A children's version of the articles espoused in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the US signed. There were far too many moments of soul crushing despair in this little book. :(

Doesn't really cover new ground but does so eloquenty.

Hitchens writes about dying like he wrote about everything else -- full of snark, wit, and unabashed honesty, and unfinished because death caught up to him. His wife's afterword is particularly harrowing to read.

I tried. I picked it up because it looked interesting only to find out (very rapidly) that this is just a smidge of cherrypicked history and entirely a Randian circle jerk.

Broke no new ground and the author was firmly lodged up his own behind. I‘m all about encroaching fascism in the modern times (in that, you know, it is there and bad) but these two little essays did nothing for me.

Sort of a long essay that doesn‘t really have a strong conclusion, at once cartoonishly evil and chilling, and still a very good read.

Dan Brown being Dan Brown. Sort of a guilty pleasure as usual.

Just read it.

A genuine slog. Too much made up language to follow. I‘ve retained only a vague sense of the plot. Yet one character had a cold, and another had her period - just as a point of fact, not as a plot point - which means the book was unusually based in reality. Purchased mainly for the excellent fantasy 80s cover.

Dan Rather adopted and rapidly adapted to social media at a time when I felt hollowed out and hopeless. This book is a gentle, persistent call to action for the better angels of our nature, if they‘re still listening. Sort of a love story for the United States in its best aspirations.

[L]ibraries represent an aspirational notion of democracy. They were, and still are, civic institutions that welcome anyone who wishes to become a more informed and independent citizen. In books we can find expert and trustworthy scholarship on any subject imaginable. By reading books, we can continually challenge our own biases and learn beyond our level of formal education. #libraries #booksmatter

From the afterward: “If Bernie turns lame, or stays true and loses the nomination or the election, the hundreds of thousands of voters who turned out will never do so again. They will become jaded and cynical, much like the young men and women who canvassed for Obama‘s in 2008, only to find out after the election that their politics bore little resemblance to his.” So that prediction has turned out to be WRONG. :)

... There‘s no money to fix infrastructure, even though bridges are collapsing and the nation‘s train systems have been eclipsed by those of third world nations. No money for schools, or teachers, or veterans, or job training. Millions of people are angry. As history shows, oppressed masses won‘t forever suffer in silence. It‘s only a matter of time before the deluge.”

“America isn‘t poor. There‘s always money for war: to invade Afghanistan, to invade Iraq, to build so many new military bases that — it‘s true — even the Pentagon might not know how many there are. What there isn‘t is money for average people. Unemployment benefits run out after a few months. After those paltry assistance payment ends, it‘s your tough luck, your problem. If you‘re jobless or poor, you are on your own. ...

If I could, I would take a picture of every page to share, because every page is drawn and colored with a depth of vision and rich quality from the other side of reality... Gorgeously weird and inventively elegant. The story doesn‘t break new ground, but it fits the universe comfortably - which coming back to it something like twenty-five years later, that‘s remarkable in itself. Still Gaiman, however, and Gaiman is always worth it.

The whole Trump campaign was literally unbelievable, but this - a journalist‘s account on the campaign trail - hits pretty much every high (and low) point that I remember, rushing towards the finish line like a truck that has lost its brakes barreling down a mountain in the faint hopes of coming across one of those runaway truck ramps.

Graphic novels have to be really special to add something more to a story. This one didn‘t, apart from a few pictures of engaging artwork, but it certainly didn‘t detract from something that was already pretty damn good to begin with.

Whereas urban fantasy is a trendy label these days (haunted by the often cringe-y paranormal romance), de Lint was one of the first and wrote urban myth and faerie stories. This is a collection of two stories, and they are both fairly enjoyable if light romps.