blairconrad's Reviews (1.12k)

A fun and quirky (and apparently Asian) take on Little Red Riding Hood. I liked the independence of the three sisters - they have to take care of themselves, rather than relying on a Passing Woodsman.
The illustrations were charming.

A very enjoyable book. Before reading it I was concerned that the “autistic person’s viewpoint” would be so alien that the book would be a real chore to get through. The book was anything but – it was extremely readable and contained pictures. Occassionally the text was mildly funny, and always interesting as we are introduced to the way the protagonist’s mind works.
I was very interested in how some of my thought processes approximated Christopher’s (while others did not – I’m not autistic, not even a high-functioning one). It seems that, like many things, autism largely consists of an extrapolation of so-called “normal” human qualities.
If nothing else, the book is worth reading for the pictures and chapter numbers. I highly recommend it.

An enjoyable tour through Johnson's musing on the way people and environment combine to give rise to good ideas. I liked the structure of the book, with identifiable themes in each chapter. Most of the examples were interesting, and as usual, I liked Johnson's style.

I did feel the book lagged at the end - I would've preferred not to have the last chapter. This chapter was essentially justification for the rest of book. The mechanism was to show examples of inventions and classify them on a grid, and to claim that the trend that showed up supported his thesis than networked non-profit environments are a better (and growing) source of innovation. Given that Johnson picks the innovations and performed the classifications, I'm not sure it's sufficient justification. Better to have let the earlier chapters stand on their own merits - if we weren't already convinced, we wouldn't be likely to become so.

An entertaining listen. I enjoyed the Temperance, even if it took me a few minutes to get used to her not being "Bones from TV". The supporting cast wasn't bad either. I wasn't blown away by the story, but it was okay. Probably on the same level as a Rebus.
I gotta say, though, the reader was phenomenal. She was clear and understandable, pronounced the French well, and did a good job with her different voices for each character - a joy to listen to.

Very nice story-within-a-story. Stillwater is as engaging as ever. I really liked the art in this one - there was lots to look at during Hallowe'en.
Owl pirate. Ha!