Reviews and Comments

that’s my platform, elect me.

A little hokey but damn, I sucked this one down. Too sleepy to have much intelligent commentary right now, but this bro can write. Wanna check out his other stuff now.

This was excellent - creepy and atmospheric af with crystal clear prose and perfect interjections of Shakespeare. Not like anything else I’ve read in a while. I think it’ll get me out of my book slump as of late.

The first 100 pages of this had me hooked, but then it all fell apart. The plot was boring, the writing grew really procedural and stale, and the Jack/Threezed half of the narrative didn’t hold up to the first few sections about Eliasz and Paladin. I appreciated the book’s themes and message about autonomy, but… lukewarm at best.

Had trouble making it through this one; it was about as subtle as a hot pink kangaroo and things just kind of flowed in a frictionless weird way that I didn’t really enjoy. Still, points majorly taken about the bullshit white meritocracy fest that is tech & sales jobs. Anyway, looking forward to dig into something else.

… but also very much written by two white dudes who teach tech in higher ed. I still think ppl should read this, especially those of us in education and/or libraries who don’t understand the continual growth model given the crucial maintenance aspects of what we do. It would have been nice to see more citations from people who aren’t like, that guy from Freakonomics. But I still think this is an important and enjoyable read.

I can't say enough good things about this book. The writing is searing, forcing you to give a fuck about this stuff even if you're like, of course we need free speech in a dEmoCracY lol. I am super bad at reviewing books as anyone on here who follows me can likely attest but this is an amazing accomplishment and you should read it nowweww. It took me two days to get through it and that last chapter about the convergence of big tech and surveillance and IF is just 🔥🔥🔥. I am 100% using it in class next semester. Damn. I wish I had something substantive to say about this book other than read it, fuckos, but I'm hungry and tired so sorrryyyyy. Only complaint: no mention of libraries in here.

I think there's way more to get out of this than I did on a first go-round. I didn't realize it was as upstate NY as it is, but I feel like I see my home in a series of whole new lights after reading this. Nourishing and encouraging at the face but wistful mournful in the bones.

took forever to get through this, I feel bad. The characters were just a little too blah and the whole thing was predictable. 🥔

Nothing here was especially new to me, but that's fine - I'm always on the lookout for a good succinct relatively accessible book to use in class and/or book clubs, and this is a strong candidate. It's well written -- glib and straightforward, and yet with enough hope & inspiration for a better version of our current technoshitworld that it's pretty inspirational. I grabbed a bunch out of the notes section to track down later and am looking forward to reading several of the cited works soon. PS: there's a chapter called "Pretty Rate Machine" which is just Italian chef finger kiss

I really enjoyed this, although the climax/major plot point feels kind of muddled and abrupt. Super original and batshit in the best way.