Mary Brodd

I greatly enjoyed the world-building in this novel (luckily there is a sequel out there already!) and the POV of the main character, once part of a larger “hive mind,” so to speak, now struggling to live inside his/her own head while trying to figure out what happened to the rest of him/her. I can't pick a pronoun because one of the features of this book is a language where the default pronoun in use is “she.” So, a) I don't really know what the gender of the main character is and b) I had to work at remembering that not every character in the novel was female and I guess c) I had to consider whether it mattered. This is one of the things I enjoy about science fiction/speculative fiction - having to think about non-human perspectives makes you really consider what your definition of “human” is in the first place. A very interesting read.

I found this book to be lightweight. It's almost as though each chapter was the outline for a larger, more informative chapter that hadn't been written. I can't deny that it's well-written, it is actually quite atmospheric, but I don't really feel as though I know much more than I did before I started.

I went into this not knowing it was a you-know-what novel, because it had been mentioned often on file770.com. Despite it being basically a horror novel I found the gross-out factor to be tolerable, with interesting characters and much to ponder once I had finished, especially the actions of the title character at the end. Very gripping and recommended for fans of dystopias, especially if you can stand a bit of gruesomeness.

Meh. This was a bit of a slog (it almost became “quit before finishing” book). Too much jumping around, and a prose style just unriveting enough to make it easy to put the book down to go do something else. But wow, the Nazis - just when you think you know how utterly beyond any sort of decency they were, they surprise you by going EVEN FURTHER.

(Ehrman is agnostic now, interesting...)

Notes on my reading:

reading the bible devotionally is completely different from reading it from academic historical point of view (“historical-critical”).

Who were the actual authors?
Are some/all all of the authors not who they claim to be, or are claimed to be?
When did they live?
What were the circumstances under which they wrote?
What issues were they trying to address in their own day?
How were they affected by cultural/historical assumption of their time?
What sources did they have access to?
When were those sources produced?
Could the perspectives of the sources differ?
Could authors have had different perspectives from each other, and from their sources?
Are there internal contradictions?

Irreconcilable differences in Gospels - what day did Jesus die on? When was Jesus “begotten” by God?

Resurrection stories conflict.

Gospel of John vs. “Synoptic” Gospels - John was written last, differs the most. Aims of the authors were different. John has Jesus talking about himself, other Gospels he is talking about the Kingdom of God.

8 of 27 books of New Testament people are pretty sure authors are who they are claimed to be. Other 19 books are basically forgeries.

The longer away in time something was written, the likelier it was to be bogus, or to have a purpose that had nothing to do with Jesus.

Christianity is a religion “about” Jesus, not “of” Jesus.

Jesus was a minor Galilean Jewish apocalyptic prophet. Did not, according to earlier sources, claim to be Son of God - attributed to him later, in John. Taught that the end was near, like many other apocalyptic prophets, and that people should be following God's laws as closely as possible to be included in the coming Kingdom.

“Wild Diversity of early church”

Some thought following Jewish law was still necessary, some thought following Jewish law would doom you to damnation, some thought there were different Gods (gnostics), Roman christians won in the end.

Many other gospels/letters/documents that could just as easily have been included in New Testament. Choice of what to include was political - is different in different churches.

I wish I could have been one of the students, as I am definitely a culinary novice. Spurred by reading this, I finally tried the “no-knead” bread technique I've heard so much about, with generally successful results, and the book has inspired me to start watching some of the technique videos produced by America's Test Kitchen. This book definitely got me thinking about the kind of food that I buy for my family to eat. If you don't go into it expecting a “cookbook” I think just about anyone could learn something from this book.

This book is boring. It plods. There are none of the breath-taking “zings” that lurk on every page in previous books. Characters bear no resemblance to their established personas. It's “Snuff” all over again. I did not laugh out loud even once while reading this book. I doubt I'll read any more of Sir Terry's novels; luckily the earlier ones stand up to infinite re-reads. I think his agents/publishers are doing him no favors. This is not a dignified way to end a brilliant writing career.

Went looking for this book as part of my Brexit obsession - I realized I knew nothing about the history of England and Ireland's relationship. Spoiler - as always, history of weirder and more fractal than we've been led to believe in school. One interesting point I hadn't considered regarding Brexit - that's the second time England has yanked itself out of the larger community of Europe. Henry VIII throwing over the Catholic Church was the first. Not having fully understood just how closely the Catholic Church connected the upper/educated classes, I hadn't realized what a wrenching break that would be. (Also, speaking as an American hard-cider fan, I now know never to go to an Irish pub and order Strongbow!)

Other notes - I now know a bit more about the Commonwealth, and why the Irish don't have much time for Oliver Cromwell. The Civil War was actually a bunch of wars smashed together, including wars in Scotland over the status of bishops (!).

If for nothing else, read this book for his discussion of “English” vs “British.” It should resonate if you've been reading about current events.

I greatly enjoyed this examination of the life of Princess Sophie, the German girl from the backwater who was whisked off to Russia to marry her cousin, and who deposed him and ruled for 34 years instead. The placement of the story in the context of wider European history is well done, the descriptions of court life are vivid; overall a good read. The single most amazing thing about this book, for me, was realizing how young Sophie/Catherine was when she began her life of court intrigue, in which she rarely put a foot wrong; I have children that age. A reminder, yet again, that the past is truly a foreign country.

I read some of this online a few years ago, and had a hankering to read it again. Could not, for the life of me, remember title/author! scifi.stackexchange.com to the rescue, some nice person ID'd it there almost before I'd finished typing the details I remembered!

It falls into the “ripping yarn” category. Definitely will look up the sequels over the summer.

This is the quicker version of Taubes' “Good Calories, Bad Calories.” It's hard to say that I “enjoyed” it, given how depressing the subject matter is, but it was certainly very enlightening. We eat food that encourages insulin production, insulin promotes fat storage, and voila, you have a worldwide obesity epidemic. This book, and its predecessor, have completely altered the way I look at what I eat, not to mention how I look at most dietary guidelines from the government and various other health-related organizations.

Didn't change my view that TJ was sort of a jerk. Author's point is that we, at this distance, don't see how scared TJ was, how the threat of British re-conquest seemed so real. Jefferson would do anything to prevent what he saw as leading to that. Author more or less referred to TJ as passive-aggressive. Virginian way not to have conflicts, just sort of slide around them instead. Write something nasty but don't put your name to it. Have other people do the dirty work.