Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner ๐๐
I've read four Stegner novels, saving his Pulitzer for the last. This one tested my patience for 500 pages, then delivered a spectacular ending. I'm glad I stuck with it.
books.robertbreen.com/2025/11/03/a... #Books
#LiteraryFiction #AmericanLit
A comparison of privacy labels for three apps, showing Day One with various data linked to the user, Bear with diagnostics data not linked to the user, and Obsidian with no data collected.
Day One is doubling down on AI journaling: dayoneapp.com/blog/introdu...
I've written thousands of entries in Day One, but I'm not enabling these features. Not yet.
These are the Wild West days of AI โ think carefully before handing over your most private thoughts. ๐
#DayOne #Privacy #AI
๐๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐น๐ช๐ฏ๐จ by Joyce Carol Oates ๐๐
The least likely boxing writer turns out to be a genuine fan. Poetic, fascinating โ but the essays repeat themselves when read as a book. โ
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#Books #Boxing
books.robertbreen.com/2025/11/01/o...
Emerson's wisdom: simple to understand, hard to practice. Trust yourself. Be present. *Self-Reliance and Other Essays* ๐๐
books.robertbreen.com/2025/10/22/s...
#Books #Essays #Emerson
Finished reading: So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan ๐๐
One new story (and two reprints) from Claire Keegan, the master of compressing so much into so few words. Men behaving very badly ought to be the sub-title here. As with all of her stories, these will haunt you long after you finish. โ
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Finished reading: Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed ๐๐
A wonderful collection of essays written by Cheryl Strayed as part of an advice column under the pseudonym โDear Sugar.โ Terrific, heartfelt advice on just about every aspect of life. I loved it. โ
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Full Review.
A backyard scene at night features a glowing fire pit in the foreground withA backyard scene at night features a glowing fire pit in the foreground with people relaxing by a brightly lit swimming pool. people relaxing by a brightly lit swimming pool.
Weโve lived in Phoenix for four years now, but only recently put in a pool. Itโs almost a necessity here in the summer months. The project finished just as a heat wave descended on the West Valley. What a perfect way to enjoy a slightly cooler evening with friends.
Finished reading: The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis ๐๐
A bleak science fiction tale from one of the 20th Centuryโs most under-appreciated novelists. โ
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Full Review.
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โYour Frustration Is the Productโ:
Web ads have become awful and invasive. In his commentary, John Gruber shares that he uses uBlock Origin Lite in Safari for ad blocking in Safari.
I have avoided these apps until now. But this was a no-brainer. Free. One-click install.
Join the resistance!
Finished reading: The Hustler by Walter Tevis ๐
A fun read for anyone with a passing interest in pool or gambling or gritty city life. Or if youโve seen the movie with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. โ
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โ books.robertbreen.com/2026/03/09/the-hustler-b...
Love this! I wish I were closer to join!
A heart-breaking memoir from Yiyun Li about losing two sons to suicide. There's often little you can say to parent who's lost a child. But sometimes the words from a fellow sufferer get through. This book was one of those.โ โ
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@appletwigli.bsky.social
books.robertbreen.com/2025/11/29/t...
I love this!
"If you want to write, practice writing. Practice it for hours a day, not to come up with a story you can publish, but because you long to learn how to write well, because there is something that you alone can say."
โ Ann Patchett, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
"We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected. Reverence is a great part of it. Treat your friend as a spectacle."
โ Ralph Waldo Emerson
An iPhone screen displays the "Display & Text Size" settings menu, with options for bold text, larger text, button shapes, on/off labels, transparency reduction, contrast increase, and color differentiation.
This is the way.
Uggh.
What????!?!
"There is nothing so often condemned, and so deeply loved, as the past."
โ Will Durant
Finished reading: The Best American Essays 2024 ๐๐
Iโm on an essay kick, and the latest โBest Americanโ series provided a wide range of thought-provoking takes and introduced me to some new voices. I share my five favorite essays in the full review. โ
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Full review.
Rats are invading strollers in and around Central Park:
"Theyโre bold. You can stomp your foot all you want, but theyโre New York City rats. They are not afraid."
Those many years on an island in Washington state taught me all about rats. But here in NYC? They really are something else.
"What absurd victims of contrary desires we are! If a man is settled in one place he yearns to wander; when he wanders he yearns to have a home. And yet how bestial is content โ all the great things in life are done by discontented people."
Christopher Morley
The 15โ M4 MacBook Air: robertbreen.micro.blog/2025/09/02/the-m-macbook...
Nancy Pearlโs Revised โRule of 50โ:
"When you are 51 years of age or older, subtract your age from 100, and the resulting number is the pages you should read before you can guiltlessly give up on a book โฆ When you turn 100, you are authorized (by the Rule of 50) to judge a book by its cover."
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Iโm late to the discovery of @annahavronโs wonderful Analog Office blog. Her Lumpers vs Splitters post on whether to keep one notebook for everything or many specialized notebooks is pure gold. Anna could write about staplers, and I would read it. Full disclosure: I am and forever will be a lumper.
The Kobo-Instapaper integration has officially launched, replacing the now defunct Pocket app for reading articles on the ereader. Iโm curious to know if highlights made on Kobo sync back to Instapaper (and thus to Readwise). If so, this could be the tipping point for this long-time Kindle owner.
The mental health benefits of not knowing any history right now must be massive. Moving through your day with total equanimity. What happens next? Who knows? Maybe something good
"To see a thousand objects for the first and for the last time, what can be deeper and more melancholy? To travel is to be born and to die at every instant."
โ Victor Hugo from Les Misรฉrables
I love this! Congratulations!
