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Being a small book, and based on conversations, it didn't get into great detail, but does offer a launch point for exploring perspectives on the other side of US intervention.

4 stars because it was like a rehash / continuation of an existing conversation - not a bad thing but since ratings are subjective it doesn't matter.

Both right-wing and left-wing preppers will find something for them in this book. Written from the POV of a teenager in a life-or-death situation, the book is pretty much on survival mode the entire time, with the accompanying lack of nuance and fear permeating throughout. Still, seems like an important and balanced read.

On a second read, I feel a lot differently than I did the first time around. I can't separate uncomfortable feelings of reading about a teenager basically starting a cult and attracting people who are at their absolute most vulnerable to join. It doesn't sit well with me to read about Lauren's glee to "raise babies in Earthseed." And the intense, intense, dehumanization and otherizing of people using drugs, making them into physically unrecognizable monsters, is something I can't get past. If Lauren has hyper-empathy, and is more sensitive to people in need of help, then why does the buck stop with people using drugs?

First published in 1906, a lot of the things Kropotkin imagined (soon we will all have electricity! And food delivery!) actually came to pass, and a lot of the social issues (child labor) have been mitigated, in the west. Many of his suggestions / predictions did not come to pass (we still have money). Very interesting to review what the pressing issues of his day, and feel some degree of hope that although we have our own problems, we have less cases of 8 year olds out-competing their parents in the workplace.

Like a pound cake of cons, this is a psychology-oriented review of cons and swindles. Very dense with many examples, some of which are a bit hard to keep track of since con-people have various aliases. Generally well-written, focuses on "classic" cons (ponzi schemes, fortune tellers) as opposed to religious cons/cults.

Pretty good.