Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations

Ronen Bergman

December 28. The title of this book accurately describes it. This is a long, detailed, and disturbing book very focused on one thing – the history of Israel’s targeted killings by Mossad (external intelligence, like the CIA), Shin Bet (internal security – like the FBI) and the Israeli Defense Forces. It starts in the times just as Israel was forming all the way through to the present day. Bergman did not have access to any official source and had to assemble the history through primary research and interviews. He did a very thorough – exhaustive and almost exhausting work detailing many, many targeted killings. He describes the evolution of targeted killings from very haphazard affairs early on to very sophisticated ones later on with legal review, prime minister sign off, coordination of forces, and refined methods. It is clear that this was a very key element of Israeli culture and tactics – similarly Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas employed similar tactics. Reading the book was timely because – although the book is about the targeted killings program – it, by necessity has to cover Israeli history and politics – so quite helpful in understanding Israel and its neighbors today. Reading the book, I got the impression that both Israel and its enemies practiced “eye for eye” retribution – with little effect and stopping or deterring terrorism. At the end of the book, Bergman captured my uneasiness by saying that for both Israel and its enemies, targeted killings were a tactic with little strategy behind them. A clear culture of retribution has thwarted any attempts or progress toward reconciliation.

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Open Throat: A Novel

Henry Hole

Reviewed December 20. This is a very unusual novel. It is based on the mountain lion known as P-22 who roamed the hills above LA. The book is written in first person from the mountain lion's perspective. It depicts his views of humans. He befriends a young girl and the book discusses their relationship. The reviews say the mountain lion is "queer", but I did not get that from reading it. This is a pretty short book and an interesting read - if only because of its unusual approach.

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The Maze: A John Corey Novel

Nelson Demille

Reviewed December 14. This is another Demille novel in the John Corey series. In this book, Corey reunites on Long Island with old flame and detective Beth Penrose to solve a series of murders of prostitutes on Long Island. This book was supposedly inspired by the Gilgo Beach murders, but the connection is tenuous. The first part of the book was pretty tedious. It used the police procedural device of having Corey and Penrose talk a lot about their view of the situation - thus developing context. That part was too long and ponderous. There was more action in the second part of the book, but by then it was too late. This was one of Demille's weaker books.

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Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

Heather Cox Richardson

Reviewed December 3. This is another history of America and our democratic traditions by historian Heather Cox Richardson. Her primary thesis is that, in response to the New Deal, a group of conservatives built a neoliberal agenda and system to unravel the gains of the new deal - quite similar to other historical books I have read on this subject. One new element that Richardson added was the distiction between the Declaration of Independence - "all men are create equal" and the compromiseds built into the Constitution which catered to white slave owners and implied a hierarchical system of citizenship - that was gradually unwound after the Civil War and through the Civil rights movement - to be closer to the intentions of the Declaration of Independence. She asserts that conservatives are trying to unwind the gains made for liberty for all - back to a hierarchical society. She spends quite a bit of time on the history of authoritarianism and shows some of the moves being made toward autoritariansim in present-day America.

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How to Interpret the Constitution

Cass R. Sunstein

Reviewed November 24. I was a bit disappointed in this book but that may have more to do with my expectations rather than the book itself. I expected the book to go through the constitution and illuminate the reader as to how to look at various constitutional issues such as firearms rights/regulation, free speech, etc. Instead, Sunstein wrote a book that enumerates, compares and contrasts various theories of how the constitution can and should be interpreted. As such it is a fairly technical legal book - along the lines of Adrian Vermeule's Common Good Constitutionalism, which I read last year. In fact Sunstein references Vermeule, a fellow Harvard Law constitutional law professor, and credits him in the acknowledgements.I would not say that I did not learn anything from the book. I did learn that there are a set of ways to interpret the consitution with pros and cons of each and Sunstein's idea of "fixed points" in law which are principles and values most can agree upon was useful. I did leave with a hunger for a book that actually goes through the constitution and explains it and the controversies and pros and cons of the various issues.

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Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in an Age of Extremes

John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira

Reviewed November 21. This book picks up where David Leonhardt left off in Ours Was the Shining Future in describing how the Democratic party has become a party of college-educated elites and lost the broader working class. Like Leonhardt, the authors describe how the New Left became more focused on social/identity issues and less focused on economic issues that were relevant to the middle class. Furthermore, some of the focus on the social/identity issues was too extreme (e.g. woke) and alienated the broader working class. I quite liked their analysis and agreed with their theseis that the Democratic party needs to appeal less to it's extreme element and focus more on economic and social policies that ensure broad prosperity and well-being. I hope Democratic politicians take the book seriously.

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American Government 101: A Crash Course in the US Government

Kathleen Sears

Reviewed November 14. This little book is exactly what it’s subtitle says it is. It is a primer on how the US government works. It does provide some historical perspective on how the various aspects of the government came to be – including the debates among the founders. It is clear that much of the founding was based on political compromise – sort of flying in the face of originalism and other such fundamentalism. The book is well-written and easy to read. It covers the founding of the country through the 201y Trump election. It also covers state, county, and local governments and the relationship to the federal government. This book is a basic US government civics course – which is why I wanted to read it. Judging from some of the political discourse I hear these days, more people should read this book.

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Ours Was The Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream

David Leonhardt

Reviewed November 10. David Leonhardt is one of my favorite New York Times writers. I find he has great insights into economics and society. This book is his history of the American Dream from the pre New Deal to the present. He chronicles the back and forth between neoliberalism (and its predecessorin the gilded age) and progressivism. Unlike other books of this sort, he does not romanticize the postwar years or pine for a return of things like labor unions - at least in the form they existed in the 50s and 60s. He is pretty clear eyed about both the pros and cons of things like unions and immigration. He does feel that both parties have fallen out of touch with the needs of everyday Americans and that the Democratic party, in particular, under the thrall of the new left in the 60s started getting enmeshed in cultural issues and forgot to focus on economic issues that broadened its support among the working class. He fears that today's Democratic party is seen as the party of elite college-educated Brahmins. This book had some new insights and I enjoyed reading it and learned some new things. My disappointment with is - as with many such books - is that it was strong on analysis but weak on sythesis - give his insights, what is the path forward? I have a lot of respect for Leonhardt and whish he used his considerable intellect and insight to tell us what we should do.

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Tyranny of the Minority

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblat

Reviewed October 24. By the authors of How Democracies Die, this book picks up where it was left off. The authors further chronicle anti-democratic processes - using examples from history and around the world. They describe the evolution of the American Democratic and Republican parties and specifically describe how the US Republican party has become less democratic. The trace this to the Republican "southern strategy" to use race and cultural issues as a wedge - necessary because the traditional liberal economic policies are pretty unpopular. The point to anti-democratic structural issues such as the senate, electoral college, and supreme court as anti-majoritarian in ways that supress political competition. Their point of view is that the most popular ideas should win - thus forcing political parties to actually adopt policies people want. The end of the book offers a number of prescriptions and urges readers to become politically active to make the changes necessary to create majority rule in the U.S. This book is very readable and makes a lot of sense.

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Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver

Reviewed October 11. This is a novel about the life of a boy, Demon, grouwing up in rural Lee County, Virginia. Demon is the son of an addicted teenage mother and a father who died young. The book covers Demon's life from childhood to young adulthood. Demon ends up playing junior high football, gets injured, and becomes addicted to opiods. Most of the people around him are similar addicts. The book covers life in Appalichia, including desperation and poverty. It is modeled on Charles Dickins David Cooperfield. It has been a long time since I read David Cooperfield so I am not sure I got the parallel. It is told in the first person, narrated by Demon. The book rambles a bit early on but, once it hits its stride, is a good chronicle of the lives many probably still live in rural Appalacia.

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The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future

Franklin Foer

Reviewed October 11. Foer chronicles the inside story of the first two years of the Biden administation - pretty much chronicologically. He describes the issues the administration faced and the decisions and decision-making process Biden and team used to address the issues. While not specfically about Biden himself, the book does a pretty good job of depicting Bidens values and character. I was mildly supportive of President Biden before reading the book. I'm more positively supportive now. Foer clearly is a Biden fan and he shows how the white house made pretty reasonable and rational responses to the issues at hand. I look forward to the sequel of the second two years of Biden's first term.

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The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists

Richard P. Rumelt

Reviewed September 12. Richard Rumelt is one of my favorite strategy thinkers. He asserts that strategy is not about planning, process, financial metrics, goals, or mission statements. Rather it is about finding the "crux" of the matter that will create competitive separation. Like Roger Martin, he focuses less on strategy process and more on strategy purpose. The book is peppered with thinly disquised examples for Rumelt's strategy practice. He clearly defines what strategy is and is not for business leaders. Rumelt does not write much about strategy but what he does write is lucid and readable. This is a great example. Every strategist should read it.

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One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger

Mathew Yglesias

Reviewed August 27. Yglesias starts with the fundamental thesis that the United States needs a bigger population. Both China and India have populations over 1 Billion while the US population is ~330 Million. Yglesias asserts economic growth is not enough, we will need a bigger population to compete with bigger countries and maintain our economic leadership. He also asserts that the US is not full. We have ample room and resources to accomodate more people - and, in fact have suffered from depopulation in our older industrail cities and rural areas. More population brings more growth and more innovation - and more taxpayers to fund the infrasructure, education, health care, and programs to support that population. The bulk of the book builds on this fundamental thesis with policy discussions around a wide range of issues - encouraging children and family growth, immigration, education, heatlhcare, housing, transportation, urban policy, climate, etc. I liked most of the policy ideas. This builds upon a thread that Yglesias colleague, Ezra Klein has been talking about - that American needs to grow and build. The book is three years old - and was released during the pandemic. Although some things have changed since then, I think the fundamental premise is intriquing and would like to see the conversation taken further. I am confident that Yglesias and Ezra Klein will do so.

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Central Park West: A Crime Novel

James Comey

Reviewed August 27. This is about the murder trial of the former wife of New York's governor. A federal district attorney working another case (a mafia case) finds evidence that the governor's wife has been set up. This is a fairly readable crime/courtroom novel by James Comey - former head of the FBI. It draws upon Comey's experience as a federal prosecutor. THere are some twists and turns in the plot - making it entertaining. Not a great book, but a good summer read. Not bad for his first crime novel.

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The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

Joseph Henrich

Reviewed August 24. This book is about WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) people - basically the elites of western civilization and a good part of the rest of the world. Henrich is a psychologist and anthropologist who looks at what made people WEIRD and why they have been so successful in driving world growth and prosperity. He asserts that WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytica. lHis basic thesis is that human culture originally organized into networks based on kindship. Although these networks might be quite big, they were closed. The Catholic church broke these kinship networks in Western Europe - mainly as a straegy to gain control of their lands. In the place of the kindship networks, rose the nuclear family. People had to reconstruct the value that kinship networks provided - this created institutions such as charter cities, guilds, monestaries, and universities - which sowed the seeds for a form of self-interestedcooperation that fostered innovation and growth. Henrich also ties Protestantism and its famous work ethic into his theory. If found the thesis of the book quite interesting and plausible. It was sometimes tedious to read, though. In the early parts of the book, Henrich tries to justify his thories by describing, in detail, every psychological experiment he and colleagues conducted to prove his theory. While I appreciate his thoroughness, it might have made the book more readable (and a fast read) to put all of the experimental details in an appendix. The second half of the book - which reads more like a work of history - is more readable and useful. The thesis is pretty interesting - I'm not sure of the practical implications of his work, but it is a fascinating idea and study of the arc of history and culture.

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The Ministry for the Future

Kim Stanley Robinson

Reviewed August 7. Like many of Robinson's other books, this book is about climate change. It is set in the near future (5-10 years out) and covers a bunch of things the world is doing to combat climate change (and a bunch of disasters that are results of climate change. The book's title is about a Ministry set up by the Paris Climate Agreement. The book is less one coherent story than a series of vignettes about various aspects of climate change. There is a story thread, it is just woven through the vignettes. The book features some of Robinson's favorite topics - including airships and Antarctica. The book is both pessimistic and hopeful. Robinson describes things like rewilding the American west and cooling the poles by pumping sea water onto the Antarctic continent. Like Robinson's other works that I have read, I like the premise, but the reading tends to be a big tedious at times.

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Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders

Jason L. Riley

Reviewed August 7. I read this book because it us a conservative's case for opening up immigration. The book was written in 2008 so it hearkened back to the Reagan/Bush type of conservatism which believe in free trade, not the more Trumpist conservatism. Riley makes that economic case (which many have made before) that the U.S. needs immigration to support our agin population and to keep economic growth going. He freely acknowledges the xenophibia and nativism that exists (and has always existed) on the right. I mostly liked the book and agreed with its premises. The book was marred a bit by occasional gratuitous and unnecessary swipes at liberals. That diminished his message. Overall he seems to agree with Thomas Friedman that the US needs a big wall with a big gate. Although the subtitle of the book is "the case for open borders", he does not really advocate open borders but, rather, a much larger legal immigration program to meet our needs for workers to fuel economic growth and tap into the goals and aspirations of migrants for a better life. Conservatives have been going in the opposite direction of late. It was refreshing to read a rational conservative viewpoint on immigration. I just wonder what this book would have said if it were written now instead of 15 years ago.

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Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed about How and What we Buy

Christopher Mims

Reviewed July 26. This is a really great book about retail logistics - how things move from factory to consumer. Christopher Mims is a Wall Street Journal technology colomnist who illminates how retail logistics works and how it is changing. He tracks a USB charger on the journey from its factory in Vietnam to a consumer in the U.S. He covers shipping, trucking, highways, warehouses, and consumer delivery. Along the way, he describes the role of artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, robots, and a host of other technologies. He takes a brief diversion to talk aobut Taylorism - the scientific practices of Fredrick Taylor - geared toward ever-more automization and optimization of tasks - driven by cost efficiency. I found this book just fascinating, and its structure (followoing the product from factory to consumer, illuminating. The only criticism I have is that some topics, such as ocean-going shipping - could have een more in depth. Overall a great read, highly recommended for those who want to understand how the real economy works and how it is being changed by technology.

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Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and The Crisis of Democracy

Jennifer Carlson

Reviewed July 20. Carlson decided to try to figure out what motivates the right by interviewing those embedded in the right - gun sellers. Not all of the gun sellers identified as conservative but even those who did not had some pretty conservative views. What she found is a profound distrust of government and institutions and, thus, a focus on self reliance - as embodied in gun ownership and use. This is also exemplified by "doing my own research" instead of trusting expertise. There was some good explanatory material but less than I expected. This is a book that is OK but probably would have been better as a long essay rather than a book (like many business books). She got her point across pretty quickly and much of the book seemed repetitive.

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The Afib Cure: Get off your medications, take control of your health, and add years to your life

John D. Day, M.D. and T. Jared Bunch, M.D.

Reviewed July 11. This book is about treating atrial fibrillation (Afib) through cathedar ablation. The authors are physicians who specialize in such ablations. The book covers a lot of ground about atrial fibrilltion. First and foremost they recommend a healthy lifestyle, not unlike the prescriptions in Outlive and other such books. Second, they recommend cathedar ablation, and lastly the don't recommend using drugs to treat afib. This is a useful and informative book recommended by my electro cardiologist.

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Soft Architecture Machines

Nicholas Negroponte

Reviewed July 5. This is a sequel to The Architecture Machine , written about 5 years later. Negroponte describes the evolution of his thinking - some driven by advances in digital technology, some driven by a changing view of what is the right way to use that technology. He moves from the computer being a partner to the professional architect to it being a partner with non-professionals trying to do their own design in a vernacular fashion. Like The Architecture Machine, this book is chock full of examples and demos illustrating Negroponte's points. The books ends with digital technology becoming an integral part of and mediation the environment. Perhaps a logical endpoint and one more likely to happen than the elimination of professionals. Although, given the power of machine learning and AI, it should give professionals pause as to their true value and how to maintain it.

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Palo Alto: A History of California, Captialism, and The World

Malcolm Harris

Reviewed June 30. Palo Alto is a history of California seen through the eyes of Palo Alto and Stanford University. It covers a prety broad swath of history and focuses on the evolution of captialism, technology, and society. It described a very conservative and racist (as in eugenics) strain of thinking that is woven into Palo Alto, Stanford, and the tech community - which I had always assumed was pretty progressive. I was surpised at how much the US military funded Stanford and the tech ecosystem surrouinding it. I had always assumed that MIT was the premier school funded by the military - it seems that Stanford is at least a close second. The book covers a lot of aspects of tech, economics, and California - particularly Northern California, that I had not previously heard. While I agree with much of the author's point of view, it did seem like he had an axe to grind. The end of the book got a little wierd - as in advocating turning Palo Alto back to the original Native Americans who inhabited the area.

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The Architecture Machine: Toward a More Humane Environment

Nicholas Negroponte

Reviewed June 20. This is the book that launched me on my career in computer-aided design. I read it when I was a junior in high-school. I had a little computer experience and was headed toward architectural school. Negroponte’s book established a point of view which shaped my academic and professional career. What he postulated in The Architecture Machine was pure science fiction. Much of what he wrote about did not exist but he had an uncanny way of taking a bunch of snippets of research and weaving them into a coherent story. He establishes a point of view that machines need to be intelligent partners with architects. Some of what he wrote about has come to pass – but much has not. However, 50 years later with AI/machine learning, we are on the cusp of realizing his vision.

The Architecture Machine is out of print but you can download a PDF here.

Countdown: A thriller

James Patterson and Noan DuBois

Reviewed June 19. This is a pretty formulaic triller starring Amy Cornwall - apparently a Patterson staple. An ex special forces officer now employed by the CIA. She goes rogue with an MI6 officer to stop an Islamic terrorist from detonating a dirty weapon in New York. Somewhat entertaining but mindless fare.

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Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity

Peter Attia, MD and Bill Gifford

Reviewed May 28. Attia asserts that our goal later in life is to maintain our health as long as possible at an optimal level and avoid a slow decline. He says that the four killers are heart disease, cancer, metabolic disorders, and Alzheimer's disease. He describes maintaining our healthspan as long as possible and describes "Medicine 3.0" as preventative, in contrast to "Medicine 2.0" - which is primarily focused on fixing problems. His prescriptions are the expected - fitness, nutrition, sleep, and mental/emotional health. He has lots of good tips and advice - the primary value of the book, though is in attitude, not tips and tricks. The book was OK, but I expected more. Some insights but not as many as I expected. This is perhaps because I have read a fair amount on this topic and do pay attention to the healthspan issues that Attia recommends. This book is a good intro to those who are first thinking about their health in their later years but is pretty rudimentary in its advice.

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The Nineties

Chuck Klosterman

Reviewed May 14. This book is a history of the nineties. It covers a broad array of things - music, technology, movies, politics, ... It was fun reading about an era in which I spent my thirties and forties spanning Ohio and California. Some of the book was a little tedious - for example, trying to parse the meaning of grunge music, but other parts were fascinating. The container of the 90s decade included lots of things I remember and putting them all in the container was fascinating. It was a little sad that there was no overriding theme or conclusion. The 90s seemed like an innocent and optomistic time - an era that ended with 9/11.

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The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

Reviewed April 30. This book started out a little slow but really picked up steam later on. It is about a very concerted effort by business groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers to promote an agenda of free-market (and anti-government) fundamentalism to create an ideology of low regualtion, low taxes, and profit maximization. Often the ideology claims economic benefits for which there is no evidence. They chronicle Milton Friedman, Ronald Regan and others who were in the pay of large businesses (Regan was a GE employee for many years) to establish and ideology that shaped law and politics in their economic favor. The authors talk about Adam Smith and the Austrian economists who have been mischaracterized as anti government. The authors cite a number of systemic problems that cannot (or have not) been solved by the free-market and require government - environment (including climate change), fragemented health care, education, public safety, inequality. They show that free-market fundamentalism is an ideology that was deliberately constructed to suit economic interests - not some kind of natural law. Ayn Rand makes and appearance but not as a serious intellectual, but rather as a pulp fiction writer who popularizes free-market/anti government ideology.

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Cradles of the Reich: A Novel

Jennifer Coburn

Reviewed April 24. This book was a disappointment. I was supposed to be a historical novel about the Lebensborn Project - a Nazi breeding program to create the master race. It tells the story of several young women in a Lebensborn Society maternity home. I suppose the book was what it purported to be, I just found it lightweight and flat. There was so much potential to tell a rich, historical story of this part of Nazi history. Instead it was a light - almost candy read novel. It tell the story but was a real missed opportunity to go more in depth and tell the story in a more compelling way.

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The Science of Cooking: Every Question Answered to Perfect Your Cooking

Dr. Stuart Farrimond

Reviewed April 6. This book is just what the title suggests - it is a beautifully designed and illustrated book that describes the science behind cooking. Cookbooks tell you what tdo and how to do it, The Science of Cooking tells you why to do it a particular way. I read from cover to cover but it is a pretty dense book. I expect I will end up using it as a reference. Covers all aspect of cooking - meat, fish, vegetables, baking, spices... everything you need to know about why things are they way they are in cooking.

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Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup

David Browne

Reviewed April 1. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young is my favorite band. This is a very extensive biography of the band which covers their entire careers. A bunch of things struck me. The four main characters in the band all wanted independent careers (thus the name - sounding like a law firm). While they projected an image of being down to hear hippies - they were actually pretty materialistic rock stars - with all that implied. They each had huge egos and struggled to keep the band together. There were a lot of falling out incedents - sometimes over the music, sometimes over their fraught relationships. All had lots of romantic relationships including Joni Mitchell, Rita Coolidge, and Judy Collins. It was hard to keep track of who was sleeping with who. It was also fascinating to see which musicians they played with - including some who seemed quite different than CSNY. The book portrayed the music world as much smaller and interconnected than I had imagined. It was also obvious that Niel Young was the powerhouse musical innovator. At times it seems like Crosby, Stills, and Nash were resting on their laurals while Young was trying new things. Young also seemed to be the most standoffish about reuniting wiht the band.I have previously read a biography of Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace, which gave a lot of insight into Neil Young. This book covers the whole band. It was a long, involved book but I did get a lot of insight into the personalities and dynamics behind the people and the music.

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How to be a Design Student (and how to teach them)

Mitch Goldstein

Reviewed March 21. This is a nice little book by a design professor with lots of great advice for undergraduate design students. It brought back my architecture school education and I recognized many of the lessons I tried to impart teaching design to MBAs and graduate engineers. The book has a lot of wisdom and practical advice. It also gives advice to design teachers. I wish I had it 50 years ago when I started architecture school.

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Laundry Man: The Jack Shepherd Novels - Book 1

Jake Needham

Reviewed March 16. This is a candy thriller from the author of the Samual Tay novels and is similar in style, set in Bangkok rather than Singapore. Jack Shepherd is a college finance professor instead of a police detective. The story is about Shepherd getting inadvertantly involved in a money laundering scheme. There is a lot of intrique, shadowy connections to US intelligence and improbable plot twists. Not very deep, but entertaining.

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Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About our Past

JS Rossie

Reviewed March 8. This book is a collection of essays about myths that primarily conservatives promote about America's past. THe essays show that many of these myths are tropes that have been perpetuated to justify political goals or ends. Some are simply whitewashing of unpleasant truths or revisionist views of what actually happened. Many have existed for a long time and are just not true or at least portray a quite distorted view of history. The essays cover the following historical myths:

1. American Exceptionalism
2. Founding Myths
3. Vanishing Indians
4. Immigration
5. American First
6. The United State is an Empire
7. The Border
8. American Socialism
9. The Magic of the Marketplace
10. The New Deal
11. Confederate Monuments
12. The Southern Strategy
13. The Good Protest
14. White Backlash
15. The Great Society
16. Police Violence
17. Insurrection
18. Family Values
19. Reagan Revolution
20. Voter Fraud

This book is reminiscent of The Presidency of Donald J Trump in that it is a collection of essays by historians about controversial issues. I did read a review of the book that said it would not have much impact because conservatives would never read it and liberals would just read to confirm their beliefs. That is a fair assessement but, nevertheless, I did enjoy reading the book and getting many (but not all) of my beliefs confirmed! Some of the essays seem a bit glib and self-serving - but overall I liked the book.

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Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America

Philip Bump

Reviewed February 19. I'm right at the top of the bell curve of the baby boom, born in 1956 so I thought this would be an interesting book. I saw the author interviewed on TV and bought the book immediately. What I learned surprised me. I thought the book would be about the influence of the baby boomers and it was. What surprised me is that my picture of boomers were that they were like me, white, college-educated, liberal. What I learned was that while overwhelmingly white, they are mostly not college-educated and fairly conservative. Thus, the boomers are what created the tea-party and Trumpism. What a lot of the book does is show how racist the boomers are and posits a more liberal order after the boomers are no longer a factor - as we die off. The book is populated by diagrams that explain things - many were interesting but hard to read on the kindle. I liked the book but found myself unsatisfied after reading it. Somehow I thought Bump would make more definitive predictions about what a power-boomer world would be - as he did in his TV interview. If he did that in his book, it was hard to parse.

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Sell That Plane: Save Time, Money, and Your Sanity While Selling Your Airplane

JS Rossie

Reviewed February 15. This is a very short Kindle book about how to sell an airplane. I own a 2002 Cirrus SR-22 which I am selling. This book is full of practical and timely advice. In retrospect it is mostly common sense but the author does a good job of covering the basics. This is a guide to selling a plane directly so it does not go into brokers, etc. It is well organized and easy to read. It seems helful in dymystifiying a complex process.

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A Splendid Isolation: Lessons on Happiness from the Kingdom of Bhutan

Madeline Drexler

Reviewed February 12. This is a nice little book about Bhutan. Drexler visited Bhutan and wrote this short book that tries to capture the essence of Bhutan. I have been to Bhutan twice and found the book pretty informative. I wonder if it would be as informative if one had not already experienced Bhutan. It was an easy read and a good reminder about Bhutan and an explanation of some of the things that make this unique place what it is.

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The Persuaders: At the front lines of the fight for hearts, minds, and democracy

Anand Giridharadas

Reviewed February 5. I wanted to like this book. I have read a couple of other books by Giridharadas and really liked them. He is a good storyteller. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this book. The book is a series of stories about political persuasion. The stories are well-told but the book did not hang together with a coherent theme or narrative. The stories were disjoint and it was difficult to understand the author's intent of point. It was a missed opportunity.

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The ABCs of ⯅ ⯀ ⬤: the Bauhaus and Design Theory

Ellen Lupton and Abbott J. Miller

Reviewed February 4. This is a little book on Bauhaus graphic design theory. It also talks about the influence of the Institute of Design at Chicago. Interesting view of the origins of modern graphic design.

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The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens

Richard Haass

Reviewed February 4. This is a very important book. Haass is a foreign policy expert -- President of the Council on Foreign Relations - and i have read his books on foreign policy. This book is about domestic issues, although informed by his foreign policy background. He asserts that we have put a lot of emphasis on individual rights - in fact they are enshrined in the constitution's Bill of Rights - but have put two little emphasis on obligations - what we owe each other as connective tissue in a civil society. Haass posits ten obligations that all citizens should practice:

1. Be Informed
2. Get Involved
3. Stay Open to Compromise
4. Remain Civil
5. Reject Violence
6. Value Norms
7. Promote the Common Good
8. Respect Government Service
9. Support the Teaching of Civics
10. Put Country First

Haass believes that we cannot address American's challenges (and greatness) with a focus on rights alone. This is a small but poweful book that gives voice and organizes many things I have thought about. He also gives lots of references and places to go for more information. This is an important book that every American should read and understand.

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The Local: A Legal Thriller

Joey Hartstone

Reviewed January 16. This is an OK legal/murder mystery thriller. The most interesting part is that it takes place in Marshall, TX - in the federal district court that has tried many, many patent cases and arguably distorted our patent system. The story is OK but kind of pedestrian. Easy candy read but not very filling.

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The January 6^th Report: The Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capital

Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capital

Reviewed January 16. This is the comprehensive report on the January 6th attack. It covers the attack from many different perspectives and presents a frightening but unsurprising view of what happened. The frightening part is how coordinated and intentional the attack was - driven by Trump and his enablers. The unsurprising part is how little is new news. Most of what is in the report has been covered by the news media. The report is well-written and well-researched. While there is an occasional hint of partisanship, the report seems mostly objective. It is a shame that half of the US population will not read the report because they don't believe it is factual. That, in an of itself, speaks volumes. The report is long and difficult to get through, but worth a read.

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