| 1) Chris Moriarty. Spin State - relatively-hard sci-fi with decent non sci-fi elements (i.e. characters and stuff), which I think is rare. 2) Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man. I really enjoyed the writing, among other things, and how he captures short moments and scenes with sort of a hard-to-describe quality of a visual art, almost. 3) Ilya Somin. Free To Move. To me most of the book was "duh" but I think it would be a good read for people on the fence about immigration and private vs public institutions. 4) Vaclav Smil. Energy And Civilization; possibly How the World Really Works, still reading that one. Really dense and detailed examination of energy history of mankind for the former, and infrastructure of technological civilization for the latter. 5) Pluckrose & Lindsday. Cynical Theories. Good 101 on CRT and modern woke movement. 6) Alexander. New Jim Crow. Good 101 on war on drugs, although some broader social arguments the book makes straightforwardly don't seem to follow, or are contradicted by, its factual base IMHO. 7) Stephenson. Seveneves - really good hard sci-fi imho, although felt very, very long. 8) Orwell. Down and Out in Paris and London. A good book about poverty only 70-100 years ago. Also a good perspective for modern complaints about poverty - I have some non-US background for that, so I think many US readers might benefit more. On the fence.
1) I want to plug Seleukid Royal Economy, just for the hell of it, if you are interested in ancient economy :) 2) Galef. Scout Mindset - on the fence about this one, but it seemed like it was way too long for what it offers. Maybe I've just read a lot of the same stuff ago. 3) Okorafor. Binti - not bad as a YA book, but sci-fi aspects are remarkably bad. A few more I'm too lazy to type out ;) |