’Ender in Exile’ is a bridge between ’Ender’s Game’ and ‘Speaker of the Dead’, and it tidies up loose ends from other novels, most notably those from the Shadow Series. Orson Scott Card’s view on life shows (“Dear reader: marry and have kids!”), and the pacing feels somewhat off with the middle of the book […]
Reading Thinking, Fast and Slow is a humbling experience, as Daniel Kahneman shows we’re not the pinnacles of reasons who we think we are. Kahneman describes how our intuition is prone to many cognitive errors and thus often wrong. He does so through talking about the two systems of our brain; one being fast, intuitive, […]
In ‘Hoe lang nog zwijgen’ Fidan Ekiz talks about the topic of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries (such Turkey), and the issues that come together with their civil integration into the Dutch society. Ekiz is critical towards both natives and immigrants — and pleads to find ‘the radical middle’. It’s a good message, but Fidan still […]
Patchett’s writing is impeccable (and enviable). Her work of fiction, Commonwealth, took such a grip on me that it’s no surprise her non-fiction is of the same quality. She’s notices depth in the mundane, whether writing about grandmother, marriage, school, or her dog — and adds her warmth along the way. When she projects herself […]
My formative teenage years coincided mostly in the 2000s, and feverishly playing World of Warcraft, Fable and Diablo — so even though I didn’t get most of the references to the Eighties, I totally understood and felt what they stand for. Ready Player One is a fantastic mixture of nostalgia and sci-fi, aptly labelled by […]
It’s entertaining and at times insightful, but this is hobbyist-psychology at best. What gives it away is Manson’s generalisation of all Russians; how they’re blunt and not trying to be nice, and how that proves they’re more trustworthy then American citizens — or the plethora of random anecdotes followed by “That’s basically how our brains work” […]
Dychtwald’s writes well and his sentences have a neat flowing rhythm to them, although he jumps from topic to topic — back and forth — and does so even within the twelve loosely-bundled chapters of the book. ‘Young China’ feels like a loosely weaved net of anecdotes, which are rich in detail and probably representative for […]
Countries need collective stories to shape their identity. ‘De stilte en de storm’ tells about the history of the Dutch Remembrance Day (4th of May) and Liberation Day (5th of May). We take for granted how the fourth of May remembers war victims of all kinds, and that the fifth of May celebrates the freedom […]
It’s nice to inherit certain things from someone, but it’s not nice to inherit everything. Often, those left behind are left in a mess, with thousands of things to sort, pass on, sell or dump. It begs everyone to take responsibility for his or her own death. If you don’t have the time or will […]
Rob Schmitz writes about the residents of Changle Road and personifies modern day Shanghai (and to an extend, China) through these different generations and backgrounds. The focus on a single street is clever, and the stories are compelling. Street of Eternal Happiness is also both a good history lesson as well as a context-provider of […]