The Wager, David Grann

 

The Wager:  A tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder by David Grann

Started: 4/27/2023
Completed: 4/30/2023
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: I think that the title caught me

Review:

This book is both well written and engaging.  The subtitle, however, should be, "starvation."  The bulk of the book is about how the crew of this and other, related ships lost their crews through a combination of starvation and scurvy.  In one sense, this makes complete sense as both were the lot of long term shipping during the era.  However, I did not plan to read about endless death.  The numbers are horrifying with a tiny portion of the crew miraculously living--otherwise, there would be no story, so I don't feel that this is a "spoiler."  I just wish I had been warned before picking up this book.

The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein

 

The Color of Law:  A forgotten history of how our government segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Started: 4/25/2023
Completed: 4/27/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: List of books for people to understand minority experience in America

Words for which I sought help:

mendacious -- not telling the truth; lying

Review:

Sometimes it isn't easy to see something unless you experience it.  White people did not experience it.  Black people did.  It was shocking to read the way that communities simply ignored Supreme Court rulings.  Ridiculous that we, as Americans, are simply uncomfortable with the outcome and not moved to try to do something to make things right.  It is hard to imagine how to fix the decades of loss, but that is pretty much the store of being black and living in America.  People who do not understand what critical race theory embodies should take the time to learn what this book has to teach.  It is clearly much simpler then all of critical race theory, but it is a tiny insight into one piece of undeniable racism that perpetuates problems today.  What a thoroughly researched and well presented book.  Well worth the time to read.

The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning, Peter Zeihan

 

The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning:  Mapping the collapse of globalization by Peter Zeihan

Started: 4/19/2023
Completed: 4/25/2023
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: My parents

Review:

The vast majority of this book tests how bad things could be if other things happen.  Zeihan argues that these things have basically already happened or are inevitable.  Here is the causal chain:

GIVEN:
    Mass consumption economies depend on consumers
WHEN:
    The population of the world is aging out of high consumerism, and
    Lack of consumers cause contraction of capital, and
    The United States will not be able to afford "Pax Americana" on the high seas
    Nation states will turn to piracy on the high seas disrupting global trade
THEN:
    Really bad things happen

The causal chain is really discussed in the section, "The End of More."

There are a bunch of dependencies and, as Zeihan acknowledges, the Russian attack on Ukraine changes the dynamics a bit (we can see mass starvation caused by disruption of global trade or not).

House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas

 

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas is the first book in the Crescent City series.

Started: 1/12/2023
Completed: 4/20/2023
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Kobo

Review:

I have not read any soft porn and I have only read a couple of romances.  This seems to jump into the soft porn area to me.  That aside, this story is more revelatory than developing.  Oh, look, here is another thing that you had no way of knowing, but that is fundamental to the book.  I'm OK with surprises (and there are some of those as well), but those are things you could conceivably have known if you thought long and hard about it in the difficult cases.  Those are actually a little fun.  There are so many things, though, that are kept from the reader at virtually every turn that the reveal becomes tiresome.  There is also a batman-esque quality to dilemmas that face darn near everyone and the degree to which the "bad guys" make an effort to hide what doesn't need to be hidden is also pretty ridiculous.  Finally, there are a few surprises that are a surprise only because the person to whom the surprise is revealed should surely have known by virtue of details that are simply omitted for the reader.  I don't like that.  Overall, I did not enjoy the book and won't read the series.

A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

 

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Started: 4/16/2023
Completed: 4/19/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This was an interesting book.  The jumble of plot lines seemed a bit natural as though Egan was just following a group of people around through time and space.  The jumps in time weren't really disorienting as it was very quickly clear that there had been a jump and the movements in space were almost entirely unsurprising (with the possible exception of Italy).  The characters were interesting and, though I didn't find any appealing, engaging.  Music was a good lens through which to view some of the characters, a link between others, and a minor thing for still others.  All-in-all worth the time.

Ithaca, Claire North

 

Ithaca by Claire North (pen name for Catherine Webb) is the first book of the Songs of Penelope.

Started: 4/12/2023
Completed: 4/16/2023
Recommendation: Mildly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is the latter part of the Odyssey told from the perspective of Hera about, primarily, the women left behind.  The focus is Penelope, wife of Odysseus, and her effort to avoid being married off in general.  It is an interesting look at how the people of Ithaca might have supported her in this venture (as well as the gods, particularly Hera).  In general, however, it was not engaging.  I didn't feel like I got to know any of the characters at all.  It is an approachable retelling, however, and it does go some lengths to explain why women are not remembered (for the most part and queens in particular) by the poets.

A River Enchanted, Rebecca Ross

 

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross is the first book in the Elements of Cadence Duology

Started: 4/9/2023
Completed: 4/12/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

There is a fair amount of anticipation built into this novel that is pretty easily resolved by a mildly inquisitive reader, so don't read it for the "mystery."  Almost every single character encountered matures over the course of the novel (either in retrospect or in the moment).  I enjoy a novel that makes it clear that magic is not free and Ross does a good job with that.  I also like the way that the stories and perspectives are cleanly interwoven without the reader feeling lost.  Well done!

Humanly Possible, Sarah Bakewell

 

Humanly Possible:  Seven hundred years of humanist freethinking, inquiry, and hope by Sarah Bakewell

Started: 4/5/2023
Completed: 4/8/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Cannot Remember, maybe The Guardian

Review:

This is a whirlwind tour of the fundamental thinkers who form humanist thought.  For some, it was a quick review.  For others it was a touchpoint (Thomas Mann, for example, I knew more through The Magician than through his actual works).  For some, it was an introduction.  There is no doubt that this book will lead to others that offer a little more detail and to more philosophical works that are less a sketch of a life and more about how to live a life.

Poverty, By America, Matthew Desmond

 

Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond.  Thought he wrote an excellent book in Evicted.

Started: 4/3/2023
Completed: 4/4/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book steps from documenting a problem to identifying actions to resolve the problem.  There is no doubt that Desmond works to reduce human suffering.  He provides suggestions to resolve that suffering.  He is committed to that work.  He accurately identifies that the cost to implement his suggestions is neither trivial nor huge.  He laments that this work has not already begun.  He is right on all counts.  His efforts to tie poverty to other issues, like climate change are both self-defeating (companies advertise their climate supporting efforts without really making any changes and polish the turd in doing so) and not answers (he has identified so many issues that it is very difficult to support any company).  The problem is that poverty is pervasive.  I think his stronger argument, simply that it should not exist, is much stronger then the whack-a-mole approach of buycotting.  Perhaps his strongest argument is to remind us that we live in plenty and politicians who talk about diminishing resources in areas like food, shelter, and clothing are extremists at best and liars at worst.

Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan

 

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Started: 4/3/2023
Completed: 4/3/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Booker Prize

Review:

This is really short.  It is really excellent.  It is a look into the heart of one man while perusing his childhood and early adult life to look at who took care of him, how it was done, and what he could do with that knowledge.  Excellent.

Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

 

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone is book Three (right now) of the Craft Sequence.  It was the first one published, so, there's that.

Started: 4/1/2023
Completed: 4/2/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Kobo

Review:

I really enjoyed this book which sort of turned the entire legal/policing system on its head.  Wizards (if you will) invoke their craft to demonstrate guilt or innocence and the police force is basically a deity.  Pretty clever stuff, well written, with a quick pace.  I really enjoyed it.