Sylvia Chi

I'm probably going to disagree with this review, but it is a [thought-]provoking review: http://www.themillions.com/2013/06/modern-life-is-rubbish-tao-lins-taipei.html

And this one: http://harpers.org/archive/2013/09/numerical-madness/

I think I might have spent more time reading reviews/criticism on this book and Tao Lin than the book itself.

These essays are a little too loosey-goosey for me; they read more like ambitious LiveJournal entries or showboating exercises with a vocabulary list than essays. I learned far more new words from this book than any other book I've read in a long time (or ever), including: “entelechy,” “anfractuous,” “goldbrick,” “cicatrized,” and “scilicet.”

I think I would've given this book 4 stars until I got to the last (long) essay, on a Richard Hugo poem, which I just found to be the most indulgent and navel-gazey - not to mention tiresome - kind of literary criticism.

This book treats you like you are a third grader. A third grader who believes a Newsweek editor's psychological analysis of FDR and who is easily amused by footnotes comparing presidents with strong mothers.

The majority of this book is not about the Hundred Days. It's mostly about FDR's personality and how that influenced his rise to power. Also, Alter seems to think that FDR deserves a lot of credit for not assuming dictatorial powers, but instead “legally” expanding executive power by working with Congress. Personally, I think that is just goofy on a number of levels.

That said, it's an easy read and a good refresher on New Deal history, with lots of obvious and fascinating parallels to current events. And there are some nice pictures in the middle.

I adore the premise (I gave a presentation on the zodiac heads in an art law seminar during 3L!), but I found the characters flat and difficult to relate to. The writing style was very much not for me; descriptions were repetitive and felt like impressionistic but meaningless sketches. There was a lot of underspecified yearning and handwaving towards memories. Personally, as an American born member of the Chinese and Taiwanese diasporas, I don't think the story of how it feels to be Chinese American or how we might feel about mainland China and Chinese culture was well or sufficiently told. I don't think the importance of repatriating cultural patrimony was well explained either. But it was still a fun story, and I have high hopes for the Netflix adaptation!

I have kind of conflicted feelings about this book. On one hand, it's super didactic, full of sweeping over-generalizations (especially re: Han Chinese vs. grassland Mongols), and depressing. On the other hand, it's about wolves and promotes ecological consciousness. I am a sucker for narratives about wolves. Plus, the Chinese environment is kind of a pet topic of interest for me. Otherwise I probably would have abandoned reading this book.

McAlevey definitely has a particular point of view about unions and their role in society, which was very inspiring interesting to read about at length. I really appreciated the chapter on the UTLA teachers' strikes in LA in 2018 and the nurses unionizing drive in Philadelphia — good level of detail on organizing tactics and strategy. I think McAlevey's arguments about how critical unions are to democracy were underdeveloped, though. I also think her take on union avoidance in the tech industry is slightly off base.

And fact check: the Marriott in Oakland is on the 1200 block of Broadway, not 2200.

We picked this up at the Goodwill for 50 cents.

This book does NOT actually help you determine how smart your dog is. However, it is replete with interesting facts about dogs, their anatomy and behavior.

The science activities alluded to in the title are varied - some of them are basically “guess what breed your dog is!?” while others are well-designed simple science experiments or instructions for training your dog. For example, I am currently training my dog to track scents like a bloodhound! Also, Dr. Coile suggests making noseprints using food coloring, essentially treating your dog's nose like a stamp. I cannot imagine what kind of dog would allow you to successfully execute this experiment.

Don't let the fact that it's written for children dissuade you. This is a great book!

Very clearly written, good for the layperson.

The first section, presenting the information processing framework to the brain, is a great introduction to the idea. The middle section, applying that framework to language-learning, dragged a bit. I would have preferred more depth in the last section on neural grammars, especially regarding ECG (Embodied Construction Grammar).

An entertaining and fast read which would make a good movie. The characters' social relations are well observed. The writing is funny without hitting you over the head about it.

My favorite phrase in the book is this, from page 266: “...he went into the bathroom, noticing with a certain pain the historic douche bag which had changed their lives.”

Overall, a good read and informative, although a little repetitive and even a bit dated by now. My only quibble is, and maybe (likely) I'm biased, but I think Shirk kind of gave short shrift to the pro-independence argument for Taiwan. Granted that this book is about contemporary politics, not history, but in backgrounding the Taiwan issue, she didn't even mention the civil war, which certainly made me question her credibility.

Otherwise, a good view on contemporary Chinese internal politics and how they affect the U.S. and international relations.