Horror but you don't know it. For a writer-focused book, some infelicities of language. Just OK.
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Friday, September 19, 2025
2025.Book31 - Inventing the Renaissance (Palmer)
Very interesting. Sometimes bogs down in dates.
- spiritual organization recapitulating political organization.
- Virtue Politics
Thursday, August 14, 2025
2025.Book30 - The Tiger and The Wolf (Tchaikovsky)
Pretty good, too long and samey. Metaphors for mental illness?
Friday, July 04, 2025
2025.Book29 - The Prodigal God (Keller)
Pretty weak. Trying to cram his theology into Jesus' story.
Couple of howlers: "no one had ever taught anything like this before" (except the prophets), and bringing in Cain & Abel to move responsibility from the father to the elder brother (explaining God's inaction).
Friday, June 20, 2025
2025.Book26 - The Will of the Many (Islington)
Excellent epic fantasy. Good characters, tons of plot, interesting world
Monday, June 09, 2025
2025.Book25 - Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Stendahl)
Very good. Love vs integrity, guilt and the introspective conscience as Augustinian and Lutheran innovations.
Saturday, May 31, 2025
2025.Book24 - The Incident Report (Baillie)
TPL or "Public Libraries of Toronto"? Nice and oblique. Honestly not sure how the Rigoletto plot concluded; red herring or critical? Librarians as front-line social workers.
2025.Book23 - Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dinniman)
More game transcript than novel; last quarter got better. Don't feel any need to continue the series.
2025.Book22 - It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track (Penman)
Music criticism without music; sociology instead. (Writes off actual music as "algebra" in the Parker section).
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Thursday, May 08, 2025
Thursday, May 01, 2025
2025.Book18 - My Dining Hell (Rayner)
Very good. It's true; bad experiences are funnier than good ones.
2025.Book16 - Orbital (Harvey)
Very good, poetic, scientific. Not quite as beautifully written as I expected, but what's being communicated was.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
2025.Book14 - Good Material (Alderton)
Low quality Hornby-core. One funny part ("I can't look at the sea any more!")
2025.Book13 - Days of Shattered Faith (Tchaikovsky)
Another excellent installment. Good characters. End of the trilogy?