Weekly Compendium (6.7.20)

What I’ve Been Reading The Poetics, Aristotle This was the selected text for one of the online reading groups I am a part of. I confess myself sorely lacking in familiarity with Aristotle, something that’s been on my mind for a while now. When I saw this was the upcoming reading, I realized it would be the perfect opportunity to become more acquainted with his works. As another member of the group commented, it was a refreshing piece to read in contrast to all the chaos and anger of society recently. Even from reading only a few pages, I was…

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Weekly Compendium (5.31.20)

What I’ve Been Reading The Winter Fortress, Neal Bascomb This is the story of the Allied efforts to stop the Germans from accessing the heavy water produced in Norway, to prevent them from creating a nuclear weapon. It was fascinating simply as an aspect of WWII that I knew nothing about. It made me realize that every war probably has hundreds or thousands of stories like this, obscured by the famous battles that make it to our history books. From a literary standpoint, the book was not the most interesting. I felt like the author’s attempt to make it a…

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Weekly Compendium (5.24.20)

What I’ve Been Reading Faithful Place, Tana FrenchFaithful Place is the third novel in Tana French’s “Dublin Murder Squad” series. I discovered this author when Brandon bought me her book, “The Witch Elm.” Although I will read anything in the crime/mystery genre, Tana French is a delight to read for her rich characterization and plot development. Although her stories center around some kind of murder, there is an impressive complexity to how the novel unfolds. Her stories are cerebral and nuanced, more like a piece of classic literature than a cheap paperback typical of the mystery genre. Rethinking FearThis is…

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Book Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

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tree, kahl, moon

In a future world, the moon is used as a penal colony for Earth. Some “earthworms” decide to take their chances in this new territory and voluntarily move to the moon for a fresh start, making it something like the new Wild West. There are methods of extracting resources on the moon to send back to Earth in exchange for the materials the “loonies” need. But there is growing resentment among the loonies at being a colony of Earth—the trade is highly unbalanced and loonies struggle to survive in an economy where they are not getting paid enough for their…

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Weekly Compendium (5.17.20)

What I’ve Been Reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert HeinleinI am actually working on a longer book review about this, so I won’t make any comments about it here. Empathy Starts With CuriosityI really liked this piece by Peter Bregman about the unique challenges we’re facing during this time. There is so much uncertainty and fear, how do you handle it? “There is a way in which this pandemic may be calling us to slow down and listen. What if we resist the urge to act — to just do something — and, instead, stop doing? Just be present. What…

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Weekly Compendium (5.10.20)

What I’ve Been Reading American Gods, Neil GaimanI first read this book several years ago and didn’t really get it. Although I couldn’t explain why, I liked it. So recently I saw it on my bookshelf and realized it was time to give it another try. My second read-through made way more sense. I could actually explain the plot of it, although I won’t here—no spoilers! It is a magnificently sprawling book, I think what I appreciate most is that I could keep rereading it and gain a deeper understanding. Also, Neil Gaiman has become one of my favorite modern…

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Weekly Compendium (5.3.20)

What I’ve Been Reading Does Dystopian Fiction Increase Real Life Violence? Aeon This article explores the possibility that the recent popularity of dystopian fiction may increase our tolerance for violence in the real world. The authors conducted a series of experiments to determine if exposure to films such as Hunger Games affected how the participants viewed real-world situations. “What we found was striking. Even though they were fictional, the dystopian narratives affected subjects in a profound way, recalibrating their moral compasses.” It was an interesting read and brought up a number of questions. If this research demonstrates the impact of…

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Weekly Compendium (4.26.20)

What I’ve Been Reading The Act of Creation, Arthur KoestlerI discovered this book by reading an article on creativity. It is a great summary of Arthur Koestler’s work. I enjoyed the article so much I decided to dive into the full book, which is available for free online here. This tome is definitely not casual reading, I find myself having to read it in small chunks in order to absorb it. The work itself is divided into two books, one for the general audience, and the second for a more scientific audience. But even the first book can be quite…

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Unbelievable Injustice

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How All of Us Participate In the Silencing of Truth “Just because we can’t see the path doesn’t mean it’s not there.” — Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever, Unbelievable) I recently binge-watched the Netflix crime drama series, Unbelievable. I added it to my list when it was released, but of course, it became buried in my queue. When my husband started the first episode on his own, he realized it was something I’d want to watch with him. I don’t often binge-watch shows but couldn’t help it with this one. I admired how the writers explored so many sensitive concepts with nuance and…

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Weekly Compendium (4.19.20)

What I’ve Been Reading Tribes, by Seth GodinWhile I’ve been aware of Seth Godin for quite a few years, I only read his work recently. Late last year I read The Dip and then this past month Tribes. I struggled a little with his writing style and formatting, it seemed like a random collection of ideas. Each section might be a paragraph to a page long and do not connect together very much. While this makes it highly accessible, it also felt too broad. There were a few ideas that I wish he had spent more time exploring. But overall,…

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