Category: Goodreads Reviews

author: Alison Bechdel
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2013/08/01
date added: 2014/01/09
shelves: autobiography, graphic-novel, non-fiction
review:
Read this for a writing course I took at work (The Evergreen State College) over the summer. Glad I got a chance to enjoy it. Great artistic technique, notably the contrast between the “cartoonish” style of the main narrative and the occasional bit of realism included as illustrations, usually drawings of photograph. Fantastic narrative styling, moving backwards & forwards in time, examining the author’s relationship with her father, and her father’s identity, from many different angles.

(Plus I had the opportunity to try turning some of an essay I’d written for the class into a page of graphic novel. Note: I can’t draw AT ALL. But it was still a great way to think about narrative, emphasis, etc.)

author: Alison Bechdel
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2013/08/01
date added: 2014/01/09
shelves: autobiography, graphic-novel, non-fiction
review:
Read this for a writing course I took at work (The Evergreen State College) over the summer. Glad I got a chance to enjoy it. Great artistic technique, notably the contrast between the “cartoonish” style of the main narrative and the occasional bit of realism included as illustrations, usually drawings of photograph. Fantastic narrative styling, moving backwards & forwards in time, examining the author’s relationship with her father, and her father’s identity, from many different angles.

(Plus I had the opportunity to try turning some of an essay I’d written for the class into a page of graphic novel. Note: I can’t draw AT ALL. But it was still a great way to think about narrative, emphasis, etc.)

author: Alison Bechdel
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2013/08/01
date added: 2014/01/09
shelves: autobiography, graphic-novel, non-fiction
review:
Read this for a writing course I took at work (The Evergreen State College) over the summer. Glad I got a chance to enjoy it. Great artistic technique, notably the contrast between the “cartoonish” style of the main narrative and the occasional bit of realism included as illustrations, usually drawings of photograph. Fantastic narrative styling, moving backwards & forwards in time, examining the author’s relationship with her father, and her father’s identity, from many different angles.

(Plus I had the opportunity to try turning some of an essay I’d written for the class into a page of graphic novel. Note: I can’t draw AT ALL. But it was still a great way to think about narrative, emphasis, etc.)

author: Sandi Doughton
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/06
date added: 2014/01/08
shelves: ebook, history, local, non-fiction, science
review:
Solid overview of a really fascinating topic. I learned quite a bit about the evolution of thinking about northwest quakes (and to some extent, earthquakes in general). Somewhat Seattle-centric, as might be expected with a Seattle-based author, plus I think a lot of the actual science is centered in Seattle. If you live anywhere in the region, particularly in the Puget Sound area, absolutely worth reading.

author: Sandi Doughton
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/06
date added: 2014/01/08
shelves: ebook, history, local, non-fiction, science
review:
Solid overview of a really fascinating topic. I learned quite a bit about the evolution of thinking about northwest quakes (and to some extent, earthquakes in general). Somewhat Seattle-centric, as might be expected with a Seattle-based author, plus I think a lot of the actual science is centered in Seattle. If you live anywhere in the region, particularly in the Puget Sound area, absolutely worth reading.

author: Melissa Morgan-Oakes
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/01
date added: 2016/03/17
shelves: crafty, knitting, non-fiction, wishlist, read-again
review:
My group used (mostly) the techniques in this book for a sock knit-along project. Didn’t actually knit any of the patterns in the book, although some looked intriguing.

author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2013/11/11
date added: 2015/02/11
shelves: history, non-fiction, ebook
review:
A tremendous book, covering a vast scope and intimate detail at the same time. I’d been meaning to read this for a while, but then in a Metafilter thread about American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America someone mentioned this book again and it happened to be available in ebook from the library. I’m so glad I finally read it! The sense of horror, the enormity of the migration, and the degree to which this movement shaped the 20th century: I hardly contemplated it. The author moves back and forth almost effortlessly between statistics, contemporary accounts, anecdotes, and the overarching stories of her three protagonists. (It reminds me a bit of Michener James A, who I read a lot of in high school/college.) So good, I teared up a bit at the end as Robert (migrated from Louisiana to Los Angeles) and George (Florida to NYC) got sick and passed away.

author: Tim Wu
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/06
date added: 2013/09/30
shelves: economics, history, politics, non-fiction, favorites, technology
review:
As with Nothing to Envy, I should have written this review right after reading the book. It was fantastic, and I’d like to read it again. Great history of the “Information Empires” of the 20th and early 21st century, the continuing tension between openness and control. The history of television seemed particularly instructive: there was no early era of openness; instead Sarnoff (RCA/NBC) manipulated everything he could to make sure that it came out under the exact same control as radio at the time. Found myself kinda wishing for some discussion of Facebook in the closing chapters, in which there was a lot of focus on Apple & Google. It seemed to me that Facebook (or its moral equivalents) are the elephant in the room in that discussion. Very highly recommended.

author: Tim Wu
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/06
date added: 2013/09/30
shelves: economics, history, politics, non-fiction, favorites, technology
review:
As with Nothing to Envy, I should have written this review right after reading the book. It was fantastic, and I’d like to read it again. Great history of the “Information Empires” of the 20th and early 21st century, the continuing tension between openness and control. The history of television seemed particularly instructive: there was no early era of openness; instead Sarnoff (RCA/NBC) manipulated everything he could to make sure that it came out under the exact same control as radio at the time. Found myself kinda wishing for some discussion of Facebook in the closing chapters, in which there was a lot of focus on Apple & Google. It seemed to me that Facebook (or its moral equivalents) are the elephant in the room in that discussion. Very highly recommended.

author: Tim Wu
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/06
date added: 2013/09/30
shelves: economics, history, politics, non-fiction, favorites, technology
review:
As with Nothing to Envy, I should have written this review right after reading the book. It was fantastic, and I’d like to read it again. Great history of the “Information Empires” of the 20th and early 21st century, the continuing tension between openness and control. The history of television seemed particularly instructive: there was no early era of openness; instead Sarnoff (RCA/NBC) manipulated everything he could to make sure that it came out under the exact same control as radio at the time. Found myself kinda wishing for some discussion of Facebook in the closing chapters, in which there was a lot of focus on Apple & Google. It seemed to me that Facebook (or its moral equivalents) are the elephant in the room in that discussion. Very highly recommended.