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This book describes today so accurately that I wonder if too few people read it or if we're doomed to make the same stupid mistakes forever.

This book is convincing me that our job as human beings is to convince others to be more aware and more compassionate than they want to be. There is too much at stake.

This is haunting. Are all of our developments for naught? Of course! So our response to that realization should be to focus on doing things that build better lives, not better objects.

Just when I started to hate Pecola's parents, to vilify them for how they treat their daughter, I read about their history and it all makes sense. How poorly we treat one another and how unwilling we are to see past a moment.

This is exquisite, devastating prose about how much we fail our children when we rely on our own shortcomings.

So blunt but so true, this first essay reminds that the body count represents real, complex human beings.

The way these children talk and speak isn't quite right, but Danforth captures what it feels like to fall in love so vividly, so purely, that I never want to leave Montana.

There is always hope, as long as we keep exposing corruption in all its instances. Support those who fight for justice and progress will be made.

We hear so often of creative people's and entrepreneurs' success; Goodwin provides a closure glimpse of their toil.

The relationship with their wives affected Taft's and Roosevelt's decisions to a significant degree. The descriptions of all four's passions and desires makes me think maybe they were mismatched...but only for a moment. Opposites help the other draw closer to a middle ground.

These men were human, with passions and quirks that made them more than names in a history book. Taft is the boy who sought always to please, and Roosevelt fell for that classism nonsense. Learning is fun.

Did anyone dislike Teddy Roosevelt? From Goodwin's description of his homecoming, it appears that he was venerated.

This book is incredible. Nobody is their worst moment.

The stories of recording sessions and musicians creating their own new worlds are interesting, but convey little about why 1963 was such an important year. Oral histories are weak texts.

I don't like oral histories. There's no craft to the writing; it's just one person after another. And when most of these people speak in staccato sentences, it leaves me pining for an interesting assembly of words.

Courage is knowing you're licked but fighting on anyway. I love this book.

One of the reasons this book is so good is that while it is about children, it features the writing of an adult. This is clearly someone writing with a retrospective view - but Lee also captures the peculiarities of childhood. Exquisite.

I can't remember how I felt about this book 6 years ago, but I love it now. Exquisite but not overwrought, it captures one element of small-town life so well. Is Miss Caroline a northern teacher expecting for her ways to be adopted by these poor, struggling students?

I haven't read this book in sixteen years, and I know I'll be reading it with an attention I couldn't pay as an incoming high school freshman. It also helps to be dating a southerner; I have a different connection to the region.

Understanding sexuality and physical responses is valuable simply because learning is valuable. Throw in its ability to support people dealing with a variety of issues, and you've got an essential branch of scientific inquiry.

The feeling of discomfort I had in reading this chapter about penile surgery was debilitating. I winced, crossed my legs...and made it through. God bless the scientists in that field of medicine. And damn those who spoke untruthfully of impotence and masturbation.

The feeling of discomfort I had in reading this chapter about penile surgery was debilitating. I winced, crossed my legs...and made it through. God bless the scientists in that field of medicine. And damn those who spoke untruthfully of impotence and masturbation.

"I can't believe the public school system failed him so badly." Well, it was the Catholic school system, and it was bad. I don't understand basic facts, because people were too nervous or scared to tell my classmates and me. End ignorance and fear.

This book is fascinating. I do find myself wincing a lot. It's less to do with the discussion of sex and more to do with the sentences about male stimulation with toothbrushes. Still, this is a fun read.

Science has had to deal with a lot of conservative, fearful people in its existence. Thank you to those who kept working.

Abbey doesn't write romantic scenes very well.

Reading this in the age of Trump, I recognize how poor these people are as humans. But as characters, they are outstanding. They are children with immature views, clinging to a vision of a world that suits only them. And how sexist they are!

Still not sure how I feel about these characters in the context of today's political climate. Are they right to hate Washington? Maybe. Maybe we just need more people from New Mexico working in DC offices.

A younger me, unaware of what such people are capable of politically, might have become enamored with Hayduke, a destructive force with little regard for order. But I know that he's not great. At least, not yet in the book.