This has been on the “to-read” list for awhile and I finally decided to check it out after Dr. Kendi did a (virtual) speaking event / QA session at our company.
We’re the same age and graduated high school the same year, so for me, this was an interesting contrast between my privileged white life and his life and the struggles that he and his family had to continuously faced because the deck is so continuously stacked against people of color.
I feel that this book is at its best when he shares vulnerable and deeply personal stories on his growth and evolving ideas of race, gender, and sexual preference.
This definitely provided a new perspective (for me) to consider when thinking about how lucky and privileged I’ve been and how much I’ve taken it for granted while others have struggled and sacrificed so much (up to and including their own lives).
Animals and livestock get some disease that means humans can’t eat them anymore. Sooooo… we turn to raising and farming humans to get our meat fix. Sounds like it could be an interesting plot for a dystopian novel (it kind of reminded me of Ashfall by Mike Mullin).
But really, what was I expecting?
I think the whole point of this book was to be provocative, shocking and straight up gruesome. And it was all those things. And more. Including horrible.
From the overly descriptive details of factory farming (no doubt taken from existing farming / slaughter methods used when processing cattle), to the poorly written prose, to the loathsome characters, this book had almost no redeeming qualities.
Somehow, I managed to finish it, despite feeling almost nauseous during certain passages. But I really feel like it was a waste of time and I am a worse person for it. Definitely one of my least liked novels that I’ve read in a long, long time.
I enjoyed this story about the founding fathers of behavioral economics and their seemingly unlikely friendship. Their work has influenced so many aspects of our lives.
We also learn about a number of their experiments, the how and why behind them, and what it ultimately means. Some of the examples were pretty jaw dropping and I found myself falling for some of the same fallacies they were pointing out. M
We are really irrational creatures.
Interestingly, I read Thinking, Fast and Slow a few years ago and just now realized that the author of that book is one of the psychologists that this book is about!
Quick read about the history of money in all its various forms. The historical aspects of this book are really interesting (and it delves into everything from the creation of paper currency, to stock exchanges, to digital currencies) though it never does a deep dive into any particular topic.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the writing style is really off-putting. It reads almost like a conversation or transcript and this maybe explains why it never digs into any topic with much detail.
That said, it was still interesting and is probably worth it to file away some of the knowledge for a trivia night at the local pub.
I love Sir David Attenborough and was excited to read this. It’s one part biography, another part dire warning letter to those of us who will be alive long after David Attenborough departs this world, and one part hope, talking about the things we are doing now and in the near future to (hopefully, maybe) avoid a climate disaster.
The first half of the book is definitely not a happy-feel-good story. He writes a letter to us and future generations, warning of the changes he has seen in his lifetime and the changes yet to happen due to climate change and our affect on the planet.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. He gives an overview of some of the sustainable ideas and technologies that various individuals, companies and even some governments are working on and the massive benefits they have if they are scaled up. It gives some hope that we might (maybe, hopefully) can turn things around. But time is definitely running out.
And given how people have generally responded to wearing masks and social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, we probably don’t have much hope.
Robert Macfarlane has to be one of my favorite nature writers as of late. His latest, Underland, takes us on a journey to the ground beneath our feet. The book focuses on a number of discrete stories and adventures, all of which are unified simply due to the fact that they take place in the ground beneath our feet and uses these experiences to describe the concept of “deep time”.
What is deep time?
For deep time is measured in units that humble the human instant: millennia, epochs and aeons, instead of minutes, months and years. Deep time is kept by rock, ice, stalactites, seabed sediments and the drift of tectonic plates. Seen in deep time, things come alive that seemed inert. New responsibilities declare themselves. Ice breathes. Rock has tides. Mountains rise and fall. We live on a restless Earth.
A few other reviews on Goodreads have mentioned that they felt the book didn’t ultimately have a point. I kind of agree with that — you could almost treat each section as its own short story.
That said, I loved every moment of it. Each section was beautifully written and I loved reading Macfarlane reflect on his experiences, reflecting on the things we are leaving behind for future generations, and pondering what each place (or the idea of each place) he visited means in the greater scheme of things to humanity.
Perhaps above all, the Anthropocene compels us to think forwards in deep time, and to weigh what we will leave behind, as the landscapes we are making now will sink into the strata becoming the underlands. What is the history of things to come? What will be our future fossils? As we have amplified our ability to shape the world, so we become more responsible for the long afterlives of that shaping. The Anthropocene asks of us the question memorably posed by the immunologist Jonas Salk: ‘Are we being good ancestors?
I loved the first half of this book. A young woman living in France during the early 1700’s makes a deal with the devil (The Darkness) before an arranged marriage she wants no part in. However, due to how she phrased her request (you might say, “the devil is in the details“), the devil gives her the ability to live forever, but no one will ever remember her — this leads to situations where people forget who she is the moment she walks through a doorway.
Anyway, the first half of the book mostly dealt with her experience in the immediate aftermath and then a varying number of years down the road. The second half of the book takes place in more recent times and I couldn’t totally get into it due to a newer character that gets introduced and their desires, motivations, and personality.
My favorite parts were flashbacks to various points in history, where she is experiencing new / different places and figuring out the limits of this curse / deal that she had made.
Finally, there is an interesting little plot twist with this new character that comes to light in the last quarter of the story that ends up affecting how the book ultimately ends. But I still really had to force myself to finish the second half.
There is a lot inside American Oligarchs that has been mentioned in other places before, but this is a nice compendium documenting the pervasive lies and corruption that exist at every level within the Trump and Kushner companies, organizations, and families (which are all one and the same, really) and a lot irony. Sweet, sweet irony.
The story of the Trump family proves that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. DJT’s grandfather, Frederick, left Germany at an early age and avoiding the mandatory service (!!) with the Bavarian army (this would later cause him to lose his citizenship). He settled down in the Pacific Northwest and owned a number of hotels and restaurants during the Klondike Gold Rush, some of which were allegedly involved of illicit activities of various sorts. He died in 1918 due to complications with the Spanish flu.
The story of the Kushners is interesting and tragic. Jared Kushner’s grandparents and extended family were rounded up by Nazis during World War II. Some members were murdered, and others sent to concentration camps where they eventually made a daring escape. After the war, Jared’s grandparents were displaced people without a home. Few countries wanted to take Jewish refugees, especially those lacking proper documentation.
In more recent times, both families have displayed fairly dubious business skills, while projecting an air of confidence (but come across as desperate for acceptance and recognition). Cross them the wrong way and they will hold grudges for life.
Despite this, they have somehow always managed to fail upward. Sadly, this now has some pretty drastic consequences for our democracy.
If you didn’t want to eat the rich before this book, you’ll feel like you’re ready for a five-course meal of cooked oligarch once you’ve finished. We have some serious issues to fix and we should start by locking all of these fine folks up.
Those who know me are aware of my intense love for the Dodgers. Despite living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 10 years now, it’s something that I haven’t been able to shake.
This year marks the 25th anniversary since the Dodgers last won the World Series. Because of this, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to read Miracle Men, which takes a look at the scrappy Dodgers team that ultimately went on to win the World Series in 1988.
For the most part, the book is fairly dry read, mostly rehashing play-by-plays from various games during the course of the 1988 season. I’d wager this sort of thing is less exciting than reading a game recap from the night before. That said, it was fascinating to read about so many baseball players that are tied to some of my earliest memories of baseball: Steve Sax, Orel Hershiser, Mike Scioscia, Ramon Martinez, Tim Belcher, Mikey Hatcher, and more.
The areas where this book excelled and became completely interesting were in some of the deeper stories — Hershiser’s pursuit of the consecutive scoreless innings streak, early clubhouse shenanigans during spring training that offended Kirk Gibson, interviews with players on other teams 25 years later, and of course reflections on Kirk Gibson’s incredible home run in game 1 of the World Series.
Some of my biggest takeaways were how different the game was played only 25 years ago. Managers completely abused their pitchers (130 and 140 pitch complete games were the norm, pitching on 2 or 3 days of rest were fine). It surprised me to find out how often balks were called (over 900 times in 1988). Insane!
Bottom line, you’ll probably only enjoy this book if you’re a Dodgers fan. On top of that, you’ll most likely only want to read it for some of the more interesting stories that happened in 1988. It’s a quick read and provides some interesting context on how a scrappy team wound up beating on of the most intimidating teams in baseball in the World Series.
