things still feel way to daunting to me, like keeping everything in files. Others seem like good ideas to try, like a personal physical "inbox" for each family member.
This would be 5 stars, but the education nerd in me has to nitpick about the inclusion of "learning styles" as a guiding principle -- learning styles are a debunked theory. The application to living with ADHD -- that some people are more apt to notice or ignore stimuli of different senses -- may well be sound, but basing this inference on a debunked scientific premise casts a shadow on its credibility.
chrisamaphone rated Parable Of The Sower: 4 stars
Parable Of The Sower by Octavia E. Butler (Earthseed, #1)
In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future. …