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Mark Anderson Locked account

manderson@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 1 month ago

I am an omnivorous reader.

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Recursion (2019, Crown Publishing) 3 stars

Memory makes reality.

That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he …

Time travel but with memory

No rating

The story revolves around a memory device that can bring people back in time to a memory that they then can change -- but it changes everyone else's memories, and they can then remember those timelines as well. Mindbending fun.

Frederick Douglass (2018, Simon & Schuster) 5 stars

Review of 'Frederick Douglass' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Highly recommend. This remarkable man stood at the epicenter of the moral and legal battles for abolition of slavery and the rights of Black Americans, and his voice, intellect, and force carries forward to today, as captured in his own autobiographies and the transcriptions of his powerful speeches. He is one of the world's greatest orators and what struck me in this encompassing account of his life is how endlessly he was on the road across America and the UK, standing and delivering speeches -- this hard-earned mastery was the result of a life devoted to his cause and to his craft. I nearly cried at the end of this biography when he died, not only at the renewed sense of loss of his life, but furthermore because all the things he fought so hard for and against continue to be fights in US society today. The fight against racism …

Annotation (2021, MIT Press) No rating

Review of 'Annotation' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

An interesting little book that examines annotation as a genre. I typically think of, and am interested in, annotation as an aspect of a close reading of written text that extends from the history of exegesis of sacred text and literature. But this book explores annotation from a far wider scope to include the digital labeling of data sets for training machine learning algorithms and as a tool for fact checking or civic advocacy and improvement. I found it a bit dry at times but found myself later making connections to the book when reading articles about Google deep learning networks annotating brain scans or when using an automated citation manager that needs to be checked to ensure labels are accurate. I have also started using Hypothesis, an open source annotation software that works pretty seamless as an overlay in a web browser. Annotation is much more deeply interwoven and …

The Extended Mind (Paperback, 2022, Mariner Books) 5 stars

Review of 'The Extended Mind' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Lots of intriguing ideas in here -- I've always enjoyed Paul's articles on cognition, assessment, and learning in the past, and the book doesn't disappoint. Some of this research was familiar to me, most especially that related to the relation of the physical environment to thinking, but there was also some that I was not as familiar with, such as gesture as a precursor to language and as an accelerator to language learning. The book's push is against the common view of cognition as an individual, independent act that occurs within isolated brains. Instead, Paul promotes the understanding that our minds thrive in extended relation to the world through our social relationships, our emotional state, and the circumstances of our physical environment. If all you take away from this book is the idea that you need to get up and go for a walk in a park to clear your …

Black Leopard, Red Wolf (2020, Riverhead Books) 4 stars

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a …

Review of 'Black Leopard, Red Wolf' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I honestly don't know what to think about this book. At first, I found it confusing. Then a while in I got into its groove and enjoyed it. Then found it a confusing again. The language can be hard to follow sometimes, which can be disjointing given that it seems to want to sort of be an adventure/action type thing and does at times flow in such a way, but then it constantly morphs and plays in other more complicated ways. Definitely worth reading and grappling with but I'm not sure it lived up to the critical praise for me. But maybe I missed something and need to reread it to really get it? Not sure.

Reading for their life (2009, Heinemann) No rating

Review of 'Reading for their life' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

There's gems in here worth unpacking -- Dr. Tatum pushes hard against delimiting anti-intellectual perspectives of black boys and argues for intellectually stimulating, relevant, and content-rich text mediation. Can't wait to read his newest book on advanced literacies -- Tatum puts a stake in the ground and manages to balance both a focus on intensive scaffolding and supports while at the same time advancing intellect and knowledge.

Ancillary Justice (Paperback, 2013, Orbit) 4 stars

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing …

Review of 'Ancillary Justice' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The key twist in this fun sci-fi novel is that the narrator is a single AI operating as a person, but also simultaneously a ship and ancillary parts. This allows the author to give us a god-like perspective while also keeping the narrator just relatable enough to empathize with. It's a great way to play with perspective and it's well-played throughout the novel. Recommended.

Station Eleven (Hardcover, 2014, Knopf Publishing Group, Knopf) 4 stars

Review of 'Station Eleven' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Enjoyable thought experiment on what the world might be like after a colossal epidemic. Unfortunately, my reading was a bit disjointed, due to no fault of the author, because my copy had 20 pages ripped out of it at the very end. I had to wait for a library copy to continue. So my review is not coherent and a result... But I can say it is beautifully written and if you need a captivating sci-fi read, you'll enjoy this book.

Language at the Speed of Sight (2017) 5 stars

A psychology professor specializing in the cognitive and neurological bases of language and reading discusses …

Review of 'Language at the Speed of Sight' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I heard Seidenberg speak at a ResearchEd conference in Brooklyn a while back, and I found what he had to say really interesting, but he was a bit kooky and used terms I'd never heard before like "statistical learning," so I wasn't sure what to think, as he seemed to stand outside of the mainstream of education speak. My interest was piqued however, as I happen to also follow the Language Log blog, which he is a contributor to, and in reviewing my notes of his talk, his points continued to jump out at me.

So I finally got around to reading his book when I had a coupon on Google Books, and I figured, what the heck. I don't have any time to read much but I should probably see what it's about.

And man, am I glad I chipped away at this on bus and train rides over …