When Of Dice and Men is at its best, David M. Ewalt paints an interesting tale that follows the birth, demise, and rebirth of both Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop role-playing. While the territory of the game’s history isn’t new, Ewalt nevertheless wrote a fan’s history, which painted a tough by understandable picture of the original founders.
I asked our readers to tell us their favorite books about fathers and dads. You responded in grand fashion. Here is our non-scientifically curated list. Spoilers: It doesn’t always end well.
At its best, the book’s narrative is a pleasant mix of well-reported histories of the Trail’s development that include short biographies of the main players, descriptions of the major roadblocks, and clear exposition explaining how those events led to creative solutions.
Roger May launched his Kickstarter project so that he could create the story he wanted for an audience that cared.
Funder’s story paints a picture of daily life in East Berlin under the brutal watch of the Stasi, the sector’s secret police. She spends her time fluttering from citizen to Stassi to citizen, at each stop painting beautiful portraits of a life stuck in a particular time.
Still, it’s contribution to the larger story of Congressional dysfunction can’t be undersold. Taken together with books such as Lawrence Lessig’s Republic, Lost (which the authors argue is a well-written critique but ultimately unrealistic in its goal), one can begin to understand the deep, underlying forces that have disrupted traditional governance — at least on a federal level — in the United States.
The book is a series of essays that deconstruct the concerns people express about technology in general and the Web in specific. It’s divided into four parts — Untangling Me, Untangling Us, Untangling Society, and Untangling the Future — each of which explores individual ideas that you’ve heard people discuss.
Susan Jacoby’s book is at its best when she’s weaving together her philosophical take on intellectualism and elitism with failings in modern education, American citizens, and public debate.