Yuval Noah Harari first wrote Sapiens, chronicling the history of Man becoming 21st century Man. Now, he's discussing the future: robots, famine, and Yuval Noah Harari first wrote Sapiens, chronicling the history of Man becoming 21st century Man. Now, he's discussing the future: robots, famine, and the destruction of society...
...yay.
Homo Deus is wildly depressing in a way and wildly necessary. Harari discusses all of the incredible technological and psychological leaps we have made over the span of our existence, and how it'll all come to naught because of how we are treating one another and the planet.
To write it all down would only depress me all over again. That being said, I wish every single person on the planet was required to read this book. If they did, maybe there'd be hope for us. ...more
I'm embarrassed to say that, prior to picking this book up, all I really knew about Jim Jones and Jonestown was the insensitive phrase "don't drink thI'm embarrassed to say that, prior to picking this book up, all I really knew about Jim Jones and Jonestown was the insensitive phrase "don't drink the Kool-Aid." How is that even an okay phrase, considering how many people died that day by the hands of one power-hungry, god-complex-ed man?
This book is well-researched... exhausting-ly so. It begins with the background of Jones' parents and takes the reader through to Jonestown and the aftermath of his "experiment." Two of Jones' sons agreed to be interviewed by Jeff Guinn, as well as several of Jones' followers who broke off from the church in time to avoid Jonestown.
What I've learned from this book, and several other books/documentaries of this ilk, is that most cults start off as an ideal: people who are dissatisfied with how society spits on the middle class and how it focuses on capitalism are searching for something more equal, more connected to the Earth. I totally get that - and could totally get behind that. But power gets to even the most altruistic-seeming minds, and poisons the well. While there is no question that Jones always had a darker ulterior motive to his church and his following, it is exceedingly sad to think of all those people who were simply searching for a better life, and ended up losing out on life entirely. ...more
Elizabeth Holmes never heard no, assumed she could continue to lie and sail through life, and finally Icarus-ed.
That's an incredibly reductive way toElizabeth Holmes never heard no, assumed she could continue to lie and sail through life, and finally Icarus-ed.
That's an incredibly reductive way to describe the rise and fall of the company Theranos. Do you want to have an at-home blood testing device that would wirelessly tell you whether you need to change your medications, whether something is wrong, and/or whether your diabetic body can eat that piece of cake? Sounds incredible... and possibly too good to be true?
The lies, the hubris, the lack of care for the safety of the public... Holmes isn't in prison yet, but there's still time.
Author Carreyrou is the journalist who broke the story in the WSJ, and assisted with the melting of Holmes' wings. He writes like a journalist: "this happened, then this, then this," and there are so many players in this narrative that one can sometimes forget who is who. That being said, Bad Blood is a fascinating insight into the Silicon world of start-ups, and what some people will do to rise to the top. ...more
Yeah, yeah, I know he won an award for his first book Ordinary Wolves, but I am going to argue it was for the original leSeth Kantner isn't a writer.
Yeah, yeah, I know he won an award for his first book Ordinary Wolves, but I am going to argue it was for the original lens he brings, rather than acknowledgment of verbal prowess.
Because here's the thing: Kantner doesn't need to be a writer to make this book interesting. His life is so original compared to what we in the lower 48 experience, that the book is interesting just by way of being written by this particular man.
Kantner was born and raised in Northern Alaska. His father had moved up to Alaska, in love with the wildness of the landscape, and successfully started a family of "whiteboys" up there (Kantner's parents now live in Hawaii, and I do wonder what spurred that change). Life is extreme, the land vast and sometimes lonely. You need to pay close attention to the horizon at all times: what is going on with the caribou, with the clouds, etc., to ensure your comfortable survival. Living in handmade sod igloos and regularly having mice scurry across your face in the night doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs to me, but Kantner embraces where he is from, and writes un-apologetically about animal skin tack boards in the kitchen and eating bowls of bear fat for a meal.
I did enjoy that, as the memoir winds down, Kantner takes the time to discuss the changing landscape and how climate change has negatively effected his community. Kantner isn't just here to entertain us with stories of hunting moose and navigating tundra - he's here to remind us just how much is at stake to lose.
I have two questions after reading this book that weren't answered: what's the bathroom situation, and do you ever really see your feet?...more
Lovingly and meticulously researched, King Leopold's Ghost may very well be the best nonfiction book I have ever read.
King Leopold II of Belgium was Lovingly and meticulously researched, King Leopold's Ghost may very well be the best nonfiction book I have ever read.
King Leopold II of Belgium was feeling left out because he'd missed the boat on other land grabs... so he set sights on Africa and, particularly, the Congo. After securing claim and sending explorers check out the loot, the world suddenly and aggressively became obsessed with rubber.
And thus kicked off a reign of terror, tyranny, and torture, the reverberations of which can still be felt today.
The cast of real characters that walk through Adam Hochschild's book are too ridiculous to NOT be real. Take, for instance, lawyer Colonel Henry I. Kowalsky. A large, flamboyant, narcoleptic, who drove everyone in his circle bonkers. He pissed off famous gunfighter Wyatt Earp to the point that Earp threatened to shoot him. The next time Earp and Kowalsky met, Earp pulled his pistol, but Kowalsky's only reaction was to fall asleep. Earp reportedly stormed away, saying, "What can you do with a man who goes to sleep just when you're going to kill him!"
Wikipedia purports that the book was refused by nine of the ten U.S. publishing houses to which an outline was submitted. Shocked how not shocked I am at that.
Knowledge is power, and Hochschild worked hard, so read this friggin' book.
My two favorite lines:
The world we live in - its divisions and conflicts, its widening gap between rich and poor, its seemingly inexplicable outbursts of violence - is shaped far less by what we celebrate and mythologize than by the painful events we try to forget.
And:
At the time of the Congo controversy a hundred years ago, the idea of full human rights, political, social, and economic, was a profound threat to the established order of most countries on earth. It still is today....more
In the 1950s the scientific world saw treatment potential in psychedelics for ailments such as addiction, depression, anxiety, OCD... they also saw itIn the 1950s the scientific world saw treatment potential in psychedelics for ailments such as addiction, depression, anxiety, OCD... they also saw it as a successful tool to help those with terminal diagnoses come to terms with the news and live their lives to the fullest...
...but then The Man came and put the kabash on it all, driving this research underground, and essentially destroying all evidence that such work had ever been done.
Why? Cause the hippies were, like, totally out to brainwash us.
...
Michael Pollan's book seeks to do several things: it chronicles the history of psychedelics (and when we say psychedelics, we are mostly talking about psychobilin aka mushrooms, and LSD), moves to his own experiences with the drugs, transitions to current clinical studies, and pontificates on the future of psychedelics. Pollan did a lot of work on this book, and we're all the better for it.
Addiction, anxiety, depression... these are struggles which plague the human condition. What if something was discovered by American medicine 60+ years ago that can help? What if the government and big pharma are keeping it from us for no other reason than the words associated with those somethings are culturally and politically charged? Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Isn't it just further proof that our society model is broken, that there is systemic rot, that we need to overhaul and start anew?
Jon Krakauer is/was an avid climber. Everest had loomed in the back of his mind as something to conquer in his youth. But as heWhere do we even begin?
Jon Krakauer is/was an avid climber. Everest had loomed in the back of his mind as something to conquer in his youth. But as he settled into life the feat receded...
...until Outside magazine asked him if he'd be interested in reporting about Everest from base camp.
Feeling the tug of his old passion, Krakauer counter-offered: he'd do it, if he could climb to the top.
The story was supposed to be an article in a magazine, but the turn this trip took required, in Krakauer's mind, a book.
Part therapy and part journalism, Into Thin Air is Krakauer's attempt to grapple with the deadly pull of Everest, and the friends he lost to its siren song.
It's a damn shame it took me this long to get to this book - don't make the same mistake. ...more
This book is seeking to help you stop sucking with money. Track what you spend, track what you bring in, track what you spend the most $$ on vs. what This book is seeking to help you stop sucking with money. Track what you spend, track what you bring in, track what you spend the most $$ on vs. what brings you the most joy.
To some people this is new information, but for me this is very obvious and something I've been doing since I opened my first checking account.
I had come to this book hoping it would help me figure out how to be more proactive about my financial future. As a Millennial who is all too aware Social Security won't be there to brake my fall, and that inflation will only continue to screw me, I want to make sure I'm working toward a retirement age younger than, oh I don't know, 85. However, this book is geared more toward people who have debt and/or who spend too much. The chapter on investment options is small, and the author spends a decent amount of time talking about how they made their investments in the 80s (not helpful).
For financial neophytes, this book is certainly helpful. But for people who have been tracking their spending and savings all along, it's really just a reminder that you're doing the right thing. ...more
How do we handle mental trauma? How does mind and body change in response to traumatic experiences? van der Kolk has been working in the field for decHow do we handle mental trauma? How does mind and body change in response to traumatic experiences? van der Kolk has been working in the field for decades and has some ideas, as well as some ways we may lighten the mental load.
It's difficult to sum up a book like this. van der Kolk walks his audience through the beginning of his career, working at the VA when PTSD was not a recognized mental illness, all the way up to present-day alternative medicine potentials for those living with trauma to take back their life.
The treatment section dragged a little (yes, I know that meditation and yoga is helpful, it's 2018. We don't need 100 pages dedicated to these practices), but all-in-all this was a fascinating book which cracks open the door to how our brains and bodies protect us: from our pasts and from ourselves, and how sometimes that protection holds us back from growing and changing and living. ...more
Man, I really wanted to like this book. Some of my all-time favorites bands were born out of this era: Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs... The White Stripes... the rMan, I really wanted to like this book. Some of my all-time favorites bands were born out of this era: Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs... The White Stripes... the rich Indie culture that exists now was built in large part by the artists who were represented in this book.
Lizzy Goodman interviewed dozens and dozens of people who were part of the early aughts music scene in NYC. She takes those interviews and cuts them up, creating a somewhat cohesive, linear story. That story, however, is more about fucking and drugs and alcohol than it is about the evolution of Indie sound. And while I guess that's interesting in its own right, I really didn't want to read about Karen O. trashing green rooms she was politely asked to leave be. ...more
I devoured this book, partly because I needed to read it quickly: choosing a nonfiction about a monster who creeps into the houses of women while theyI devoured this book, partly because I needed to read it quickly: choosing a nonfiction about a monster who creeps into the houses of women while they sleep and attacks them is horrible enough. Reading it the week your husband is out of town for work and also you live in the woods? Yea, not ranking as one of my best ideas. All I could think is "wow, I never thought about it before, but truly no one would hear me scream out here." Yeesh.
Michelle McNamara worked with generations of detectives who were assigned to the case of the EARS-ON/Original Nightstalker/Ransacker (all of the names he was given before McNamara coined "Golden State Killer"), as well as with a robust online network of hobbyist sleuths. Over a number of years she put together this comprehensive, well-written, and gripping account of the 50 odd rapes and 10 murders the Golden State Killer committed in the 1970s and 80s. She weaves narrative of the lives of the victims and the crimes themselves, then she pivots to interviews with detectives who were there, and summarizes new technologies to try and detail how the responsible could be caught today (I think that phrasing, "the responsible," which McNamara uses in the book after reading it in a police report, is the best way to describe The Golden State Killer).
If you ever look at the news, you may know that a man has been arrested as the suspected "responsible" since the publishing of this book. A better ending than the book itself leaves us with, which is hopeful and angry all at the same time. McNamara was a true professional in her craft, and was taken from us too soon. This book will no doubt live on in the halls of incredible true crime fiction, along with Capote and Bugliosi. And to all you other hobbyist sleuths out there: keep looking. There are plenty other responsibles to catch. ...more
My opinion of this book is deeply, deeply colored by the fact that, the day after I picked it up, a robin nested in one of our trees, saw his reflectiMy opinion of this book is deeply, deeply colored by the fact that, the day after I picked it up, a robin nested in one of our trees, saw his reflection in the sliding glass door, assumed it was a competitor, and has been ramming himself into the door ever since.
It's been 5 days.
Birds are interesting, intelligent, complicated, empathetic creatures. Sometimes. Honestly, this book could have been half the length - Ackerman dances around a lot of topics, and not in the most interesting way, dragging out the punch line to every chapter: "ain't birds clever?"
I mean, I guess? But someone needs to talk to the robin currently shitting all over my deck....more
I am the same age as the author. I am called Millennial, snowflake, selfish, etc. It's a tired diatribe: every generation rolls their eyes at the geneI am the same age as the author. I am called Millennial, snowflake, selfish, etc. It's a tired diatribe: every generation rolls their eyes at the generation coming up next. Is it... a right of passage? An expectation? Whatever it is, Harris wants the world to know that if we keep doing this society as a whole is doomed.
This book basically reads as a follows: here is what you think, here is what is actually happening, here is how you old people are assholes. It can be funny, it can be snarky, it can be eye-roll-inducing, and even, in a passage or two, informative. But basically we know all of this already: we are all on anti-depressants, we'll never see pensions or retirement funds, and we are more fucked than any generation before us. Great.
I'd recommend it for fellow late-20s-early-30s folks who are struggling to save, to feel fully adult, and to mitigate the bullshit we get from older coworkers/family members/etc. But it's really written by a Millennial for a Millennial to remind us that we're not crazy, and also that the world is coming to a bitter, bitter end. ...more
Reading this book now, with the current climate in America, was a big 'ol punch in the gut.
I'd heard the phrase "dirty thirties" before. I knew that Reading this book now, with the current climate in America, was a big 'ol punch in the gut.
I'd heard the phrase "dirty thirties" before. I knew that The Dust Bowl had been a thing. But I had no idea the extent of it, how the rest of the country reacted, and the longitudinal changes that came from it. It's unsurprising that we were devastating the land with abandon back then, though it sucks that we've learned essentially nothing from The Dust Bowl, and continue to flip off the Earth while mining it for all of its useful bits without thinking about the future.
The TL;DR is as follows: a bunch of white people went out west to get away from the pollution of the cities and to make it as farmers. They killed all the bison and chased all the indigenous people off of the land. Wheat became a Big Deal, and so more white people hopped trains west to try and make some cash during the wheat boom. Long term residents of the area (NE, KS, OK, TX, and some of CO) warned that the rainy seasons of the 20s were abnormal, and that the area might not be able to support the massive amounts of wheat being planted. But hubris reined, and the interlopers ripped out all of the naturally occurring crop (mostly buffalo grass), to plant their wheat. First, the price of wheat began to plummet. Then the rains stopped, and the area sunk into another drought spell, not uncommon for the area. The plains no longer contained the buffalo grass which "kept the ground in place," as folks were saying, and so prairie winds ripped through and lifted topsoil off of the ground and into the air at higher and higher rates as the years of drought ticked by. That swirling topsoil would slam back to earth, covering houses, killing children and the elderly with "dust pneumonia," and generally wreaking havoc. The "dust spells" as they were called, even made their way out easy to NY and DC. Eventually, FDR and time created the change needed to try and heal the area, though, as of the book's publishing (2006), parts of the great plains are still totally barren; forever scarred by our selfishness.
The really fucked up thing about this book is the stubbornness of the people. So many were wildly unwilling to stop ripping out the buffalo grass. They insisted that the wheat prices would bounce back, that the droughts were temporary, that they hadn't done anything wrong. Wheat was rotting at the train stations of the great plains while people in cities starved. It hit me hard, thinking about the footage of so much milk being dumped at the beginning stages of COVID, while people lost their jobs and went hungry. Our country still sucks at reacting to a crisis. And we, as a whole, still suck at taking care of the planet. We'll deserve it when it turns on us for good, and then the Squid People will rise....more
He's the guy smoking in the back of a murder mystery film, knowing the answers to all the questions folks are askingYuval Noah Harari is the coolest.
He's the guy smoking in the back of a murder mystery film, knowing the answers to all the questions folks are asking, quietly providing them while the cast loudly ignores him.
Sapiens is a sketch of humanity - how Homo Sapiens came to be, why they're the iteration of Homo which remains, and where we as a species are heading. He posits that, by 2050, there will likely be individuals who are a-mortal, that is, they will not die by disease or old age. And he provides real data to support this theory.
Yowza.
Unlike many similar books which ask big questions like "how did we get where we are" and "where are we going," Harari actually provides possible answers, with reasoning to back them up. He tackles why we moved from hunters/gatherings to agriculture; how we created constructs such as society, government, and currency; what it means to be a consumer; what purpose religion served... I can go on. But I won't. Because you need to read this book. Everyone needs to read this book.
Loung Ung was living the typical life of a 5yr old: her parents adored her, her siblings protected her, her upper-middle-class existence ensured sOof.
Loung Ung was living the typical life of a 5yr old: her parents adored her, her siblings protected her, her upper-middle-class existence ensured she always had food and shelter...
...but then the Khmer Rouge army took over.
Ms. Ung's story is heart wrenching. She details for the reader her first encounter with a dead body, how her young mind grappled with starvation and murder, and how anger helped give her the strength to survive.
It's incredibly impressive how honest Ung is about what it was to be a child when her country and countrymen were being torn apart. She asked a lot of questions, she threw temper tantrums because she wanted to go home... basically she's a little shit, like most children are. As an adult, she feels as though she still needs to make reparations for her selfish behavior. It breaks your heart, because she was a child, of course she reacted as she did at the time, and to carry those weights all of those years? I hope someone has told her it's okay to drop them now. ...more
I would argue that you, like me, do not know a lot about Trevor Noah the person. He's a face in comedy, a celebrity, wealthy, attractive. You, like meI would argue that you, like me, do not know a lot about Trevor Noah the person. He's a face in comedy, a celebrity, wealthy, attractive. You, like me, may feel sort of "fuck that guy" - the way I feel when the models waiting for the crosswalk next to me complain about how they can't eat a whole banana because it's just too filling.
Sorry - yesterday was a weird day.
Listening to memoirs read by the author is something I find incredibly enjoyable. They know where to put the emphasis - they know the tone of their parents, their friends, their lovers. Noah does a really excellent job giving heart to his childhood as chronicled in Born a Crime.
The story jumps around a bit, detailing different events in his life that shaped him while simultaneously educating the reader about growing up under apartheid. I expected his story to be unique. I did not expect to become upset... or cry... listening to a man, who by all outward appearances has a better life than I, tell his story.
Noah did not have the easiest time as a colored child being raised by a single black mother in the mid 1980s. Fear was a standard, and that fear merely evolved once apartheid ended. Domestic abuse, South African police and jails, growing up poor, growing up awkward... Noah isn't shying away from the dirtier aspects of life, and he does it in an earnest and open way. His story is important - it isn't Tina Fey joking about being friends with lesbians, or Anthony Bourdain chronicling his debauched youth. Noah's memoir is a unique, hopeful, humbling story of poverty and perseverance. He is, at the risk of laying it on nauseatingly thick, an inspiration. ...more
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