Ben Smithgall

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Bit pusher at Spotify. Previously Interactive News at the New York Times, U.S. Digital Service, and Code for America.

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Books

Title Author Rating
2019-12-28 The Sprawl Trilogy William Gibson ★★★★☆
2019-12-10 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole ★★★★☆
2019-11-14 The Idiot Elif Batuman ★★★★☆
2019-11-05 Sula Toni Morrison ★★★★★
2019-10-21 Play It as It Lays Joan Didion ★★★☆☆
2019-10-17 Nixonland Rick Perlstein ★★★★☆
2019-10-02 Through Two Doors at Once Anil Ananthaswamy ★★★★☆
2019-09-12 Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler ★★★★☆
2019-09-01 Fall; or, Dodge in Hell Neal Stephenson ★★☆☆☆
2019-08-17 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng ★★★★★
2019-08-10 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson ★★★☆☆
2019-08-02 The Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury ★★☆☆☆
2019-07-26 Conversations with Friends Sally Rooney ★★★☆☆
2019-07-20 Blue Mars Kim Stanley Robinson ★★★★★
2019-07-10 Ubik Philip K. Dick ★★★☆☆
2019-07-06 A Wild Sheep Chase Haruki Murakami ★★★☆☆
2019-07-02 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff ★★★★☆
2019-06-29 Green Mars Kim Stanley Robinson ★★★★★
2019-06-12 Numero Zero Umberto Eco ★★★★☆
2019-05-23 Children of Ruin Adrian Tchaikovsky ★☆☆☆☆
2019-05-22 The Fifth Risk Michael Lewis ★★★★☆
2019-05-17 Red Mars Kim Stanley Robinson ★★★★★
2019-05-10 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick ★★★★★
2019-04-30 Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune Frank Herbert ★★★★☆
2019-03-14 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco ★★★★★
2019-03-01 Player Piano Kurt Vonnegut ★★★★☆
2019-02-15 Nocturnes Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★☆☆
2019-02-11 REAMDE Neal Stephenson ★★★★☆
2019-02-09 The Mysteries of Pittsburgh Michael Chabon ★★★★☆
2019-02-04 What Kind of Creatures Are We? Noam Chomsky ★★★★☆
2019-02-01 Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson ★★★☆☆
2019-01-06 Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup John Carreyrou ★★★★★
2019-01-05 Winners Take All Anand Giridharadas ★★★★☆
2019-01-04 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov ★★★★☆
2018-12-31 The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland ★★★★☆
2018-12-29 Anathem Neal Stephenson ★★★★★
2018-12-24 Bullshit Jobs: A Theory David Graeber ★★★☆☆
2018-12-16 The Player of Games Iain Banks ★★★☆☆
2018-12-04 Weapons of Math Destruction Cathy O'Neil ★★★★☆
2018-11-26 The Story of the Lost Child (The Neapolitan Novels, #4) Elena Ferrante ★★★★★
2018-11-19 Red Plenty Francis Spufford ★★★★★
2018-10-31 The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs ★★★★★
2018-10-08 Provenance Ann Leckie ★★★☆☆
2018-10-07 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (The Neapolitan Novels, #3) Elena Ferrante ★★★★★
2018-10-06 On Photography Susan Sontag ★★★★☆
2018-09-26 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari ★★☆☆☆
2018-09-12 No Logo Naomi Klein ★★★☆☆
2018-08-25 The Story of a New Name (The Neapolitan Novels, #2) Elena Ferrante ★★★★★
2018-08-14 Pachinko Min Jin Lee ★★★★★
2018-08-12 Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 1 Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★★★
2018-07-20 The Association of Small Bombs Karan Mahajan ★★★★☆
2018-07-16 The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante ★★★☆☆
2018-07-09 Norse Mythology Neil Gaiman ★★★★☆
2018-07-09 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco ★★★★☆
2018-07-05 My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1) Elena Ferrante ★★★★★
2018-06-07 The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin Corey Robin ★★★★★
2018-05-28 Optimism over Despair: On Capitalism, Empire, and Social Change Noam Chomsky ★☆☆☆☆
2018-05-15 Olympos (Ilium, #2) Dan Simmons ★★☆☆☆
2018-05-05 Ilium (Ilium, #1) Dan Simmons ★★★★☆
2018-04-23 The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon ★★★★☆
2018-04-11 The Sellout Paul Beatty ★★★★☆
2018-04-06 Galápagos Kurt Vonnegut ★★★★★
2018-03-22 The Perfect Nanny Leïla Slimani ★★★★☆
2018-03-16 Against Everything: Essays Mark Greif ★★★☆☆
2018-03-06 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami ★★★★☆
2018-02-25 The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) N.K. Jemisin ★★★★☆
2018-02-21 The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2) N.K. Jemisin ★★★★☆
2018-02-20 Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia Steven Stoll ★★★★☆
2018-02-15 The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) N.K. Jemisin ★★★★☆
2018-02-08 The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle #6) Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★★★
2018-02-05 Minority Report and Other Stories Philip K. Dick ★★★★☆
2018-02-01 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ★★★★☆