luisvilla's reviews
1000 reviews

Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power by Timothy W. Ryback
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.

This was not *bad* but it was not what I wanted - less a theory of why, more a blow-by-blow of what happened. That is probably fine for many readers but not what I was interested in.

The Armored Saint by Myke Cole

2.0

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

challenging medium-paced

A thoroughly banal book.

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times by Adrienne Mayor

Delightful piecing together of evidence from a variety of fields to build a story of how the ancients collected and tried to understand fossil bones. 

The Iliad by Homer
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.

Loved her translation of the Odyssey but found this tedious.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

Powerful.

Eric by Terry Pratchett

2.5

Teenage me would have loved these and I wish I had discovered them then.

Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche by John Higgs

This book would have been a lot better with more effective with more emphasis on British and less on psyche. The pop psychology parts are pretty wretched, and the parts about the interaction of the B+B with British culture and history are often great. (And so much great trivia too.)

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

medium-paced

A delightful book that I could have read a lot more of. Ultimately optimistic for the long run, if pessimistic (for space geeks) in the our-lifetime-run.

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber, David Wengrow

slow-paced

3.0

This book is anarchistic, both in its philosophy (a very interesting perspective on history) and in its complete lack of organization and structure (a dreadful read). I took away some very challenging ideas but can’t recommend it to anyone except very deep seekers.