The Word for World Is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

Started: July 12, 2024

Completed: July 31, 2024

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

apposite -- apt in the circumstances or in relation to something

sett -- a badger's den

Review:

This is the first Le Guin novel I have read that was really hard reading.  The whole thing is basically about murder.  The method of giving up reminded me of Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (although it is certain that Le Guin was first, I just happened to read Footfall first).  This was a first contact/colonization/outpost kind of book with all those pieces rolled up into one.  Yet, at the same time, it looked at the ugly side of humanity. Unsettling to read at bed time.

Crime and Parchment, Daphne Silver

 

Crime and Parchment:  A rare books cozy mystery by Daphne Silver

Started: July 28, 2024
Completed: July 31, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a beach book.  Don't expect too much of it, it is an easy, breezy read.  The mystery is decent and I have to admit that anything that addresses the Book of Kells is interesting to me (no matter how obliquely).  I'm not sure if I will continue to read the series.  The will they/won't they romance is not really to my taste and, well, how many mysteries can involve the Book of Kells when set in Maryland?

American Crusade, Andrew L. Seidel

 

American Crusade:  How the Supreme Court is weaponizing religious freedom by Andrew L. Seidel

Started: June 11, 2024

Completed: July 30, 2024

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

Recommended By: My wife (likely the Opening Arguments podcast)

Words for which I sought help:

abstemious -- not self-indulgent, especially when eating and drinking.

solipsism -- the quality of being very self-centered or selfish

vertiginous -- causing vertigo, especially by being extremely high or steep

Review:

Reading this book, it does not feel concise.  It feels dense.  It feels heavy.  The tons of footnotes bely how detailed this book actually is.  Seidel, however, has taken a topic that could fill a much, much larger multi-volume tome and drilled down to the most important points.  Every page, every paragraph, most sentences are important.  I learned a lot.  I relearned a lot.  I feel like I know how this attack on American freedom works.  What a fantastic book.  I hope that there are no new cases to discuss in the future, but we all know there will be until the crusade is finally crushed.

The Power Worshipers, Katherine Stewart

 

The Power Worshippers:  Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism by Katherine Stewart

Started: July 25, 2024
Completed: July 28, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is becoming a bit dated as it was released in the midst of the Trump presidency.  Nonetheless, it offers invaluable insights into the Religious Right (Christian Nationalists), how they are organized, and what their goals are.  They would truly like to have an autocratic theocracy.  So, when Trump appeals to them for their votes and then says that after this election they won't have to ever vote again, this cries out to their hearts, though it sends shivers down the rest of our spies.  They identify their enemies simply be determining whether a secular government is considered good (enemy) or whether there should be a separation between church and state (enemy).  The organization is not simply national, but international organizations seem to be comingling.  Given the historic past of how this failed to work (and lead to constant bickering) it could be their undoing, but, for now, it is making the movement even more powerful.  Ugh.

The Glassmaker, Tracy Chevalier

 

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

Started: July 22, 2024
Completed: July 25, 2024
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody, but I have read about the glass makers of Venice, so was drawn to this novel from that perspective.

Review:

Chevalier has a new approach to time travel--build some characters you like and plop them into different times.  This is not a bad approach and helps explain transitions (Chevalier uses the analogy of a skipping stone and this is introduced very early so is not any kind of a plot reveal).  This allows for several love stories of different kinds to inhabit different ages. It seems, however, that Chevalier relies on this method to try to add some interest to the book via the cast of characters that surround the major characters rather than developing the major characters themselves.  The book is interesting, the glass making is OK, and the character development is poor.

Table for Two, Amor Towles

 

Table for Two by Amor Towles

Started: July 16, 2024
Completed: July 22, 2024
Recommendation:  Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: my father

Words for which I sought help:

elan -- energy, style, and enthusiasm

Review:

I am not fond of short stories and have read very few since Harlan Ellison died.  I did not realize that this was a collection of short stories and while the transitions felt abrupt going from one to the other, it wasn't until the third that I realized these were short stories and that the characters were not going to reappear.  One of the side effects of listening to a book instead of reading it, I guess.  Without my father's recommendation, I doubt I would have picked up this book even though I have enjoyed Towles' novels in general.  I find it hard to recommend this book as the stories are not what I was expecting when I started and so felt abrupt, incomplete, and broadly dissatisfying.  The novella at the end was a bit of a mystery and Towles did a pretty good job of surprising me, but I didn't enjoy it a lot.

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

 

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

Started: July 14, 2024
Completed: July 16, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: This just kept showing up in my feed, so I had to give it a look

Review:

The symbolism of the pear on the front cover is going to be lost until about half way through this book.  After that, it is s a pretty cool cover.  I am having trouble classifying this book as either literature or romance.  This is not a Harlequin romance, more of a Bronte romance, but it feels like the romance is so central to the book that to not include it is a bad idea.  Van Der Wouden uses some of the basic tools of a romance (a diary for example), but tips in enough of the dramatic (the huge dramatic piece is a spoiler, but it is so obvious when it arrives as a large part of the dramatic element, that anyone who reads this book will instantly pick it up) to make it less of a romance and more of a drama.  I dunno.  Still kind of stumped as to how to look at it.  Back to the romance side of things, the sex is pretty explicit so if that is an issue for you, then this book is not for you.  I enjoyed the book and whipped through it, but it is worth noting that there is plenty of depth, with characters seeming to be slippery and morphing on the page.  At no point was this book humorous.

The Worlds I see, Dr. Fei-Fei Li

The Worlds I See: Curiosity, exploration, and discovery at the dawn of AI by Dr. Fei-Fei Li

Started: July 10, 2025
Completed: July 14, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

It is interesting to see how people perceive themselves and, for me, it is particularly interesting to hear how scientists see themselves.  Dr. Li is a compelling figure on her own, but the coincidence of her career with the most recent explosion in computer technology is interesting.  I particularly enjoyed her view of the future.  It was very interesting the stark difference between Dr. Li’s appearance before congress (addressing the ethical risks of AI) and Dr. Ford’s appearance (addressing the ethical risks of the judiciary itself).  It feels like Dr. Li is still naive about the risks of AI, but seeing where her thinking has been and where it is going is exceedingly compelling.

Tinkers, Paul Harding

 

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Started: July 3, 2024
Completed: July 11, 2024
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: I think I found this on the Pulitzer list

Words for which I sought help:

Claptrap — absurd or nonsense talk or ideas

Clepsydra — an ancient time-measuring device worked by a flow of water

Craquelure — a network of fine cracks in the paint or varnish of a painting

Creel — a wicker basket for carrying fish

Vesation — a renewal or purification through the burning away or destruction of evil attributes

Review:

This is a very odd book.  The closest I can come to some sort of analogy is Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, yet this is much more approachable (it is in plain English).  All the same, it is a series of vignettes that are disjoint with intermittent sort of poetry definitions.  Very odd.  The descriptive writing is very good, but the narrative is so broken up that it requires concentration to follow.  I still cannot decide what I fully think of this book and I think it will haunt me.

Plunder, Brendan Ballou

 

Plunder:  Private equity’s plan to pillage America by Brendan Ballou

Started: July 7, 2024
Completed: July 10, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  New York Times

Review:

This book will annoy you and may inflame you.  It is pretty awful what the private equity companies are doing and what is required to stop it.  I have seen companies (like Toys R Us) collapse when it seems they should not.  I’ve also heard about prisoners being mistreated with food and with telephone calls.  The behaviors of private equity are pretty horrible and surely immoral.

Night Flyer, Tiya Miles

 

Night Flyer:  Harriet Tubman and the faith dreams of a free people by Tiya Miles

Started: July 6, 2024
Completed: July 7, 2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: a New York Times list of upcoming books

Review:

I knew the outlines of Tubman’s story, but I knew neither the details nor the context.  This book offers both and is an interesting and approachable introduction to Harriet Tubman.  It is not thorough (surely there are other biographies for that), but it is complete and it focuses on Tubman’s active life bringing people to freedom.

Power and Progress, Acemoglu and Johnson

 

Power and Progress:  Our 1000-year struggle over technology and prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson

Started: 6/29/2024
Completed: 7/6/2024
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: I am not certain, but I think I read a review

Review:

The first half of this book is pretty harrowing describing the life and death struggle between technical progress and the underclasses.  I almost stopped reading it.  I was growing weary of hearing how poorly humans treat one-another.  It is enough to say it happens and perhaps offer an example or two, but the endless litany was deadening.  Fortunately we hit Malthus.  I absolutely hate Malthus.  These guys agree and demonstrated how wrong Malthus was and how harmful his concepts were to society in general (not to mention twentieth century debaters).  I have to admit that I kind of reveled.  Not a lot.  Definitely some.  That saved this book and kept me reading.  The back portions of the book are pretty harrowing as well (they address Chinese monitoring and control policies that are terrible).  At this point, though, they did not go into detailed examples and it was possible to accept without vomiting.  The last few chapters offer some thoughts on where to go with progress so as not to destroy society including a discussion of UBI (which they, broadly, do not support).  Interesting stuff that is a tad dated, but definitely not outdated.

The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chödrön

 

The Wisdom of No Escape: And the path of loving kindness by Pema Chödrön

Started: June 21, 2024
Completed: July 3, 2024
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I have not really studied Buddhism well.  I thought that this was going to be more of a book about meditation than it was.  I find some of the terms familiar (e.g., dharma) and others very unfamiliar.  There is a certain assumption that these terms are at least familiar and, at best, well understood.  I’m not sure that I will ever study Buddhism sufficiently well to find the terms needed to truly appreciate this book sufficiently well understood.