* The Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults (Laurie Penny) - This stretched my boundaries on thinking about feminism a bit. I thought it was an interest

* The Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults (Laurie Penny) - This stretched my boundaries on thinking about feminism a bit. I thought it was an interesting collection because it managed to take a very firm line without being preachy or moralistic. I suppose I mostly agreed with it. * Wool (Hugh Howey). I was deeply disappointed. It came highly recommended by people I trust. I saw exactly where it was going and was never once surprised. * The Magicians (Lev Grossman). I managed the first two books and was utterly bored. It is hard to overstate how much I really disliked these books. They seemed like a smart-alec attempt to take down the genre, including what I think was a side-swiping smear of C.S.Lewis as a kiddy fiddler. Just nasty really. * Calculus Better Explained (Kalid Azad). OK, so this was not just a book, but the video course with the book. I bought this with the intention of helping a family member get up to speed, and discovered that I really enjoyed going over it as I had forgotten a lot of AP Calculus and the models/paradigms Azad introduces are far richer than the simpler ones I had retained (slightly by rote learning). Very enjoyable. * Seeing Like a State (James C. Scott). This is oldish (1999) but full of interesting information about failed attempts at managerial systems. Wrestling with naming conventions in an old "evolved" code-base I felt some sympathy with bureaucrats trying to impose order on local conditions.