The Price of Civilization, Jeffrey D. Sachs

The Price of Civilization:  Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by Jeffrey D. Sachs was an audio book that I picked up at a library sale in a local Farmer's Market.

Started: August 2015

Completed: End of September 2015

Recommendation:  This book is already several years out of date, but many of the principles apply.  I think the value of the book will go down as time goes on and many of the underlying assumptions are no longer valid.

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

This is not a "sky is falling" popular economics book.  Rather, it is an investigative look at the economic position of the United States circa 2010 and what can be done to remedy the economic situation.  The economics of the book are guided by broader social issues, particularly poverty, and the general issue of disenfranchisement of the individual.  Sachs makes extensive use of the term "Corporatocracy" to describe the current political situation in the United States.  The fundamental premise of the book is that income inequality is being driven by a free market economy to the detriment of the poor.  Dr. Sachs has a history of trying to help the poor and he feels that this can best be done through an emphasis on support institutions to include education.  He would divert considerable sums from other activities (such as war) to invest in children of chronically poor families in the hope that the history of poverty can be changed.

His arguments are compelling and his willful desire to help others is evident.  His disdain for corporate opportunism in the face of governments trying to find work and economic advantage for their constituents is emphasized by his feeling that governments should coordinate (some might say collude) to insure that a corporate tax base is not constantly eroded as increasingly global corporations pursue the location of lowest taxes.  Recent developments suggest that at least Dr. Sachs is not the only one to think this kind of thing should be stopped and may offer third party credence to his concepts.  On the other hand, it is possible that his analysis of this particular issue is just riding down a well-trodden economic path of which I am unaware.

It is clear from this work, however, that the economics problems of the United States cannot be resolved in any way by reducing government or continuing to reduce taxes.  Since it simply is not possible to get blood from a stone, it seems unlikely that raising taxes on the poor or even the middle class (by class, I mean class of wage earners, not some indistinct social class).  Like everyone these days, Dr. Sachs jumps on the concept of closing loopholes in the tax code (this is common sense that only eludes politicians who want to stay in office more than helping the USA), but shows that simply closing loopholes is not nearly enough.  The rich are going to have to contribute more.  If for no other reason, then that they have the money, the rich are going to be the subject of increased taxes.  Sheer growth cannot sustain us and the illusion that there is some sort of causal link between reduced taxes on the rich and growth has been thoroughly debunked (one-sided analysis from Salon and a more unbiased analysis from the International Monetary Fund).  Likewise government excesses and mismanagement (though present) make up such a tiny portion of the deficit and debt that making fixes in those areas are a red herring.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, along with Unemployment, government retirement, and veteran's benefits (generally referred to as "mandatory" spending for a good reason) comprise the largest section of the budget.  The remainder is literally broken into two equal halves (defense and everything else).  The Congressional Budget Office created a nice graphic showing this split.  Dr. Sachs points to defense as a place to realize substantial reductions (he advocates cutting it in half) and additional taxes on the rich as a place to reduce the deficit.  He offsets some of these gains, however, by increasing spending on the poor (e.g. increasing the food stamps program and grants/aid for education).  The net still is a reduction in deficit which is greatly needed.

As time goes on, however, our opportunity to take the reigns and resolve our budget deficit issues without saddling future generations to Greek style Austerity Programs is swiftly sliding through our fingers.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk:  A modest Bestiary by David Sedaris is a collection of the humorists works with an animal theme.  My wife and I decided to read this on long trips.

Started:  6/21/2015

Completed:  6/21/2015

Recommendation:  Mildly Funny

Recommended By:  Nobody, we have both enjoyed David Sedaris

Review:

These are funny, but not split your sides funny.  We enjoyed most of the stories (except one which clearly involved animal testing and we just couldn't read that one).  David Sedaris seems to be obsessed with loss of eyes in this book.

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is the first book in the Thursday Next series.  It looked like a fun spoof on Jane Eyre.  My wife is reading this book to me on long drives.

Started:  Cannot Remember

Completed:  6/21/2015

Recommendation:  Fun Read

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Full of lots of puns, word play, and horrible jokes at the expense of great literature, this book examples an alternate universe in which the great books play a much bigger part of everyday life then they do here and now.  The characters in books can even, sometimes, come into this world and vice versa.  The literature police (with Thursday Next leading the Swindon office), however, do their best to straighten up any mishaps (even going so far as to fix Jane Eyre's ending :) ).  This time travelling, alternate universe, romp though literature involves all kinds of action, mystery, and even evil for the sake of evil.  Join Thursday as she fights to straighten things out in literature (and even addresses the long war in the Crimea).

The Law of Dreams, Peter Behrens

The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens is a book that received the Governor General's Award for English Fiction.   This book is based on the Irish Potato Famine.  For the life of me, I can't remember where or why I picked it up.  I have long had an interest in Ireland and the Irish in general after visiting, but I cannot remember buying this book.

Started:  3/4/2015
Completed:  Cannot remember
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended by:  Nobody


Words and Concepts for which I sought help:

Billing -- the action or fact of being publicized in a certain way

cadging -- ask for or obtain (something to which one is not strictly entitled)

conacre -- to sublet land

Haggard -- area adjacent to the farm yard (Irish slang)

metaled road -- A road surface formed with a mixture of tar and stone chippings


Plangeant -- a loud, reverberating sound usually associated with melacholy

profligate -- recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources

skirl -- a shrill wailing sound, especially of bag pipes

Review:

The book was interesting and started quietly, but seemed to move rather quickly into the horrors of the potato famine.  The adventures of the protagonist seem truly unrealistic, but suspending disbelief, I moved on.  The characters were hard to like and the horrors which were experienced automatically distanced the reader.  I did not enjoy it.

People of the Moon, Michael and Kathleen Gear

People of the Moon by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear is another book in their "North America's Forgotten Past" series that looks at Native American communities.  As mentioned in a previous post, this book has been awaiting its turn to see the light.

Started: 9/1/2014

Completed: 6/18/2015

Recommended: Mildly

Recommended By: Part of a series

Review:

I have enjoyed the "People of" series.  The beginning (with some archaeologist facing opposition of some sort to whatever has been found or to the act of archaeology at all) is almost always slow and so it was hard for me to get started on this book (as it has been for the others in the series).

The plot here is decent, although, frankly, gory.  I'm sure that this story needed to be told and it is an ugly story.  That said, I would prefer to read less gore these days.  That is my personal preference and it made this book difficult to read.  The Gear's seem to want to focus on that in this book, although they pursued their normal love story in the book as well.  The story is good and moves along pretty well.  The preachy material is kept to a minimum, but stands on its own as enough to inform about some of the nature of the native peoples who inhabit this novel.

I can mildly recommend this book to anyone who has wondered what it must have been like to climb into your home via a ladder in the roof.  I've wondered and this book doesn't go to great lengths to detail that component, but it does come up as a normal part of the lives of the people and that alone was interesting to me.

Einstein's Enigma, C. V. Vishveshwara

Einstein's Enigma or Black Holes in my Bubble Bath by C. V. Vishveshwara caught my eye at a library book sale.  I originally picked it up for my wife who has some interest in the life of Einstein, then realized it was more about black holes which is up my alley!

Started: 9/4/2014

Completed: 6/15/2015

Recommendation: Strongly Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a layman's view of the physics behind a black hole.  For most of the book, I was fine, but I can see where most of the book would be quite challenging to laymen.  I found the last part of the book quite challenging.  The author tried to ease the reader through it by relying more and more heavily on dream sequences that originated in a magic bathtub and was a sub-plot running through the book allowing physicist to "add their own" contributions to the author's understanding directly.  The basic plot is that of one professor teaching another about black holes.

I can't imagine a more readable approach to the topic.  It is worth noting, however, that this topic is not easily read or understood.  The mathematics behind the physics are brutal and the physics is truly impenetrable to the average reader.  I've spent more time reading Hawking's most recent paper on black holes then I spent working through this book.

That said, however, this book is approachable for the lay reader.  You do not have to be physicist to understand the material.  Of course a high school or college background in physics is going to help dramatically, but the information is presented exceedingly well.  If you enjoy the history of science you will be doubly pleased with the short history lessons presented.  If you are so well-rounded as to be an English scholar as well, then you will simply be over the moon with this book.

I enjoyed it and appreciated how difficult it was to write.  It is already dated.  I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in black holes.

Anthill, E. O. Wilson

Anthill by Edward Osborn Wilson is a book by a renowned biologist that takes a way of looking at life derived from insects.  I read a review of this book in "Science News" and it really caught my interest.

Started: 2/1/2015

Completed: 3/4/2015

Recommendation: Interesting read for a naturalist

Recommended By:  Science News Magazine

Words and concepts for which I sought help:

Assize -- a court that sat at intervals in each county in England and Wales to administer the civil and criminal law

Bowdlerize -- remove material from that is considered improper or offensive, especially with the result that it becomes weaker or less effective.

Commonweal -- the common good

Ineffably -- too great or extreme to be described in words

Morganatic marriage -- a marriage across different classes

Postprandial -- during or relating to the period after dinner or lunch

Saccade -- rapid movement of the eye between fixation points

Review:

This is an excellent effort by a biologist to be a novelist.  It is not a great novel, however.  The characters are largely flat and oddly caricatures (from free-loving feminist to good ole boy to vigilante).  The main character experiences a transition from gun hater to gun lover (odd given the naturalist bent, but that is at least explained in terms of target shooting), but the transition seems sudden, without any clear explanation, and doesn't move the story forward.  One is left wondering why it ever was presented as a minor theme in the book.

The protagonist is followed from boyhood to manhood, but with none of the expected transitions.  There is one description of a female love interest, but it feels stilted--like it was put in place to move the plot forward (which it does) but left hollow around that goal.  It is easy to criticize, hard to generate, so my criticism comes from the potential that I feel was lost, not really an effort to find fault.  Relationships, in general, are defined and then never develop ("Uncle" who is a sponsor of naturalist activities, father who offers a few words of wisdom that carry through the book but who is virtually non-existent from high school forward, uncle who is so interested in the protagonist that he funds college and grad school, but basically disappears once his role as a plot mover is complete, etc).

I so want to like this book.  I found it hard reading, honestly, until I reached the "Anthill Chronicles" where the author's love of ants pours out and suddenly the book reads easily through the end despite awkward transitions and, frankly, bizarre interactions on all fronts.  The story seems focused on the concept of change from within, but none of the characters themselves show evidence of that change.  There are some rather odd loose ends that dangle over the protagonist even at the end of the book (which is OK, but it just seems strange that big issues are resolved, but the smaller issues that moved the plot line are simply left unfocused).  It feels like the author was racing down a road, dragging us along, and using trail markers to identify where the story is going to be briefly examined, passed, and not to have a lasting impact.  Maybe it is that the craft of writing a novel is so difficult that to hope a botanist can excel at both his field and writing a novel is simply too much to ask.

So, the plot is a bit compelling.  The basic question is: how can one person save an environmental area within the law?  This question is addressed throughout the book, but the answer seems forced--if you go to Harvard Law and spend a lot of time studying you can find a way to thread the needle with a possible solution.  I will not give away the ending but allow it to be said that this outcome could easily go either way.  I did like the emphasis on conflict resolution, but it seems to me that the protagonist comes to this understanding of conflict resolution in a vacuum.  We are informed of the protagonists approach without ever understanding how he came to it--it appears as a revelation to the reader.

Like the author classifies ants, the reader gets a relatively quick classification of the people met in the book (sort of the caricatures mentioned above) and they all but wear white hats or black hats.  The protagonists passion is well conveyed, but his positions have no nuance.  He resists the mild advances of his secretary (possibly to stay within his lawful concept) but is otherwise portrayed as someone who will pursue opportunity (love or otherwise) whenever it presents itself.  It would have been much more interesting even on little side plots for him to have some desire to do one thing but the will power to do another, or to give in to temptation on some things while managing to not on others.  Something more human might have taken the shine off the symbolic white hat.  It is unclear why something like the secretary's interest ever comes up if it is only to be ignored virtually out of hand unless it is to reinforce the bright white hat which needs no reinforcement.

So, if you are a naturalist, green, or earthy-crunchy want-to-be this book will likely be an enjoyable read.  If you are a strong feminist, "eco-nazi," strongly religious, or politically conservative, this book will likely grate.

Mars Underground, William K. Hartmann

Mars Underground by William K. Hartmann is an effort to look at what living on Mars might be like via a novel.  Mr. Hartmann is a well-known astronomer and planetary scientist.  The price tag on this book makes me think that I found this on a remainders table at Barnes and Noble.  I don't have a conscious memory of having bought it, however.

Started: 11/29/2014

Completed: 2/2/2015

Recommendation: Not worth the time

Recommended By: Nobody

Words and Concepts for which I sought help:

Anastomosing -- the reconnection of two streams that had previously branched out.

Ostinato -- a short melody or pattern that is constantly repeated.

Review:

So, Arthur C. Clarke says (on the cover) that this book provides insight into how people would live on Mars.  I think not.  It puts 4,000 people on Mars within 10 years which is hard to fathom.  Somehow trips to Mars become routine and frequent flitting between the moons and Mars becomes common place in the same time period.  This just couldn't happen.  The book is odd and the premise is vaguely reminiscent of 2001 A Space Odyssey.  The human interest story lines were also odd--intended to show some kind of evolved sense of sexuality that sort of comes with exploring a new planet.

There was, however, one great quotation:

"Intuition was no longer some magical sixth sense.  It was simply the knowledge squirreled away in the back of your brain, subliminal knowledge, the knowledge you didn't know you had, gained from cumulative experience--the churning reservoir stored below the surface of frozen pack ice of consciousness."

I would say, enjoy the quotation and skip the rest of the book.  It isn't useful as a way to look at Mars exploration and its commentaries on society in general feel odd.