By Any Other Nerd

The Anthology at the End of the Universe: Leading Science Fiction Authors on Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Glenn Yeffeth My rating: 3 of 5 stars I've had this book on my "to read" shelf probably since it came out or shortly thereafter. I'm a dedicated Douglas Adams fan and therefore, this collection was a must-have. And I finally go around to reading it and while I can't say it's a "must read"--it certainly is enjoyable enough that it lead me to re-listen to all of the Hitchhiker's Guide books recently to celebrate and remind myself of the works. Like any good anthology of essays, not all are going to be winners with every reader. We all come to Hitchhiker's Guide differently. There are some that I enjoyed and there were others that I found less engaging. Some authors tried a bit too hard to write in the style of Douglas Adams and it felt derivative, but others were able to sew together such ...

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami My rating: 3 of 5 stars Murakami is a fascinating writer and this is the second or third book of his that I've read. There's an odd rhythm to his stories that is both coherent within the world of the story and strange when one tries to explain it to others. The Strange Library fits perfectly within his canon. The story follows a boy as he discovers the dark and odd depths of his local library after trying to find a piece of information. He is led into the bowels of the library and imprisoned, forced to complete entire memorization of tax accounts of the ancient world. However, he is not alone as he has two companions, whom he doesn't entirely trust that may be able to help him escape. But even if he escapes, is he ever really free from such a strange ordeal? It reminds me of Kafka and The Metamorphosis in that while these things are strange, they remain largely normal within the realm of the story. This is a short nov...

I like to write about demons. Maybe it's my overall fascination with horror, my experiences with religion, or great appreciation for Supernatural (to be clear--it's a bad show but I still enjoy it), but I find that when I need to explain something such as inner turmoil, I like to draw upon demons.  I wrote about the two demons I run with .  Today, I'm going to talk about the two demons of the doctorate.  My guess is that some of you are quite familiar with one and possibly familiar with the other.  Demon 1:  The Distraction Demon The doctorate program, like many other big tasks is dominated by output and deadlines.  There's papers to be done throughout the courses leading up to the dissertation process and then more deadlines, bigger and more stressful deadlines along the way.  I'm often challenged by deadlines.  I think Douglas Adams, in all the ways he has influenced me, maybe have influenced me most when I heard him say, "I love deadline...

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was a big fan of Pinker's previous book, The Better Nature of Our Angels that he wrote several years ago. I found it to be a relieving exploration into the world today and better understanding the myth of violence that is ever-present in news and political rhetoric about the world today. Thus, his follow up where he continues to make that argument by connecting it to the present-day issues and concerns that dominate discussions across many different places is appreciated and useful in gaining perspective. He moves through dozens of chapters taken on different issues and leveling the known research available while connecting the issues with the larger picture or with other concepts and research that can prove...well..enlightening. At the core of his argument is one that is similar to Kurt Anderson's in Fantasyland, that through the lens and application o...

The End We Start From by Megan Hunter My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a fun and short novel about a woman dealing with an apocalypse while also dealing with a growing infant, but, of course, it's about so much more. The novels' style is minimalistic, broken into small sections that can be one sentence to about a full page's worth. Hunter manages to provide the fullest of stories in the smallest of words and using a good amount of synecdoche, giving the readers glimpses of her bigger whole experience. Hunters desire to straddle this line between detail and reduction of words, that all the characters are merely denoted by a single letter, rather than a full name. It makes the reading experience move quickly and evokes the realization of how names themselves, though necessary, are far more complex than needed for a good story. The story starts with the birth of the protagonist's baby and the husband working to get them moving as a disaster is approaching (a flood by ...

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin My rating: 5 of 5 stars Jemisin's second book in The Broken Earth trilogy is just as fascinating as her first and pulls readers deeper into the mystery of a future and unrecognizable Earth where life has inevitably altered and the world of today appears only in the refraction of technologies and cultural artifacts long abandoned or lost. Essun, the protagonist of the first follow, has landed in a com, Castrima, which has been attracting orogenes like herself and who live in an underground construct build with technologies of previous civilizations. There, she continues to learn from Alabaster, her former lover and mentor while also coming to understand the place of orogenes in the past and the future. Meanwhile, her daughter, Nassun has been brought by her father to a place that he believes will rid her of her orogene powers. Instead, a Guardian takes a keen interest in developing her powers in new ways. The story moves seamlessly back a...

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge My rating: 5 of 5 stars For many white folks, the title might fool them into thinking this book embodies the worst conjured stereotype of people of color activists who demand equity, equality, and fairness after centuries in which democratically republics have often failed to uphold these. But, they might be surprised that Eddo-Lodge's writing is welcoming, enlightening, and filled with history and deconstructions of racism in modern society that many white folks aren't familiar with. The title comes from a blog title she posted several years ago and what follows is a clear and explicit exploration of racism and how whites, particularly, are woefully unaware (by structural racism) of the ways in which culture has privileged them time and again to the detriment of people of color. By far, this is not my first book on the subject of racism, white privilege, and the impact of historically legalized i...

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo My rating: 5 of 5 stars Oluo provides a phenomenal breakdown of racism and African American identity in the US today. She uses a mixture of her own biography and experience and intersplices them with the work that she's been doing for years as a writer on the topic of racism in America. What I like particularly about her work is that she frames each chapter around a particular question, many of which are questions that' she's been asked and others are questions that are out there in the common milieu (I don't recall if she said in fact she's been asked all of these). These questions range from "Why can't I touch your hair?" (The same reason you shouldn't be touching anyone without permission & well, why the hell do you think you even have the right--read: privilege--to ask such a thing of people; it wreaks of fetishizing) to "Why am I always being told to "check my privilege"?...

How to Make White People Laugh by Negin Farsad My rating: 3 of 5 stars Farsad's is a charming and delightful memoir and commentary on race/ethnicity, American culture, humor, and what it means to be an Iranian-American in a (Islamaphobic-poorly-disguised-as-obsessed-with-radical-Islam-terrorism) US culture. Her anecdotes and experiences offer insight into how she and others experience being marginalized as terrorists or somehow, having to explain all 2 billion Muslims in the world. She also shares some of the origins of her activism around better informing and explaining how she uses comedy to loosen barriers between herself, white folks, among others, and the intersection of her identities. She has two TED Talks that are definitely good introductions to the book and if you find them enjoyable or bemusing, then this book is likely to hit the mark. In particular, Farsad's ability to verbally disarm without necessarily attacking helps to present her message and a keen under...

Ok, I just submitted my revised Qualifying Paper.  It got "Accepted with revisions to my chair" back in January and the due date of about 2 weeks.  I submitted it and am feeling relatively good about it.  After I got it back, I met with my advisor and he encouraged me to write down some of the big elements/ideas of the paper down.  From there, he told me to select what I feel are the 5 most relevant pieces of this subject I'm studying.  Next, I should pick what are the top 1-2 elements and then do the hard part--make a decision about where I want my emphasis to be.  So my QP had great content, I covered ample literature, but my problem was out of focus.  Therefore, I needed to decide just what was I going to focus on.  I ended up determining that it was useful for me to understand what impact my problem was having on scholars as they look to acquire research.  This helped me refocus the paper and put the emphasis throughout on how...