
- May 1, 2021
- 3 min
Book Review: The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu
Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest generally operates on a galactic scale. But it starts with the perspective of an ant. The diminutive point of...
690 views

- Mar 25, 2021
- 3 min
Book Review: A Perfect Spy, by John le Carré
Even without context, John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy—a tale of a British secret agent who betrayed his country because he couldn’t unlearn...
994 views

- Mar 6, 2021
- 1 min
Bonus Content: Images of the Fair
In describing Chicago's first world's fair (also known as the World's Columbian Exposition), I realized that it's easy to hear "fair" and...
49 views

- Feb 9, 2021
- 2 min
Book Review: Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow starts as a Mexican Cinderella story, except that the fairy godmother is a Mayan god of...
76 views

- Jan 5, 2021
- 3 min
Book Review: The Evening and the Morning, by Ken Follett
In The Evening and the Morning, Ken Follett shows that he’s still a master at giving the reader the same thing, but different. The book...
876 views

- Dec 9, 2020
- 3 min
Book Review: The Poppy War, by R. F. Kuang
At first, R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War seems like an edgier version of Harry Potter: an outcast-at-the-academy story with a slightly older...
637 views

- Nov 14, 2020
- 5 min
Book Review: Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove starts with pigs and ends with sorrow. In between lies one of the best books I’ve ever read. The novel is...
1,561 views

- Oct 14, 2020
- 2 min
Book Review: The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin
N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is more intriguing than satisfying. But that’s fine by me, because when I say it’s intriguing, I mean it’s
215 views

- Sep 19, 2020
- 2 min
Book Review: The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars begins as a disaster story and ends as a space race. Both tales are compelling in their own...
165 views

- Aug 11, 2020
- 2 min
Book Review: The Map of Salt and Stars, by Zeyn Joukhadar
Zeyn Joukhadar’s The Map of Salt and Stars sucked me in with a fascinating structure: parallel stories, both anchored in Syria, one set...
94 views