Motley Kamuka

Gravity's Arc  by by David Darling is a fun book in which I am learning a lot. It's way past what I need to teach my 4th grade daughter about gravity. Strato is an interesting cat. Roger Bacon is an interesting cat. Nicolo Tartaglia is an interesting cat.  Darts was a game developed to help people learn ballistics for the military. I had a darts phase my senior year in high school, and would drink beers and play darts in the basement. I got a boars hair dartboard. 

  They took down this photo, as part of the pedophile's vision to not admit to any mistakes about slavery, or make anyone feel bad, in his love for white supremacy, and tyranny. There's a part of me that wants to reread Greenblatt's Tyranny, about Shakespeare's presentation of tyrants. Maybe I should read Hannah Arendt's article "Lying in Politics." My pile of books started today with Gravity's Arc by by David Darling. History of science is really fun to me. Leviathan Wakes was only half read in the month I had to read it. I both feel released from the obligation to read it, and I want to finish it. I also have Zeal by Jerkins to finish, so now I have 2 books hanging around my neck, and I don't think I should take up a book club book until I finish these two books. I'm always reading Right Concentration by Leigh Brasington, and Tibetan Mysticism by Govinda, because I have to read dharma every day. I'm also reading Jack Kornfield's L...

Ty Franck & Daniel Abraham By James S.A. Corey. It turns out this is the pen name for  Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck . This is the first of 9 books that was the basis of the Expanse TV show, which I've seen. There's a handy dandy wiki for the Expanse universe . If I read 18 pages a day, I can read the novel in a month before my book club meets. I wonder their writing process. Do they write a few chapters, and send it to each other, and then talk about how to order the chapters?  The outer belt is kind of the wild west. Humans have colonized the solar system, and are all over the place. The division of culture aren't between Manhattanites and New Jersey dwellers, it's between outter rims and inner dwellers.  There are great distances, and you knock yourself out for high g travel.  I was a long way out when I started reading this book and it was only 18 pages a day I needed to do, but I didn't follow the pace, and so now I need to burn 41 pages a day to make ...

Rebecca. F. Kuang  is a 29 year old woman born in China, came to the USA when she was 4. She grew up in Dallas Texas. She went to Georgetown, Cambridge, Oxford and Yale. Yellowface is her 5th novel.  The novel raises many interesting questions. I went for a walk and listened to the first 4 chapters, and I was bewitched, amazed, thoroughly enjoyed it. Could be called Whiteface because it's an Asian writer writing from a white person's perspective, about a white woman who takes on the persona of a writer about Asian experience. The irony of that, with this narrative is one of the golden threads of the novel.  Didn't know Juniper Song or June Hayward was white until it was fully disclosed, though I did ask the question. It's a glorious tale of jealousy and envy. It's giving me all kinds of squishy uncomfortable feelings I associate with good writing.  I love the novel, it's amazing. It's a page turner, so well written.  I'm 1/3 done now but I absolutely lo...

I don't know if films are trying to make it more acceptable, or to talk about what is actually happening. I'm thinking of 2 movies and a falconer, and some stars. The Nazi Lazio falconer was dismissed after he got a penis implant. That's not fiction, that's real life. I'm not sure what a penis implant has to do with being fired, I would hope the Nazi bit would be what got him fired.  Nicole Holofcener has a man get plastic surgery in her last film You Hurt My Feelings (2023). Fellow gets the bags under his eyes taken care of. First time I've seen that in a movie.  Then I just saw The Materialist (2025) and the Pedro Pascal character got the heightening surgery. I can't unsee the horrible things they did to Val Kilmer's face. Not a fan of what they did to Mickey Rourke's face either. Or maybe I should say they chose to do to themselves. 

So I'm finishing up listening to The Woman Who Would Be King : Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney. What an amazing book! Enjoyed this book, because Cooney is good at saying, we don't really know, but with these circumstances we do know, they probably had some of these issues. Hatshepsut was a woman pharaoh and that was unusual. I like people who push the boundaries.  Went to the Met twice to see her statue, and the gallieries were closed! I looked through the Met book on her ( PDF online here ). Really enjoyed learning about Hatshepsut.  After I'm done with that, hopefully today, I'll start Yellowface for my book club. I went for a walk and listened to the first 4 chapters, and wow! I'm not sure I've enjoyed a novel like this before. It's amazing.  I feel quite a pressure to get through 3 books for my book club who have meetings early August. I've got to really crank and quit watching movies (my Letterboxd diary ) and Anime ...