I see I was in my semicolon era here.
Book 6:
Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes – A Deeply Informative Tour of Evolution’s Imperfections and Compromises by Nathan H. Lents
Rough Review:
3.5 stars because I would have liked a longer, more in-depth look at most of what he talked about , although I understand the aim was to reach a much broader audience than one particular little biology nerd. This book (or perhaps more accurately, the act of reading it at this exact moment in time [right after the inauguration of a certain nominally sentient orange peel]) gave me such a panic attack last night that I needed to take a tranquilizer. It’s a light, fun, speedy, easy-to-understand read until you get to the last chapter on the future of humanity, and have a tendency towards existential crises and fear of the near future based on the number of absolute twits in absolute power right now. So just a heads up. “We already have the science that can save our species from itself. We are waiting only for the will. And if we can’t muster it in time to prevent a global collapse, we will have the ultimate proof of our poor design.” This book was written in 2018, so the talk about nuclear war, dictators seizing moments of strife, and pandemics, seem particularly prescient. And here I thought I’d be reading a fun book about appendixes and junk DNA. Le sigh.
Final Review: Good enough! 247 words, keep it up past me!
Book 7:
Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens by David Mitchell
Rough Review:
4.5 stars because although I enjoyed every moment of reading this book, the humour and asides did get in the way a bit of actually understanding the chronology. I feel like I know a lot more than I used to and also like I couldn’t explain much of it. Unruly tells the history of England through it’s kings and queens, from 1066 and before to 1603 and a little after. The final chapter’s focus on Shakespeare and the Bookend (i.e. a summary of what you’ve just read) felt more like essays that I’d happily read on Mitchell’s blog than proper endings for the book. And that’s really it for criticism. I’d managed to not know much about Mitchell except that he’s Victoria Coren Mitchell’s husband (and I only know her from Taskmaster, because I am an ignorant person), and part of something called Mitchell and Webb. I knew so little that it wasn’t until I randomly decided to google where that “are we the baddies?” meme came from that I even realized THAT was HIM. I think I’d somehow decided it was from a filmed version of Cabaret. I don’t know. I obviously hadn’t examined that assumption carefully or I might have spotted some holes. Anyway, my point is that I’m now a huge fan and am going through all the Soapboxes on YouTube. 2025 has been appalling so far, but at least the books I’ve read have been good.
Final Review: This book sent me on A Journey. I’ve recommended it to almost every person I’ve talked to for more than 5 minutes this year. I’ve been introduced to British panel shows beyond Taskmaster and have binged WILTY, BFQOTY, QI, 8OOTCDC, and other unwieldy, unfortunately-Jimmy-Carr-heavy titles. I think it’s my favourite of 2025. I am a full-fledged David Mitchell fan now, and he has supplanted The Other David Mitchell as the main David Mitchell in my head when I think about David Mitchells. How many lls is Mitchell supposed to have? How many ds is David supposed to have? How long can I keep doing this on 1 hour of sleep because I spent most of last night in urgent care for a pinched nerve? 382 words and let’s see!
Books 8 and 9:
Big Mushy Happy Lump and Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen
Rough Review:
BIG OLD GOOSE EGG LASAGNE HATE MYSELF 1999
Final Review: Curses and remonstrations. Well, I gave Big Mushy etc 3 stars and Herding Cats 4 stars, and I remember laughing harder at the latter, hence the higher rating. It’s always tough for me to review comic or short story collections because it’s not a cohesive whole thing to review. Some of them were amazing! Some were forgettable! It took very little time to read! Honestly, I think the first three books in the series could be merged into one that would feel a bit less like a sampling and more like a meal. But if you like what you’ve seen of Sarah Andersen’s Scribbles online, you’ll find plenty in both of these collections to amuse and lightly entertain you and make you shout “This!” and “It me!” at friends and strangers on the street. A very kind and benevolent 16o words oh thank Athena I have something already written for the next one.
Book 10:
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
Rough Review:
I really think everyone needs to read this book. Granted, I picked it up already agreeing with most of what he had to say, so it’s not like getting me onboard was a huge get, but at the very least, everyone should take 300-odd pages worth of time from their lives to think seriously about focus and attention and the trends we’re seeing in society these days. It’s always helpful to have a well-organized and cogent narrative that helps clarify and FOCUS the instincts, feelings, intuition, and flashes of insights that you never took the time to organize and walk through yourself.
I note that Hari has had some controversies with plagiarism earlier in his career (around 2011, whereas most of his notable works are from 2015-onward), so I understand if there’s some hesitancy about reading a book by him. It’s clear in his writing that he does not want to be dinged for this again – lost of “I feel” couching terms, acknowledgements of nuance and disagreements in the field, copious end notes and links to the studies and interviews he drew on.
But in terms of climate, democracy, technology, and capitalism, we’re all in a five alarm fire all day every day, here, and by focusing on attention, this book did a great job laying out a history of the problem, an overview of the research and discussions taking place, and a blue print for how to make changes both individual and structural (hint: it’s collective activism – we’re going to have to cooperate and fight for what we want, because there’s no other incentive for positive change in this system).
And now I’m going to sleep.
Final Review: No notes!
279 words and I’m not even being kind! Oh, and I rated it 5 stars.
