Classics Considered

  A snazzy red jacket, an evocative title, and glowing 5-star reviews.  (Let's not forget the cover blurbs by the CEOs of Microsoft and O'Reilly Media, amongst other prominent tech figures.)  I have to say, when I eagerly began reading AI Superpowers , I was a little nervous - would this book live up to its hype?

" US cover of Go Set a Watchman " by Source ( WP:NFCC#4 ). Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia . I finished Go Set a Watchman the other night.  Essentially I sat up in bed and started crying.  At times (some might say all the time), I can be a rather sensitive creature, so an emotional reaction is not unusual for me, but the book actually made me upset, which is fairly unusual. If you like gritty fiction, you might appreciate this sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird .  You might find Scout's visit home to be an interesting study of her childhood, a revisit to the familiar setting of Maycomb from about twenty years later.  Certainly, there is something probably everyone can relate to in her struggle to recognize the family she remembers in the family she has now - and that includes Atticus.  For Scout, however, this conflict encompasses not simply personal differences, the common result of growing up, but it challenges the very thing that has given her courage a...

In the past, I have written these in groups of four, but today I only have two books to review.  They each get 4 out of 5 stars , so perhaps there is still uniformity to this, after all?  To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee It would seem I should have more to say about this book, but what can I say?  You probably know the entire synopsis with or without having read it before.  I enjoyed it, more than I expected.  The writing was more vivid than the plot, painting a complex examination of prejudice and tension that even the (excellent) movie could not evoke.  Atticus and Scout were deep characters.  The ending felt somehow disappointing after the intricate buildup, hence four stars.  But the journey, rather than the end, certainly makes it a worthy classic, so if you have procrastinated as I did, procrastinate no longer. Notes on Life and Letters Joseph Conrad I was reading this book for the longest time, I don't remember when I started it...