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An excellent overview on why American politics has become so polarized, why we once weren't, why we can't go back, and how to address the problems created by polarization. It lays out how Trump is the logical next step in Republican evolution and why Democrats have no equivalent. Worth the read if you want to understand how we got here.

Honestly I think I'm too old for this book. I think, for me, reading it as a young teenager probably would have been the era where I end up the most impressed. I don't think I particularly needed a lesson in safeguarding against totalitarianism, but the book is short and overly plain, making it perfect for an introduction into adult literature.

A collection of short essays on everything imaginable. Each essay ends with a 1 to 5 star rating. John uses each topic as an excuse to navigate wider themes on what it means to be human and live in human society. Generally, it seems John is broadly in favor of humans.

I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four stars.

We imagine things will be as our history tells us it was. In the United States, that means we think another civil war would be fought along geographic lines with large, organized, government-backed armies. But Barbara Walter explains how a modern civil war really happens, and it's nothing like how we imagine it would be.

Tribe is an excellent look at what it is that really makes a community, and why it's not always the things people want it to be.

A writer decides to take a hard look at what future our destructive present may bear. He visits apocalyptic sites like Chernobyl and wonders about the world he is leaving his child. Worth it, if you're in a pensive mood.

I've read other Asimov and enjoyed his work immensely, but this one was.. Okay? Like, its a collection of short stories that center around the logic in the three laws of robotics, but the problem is that some of the logic the characters employ isn't exactly logical? It was rather annoying to be screaming at the book about an obvious solution where the book also seemed to pride itself on being cerebral.

See review title.

A guy joins the army on a whim and becomes an infantryman. Eventually he also signs up to be an officer in a similarly spontaneous fashion. They fight space bugs and we hear multiple lectures about psychology and society that are clearly just the author preaching to his captive audience. Good writing, but the story doesn't really go anywhere. The main character does some growing, but we never actually see that happen, he just reacts differently as the book goes on. Realistic? Sure. Compelling? Nah.

A man is drafted into the space army and shipped around the galaxy fighting for galactic supremacy. He doesn't exactly love the war, but he doesn't seem to have many particularly strong opinions about most things. Pitched to me as the anti-war antidote to Starship Troopers, the main thing I took away was that Starship Troopers wasn't exactly pro-war either, only the protagonist was. Still, it was interesting to read both!

I can think of no better title for this book. Sy dives into the personality and lives of octopuses. They clearly have souls, perhaps multiple souls; they play, they dream, and everything in between. This book is well worth your time, come meet the people who live under the sea.

Everyone thinks they know more than they actually do. Yes, everyone. We must. If we knew how much we didn't know we'd all be paralyzed with ignorance. When you prove to people how little they know, they don't like it. They especially don't like it if their ideas weren't rational in the first place. Most of the shit we know we know because other people told us.

Even so, society is mostly okay.

From an elf owl that can fit in your hand, to a fish owl the size of a fire hydrant, these birds are more diverse and charismatic than you ever knew before. Are they instinctive hunters? Do they have to learn how to hunt? Yes! Do they sleep in trees, do they sleep in burrows? Yes! Are they thriving, are they endangered? Yes, yes, yes. There's so much to learn and so little time, might as well start now!

A long and detailed account of racist systems of control in America, with a strong focus on the current one, mass incarceration. Michelle makes a solid and even-handed case for calling mass incarceration the new Jim Crow, all while acknowledging and explaining the important differences. Read the tenth anniversary edition, which comments on the events since the book's first publication, it's well worth it.