en-US Mon, 21 Apr 2025 12:40:46 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9335665800 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 12:40:46 -0700 /review/show/7276223940 Thomson started reading The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism by Daniel C. Matt
]]> ReadStatus9335661959 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 12:39:48 -0700 /review/show/7507133145 Thomson wants to read Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön
]]> ReadStatus9332282918 Sun, 20 Apr 2025 17:06:59 -0700 /review/show/7504763938 Thomson wants to read Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy: A Therapist's Guide to Creating Acceptance and Change by Andrew Christensen
]]> ReadStatus9304204289 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 10:03:45 -0700 /review/show/7485353689 Thomson wants to read Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana by Lyle Saxon
]]> Review3489540840 Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:28:44 -0700 /review/show/3489540840 Thomson gave 4 stars to Blindsight (Firefall, #1) by Peter Watts
bookshelves: scifi, fiction
Impressively smart and original. Watts lives up to the promise of hard sci-fi by producing a compelling speculation on what life and intelligence may look like on the far fringes. The sheer density of sci-tech jargon was a bit much at times, but I can forgive it when there's genuine engagement with ideas from philosophy, linguistics, evolutionary biology, game theory, and more.

My main criticism is the character writing, which too often fell back on the witty-detached-genius trope, but I suppose it's inevitable that continuous up-close depiction of massively augmented human intelligence will get somewhat handwavy. The alien life that our protagonists make contact with, though, felt truly and unsettlingly alien. 5 stars for mind-expanding ideas, 3.5 for execution. ]]> Review4351908758 Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:28:18 -0700 /review/show/4351908758 Thomson gave 2 stars to The Library at Mount Char (Paperback) by Scott Hawkins
bookshelves: fiction, partially-read
DNF about 1/3 of the way through. Had heard this book was an edgy and inventive take on fantasy, which I guess it is, but the plot/worldbuilding was too erratic and the prose too YA-pulp for me to really enjoy. ]]> Review4351908758 Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:24:20 -0700 /review/show/4351908758 Thomson gave 2 stars to The Library at Mount Char (Paperback) by Scott Hawkins
bookshelves: fiction, partially-read
DNF about 1/3 of the way through. Had heard this book was an edgy and inventive take on fantasy, which I guess it is, but the plot/worldbuilding was too erratic and the prose too YA-pulp for me to really enjoy. ]]> ReadStatus9246185283 Sat, 29 Mar 2025 10:17:43 -0700 /review/show/7445026136 Thomson wants to read The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han
]]> ReadStatus9235281732 Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:24:08 -0700 /review/show/7437408979 Thomson wants to read Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
]]> ReadStatus9223400681 Sun, 23 Mar 2025 16:39:52 -0700 /review/show/3489540840 Thomson started reading Blindsight by Peter Watts
]]>