That sounds like such a dull and vague question that a nine year old would ask his Dad, but after reading this book, you know exactly why China is the way it is. He also wrote, directed and produced three seasons of the sci-fi/comedy web series THE COFFEE TABLE; and wrote and starred in the horror/comedy play H.

Still, the author somehow managed to keep me reading until the end, even though sometimes I was lost and wondering what was going on. In fact, I’m still closer to that blabbering stoned idiot in my friend’s garage than I am to Hofstadter’s monumental work.It’s like there’s some rule that real stuff can only get mentioned if everybody rolls their eyes or laughs in a way that isn’t happy. However, it's really a book about family and how some families can be destructive for those in them. There are rumors about life outside the building; its lobby and parking lot, and where exactly the front-end staff go when they leave at night, but no one seems to know for sure.

And to make matters worse, many of the first scenes of the book (which take place in the high courts of the Russian aristocracy) include passages in French, requiring you to check the footnotes for translations. When the surrounding environment changes and new challenges arise, there is often a disjunction between existing institutions and present needs. I'm a sucker for books that takes place in England and for teen mental health stories, so I had high hopes for this book.I won’t spoil his answers, but here are a few hints: empathy is overrated, reason and literacy are way underrated, governments are better than people think, and religion is, well… hate to piss in the punch bowl, but religion is responsible for a lot of violence. Then I read Godel, Escher, Bach and realized that I didn’t even begin to know what the fuck I was talking about.

I could read literally anything else and have a better time so I won’t make myself finish this for the sake of finishing it. Mom is thoroughly despicable from the beginning and it is heartbreaking to watch Carmen wrestle with the demons that want her to resist and become her at the same time. I did not pity or sympathise with her despite the problems she was going through, which in hindsight were pretty bad, but her 'personality' was just so poorly portrayed I couldn't muster any real emotion for her, or any of the characters actually. objectively, but for me personally the Birmingham connection bumps it up and I'd give it a 3 (just).

With over 400 puzzles – from easy to killer Sudoku – this is the very biggest collection on the market. According to history, Fukuyama says, size of government doesn’t matter nearly as much as the quality of government.