Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter If you’ve ever wondered why English doesn’t act like other Germanic languages, this book is for you. It’s more than just “here’s all the stuff we stole from the Norman French” but goes into why we say “do you have the time” instead …
Category: Book Review
Mar 15
Book Review: The Girl in the Ice
The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza This is the first in a long-running series that a dear friend recommended, so I’d hoped it would really capitvate me. It’s a rough start. No cliche left unexplored in this police procedural. What at first seems like a simple murder investigation of the daughter of a …
Mar 12
Book Review: Psalm for the Wild Built
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers This is charming, and easy to read, but frustratingly short. It’s technically sci-fi, but it’s more philosophy than anything, and a good balm for the dystopia we’re so often saturated with. It doesn’t really have a plot though, and the fact that it’s #1 in a series …
Nov 01
Book Review: Last Best Hope
Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer A friend recommended this book to me when it came out in 2023, but I guess it took the tumult of the 2024 election to make me want to understand just what the heck is going on in our country these days. Packer does …
Jul 25
Book Review: Babel
Babel by R.F. Kuang This book has magic in it, but it’s not a fantasy book so much as a historical fiction about the intersection of identity and 19th century British Colonialism. Most of the book takes place at Oxford, and carries the to-me delightful conceit that magic relies on the existence of those ineffable …