false 12 130 128 true 5663775 read 0 true 3619237 currently-reading 2 true 3619236 to-read 40 false 3790728 fantasy 33 false 3619240 sf 27 false 3790731 ya 19 false 3725230 non-fiction 18 false 4045703 historical-fiction 14 false 3803616 feminism 13 false 4280816 other-borrowed 13 false 4045701 graphic-novel 10 false 4237711 library 7 false 3935758 humour 5 false 4951163 romance 5 false 3619365 kidlit 4 false 4507967 horror 4 false 4575359 biography 3 false 4951157 thriller 3 false 3935743 ebook http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73650536 to: The Magic in the Weaving (Circle of Magic, #1) by Tamora Pierce
bookshelves: fantasy, ya
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73716106 Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession (Paperback) by Apostolos Doxiadis
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73715478 to: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth (Paperback) by Apostolos Doxiadis
bookshelves: biography, graphic-novel, non-fiction
Really enjoyed this, both as a person who studied Philosophy at Oxford (where my tutor was very keen indeed on Wittgenstein) and as someone who is deep in the comics world.

I love the self-referential nature of the work, with the creators discussing the best way to tell the story (and indeed, arguing about what kind of story it even is - is it a tragedy or a story with a happy ending?). This even ties into the comics story-telling itself, with depictions of self-referentiality in the part where they are discussing paradoxes. And overall, the comics story-telling is done niftily - for instance, there are plenty of those large panels where the characters loop and wander within a landscape as they talk (good avoidance of talking head syndrome, which would otherwise be a big danger in a comic of this nature).

Most of all, I loved the depiction of the various philosophers, logicians, and mathematicians within its pages. Gottlob Frege as someone who could have stepped out of a Miyazaki film! Robotic-looking Kurt Godel! Bertie Russell himself, the central figure - womanizer, searcher after certainty, finding humanity in his later years after what the reader suspects must have felt to others like a rather inhuman earlier part of his life.

<small>All this, and I think it even passes the Bechdel test too, despite in principle being about old dead white men.</small>

In some ways best of all is the way I came to find out about it. R and I were doing a road-trip in Greece, and stopped in a service station near Sparta. It had a bookshop, and he was looking for a copy of the Little Prince in Greek - which it had, but it also had Logicomix in the original Greek. I say original, in that it came out first in Greek, as the creators are (almost all) Greek. The copy that R bought was the, what, third or fourth printing? It had gone through thirty or forty thousand copies in Greek before it was even available in English. Blimey! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73650536 Jenni's review of The Magic in the Weaving (Circle of Magic, #1)
by Tamora Pierce

I love these covers. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73644672 to: The Will of the Empress (Circle Reforged, #1) by Tamora Pierce
bookshelves: fantasy, feminism, ya
Really good engrossing read. I was trying to figure out what this has over and above other Pierce books and though I'm not sure I've definitely figured it, I think it's the characters that I particularly like. Her other books also have good strong characters of course, but I think I just really like these four people more and more the more I read about them. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73383446 to: Witches Abroad (Discworld, #12) by Terry Pratchett
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68711949 to: Year of the Griffin (Derkholm, #2) by Diana Wynne Jones
bookshelves: fantasy, humour, romance
Re-read, great stuff; one I come back to. Nice and dense and full of great characters. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68425998 to: A Sudden Wild Magic (Mass Market Paperback) by Diana Wynne Jones
bookshelves: fantasy, romance
A perennial-favourite re-read, always loved.

That said, I must admit that the romance between Zillah and Marcus's father is a bit far-fetched, with no reason given for falling in love with him apart from, well, just because. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68425915 to: House of Many Ways (Hardcover) by Diana Wynne Jones
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