This was an interesting and entertaining, though not always very engaging read. Told from the point of view of Claudius, a stuttering, limping, nephew of the emperor Tiberius. I have no idea how much of this is historically accurate beyond the births and deaths of these people, but it painted a disgusting picture of the …
Scent in writing
I'm reading Perfume: The story of a murderer, by Patrick Suskind, and am impressed with the amount of detail he's put into describing smells. It is an underused sense, in writing, and maybe that is part of why it seems so amazing, but I'm really being drawn into the strange way this character perceives the …
What I want to read…
I've been reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent with a book club I just started with some friends. It's much more enjoyable to read a book when you have people to discuss it with, but how can anyone ever get their friends to read the same books... if you're even fortunate enough to have friends …
Mind Hunter
I finished this disturbing series on Netflix recently, and for anyone interested in crime or serial killers, this is a must-watch. What stuck with me most, though was how they so expertly build up the uneasy anxiety when in the room with these killers. Even though (or perhaps, because) the interviewees speak and act for …
Mass shooting in [city], [number] dead
It is the deadliest shooting in US history, until next month. Are the American people okay with this? Each week and month and year that goes by with nothing being done tells me that most are. Imagine a world in which you can buy a tank at your local car dealership. Imagine in this world, …
Jonas David 