Poignant, and somehow lovely and fortifying.

I read the entire Three-Body trilogy over the past few weeks. I‘m glad to have read them despite being unsure what I think about them except irritated by the increasingly apparent embedded misogyny. I‘ll have to let the rest digest.

Powerful, human, and immediately relevant. The interplay of text and art made this newcomer to the genre understand what “graphic” really can mean.

Straight-up social science that makes a solid case for changes that will never ever happen in the current political climate.

Tempted by the thumbs down: this book was a disappointing chore to finish. But the premise was interesting, lots of food for thought. I just did not like it as a novel, much as I wanted to.

I was curious to read this because the experiences of my mother's family are reminiscent as far as moving out of the holler for now-disappearing industrial work in the north. I read it in a few hours: the retelling of his childhood is a quick and fairly engaging read. But the political conclusions he draws feel tacked on and vapid, unsupported and unexplored. I'm sure Ohio will elect him for something, though.

Stories all of a type, but a lovely quick read.

Odd what a deep Kindle discount will lead me to read. Very quick, kinda fun despite bugs. Might go back and read the other book with the same protagonist and no insects.

Don't really have a stronger writer recommendation than immediately going out of the house to the library for the paper book when I finished the last one of hers then discovered they didn't have the electronic version of this new one.

Millard has a gift for crafting compelling narrative and characters out of piles of research. What a satisfying read, full of who-knew facts and human connection.

Who knew?

Fascinating read. After being thoroughly charmed and impressed by Millard's presentation of this previously barely known to me president, I had to set the book aside for a week to get through the part where he needlessly dies of medical hubris.

One of the less gruesome but still profoundly sad ways this book made me think. It's important, and you should read it.

Do audiobooks count?
Regardless, I'll admit it: the last stretch, from the account of crossing the Delaware on, gave me Feelings. That's a story well-told.

Posting to document my twentieth book completed for summer 2016 (it's still summer, according to the calendar). A kind of pedestrianly written general, secondary source type deal that was worth the $1.99 of iTunes credit and the new knowledge that Spanish soldiers slaughtered a colony of French Huguenot in Florida in the 1500s. What?

Wasn't kidding.

Part of my deal is that I'm teaching US History this year and deepening my understanding as I go is helping me enjoy it more. And of course the more I know about an era and personalities the easier and more engaging the reading becomes. But mostly these are fascinating times and people and implications, and I have an emphatic gesture for the high school curriculum that's sucked the life from it for 200+ years.

Wasn't kidding.

Part of my deal is that I'm teaching US History this year and deepening my understanding as I go is helping me enjoy it more. And of course the more I know about an era and personalities the easier and more engaging the reading becomes. But mostly these are fascinating times and people and implications, and I have an emphatic gesture for the high school curriculum that's sucked the life from it for 200+ years.

On a colonial/Revolutionary America jag and it's all LMM's fault.

On a colonial/Revolutionary America jag and it's all LMM's fault.

I'm a fan of Ben H. Winters from his The Last Policeman trilogy: he creates engaging characters and puts them in a satisfying, well-paced plot. Underground Airlines is a quick, thriller-type read with an incredibly timely, thought-provoking, too-plausible premise. Recommended.

Won the Pulitzer for a reason. Superior to the Hamilton bio as a read. Did take me approximately forever to read it-- it's long and detailed though engagingly written-- but I'm glad I did.

Plus six more chapters after that: Sex, Teenagers, Chaos, Growth, Postmodernism, Network. Informative, illuminating, delightfully written gloss on the Twentieth Century and its implications for today. Highly, highly recommended.

Did you know that? My biggest takeaway from my Revoltuinary bio summer is my growing cognizance of my own poor colonial education. Also, Benjamin Franklin could be a real dick. Very detailed read that took forever: worthwhile to me for what it added to my understanding.

Scenes from a '90s apple orchard childhood. While I loved the voice of the narrator as she looked through of younger self's eyes, maybe that perspective is what kept the story from seeming fully realized. Almost, not quite. Lovely prose, some vivid characters and scenes. Didn't quite add up for me.

Please let the rest live up to the first ten pages: so utterly charming I want to call you up and read it aloud.

Literary sportswriting from a Sports Illustrated writer was there. Not a huge fan of his style, but Kram's perspective was an interesting counterpoint to the myth.

Quick, engaging introduction to the research of implicit bias. The conclusions are familiar but the explanation of the experimental data (along with the tests at the Project Implicit website) behind them is fascinating. Excellent food for thought.

A mathematical family saga. I picked this one up because I read an interview with the writer and enjoyed all his answers. That was a good strategy, it turns out.

The subtitle is "A Family Tragicomic" and it literally is. Honest and funny and moving and true.

Probably enough post-flu apocalypse books for one summer, but I'm glad I read this one even though I at first thought the sentence fragment steam of consciousness was going to do me in.

Like is not near strong enough a word. Read it start to finish today and will need to read it again just to spend more time thinking it through.

I didn't want to read this book. I'm a high school teacher, and I did not want to read this book. But then I read the first page, and I had to read this book. Started this morning, and I'm about one fourth of the way through.