idk about this one. There's some interesting ideas in here but there's also a bunch of claims and analysis that just felt really dubious to me. The explanation of the protestant reformation felt shallow and distorted, the pop culture "american monomyth" supporting strong man authoritarianism cited tons of examples that very clearly don't actually fit, there's weird stuff about evolutionary psychology and the social history of laws and contracts and urbanism that just seems kind of off to me? Makes me wonder how many other strange distortions I didn't catch because I'm not knowledgeable enough. I was gonna give this three stars but then the conclusion gave some really bizarre policy suggestions like testing public officials for "malignant narcissism"? bad vibe, lost a star for that. The whole thing is also shot through with this tone of unfunny snark that I might have been more forgiving of if the core …
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NowWeAreAllTom finished reading Cults Like Us by Jane Borden
idk about this one. There's some interesting ideas in here but there's also a bunch of claims and analysis that just felt really dubious to me. The explanation of the protestant reformation felt shallow and distorted, the pop culture "american monomyth" supporting strong man authoritarianism cited tons of examples that very clearly don't actually fit, there's weird stuff about evolutionary psychology and the social history of laws and contracts and urbanism that just seems kind of off to me? Makes me wonder how many other strange distortions I didn't catch because I'm not knowledgeable enough. I was gonna give this three stars but then the conclusion gave some really bizarre policy suggestions like testing public officials for "malignant narcissism"? bad vibe, lost a star for that. The whole thing is also shot through with this tone of unfunny snark that I might have been more forgiving of if the core arguments of the book were more solid, but in this book they just came off as weirdly snide and off-putting
NowWeAreAllTom commented on The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed (Reign of the Empire, #1)
Before the Rebellion, the Empire reigns, in book one of a trilogy told through the …
This rules!!! Follows Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera in the months after Revenge of the Sith, finding their footing in the new political reality of the Empire and has a lot of interesting stuff about the reintegration of separatists after the Clone Wars. Basically if you want more of what Andor was doing, this is a good source of that
NowWeAreAllTom reviewed The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed (Reign of the Empire, #1)
Before the Rebellion, the Empire reigns, in book one of a trilogy told through the …
Andor flavored Star Wars
5 stars
This rules!!! Follows Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera in the months after Revenge of the Sith, finding their footing in the new political reality of the Empire and has a lot of interesting stuff about the reintegration of separatists after the Clone Wars. Basically if you want more of what Andor was doing, this is a good source of that
NowWeAreAllTom finished reading The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed (Reign of the Empire, #1)
The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed (Reign of the Empire, #1)
Before the Rebellion, the Empire reigns, in book one of a trilogy told through the eyes of Mon Mothma, Bail …
NowWeAreAllTom finished reading Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen
any guesses about why I read this again?
NowWeAreAllTom rated The Message: 5 stars
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic Politics and the …
NowWeAreAllTom rated Galileo's Error: 3 stars
Galileo's Error by Philip Goff
‘Suddenly the universe appears in a new and much more revealing perspective. A splendid introduction to this fascinating idea' Philip …
Star Wars: the Fallen Star (the High Republic) : (Star Wars: the High Republic Book 3) by Claudia Gray
In this gripping sequel to Star Wars: The Rising Storm, the light of the Jedi faces its darkest hour.
Time …
NowWeAreAllTom finished reading Mission to Disaster by Justina Ireland
NowWeAreAllTom commented on Mission to Disaster by Justina Ireland
I’m reading a Star Wars book from 2022 and there are scenes set on the Halcyon, and they talk about how big and shiny and cool and heroic and helpful the ship is. Weird to think this is cross promotion for an extremely expensive real world theme park attraction that hadn’t opened yet when the book was published, and doesn’t exist anymore now a mere 2 years later
NowWeAreAllTom started reading Mission to Disaster by Justina Ireland
NowWeAreAllTom stopped reading The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (Book of the New Sun (5))
I think I’m out. The guys on the Shelved By Genre podcast loved the first four books and hated this one, whereas I was meh on the first four books so I was kind of hoping that, because my opinion ran counter to theirs, this one would work for me. But the issue isn’t how much it “works” for me, I’m just incredibly fuckin tired of this Severian guy. Define the word “Fuligin” one more time, I swear
NowWeAreAllTom started reading Rigor of Angels by William Egginton
A poet, a physicist, and a philosopher explored the greatest enigmas in the universe—the nature …
This is gonna be a spicy one, I can already tell
Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a …
Look I don’t wanna overstate the case
5 stars
but honestly, every living person ought to read this book