Limitarianism, Ingrid Robeyns

 

Limitarianism: The case against extreme wealth by Ingrid Robeyns

Started: July 31, 2024
Completed: August 4, 2024
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: I read an interview with the author in Current Affairs

Review:

C'mon, it isn't even socialism.  This is about putting rails on capitalism.  It is also about trying to maintain "clean money."  There are some really good ideas in this book and Robeyns is no slouch in presenting them.  Basically, the super-rich have too much.  It is likely that the very rich have too much.  Society giveth and society needs to boundeth.  Well worth the read.

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.