Booknotes 5.10

At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon, published 1994, fiction, 517 pages. The first in the (fairly long) series. I read this for book club, and I’m glad I did. A cozy, small-town, heartwarming read, with a touch of mystery and romance. I especially enjoyed the religious angle (the main character is a rector).

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, by William Shakespeare, published 1594, play, 68 pages. Possibly the first of Shakespeare’s plays. His comedies don’t appeal to me anywhere near as much as his tragedies (have I said this before? I probably have and probably will again), but I’m on a quest to read all of his plays and I’d still say I enjoyed this one.

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, by Karen Hao, published 2025, history, 426 pages. A morbidly fascinating history of OpenAI from the angle of oh wow, this company is swallowing up resources like one of the colonial empires that wrought so much suffering and destruction. It made me, if such a thing can be believed, want to use AI even less. Also, Sam Altman really, really is not trustworthy. Goodness. While the book is fine (I recommend it), I’m glad to be done with it so I can get back to spending less time thinking about AI and the slimy corporations spray-painting the world with it.

Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson, published 2002, fiction, 114 pages. So. Much. Death. (For a novella, anyway.) I don’t inherently mind bleak books drenched in death, but I don’t think I liked this one, reasonably well written though it was. Not sure why. I’m aware of the film, by the way, but haven’t seen it, so I don’t know how it compares.