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.

Question 7, Richard Flanagan

 

Question 7, Richard Flanagan

Started: December 30, 2024
Completed: January 2, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: I cannot remember

Review:

This was an odd book in many ways.  The most striking thing was the odd use of tense which handled both being dead and being alive.  It was difficult to pick up on unsaid, but implied Australian/Tasmanian understandings.

AI Snake Oil, Narayanan and Kapoor

 

AI Snake Oil:  What artificial intelligence can do, what it can't, and how to tell the difference by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor

Started: December 26, 2024
Completed: December 30, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

There is a bit to this book which helps people understand the nature of outrageous claims.  The takeaway from me was the means by which AI companies claim the accuracy of their product (top 3, 5, 10, etc.)  In addition, treating AI with a broad brush is a disservice to those who are attempting to understand what it is reasonable for AI to accomplish.  So, at the least useful.  Not terribly gripping, so it is good that it is short.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina Garten

 

Be Ready When the Luck Happens:  A Memoir by Ina Garten

Started: 12/24/2024
Completed: 12/26/2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: My wife, I used to watch her cooking shows, The Barefoot Contessa

Review:

To a certain extent, this is lifestyles of the rich and famous.  Once you have built your second home or purchased an apartment in Paris so that you can rehab it, you have jumped into the rich.  Selling a bunch of cooking books and/or having your own cooking show probably puts you into the famous.  It wasn't always this way, but Ina's dad seemed to give her some background in real estate.  Her husband, Jefferey, was part of Lehman Brothers and then Yale.  So, young couple makes good, yes.  They had a pretty good start (taking time to wander France in their youth and both both attended very good colleges).  They had the money to invest in businesses and invested wisely most of the time.  Good for them!  A bit hard to relate, though.