I love reading about this time period, and the argument is sort of brilliant. This book, though — you ever talk to someone you didn‘t know has a graduate degree, and then inadvertently ask them about their area of expertise that is going un-tapped. un-sung, and unused in their day-to-day life? Reading this book was quite a bit like that: filled to the brim with and extraordinary amount of detail; which is to say, amazing, but kind of exhausting.

Confession: I have a deep and inexplicably powerful love for popular science books. This one pulls on so many disparate threads, and uses them to explain something startling and beautiful. Strong recommend.

Lindy West is the first person I would want to get a drink with at a boring cocktail party.

Lush and enthralling, in a creepy way — just like Catherine House the setting. This just builds and builds.
I‘m reading a library copy on an e-reader, which doesn‘t do the gorgeous cover justice, so the Canton Tower in the background will have to serve for aesthetic.