Jan Bedol > Recent Status Updates

Inside look at the shabby Iowa caucus system in 2007 and the behavior of partisan crowds. Romney had a patrician, rational approach to the issues of the day, but his party had become a populist rabble unwilling to consider any idea not endorsed by the Tea Party. He left that race but ran again in 2012, against Barak Obama, the incumbent.

Technically challenging, but leavened by the narratives of accomplished persons (juggler, puppeteer) that elucidate the neurological skills involved---and the evolving science about what is involved in first learning, and then perfecting, "manual" skills. Also, fascinating discussions of the evolution of the hand, and the development of hand-eye coordination from infancy to adulthood.

Loving the historical aspect. Expected a tome on heredity but so far it's an history of concepts of "heredity." Loads of fun.

First few chapters are polemics, which you won't need if you have chosen to read this. At about 20% in, we get to lots of fun facts about making, and made objects....what I was looking for. So far, so good.

Maybe the best war novel since The Things They Carried or Catch-22. Arwood Hobbes is a new Yossarian.

The dialogue is wooden and predictable. Right now I'm bogged down in yet another family argument over which daughter is more beautiful. Not sure I'll stick with it. The historical aspect is intriguing, but so far not developed. I expect I could find a much better fictional treatment.

No author can so reliably have me nodding and grinning within two pages, no matter how bleak my mood. This has been a bleak week, and Ann Tyler is my go-to read for these times.

Still Gopnik, still lovely, but now trending toward multiple instances of noteworthy utterances/actions by young son Luke. Could get tedious if it devolves into a compendium of Luke's utterances and Dad's responses.
To be clear, it is only other people's children who might become tedious third-hand. One's own are endlessly brilliant.

Still Gopnik, still lovely, but now trending toward multiple instances of noteworthy utterances/actions by young son Luke. Could get tedious if it devolves into a compendium of Luke's utterances and Dad's responses.

Still Gopnik, still lovely, but now trending toward multiple instances of noteworthy utterances/actions by young son Luke. Could get tedious if it devolves into a compendium of Luke's utterances and Dad's responses.

Over the moon. Everything I want in nonfiction: history of the context, personal experience, great metaphor, rhythm neither too choppy nor too leisurely. A tour de force of history of European languages and the feelings rampant in learning a new language as an adult. Plus, a real-life love story!

Picaresque; one vignette after another, sometimes seeming aimless. But the relationship between Happy and Wufu is classic literature; others have compared to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, or Lenny and ?? of Mice and Men. I suggest contrast between traditional and modern man. Happy is super-adaptable. He has a good base of skills, intellectual and otherwise, presumably from his rural schooling, which helps him adapt.

Listened to it once and started over immediately---it's that good. Especially compelling after reading Frans De Waal on the biological bases of social behaviors, because it extends that learning to answer de Waal's query about what, if anything, differentiates humans from the other higher vertebrates. The answer may be our capacity (drive?) for shared stories: the myths, fictions, and ideologies that unite us.