Reviews and Comments

I listened to this as an audio book. This is much more a work of literary fiction rather than about a dystopian future. The writing is good, but the story is not satisfying. The climax only resolved a minor plot, while other more interesting subplots were left unresolved. The protagonist was boring and could have been cut from the book without changing the story. Much of the backstory seemed to refer to Hollywood film studio culture. Maybe readers familiar with that can make sense of this book.

I listened to this book read by the author. The book is a series of essays on random experiences from her life. The unique feature of this book is how Ms. Lawson shares her lifelong struggle with mental illness. I have never been close to anyone with mental illness but I got a sense of what living with it is like from this book. The irony is that this is also one of the funniest books I have listened to. A point Ms. Lawson repeatedly makes is that when she shares her experiences with illness a common response is "I also feel this way". Many people struggle with severe mental illness, but it isn't apparent to most of the people they interact with in their lives. When I finished this book I felt both entertained and enlightened.

This book describes the role of wood throughout human history. It is not long, about 280 pages plus bibliography. Given the large topic and the short length the author skips around. It is almost like a series of annecdotes arranged in chronological order. Considerable space is also given to discussion of stone and metal construction to the extent that I began to wonder if the author had changed his subject midway through writing. For me the biggest shortcoming is the lack of illustrations. There are several pages of photographs, but there are many brief descriptions that would benefit from a simple drawing. Problems aside, I enjoyed reading the book, and it gave me some ideas to contemplate.