Booknotes 2.7 — Blog

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. Read it for book club. I found it so-so — there were some interesting bits, but the overall thesis didn’t really convince me. I love popular science when it’s done well, though.
No Filter, by Sarah Frier. A fascinating history of Instagram the company. Seemed fairly well balanced. Interesting being in the middle of reading it when Threads was released. (I like that Instagram is better designed than Facebook, but in general I wish I never had to use either again. Much prefer just posting things here. Maybe one of these days I’ll jump off the bandwagon for good.)

Stargazy Pie, by Victoria Goddard. Liked it, and planning to read the rest of the series (along with the rest of Goddard’s swiftly expanding collection of books). Somewhat darker than I expected after reading The Hands of the Emperor, but still cozyish.
Yellowface, by R. F. Kuang. Pretty quick read. It felt sort of like a literary thriller and sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion. (Meaning the character’s choices, not that the book was poorly written, because it wasn’t.) Also, I love pandan! Planning to get some extract so I can try pandan pancakes…though hopefully not with the same outcome as what happens in the book.