Themed Recommendation List: Cultural Memory

One of my favorite by-products of Themed Readings, is when a series of books align on an idea I’d never even considered before, creating a through-line that is resonant and significant, but had since gone unnoticed. My best example of this was when I started considering the implications of ‘cultural memory.’ I hadn’t thought about

Themed Recommendation List: 60’s California Drug Culture

As any good nerd, I find unmatched joy in making rich connections between the many media I may be consuming at any time. My usual routine is to be reading a fiction book, listening to a nonfiction book, watching a television show throughout the week, and spending time catching up on movies over the weekend.

Quidditch And The Snitch Problem: This Sport Makes No Sense [Harry Potter]

All Harry Potter fans love quidditch. And that love causes us to look the other way at some of the more obvious absurdities of the sport. Because quidditch is delightful! A pure joy for all readers and the fictional characters who play it. Picking a fight against this beloved sport would be unnecessary. A person

My Top 50 Favorite Nonfiction Books (Ranked)

Collecting my top 50 favorite nonfiction books took a long time. I only add books to the list when I give them a 5-star rating. And I had to read a lot of nonfiction before I found 50 that felt worthy of a 5-star ranking.  I thought a lot about why this might be. One

My List Of Most Read Authors By Book Count

True confessions: I am a book hoarder. I do not rent books or buy e-books, I buy my books and they all sit behind my desk on carefully curated shelves, organized in a way that makes sense to me. And when I am lacking inspiration or need a moment’s breather from whatever work is occupying

Ishiguro’s Unreliable Narrators [Klara And The Sun]

A lot has already been said about Ishiguro and his new book, Klara and the Sun– the consistency of his tone and theme, the simplicity of his prose, his foray into many literary genres, and his return to science fiction, the role of inconsistent or conflicted narrators in complicating his stories. And this last point appears

Collective Memory: [The Giver] And Literature For Our Youth

Weird life announcement: I just read The Giver for the first time. It was as delightful as I expected for a book that is so widely read and regarded (except for the number one review on GoodReads and the psychopath who wrote it).  My initial take is that this is what more Young Adult literature should be-

Admiral William McRaven [Sea Stories: My Life In Special Operations; 10 Life Lessons]

I have an obsession with Admiral William McRaven. Everything he does seems more impressive than his fellow man, everything he speaks seems curated and weighty in his deep baritone, and everything he writes is worth reading and re-reading and then discussing with friends. This post, therefore, recommends a person, and all the works he is

The Dance [Pride and Prejudice]

Jane Austen was a trail blazer for plenty of reasons, but I am imagining one of most mainstream ideas that she captured first and arguably best was keeping two characters, destined to be together, maddeningly far away and desperately close, and then yanking and pushing those characters closer and further away.  This is the premise

Book List For Young Readers: Nurturing Literacy In Our Youth

I had a tentative relationship with reading as a middle school and high school boy. I loved it. It was my favorite hobby, a task where I did not need to be physically active or socially adept- admittedly not a great reason to recede into a book, but a common one nonetheless. But loving an