Jan 14 - 20, 2018

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stevens-Davidowitz - there's a big difference in what people say and what they search for on the internet. That's the basic premise of this book, with lots of facts and studies to prove the author's point. Some of the conclusions are disturbing but the author is hopeful that studies of big data will lead to reforms in education and medicine, among others. Written in a style I found easy to follow.

4 stars
*RHC - a book of social science
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silvermane: A Western Quartet by Zane Grey - four short stories presented as exactly the way the author wrote them. According to the forward, Zane Grey was often heavily edited by his publisher. The stories are about a wild horse, a burro and the man who loved her, a slightly bad man falls in love, and a fresh off the train school teacher gets in trouble with some cowboys. I found the dialect the author used off-putting. I've enjoyed Grey's novels before, these stories weren't his best imo.

2 stars
*RHC - a western
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly - the 20th Harry Bosch. Harry is still a volunteer looking into cold cases for the San Fernando PD. He receives a visit from the new Conviction Integrity Unit and they inform him a 30 year old case of his is up for release because of new DNA evidence. And Harry's integrity is being called into question. Almost simultaneously, Harry is called to the scene of two murders at a pharmacy. This leads to going undercover to investigate opioid scams. And one investigation puts him at risk in the other.

3 stars
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway - a memoir of short stories about the author's time in Paris when he was young and newly married. He talks about what how he worked at writing, being poor, other writers, and skiing. I liked the writing very much. This version is from his original manuscripts and differs slightly from the one edited by his last wife.

4 stars
*RHC - a book published posthumously
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bookworms: Great Writers and Readers Celebrate Reading edited by Laura Furman & Elinore Standard - short essays and excerpts from a variety of writers, some classic and some current. I especially enjoyed the section on young readers discovering the joy of reading. The last section bogged down a bit but contained my favorite story of a young black man figuring out a way to use the library when he wasn't allowed to have a card. I wouldn't have read this if not for the Read Harder Challenge. (I even had to buy it.) I made a list of several authors and books and will return to get more. Because of that...

4.5 stars
*RHC - an essay anthology