Posted on August 29, 2009 by Pam Phillips
Yet another in the current series of popular books with one-word titles, Nudge, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein contends that we should apply recent research about human behavior to present choices to people in a way that will nudge them into choosing well. They call this “libertarian paternalism.” Libertarian in that they [...]
Filed under: non-fiction | Tagged: Books of 2008, Cass Sunstein, Richard Thaler | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 4, 2009 by Pam Phillips
I generally look forward to reading stories by Elizabeth Bear, so I was intrigued to find a whole novel by her, All The Windwracked Stars. Plus I heard it was an example of the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot trope. The what?
Filed under: fantasy | Tagged: Books of 2008, Elizabeth Bear | 5 Comments »
Posted on March 7, 2009 by Pam Phillips
Falling for Science: Objects in Mind, edited by Sherry Turkle selects from 25 years of student essays recalling objects that fascinated them as children, complemented with similar (if longer) essays by mentors and practicing scientists. The writers recall things that utterly absorbed them, things that taught them about the world, its structure and function. [...]
Filed under: non-fiction | Tagged: Books of 2008, Sherry Turkle | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 21, 2009 by Pam Phillips
Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, by Fuschia Dunlop. is full of great stories about food, cooking, and China. About half the book is about Sichuan: how she came as a student to Chengdu, fell in love with the food, and enrolled in the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. [...]
Filed under: non-fiction | Tagged: Books of 2008, Chinese food, Fuchsia Dunlop | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 10, 2008 by Pam Phillips
From the beginning, the rich detail of The Alchemy of Stone, by Ekaterina Sedia draws you into a tale of a city once ruled by a duke, now divided between Mechanics and Alchemists, and always, always watched over by gargoyles. Our heroine, Mattie is an intelligent automaton and as her city goes through a wrenching [...]
Filed under: fantasy | Tagged: Books of 2008, books I like, Ekaterina Sedia, 2009 Locus | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 29, 2008 by Pam Phillips
I’ve been having a terrible run of luck with fiction the last week, none of them worth talking about, though I was tempted to take a picture of the stack of books I could barely start that went back to the library. To some degree, I managed to break that streak with some kickass [...]
Filed under: science fiction | Tagged: 150 page rule, Books of 2008, Tobias S. Buckell, Tor | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 18, 2008 by Pam Phillips
Usually I enjoy Iain M. Banks, so I was excited to see him return to the Culture with Matter. I was not so excited to see how thick it was. I was even less excited to plow through palace politics with a lost heir, an evil vizier, a naïve prince, and a superhuman warrior sister [...]
Filed under: science fiction | Tagged: 150 page rule, Books of 2008, Iain M. Banks, Orbit | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 16, 2008 by Pam Phillips
Before the Little Ice Age, there was the Medieval Warm Period. In Western Europe, the centuries around the first millenium were a time of mostly long, warm summers and a steady rise in prosperity. But of course, climate is global, and most of the rest of the world didn’t fare so well. In The [...]
Filed under: non-fiction | Tagged: Books of 2008, Brian Fagan | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 12, 2008 by Pam Phillips
Miriam Beckstein, intrepid high-tech journalist, discovers she is really a lost daughter of a clan that can travel between worlds. And she is not pleased. Before I go on, make sure you’ve read the previous books in Charles Stross’s Merchant Prince series: The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, Clan Corporate, and the latest book Merchants’ [...]
Filed under: science fiction | Tagged: books I like, Books of 2008, Charles Stross, multiple POV, Tor | 2 Comments »