en-US Sun, 04 May 2025 02:02:39 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review5604424570 Sun, 04 May 2025 02:02:39 -0700 /review/show/5604424570 mark propp gave 5 stars to In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths about Human Intelligence (Hardcover) by Russell T. Warne
Great. Covers a lot of the same territory as stuart ritchie's also excellent 'intelligence: all that matters,' but it's more comprehensive & dives more deeply into the areas ritchie understandably didn't. you know what i'm talking about.

as a comprehensive, back to front read, it's not the most gripping book. it does get a little dry after awhile.

but as a very useful primer & reference it's state of the art.

i wish i'd had this as a go-to in the past when i'd mixed it up on twitter & various message boards about iq topics.

edit: re-read the section on group differences after using it as a reference while shellacking some blank slate dork on a message board. ]]> Review7538846235 Sat, 03 May 2025 02:58:18 -0700 /review/show/7538846235 mark propp gave 1 star to Radicalized: A Novella (Radicalized, #3) by Cory Doctorow
I may try to flesh out my thoughts a little more later.
But for now I'm just going to say that this was one of the ugliest, smarmiest, most revolting things i've ever read.

i will cede that it's good writing. it moves. i'm not the fastest reader, but i got through this in an hour or so. the guy can tell a story. good for him.

he's an ugly, rotten, stupid person though. he's a lousy person with a rotten heart. ]]> Review7538842839 Sat, 03 May 2025 02:55:25 -0700 /review/show/7538842839 mark propp gave 3 stars to Freaks; Or Spurs (Paperback) by Tod Robbins
fine little story. bears no resemblance to the movie from what i remember.

everyone in this story is pretty bad.

the opening is a little rambling & not that engaging, but the ending is mean & a good time. the least horrible person came out on top. ]]> Review7526380220 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 12:23:54 -0700 /review/show/7526380220 mark propp gave 2 stars to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Audiobook) by Mark Twain
i'm a simple person.
i go by beavis & butthead rules. either i'm having fun with something & i think it rules or i'm bored & i think it sucks.
i was bored by this book. i can't believe i made it to the end.
i did enjoy the first third or so. but once those con artists came into the picture, numbing boredom took over. ]]> Review7494026590 Wed, 16 Apr 2025 13:02:28 -0700 /review/show/7494026590 mark propp gave 3 stars to The Adventure of the Abbey Grange (Paperback) by Arthur Conan Doyle
average i'd say. good conclusion, but it took a few leaps that i couldn't quite follow & i found it to be a bit overlong. not awful by any means, but flawed & a bit in the middle of the pack. ]]> Review7493854343 Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:47:19 -0700 /review/show/7493854343 mark propp gave 4 stars to Nuclear 2.0: Why A Green Future Needs Nuclear Power (Kindle Edition) by Mark Lynas
solid book. meant for people who are coming into the topic without a lot of background knowledge. if you have some annoying anti-nuclear brat in your life, this might be a good gift.

i'm far from deeply knowledgeable myself, but i've done enough listening & reading to know almost everything that was laid out here, but it never hurts to have a little refresher.

& kudos on keeping it short. this is the exact length something like this should be. most books are far too long. keep it short! ]]> Review7493847460 Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:44:14 -0700 /review/show/7493847460 mark propp gave 3 stars to The Man Who Fell to Earth (Paperback) by Walter Tevis
finished this a week or so back & forgot to log it.

a little underwhelmed by it, tbh. a real disappointment in that i really enjoyed mockingbird, found that completely engaging & fun & a sprite read, while this was really something of a slog. it's shorter than mockingbird, i'm pretty sure, but it took me much longer to get through. ]]> Review7466438787 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 03:22:01 -0700 /review/show/7466438787 mark propp gave 5 stars to The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them with Truth (Kindle Edition) by Alan M. Dershowitz
perfect. didn't tell me anything i didn't know or recognize already, but it's valuable to have it stated in print.

& it's the perfect length. great that they didn't make this into a 200 page dirge. state the facts. it's as long as it needed to be. ]]> Review7459667935 Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:30:13 -0700 /review/show/7459667935 mark propp gave 4 stars to The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance (Kindle Edition) by Ben Sasse
sigh.
in my dream world, mitch daniels has just finished two terms as president & we've started the first sasse term.
this is a real, serious book. it's not some throwaway vanity project by a politician.
it's not coming apart or bowling alone. but it synthesizes those ideas & presents them in a way that normal people like me can get. ]]> Review7459674907 Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:29:44 -0700 /review/show/7459674907 mark propp gave 3 stars to Breakfast of Champions (Paperback) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
first time i've read a vonnegut book in quite a while, i'm pretty sure.

maybe i re-read slaughterhouse 5 a year or so back. i honestly can't remember.

it's what i expected, for better & worse. there is a lot of reflexive anti-american & anti-capitalist balderdash in here.

& he really did get far too cutesy & clever with repeated phrases & little asides.

& the ending kinda underwhelmed me.

it was still a fun read. mostly.

but i went into it thinking 'maybe this will awaken a vonnegut renaissance in me, & i'll go on a mad binge.'

& by the end i was thinking 'yeah, i can probably go the rest of my life without ever reading one of his books again. ]]>