Chronically (been ordering from this store for a few years now) horrible service. Today was the…

Ek told the Financial Times that "AI, mass and autonomy" are "driving the new battlefield."

Tockarczuk is never an easy lift — as to be expected from a Nobel-winner. This was, thankfully, not as heavy duty as The Books of Jacob which, epic in scale, was an endurance contest. Here, we have a book inside my sweet spot of 250-350 pages (301 to be exact), richly layered with well-researched historical contexts, curious characters and meta narratives on western culture’s chronic chauvinism. Tockarczuk pulls no punches. There is an epilogue that lists the real figures from literary history and beyond that she paraphrased when constructing the mysogynistic dialog between all the men. The tale is set in the early 20th century, in a German (now part of western Poland) mountain town, famous for having the largest resort facility for tuberculosis patients in the world. Our narrator appears to be supernatural, who tells us of our main character, Wojnicz and the band of men staying at the resort’s less expensive guesthouse. The narrator hints at the inner thoughts of Wojnicz but mostly remains somewhat clinical and linear in conveying the events during their stay at the resort. The last 15% of the book is the most dynamic. And the author could have found a way to embed that energy in the rest of the novel. Despite that, I enjoyed the blend of (mildly historical) fiction, philosophy, mystery/thriller and the paranormal. The twists of the final portion of the book were genuinely something I could not anticipate and found myself shocked and drawn further into the goings-on. Of all of Tockarczuk’s books, this is the one I think I would be most inclined to read again sometime. . . . . #theempusium #olgatockarczuk #horror #mystery #philosophy #germany #poland #historic #tuberculosis #ex_libris_jz

Super niche non-fiction book from a novelist who is writing/reflecting about writing and the influences to her thinking. I cannot recall how I came across this or why I picked up other than the first section on “Plants” touched on ecology and the landscape with big mentions of Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach books and Timothy Morton’s concepts of Dark Ecology and Hyperobjects. There are some distinctly female oriented views on the books topics (‘Plants’, ‘Planets’, and ‘Bleed’) and that offered up some powerful, persuasive notions of women as receptors — of the good and bad — and the body becomes the site for dealing with these issues. As the husband of a breast-cancer survivor, I’m very sensitive to this notion that the civilization’s literally high toxicity writ itself large within women’s bodies. Those observations by Wilk spurred me to purchase my next three reading projects, so we’ll see where that rabbit hole takes me! . . . . #deathbylandscape #elviawilk #margaretatwood #jeffvandermeer #southernreachtrilogy #timothymorton #ecology #hyperobjects #plants #sciencefiction #ex_libris_jz

Time for a bit of ‘professional development’ reading. When did the tide (start to) turn from progressive, future-thinking agendas in American culture —specifically as reflected in architectural projects— to what in 2025 can only be described as a society gripped by nostalgia and almost completely absent of innovative, creative endeavors? Well, this book by Douglas Murphy starts to make a good argument for the 1960s and 70s. Murphy’s book takes us through the realm of World’s Fairs, Buckminster Fuller and Brutalist estate projects to shed light on a period of architectural history where Post-Modernism captured more attention in the books than these last grand projects of Modernism. Murphy does a really good job of not being exhaustive but, rather, focused on a selection of strong cases that illustrate the point: that these top-down projects were not resonating with a society where current events were undermining any confidence in the experts. The civil unrest of the late 60s knocked a few things loose, and the economics of the 70s continued to foster dissatisfaction in the citizenry. But the following couple of decades managed to be, arguably, a distraction from the continued erosion of confidence in the experts. And here we are today, where teachers, scientists, politicians have joined the architects as untrustworthy. These things really do take time to manifest profoundly in the everyday. . . . . #lastfutures #douglasmurphy #architecture #modernism #buckminsterfuller #brutalism #civicprojects #publichousing #worldsfair #expo #geodesicdome #distrust #postmodernism #ex_libris_jz

Sometimes taking something in all at once can feel overwhelming—like a long vacation from the “normal” world, or even house arrest. I found this a heavy lift in terms of sustained interest, yet it was...

YouTube video by KEXP

An experiment seven years in the making has uncovered new insights into the nature of consciousness and challenges two prominent, competing scientific theories.

near Tar Heel, NC . . . . #iphoneography #northcarolina #tarheel #flag #pecans #icecream #orchard #trump #church #celltower #stoplight #clouds