Michael > Recent Status Updates

Makes a clear point of the fact and reality of Dutch colonialism in the European settlement of America.

This is a children's book. Nothing wrong with it for adults either, but the reader should adjust expectations.

Going on too long. Redundant.

Contemporary unintentional repeat of the journey of Frederick Law Olmstead through the Southern States. What happened in the ensuing 140 years?

Some few of the essays I found interesting. The rest only marginally so. A couple I didn't even begin reading.

My impression after several chapters was that I didn't fit the demographic of the author's intended audience. I'm a male.

Excellent historian, fine and engaging writer. I'll continue to read her work. Just not this one.

I finish each day with some time reading this book. It's a read I find myself looking forward to with joy.

This is a powerful and delicious story of the way systems work. Like enjoying a feast, I'm torn between devouring it as quickly as I can and intentionally pacing myself to slowly savor every fork full.

So dense with meanings I have to pause along the way to ponder and digest.

The explanations here of the connections between geography and history are clear, explicit and as powerful as they are profound. East-west development over time, for instance, is easier than north-south, because of the similarities of climate in the former. Very informative. We need topographical maps.

The author reviews the work of a group of thinkers who conceptualized world history within a systems perspective.

What we have here is only marginally about Salt, the nominal subject at hand. I picked it up because of the role of salt in the history of expansion into the American west, but so far the details of salt are largely overshadowed by diversions and long background explanatory passages of political history in ancient or exotic cultures. I read it as I commute, on my Kindle.

Whatever I may have thought about
Sean Connery before, my expectations here have been disrupted. This is a surprisingly articulate, actually encyclopedic telling of the story of Scottish culture. By someone who loves his country.

Reading this makes it easier to understand the long history of struggle for independence we're watching play out in the headlines today.

I'm not knowledgeable enough of world history or even geography to keep up with his references and examples. But his explanations of the connections between geography and history are clear, explicit and as powerful as they are profound. East-west development over time, for instance, is easier than north-south, because of the similarities of climate in the former. Very informative. We need topographical maps.