Category: Books

Books

Nero Wolfe: Bluster, Beer, and Brilliance

Mark Richardson — Classic detective fiction has occupied a lot of my time during this year of pandemic. I have always loved good detective fiction, and I have taken this opportunity to re-read many of my old favorites—Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Harry Kemelman, and the magnificent Rex Stout, creator of the reclusive, impatient, pompous, obese genius, Nero Wolfe and his eyes, ears, and … Continue reading Nero Wolfe: Bluster, Beer, and Brilliance

Mark Richardson4 Comments
Books, Politics and Economics

The Deficit Myth

Ron Berger — One of the influential books I read while studying sociology in graduate school was Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Kuhn revised the conventional view that scientific progress evolves through the accumulation of accepted facts and theories. This he referred to as “normal science.” But Kuhn also thought that the discovery of puzzling anomalies that could not be explained by … Continue reading The Deficit Myth

Ron Berger8 Comments
Books, Politics and Economics

The Faithless? The Untold Story of the Electoral College

Dave Gillespie — Do you think of yourself as something of a political junkie? Are you interested in, or concerned about, problems like partisan polarization and the future of free constitutional government in the United States? If you gave yes as your answers to these questions, I predict that you would find, as I did, much in Emily Conrad’s The Faithless? The Untold Story of … Continue reading The Faithless? The Untold Story of the Electoral College

Dave Gillespie2 Comments
Books, Culture and Society, Politics and Economics

The California Housing Crisis

Jeff Berger — Conor Dougherty’s new book, Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America, is an important contribution to understanding the housing crisis in the United States. Dougherty is a New York Times journalist who grew up in San Francisco and who returned to his home city in 2013. While the book focuses on California, and especially the Bay Area, the housing crisis is by … Continue reading The California Housing Crisis

Jeff Berger2 Comments
Books, History

Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance

Bob Bates — In 2013, the US government charged Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act for releasing National Security Agency (NSA) information, specifically for what the NSA termed its “bulk data collection program.” At the time the mainstream press focused on the material released, its content, and what it implied about US government surveillance of US citizens. The press also focused on questions about … Continue reading Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance

Bob Bates1 Comment
Books

Books Recently Read – Fall 2018 to Fall 2019

Charles Cottle —Below are a few short description of books I have read recently. I have grouped them into fiction and non-fiction categories. This past year I joined a couple book clubs at the Hedberg Library, our excellent public library here in Janesville, Wisconsin. Most of the fiction listed below comes from the book clubs. I want to thank Nikki Bolka and Beth Webb, the … Continue reading Books Recently Read – Fall 2018 to Fall 2019

Charles Cottle2 Comments
Books, Science

In the Midst of the Sixth Extinction

Bob Bates — In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an international panel of more than 450 scientists from 109 nations, unanimously reported that the status of life on planet Earth is in grave jeopardy. Drawing upon 15,000 documents compiled by global environmental researchers, the panel noted that species loss has accelerated at a rate of tens to hundreds … Continue reading In the Midst of the Sixth Extinction

Bob Bates4 Comments
Books, History

Living on the Edge of the World: Viking Settlement in the North Atlantic

Jeff Berger — Previously I published an article in Wise Guys entitled “Celebrating the Viking Past” that focused on the way Europeans and North Americans have remembered the Viking past. In this follow-up piece, I explain more fully how the Vikings explored the North Atlantic Ocean and settled in this region of the world. Their discovery of North America was only one short episode in the history … Continue reading Living on the Edge of the World: Viking Settlement in the North Atlantic

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Books, History

The Persistence of White Power Movements in America

Bob Bates — The topic of Kathleen Belew’s recent book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard University Press, 2018), addresses a disturbing thread of the American fabric. She begins her book with a succinct account of the long history of violence at the hands of colonists and American citizenry and government, mainly white initiated, from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. But … Continue reading The Persistence of White Power Movements in America

Bob Bates3 Comments
Books, Culture and Society, Politics and Economics

The Politics of Identity: Insights from Francis Fukuyama

Ron Berger — In his slim but useful book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018), Francis Fukuyama offers insights into one of the most perplexing questions of our times, the issue of identity and identity politics. In doing so, Fukuyama takes us on a tour of the globe, though his emphasis is on Europe and the … Continue reading The Politics of Identity: Insights from Francis Fukuyama

Ron Berger9 Comments
Books, History, Politics and Economics

1968: The Year That Changed U.S. Politics, and Our Lives

Ron Berger — For people of my generation, the baby boomers, Lawrence O’Donnell’s Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics (Penguin Press, 2017), is a trip down memory lane. It was not only a year that changed U.S. politics, but our very lives. For starters, there were the traumatic assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. There … Continue reading 1968: The Year That Changed U.S. Politics, and Our Lives

Ron Berger6 Comments
Books, Sports

Baseball and Murder Mysteries

Mark Richardson — Mickey Rawlings is a baseball player. He’s also a sleuth. He does not solve murders because he has a yen to be a detective. Rather, he has murders thrust upon him–murders which neither the police nor anyone else seems to want solved. And that leaves Mickey to solve them. Rawlings is a major league utility infielder whose skills are good enough to … Continue reading Baseball and Murder Mysteries

Mark Richardson1 Comment
Books, Politics and Economics

Let’s All Move to Norway

Jeff Berger — Last January Donald Trump tweeted that immigrants to America should not be allowed to come from “shithole countries” like Haiti and nations in Africa. Instead, he said, he preferred people from countries like Norway. People on Twitter, including some who are actually from Norway, were quick to remark that, for many Norwegians, America may seem to be the shithole. Of course, Donald … Continue reading Let’s All Move to Norway

Jeff Berger6 Comments
Books, History, Philosophy and Religion

God: A Human History, by Reza Aslan

DeWitt Clinton — Every year—for years, decades, and perhaps centuries—scholars, theologians, and lay leaders have been defining, then redefining, then re-envisioning the constantly evolving paradox of God. Of course, if one is a fundamental believer, there is only one God, The God. Nothing else matters. But if you are interested in the world, and what the world thinks of God, or gods, or out-of-date gods, … Continue reading God: A Human History, by Reza Aslan

dewittc5 Comments
Books, History

Daniel Ellsberg’s Doomsday Papers

Bob Bates — Daniel Ellsberg is universally known as the “man behind the Pentagon Papers.” However, with the publication of his new book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Ellsberg’s legacy of inestimable importance in the course of history takes a quantum leap. Ellsberg, with a degree in economics from Harvard College, also studied at Cambridge University and did post-graduate work at … Continue reading Daniel Ellsberg’s Doomsday Papers

Bob Bates1 Comment
Books

Why Do We Like Crime Fiction So Much?

Charles Cottle — Take a look at the New York Times best seller list any given week and you will see that about a third of the books listed are crime mysteries. Americans, at least those who read and buy books, are in love with crime fiction. Readers of the genre will have different preferences. Some like the “cozies” in which the amateur sleuth, while … Continue reading Why Do We Like Crime Fiction So Much?

Charles Cottle3 Comments
Books

Books Recently Read: A Summer of Fiction

Charles Cottle — Over the summer I read a number of popular books from various best seller lists. Here are my short reviews of ten of those. As you can see, I especially like a good mystery or detective crime novel. If you have read some that are not on this list, I would appreciate hearing from you about others that you think are good … Continue reading Books Recently Read: A Summer of Fiction

Charles Cottle5 Comments
Books, History, Philosophy and Religion

Innocence Lost: From Babes to Bloodshed

Bob Bates — In his book Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (2013), Paul Bloom, psychology professor at Yale University, reports on the work he has conducted with his team of experimental researchers that addresses fundamental issues regarding the bases of morality in humans: good vs bad, right vs wrong, fair vs unfair. What makes their psychosocial studies unique is that their subjects are children, ranging from infants … Continue reading Innocence Lost: From Babes to Bloodshed

Bob Bates1 Comment