Open Socrates, Agnes Callard

 

Open Socrates:  The case for a philosophical life by Agnes Callard

Started: March 8, 2025
Completed: March 15, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Talking about raising children, "Every time I approach my kids and am in a corrective mood to nudge them towards what I see as a superior way of living, I feel as though I've walked on the the stage of a play where the characters were given their direction at some previous time by some previous person.  Sometimes it amazes me--how could it be that I missed my chance to give my instructions given that I've been around since the minute that they were born?"

This book completely changes the way I have looked at Socrates.  I bought a copy and I'm reading it again and marking passages.

The Witch’s Heart, Genevieve Gornichec

 

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Started: March 25, 2025
Completed: March 30, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I really enjoyed this retelling of a Nordic myth.  It is hard to make me like the Nordic gods and so it was good that this book didn't do that!  I like the story behind the creatures in the book and it is hard for me to look away from Loki.

The Anxious Generation, Jonathon Haidt

 

The Anxious Generation:  How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness by Jonathan Haidt

Started: March 23, 2025
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The research presented was great.  The solution (free range kids) was not.  Free range kids may work in a rural environment, but I think it is a real challenge in an urban or even suburban environment.  Crime has come down and we probably don't need the detailed helicopter style parenting, but part of the way that free range worked was because neighbors were empowered to help raising children.  Now, however, neighbors may not even be home and I remember from being a key latch kid that the responsibility devolved onto the oldest sibling--not a good arrangement (that sibling becomes a substitute for parents, not another kid).  Excellent perspective and a good broad solution, but the details need some serious work.

Intermezzo, Sally Rooney

 

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Started: March 16, 2025
Completed: March 23, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I have heard many good things about Sally Rooney, but I was not thrilled with Normal People.  I guess I am a bit of a prude because I found the amount and descriptions of sex to be a lot and rather graphic.  On the other hand, as the book unwound the need for the sex scenes with their similarities and differences did feel important to the book.  The foreshadowing was excellent and the writing was very good.  The ability to view several different character flaws through the lens of different characters (both internally and externally) was very well done.  I'm a weirdo and I wish that there had been more chess, but I get that it was a means, not an end.

Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee

 

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

Started: March 15, 2025
Completed: March 16, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: I cannot remember how I came across this book, but it has been on my To Be Read audio book list for quite a while.

Review:

I enjoyed this book.  It was an odd combination of romance and adventure which was not fully part of either.  This was an interesting way to look at the start of a new profession.  Sort of a journey woman thing, but also a look at adventure that comes from a challenging profession.

A Man On The Moon, Andrew Chaikin

 

A Man On The Moon:  The voyages of the Apollo astronauts by Andrew Chaikin

Started: February 14, 2025
Completed: February 22, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This was a good walk through the history of the Apollo program.  A lot of this was familiar to me, but it included details I had not heard before.  One thing that always catches me off guard was that Ed White was one of the three astronauts who died in the fire on the pad.

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Started: December 6, 2024
Completed: March 14, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Wow, what a great book.  This has everything that I'm looking for in a Science Fiction novel.  Some real science, character development, aliens, just everything.  The book was very well written and extremely engaging.  The audio book is completely worth it--Ray Porter is awesome (I love him also in the Bobiverse books).  Cannot recommend this highly enough.

The Forever War, Nick Bryant

 

The Forever War:  America's Unending Conflict With Itself by Nick Bryant

Started: March 2, 2025
Completed: March 8, 2025
Recommendation: Mild recommendation
Recommended By: I think that this came via The Guardian, but I cannot find a review from them, so I'm not sure how I stumbled across it.

Review:

I really thought that this was going to be about January 6th, the cover fooled me, mea culpa.  I am very familiar with the history that was reviewed in this book and I found only one memorable quotation:  America does not need to learn how to live with civil war, America needs to learn how to live with civil peace (or something like that...I listened to the book and I did not jot down the quotation as I heard it because I have a bit of a life today).  Aside from that, this is American history fairly well recounted with a focus on contentious issues (slavery, abortion, etc.)  I just really spent too much time on the book as it was mostly a retelling of history with which I was already familiar.

The Most Powerful Court in the World, Stuart Banner

 

The Most Powerful Court in the World:  A history of the Supreme Court of the United States by Stuart Banner

Started: February 28, 2025
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I did not check when I started, but Stuart Banner is a member of the Federalist Society.  I knew something was off as I started reading the book because the first step was to normalize politicization of the Supreme Court.  It worried me as it started, but as the book went on it became an apologist for such things as Dred Scott (bad decision, but Tawney was a pretty good guy).  As I was listening to the book after about a quarter of the way through things added up and I checked to see if Banner was a member of the Federalist Society.  Sure enough, he was.  So I started this book thinking that I was getting a historian's perspective and I realized that I was getting a right twist on everything.  Really threw me off coming from a UCLA professor in good standing.

Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood

 

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Started: February 26, 2025
Completed: February 28, 2025
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Booker Prize committee

Review:

As I have read more Booker Prize winners, I've come to understand that the committee has a long standing favoritism for blood, gore, and torture.  This particular book only falls short on the torture angle (though there is a fair amount of emotional distress and general angst).  I think I am going to use the Booker Prize as an indicator of a book I do not want to read.