I recently finished Frozen Ed Furtaw's "Tales From Out There: The Barkley Marathons, The World's Toughest Trail Race", and near the end there was a description of a sleep-deprived ultrarunner who had an experience that I howled my way through... I suspect that many folks who have similarly pushed their limits and experienced that state of " ( Read more... )

( Tulugaq: An Oral History of Ravens )

Hello, Internet! Madly behind on book reviews again. This time I'm splitting by literary geography. Next up, North America.

( The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal )

First, a little book tourism: I have new travel ambitions. Portugal. Buenos Aires. And Los Angeles. I've been talking with my friends about where we've gone to ebooks and where we haven't, the loss of the social aspect of reading (I hate it when I go to the Silent Reading Party and I can't tell what anyone else is reading because they have an ( Read more... )

( A Night in the Lonesome October )

Books (that I felt like reviewing) of September!

( Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work )

Hello, Internet! After tithenai's glowing review some months back, I put Ken Liu's "The Grace of Kings" on my to-read list. I recently finished, and said on Goodreads:

This was a good book that came so close to being a great book. Truly excellent world-building, well realized characters who develop and change, compelling moral dilemmas with clear paths ( Read more... )

Hello, Internet! I have recently been thoroughly delighted by one of my finds from the Garden District Book Shop, "Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of Baroness de Pontalba". This book was *magnificent*. The author's site does a pretty good job of summarizing it, as well as giving you a guide to her authorial style. Up-front disclaimers: the ( Read more... )

( The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2 )

( Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions )