Kate
The book's a little rough. Objects essential to the plot are remembered by the characters only a few moments before they're needed to serve the plot. The secondary characters such as the ship crew, aren't that distinguishable from each other, probably because we rarely hear the crew members talk to each other, just to Ky.
Despite all of that, I loved this.
A fascinating discussion of whether democracy is unjust. Brennan compares political decision-making to jury deliberations, in which a decision is deemed unjust when the jury proceeds incompetently because they either ignored the facts or acted corruptly. He argues that perhaps voting should be more like driving, or becoming a judge, where certain levels of competence are required.
I wish there had been more focus on possible epistocracies (governance by the competent), rather than only one chapter, but it makes sense that it should take nearly a whole book to convince people of the downsides of democracy. For instance, one astonishing fact was that a large majority of people thought that the Marxist slogan “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” might be part of the Constitution. Egads. Apparently, there are numerous other studies that show a significant amount of population knows very little about who they are voting for, some even confusing the party platforms.
It's a book well worth reading, both for the overview of various political science studies and for the thoughtful look at alternative forms of government that might better protect people's rights. Highly recommended.
Barrett Brown is an astounding writer, and I was flattered to be The Reader for the length of this book. The only downside was that the take-downs of the various columnists started to get repetitive when read one after the other. I suggest reading this in parts at breakfast to start the day off with the recommended daily value of snark.
This book has forever changed the way I see lower-class, white culture. There's no way to read it without empathy for the kind of life experiences that J.D Vance and his family have gone through - the traumatic childhood events that would shape his expectations for adult relationships. But Vance doesn't want us to think that it's a “cycle of violence” or a forgone conclusion. He believes low expectations and a learned hopelessness are also causes, and pouring outside help in the form of things such increased money for public schools won't help kids who don't have a room in their house where they can't hear screaming and fighting. He believes it has to be an internal change within the community, and attributes the changes in his own life to the love of his Mamaw and Papaw, and the examples of a few family members in positive relationships.
One aspect that I wish Vance would have touched on more is the harmfulness of an “honor” culture, where “yo mama” jokes actually start huge fights, and getting threatened with a shotgun is a real possibility. Besides the amount of time wasted in defending honor, it removes control in one's life. (At any moment, someone could insult you, and then you'd be obligated to beat the crap out of them.) Vance mentions his new spouse helping him learn not to get of out of a car to confront the guy that cut him off, but it still seems like this is uncharted territory for him, and could perhaps deserve a closer look.
This book wasn't half bad until I got the part when the powerful Rowan just happens to meet a ‘sexy' man with the same powers she has, and defeats invading aliens in like 2 pages of drama. The sexy man's family and friends have just been killed, but apparently this is the perfect time for getting it on! The dialogue sounds like something you'd hear from an old man at a dive bar who's on his 8th beer, but apparently this is appealing: “Of course you are, sweetheart — just push that nice little package out my way. Or is it too much for you?”
didn't finish. The first 30 pages were fantastic - a man wakes up in a hospital bed with hostile nurses and no memory of who he is. He has to think his way out, gaining information little by little while never letting on that he knows nothing. That part was great. Everything after his memory loss seemed super boring.
I loved the focus of frugality. Because of it, the book was much more accessible for a beginning cook: There were no lists of copper bottom pans that I needed to buy, or knives that I had to have. Frugality also made the author give several uses for the same starting ingredients and ensure that none of the ingredients are wasted. The end result is much more thoughtful and useful book. While most cookbooks give you a seemingly random and expansive list of ingredients, I felt like I better understood actual properties of the vegetables and herbs and meat cuts that were used.
That said, some ingredients might be economical for the author, but probably not in general, like the capers and sardines and such. Still, the author fervently believes that a meal can be an egg and toasted stale bread, so I suppose it evens out. :)
I also really enjoyed the book's quiet advocacy of slowness - that perhaps canning tomatoes and sorting beans aren't the worst things in the world, and actually might be rather enjoyable, or at least peaceful.
This book was “recommended” by Goodreads, but honestly, it was straight up terrible. I had to stop at page 26. The reader is constantly told how beautiful and talented the main character is, as well as how handsome everyone else is. In the very first paragraph, the main character is “Adarlan's most notorious assassin.” On the second page: “It was true that she had been attractive once, beautiful even, but – well, it didn't matter now, did it?” A little later, “She was important enough to warrant an execution from the Captain of the Royal Guard himself.” (Thanks for letting me know!)And, “She looked at her rags and stained skin, and she couldn't suppress the twinge of shame. What a miserable state for a girl of former beauty!” (Truly a tragedy!)And others are described thusly: “Yet there was something in his eyes, strikingly blue – the color of the waters of the southern countries – and the way they contrasted with his raven-black hair that made her pause. He was achingly handsome, and couldn't have been older than twenty. ‘Princes are not supposed to be handsome! They're sniveling, stupid, repulsive creatures. This one... this... How unfair of him to be royal and beautiful.'” (How unfair indeed!)That's only up to page 8. Nope, Nope, Nope. Edit: Almost forgot to add books that are actually worth reading. If you liked the idea of this book, read either [b: The Blue Sword 407813 The Blue Sword (Damar, #2) Robin McKinley https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1286927812s/407813.jpg 2321296] or [b: The Hero and the Crown 77366 The Hero and the Crown (Damar, #1) Robin McKinley https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386642407s/77366.jpg 2321243]
The book doesn't make any sense at all as a cautionary tale (i.e. it's pretty unlikely that anyone will decide to divide society based on personalities), but if you instead read it as an allegory about growing up, things start to make a lot more sense. Tris grows up in a meek and selfless household with loving parents, but the restrictions chafe. She is given the chance to choose a different life with one of the other factions, but to do so would mean publicly rejecting her parents' way of life. Sound familiar to anyone?
It sounded familiar to me, and so I loved it.
