A Far Better Thing, H. G. Parry

 

A Far Better Thing:  I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse by H. G. Parry.  I enjoyed The Scholar and the Last Faery Door, so I thought I would give this one a shot.

Started: October 12, 2025
Completed: October 24, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Media: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

It would have been better if I had realized that this was a sort of retelling of a A Tale of Two Cities.  This should not be a shock to anyone reading this review (and if it is, you're welcome).  So it should be clear where this book is headed.  Nonetheless, this is a good trip and I enjoyed it.  I got as attached to the characters as one should and enjoyed the development of several of them.  There were a couple of characters who were clearly foils and embodied their stereotypes to the fullest.  No harm in that.  The fairy pieces were interesting and well crafted, although the author created a fairy world that she could then not adequately describe which didn't leave much to the imagination so much as leave a little extra mystery.

The Sirens' Call, Chris Hayes

 

The Sirens' Call:  How attention became the world's most endangered resource by Chris Hayes

Started: October 12, 2025
Completed: October 18, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended

Media:  Audio
Recommended By: Barrack Obama

Review:

I do not follow Chris Hayes closely (perhaps that is sideways music to his ears), but I was quite surprised to see a reference to Epictetus show up in this book.  There is no reason a news anchor should not be well educated (and many reasons why they should be), but this borders on someone who actually has an interest in philosophy and his interest in other topics (like Death of a Salesman) could be a side-effect of having acted or could be a side-effect of a deep education.  I dunno what it is, but I like it and I think he would make an interesting person with whom to speak outside of the context of what he does for a living.

I wonder about the particular type of utopia he has in mind.  SPOILER ALERT.  I'm not sure that the return to a directed way of looking at the world (such as a physical copy of the New York Times or a vinal album) is where we are headed.  Surely there will be pockets of people who will use this kind of method to view the world and, perhaps, it will not be dwindling pockets.  In the end, however, I wonder if they will be sufficiently large to function as a brake on the rest of society.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo, P. Djèlí Clark

 

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark I read Ring Shout and enjoyed how this author wrote, so when I saw another of his books, I picked this one up!

Started: October 14, 2025
Completed: October 15, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is really a short story.  Clark does a huge amount of world building very succinctly and takes some commonly understood character types (djinn, for example) and plays with the stereotype (what if there was an immortal play boy who became besotted).  He also does a good job of crafting an investigator who must solve a mystery while throwing in a decent amount of her personal life.  Generally very well done.  The mystery is impossible to solve, but enjoyable none the less.

The Daughter of Odren, Ursula K. Le Guin

 

The Daughter of Odren by Ursula K. Le Guin is a book in the Earthsea Cycle

Started: October 13, 2025
Completed: October 13, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The key to Le Guin's magic in Earthsea is that in order to bring one thing to this place, it must come from that place.  There is a loss associated with magic and not simply a gain.  That is a critically important concept to my mind and switches magic from being "magical" to being a form of theft.  Sometimes this theft is appropriate and some times it is not.  It has felt to me in other books of Earthsea that Le Guin has explored that trade-off.  Here, however, there is much more the perspective of magic being simply gain without loss.  This time, she explores the hollowness of victory.  It is still a good story, but not the excellence I anticipate from an Earthsea lay.

The Spinning Heart, Donal Ryan

 

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

Started: October 7, 2025
Completed: October 13, 2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: I picked up the sequel without realizing that this book came first, so I had to read it.

Words for which I sought help:

craic -- fun, good times, an enjoyable atmosphere

creche -- a day nursery or full-day care center

culchie -- someone from rural Ireland

demesne -- the land attached to a country house or manor that is kept for the owner's own use, distinct from lands leased to tenants

dipsomaniac -- an alcoholic, especially one who experiences intermittent bouts of craving for alcohol

flaker -- an unreliable, eccentric, or unconventional person

mither -- fuss over or moan about something

quare -- strange, peculiar, or odd

solipsist -- a person who is very self-centered or selfish

tash -- a moustache

Review:

Oh, this was a delightfully odd book.  Each character is a chapter.  What develops is the community as a whole, not a single character (although there is one, Frank, who changes over the course of the book).  I just enjoyed it.  This is not a happy book and it is not an adventure.  It is, however, a real look at a community for good or bad from the people who live in the community.

The Big Myth, Oreskes and Conway

 

The Big Myth:  How American business taught us to loathe government and love the free market by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

Started: September 19, 2025
Completed: October 12, 2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The reality is that the "magic" of the free market is not really magic.  It is a drive to profitability and numerous examples (such as electrification of rural areas) detail how ineffective the free market can be.  Thus, the free market does need some bounds and some regulations (don't dump your waste into the river).  The big myth we have been sold is that the free market somehow solves things that "big government" cannot.  Yet actually looking at the data, "big government" is highly effective at helping address social ills.  That is because the free market and profitability do not necessary align with resolving social ills (indeed, child labor and slavery show that it can aggravate social ills).  Reagan's trickle down that never trickled is the heart of the data set that shows clearly how untempered self-interest does not make things better for us.  The dichotomy between free market capitalism and communism is a false dichotomy with a LOT of space in between.  Our liberty as a people is not at risk when the free market is properly supervised.

Erasing History, Jason Stanley

 

Erasing History:  How fascists rewrite the past to control the future by Jason Stanley

Started: 10/11/2025
Completed: 10/11/2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

It is interesting to hear how fascists fight to get rid of history.  It is important that the history of a fascist state be "good" and attributable to the fascists.  Stanley argues that a large part of the work happens in schools where history is codified among children.  This explains the focus on censorship of books in the school libraries.  The justification was that someone could always go to the regular library to read the book, but the regular library is coming under fire.

History is also better when viewed from many facets (several people can experience the same event in different ways).  Fascists, however, want to control the story (honestly, like everything else), so they want one history to be told (their history).  This is short book, but it is very clear and the topics covered are kept close to actual history and its erasure which allows for some context while at the same time applying brevity.  Very well done.