2021.Book 49 - Conversations with Friends

 Not sure what it was going to be about. Kind of Neapolitan

2021.Book48 - The Institute (King)

 Good stuff. You know what you're getting with Stephen King.

2021.Book47 - Agent Running in the Field (LeCarre)

 Very good. Excellent twist, ending kind of unresolved.

2021.Book46 - Side Effects (Allen)

 We had to steal to eat. Then we had to steal to tip.

2021.Book45 - Greenlights (McConaghey)

 pretty good

2021.Book44 - Rivendell Readers (Petersen)

 Pretty interesting, learned a lot.

2021.Book43 - The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (LeCarre)

 Very good. Complex and bleak.

2021.Book42 - Dead Astronauts (Vandermeer)

 Phenomenology of genetic engineering? Inside the apocalypse?

2021.Book41 - Kingdom and Empire (Tempelmeyer)

 Pretty good.

2021.Book40 - Nobody Will Tell You This But Me (Kalb)

 A nice life.

2021.Book39 - Piranesi (Clarke)

 Not what I expected, but very good.  Seems pretty straightforward, are there hidden depths?

2021.Book38 - Red Dragon (Harris)

 Good stuff.

2021.Book37 - All the Light We Cannot See (Doerr)

 Pretty enjoyable.

2021.Book36 - Reading while Black (McCaulley)

 Can you read the bible through an emancipatory lens? Of course you can. Unconvincing R7 exegesis, and the "you're saying the slaveowners were right" is a ludicrous straw man.

2021.Book35 - On Awkwardness (Kotsko)

 Surprisingly good.

2021.Book34 - Racial Contract (Mills)

 Good stuff. Seems pretty standard for today High-level thesis (proposing racial contract as better explanation than social contract) is, as Mills says, a category error. But that's just the "woah dude" hook - the actual content is accurate.

Is Europe's racism in America a betrayal of Enlightenment ideals or their inevitable actualization? I think the former.

2021.Book33 - Existentialist Cafe (Bakewell)

 Pretty interesting. Especially Heidegger.

2021.Book32 - Ides of March (Wilder)

 Pretty good. "Hell exhaled you, mountain of lies" - that's some quality invective.

2021.Book31 - Witch Week (Jones)

 Pretty enjoyable.

2021.Book30 - The Looking-Glass War (LeCarre)

 Enjoyable.

2021.Book29 - Memory of Running (McLarty)

 Pretty enjoyable. Good moments of low-key comedy (hospital, vegetable cult)

2021.Book28 - A Murder of Quality (LeCarre)

 Pretty good, quite grim.

2021.Book27 - Call for the Dead (LeCarre)

 Very good little mystery.

2021.Book26 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)

 Excellent, very well done and absorbing

2021.Book25 - Single and Single (LeCarre)

 Pretty good. Entertaining thriller

2021.Book24 - Who Killed Mr Moonlight (Haskins)

 Pretty good. Music is interesting, magic and meditation aren't.

2021.Book23 - Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry (Widdowson, Howard)

 Excellent. Devastating.

2021.Book22 - Sula (Morrison)

 Very good.

2021.Book21 - Monolithic Undertow (Sword)

 Pretty fun. Gets away from pure drone stuff, but it's probably hard to write a book about just drone. Best find from this was Eliane Radigue.

2021.Book20 - Weather (Offill)

 It's fine.

2021.Book19 - Dept. of Speculation (Offill)

 Very good.

2021.Book18 - Soleri (Johnston)

 Not good. Has a self-published, non-edited feel. Tries to cram too much in, and lazy "oh yeah this happened before"

2021.Book17 - Chapo Guide to Revolution

 Skimmable.

2021.Book16 - Theolonious Monk (Kelley)

 Really interesting; didn't know much about his music.

2021.Book15 - Prozac Nation (Wurtzel)

 A bit of a slog.

2021.Book14 - The Sea Wolf (London)

 Very good. I'm with Bierce on this one.

2021.Book13 - No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Smith)

 Enjoyable.

2021.Book12 - Monkey Wrench Gang (Abbey)

 Pretty good fantasy.

2021.Book11 - I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Reid)

 Pretty good. Internal view, stops short of horror.

2021.Book10 - Ghost Rider (Peart)

 General note; the more I read about bands I like, the less I like the people (see Max Webster).

This was pretty good, competently written, terrible events, not much insight. "Smite the smug" vs "if you do good, you get good" (unless this was subtle irony? but I don't think so)

2021.Book9 - The Prince of This World (Kotsko)

 Excellent. Good deep stuff.

2021.Book8 - Hunger (Gay)

Many short repetitive sections,

skimming along the surface.

Introspection without insight.

2021.Book7 - The Lying Life of Adults (Ferrante)

 Very good. Interesting people.

2021.Book6 - The Recognitions (Gaddis)

 Yeah, no.

2021.Book5 - Muscle (Fussell)

 Very good autobiography. Body building as escape from humanity, but if it's just one among many, what's the alternative? What was life like after bodybuilding?

2021.Book4 - Unraveled (Evans)

 Interesting. Does she pull her punches or did I give up the fight?

2021.Book3 - How to Pronounce Knife (Thammavongsa)

 Misery as entertainment

2021.Book2 - Mexico Set (Deighton)

 Pretty good spy stuff. Can an author write a depressed character and not know it?

2021.Book1 - Twelve Who Ruled (Palmer)

 Very interesting how much the first republic was the image of what all governments look like now.

2020.Book38 - Berlin Game (Deighton)

 Pretty good, but such an unlikable protagonist. Not sure if that's just the distance between then and now or intentional, or maybe a portrait of depression?