The Strategists, Phillips Payson O'Brien

 

The Strategists:  Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Hitler how war made them and how they made war by Phillips Payson O'Brien

Started: January 24, 2025
Completed: February 2, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  This probably came to me through The Atlantic magazine where O'Brien is a frequent contributor

Review:

This book is neither history nor biography.  It looks at the development of strategic thinking of the major leaders during World War II.  To some extent it is amazing what we now know of how they thought.  It was also interesting to see what drove their thinking.  I cannot say that this will change my thinking (I don't operate on a global scale), but it was interesting to see how failure functioned and how success required deference.

Someone Like Us, Dinaw Mengestu

 

Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu

Started: January 13, 2025
Completed: January 20, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: I'm sure I read a review someplace, but I cannot remember where.

Review:

This is an oddly introspective book which is reminiscent of MC Escher's drawing of hands drawing hands:

There is also a playfulness with both tense and location.  This book is interesting in other ways as it looks at death from several different angles.  At one point, the narrator is told how to lie:  basically, use Steve Bannon's approach of "flooding the zone" with extraneous information so that it is difficult to tell what is the lie and what isn't and basically distracts the questioner from the question that was asked.  It was shocking to realize that this is what my own children did (I cannot count the number of times I pointed out that they had provided a lot of information without actually answering the question I had asked).  It must be a cultural thing that is common in many cultures, but seems to be lacking in American culture (or maybe it is simply lacking in my friend circle).

Night Watch, Jayne Anne Phillips

 

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

Started: January 14, 2025
Completed: January 19, 2025
Recommendation:  Not Recommended
Recommended By: The Pulitzer Prize Committee

Review:

Why is torture so important to prize winning novels?  This book had horrifying descriptions of systemic abuse.  I don't know what to say.  The prose was excellent, the character development was good, the plot was a little bit easy to see, but, on the other hand, there were good and reasonable twists.  I just couldn't get over the torture and will always remember this book with a chill.

The Cost of Free Land, Rebecca Clarren

 

The Cost of Free Land:  Jews, Lakota, and an American inheritance by Rebecca Clarren

Started: January 13, 2025
Completed: January 13, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a great look at how native Americans were pushed back from their land and how others benefitted.  More importantly, this is also a good book about how to try to heal the impact of that loss for the Lakota.  I have had the good fortune of meeting one of the decedents of Red Cloud and I have seen first hand the impact of native American disenfranchisement.  Clarren does  a good job of capturing the impact from a white person's point of view and also has done some deep soul searching to try and figure out how to make amends.  Truly a good book that is actually doing good.

The Anthropologists, Ayşegül Savaş

 

The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş

Started: January 13, 2025

Completed: January 13, 2025

Recommendation: Not recommended

Recommended By: Barack Obama

Review:

I dunno.  I guess that this book was supposed to be a character study and I just did not find it interesting.  The characters seemed flat and I simply did not care what happened to them.  Their lives seemed banal and maybe that was the point, but I really don't know.  It is hard to walk away from this book thinking anything but that this was sort of someone writing a book about what was just sort of happening nearby (person, woman, camera, etc.)  Maybe the problem isn't the book, it is that I'm too thick to get it.  It felt like modern art.  Something that almost anyone could write, but was somehow raised up on a pedestal.

The Hunger of the Gods, John Gwynne

 

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne is the next book in the Bloodsworn Saga

Started: January 3, 2025
Completed: January 12, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book feels like a Norse saga.  Without the detailed torture scenes this book would be highly recommended despite the violence.  The world building is excellent and it feels like, despite the high level of detail, no detail is unnecessary.  This is a large book, but it does not feel like anything is wasted.  The book is tight and thorough...maybe after reading subsequent books, I'll fell like the torture scenes are important (some people feel that way about books like Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, I just don't).

The Weight of Nature, Clayton Page Aldern

 

The Weight of Nature:  How a changing climate changes our brains by Clayton Page Aldern

Started: January 2, 2025
Completed: January 3, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommend
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

It is striking the way that the weather, environment, and even the sounds of nature impact humans.  I was aware of the physical risks of higher temperatures, but did not understand or properly consider the impact of all the other components of the environment and how those affect mental state, not just the physical ability to live.