Review - The Drafting Table

Mini-Reviews 2021

Last year was a busy year on the personal front (due to a growing family) so I didn't have as much time to write reviews of things I read compared to previous years. Still, I wanted to have some highlights and notes to reference in future posts; the collection below

History

The Left Bank of the Rhine

This post contains a review of Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country by Simon Winder, along with a bit of programming practice I did recently. Lotharingia is a history/travel book about the swath of Europe where French and Germanic cultural regions come into contact—and frequently, over

Book

Monsoon Prospect

Here's the promised forward-looking Part 2 to the historical book reviews from Part 1. In the previous part of this series, I wrote about some of the history of the Indian Ocean. In this part, I'll be looking at the geopolitical outlook of the region (including the South China Sea

History

Monsoon Legacy

This post is the first part of a two-part series I have planned. It is about the history of trade on the western Indian Ocean and is based on reviews of a couple of books I read this year. Part two will look forward at possible developments in that region.

environment

Harvesting Algae and Other Parts of the Biosphere

This post is a rambling review of a couple of books and a technical paper that are all around a common theme of obtaining renewable resources from photosynthesis. The books I'll be covering in this post are Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil and Slime by Ruth Kassinger. It's my

Book

10 Books Before '20

At the start of September, a friend on Facebook issued a challenge to read 10 books before the end of the year. I decided to share the brief reviews I wrote here. The rules allowed for books you were in the middle of when the challenge was issued, so the

Book

Polynesian Pacific

Sorry about having such a long gap between posting. I've been on a couple of business trips, and when I've been home my social calendar and the hot weather haven't left many good opportunities to sit down at my computer and write. Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina

Book

Centuries of Rice and Salt

I usually only write reviews of non-fiction books that I read but a novel I read recently was different enough from typical fiction that I thought I'd make an exception. The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson, is an alternate history novel. It starts with a world

Movies & TV

Recently Watched: 3 Foreign-Language Films

This post is just a few quick reviews of some movies I've watched recently. Incendies is a French-Canadian movie from 2010. It was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It is directed by Denis Villeneuve (who's done a few other movies I like); it's been on my list

Book

Sand and Soil

This post contains reviews of a couple of books I've read recently. They relate to a similar theme as the previous post—how people are reshaping the earth. About the Books Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by Dr. David R. Montgomery is about the history of soil as a requirement

Art

Images of the Anthropocene

When I went to the AGO back in the fall I mentioned that there was an upcoming exhibit I wanted to see called "Anthropocene". I didn't make it back to the gallery while it was on, so I watched the accompanying film on iTunes. Anthropocene was made by

Book

The Basics of Complexity

This fall I read a couple of books about complexity: A Crude Look at the Whole by John H. Miller and Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell. For my final post of the year (except for an upcoming year in review post), I've reviewed these books and the concepts

Book

Facts, Forecasts, & Figures

If you're looking for a break from the doom-and-gloom in the news, this post is for you (I'll also suggest this one from last year). Below, I share reviews of two books—so it won't be a short read and I'd recommend grabbing a cup of coffee. Factfulness by Hans

Travel

fietspaden en droge voeten

This is my final post based off of my trip to the Netherlands. It focuses on reviewing a book about land reclamation and flood control infrastructure in the Netherlands and sharing a couple of bike trips I took out into the countryside around Amsterdam and Rotterdam to see some of

Book

Pirates and Vikings

This post contains 2.1 book reviews. The two books are The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates by Peter T. Leeson and The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings by Lars Brownworth. The extra 10 percent is two chapters from David Friedman's book Legal Systems Very Different

History

Steppe Cycle

This post is a review of Water on Sand: Environmental Histories of the Middle East and North Africa. The chapters have different authors and mostly stand on their own; the editor of the whole volume is Alan Mikhail. One of the things I've read a fair bit about (although never

Math

Circles and Triangles

This post is about a book on geometry that I read last year (finishing up over the holidays). Beautiful Geometry was written by Eli Maor and Eugen Jost. Each of its 51 chapters explains a topic in geometry and presents an artistic plate illustrating it. In addition to the artistic

Movies & TV

Documentary Notes

Over the holidays I watched some documentaries on Netflix. I thought I'd share some of the things I found interesting for my first post of 2018. To start with, here are a couple of great clips from some BBC nature documentaries: Human Planet showed a traditional narwhal hunt from kayaks:

Book

There Really Is a Tree

This is my final post for the year (not counting a year in review summary planned for a week from now) and it is a book review I've been saving for Christmas. The book is Every Good Endeavor: Connecting your work to God's work by Tim Keller. Tim Keller is

Book

Salt makes you Thirst

This post contains reviews of a couple of history books that I read this fall: Salt and Thirst. The former is about salt as an ingredient, preservative, and commodity; the latter is about approaches to water management in various ancient societies. Salt Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky looks

Board Games

Storytelling Outside the Box

This post comprises a board game review and an interactive map I made, joined by the common theme of non-traditional storytelling. Rogues to Riches is a story-telling board game, created by Sam Fraser in Halifax. I backed it on Kickstarter a few years ago, but only got the print-and-play version;

Book

Putting Civilization in the Sea

This post is a book review. The title is an allusion to another one I wrote earlier this year. Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians was written by Joe Quirk with contributions by Patri Friedman and was

Book

Quantified Conservation

This post is a review of the book Quantified: Redefining Conservation for the Next Economy, by Joe Whitworth. At the start of this year, I included a TEDx talk he did in a post I wrote and mentioned that this book was on my reading list. I found Quantified to

Review

Orbiting Kerbin

A coworker recently recommended the game Kerbal Space Program (KSP) to me. I've been enjoying it. I don’t spend a lot of time gaming, but from time to time I like to get into one. I especially like open-ended games (where you choose what to do instead of following

History

Putting the "Sea" in Civilization

This post is about a book I finished reading recently. Compared to many of the book reviews I've written, this one took longer to read but the review is maybe a bit shorter. The Sea & Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine is an ambitious overview