linkspam is tired of the dark
James Nicoll asks what was the best self-published book you read this year? Lots of recommendations in the comments.
Roger Ebert lists his best movies of the year.
In honor of my niece's love for Les Mis, I give you Grantland's Les Mis Geek-Out.
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Huh: Even NASA doesn't exactly know what causes motion sickness.
Outdoorsy types might want to keep an eye out for the new Polartec Alpha fabric, which is both insulating and breathable. Or so they claim, anyway.
The NYT reports that exercise is probably important to the development and sustainability of the human brain.
Speaking of exercise, here is a six-year-old piece on the development of parkour. A jazz musician wants to be comfortable in any key. Similarly, a traceur wants to be sufficiently fluent so that he can cross any terrain in flight without compromise.
I don't recall carrying a backpack in high school, but I certainly did in college, and that seems to overlap pretty well with Slate's history of the rise of the student backpack.
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Noted for later: Getting into and funding a college education is getting harder and harder in the US. The New York Times reports on the impact of economic inequality on higher education.
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Noted for later: The Economist has a video about Edward Curtis' life and photography.
In 1945 a house fire killed five children in Fayetteville, WV. Except their remains were never found, and the family still insists the children were kidnapped. This is a heartbreaking story.
Apparently the US government poisoned industrial alcohol during Prohibition, and may have caused the deaths of 10,000 people as a result. Wow.
This is a fascinating if rather jargony article about group bonding through ritual, which I think would be of interest to people fond of team stories.
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That reading meme (and in compliance with
coffeeandink's directions to talk about books):
What are you currently reading?
Currently reading: The Dead Hand: the Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (on recommendation by my brother, who knows one of the sources quoted in it); it's a bit dry but an interesting look at the run-up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, using both American & Soviet sources.
Also, and rather more slowly, Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, for book club. It's hard to get inspired to read Dreiser, since I know it's just going to end in tears.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished listening to the audiobook of Paladin of Souls by LM Bujold. Bujold is definitely comfort-reading (or -listening) for me, and it's nice to revisit Chalion. I do wish she would write another novel set here: there's certainly plenty left to explore. Also, on my phone while riding BART and whatnot: Still Life With Murder by P.B. Ryan, a historical mystery set in Boston in 1868; the detective is a poor Irish woman implausibly hired to work as a governess in a wealthy household. I do like the class awareness this results in, and the prose is quite acceptable. There's a tormented overbred male lead, so I see romantic shenanigans in the future.
What do you think you'll read next?
Whatever's up next for book club, then maybe Red Shift by Alan Garner, City of Bones by Martha Wells, or The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin. The Wells would be a reread, but it's been so long since I first read it, I remember almost nothing about it. And I need to pick up The Death of the Necromancer, which is, I think, the only one of her novels I've never read.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.
Roger Ebert lists his best movies of the year.
In honor of my niece's love for Les Mis, I give you Grantland's Les Mis Geek-Out.
*
Huh: Even NASA doesn't exactly know what causes motion sickness.
Outdoorsy types might want to keep an eye out for the new Polartec Alpha fabric, which is both insulating and breathable. Or so they claim, anyway.
The NYT reports that exercise is probably important to the development and sustainability of the human brain.
Speaking of exercise, here is a six-year-old piece on the development of parkour. A jazz musician wants to be comfortable in any key. Similarly, a traceur wants to be sufficiently fluent so that he can cross any terrain in flight without compromise.
I don't recall carrying a backpack in high school, but I certainly did in college, and that seems to overlap pretty well with Slate's history of the rise of the student backpack.
*
Noted for later: Getting into and funding a college education is getting harder and harder in the US. The New York Times reports on the impact of economic inequality on higher education.
*
Noted for later: The Economist has a video about Edward Curtis' life and photography.
In 1945 a house fire killed five children in Fayetteville, WV. Except their remains were never found, and the family still insists the children were kidnapped. This is a heartbreaking story.
Apparently the US government poisoned industrial alcohol during Prohibition, and may have caused the deaths of 10,000 people as a result. Wow.
This is a fascinating if rather jargony article about group bonding through ritual, which I think would be of interest to people fond of team stories.
*
That reading meme (and in compliance with
coffeeandink's directions to talk about books):
What are you currently reading?
Currently reading: The Dead Hand: the Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (on recommendation by my brother, who knows one of the sources quoted in it); it's a bit dry but an interesting look at the run-up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, using both American & Soviet sources.
Also, and rather more slowly, Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, for book club. It's hard to get inspired to read Dreiser, since I know it's just going to end in tears.
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished listening to the audiobook of Paladin of Souls by LM Bujold. Bujold is definitely comfort-reading (or -listening) for me, and it's nice to revisit Chalion. I do wish she would write another novel set here: there's certainly plenty left to explore. Also, on my phone while riding BART and whatnot: Still Life With Murder by P.B. Ryan, a historical mystery set in Boston in 1868; the detective is a poor Irish woman implausibly hired to work as a governess in a wealthy household. I do like the class awareness this results in, and the prose is quite acceptable. There's a tormented overbred male lead, so I see romantic shenanigans in the future.
What do you think you'll read next?
Whatever's up next for book club, then maybe Red Shift by Alan Garner, City of Bones by Martha Wells, or The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin. The Wells would be a reread, but it's been so long since I first read it, I remember almost nothing about it. And I need to pick up The Death of the Necromancer, which is, I think, the only one of her novels I've never read.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.