Alex Nelson

Inside the life of a good senator

Revisado: 06-16-17

I don't read many autobiographies or political books and as a minnesotan and a progressive I am biased. However I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I already thought positively of Al Franken from the occasion national news stories on him over the years but after reading this book I feel even prouder to have him as my senator. And though I agree with and was not surprised by 99% of what he said, maybe apart from his praise of Hillary Clinton, I felt he gave the issue of dark money in politics inadequate consideration. I completely agree that elections should be publicly funded and that the power of corporations and the wealthy to influence politics is a serious problem. But philosophically I see why it's a thorny issue and I think Al could have engaged in a more nuances discussion of that issue.

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Essential gender and sexually studies reading

Revisado: 12-16-16

I hadn't heard of this book when I came across it at an anthropology conference book sale but it was worth every penny. Although I am usually off put by social science and humanities research that is not based in original primary research, the studies discussed throughout this book were obscure enough to me to prevent the book from feeling merely theoretical. The author poses a fascinating challenge to our rigid thinking about male same sex sexual acts while also highlighting the role of race in American cultural constructions of male heterosexual it and homosexuality. By highlighting instances of same sex sexual acts between heterosexual men the author is able to constructively complicate our understanding of sexuality, masculinity and whiteness, all of which are rarely and inadequately theorized in the vast majority of gender studies literature in particular and the social sciences in general. Although it frequently felt like I was listening to a jargon laden conference talk, I believe this book can serve as excellent reading material for upper level undergraduates.

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Fascinating and deeply beautiful and emotive

Revisado: 12-14-16

I bought and listened to this book with no expectations and will now count it among my favorites. This author has made an extremely admirable attempt to envision what a large scale stateless society might look like and the traps and faults that such a seeming utopia might still fall pray too. The author also creates a beautiful critique of not only capitalism but also the tyranny of government. All of this is done through a touching and stimulating narrative that results in a well paced page turner you won't want to put down despite lacking much in the way of suspense. It is as visionary a piece of science fiction as a Brave New World or 1984.

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Pedestrian Poverty Porn

Revisado: 12-08-16

If you know nothing about North Korea and don't mind at little embellishment in your non-fiction reading then this book may be worth your time. However if you are looking for a new perspective or new information on North Korea you should look elsewhere. As you might imagine the author paints a 1984esqhe picture which is fair but does not challenge or expand our understanding of the North. The reliance on refugee narratives is part of this problem and that of all such journalistic accounts on life in the North. These shortcomings would be forgivable if the narration were not so irritatingly drab. The narrator's Korean pronunciation wasn't completely horrible but it is clear she doesn't speak a single syllable of Korean and considering her English narration is no less irritating, they really could have done a lot better. Listening to this on Kindle with text to speech would be an improvement since at least then it would move faster. I almost never give such harsh reviews to books and if I were not a koreanist this book probably wouldn't have rubbed me so wrong. It's fine if you only want an introduction.

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Enjoyable Sequal but much less compelling.

Revisado: 09-01-16

I loved Spin, I enjoyed this book, but it wasnt nearly as interesting and the characters were also a little less compelling. But i still liked it.

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Every Homo Sapien must read this book!

Revisado: 07-30-16

Even though I am an anthropologist, I can think of no better (in terms of clearness of explanation or ability to provoke thought) book on the human condition and the major themes of human history. everyone should read this book.

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Spartacus in Space

Revisado: 07-24-16

I am thoroughly hooken on this series now and wish i didnt have to wait 6 days for my nect credit to get the final book. I didnt enjoy the events and xharacters of this book as much as those in the first, but it was still very enjoyable. the reader is as great as ever. there are just a few characters that im starting to get annoyed with, hopefully they'll die off in the next book. be warned, if you hate game of thrones because characters keep dieing you may similarly object to this series. personally i think its brave to kill likable characters, otherwise fiction would be too predictable.

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China's answer to Isaac Asimov does it again

Revisado: 06-19-16

I was a bit skeptical that the sequal would live up to the original and was initially put off by the slurry of new characters introduced in the begining but I am immensely thankful that I kept listening. Intrecate and clever plots may be Liu's bread and butter, but his new character is as relatable as he is genius. I thought it would take me weeks to get through this lengthy book but I could barely pur it down and ended up finishing it in half a week.
It looks like the third and final book will come out later this year in English but much like the first the end of this book doesnt leave you hanging despite this being a trilogy. When all is said and done I fully expect that at least these first two books will be cannonized as among the greatest science fiction novels of all time.

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An promising idea and intro to the subject

Revisado: 06-16-16

Anyone who reads this book will likely love parts of it and hate others. I suspect it could be great material for a social science course despite the lack of intext citations (the kindle version does have a bibleography). The core idea is provacative and many important social science theories are introduced and discussed in such a way that could serve as a great introduction to those theorists. the book is perpetually controversial and would likely arouse fantastic discussions while providing a chance for critical consideration of her interpretations of certain studies, some of which sound overgeneralized and oversimplified but may serve as excellent teaching points. I would recomend getting the kindle version with audio to gain access to the bibleography and notes as you will likely want to examine her sources for yourself.
the recording itself had some problems for me and some of the audio editing was sloppy. for those with a kindle fire using the text to speach wouldnt be that much worse than the audiobook version.

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A Critical History of US Foreign Policy

Revisado: 06-14-16

What did you like best about this story?

I hadn't learned all that much about American History in High School or afterward so it was a pleasure to not only to hear the political history of the 20th century US from this refreshing critical perspective, but in many cases to hear about it in any detail at all. Of course any book written from a particular theoretical perspective has biases and blind-spots to equally true and important perspectives on the past, but i think these multiple perspectives aught to be a core of public understandings of US history taught in US classrooms.

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