Matthew K > Recent Status Updates

A solid collection of his magazine articles, written in the 80s. Some are fairly technical, examining the various evolutionary traits of obscure animals that allowed them to flourish in a given environment; some are longer, more human-centric narratives waxing philosophical about the way our species interacts with nature.

Not his best work, but worth reading if you’re a Quammen fan and want to see how he started.

I’ve been a long-time fan of the Mitch Rapp series as a holdover, beach-read indulgence from my youth. A few years ago I read the first book written by Kyle Mills, didn’t love it, and wrote off the series for years.

Recently, I figured I’d give it a try again, and am pleasantly surprised. It’s still spy-thriller pap, but the pacing, characters, and plot are all well executed. Still a great beach read.

Meh. A good enough read, but even at 120-something pages seems a bit too long. A pamphlet would have sufficed. It was also difficult to keep reading about how Buddhism is being able to truly “see”….one the one hand, I get it, on the other hand, I didn’t appreciate the repetitive use of “you must see” over & over & over. Felt like a puzzle I was supposed to solve, not an easy-to-grasp explainer.