Reading the Constitution, Stephen Breyer

 

Reading the Constitution:  Why I chose pragmatism, not textualism by Stephen Breyer former Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

Started: May 22, 2024
Completed: May 31, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Breyer makes the strongest arguments I have seen against textualism.  He points out cases where the court was right despite textual interpretation and where it was wrong because of it.  Clearly, he focuses on his own dissents, but he does a good job of highlighting why textualism is a problem.  This is a good read for lay people even though it is clearly intended for judges or judge wannabes.

James, Percival Everett

 

James by Percival Everett was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's point of view.

Started: May 16, 2024
Completed: May 22, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: The Guardian

Review:

This is a great retelling of a classical story and it takes nothing away from the original.  Twain remains his iconic self and Everett just manages to share the stage.  This retelling adds some real nuance to the way that slaves behaved in Southern chattel slavery and the bone-chilling horror of slavery as a practice stands out in stark relief.  The story is both approachable and a lessen to be learned.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Good Material, Dolly Alderton

 

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Started: May 12, 2024
Completed: May 16, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is rife with humor.  That is what kept me reading because the subject matter (basically one long recovery from a break-up) is brutal.  "35 is the youth of middle age" states the protagonist who has an oddly Pollyanna view in the moment.  This shows the cleverness, the humor, and the bleak inability to face reality of the protagonist and it helps explain the long break-up (which his partner also endures in her own way).  I truly enjoyed the book and it makes me wonder if I have held back my wife in some of the casually uncaring ways that men are portrayed.  I hope not.  This book also suggests how people can see one another in a light which is not truly objective reality, but is an effort to see the real person and appreciate that person for who they are.  What a great book.

The Night Life of the Gods, Thorne Smith

The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith

Started: 4/4/2024
Completed: 5/14/2024
Recommendation: Mildly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

Distrait -- distracted or absent minded

Febrile -- having or showing a great deal of nervous energy

Lachrymose -- tearful or given to weeping

Vocalion -- a type of reed instrument that resembles a human voice

Review:

This is a very odd book.  It seems like it must be semi-autobiographic in so far as it is clear that the author sees himself in the protagonist.  Smith seems to revel in the questionable behavior of Hawk while establishing a circumstance, from start to finish, within which Hawk and his friends can never be held accountable.  In addition, Hawk seems to have infinite resources and engender infinite tolerance from those around him (with the reasonable exception of the police).  In this sense, the novel is a farse, but it seems as though Smith would like to live this farse.  Seemingly not realizing it, he consistently leaves the consequences either elsewhere or broadly unresolved with the Keystone Cops chasing far behind in his wake.  The resolution is both uncomfortable and an escape (like the others have been) which seems odd.  I did not enjoy this book for the most part (although I did get a good chuckle on more than one occasion).  It felt a bit like stepping into another man's fantasy and finding what was there uncomfortable.  The book was reasonably well written, though the characters lacked any development and the gods didn't much resemble the Greek/Roman stories.  They seemed like props in Smith's fantasy.

A Half-Built Garden, Ruthanna Emrys

 

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

Started: May 7, 2024
Completed: May 12, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: nobody

Review:

This is a non-traditional first contact book.  It is a morality play disguised as a science fiction novel, so if you are anti-environmentalist, pro-capitalist, or much of a romantic, this book is not for you.  On the other hand, if you are interested in a possible first contact where the aliens had no desire to kill us, this might be enticing.  Generally the reasons for aliens visiting involve colonization and this isn't really all that different (at least it isn't farming like Childhood's End).  The current state of humanity is, for my money, far more interesting then the aliens.  Oh, and if you had trying to figure out gender pronouns, this one is going to throw you for a serious loop.

Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin

 

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin is a book I only recently learned was available.

Started: 5/4/2024
Completed: 5/7/2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is sort of a riff on a minor character in Virgil's Aeneid.  Le Guin writes strong characters and this book is full of the same.  Small details matter (like the corner of the toga being pulled over the head) and this book is lush with those details.  It is amazing to me that someone can take a passing reference and build an entire novel from it.  Clearly Le Guin was well versed in classical literature and she brings to life a character in the gritty circumstances that are more likely than Virgil's god filled hazy conception yet still true to that conception.

The Hunter, Tana French

The Hunter by Tana French

Started: 4/30/2024

Completed: 5/4/2024

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I really enjoyed how the mystery evolved even though it was unsolvable from the outside.   The character examination of multiple characters was interesting and, while the ending wrapped up more than I expected, there was room for the characters to breathe after the story was over.  I felt like a blow-in still learning the ropes.