Devoured all these:

Hybrid Homeschools by Mike McShane

A quick and tasteful overview of one fast-growing model of school. The type that is 1 day a week or more in a traditional classroom, but not 5 days a week. It’s a good book, and a great model. More people should try both.

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer 

I can’t tell if I like the style, in fact I’m pretty sure I don’t like it. The condescending tone of the narrator at times bleeds into the condescension of the author. Though there are some things about the tone I do very much appreciate. I can’t tell if I like the author. She sometimes seems to be a total show off and other times convinces me of her brilliance. I know that I like the world that she created, and find it believable, albeit melodramatic. And I know that I am intrigued by the themes she’s developing.

The Deluge by Adam Tooze.

Adam Tooze’s epic globe-trotting foray into the politics and economics of the interwar period. The book sometimes suffers from a heavy reliance upon characterization, but the genius of the work is how states interact with each other as though they are unitary actors, yet each state knows that the political conditions on the homefront determine the boundaries of the diplomatic negotiations, and so there is deep complexity about what each state can credibly commit to. Some moments were absolutely cinematic. The negotiations at Versailles, the domestic politics of Japan, basically everything about Lloyd George. The vision of the post WWI liberal order changed my historical worldview about the force of ideology in history, upgrading it a good deal. It’s not only the Soviet’s who were possessed by an Idea. At the same time, I also adjusted my views about the relationship between economic crises and internal political decay in the US and abroad.

Articles

Already a classic biology essay.
Today is better than then!
Modernism is history.
Time to Rekindle Poetry