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Effective Relief

Revisado: 01-24-24

I've had serious back pain & sciatica for over a year now & this recording significantly lessens my pain & even stops the intense muscle spams that the pain often triggers. It's lowered my stress significantly & is easy to replay when the condition returns. Think of it like taking a medication, it will wear off eventually but is still very effective.

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Intriguing Science, Misguided Philosophy

Revisado: 03-23-23

First & foremost (as, if you're like me, you may perhaps have only picked up this book from the shelf for the presence of Nietzsche's name on the cover), this book provides no worthwhile commentary on Nietzsche. This is a science & philosophy book clearly written by a scientist with limited philosophical education/ perspective.

Gregg's interesting, often charming exploration of what we've gained & lost as a species in evolving to our current level of intelligence is a worthwhile listen with genuinely deep scientific insight, but nothing from which to take real philosophical insight, e.g. he clearly doesn't understand Nietzsche, his elementary presentation of Utilitarianism as a guiding value system is at once wildly over simplified & unreconciled with what he claims is humanity's biggest problem- prognostic myopia.

If you're looking for an interesting, general audience level exploration of intelligence in humans, especially as it's compared with animals, this book is for you.

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Much Needed Reality Check for Modernity

Revisado: 03-23-23

Steinbeck, in his much beloved travel narrative, 'Travels with Charley in Search of America', once reflected on the great satisfaction one might derive from sitting in a small town church on Sunday as the fire-&-brimstone rain bellows down from the burly, convicted voice of a country preacher. Such is this book for those of us standing quizzically aside & staring out brows-furrowed into a modern world of chronic disease, lauded selfishness, staggering levels of overproduction, environmental devastation, etc & wondering, 'who the hell's idea of progress is this, anyways?'

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A Normie's Guide to the Rise of the Crazies

Revisado: 03-23-23

A fascinating dive into the birth of some of the radical ideas & cultural trends prevalent in modern American social discourse, both articulating an origin story of today's extreme, antiliberal movements challenging democratic culture from both the left & the right, & offering the historically informed perspective that, in the absence of which, much of our public discourse has been reliably lost in the dark to ever more discouraging degrees since the rise of the internet.

Perhaps more than any other single book I've read, this one shines a welcome light on the evolution of modern America's stratified cultural movements.

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Uniquely Unaligned Assessment of Rising Tensions

Revisado: 10-27-21

Mahbubani provides a clear & compelling breakdown (if at times perhaps over-confident) of the status quo & future prospects of political ascendancy between the USA & China in the early 21st century. Most prescient for the combination of its apparent lack of sympathy or respect paid to the values of either nation, & the between-polar view of its Author.

With 'Has China Won?', Mahbubani seems, rather than attempting to answer the question, to be outlining some of the key areas over which we can expect to see an inevitable transition away from the USA as a global hegemon, alongside the unprecedented (in the modern era) rise of a non-western, non-liberal & plausibly singular, new world leader.

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Profoundly Reflective

Revisado: 02-09-21

This brutally & beautifully real recount of Tolstoy's spiritual journey somehow imparts at once a sense of the terror & immensity of life at its darkest, & the equally profound comfort, relation & closeness of genuine, unguarded sincerity. A book that may not (& seems at times not to strive to) impart convictions of Christianity on its audience, but will certainly leave one feeling like a more compassionate, empathic, & dare I say better person.

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Captivating Narrative of Complex History

Revisado: 02-09-21

Expertly built plot lines intersect across two hundred years of turbulent history in the Indian subcontinent to give the reader an indepth understanding of the commercial Imperialism of the British in their golden age. Filled with highly abstractable/ relatable themes & anecdotes, The Anarchy joins the ranks of the great single volume epics of historical nonfiction & provides an essential grasp of this region & time for the armchair expert.

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An Everyman's Narrative of a Tremendous Campaign

Revisado: 02-09-21

With a voice perfectly paired to the prose & spirit of this book, Kokoda masterfully weaves together the facts, headlines, general movements & first person accounts of the conflict between Australia & Japan for the fate of Papua New Guinea in one of the ruggedest, muddiest, & most dangerous campaigns of WWII. Captivating story.

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Defense of a Career of Ineffective Framing

Revisado: 02-09-21

An at times stressful but worthwhile read to contextualize the status of racial dialogue in the early days of social-media-polarised America, almost solely of interest for its popular success. White Fragility reads primarily as a self-righteous attempt at defending the pretensions of what the narrative implies is a failed race sensitivity educator. Though the fact of this book's existence is unfortunate in that it provides easy fodder for the deniers of racism & steers us away from more productive conversations being had about inequality in America today, White Fragility is, if little else, important context to Americans looking from the less extreme left & center for better understanding of the perspectives that are radicalizing a part of our society. Amy Landon does a great job of invoking the frustrated tone of this long form essay.

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