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piiskoor

Another fine mess

Reader fan critic teacher reader fan.

Currently reading

McGlue
Ottessa Moshfegh
Knife Fight and Other Struggles
David Nickle
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
Andrew Solomon
The Good Lord Bird
James McBride
Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie
Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More (New Edition)
Derek Bok
Dissident Gardens
Jonathan Lethem
Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s
Kim Newman
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
James Gleick
Complete Novels
Dashiell Hammett, Steven Marcus
13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time - Michael Brooks Clean, engaging prose--no small feat with some of the ideas raised. And I love the conceit: examining a few conundrums which expose the way we're still trying to frame certain problems (in cosmology, biology, etc.). But I'm with Buck in finding the first half more engaging than the second.

I came to this after I was pointed toward a discussion of the Wow! message (received or noted by SETI a couple decades ago). I found myself in that chapter wishing for much more on this particular problem, and I bet many people find their own preferred mystery -- it's a credit to Brooks that I wanted more expansive and deep-digging studies, 'cause I was finding his writing so effective at integrating research and anecdote and explanation. The end result can be like a series of snacks, rather than a meal. Still--I like snacks.