author: Thomas Frank

name: Steev

average rating: 4.00

book published:

rating: 5

read at:

date added: 2019/06/28

shelves: politics, own-it, fun

review:

author: Damon Krukowski

name: Steev

average rating: 3.79

book published:

rating: 5

read at:

date added: 2019/06/09

shelves: art, politics, own-it

review:
This is a really great book. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it and read it ASAP. But YMMV. I'm a sound/noise/music/art guy, so am definitely biased.

Anyway, it's about way more than sound and music. It's about what the internet and the digital world we're in now has done to us and our culture and our society.

The design of the book reminds me of McLuhan's The Medium is the Massage. The title is a nod to John Berger, and the book does a good job of aspiring to, but isn't quite get up to the level of, Berger's perspective-shifting book Ways of Seeing. But almost.

Highly recommended to anyone with similar obsessions to my own.

author: Jacobin

name: Steev

average rating: 3.56

book published:

rating: 3

read at:

date added: 2019/05/10

shelves: own-it, politics

review:
I suppose it's important, but the deep dive into the financial sector is really pretty dry.
I see that somebody has to be understanding and working at that level, but it was a hard slog getting through a lot of this. And for the most part the basic message was continuous throughout, and already well-known: finance capitalism sucks, is totally out of control, and needs to be reined in, and nothing has really been accomplished toward that end even in the wake of the 2008 crisis. I guess it's good to be reminded.

author: Jacobin

name: Steev

average rating: 3.83

book published:

rating: 5

read at: 2019/04/25

date added: 2019/04/25

shelves: children, politics, own-it

review:
As a parent and as a leftist this is so good to read. Depressing in many ways, but good that there's this kind of analysis of kid-related politics.

author: Annalee Newitz

name: Steev

average rating: 3.73

book published: 2017

rating: 4

read at: 2019/04/13

date added: 2019/04/13

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
Mixed feelings about this book. It brings up a lot of super interesting issues and builds a fascinating future world. However, the simplistic and largely unearned character development and dialogue and human interaction, plus all the overt exposition isn't really my cup of tea, to put it generously, or to be more critical, those things make the book feel like a clumsy YA novel. Or maybe that's just how genre SF is and I never really noticed before? Or forgot?

I've been reading Newitz's journalism for about 20 years (or at least it seems that way) and I'm certain she's smart and knowledgeable. But she's got a ways to go before her fiction is something I'd consider literature.