Mostly heart warming collection of comics set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic matriarchal society. Most of the characters have a bit of a story arc, but this book is mostly about atmosphere & humor. Grandma, Emiko, & Naomi, being an elder & two children are the most obvious commentary vehicle & they're kind of my favorites, but there weren't any characters I didn't like. As LeGuin said, all science fiction is about the time & place it was written, & Woman World is pretty good at that. Makes me want to read Cyclopedia Exotica. 

Graphical biography of Hannah Arendt detailing her life & all of the figures & personalities she crossed paths with. The art is of the “comics page” school of comixing, similar to Joe Frank Ascent & Dragman. Despite an outwardly crude style, there are still a lot of fun little details around & in the background on every page (e.g. the neutral PORTUGAL markings on the ship Arendt & Blucher took from Lisbon to New York in 1940). Although this book is named for her various “escapes”, it also depicts her as having never escaped the influence of her former teacher Heidegger, who became a philosophical crank & what's more a literal Nazi after she left his tutelage. Makes me want to read her essay about Eichmann & the “Banality of Evil”, since I'd thought she was somewhat duped by him, but this book indicates that might not have been the case. It also makes me want to read the unlucky Walter Benjamin's Arcades writings. 

Humorous & philosophical proto-feminist(?) time-traveling cyborg story from 1923. Even having first read the introduction, which really gave everything away, this story still kept me guessing to the very end. Even so, I advise saving the introduction & forward until after you've read the book. Has many quotable quotes and humorous observations about 1920s British society, so it's kind of a cross between PG Wodehouse & Star Trek (TNG). In a way, the anachronistic comparison I just made illustrates how the Clockwork Man can be used (reverse-engineered?) as a metaphor for how a century of mass media & retro/nostalgia-based marketing has rewired our brains to bring us closer to the clockwork man's multiform world, which he inhabits at all times all at once. 

It's the third sequel to John Dies at the End, and the gang are all feeling their age. In some ways, this 4th book in the series is the most coherent, is generally the least off the wall, & has the most “final” ending, although in some ways it kind of reads like a superhero origin story. Having Joy become something of a full member of the “team” is, to me, the biggest suggestion that there may be more John, Dave, & Amy (& Joy) books on the way. Lacks the rapid & seemingly random changes of direction of the previous 3 books, which makes the beginning antagonist's trajectory a little bit (but not totally) predictable. Probably the most mature version of Pargin I've seen. 

LeGuin's novel about dreams, utopia, & Portland. Perhaps the most Portland book by her that I've read. Likens projects remaking the world to controlling a person's dreams. Not sure if the 70s-style depiction of what a 7 billion population world would look like is another example of the 70s sci-fi overpopulation hobbyhorse, or is meant to lampoon it. Either way, Lathe of Heaven seems to deal with the population issue in a much more mature way than the likes of Harry Harrison or Larry Niven. I liked the depictions of the different versions of Portland, even though they date from well before the Portland that I came to know existed. Perhaps the Portland of today or the one that I knew in the early 2000s are from Orr's dreams. 

Crazier, even more philosophical sequel to Jurassic Park. Kind of reminded me of how Larry Niven wrote the second Ringworld book to correct the errors in the physics implied in the first book. Improbably brings Ian Malcom back from his fate in Jurassic Park. Once again the mischievous children save the day, while the adults are acting like children. The Levine character was the most insufferable; I hoped he would be eaten. There were lots of excellent & gory dinosaur eatings. Some of the discussion of the Anthropocene extinction was kind of ahead of its time. I read this book many years ago (without having read Jurassic Park), but all I remembered about it from then was the explanation of what prions are, & the speculation about the Velociraptors missing the Velociraptor “culture” that allowed them to thrive back in the Cretaceous. I don't understand why they went through the trouble of bringing powerful poison darts with them for protetion on the dinosaur island, while not even bothering to pack so much as a 9mm handgun (which is after all, good enough for the cosmonauts worried about bears, wolves and tigers of Siberia eating them when they come back from orbit). I was appalled by the characters' shoddy communication arrangements. Who arranges for a helicopter pick-up without having a means of radioing the helicopter? And Levine really should have at least sent Malcom or Thorne a postcard or voicemail giving some indication of where he was going & what he was doing. Was this just an illustration of pre-cell phone society's cavalier “we'll meet if we meet” attitude towards staying in touch with friends & potential traveling companions? 

Kim Stanley Robinson's book about the Sierra Nevada. While it covers the Sierras' history, geology, & geography, I think this book is first and foremost a memoir of one who loves the Sierra Nevada mountains. Perhaps the “a love story” subtitle should have tipped me off. The book is divided into chapters, which are categorized (e.g. “My Sierra Life”, “Sierra People”, “Routes”, etc). Makes the case that the Sierra Nevada are the best mountains in the world for hiking & backpacking, with the “Swiss Alps” chapters providing a sort of comparison mountain range. The “Names” chapters are mostly essays arguing for changing various Sierra Nevada place names. Various chapters are in kind of a stream of consciousness style. The “Snow Camping” & “Routes” are packed with advice to be taken with a hefty grain of salt. As a whole, I'd say my favorite chapters are the “Sierra People” ones, kind of like how I thought the best parts of Antarctica were the parts about the early Antarctic explorers. 

The Kim Stanley Robinson who wrote this book is not the author I'd expect to have written the Kim Stanley Robinson books that I've read. While I see the echos of Stan of the High Sierra in his best of short story collection & in Antarctica (& even a little bit in Aurora), the writer I would expect to emerge from this biography would be a lot more like Ursula K. LeGuin. This makes me want to read Robinson's Shaman, & also some Gary Snyder poetry, as well as the books listed in the Annotated Sierra Bibliography. 

 I've always known Kim Stanley Robinson lives in Davis CA, but before reading this memoir, I never realized how much of a Davis Guy he is. 

I picked this book up to see if my Dad & Mom would like it, since like Robinson, they love the Sierras & are avid hikers. A lot of Robinson's personal stories remind me of other hikers his age I know (including my P&M). After reading, I'm still not sure if they would love it, hate it, or love to hate it. I do want to see if Robinson's backpacking/snow camping tips would amuse or horrify my parents. I like how his description of snowshoeing in the backcountry makes a tremendous case for backcountry skiing, but he still never bothers to learn how to ski down a hill. 

Second Book of Dust novel, but the first full book length sequel to the His Dark Materials books. Has a lot of good stuff & interesting ideas, & I mostly like where the plot goes, but I felt some important aspects needed to be shown more than told to us the readers. Maybe I'm embedded too much in rationality, but I didn't really feel the connections between rationalism & Lyra's personality changes (since the last book) & her personality conflicts with Pan. I feel that to make those conflicts more believable, Pullman should have shown her being more unlikable &/or insufferable, perhaps even a “knowledge-brain” pedant. I was also put off by the story setting up Malcolm & Lyra as some sort of Item-in-waiting. In addition to being kind of creepy, the love interest between Lyra & Malcolm also felt forced & unnecessary. That said, The Secret Commonwealth is still pretty good. The Lyra/Pan imagination/rationalism conflict, while not explained or shown adequately, is at least easy enough to go along with, & the Mal-Lyra love connection is mostly only hinted at & doesn't take up too much space. The Secret Commonwealth is the most topical & of its time of all the Pullman books I've read (making Iron Council incredibly prescient), with a kind of mirror-world equivalent of the War on Terror driven refugee crisis in Europe. Looking forward to reading the third book in the series, but I do hope Pullman gives himself enough time (& editing) to get the last one right. 

Fourth book of the Ravicka series which follows two different investigators of the mysteries of Ravicka's shifting architectures & geographies. Explores rather than explains the mysteries of Ravicka. I notice that all of the characters that the books follow have a sort of solitude. Although they all have many friends & social connections in the community who they interact with, none of them really work alongside anyone else, & no one seems to live with anyone else, whether a spouse or a roommate. Although most of the characters are artists of all kinds, there's no one who really has to collaborate, such as a musician in a band or orchestra, or a player in a theater company. Is that the experience of all us artists & dilettantes of this atomized time? I find that I often gravitate towards solo pursuits, even though I'm more productive & have more fun working in a group. I really hope Gladman finishes the Ravicka novel about grasses that she mentioned in the afterward. I hope to return to Ravicka sometime, & a new novel would be just the occasion to re-read all of the books.