Ivy Reisner > Recent Status Updates

Until I figure out how to tag this as containing spoilers, I'm keeping this vague enough to be spoiler-free.

I like how some of the less developed characters in the first book are coming more into themselves in the second. It's not that they were badly written, but they were more tangential to the story before, and not they are approaching center stage. I also like the continued world building here.

This book picks up right on the heels of the first, and is every bit as strong. I really like the blend of science fiction and fantasy elements. There is in this world a device, that acts every bit like a ship's engine, but that also powers magic. The world building here is extraordinary.

It's a weird world to follow, but it's interesting.

I've hit a few that are good, but not great, but overall, I'm still liking this one. The second Alice is Wonderland story, for example, was more poignant, but not nearly so much fun as the first. Overall, a strong collection so far.

This teaches the Italic hand, and it does a good job of it. It works with wide ruled notebook paper, and a 1.5mm Pilot Parallel. With that, it gives poor guidance on picking paper, and feathering totally ruins the affect of calligraphy, so that will take some trial and error.

I would have liked a guide sheet, with all the letters on one page for ease of review.

I can't figure out the source of the knot of toads story.

So this is a collection of short stories, which I really should have known going into it. So far it seems all of them allide in some way against the work from the common body of shared literary experience. The second story brings in a hall of mirrors form of Peter Pan.

This may yet be the best book I've read in 2017, and I've found many books to love in 2017.

I've barely started this book and the little boy is tugging at my heart. Yolen is a master.

There are two kinds of mnemonics: individual universal kind. Remember the Kanji has a story for to like which is a woman is fond of her child (the kanji is a woman next to her child). Universal. Anyone would remember that association. Okosu means to wake up, and I remember it as "Of course I'll wake up my brother". Individual. I'm not sure that will work for everyone. This book has mostly the individual type.

This isn't a slow read, I just don't have much time to read. I want to import that Icelandic tradition of snuggling up with a book on Christmas Eve and reading into the night. It does't have to be that day. It can be maybe 12/26, or 12th night or... I long for some quality book time.

The story is still going strong, A little too Batman to be YA; a little too YA to be Batman, which makes it a perfect blend.

To be fair, this isn't a Batman novel. It's a Bruce Wayne novel, set in the immediate aftermath of his 18th birthday, before he donned the cowl. It may pick up, but at this point I'd call it a superhero cozy. Now, I don't know if there is a such genre as superhero cozy. If there is, I want to read more of these. If not, if Lu has invented a new genre here, I hope it catches on.

Either way, I'm enjoying this book.

I'm giving up on this one. He expects his readers to be quite familiar with Russian and Soviet history, but doesn't bother to lay the groundwork. Much of what he thinks everyone knows happened when I was about 10 years old. I wasn't following foreign politics that closely in elementary school. Maybe if I find a book that covers the background material more thoroughly, I'll go back and give this one another try.

He's really all over the place here. First it's implanted AI, then it's mind control, now he's on a tirade about copyright. Apparently, he's upset that Amazon sells books, or rather that Amazon sells self-published books, because -- and forgive the circular logic in play here -- that kind of monopolistic behavior diffuses the sales of books so professional authors published by the big 6 lose sales to amateurs.

So now that he's left the shaky ground of technology he does not understand and is on the firmer footing of journalism, a field he knows, the book improves.

He claims people like me hate art, philosophy, and writing. I don't think he actually knows any of us.

This is pretty slow going. The author was fired from a journalist position, supposedly for being unable to adapt to changes in technology, and this is basically a tirade against those changes and the companies he feels are responsible for them.

His arguments are ludicrous. At one point he complains about GPS and accuses Google of breaking a law prohibiting computers from reading books meant for humans.

This book is getting to me. I spent too much time today acting as a go-between and realized I'm a living Proxy pattern.

Decent, but somehow not grabbing me. I'm not sure why.

This might not be one of "The Big Two" guides to design patterns, but it's probably a better introduction than either of them. I was worried because it has a Java focus and I work primarily in Perl and C#, but it keeps things general enough (and stays well enough out of the "church of Java") to make that a non-issue.