things.i.bought.and.liked

february photo dump ❤️💋🌹

Strangers is memoir as spectacle: extreme wealth, staggering naïveté, and a marriage to a true sociopath. It’s compulsively readable largely because of the rarified air it’s set in. Strip away the privilege and it’s a cautionary tale we wouldn’t call “literary.”

Where it works is in the granular detail of a luxury implosion and flashes of genuine self-interrogation. If you loved The End of Normal, this will be catnip. And if you start here and haven’t read Madoff’s memoir yet, add it to the TBR immediately. 9.1/10

January photo dump.

7.8/10 Culpability held my attention and starts with an intriguing premise, but the ex*****on falters. The pacing feels uneven, building toward high stakes that ultimately resolve with surprisingly diminished consequences. It also commits one of my personal pet peeves: labeling every algorithm as “AI.” While not technically incorrect, it’s about as meaningful as when the internet was rebranded as “the cloud” for no clear reason. Overall, it’s an interesting story, but I wouldn’t call it thought provoking, especially for anyone who has ever given more than passing consideration to ethics.