tags

non-fiction

• Dec 28, 2023 Life Lived WildRick Ridgeway's writing has a bit of a rough-hewn, simple style that I don't think will win many awards - and at first, that I didn't think I liked that much. But there is also a deep, earnest sincerity to it that makes his stories just a bit larger-than-life. That, and the fact that they are just completely wild, crazy things he's done, been all around the world and up on all the mountains and through all the forests. He writes and is a bit full of himself, as I suppose one must be to confront the extremities of the world at the risk of death, but his transparency there becomes a bit charming; his transparency makes the tragedies he faces all the more heartbreaking. There is also - I think maybe accidentally, but he presents his life in a bit of a fascinating fragmentation of time, reminiscent of Vonnegut? Recollections mostly in order, with insertions of the future and the past and sudden and unexpected jumps...product I guess of the growth of the book out of a series of instagram posts, but creating a pattern that I do appreciate. An excellent and engaging series of stories that weave together into a very good book.
• Feb 7, 2024 Teaching To TransgressAs a not-teacher who has lived most of his life outside the humanities academy, this book is perhaps not super relevant - but it's good. I enjoyed reading about and thinking about what goes into education and Freeing the Mind, creating environments for thought and discourse conducive to greater understanding and appreciation of lived experiences. On one hand, it is fascinating insight into another profession, like traveling to a country with unfamiliar customs; on the other, teaching is not the only place where it is desirable to create a diverse, interesting environment for examination and proliferation of ideas! bell hooks seems pretty cool!
• Mar 15, 2024 Long Walk To Freedom
• Mar 29, 2024 How Forests ThinkBased on its snappy title, I was expecting this to be a study of a particular form of non-western ecological philosophy - but the first chapter claimed the book would be a provincialization of European thought! Not merely other ideas but new ways of having ideas! An ambitious goal! In the end, it was neither.
• Apr 23, 2024 They Flew
• Jun 29, 2024 The River Of Doubt
• Aug 9, 2024 Medium Raw
• Aug 19, 2024 American Prometheus
• Sep 6, 2024 The Lost City Of ZAn interesting, well-researched, well-put together history of travel in the Amazon that I think unfortunately I read too shortly after reading The River of Doubt which is just kind of ultimately a better story about historical travel in the Amazon.
• Sep 25, 2024 North WoodsThe story of a cabin over the centuries and the story of America and the story of some ghosts, cute and sweet. A bit overwrought and maybe a bit fanciful at times, trying too hard to write with styles, but I can forgive that.