Natali's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:45:29 -0700 60 Natali's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Set Money Free: What Every American Needs To Know About The Federal Reserve by Chris Rossini (2014) Paperback]]> 196071829 0 unknown author Natali 0 to-read 0.0 Set Money Free: What Every American Needs To Know About The Federal Reserve by Chris Rossini (2014) Paperback
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]]> <![CDATA[Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America]]> 6452749
In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness." Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.

With the myth-busting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative� thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.]]> 206 Barbara Ehrenreich 0805087494 Natali 0 currently-reading 3.71 2009 Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Natali
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2009
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking]]> 13721709
The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. What they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that it's our constant effort to eliminate the negative that causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid. It is a subversive, galvanizing message, which turns out to have a long and distinguished philosophical lineage ranging from ancient Roman Stoic philosophers to Buddhists.

Oliver Burkeman talks to life coaches paid to make their clients' lives a living hell, and to maverick security experts such as Bruce Schneier, who contends that the changes we've made to airport and aircraft security since the 9/11 attacks have actually made us less safe. And then there are the "backwards" business gurus, who suggest not having any goals at all and not planning for a company's future.

Burkeman's new book is a witty, fascinating, and counterintuitive read that turns decades of self-help advice on its head and forces us to rethink completely our attitudes toward failure, uncertainty, and death.]]> 256 Oliver Burkeman 1429947608 Natali 5 4.02 2012 The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
author: Oliver Burkeman
name: Natali
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
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LOVED it! So many wise stories of enlightenment and mortality written in the dry wit of British humor. I will probably listen to this again. It gave me a lot to think about.
]]> <![CDATA[On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization]]> 221057810 The New York Times bestselling author of The War on the West explains how no less than the future of the Western World is at stake in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Douglas Murray, #1 international bestselling author and renowned cultural commentator, confronts arguably the most pressing question of our Why are Western supporters of Palestine unwittingly aligning with an evil empire?

The campus left frames the violent hostilities as white colonialists committing genocide. Yet only a third of Israelis are Ashkenazi Jews of European ancestry. Murray argues that the conflict is not a simple tale of oppressor versus oppressed, but a clash between a thriving multi-racial democracy and a death cult bent on its destruction.

Drawing from intensive on-the-ground reporting in Israel and Gaza, Murray presents a compelling case that places the latest violence in its proper historical context. He takes readers on a harrowing journey through the aftermath of the October 7 massacre, piecing together the exclusive accounts from victims, survivors, and even the terrorists responsible for the atrocities.

On Democracies and Death Cults illustrates how Israel's commitment to fundamental Western values—capitalism, individual rights, democracy, and reason—has made it a beacon of progress in a region dominated by authoritarianism and extremism. Murray contrasts Israel’s principles with the ideology of Hamas, which openly proclaims its love of death over life. If left unchecked, Murray argues, this misplaced Western sympathy could embolden forces that seek to undermine democratic values and perpetuate a culture of violence.

Deeply reasoned, clear-eyed, and grounded in fact, On Democracy and Death Cults is a gripping and essential read for all who seek to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its implications for the future of democracy both here and abroad—and for the world itself.]]> 240 Douglas Murray 0063437139 Natali 0 to-read 4.33 2025 On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization
author: Douglas Murray
name: Natali
average rating: 4.33
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]]> My Friends 217163697 #1New York Timesbestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Natali 0 to-read 4.58 2025 My Friends
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Natali
average rating: 4.58
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]]> <![CDATA[Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West]]> 230107463
Israel is the West's man on the spot—the tip of the spear in the battle against Islamist terrorism and secularist nihilism alike. But the old-guard voices advocating for the full support of Israel as a nation-state and as an idea are being drowned out from all sides—theistic, secularist, right, left, and everything in between. To combat the uproars of multiculturalism, postmodern relativism, tolerance, and Jew-hating social media, the time is now for voices from a new generation. We must address modern antisemitism and sound a call not just to accept, but to enthusiastically embrace the centrality of Judaism to the very character of Western civilization. We require a grand alliance: namely, Jews who stand firm and Christians who recognize the civilizational foundations they have built on.

In Israel and Civilization, acclaimed journalist, legal expert, and pundit Josh Hammer makes a righteous case that the key to the prosperity of the West is the flourishing of the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel. Hammer's uplifting offense is our best defense against the enemies of the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. And as Hammer makes clear, manifesting the promise of Israel requires action by the United States and its allies.

There can be no overstating the impact of the trauma of October 7, 2023, on the Jewish people. Yet the anti-Israel reactions the world over have been equally devastating. Rallies of hundreds of thousands explicitly or implicitly promoting Hamas violence; demonstrations of Ivy League professors celebrating the pogrom as awesome and exhilarating; so-called human rights organizations that refuse to unequivocally condemn the use of rape as a weapon of war; and a hydra of multiculturalism, postmodern relativism, and tolerance—it all threatens the physical and metaphysical survival of the West and our essential Jewish heritage.

Preserving the best of what's been thought and said throughout history and ensuring that there will be centuries more requires a West that is proud of its Jewish heritage. In other words, the continued existence of the Jewish people is inextricably tied to the endurance of Western civilization. Israel is the center of the battle, and Israel and Civilization explains why and how the Jewish state must win.]]> 371 Josh Hammer 1635769841 Natali 0 to-read 4.79 Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West
author: Josh Hammer
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]]> <![CDATA[Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning]]> 214490421 A bold, urgent appeal from the acclaimed columnist and political commentator, addressing one of the most important issues of our time

In Peter Beinart’s view, one story has long dominated Jewish communal that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of sacred Jewish tradition and history, and also warps our understanding of modern history. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, he argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the What does it mean to be a Jew?

Beinart imagines an alternate story that would draw on other nations� efforts at moral reconstruction and a different reading of Jewish history. A story in which Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety is not mutually exclusive but intertwined. One in which we inhabit a world that recognizes the infinite value of all human life, beginning in the Gaza Strip.

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza is a provocative and fearless argument that will expand and inform one of the defining conversations of our time. It is a book that only Peter Beinart could a passionate yet measured work that brings together his personal experience, his commanding grasp of history, his keen understanding of political and moral nuance, and a clear vision for the future.]]> 192 Peter Beinart 0593803892 Natali 0 to-read 4.45 2025 Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
author: Peter Beinart
name: Natali
average rating: 4.45
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]]> <![CDATA[Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: Complete Guide: How to Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medicines]]> 36426055
The book is laid out in five parts:
Part I: migraineurs who read the 1st edition of the book comment and introduction
Part II: quick guide to get rid of an ongoing migraine
Part III: the heart of the book, describing the physiology and biology or migraines, who is susceptible to migraines and why. Also includes all prodrome types, all triggers, and detailed analysis on how triggers can be cancelled.
Part IV: a more complex explanation of migraine-cause specifically for doctors, scientists, and migraineurs more interested in the genetics and bio-physiology of migraines. It also contains a part titled “Drugs of Shame� describing the 30 most often prescribed medicines for migraine pain prevention, their side effects, and FDA warnings.
Part V: a huge citation list of over 800 citations of academic literature. Each academic article adds a little bit of information to complete the whole picture of migraines.

In this book I pull together information from many fields of science and connect the dots to help the reader to conclude the same thing I did: migraine is preventable and completely treatable without the use of any medicines.]]> 662 Angela A. Stanton Natali 5 3.98 2014 Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: Complete Guide: How to Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medicines
author: Angela A. Stanton
name: Natali
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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Groundbreaking! This is one of those books that fell into my lap when I needed it the most as my son has been diagnosed with migraines. Dr. Stanton's work shows that this is not a disease. She shows that migraneurs have a brain that is better adapted to pre-civilized life and therefore has special superpowers but is not sick. It does have very specific needs, however. They cannot handle the carbohydrates and sugar that flooded our world post-agricultural revolution. They are sensitive to artificial light and sounds and they have a high voltage in their brain that drains them of energy fast so they need a constant electrolyte balance. A carnivore diet is perfect for them and they must follow a routine of regular salt intake and whole fat milk. I've had my son on this for a week and he likes it and no symptoms thus far! A carnivore diet already comports with my life philosophy but now I'm even MORE motivated to commit to it for my family. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone with migraineurs in their life! I'd give it 10 stars if I could.
]]> <![CDATA[One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This]]> 213870084 From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human.

On Oct 25th, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.� This tweet was viewed over 10 million times.

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.

This book is a reckoning with what it means to live in the west, and what it means to live in a world run by a small group of countries—America, the UK, France and Germany.� It will be The Fire Next Time for a generation that understands we’re undergoing a shift in the so-called ‘rules-based order,� a generation that understands the west can no longer be trusted to police and guide the world, or its own cities and campuses. It draws on intimate details of Omar’s own story as an emigrant who grew up believing in the western project, who was catapulted into journalism by the rupture of 9/11.

This book is his heartsick breakup letter with the west. It is a breakup we are watching all over the U.S., on college campuses, on city streets, and the consequences of this rupture will be felt by all of us. His book is for all the people who want something better than what the west has served up. This is the book for our time.]]> 208 Omar El Akkad 0593804147 Natali 4 4.69 2025 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
author: Omar El Akkad
name: Natali
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/04/01
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This wasn't what I expected. It is an Arab immigrant's prose to the heartbreak he feels for the people of Gaza. I thought it was a report of his experiences as a geopolitical reporter so I came to learn but instead I just kind of sat with him. I appreciated that too, even if I was caught unawares. He's clearly stuck, politically, like so many of us are over the shifting loyalties of the antiwar movement. He's in good company but at least I read this book with a clean conscience. I don't have to wait until someday to have been against this.
]]> <![CDATA[Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons]]> 42117387 The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time-Lyme disease-and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

While on vacation on Martha's Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year.

As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. This quest led her to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe's discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War, and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

In a superb, meticulous work of narrative journalism, Bitten takes readers on a journey to investigate these claims, from biological weapons facilities to interviews with biosecurity experts and microbiologists doing cutting-edge research, all the while uncovering darker truths about Willy. It also leads her to uncomfortable questions about why Lyme can be so difficult to both diagnose and treat, and why the government is so reluctant to classify chronic Lyme as a disease.

A gripping, infectious page-turner, Bitten will shed a terrifying new light on an epidemic that is exacting an incalculable toll on us, upending much of what we believe we know about it.]]> 6 Kris Newby 0062932705 Natali 0 to-read 3.93 2019 Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons
author: Kris Newby
name: Natali
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heart of A Cheetah: How We Have Been Lied to about African Poverty, and What That Means for Human Flourishing]]> 200090088 Experience the life story of Magatte Wade - the bold Senegalese entrepreneur and unflinching prosperity activist, determined to shape the destiny of her African homeland.

In this riveting memoir, Wade challenges Africans to redefine their narrative, casting aside imposed inferiority to reclaim their innate brilliance.

This is not a recounting of poverty and politics. It's an indictment of a world that views Africa as nothing more than a colonial chessboard, with charity acting as the block that keeps Africans stuck.

The surprising thing is that Africa’s problems are NOT due to colonialism, corruption, bad leadership, poor skills, or a lack of education. It’s something much bigger, and yet it’s only been visible to entrepreneurs� until now.

Join the movement for Africa's rightful place in the 21 fostering innovation, earning prosperity, and growing into an economic powerhouse. Wade's impassioned voice promises nothing less than the dawn of a new era, poised to reshape history, create prosperity and peace, and unleash Africa’s bright future.

]]> 242 Magatte Wade Natali 5 4.28 The Heart of A Cheetah: How We Have Been Lied to about African Poverty, and What That Means for Human Flourishing
author: Magatte Wade
name: Natali
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/23
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I really enjoyed this book. This woman beautifully explains why socialism and aid can never lead to prosperity and she knows from lived experience. It's a wonderful story from a very wise person she offers many new perspectives, not just about Africa but about geopolitics in general.
]]> <![CDATA[Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt]]> 39893128 NOW A NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

To get ahead today, you have to be a jerk, right?

Divisive politicians. Screaming heads on television. Angry campus activists. Twitter trolls. Today in America, there is an “outrage industrial complex� that prospers by setting American against American, creatinga “culture of contempt”—the habit of seeing people who disagree with us not as merely incorrect, but as worthless and defective. Maybe, like more than nine out of ten Americans, you dislike it. But hey, either you play along, or you’ll be left behind, right?

Wrong.

In Love Your Enemies, theNew York Times bestselling author and social scientist Arthur C. Brooks shows that abuse and outrage are notthe rightformula for lasting success. Brooks blends cutting-edge behavioral research, ancient wisdom, and a decade of experience of experience leading one of America’s top policy think tanks in a work thatoffers a better way to lead basedon bridging divides and mending relationships.

Brooks� prescriptions are unconventional. To bring America together, we shouldn’t try to agree more. There is no need for mushy moderation, because disagreement is the secret to excellence. Civility and tolerance shouldn’t be our goals, because they are hopelessly low standards. And our feelings toward our foes are irrelevant; what matters is how we choose to act.

Love Your Enemies offers a clear strategy for victory for a new generation of leaders. It is a rallying cry for people hoping for a new era of American progress. Most of all, it is a roadmap to arrive at the happiness that comes when we choose to love one another, despite our differences.

ձ> 256 Arthur C. Brooks 0062883771 Natali 5 4.29 2019 Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt
author: Arthur C. Brooks
name: Natali
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
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I liked this and probably very much needed it. There was some good reminders here that political differences don't usually equate to hateful treatment between humans in the real world. It is also a good reminder that most people do not base their politics on data. You can present them with all the data in the world and if it refutes their worldview, they will only dig in. you can only talk politics through stories, not platitudes. I'm really glad that I read this.
]]> <![CDATA[Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution]]> 747462 228 Antony C. Sutton 089968324X Natali 0 to-read 4.02 1975 Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution
author: Antony C. Sutton
name: Natali
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story]]> 1150248
In December of 1976, Stockwell resigned from the CIA, opposed to the methods & results of CIA paramilitary operations in the Third World & testified before Congressional committees. Two years later, he wrote the exposé 'In Search of Enemies', about that experience & its implications. He claimed the CIA was counterproductive to national security & that its secret wars afforded no benefit. The CIA made the Angolan MPLA to be an enemy despite the fact the MPLA wanted relations with the USA & hadn't committed aggressive acts.

In 1978, on TV's '60 Minutes', he claimed CIA Director William Colby & National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had systematically lied to Congress about CIA operations. Stockwell was one of the 1st professionals to leave the CIA to go public. The CIA retaliated by suing him in the 4th District Court in Washington DC. Part of the suit intended to eliminate the possibility of selling the story for the purpose of making a movie & required future publications be submitted for CIA review.

Unable to afford contesting the case, Stockwell filed for bankruptcy in Austin, TX. After the litigation was processed thru bankruptcy, the CIA dropped the suit. His book is useful for researchers & journalists interested in uncovering information about the conduct of US foreign policy in Africa & Asia. For example, the book tells of a CIA officer having Patrice Lumumba's body in his car trunk one night in then Elizabethville, Congo. Stockwell mentions in a footnote that at the time he didn't know the CIA was documented as having repeatedly tried to arrange Lumumba's assassination. His concerns were that, although many CIA colleagues had integrity, the organization harmed national security & its secret wars harmed innocents.]]> 285 John Stockwell 0735100128 Natali 0 to-read 3.93 1978 In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story
author: John Stockwell
name: Natali
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade]]> 152038 The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade: Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, Colombia]]> 709 Alfred W. McCoy 1556524838 Natali 0 currently-reading 4.38 1972 The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
author: Alfred W. McCoy
name: Natali
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]]> 231155 But that conventional image is all wrong, as veteran journalist and author M. Stanton Evans reveals in this groundbreaking book. The long-awaited "Blacklisted by History," based on six years of intensive research, dismantles the myths surrounding Joe McCarthy and his campaign to unmask Communists, Soviet agents, and flagrant loyalty risks working within the U.S. government. Evans's revelations completely overturn our understanding of McCarthy, McCarthyism, and the Cold War.
Drawing on primary sources--including never-before-published government records and FBI files, as well as recent research gleaned from Soviet archives and intercepted transmissions between Moscow spymasters and their agents in the United States--Evans presents irrefutable evidence of a relentless Communist drive to penetrate our government, influence its policies, and steal its secrets. Most shocking of all, he shows that U.S. officials supposedly guarding against this danger not only let it happen but actively covered up the penetration. All of this was precisely as Joe McCarthy contended.
"Blacklisted by History" shows, for instance, that the FBI knew as early as 1942 that J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the atomic bomb project, had been identified by Communist leaders as a party member; that high-level U.S. officials were warned that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy almost a decade before the Hiss case became a public scandal; that a cabal of White House, Justice Department, and State Department officials lied about and covered up the Amerasia spy case; and that the State Department had been heavily penetrated by Communists and Soviet agents before McCarthy came on the scene.
Evans also shows that practically everything we've been told about McCarthy is false, including conventional treatment of the famous 1950 speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, that launched the McCarthy era ("I have here in my hand . . ."), the Senate hearings that casually dismissed his charges, the matter of leading McCarthy suspect Owen Lattimore, the Annie Lee Moss case, the Army-McCarthy hearings, and much more.
In the end, Senator McCarthy was censured by his colleagues and condemned by the press and historians. But as Evans writes, "The real Joe McCarthy has vanished into the mists of fable and recycled error, so that it takes the equivalent of a dragnet search to find him." "Blacklisted by History" provides the first accurate account of what McCarthy did and, more broadly, what happened to America during the Cold War. It is a revealing expose of the forces that distorted our national policy in that conflict and our understanding of its history since.]]> 672 M. Stanton Evans 140008105X Natali 4 currently-reading 4.11 2007 Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies
author: M. Stanton Evans
name: Natali
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Silva Mind Control Method: The Revolutionary Program by the Founder of the World's Most Famous Mind Control Course]]> 60872847 The revolutionary program that teaches you how to use meditation and visualization to change your life.

First published in 1978, The Silva Mind Control Method has helped millions of people create better, happier, and more successful lives. Based on the extraordinary course pioneered by José Silva in the 1960s, this accessible guidebook uses meditation and visualization to help you alleviate stress, overcome bad habits and emotional insecurity, increase creativity, develop concentration, harness your dreams, and deepen your relationships. Featuring transformative advice and fascinating case studies, this revolutionary book teaches you to use your mind at a deeper and more effective level and reveal its extraordinary power.]]> 240 José Silva Natali 4 3.82 1977 The Silva Mind Control Method: The Revolutionary Program by the Founder of the World's Most Famous Mind Control Course
author: José Silva
name: Natali
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1977
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/02/01
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Fascinating paradigm between science and mysticism. I've taken online classes but I'd be so curious to take an in-person class too. I like it!
]]> The Trial 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka Natali 2 4.00 1925 The Trial
author: Franz Kafka
name: Natali
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
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review:
I didn't know I was supposed to find this humorous. I don't mind admitting that I don't get noir.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Years� War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917�2017]]> 41812831
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.� Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.

Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.

Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.]]> 336 Rashid Khalidi 1627798552 Natali 0 to-read 4.50 2020 The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917–2017
author: Rashid Khalidi
name: Natali
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End]]> 8962915 272 Daniel Gordis 0470643900 Natali 0 to-read 3.78 2009 Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End
author: Daniel Gordis
name: Natali
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Willodeen 55780537
Eleven-year-old Willodeen adores creatures of all kinds, but her favorites are the most unlovable beasts in the land: strange beasts known as “screechers.� The villagers of Perchance call them pests, even monsters, but Willodeen believes the animals serve a vital role in the complicated web of nature.

Lately, though, nature has seemed angry indeed. Perchance has been cursed with fires and mudslides, droughts and fevers, and even the annual migration of hummingbears, a source of local pride and income, has dwindled. For as long as anyone can remember, the tiny animals have overwintered in shimmering bubble nests perched atop blue willow trees, drawing tourists from far and wide. This year, however, not a single hummingbear has returned to Perchance, and no one knows why.

When a handmade birthday gift brings unexpected magic to Willodeen and her new friend, Connor, she’s determined to speak up for the animals she loves, and perhaps even uncover the answer to the mystery of the missing hummingbears.]]> 272 Katherine Applegate 1250147409 Natali 4 4.17 2021 Willodeen
author: Katherine Applegate
name: Natali
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves:
review:
The last Battle of the Books that I read after my daughter finished it to help her compete for this year's competitions! This is a cute story. The storytelling goes fast once you get past the whimsical poetry in the beginning that doesn't make sense until it does. I don't love that format but the actual story itself was sweet. I enjoyed it.
]]> <![CDATA[Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness]]> 67958998
Medical, educational, and government authorities advise us to support the “gender journeys� of still developing kids, including medical interventions with poor evidence of long-term improvement.

This would not be acceptable in any other field of medicine. Indeed, the treatments our medical authorities and Washington call “crucial� and “life-saving� have been banned in progressive Sweden, Finland, and Britain.

Dr. Miriam Grossman is a child and adolescent psychiatrist whose practice consists of trans-identified youth and their families. In Lost in Trans Nation, she implores parents to reject the advice of gender experts and politicians and trust their guts—their parental instincts—in the face of an onslaught of ideologically driven misinformation that steers them and their children toward risky decisions they may end up mourning for the rest of their lives.

The beliefs that male and female are human inventions; that the sex of a newborn is arbitrarily “assigned�; and that as a result the child requires “affirmation� through medical interventions—these ideas are divorced from reality and therefore hazardous, especially to children. The core belief—that biology can and should be denied—is a repudiation of reality and a mockery of what hard science teaches about being male and female.

Dr. Grossman believes that parents know their child best; they especially know if they have a son or daughter. But currently in our country when it comes to gender identity, everyone knows better than mom and dad. Schools enable students to live double lives—Patrick at home, Patti at school. Activists tell kids their loving homes are “unsafe� when parents voice doubts about the child’s new identity. For refusing to see their son as their daughter, parents might be reported to protective services, a development that can lead to a family’s destruction.

Lost in Trans Nation arms parents with the ammunition to avoid, or, if necessary, fight what many families describe as the most difficult challenge of their lives. Parents will learn what to say and how—at home, at school, and if necessary, to police when they appear at the door.

“Don’t be blindsided like so many parents I know,� warns Grossman, “be proactive and get educated. Feel prepared and confident to discuss trans, nonbinary, or whatever your child brings to the dinner table.� Whether it’s the “trans is as common as red hair� claim, or the “I’m not your son, I’m your daughter� proclamation, or the “do you prefer a live son or a dead daughter� threat, says Grossman, no family is immune, and every parent must be prepared.

No child is born in the wrong body, Dr. Grossman reassures us, their bodies are just fine; it’s their emotional lives that need healing. Whether you’re facing a gender identity battle in your home right now, or want to prevent one, you need this book to guide you and your loved ones out of the madness.
ձ> 362 Miriam Grossman 151077775X Natali 5 4.37 2023 Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness
author: Miriam Grossman
name: Natali
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
I've read plenty of gender critical books but Dr. Grossman brings the receipts. There is no research she is unwilling to dig into. I don't know how anyone could argue with her. I found this useful even as a parent who is not dealing with gender ideology in my home. She has some terrifying cautionary tales about activist groups disguised as government agencies. One tip she has is that if Child Protective Services comes to your house for any reason, do not speak with them without a lawyer. And parent could be called abusive for any reason and you do not want to mess with these people. Noted!
]]> <![CDATA[You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child]]> 21236286 255 Miriam Grossman Natali 4
A caveat about this book is how it can be seen as homophobic. There are some uncomfortable discussion points in this book such as the fact that anal sex is probably the most risky type of sex to the point that the surgeon general once advocated that it simply not be practiced. Now young people are told that it can be done safely without the statistics about just how much of a Russian roulette is really is. I'm left to wonder...then what then? Is it reasonable to think that people in the world should stop this or is her that it is more ethical to give young people the FULL picture of these risks to make informed decisions?

She also discusses what we today call "conversion therapy" or therapy groups for men who have homosexual urges that don't want to. This is EXTREMELY uncomfortable but according to Grossman there are men who want to live a straight life and can do so with some support but we don't hear from them. It is Western standards that say that the only thing to do is accept homosexuality and change people around you but what if that is not what some people want? I honestly never thought of that. What if these people do exist? If the dominant thought on sexuality is that it is fluid and sometimes you can be homosexual and other times heterosexual, why wouldn't someone who doesn't want to be homosexual be fluid too? Why do we not listen to these people if in fact they do exist? This is something I want to think about more but I am open to learning about it if in fact it is not cruelty or bigotry in disguise. Even typing this out feels dangerous in our current world but according to Grossman, there are men like this who do want to be heard.

This is book has opened up some important talking points for my family and it has prompted my husband and I to discuss the scaffolding we will provide for our children as they enter adolescence. I wish I'd found it a decade ago but I'm pretty sure the algorithm doesn't want any of us to find it.]]> 4.79 2009 You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child
author: Miriam Grossman
name: Natali
average rating: 4.79
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
This book really rocked my liberal education worldview. I assumed that the messages we give to young people about free sexual exploration was based in research, not activism. I had no idea about the influence of Arthur Kinsey, God help us! I also had never thought about how sex education purposely leaves out the most damaging truths about risks for young people. Grossman doesn't foray into why this happens, she only proves that it does and it scares me. I have always kept a close eye on the sex education presented to my children but I never thought about how I would have to supplement it with these omitted facts! Thank goodness Grossman has given my husband and I something to discuss.

A caveat about this book is how it can be seen as homophobic. There are some uncomfortable discussion points in this book such as the fact that anal sex is probably the most risky type of sex to the point that the surgeon general once advocated that it simply not be practiced. Now young people are told that it can be done safely without the statistics about just how much of a Russian roulette is really is. I'm left to wonder...then what then? Is it reasonable to think that people in the world should stop this or is her that it is more ethical to give young people the FULL picture of these risks to make informed decisions?

She also discusses what we today call "conversion therapy" or therapy groups for men who have homosexual urges that don't want to. This is EXTREMELY uncomfortable but according to Grossman there are men who want to live a straight life and can do so with some support but we don't hear from them. It is Western standards that say that the only thing to do is accept homosexuality and change people around you but what if that is not what some people want? I honestly never thought of that. What if these people do exist? If the dominant thought on sexuality is that it is fluid and sometimes you can be homosexual and other times heterosexual, why wouldn't someone who doesn't want to be homosexual be fluid too? Why do we not listen to these people if in fact they do exist? This is something I want to think about more but I am open to learning about it if in fact it is not cruelty or bigotry in disguise. Even typing this out feels dangerous in our current world but according to Grossman, there are men like this who do want to be heard.

This is book has opened up some important talking points for my family and it has prompted my husband and I to discuss the scaffolding we will provide for our children as they enter adolescence. I wish I'd found it a decade ago but I'm pretty sure the algorithm doesn't want any of us to find it.
]]> The Female Brain 23968 304 Louann Brizendine 0767920090 Natali 0 to-read 3.84 2006 The Female Brain
author: Louann Brizendine
name: Natali
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think]]> 6061718 From the author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Female Brain, here is the eagerly awaited follow-up book that demystifies the puzzling male brain.



Dr. Louann Brizendine, the founder of the first clinic in the country to study gender differences in brain, behavior, and hormones, turns her attention to the male brain, showing how, through every phase of life, the "male reality" is fundamentally different from the female one. Exploring the latest breakthroughs in male psychology and neurology with her trademark accessibility and candor, she reveals that the male brain:


*is a lean, mean, problem-solving machine. Faced with a personal problem, a man will use his analytical brain structures, not his emotional ones, to find a solution.

*thrives under competition, instinctively plays rough and is obsessed with rank and hierarchy.

*has an area for sexual pursuit that is 2.5 times larger than the female brain, consuming him with sexual fantasies about female body parts.

*experiences such a massive increase in testosterone at puberty that he perceive others' faces to be more aggressive.


The Male Brain finally overturns the stereotypes. Impeccably researched and at the cutting edge of scientific knowledge, this is a book that every man, and especially every woman bedeviled by a man, will need to own.


Praise for The Female Brain:

"Louann Brizendine has done a great favor for every man who wants to understand the puzzling women in his life. A breezy and enlightening guide to women and a must-read for men."

—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence







ձ> 271 Louann Brizendine 0767927532 Natali 0 to-read 3.79 2009 The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think
author: Louann Brizendine
name: Natali
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II]]> 194574831
Japan’s Holocaust combines research conducted in over eighteen research facilities in five nations to explore Imperial Japan’s atrocities from 1927 to 1945 during its military expansions and reckless campaigns throughout Asia and the Pacific. This book brings together the most recent scholarship and new primary research to ascertain that Japan claimed a minimum of thirty million lives, slaughtering far more than Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Japan’s Holocaust shows that Emperor Hirohito not only knew about the atrocities his legions committed, but actually ordered them. He did nothing to stop them when they exceeded even the most depraved person’s imagination, as illustrated during the Rape of Nanking as well as many other events. Japan’s Holocaust will document in painful detail that the Rape of Nanking was not an isolated event during the Asian War but rather representative of how Japan behaved for all its campaigns throughout Asia and the Pacific from 1927 to 1945.

Mass murder, rape, and economic exploitation was Japan’s modus operandi during this time period, and whereas Hitler’s SS Death’s Head outfits attempted to hide their atrocities, Hirohito’s legions committed their atrocities out in the open with fanfare and enthusiasm. Moreover, whereas Germany has done much since World War II to atone for its crimes and to document them, Japan has been absolutely disgraceful with its reparations for its crimes and in its efforts to educate its population about its wartime past. Shockingly, Japan continues, in general, to glorify is criminals and its wartime past.]]> 400 Bryan Mark Rigg 1637586884 Natali 4
In my original review, I’d been unable to accept that German is now a model democracy and I still can’t. I also didn’t like the idea of continued punishment of the Japanese and still don’t. But most of this book is not about that. He’s trying to educate us about the lesser known holocaust and I did learn a lot.

In the context of how much the atomic bomb production hurt Americans though, I still can’t sanction the ideal but I think I could respectfully speak to this author and learn from him.

This is from my original review:

—Ĕ�

This book is the stuff of nightmares but what makes it even worse is that the nightmares are exploited by this author to sell us war and an American military industrial complex. The author tries to argue that the U.S. did the right thing in dropping two atomic bombs on Japanese civilians because the Japanese were so heinous, that U.S. isolationism costs lives, that the U.S. pretty much single handedly ended World War II, that Germany is a model democracy that Japan should aspire to - I literally laughed out loud at that sentence - and that the Japanese should be sanctioned and uninvited from world events like the Olympics because they refuse to atone for their warring past. Nope! Nope to all of that. No to collective punishment, no to the U.S. military as the world's saviors and model of democracy, no to praising bombs for peace. No to hating the Japanese for their ancestors. No.

But I did learn a lot. I had no idea of the scale of demonic brutality of the Japanese army during World War II. This author says that whereas Nazi atrocities were mostly isolated to death camps (which isn't exactly true), the Japanese killed, raped, tortured and medically experimented in plain sight. I do not like victimhood contests where we argue which group had it worse because it's unproductive but boy did the Chinese have it BAD at the hands of the Japanese. So did the Koreans, the Philippines, the people of Iwo Jima... The tales of rape, torture and brutality in this book were too horrific to repeat. And there are pictures too. Bloody, demented, demonic actual pictures. You've been warned.

A Chinese colleague tells me that most Chinese people know about Unit 731 but I didn't. These were medical experimentation labs that killed thousands in the most horrific ways. The stories are too demented to recount. Truly the heart of darkness. If most Chinese know this, why don't Westerners? Why do we know so well the European suffering from the Nazis and not the Asian suffering from the Japanese?

This author is still pretty pissed at the Japanese and it borders on racism. He quotes American soldiers saying their language is ugly, he calls them Nips, he says that the women the soldiers left behind were "apparently" adulterous too. He says that their very culture does not value life and he West-splains other cultures in unhelpful ways too. He practices some psychoanalysis in a book where it should not be. This book would be so much stronger had he stuck to the history.

This author thinks the Japanese are a people worth "being leery of" because of their refusal to atone for their many atrocities. The Japanese silence on this is an important question but I don't favor bullying the Japanese to get some faux satisfaction. The author favors punishing them until they've coughed up some reparations or admitted that the victims of the atomic bomb weren't actually victims or emulate post-war Germany. I can't agree with him on this argument. It is akin to answering cruelty with cruelty to people whose ancestors did bad things. We should be beyond that. Most races and nationalities have had murderous pasts and no one wants any of this to happen again. Germany is no shining example of how to make things right. Again, LOL. My take is that we honor the warring past by committing to a peaceful future. How about we start there? Unequivocal peace. Peace extremism.]]> 2.23 2024 Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II
author: Bryan Mark Rigg
name: Natali
average rating: 2.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/12
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
I’ve come back around on this book. After further study, I don’t think I can agree that the atomic bomb was the “right thing� but I also don’t know how to make a humane calculation given the brutal body count the Japanese had maintained during WWII. I’m willing to hear this but I still don’t quite like it or know how to reconcile it.

In my original review, I’d been unable to accept that German is now a model democracy and I still can’t. I also didn’t like the idea of continued punishment of the Japanese and still don’t. But most of this book is not about that. He’s trying to educate us about the lesser known holocaust and I did learn a lot.

In the context of how much the atomic bomb production hurt Americans though, I still can’t sanction the ideal but I think I could respectfully speak to this author and learn from him.

This is from my original review:

—Ĕ�

This book is the stuff of nightmares but what makes it even worse is that the nightmares are exploited by this author to sell us war and an American military industrial complex. The author tries to argue that the U.S. did the right thing in dropping two atomic bombs on Japanese civilians because the Japanese were so heinous, that U.S. isolationism costs lives, that the U.S. pretty much single handedly ended World War II, that Germany is a model democracy that Japan should aspire to - I literally laughed out loud at that sentence - and that the Japanese should be sanctioned and uninvited from world events like the Olympics because they refuse to atone for their warring past. Nope! Nope to all of that. No to collective punishment, no to the U.S. military as the world's saviors and model of democracy, no to praising bombs for peace. No to hating the Japanese for their ancestors. No.

But I did learn a lot. I had no idea of the scale of demonic brutality of the Japanese army during World War II. This author says that whereas Nazi atrocities were mostly isolated to death camps (which isn't exactly true), the Japanese killed, raped, tortured and medically experimented in plain sight. I do not like victimhood contests where we argue which group had it worse because it's unproductive but boy did the Chinese have it BAD at the hands of the Japanese. So did the Koreans, the Philippines, the people of Iwo Jima... The tales of rape, torture and brutality in this book were too horrific to repeat. And there are pictures too. Bloody, demented, demonic actual pictures. You've been warned.

A Chinese colleague tells me that most Chinese people know about Unit 731 but I didn't. These were medical experimentation labs that killed thousands in the most horrific ways. The stories are too demented to recount. Truly the heart of darkness. If most Chinese know this, why don't Westerners? Why do we know so well the European suffering from the Nazis and not the Asian suffering from the Japanese?

This author is still pretty pissed at the Japanese and it borders on racism. He quotes American soldiers saying their language is ugly, he calls them Nips, he says that the women the soldiers left behind were "apparently" adulterous too. He says that their very culture does not value life and he West-splains other cultures in unhelpful ways too. He practices some psychoanalysis in a book where it should not be. This book would be so much stronger had he stuck to the history.

This author thinks the Japanese are a people worth "being leery of" because of their refusal to atone for their many atrocities. The Japanese silence on this is an important question but I don't favor bullying the Japanese to get some faux satisfaction. The author favors punishing them until they've coughed up some reparations or admitted that the victims of the atomic bomb weren't actually victims or emulate post-war Germany. I can't agree with him on this argument. It is akin to answering cruelty with cruelty to people whose ancestors did bad things. We should be beyond that. Most races and nationalities have had murderous pasts and no one wants any of this to happen again. Germany is no shining example of how to make things right. Again, LOL. My take is that we honor the warring past by committing to a peaceful future. How about we start there? Unequivocal peace. Peace extremism.
]]> <![CDATA[Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America's School Curricula]]> 62645204 A college professor debunks the false liberal narratives which define much of America's school curricula.

In 1995, James W. Loewen penned the classic work of criticism, Lies My Teacher Told Me, a left-leaning corrective that addressed much of what was sanitized and omitted from American history books.

But in the more than two decades that followed, false leftist narratives--as wrong as those they supplanted--have come to dominate American academia and education. Now, in the spirit of that original book, Professor Wilfred Reilly demolishes the academic myths propagated by the left. In Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me, he offers fresh angles on "established" events, turning what we think we know about the nation's history on its head.

Reilly explains how there actually were communists in Hollywood; how the cultural stereotype of Native American culture as completely peace-loving is both untrue and patronizing; and how, while history was almost always bad for Black Americans, history was much worse for everyone than we realize.

Smart, irreverent, and deeply researched, Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me will revolutionize our understanding of America's past while offering a refreshing way to teach and think about history.]]> 264 Wilfred Reilly 0063265982 Natali 5
I learned a lot about the history of native slavery and colonization that stretched long before Westerners did it. His take on race relations is masterful. But when he argues that the atomic bomb and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam were not all bad, I didn't know what to do with my staunch antiwar beliefs. I felt stopped in my tracks. I'm not used to thinking like that but he'd already set a pattern of learning to see lesser evils and context. This is the third book I've read this year about the atomic bomb and the Japanese genocidal wars enacted on most of Asia and I'm starting to see that it is not as easy as all good/all bad. The nuance is important but I don't know how I can be nuanced as an antiwar advocate. I honestly don't know. I have to sit with this for a while. I love that this book pushed me when in this way. I'm glad to have found this author, I find him incredibly sincere and talented. ]]> 3.96 2023 Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America's School Curricula
author: Wilfred Reilly
name: Natali
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:
I am used to busting media narratives but this book pushed even me to my limits. Reilly is an excellent writer, often humorous when making his points. I enjoyed my time with him but some of his points have not been digested yet and I would love to sit with him over coffee to work them out.

I learned a lot about the history of native slavery and colonization that stretched long before Westerners did it. His take on race relations is masterful. But when he argues that the atomic bomb and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam were not all bad, I didn't know what to do with my staunch antiwar beliefs. I felt stopped in my tracks. I'm not used to thinking like that but he'd already set a pattern of learning to see lesser evils and context. This is the third book I've read this year about the atomic bomb and the Japanese genocidal wars enacted on most of Asia and I'm starting to see that it is not as easy as all good/all bad. The nuance is important but I don't know how I can be nuanced as an antiwar advocate. I honestly don't know. I have to sit with this for a while. I love that this book pushed me when in this way. I'm glad to have found this author, I find him incredibly sincere and talented.
]]> <![CDATA[Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense]]> 36950137 Author of the New York Times bestseller Useful Idiots and popular columnist Mona Charen takes a close, reasoned look at the aggressive feminist agenda undermining the success and happiness of men and women across the country

In this smart, deeply necessary critique, Mona Charen unpacks the ways feminism fails us at home, in the workplace, and in our personal relationships--by promising that we can have it all, do it all, and be it all. Here, she upends the feminist agenda and the liberal conversation surrounding women's issues by asking tough and crucial questions, such as:
* Did women's full equality require the total destruction of the nuclear family?
* Did it require a sexual revolution that would dismantle traditions of modesty, courtship, and fidelity that had characterized relations between the sexes for centuries?
* Did it cause the broken dating culture and the rape crisis on our college campuses?
* Did it require war between the sexes that would deem men the "enemy" of women?
* Have the strides of feminism made women happier in their home and work life. (The answer is No.)

Sex Matters tracks the price we have paid for denying sex differences and stoking the war of the sexes--family breakdown, declining female happiness, aimlessness among men, and increasing inequality. Marshaling copious social science research as well as her own experience as a professional as well as a wife and mother, Mona Charen calls for a sexual ceasefire for the sake of women, men, and children.]]> 320 Mona Charen 0451498399 Natali 0 to-read 3.71 Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense
author: Mona Charen
name: Natali
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First]]> 760914 336 Mona Charen 0060579412 Natali 0 to-read 3.65 Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First
author: Mona Charen
name: Natali
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us)]]> 89176 Useful Idiots, was an eight-week New York Times bestseller. Now she’s back, switching her focus from foreign policy to domestic issues.

Unlike some conservatives who throw verbal hand grenades, Charen never gets shrill or mean. Instead, she focuses on the facts to reveal exactly why liberals are wrong—and how their proposals hurt the very people they claim to be fighting for, as well as the country as a whole.

Do-Gooders is a guide to the smug know-it-alls in politics, the news media, and Hollywood who think they know what’s best for the poor and other needy Americans. From Marian Wright Edelman to John Kerry, Hillary Rodham Clinton to Rob Reiner, this book will skewer the liberals by name. It covers topics such as:
� Education: Do-gooders send their own kids to private schools while working to deny poor children a better education through voucher programs.
� Affirmative Action: Do-gooders defend racial preferences at all costs while ignoring the enormous problems they create for African Americans at all levels of achievement.
� Welfare: Do-gooders thought welfare reform in the 1990s would hurt the poor, and they still refuse to admit how much it actually helped.

By collecting and exposing the most outrageous quotes and actions of the do- gooders, this book will become a must-read for conservatives across the country as they gear up for the next round of policy battles.

]]> 288 Mona Charen 1595230033 Natali 0 to-read 3.75 2004 Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us)
author: Mona Charen
name: Natali
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism]]> 181580525 Over time, many mainstream Republicans have embraced extremist views that were once reserved for the fringes—challenging free and fair elections, praising demagogues, encouraging conspiracies, and abandoning basic respect and decency.
The Republican Party crashed through the floor of decency when Donald J. Trump was nominated as the party’s candidate in the 2016 presidential election. Since then, it has continued to find new lows in conspiracism, cynicism, stoked outrage, falsehoods, and finally, insurrection.
In this collection of syndicated columns since 2016, Ms. Charen, a long-time political analyst, calls out the Republican Party for drifting far from its principles, offering sharp criticism and level-headed advice. Charen’s journey has taken her to distrust of excessive partisanship on all sides and a renewed urgency about confirming the values and traditions of small-l liberal democracy.]]> 252 Mona Charen 1949673936 Natali 0 to-read 3.25 Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism
author: Mona Charen
name: Natali
average rating: 3.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fluoride Deception 415500 400 Christopher Bryson 1583227008 Natali 5 4.21 2004 The Fluoride Deception
author: Christopher Bryson
name: Natali
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:
WTF WTF WTF WTF how can this stuff be in our DRINKING water and why hasn't there been a movie about all of these demonic government scientists yet!? The scientists that have long-since known that fluoride is a neurotoxin were the SAME people who masterminded the Manhattan Project, injecting unsuspecting mostly Black people with uranium and plutonium. The government pushed them to do this because of the nuclear arms race and in launching the world's first atomic bomb, the American government poisoned its own people probably MORE than the Japanese were poisoned. The evidence is incontrovertible. Flouride is NOT good for teeth or bones and the threshold at which we are supposed to tolerate it in drinking water was arbitrarily selected - like Covid's 6-feet social distancing rules. Bryson asserts that this was put in the water to save weapons makers the trouble of disposing of it. So it is toxic waste when a factory has to dispose of it but perfectly fine for human consumption? The studies on it are just horrific and the stories of how many people have been harmed by it equally horrific. I have a whole-house filtration system but flouride is in our food too, our medicines, it is consumed by agricultural animals. It's really hard to avoid. I'm sufficiently paranoid about it now and glad that RFK Jr. has said that he will lead the charge to get it out of our water supply. Holy moly, how have we not already done that!?
]]> <![CDATA[Truths: The Future of America First]]> 210436761
Today’s conservatives know what they’re against. They’re anti-woke, anti-globalist, anti-big government. But what exactly do they stand for? The fact that this is a hard question to answer is a damning indictment of the modern Republican Party which has abjectly failed to articulate an affirmative alternative to the left’s vision. Ramaswamy calls on the conservative movement to articulate exactly what it stands for, or else warns of another illusory “red wave� in 2024.

Vivek Ramaswamy is not a politician. He is a first generation American, the founder of several successful companies, and a bestselling author. Ramaswamy decided he needed to step in the arena to stop the lies and tell the American people the truth. That’s why he ran for president and became a leading voice in the America First movement.

In Truths: The Future of America First, Ramaswamy shows exactly how honesty about the most important issues will get our country back on track. The America First movement emphasizes the issues that bring us together, not what divides us. It asks that we put our country over politics, merit over grievance, and truth over lies. Ramaswamy tells us the truth about our political system, and the people who control it, and exhorts us to exercise our right to self-governance again.

America First is bigger than any man or woman. It’s a movement. In Truths, Vivek Ramaswamy explains exactly why that movement needs to succeed now more than ever. Our country’s future depends on it.]]> 224 Vivek Ramaswamy 1668078430 Natali 4 4.25 2024 Truths: The Future of America First
author: Vivek Ramaswamy
name: Natali
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:
This is not persuasive writing. It’s more of a party manifesto for modern conservatives. It is beautifully argued but not there to convince opponents of his ideals. I did enjoy his takedown of the SEC thoroughly though. There is some good guiding principles here for those who reject neoliberalism like I do.
]]> <![CDATA[Healthy Sun: Healing with Sunshine and the Myths About Skin Cancer]]> 8425525 337 Case Adams Natali 3 3.60 2009 Healthy Sun: Healing with Sunshine and the Myths About Skin Cancer
author: Case Adams
name: Natali
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:
Did not finish. I had a hard time with the AI narrator paired with this dense topic. I learned something about the healing power of a he sun but just can’t push myself to finish it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anatomy of the State (LvMI)]]> 19093139
He explains what a state is and what it is not. He shows how it is an institution that purports to hold the right to violate all that we otherwise hold as honest and moral, and how it operates under a false cover now and always. He shows how the state wrecks freedom, destroys civilization, and threatens all lives and property and social well-being.

The essay is seminal in another respect. Here Rothbard binds together the cause of private-property capitalism with anarchist politics � truly the first thinker in the history of the world to fully forge the perspective that later came to be known as anarchocapitalism.

He took all that he had learned from the Misesian tradition and the liberal tradition and the anarchist tradition to put together what is really a new and highly systematic way of thinking about the entire subject of political economy and social thought.

Understanding his point of view has the effect on the reader of putting things together in a way that profoundly changes the way one sees the world.

And Rothbard explains all of this in a very short space � short enough to be read again and again as an inoculation against the creeping disease of statism.

To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI]]> 63 Murray N. Rothbard 1610164946 Natali 5 4.41 1974 The Anatomy of the State (LvMI)
author: Murray N. Rothbard
name: Natali
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:
Brief and brilliant summary of the the parasitic role of the government.
]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard]]> 17262506
Late on the night of October 6, 1998, twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepardleft a bar in Laramie, Wyoming with two alleged “strangers,� Aaron McKin­ney and Russell Henderson. Eighteen hours later, Matthew was found tied to a log fence on the outskirts of town, unconscious and barely alive. He had been pistol-whipped so severely that the mountain biker who discovered his battered frame mistook him for a Halloween scarecrow. Overnight, a politically expedient myth took the place of important facts. By the time Matthew died a few days later, his name was synonymous with anti-gay hate.

Stephen Jimenez went to Laramie to research the story of Matthew Shepard’s murder in 2000, after the two men convicted of killing him had gone to prison, and after the national media had moved on. His aim was to write a screenplay on what he, and the rest of the nation, believed to be an open-and-shut case of bigoted violence. As a gay man, he felt an added moral imperative to tell Matthew’s story. But what Jimenez eventually found in Wyoming was a tangled web of secrets. His exhaustive investigation also plunged him deep into the deadly underworld ofdrugtrafficking. Over the course of a thirteen-year investigation, Jimenez traveled to twenty states and Washington DC, and interviewed more than a hundred named sources.

The Book of Matt is sure to stir passions and inspire dialogue as it re-frames this misconstrued crime and its cast of characters, proving irrefutably that Matthew Shepard was not killed for being gay but for reasons far more complicated � and daunting.]]> 368 Stephen Jimenez 1586422146 Natali 4 to-read
The media lies and this story is one of their worst. They pushed Shepard's death as a hate crime and ignored anything to the contrary. They scared an entire generation of gay people into thinking that they were in danger from homophobic straight people and that was all a lie. They failed to warn them of the true dangers of the gay community: drugs. Shame on them!

Put simply: Matthew Shepard was not killed by redneck homophobes. He was killed by his lover and fellow drug trafficker. Both men had been pimped by a drug dealer and had a sexual relationship for months. His killer was on a week-long meth bend and thought that Shepard had money from a scheduled drug run, which prompted his attack. It was a horrific crime but not motivated by homophobia. Even the prosecutor who put that killer away for life knew that and so did everyone else in that town. The prosecution hid the facts of the drug and sex trade that they'd been involved in during the trials.

Shepard was also HIV positive and had meth in his system according to the autopsy. He had been a rape and sexual abuse victim as a young boy and he was subsequently arrested for molesting two young boys when he was 15 years old. He was both victim and perpetrator. How in the world did the gay community make this person their Rosa Parks? If they wanted to really honor his death, they would have put all of that money and media towards keeping drugs out of the gay community, keeping drugs from crossing the Southern Border and preventing rape and pedophilia in the gay community!

One of the men arrested for the murder, Russell Henderson was denied the right to a fair trial because of the media frenzy of this case. He didn't kill Shepard. He tried to stop it, he has the scar to prove it. He was threatened with the death penalty, which is why he entered a plea. His mother would go on to die in a similar way to Shepard just months after Shepard's death and his mother's killer was out of prison in four years. His story is a horrific warning about getting involved with the wrong crowd.

None of this is to deny that Shepard was a victim. He was a flawed person but no one deserves to die that way. How awful. But this was not a hate crime and the more I learn about hate crime legislation, the more I realize there is no such thing as a hate crime. A crime is a crime. Some groups are not more protected than others. Shepard's murder was horrific enough without adding unnecessary layers of dishonesty to it.

Shepard became a major cause for the Clinton White House. Clinton himself compared his death to the "genocide in Bosnia" - which also turned out to be a lie and an excuse for him to bomb the shit out of Yugoslavia. He also used it to distract from his impeachment vote over the Lewinsky scandal, conveniently enough - yet another way the public was manipulated over this.

The terrifying question that I'm left with after reading this is thus: Shepard's death happened before the peak of the opioid crisis that would go on to claim SO many more lives just like his. Almost everyone close to Shepard would go on to suffer from or die from meth addiction. What if we'd been warned about that in 1998 instead of sold this crock of a story? What if the story of his death had been told honestly? What could we have done with that well intentioned activism if it had been properly directed?

This is one of the more upsetting books I've ever read and that's saying something because I take on some messed up stuff. It is a reminder of how dark the underworld on the planet can be. I don't know that I'll ever not be haunted by it or ever forgive the media or activists groups for lying to us about it.

It should be noted that this was written by a gay man who came to the same conclusion: Immortalizing this story in a lie is a disservice to us all. It feels like only a gay man could say this but he was punished for it and called a gay traitor, truther, right winger. He's clearly not. Even though I struggled at times with the way he organized this story, I think he was brave for doing it and he gave it all he had. I take my hat off to him.]]> 3.57 2013 The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard
author: Stephen Jimenez
name: Natali
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read
review:
I'm horrified. Everything we thought we knew about the Matthew Shepard death was a lie and I'm horrified on behalf of the media, I'm horrified on behalf of the justice system, I'm horrified about the actions of activists, I'm horrified about the Mexican drug trade, and I'm horrified for all of the many victims in this story, Shepard included.

The media lies and this story is one of their worst. They pushed Shepard's death as a hate crime and ignored anything to the contrary. They scared an entire generation of gay people into thinking that they were in danger from homophobic straight people and that was all a lie. They failed to warn them of the true dangers of the gay community: drugs. Shame on them!

Put simply: Matthew Shepard was not killed by redneck homophobes. He was killed by his lover and fellow drug trafficker. Both men had been pimped by a drug dealer and had a sexual relationship for months. His killer was on a week-long meth bend and thought that Shepard had money from a scheduled drug run, which prompted his attack. It was a horrific crime but not motivated by homophobia. Even the prosecutor who put that killer away for life knew that and so did everyone else in that town. The prosecution hid the facts of the drug and sex trade that they'd been involved in during the trials.

Shepard was also HIV positive and had meth in his system according to the autopsy. He had been a rape and sexual abuse victim as a young boy and he was subsequently arrested for molesting two young boys when he was 15 years old. He was both victim and perpetrator. How in the world did the gay community make this person their Rosa Parks? If they wanted to really honor his death, they would have put all of that money and media towards keeping drugs out of the gay community, keeping drugs from crossing the Southern Border and preventing rape and pedophilia in the gay community!

One of the men arrested for the murder, Russell Henderson was denied the right to a fair trial because of the media frenzy of this case. He didn't kill Shepard. He tried to stop it, he has the scar to prove it. He was threatened with the death penalty, which is why he entered a plea. His mother would go on to die in a similar way to Shepard just months after Shepard's death and his mother's killer was out of prison in four years. His story is a horrific warning about getting involved with the wrong crowd.

None of this is to deny that Shepard was a victim. He was a flawed person but no one deserves to die that way. How awful. But this was not a hate crime and the more I learn about hate crime legislation, the more I realize there is no such thing as a hate crime. A crime is a crime. Some groups are not more protected than others. Shepard's murder was horrific enough without adding unnecessary layers of dishonesty to it.

Shepard became a major cause for the Clinton White House. Clinton himself compared his death to the "genocide in Bosnia" - which also turned out to be a lie and an excuse for him to bomb the shit out of Yugoslavia. He also used it to distract from his impeachment vote over the Lewinsky scandal, conveniently enough - yet another way the public was manipulated over this.

The terrifying question that I'm left with after reading this is thus: Shepard's death happened before the peak of the opioid crisis that would go on to claim SO many more lives just like his. Almost everyone close to Shepard would go on to suffer from or die from meth addiction. What if we'd been warned about that in 1998 instead of sold this crock of a story? What if the story of his death had been told honestly? What could we have done with that well intentioned activism if it had been properly directed?

This is one of the more upsetting books I've ever read and that's saying something because I take on some messed up stuff. It is a reminder of how dark the underworld on the planet can be. I don't know that I'll ever not be haunted by it or ever forgive the media or activists groups for lying to us about it.

It should be noted that this was written by a gay man who came to the same conclusion: Immortalizing this story in a lie is a disservice to us all. It feels like only a gay man could say this but he was punished for it and called a gay traitor, truther, right winger. He's clearly not. Even though I struggled at times with the way he organized this story, I think he was brave for doing it and he gave it all he had. I take my hat off to him.
]]> The Lost Library 63005200 A little free library guarded by a cat and a boy who takes on the mystery it keeps.

When a mysterious little free library (guarded by a large orange cat) appears overnight in the small town of Martinville, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change.

Evan and his best friend Rafe quickly discover a link between one of the old books and a long-ago event that none of the grown-ups want to talk about. The two boys start asking questions whose answers will transform not only their own futures, but the town itself.

Told in turn by a ghost librarian named Al, an aging (but beautiful) cat named Mortimer, and Evan himself, The Lost Library is a timeless story from award-winning authors Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass. It's about owning your truth, choosing the life you want, and the power of a good book (and, of course, the librarian who gave it to you).]]> 215 Rebecca Stead 1250838819 Natali 5 4.09 2023 The Lost Library
author: Rebecca Stead
name: Natali
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves:
review:
This book is just perfect! I don’t mind admitting that I teared up at the end. It’s a complicated plot but was selected for my 3rd graders� Battle of the Bools. She says it was her favorite one so far and I agree. I enjoyed this immensely, especially as someone who can wax romantic about reading. Absolute joy of a book! Would give it more stars if I could!
]]> The Joy of Tax 23346809 The Joy of Tax, tax campaigner and creator of ‘Corbynomics�, Richard Murphy challenges almost every idea you have about tax. For him, tax is fundamentally about the ideas that shape the sort of society we want to live in, not technicalities. His intention is to demonstrate that there is indeed a joy in tax, and by embracing it we can create a fairer society and change the world for the better.

Tax has been a feature of human society for a very long time. Almost no one gives tax a good press even though, as Richard Murphy argues, it has been fundamental to the development of democracy the world over.
Whilst we may not like tax very much, in contrast it is clear that we really do like the public services which governments provide. So much so, in fact, that for most of the last 300 years, people have been more than happy for governments to run deficits by spending more than they raise in taxation.

2008 apparently changed all that. The issues of debt, deficits, cuts and austerity have dominated the political agenda ever since. Virtually every aspect of the government's finances and how to rearrange them in the forlorn hope of balancing the books has been discussed in great detail. Despite that, there has been almost no real discussion during this period about what tax is for and how it contributes to the creation of the society we aspire to.]]> 256 Richard Murphy 059307517X Natali 0 to-read 3.70 2015 The Joy of Tax
author: Richard Murphy
name: Natali
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History]]> 49886763 Investigative journalist Lee Smith uses his unprecedented access to Congressman Devin Nunes, former head of the House Intelligence Committee, to expose the deep state operation against the president--and the American people.
Investigative journalist Lee Smith's The Plot Against the President tells the story of how Congressman Devin Nunes uncovered the operation to bring down the commander-in-chief. While popular opinion holds that Russia subverted democratic processes during the 2016 elections, the real damage was done not by Moscow or any other foreign actor. Rather, this was a slow-moving coup engineered by a coterie of the American elite, the "deep state," targeting not only the president, but also the rest of the country. The plot officially began July 31, 2016 with the counterintelligence investigation that the FBI opened to probe Russian infiltration of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. But the bureau never followed any Russians. In fact, it was an operation to sabotage Trump, the candidate, then president-elect, and finally the presidency. The conspirators included political operatives, law enforcement and intelligence officials, and the press.
The plot was uncovered by Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and his investigative team. They understood that the target of the operation wasn't just Trump, but rather the institutions that sustain our republic. A country where operatives use the intelligence and security services to protect their privileges by spying on Americans, coordinating with the press, and using extra-constitutional means to undermine an election then undo a presidency is more like the third world than the republic envisioned by the founding fathers.
Without Nunes and his team, the plot against the president -- and against the country -- never would have been revealed. Told from the perspective of Nunes and his crack investigators -- men and women who banded together to do the right thing at a crucial moment for our democracy -- the story of the biggest political scandal in a generation reads like a great detective novel, feels like a classic cowboy movie. The congressman from the cattle capital of California really did fight corruption in Washington. Devin Nunes took on the "deep state."]]> 349 Lee Smith 1546085017 Natali 4
This book is complicated and hard to keep the players straight but it is undeniable proof that Operation Crossfire Hurricane was an illegal plot against Trump, his advisers, his campaign and his presidency and it involved Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Comey, and many others. I did not want to believe that and I bought Russiagate, hook, line and sinker because I hated Trump so much. I'm upset that the Democrats and the media put such a hard sell on it for their desired end to regain their hegemony.

I'm HORRIFIED at the media's role in this. They took leaks from the inside and published them with no integrity and even won Pulitzer Prizes from this "work." This was the beginning of their downfall and they deserve it. They can't apologize now but they should. I truly hate them more and more with each day of study.

I will say, this book needed a stronger editor. Some parts are redundant. I also think that at times Lee Smith comes off as a neocon, inaccurate in his assessment of Ukraine, Syria and China. That does hurt his credibility with me so I have docked a star. But his work on Operation Medusa is solid and it holds up four years later far better than Russiagate did.

I also read this book for some insight into Kash Patel, who was recently nominated to head the FBI. Oh man did the Crossfire folks overplay their hand with that dude. They fucked around and are hopefully about to find out and I'm here for that! I'm going to follow up by reading his book for more on this topic. ]]> 4.51 The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History
author: Lee Smith
name: Natali
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
review:
I read Andrew Weissman's book about the Mueller investigation and I believed him. Now that I read this book, I ask myself, what did Weissman actually prove about the Mueller investigation? He did not prove that there was a Russia-Trump connection. In fact there was no proof in that book or in the Mueller investigation. His book was about working around the Trump administration and the Justice Department to come to a desired end to bring down President Trump. I had no idea Weissman was so compromised. He left out a million things, particularly about Christopher Steele and the dossier that was such shit that it was basically cut and pasted from Steele's work on FIFA - it even had the same characters.

This book is complicated and hard to keep the players straight but it is undeniable proof that Operation Crossfire Hurricane was an illegal plot against Trump, his advisers, his campaign and his presidency and it involved Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Comey, and many others. I did not want to believe that and I bought Russiagate, hook, line and sinker because I hated Trump so much. I'm upset that the Democrats and the media put such a hard sell on it for their desired end to regain their hegemony.

I'm HORRIFIED at the media's role in this. They took leaks from the inside and published them with no integrity and even won Pulitzer Prizes from this "work." This was the beginning of their downfall and they deserve it. They can't apologize now but they should. I truly hate them more and more with each day of study.

I will say, this book needed a stronger editor. Some parts are redundant. I also think that at times Lee Smith comes off as a neocon, inaccurate in his assessment of Ukraine, Syria and China. That does hurt his credibility with me so I have docked a star. But his work on Operation Medusa is solid and it holds up four years later far better than Russiagate did.

I also read this book for some insight into Kash Patel, who was recently nominated to head the FBI. Oh man did the Crossfire folks overplay their hand with that dude. They fucked around and are hopefully about to find out and I'm here for that! I'm going to follow up by reading his book for more on this topic.
]]> <![CDATA[You Can Do It!: Speak Your Mind, America]]> 204593702 A searing and hilarious commentary on woke culturein America from the legendary comedian, actor, and Emmy-nominated SNL writer. Rob Schneider’s childhood in the San Francisco Bay area with parents of mixed-race backgrounds shaped his view of the that America afforded the greatest opportunity for peoples from all nations and all faiths. Now, Rob keeps finding himself in controversy in Hollywood for expressing a few commonsense opinions about what woke ideology is doing to our great nation.

With humor, Schneider takes on the current neoliberal authoritarians in America and argues we are living under a new kind of tyranny, with provocative commentary onthe new threats to free speech, the fight for medical freedoms, climate change hysteria and, of course, Hunter Biden. As Rob says, "I am a traditionalliberal which makes me a right-wing fascistnow!" In this debut book, Rob also touches on his unique experience in show business and Saturday Night Live for the first time, like what he learned from Academy Award winning actors Christopher Walken and Martin Landau to the 27 films he made with Adam Sandler. He tells untold stories too, like seeing an eleven year old boy, Macauley Culken, be the bread winnerfor his large family and Sylvester Stallone calling him to hire him for a movie, saying, "Joe Pesci wants 5 million dollars. You're cheaper!" Rob Schneider refuses to be censored. This hilarious book is both for longtime fans of Schneider and readers looking for a true critique of woke culturebefore it destroys the America we love.ձ> 288 Rob Schneider 1546007865 Natali 5
Schneider does a beautiful job laying out how traditional liberals have been jettisoned by the new war-loving, censorship-loving, illiberal and intolerant religious left. Traditional liberals love questions and free speech and open dialogue and are weary of big government. The new left hates all of that. He lays out cautionary tales about speech suppression that lead to social oppression and he does so with humor, although he is clearly a very erudite person. I laughed when he said that nowadays, you are either in the liberal box or Mussolini's box.

There is so much here. It's really worth picking up this book and I echo my husband's admonition that the audiobook is a real treat since he reads it himself. It made me so glad to live in a world where people who are canceled for critical thought can still have an independent career and make a difference. ]]> 3.89 2024 You Can Do It!: Speak Your Mind, America
author: Rob Schneider
name: Natali
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:
I didn't have high expectations of this book but if I had, he would have blown them all away. I bought this because I think he is a funny presence on X. I had no idea he was so clever!

Schneider does a beautiful job laying out how traditional liberals have been jettisoned by the new war-loving, censorship-loving, illiberal and intolerant religious left. Traditional liberals love questions and free speech and open dialogue and are weary of big government. The new left hates all of that. He lays out cautionary tales about speech suppression that lead to social oppression and he does so with humor, although he is clearly a very erudite person. I laughed when he said that nowadays, you are either in the liberal box or Mussolini's box.

There is so much here. It's really worth picking up this book and I echo my husband's admonition that the audiobook is a real treat since he reads it himself. It made me so glad to live in a world where people who are canceled for critical thought can still have an independent career and make a difference.
]]> State of Exception 85825
The sequel to Agamben's Homo Sovereign Power and Bare Life, State of Exception is the first book to theorize the state of exception in historical and philosophical context. In Agamben's view, the majority of legal scholars and policymakers in Europe as well as the United States have wrongly rejected the necessity of such a theory, claiming instead that the state of exception is a pragmatic question. Agamben argues here that the state of exception, which was meant to be a provisional measure, became in the course of the twentieth century a normal paradigm of government. Writing nothing less than the history of the state of exception in its various national contexts throughout Western Europe and the United States, Agamben uses the work of Carl Schmitt as a foil for his reflections as well as that of Derrida, Benjamin, and Arendt.

In this highly topical book, Agamben ultimately arrives at original ideas about the future of democracy and casts a new light on the hidden relationship that ties law to violence.]]> 104 Giorgio Agamben 0226009254 Natali 0 to-read 4.06 2003 State of Exception
author: Giorgio Agamben
name: Natali
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Exporting 'Made in America' Democracy: The National Endowment for Democracy and U.S. Foreign Policy]]> 2588842 276 Colin S. Cavell 0761824405 Natali 0 to-read 3.25 2002 Exporting 'Made in America' Democracy: The National Endowment for Democracy and U.S. Foreign Policy
author: Colin S. Cavell
name: Natali
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump]]> 52629905
Fusion GPS was founded in 2010 by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former reporters at The Wall Street Journal who decided to abandon the struggling news business and use their reporting skills to conduct open-source investigations for businesses and law firms--and opposition research for political candidates. In the fall of 2015, they were hired to look into the finances of Donald Trump.

What began as a march through a mind-boggling trove of lawsuits, bankruptcies, and sketchy overseas projects soon took a darker turn: The deeper Fusion dug, the more it began to notice names that Simpson and Fritsch had come across during their days covering Russian corruption--and the clearer it became that the focus of Fusion's research going forward would be Trump's entanglements with Russia.

To help them make sense of what they were seeing, Simpson and Fritsch engaged the services of a former British intelligence agent and Russia expert named Christopher Steele. He would produce a series of memos--which collectively became known as the Steele dossier--that raised deeply alarming questions about the nature of Trump's ties to a hostile foreign power. Those memos made their way to U.S. intelligence agencies, and then to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. On January 10, 2017, the Steele dossier broke into public view, and the Trump-Russia story reached escape velocity. At the time, Fusion GPS was just a ten-person consulting firm tucked away above a Starbucks near Dupont Circle, but it would soon be thrust into the center of the biggest news story on the planet--a story that would lead to accusations of witch hunts, a relentless campaign of persecution by congressional Republicans, bizarre conspiracy theories, lawsuits by Russian oligarchs, and the Mueller report.

In Crime in Progress, Simpson and Fritsch tell their story for the first time--a tale of the high-stakes pursuit of one of the biggest, most important stories of our time--no matter the costs.]]> 368 Glenn Simpson 059313415X Natali 0 to-read 4.09 2019 Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump
author: Glenn Simpson
name: Natali
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> For She Is Wrath 61070523 A sweeping, Pakistani romantic fantasy retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, where one girl seeks revenge against those who betrayed her—including the boy she used to love.

Three hundred and sixty-four days.
Framed for a crime she didn't commit, Dania counts down her days in prison until she can exact revenge on Mazin, the boy responsible for her downfall, the boy she once loved—and still can't forget. When she discovers a fellow prisoner may have the key to exacting that vengeance--a stolen djinn treasure--they execute a daring escape together and search for the hidden treasure.

Armed with dark magic and a new identity, Dania enacts a plan to bring down those who betrayed her and her family, even though Mazin stands in her way. But seeking revenge becomes a complicated game of cat and mouse, especially when an undeniable fire still burns between them, and the power to destroy her enemies has a price. As Dania falls deeper into her web of traps and lies, she risks losing her humanity to her fight for vengeance--and her heart to the only boy she's ever loved.]]> 439 Emily Varga 1250877385 Natali 0 to-read 3.67 2024 For She Is Wrath
author: Emily Varga
name: Natali
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stella (Best Friends Dog Tales #1)]]> 54655853 Even dogs deserve a second chance.

Ever since she was a puppy, Stella was trained to use her powerful beagle nose to sniff out dangerous chemicals and help her handler keep people safe. But during a routine security inspection, Stella misses the scent of an explosive. The sound of the blast is loud and scary. Unable to go back to work because of her anxiety, Stella is retired as a working dog.

When a young girl named Cloe wants to adopt Stella, the beagle knows this is her last chance to prove her worth. But how? When Stella smells a strange chemical inside Cloe’s body, a scent that surges just before the girl has a seizure, Stella’s nose makes the connection. But how can Stella warn her new family without them thinking she’s having an anxiety attack? How can she convince others that she can be a new kind of service dog and hopefully save Cloe’s life?

Told from Stella’s perspective, this story is about a special dog who must find the courage to overcome her fears in order to help save a young girl with epilepsy.]]> 176 McCall Hoyle 1629729019 Natali 5 4.30 2021 Stella (Best Friends Dog Tales #1)
author: McCall Hoyle
name: Natali
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves:
review:
This is told from the perspective of the dog and that works really well to handle mature topics for young children. That felt like a narrative risk but the author executes beautifully. I read this for my 3rd grader's Battle of The Books so that we could prep for competitions together. I enjoyed it and she did too.
]]> <![CDATA[Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis]]> 27161156 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062300546.

Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story...

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.]]> 264 J.D. Vance Natali 4
This is also not a book about politics although you can see how his politics are shaped by the welfare state and his military service. Poverty and inflation for these communities is not just about fewer Amazon deliveries. It is literally about life-and-death, family and marital stability, health and quality of life. While he paints this story beautifully, he says things that most people from the outside can't or won't: White working class people need to take responsibility for their dependance on the government and work their way out of it. He sees a pessimism and lack of awareness in these communities and he wants them to do better for themselves.

I don't agree with JD Vance on all of his politics but he is clearly smart and - in my opinion - likable. His family story mirrors my own grandmother's - she was from a West Virginia holler and she and her siblings also left for Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and California to find a better life for their families. I have seen this poverty and despair for myself in my own relatives and it is a story not often told. He's done it better than most people could. ]]> 3.81 2016 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
author: J.D. Vance
name: Natali
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:
It's a weird spoiler to read this book and know that this boy with an undeniably hard life will become the Vice President of the United States. I think he does a great job of sharing the pain he's experienced as a child of a very broken home and a member of a severely disadvantaged community without feeling sorry for himself. His life story is often painful to read but he doesn't write this as a victim. This book is just as much about the opioid crisis as it is about poverty and the working class. He doesn't give himself too much credit for bootstrapping his way out of despair, although it is clear he deserves it.

This is also not a book about politics although you can see how his politics are shaped by the welfare state and his military service. Poverty and inflation for these communities is not just about fewer Amazon deliveries. It is literally about life-and-death, family and marital stability, health and quality of life. While he paints this story beautifully, he says things that most people from the outside can't or won't: White working class people need to take responsibility for their dependance on the government and work their way out of it. He sees a pessimism and lack of awareness in these communities and he wants them to do better for themselves.

I don't agree with JD Vance on all of his politics but he is clearly smart and - in my opinion - likable. His family story mirrors my own grandmother's - she was from a West Virginia holler and she and her siblings also left for Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and California to find a better life for their families. I have seen this poverty and despair for myself in my own relatives and it is a story not often told. He's done it better than most people could.
]]> <![CDATA[Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (The Politically Incorrect Guides)]]> 18915749 We all learned in school that the 1920s were a time of unregulated capitalism that led to the stock market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Herbert Hoover was a laissez-faire ideologue who did nothing to alleviate the crisis--even as citizens starved and were forced to live in "Hoovervilles." And the interventionist policies and massive spending programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal gradually lifted us out of the Depression, until World War II brought it to a definitive end.

The only trouble with this official narrative--taught in most history textbooks, and proclaimed as gospel by the media--is that every element of it is false. Worse, this unsubstantiated myth is now being used to justify a "new New Deal" in response to today's economic crisis that could lead to a Greater Depression even deeper and longer than the first. But in The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, economist Robert Murphy fact-checks the myths, shows why they're wrong, and delves deep into history to set the record straight. His "politically incorrect" conclusion? It was government, not free markets, that caused the Great Depression--and the New Deal only made it worse. The real "lessons of the Great Depression" are not what you've been taught.

* The Crash of '29 was caused not by capitalism, but by the boom brought on by the newly created Federal Reserve's easy money policy (sound familiar?)
* Hoover made the Depression "Great" precisely by abandoning the laissez-faire approach that previous presidents had followed and that kept depressions short
* The bank runsof the 1930s were caused by government intervention in the banking system
* Government efforts to prop up wages and prices led to a full decade of double-digit unemployment
* FDR's arbitrary policies toward businessmen resulted in net investment of less than zero for much of the Depression

Might Barack Obama be the new FDR? You'll know, after reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal that if he is, that's nothing to celebrate.

]]> 277 Robert P. Murphy Natali 5
FDR stole from Americans by taking their gold, grossly expanded the executive powers, threatened to pack the Supreme Court when they ruled against him, blew up government debt, closed banks to prevent a run, solved unemployment by sending young men to war, put Japanese people in internment camps, refused to give up the office of the presidency and literally winged it when it came to the economy. He actually proposed a 99% tax on anything above $100,000 and his advisors later admitted that he really didn't know what he was doing. And yet the history books make him out to be a saint. What a ruse!

The author predicts that Bush was another Hoover and Obama will be another FDR and...yeah, that played itself out. We find ourself digging out of what those two did a decade later just as this author predicted.]]> 4.45 2009 Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (The Politically Incorrect Guides)
author: Robert P. Murphy
name: Natali
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves:
review:
Loved this! This book was a shocking refute of what we were taught in school: That that roaring 20s was caused by avarice and that the New Deal and World War II contributed to economic recovery. None of that is true! I find myself with a renewed hatred for the Democrats due to the truth about FDR and a slight historical crush on Calvin Coolidge. Huh. Didn't expect that to happen. (This in no way means I like the Republicans.)

FDR stole from Americans by taking their gold, grossly expanded the executive powers, threatened to pack the Supreme Court when they ruled against him, blew up government debt, closed banks to prevent a run, solved unemployment by sending young men to war, put Japanese people in internment camps, refused to give up the office of the presidency and literally winged it when it came to the economy. He actually proposed a 99% tax on anything above $100,000 and his advisors later admitted that he really didn't know what he was doing. And yet the history books make him out to be a saint. What a ruse!

The author predicts that Bush was another Hoover and Obama will be another FDR and...yeah, that played itself out. We find ourself digging out of what those two did a decade later just as this author predicted.
]]> <![CDATA[New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America]]> 5249492 336 Burton W. Folsom Jr. 1416592229 Natali 0 to-read 4.10 2008 New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
author: Burton W. Folsom Jr.
name: Natali
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Infinite Life: An Epic New Story of Life on Earth]]> 204802994 Every animal on the planet owes its existence to one crucial piece of evolutionary the egg.

It's time to tell a new story of life on Earth.



'Jules Howard's egg's-eye view of evolution is dripping with fascinating insights' ALICE ROBERTS



If you think of an egg, what do you see in your mind's eye? A chicken egg, hard-boiled? A slimy mass of frogspawn? Perhaps you see a human egg cell, prepared on a microscope slide in a laboratory? Or the majestic marble-blue eggs of the blackbird?

Every egg there has ever been, is an emblem of survival. Yet the evolution of the animal egg is the dramatic subplot missing in many accounts of how life on Earth came to be. Quite simply, without this universal biological phenomenon, animals as we know them, including us, could not have evolved and flourished.

In Infinite Life, zoology correspondent Jules Howard takes the reader on a mind-bending journey from the churning coastlines of the Cambrian Period and Carboniferous coal forests, where insects were stirring, to the end of the age of dinosaurs when live-birthing mammals began their modern rise to power. Eggs would evolve from out of the sea; be set by animals into soils, sands, canyons and mudflats; be dropped in nests wrapped in silk; hung in stick nests in trees, covered in crystallised shells or secured by placentas.

Whether belonging to birds, insects, mammals or millipedes, animal eggs are objects that have been shaped by their ecology, forged by mass extinctions and honed by natural selection to near-perfection. Finally, the epic story of their role in the tapestry of life can be told.]]> 288 Jules Howards 1783967781 Natali 0 to-read 4.13 2024 Infinite Life: An Epic New Story of Life on Earth
author: Jules Howards
name: Natali
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story]]> 195890063
But there is another story, equally compelling, about who we are, about the English people's radical inclusivity, their ancient commitment to the natural world, their long struggle to win rights for all. It puts the Chartists and the Levellers in their rightful places alongside Nelson and Churchill. It draws on the medieval writers and Romantic poets who emphasised the sanctity of the environment. And at its heart is England's ancient multicultural heritage, embodied by the Black and Asian writers the curriculum neglects.

Here, Caroline Lucas uses this alternative story to offer a progressive vision of what Englishness is and what it might be. Delving deep into our national history, she explores what England's progressive spirit can teach us about the most pressing issues of our whether the fraught legacies of Empire, the benefits of migration, or the accelerating climate emergency. And she sketches out an alternative one that progressives can embrace to build a fairer future.]]> 305 Caroline Lucas 1804941603 Natali 0 to-read 3.97 2024 Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story
author: Caroline Lucas
name: Natali
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> No Talking 235127
The fifth-grade girls and the fifth-grade boys at Laketon Elementary don't get along very well. But the real problem is that these kids are loud and disorderly. That's why the principal uses her red plastic bullhorn. A lot.

Then one day Dave Packer, a certified loudmouth, bumps into an idea -- a big one that makes him try to keep quiet for a whole day. But what does Dave hear during lunch? A girl, Lynsey Burgess, jabbering away. So Dave breaks his silence and lobs an insult. And those words spark a Which team can say the fewest words during two whole days? And it's the boys against the girls.

How do the teachers react to the silence? What happens when the principal feels she's losing control? And will Dave and Lynsey plunge the whole school into chaos?

This funny and surprising book is about language and thought, about words unspoken, words spoken in anger, and especially about the power of words spoken in kindness...with or without a bullhorn. It's Andrew Clements at his best -- thought-provoking, true-to-life, and very entertaining.]]> 146 Andrew Clements 1416909834 Natali 5 3.96 2007 No Talking
author: Andrew Clements
name: Natali
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves:
review:
Oh I loved this. This is a 3rd grade Battle of the Books requirement for my 8 year old and I'm reading through the list along with them to help them prep trivia questions for the battles. This is a really cute and fun book for grade schoolers.
]]> Cure for the Common Universe 23656453
ten minutes after he met a girl. A living, breathing girl named Serena, who not only laughed at his jokes but actually kinda sorta seemed excited when she agreed to go out with him.

Jaxon's first date. Ever.

In rehab, he can't blast his way through galaxies to reach her. He can't slash through armies to kiss her sweet lips. Instead, he has just four days to earn one million points by learning real-life skills. And he'll do whatever it takes—lie, cheat, steal, even learn how to cross-stitch—in order to make it to his date.

If all else fails, Jaxon will have to bare his soul to the other teens in treatment, confront his mother's absence, and maybe admit that it's more than video games that stand in the way of a real connection.

Prepare to be cured.]]> 320 Christian McKay Heidicker Natali 2
The protagonist was not a racist. He was not a bigot. He was not sexist. He was a hormonal and selfish kid who had real pain in his life and working through that pain should have been the point of the book but in the end, curveball! He must make a religious penance for his privilege to someone whose pain he had nothing to do with! WTF.

White people make up the largest percentage of people in poverty in the U.S., according to the recent census. Telling them that they are privilege because of their skin color is neo racism based on ideology that simply doesn't bear out. Did he contribute to the pain of a queer, fat, Vietnamese girl while addicted to video games, never leaving his house? Somehow the author wants to make the point that he did and that he should repent.

Up until that point, the boy HAD been learning from his experiences, he had been coping with his own avoidance and selfishness. There was no need to do this. He was a redeemable character with an important lesson on its own, there was no need to minimize it. I'm annoyed.

I read this book after my son read it over a school break.]]> 3.41 2016 Cure for the Common Universe
author: Christian McKay Heidicker
name: Natali
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves:
review:
I was on board with this book until the end when the author decides to minimize the main character's problems because he is a white male. He is a young boy who is addicted to video games to escape the pain of being abandoned by an alcoholic parent but in the end, he has to apologize to another gamer for not seeing that her pain was bigger because she is a "fat, queer, Vietnamese." This girl is crude and spiteful to him for the entire book and we learn in the end that it is because he never recognized that her victim card is heavier than his because of her skin color and sexuality. He should have known all along! Ugh.

The protagonist was not a racist. He was not a bigot. He was not sexist. He was a hormonal and selfish kid who had real pain in his life and working through that pain should have been the point of the book but in the end, curveball! He must make a religious penance for his privilege to someone whose pain he had nothing to do with! WTF.

White people make up the largest percentage of people in poverty in the U.S., according to the recent census. Telling them that they are privilege because of their skin color is neo racism based on ideology that simply doesn't bear out. Did he contribute to the pain of a queer, fat, Vietnamese girl while addicted to video games, never leaving his house? Somehow the author wants to make the point that he did and that he should repent.

Up until that point, the boy HAD been learning from his experiences, he had been coping with his own avoidance and selfishness. There was no need to do this. He was a redeemable character with an important lesson on its own, there was no need to minimize it. I'm annoyed.

I read this book after my son read it over a school break.
]]> <![CDATA[Stuntboy, in the Meantime (Stuntboy, #1)]]> 57057907 A middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!

Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!

But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.

All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.� But Portico knows “meantime� means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.

Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.]]> 272 Jason Reynolds 1534418164 Natali 4
Otherwise, the characters in this book are SO cute and relatable. It's an important story about (spoiler) divorce and friendship and community. I enjoyed it.

I read it at the behest of my 8 year-old who insists that I read all of her Battle of the Books books this year which means that I will have to tape my mouth not to participate in the competitions!]]> 3.94 2021 Stuntboy, in the Meantime (Stuntboy, #1)
author: Jason Reynolds
name: Natali
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
review:
I loved the writing and the story but the graphic design of this book really got in the way for me. There were a few times when I couldn't figure out where to jump to finish sentences or if I'd skipped a page because the continuity is jarring. There may be some user error to account for here since I am not big on graphic novels. I own that.

Otherwise, the characters in this book are SO cute and relatable. It's an important story about (spoiler) divorce and friendship and community. I enjoyed it.

I read it at the behest of my 8 year-old who insists that I read all of her Battle of the Books books this year which means that I will have to tape my mouth not to participate in the competitions!
]]> The Great Depression 22230906 297 Lionel Robbins 1610166108 Natali 0 to-read 4.33 1934 The Great Depression
author: Lionel Robbins
name: Natali
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fountainhead 2122
This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...

“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York Times]]> 704 Ayn Rand Natali 0 to-read 3.87 1943 The Fountainhead
author: Ayn Rand
name: Natali
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atlas Shrugged 662 This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor � and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life � from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy � to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction � to the philosopher who becomes a pirate � to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph � to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad � to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions.

This is a mystery story, not about the murder � and rebirth � of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.]]> 1168 Ayn Rand 0452011876 Natali 0 to-read 3.67 1957 Atlas Shrugged
author: Ayn Rand
name: Natali
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> End the Fed 6388946
Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institution without which the country's economy could not properly function. But in END THE FED, Ron Paul draws on American history, economics, and fascinating stories from his own long political life to argue that the Fed is both corrupt and unconstitutional. It is inflating currency today at nearly a Weimar or Zimbabwe level, a practice that threatens to put us into an inflationary depression where $100 bills are worthless. What most people don't realize is that the Fed -- created by the Morgans and Rockefellers at a private club off the coast of Georgia -- is actually working against their own personal interests. Congressman Paul's urgent appeal to all citizens and officials tells us where we went wrong and what we need to do fix America's economic policy for future generations.]]> 212 Ron Paul 0446549193 Natali 5 4.05 2009 End the Fed
author: Ron Paul
name: Natali
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves:
review:
This is not a book full of economic models. He leaves that for others. Instead, he makes a moral, Constitutional, economic and libertarian argument against the Fed and I loved it! This book is more than 10 years old and everything he predicted has come to pass: low wages, privatized profits for big banks, socialized losses, a war economy that causes record inflation and wage depreciation. We're here folks! Do we continue off the cliff before someone listens? He predicts that will happen since he lacks confidence that Congress would repeal the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. But maybe...just maybe, given that Ron Paul has been floated as an economic adviser of the second Trump administration, maybe there is hope. Go get 'em Ron Paul!
]]> <![CDATA[The Causes of the Economic Crisis: And Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression]]> 4392426
In this world before and after the Great Depression, there was a lone voice for sanity and freedom: Ludwig von Mises. He speaks in The Causes of the Economic Crisis, a collection of newly in print essays by Mises that have been very hard to come by, and are published for the first time in this format.

Here we have the evidence that the master economist foresaw and warned against the breakdown of the German mark, as well as the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed.

He presents his business cycle theory in its most elaborate form, applies it to the prevailing conditions, and discusses the policies that governments undertake that make recessions worse. He recommends a path for monetary reform that would eliminate business cycles and provide the basis for a sustainable prosperity.

In foreseeing the interwar economic breakdown, Mises was nearly alone among his contemporaries. In 1923, he warned that central banks will not "stabilize" money; they will distort credit markets and generate booms and busts. In 1928, he departed dramatically from the judgment of his contemporaries and sounded an alarm: "every boom must one day come to an end."

Then after the Great Depression hit, he wrote again in 1931. His essay was called: "The Causes of the Economic Crisis." And the essays kept coming, in 1933 and 1946, each explaining that the business cycle results from central-bank generated loose money and cheap credit, and that the cycle can only be made worse by intervention.

Credit expansion cannot increase the supply of real goods. It merely brings about a rearrangement. It diverts capital investment away from the course prescribed by the state of economic wealth and market conditions. It causes production to pursue paths which it would not follow unless the economy were to acquire an increase in material goods. As a result, the upswing lacks a solid base. It is not real prosperity. It is illusory prosperity. It did not develop from an increase in economic wealth. Rather, it arose because the credit expansion created the illusion of such an increase. Sooner or later it must become apparent that this economic situation is built on sand.
Did the world listen? The German-speaking world knew his essays well, and he was considered a prophet, until the Nazis came to power and wiped out his legacy. In England, his student F.A. Hayek made the Austrian theory a presence in academic life.

In the popular mind, the media, and politics, however, it was Keynes who held sway, with his claim that the depression was the fault of the market, and that it can only be solved through government planning.

Just at the time he wanted to be fighting, Mises had to leave Austria, forced out by political events and the rising of the Nazis. He wrote from Geneva, his writings accessible to too few people. They were never translated into English until after his death. Even then, they were not circulated widely.

The sad result is that Mises is not given the credit he deserves for having warned about the coming depression, and having seen the solution. His writings were prolific and profound, but they were swallowed up in the rise of the total state and total war.

But today, we hear him speak again in this book.

Bettina B. Greaves did the translations. It is her view that in the essays, Mises provides the clearest explanation of the Great Depression ever written. Indeed, he is crystal clear: precise, patient, and thorough. It makes for a gripping read, especially given that we face many of the same problems today.

This book refutes the socialists and Keynesian, as well as anyone who believes that the printing press can provide a way out of trouble. Mises shows who was responsible for driving the world into economic calamity. It was the inevitable effects of the government's monopoly over money and banking.

Just as in his attack on socialism, here he was brilliant and brave and prescient. Mises was there, before and after. He was writing about contemporary events. He issued the warnings that the world did not heed, the warnings we must heed today.]]> 207 Ludwig von Mises 1933550031 Natali 0 to-read 4.21 2006 The Causes of the Economic Crisis: And Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression
author: Ludwig von Mises
name: Natali
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar]]> 81977 The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar was written a decade before the last vestiges of the gold standard were abolished. His unique plan for making the dollar sound again still holds up. Some people have said: Rothbard tells us what is wrong with money but not what to do about it. Well, by adding this essay, the problem and the answer are united in a comprehensive whole. After presenting the basics of money and banking theory, he traces the decline of the dollar from the 18th century to the present, and provides lucid critiques of central banking, New Deal monetary policy, Nixonian fiat money, and fixed exchange rates. He also provides a blueprint for a return to a 100 percent reserve gold standard. The book made huge theoretical advances. He was the first to prove that the government, and only the government, can destroy money on a mass scale, and he showed exactly how they go about this dirty deed. But just as importantly, it is beautifully written. He tells a thrilling story because he loves the subject so much. The passion that Murray feels for the topic comes through in the prose and transfers to the reader. Readers become excited about the subject, and tell others. Students tell professors. Some, like the great Ron Paul of Texas, have even run for political office after having read it. Rothbard shows precisely how banks create money out of thin air and how the central bank, backed by government power, allows them to get away with it. He shows how exchange rates and interest rates would work in a true free market. When it comes to describing the end of the gold standard, he is not content to describe the big trends. He names names and ferrets out all the interest groups involved. Since Rothbard's death, scholars have worked to assess his legacy, and many of them agree that this little book is one of his most important. Though it has sometimes been inauspiciously packaged and is surprisingly short, its argument took huge strides toward explaining that it is impossible to understand public affairs in our time without understanding money and its destruction.]]> 191 Murray N. Rothbard 0945466447 Natali 0 to-read 4.27 1963 What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar
author: Murray N. Rothbard
name: Natali
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lemonade War (The Lemonade War, #1)]]> 1258121 For a full hour, he poured lemonade. The world is a thirsty place, he thought as he nearly emptied his fourth pitcher of the day. And I am the Lemonade King.

Fourth-grader Evan Treski is people-smart. He’s good at talking with people, even grownups. His younger sister, Jessie, on the other hand, is math-smart, but not especially good with people. So when the siblings� lemonade stand war begins, there really is no telling who will win—or even if their fight will ever end. Brimming with savvy marketing tips for making money at any business, definitions of business terms, charts, diagrams, and even math problems, this fresh, funny, emotionally charged novel subtly explores how arguments can escalate beyond anyone’s intent.

Awards: 2009 Rhode Island Children's Book Award, 2007 New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, North Carolina Children’s Book Award 2011, 2011 Nutmeg Award (Connecticut)

Check out for more information on The Lemonade War Series, including sequels The Lemonade Crime, The Bell Bandit, and The Candy Smash.]]> 177 Jacqueline Davies 0618750436 Natali 5 books-for-my-children 3.87 2007 The Lemonade War (The Lemonade War, #1)
author: Jacqueline Davies
name: Natali
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: books-for-my-children
review:
This is a really great book for elementary students. This is another of my daughter's Battle of the Books assignments and I am reading them when she's done to help her prepare for the battles. I loved this, there are so many teachable lessons in this book to speak with your children about! Family, friendship, capitalism, investments, math. I loved it!
]]> <![CDATA[The Marxification of Education: Paulo Freire's Critical Marxism and the Theft of Education]]> 63689360 Their education has been stolen from them. Activists have spent the last forty to fifty years taking over education and transforming it into something not mere indoctrination but brainwashing. The transformation of education from education to neo-Marxist thought reform follows significantly from the work of a Brazilian Marxist by the name of Paulo Freire, who is little-known outside of South America and colleges of education. In this book, The Marxification of Education, James Lindsay, founder of New Discourses, breaks down the contents and impact of Freire’s disastrous work so that you can understand it and, hopefully, put a stop to it.

James Lindsay is an author, internationally recognized speaker, and the founder and president of New Discourses. He is best known for his relentless criticism of "Woke" ideology, the now-famous Grievance Studies Affair, and his bestselling books including Race Marxism and Cynical Theories, which has been translated into over a dozen languages. In addition to writing and speaking, Lindsay is the voice of the New Discourses Podcast and has been a guest on prominent media outlets including The Joe Rogan Experience, Glenn Beck, Fox News, and NPR.]]> 210 James Lindsay Natali 3
I agree that modern education is overly socialized and it is undeniable that it is costing students when it comes to competency scores for the real world. Removing Freirian influence seems like too broad of a goal to be helpful though. ]]> 4.10 2022 The Marxification of Education: Paulo Freire's Critical Marxism and the Theft of Education
author: James Lindsay
name: Natali
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
I read Paulo Freire in graduate school getting a socialist doctorate in Sociology more than 20 years ago. I don't remember it well enough to critique this application of it though. If I had, I may be able to agree or disagree with his application to modern day education but this book doesn't summarize it enough or give enough current examples of how it is applied to sell me on the premise. To that end, it was more of an academic work than a practical work.

I agree that modern education is overly socialized and it is undeniable that it is costing students when it comes to competency scores for the real world. Removing Freirian influence seems like too broad of a goal to be helpful though.
]]> <![CDATA[Once Upon a Tim (Once Upon a Tim, #1)]]> 58437835 A middle grade series about a peasant boy who wants to be a knight.

Tim is just a peasant, but he dreams big. He wants more out of life than to grow up to be a woodsman like his father. Unfortunately, the only route to success in the Kingdom of Wyld is to be born a prince. Still, Tim is determined. He is brave and clever and always tries to do the right thing—even though he rarely gets the credit for it.

Then news spreads that Princess Grace of the neighboring kingdom has been abducted by the evil Stinx and Prince Ruprecht needs a legion of knights to join him on his quest to rescue her. Tim finally has the lucky break he’s been waiting for, the opportunity to change his station in life. And even though he doesn’t know how to ride a horse or wield anything more deadly than a water bucket, he’s going to do whatever it takes to make sure his dream becomes a reality.]]> 160 Stuart Gibbs 1534499253 Natali 4 3.92 2022 Once Upon a Tim (Once Upon a Tim, #1)
author: Stuart Gibbs
name: Natali
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
Another Battle of the Books book that I read after my 8 year-old read it. Cute. I like the tone and characters.
]]> <![CDATA[Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department]]> 11522950 But Who Watches the Watchmen?

The Department of Justice is America’s premier federal law enforcement agency. And according to J. Christian Adams, it’s also a base used by leftwing radicals to impose a fringe agenda on the American people.

A five-year veteran of the DOJ and a key attorney in pursuing the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, Adams recounts the shocking story of how a once-storied federal agency, the DOJ’s Civil Rights division has degenerated into a politicized fiefdom for far-left militants, where the enforcement of the law depends on the race of the victim.

In Injustice , Adams reveals:]]> 256 J. Christian Adams 1596982772 Natali 4
The author of this book worked in the voter fraud division of the civil rights department at the Justice Department. He has some inside baseball - at times a little too inside to follow to be honest - but the takeaways are solid. He says that during the Clinton and Obama years, the Justice Department selectively enforced only the voter fraud that would benefit the Democrats and left the rest. Under Obama and Eric Holder as Attorney General, the DOJ came to be led by radical ideology that decided that white people had no civil rights so they did not enforce voter fraud if it was perpetuated by a racial minority. This author resigned after he won a case against the Black Panthers but the Justice Department withdrew the case after it was won under Obama's term.

He details even more corruption than this though. He saw the DOJ enforce Section 7 of the Voting Rights Act, which allows voter registration at welfare and motor vehicle locations because it favors the Democrats, but they did not enforce Section 8, which forces states to clean up their voter registrations and purge noncitizens and dead people. We see this happening now, the DOJ is suing states that are trying to enforce Section 8, which is their duty under the law! The media is acting like this is new because they're idiots.

He also details how the DOJ refused to enforce laws to ensure that overseas and military voters would receive their votes 45 days in advance because that favors Republican voters. This doesn't necessarily mean that elections are stolen but it does mean that they are manipulated and that is wrong. It should not happen under any administration but he saw it happening more under Democrats than Republicans. He said that the DOJ under Bush enforced laws that disfavored Republicans because the department had not been ideologically captured then.

Other types of voter fraud that DO happen include voter "assistants" that basically fill in ballots for poor and older black people and excluding people of certain races from being election watchers. This is NOT what the civil rights movement fought for! It's shocking!

One of the bigger takeaways is that there is an entire industry around voter fraud denial funded by many people, one being George Soros. He wrote this in 2011! There is big money in voter fraud denial because it helps put candidates of choice in office. The media goes along with it, either because they're lazy or because they are captured too. No wonder. It should raise a red flag when the media reports so soon after an election that there was no fraud. That's not how that works. Read this book and you will know how it works and realize that we know very little because it is complicated and nuanced and partisan. Damn. Not an encouraging book with the election just a few weeks away.]]> 4.02 2011 Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department
author: J. Christian Adams
name: Natali
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves:
review:
I came away from this book realizing the media doesn't know what it is talking about when it covers voter fraud. Neither did I! Of course there is voter fraud! There always has been and always will be. The bigger question is how the government does or does not deal with it and that has changed in recent years due to partisan politics.

The author of this book worked in the voter fraud division of the civil rights department at the Justice Department. He has some inside baseball - at times a little too inside to follow to be honest - but the takeaways are solid. He says that during the Clinton and Obama years, the Justice Department selectively enforced only the voter fraud that would benefit the Democrats and left the rest. Under Obama and Eric Holder as Attorney General, the DOJ came to be led by radical ideology that decided that white people had no civil rights so they did not enforce voter fraud if it was perpetuated by a racial minority. This author resigned after he won a case against the Black Panthers but the Justice Department withdrew the case after it was won under Obama's term.

He details even more corruption than this though. He saw the DOJ enforce Section 7 of the Voting Rights Act, which allows voter registration at welfare and motor vehicle locations because it favors the Democrats, but they did not enforce Section 8, which forces states to clean up their voter registrations and purge noncitizens and dead people. We see this happening now, the DOJ is suing states that are trying to enforce Section 8, which is their duty under the law! The media is acting like this is new because they're idiots.

He also details how the DOJ refused to enforce laws to ensure that overseas and military voters would receive their votes 45 days in advance because that favors Republican voters. This doesn't necessarily mean that elections are stolen but it does mean that they are manipulated and that is wrong. It should not happen under any administration but he saw it happening more under Democrats than Republicans. He said that the DOJ under Bush enforced laws that disfavored Republicans because the department had not been ideologically captured then.

Other types of voter fraud that DO happen include voter "assistants" that basically fill in ballots for poor and older black people and excluding people of certain races from being election watchers. This is NOT what the civil rights movement fought for! It's shocking!

One of the bigger takeaways is that there is an entire industry around voter fraud denial funded by many people, one being George Soros. He wrote this in 2011! There is big money in voter fraud denial because it helps put candidates of choice in office. The media goes along with it, either because they're lazy or because they are captured too. No wonder. It should raise a red flag when the media reports so soon after an election that there was no fraud. That's not how that works. Read this book and you will know how it works and realize that we know very little because it is complicated and nuanced and partisan. Damn. Not an encouraging book with the election just a few weeks away.
]]> <![CDATA[Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails]]> 181109963 336 Sharyl Attkisson 0063314916 Natali 0 to-read 4.06 2024 Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails
author: Sharyl Attkisson
name: Natali
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Marxism: Philosophy and Economics]]> 1986565 281 Thomas Sowell 0688029639 Natali 0 to-read 4.00 1985 Marxism: Philosophy and Economics
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Natali
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles]]> 3047 304 Thomas Sowell 0465081428 Natali 5
The premise of this book is actually quite lovely. He parses out differences of political opinion into two groups: constrained and unconstrained visions. He uses the fundamentals of the founding fathers of social and economic science to prove this and he has such an amazing mastery of their works. I read these works in graduate school and don't remember them well enough to contradict his use of them even if I wanted to so some of this went over my head.

Still, I like this way of viewing political differences. There is a lot here that I will reference. Sowell never calls any one group right or wrong. His aim is to show how groups operate from different assumptions of human nature and how those visions can change and evolve over time.]]> 4.31 1986 A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Natali
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves:
review:
This book is a flex by one of the smartest economists of our time. I don't think he's trying to show off but if I had this complex understanding of the economics canon, I would sure want to show off like this!

The premise of this book is actually quite lovely. He parses out differences of political opinion into two groups: constrained and unconstrained visions. He uses the fundamentals of the founding fathers of social and economic science to prove this and he has such an amazing mastery of their works. I read these works in graduate school and don't remember them well enough to contradict his use of them even if I wanted to so some of this went over my head.

Still, I like this way of viewing political differences. There is a lot here that I will reference. Sowell never calls any one group right or wrong. His aim is to show how groups operate from different assumptions of human nature and how those visions can change and evolve over time.
]]> Fish in a Tree 28008067 A New York Times Bestseller!

The author of the beloved One for the Murphys gives readers an emotionally-charged, uplifting novel that will speak to anyone who’s ever thought there was something wrong with them because they didn’t fit in.

“Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.�

Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there’s a lot more to her—and to everyone—than a label, and that great minds don’t always think alike.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 320 Lynda Mullaly Hunt 0142426423 Natali 4 4.40 2015 Fish in a Tree
author: Lynda Mullaly Hunt
name: Natali
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
My 3rd grader is reading this for Battle of the Books this year. It’s a sweet book and handles tough topics like poverty and outcasts in an age-appropriate way for grade schoolers. It has a slow start but picks up after chapter 10.
]]> <![CDATA[Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up]]> 190837550 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

From the author of Irreversible Damage, an investigation into a mental health industry that is harming, not healing, American children

In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not helped the staggering number of kids who are lonely, lost, sad and fearful of growing up. What’s gone wrong with America’s youth?

In Bad Therapy, bestselling investigative journalist Abigail Shrier argues that the problem isn’t the kids—it’s the mental health experts. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with child psychologists, parents, teachers, and young people, Shrier explores the ways the mental health industry has transformed the way we teach, treat, discipline, and even talk to our kids. She reveals that most of the therapeutic approaches have serious side effects and few proven benefits. Among her unsettling

Talk therapy can induce rumination, trapping children in cycles of anxiety and depressionSocial Emotional Learning handicaps our most vulnerable children, in both public schools and private“Gentle parenting� can encourage emotional turbulence � even violence � in children as they lash out, desperate for an adult in charge
Mental health care can be lifesaving when properly applied to children with severe needs, but for the typical child, the cure can be worse than the disease. Bad Therapy is a must-read for anyone questioning why our efforts to bolster America’s kids have backfired—and what it will take for parents to lead a turnaround.]]> 314 Abigail Shrier Natali 5
The main point of her book is that the therapy we use for adults does not work for children and we are experimenting on them by putting it everywhere like fluoride in the water and it is hurting them. She goes on some tangents about family trauma and ADHD that could probably have been another book. She does a beautiful job pointing out how my generation of mothers have outsourced so much to books and experts and stopped learning to use our built in cultural tools such as extended families, communities and instincts and our children are poorly served by that.

It was interesting to learn that children of liberal parents report the lowest happiness and the highest propensity to join extremist groups like BLM and Antifa. Why? Because they try to "educate" their children about climate change and racial inequality and colonialism when really theys should focus on friendships and the SAT and learning to drive. We put heavy topics on them and give them no skills to filter and cope because we treat them like delicate flowers. That's a strong point.

I do recommend this book to parents of school children of all ages. There is a lot to think about and discuss here. ]]> 4.21 2024 Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up
author: Abigail Shrier
name: Natali
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
She takes on a lot in this book, maybe more than she needed to, but I think she brings it home. She gave me a lot to think about. I am specifically concerned about my children's "mental health" being tracked with software where educators who are not therapists keep notes about their "emotional health" in ways that could follow them throughout their lives! I will be speaking to my kids' schools about Panorama Education, you better believe it! I am also concerned about all the "anonymous" surveys that my kids might be given about their home life, their propensity for suicide, etc. Not only is that against the law, it is a dangerous intrusion into family life that could lead to powers of the state superseding your parental rights! I'll be making sure that the schools know that they do NOT have consent for that shit! For that reason alone, this book is worth reading.

The main point of her book is that the therapy we use for adults does not work for children and we are experimenting on them by putting it everywhere like fluoride in the water and it is hurting them. She goes on some tangents about family trauma and ADHD that could probably have been another book. She does a beautiful job pointing out how my generation of mothers have outsourced so much to books and experts and stopped learning to use our built in cultural tools such as extended families, communities and instincts and our children are poorly served by that.

It was interesting to learn that children of liberal parents report the lowest happiness and the highest propensity to join extremist groups like BLM and Antifa. Why? Because they try to "educate" their children about climate change and racial inequality and colonialism when really theys should focus on friendships and the SAT and learning to drive. We put heavy topics on them and give them no skills to filter and cope because we treat them like delicate flowers. That's a strong point.

I do recommend this book to parents of school children of all ages. There is a lot to think about and discuss here.
]]> The Iron Curtain Over America 32918822 326 John Owen Beaty 1365459780 Natali 4
I can see why someone would call it antisemitism but I think that is throwing the baby out with the bath water. His warnings are about communist Russian Zionists who penetrated US government in order to drag America into wars. They were never semites at all so it has nothing to do with antisemitism or Judaism for that matter. In fact, the Torah forbids a government and an army so clearly the Zionists cannot claim antisemitism for opposition to their government agenda. This author's warnings come from a long military and diplomatic career and he warns that the Democrats are the furtive party of war with the influence of foreign actors. Sixty years later and that is still happening. Will we learn before it's too late?

He warns that the U.S. is being influenced to kill innocent people abroad based on lies about war and that indiscriminate killing is against the values of a Christian nation. He warns that supporting the Zionists would disrupt a century of peace with the Arabs and lead to World War III. And here we are.

I learned a lot of jaw dropping things from this book. Did you know that Germany tried to hold peace talks with the U.S. twice before World War II but the U.S. refused? Why would they do that!? Did you know that the Roosevelt promised that no U.S. soldier would ever fight for the Zionists against the Palestinians but that was kept from the public too? Did you know that the U.S. knew about Pearl Harbor in advance of it happening but moved ships into the harbor anyway? Why would our leaders be influenced so badly to drag innocents into these wars?? Why are we not given the truth about these things?

The weightiest part of the book is his warning about censorship. Did you know that during World War II the government mandated that templates for books older than 4 years old be melted down? They used an excuse that it was for armor but it had nothing to do with that. The censorship during World War II was nearly as bad as it is today around the Russia and Gaza wars and there is a reason for that. It's spooky to read that we haven't learned our lesson and that this only got worse.

He also warns that the United Nations will serve to take away national sovereignty. Check! And he warns that a massive influx of immigration from any one place will serve to divide American society and create a problem. That could have been written in 2024.

Not everything holds up though. It is very uncomfortable that the author is so afraid of Jewish immigrants. That smacks of racism to the modern mind and does not hold up well but if you read closely his intent, his warning is more about an influx of any one group as a cultural assimilation problem. That same discussion needs to be had today but we seem unable to have it without screaming about prejudice. He talks about how the U.S. government tried to solve this by limiting immigration to 4% of any one place in a given year back in the 1950s!

There is so much here that challenges everything we were taught in school that it blew my mind. It was so disrupting that the book honestly felt dangerous in my hands. Like, "Am I allowed to know this!?" That is a sad sign of the times.]]> 4.00 1980 The Iron Curtain Over America
author: John Owen Beaty
name: Natali
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves:
review:
This book is a terrifying artifact that serves as a reminder that we've been warned for over 50 years about following communist leaders into foreign wars. Holy shit is this scary and a lot of what he says holds up.

I can see why someone would call it antisemitism but I think that is throwing the baby out with the bath water. His warnings are about communist Russian Zionists who penetrated US government in order to drag America into wars. They were never semites at all so it has nothing to do with antisemitism or Judaism for that matter. In fact, the Torah forbids a government and an army so clearly the Zionists cannot claim antisemitism for opposition to their government agenda. This author's warnings come from a long military and diplomatic career and he warns that the Democrats are the furtive party of war with the influence of foreign actors. Sixty years later and that is still happening. Will we learn before it's too late?

He warns that the U.S. is being influenced to kill innocent people abroad based on lies about war and that indiscriminate killing is against the values of a Christian nation. He warns that supporting the Zionists would disrupt a century of peace with the Arabs and lead to World War III. And here we are.

I learned a lot of jaw dropping things from this book. Did you know that Germany tried to hold peace talks with the U.S. twice before World War II but the U.S. refused? Why would they do that!? Did you know that the Roosevelt promised that no U.S. soldier would ever fight for the Zionists against the Palestinians but that was kept from the public too? Did you know that the U.S. knew about Pearl Harbor in advance of it happening but moved ships into the harbor anyway? Why would our leaders be influenced so badly to drag innocents into these wars?? Why are we not given the truth about these things?

The weightiest part of the book is his warning about censorship. Did you know that during World War II the government mandated that templates for books older than 4 years old be melted down? They used an excuse that it was for armor but it had nothing to do with that. The censorship during World War II was nearly as bad as it is today around the Russia and Gaza wars and there is a reason for that. It's spooky to read that we haven't learned our lesson and that this only got worse.

He also warns that the United Nations will serve to take away national sovereignty. Check! And he warns that a massive influx of immigration from any one place will serve to divide American society and create a problem. That could have been written in 2024.

Not everything holds up though. It is very uncomfortable that the author is so afraid of Jewish immigrants. That smacks of racism to the modern mind and does not hold up well but if you read closely his intent, his warning is more about an influx of any one group as a cultural assimilation problem. That same discussion needs to be had today but we seem unable to have it without screaming about prejudice. He talks about how the U.S. government tried to solve this by limiting immigration to 4% of any one place in a given year back in the 1950s!

There is so much here that challenges everything we were taught in school that it blew my mind. It was so disrupting that the book honestly felt dangerous in my hands. Like, "Am I allowed to know this!?" That is a sad sign of the times.
]]> <![CDATA[Acne Cure: The Revolutionary Nonprescription Treatment Plan That Cures Even the Most Severe Acne and Shows Dramatic Results in as Little as 14 Hours]]> 10096012 216 Terry J. Dubrow 0756792975 Natali 0 to-read 0.0 Acne Cure: The Revolutionary Nonprescription Treatment Plan That Cures Even the Most Severe Acne and Shows Dramatic Results in as Little as 14 Hours
author: Terry J. Dubrow
name: Natali
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It's Not Just Acne: Boost Immunity, Beat Acne - Break Through to Clearer Skin & A Healthier You!]]> 56486227 Shayna E. Peter Natali 2 3.62 It's Not Just Acne: Boost Immunity, Beat Acne - Break Through to Clearer Skin & A Healthier You!
author: Shayna E. Peter
name: Natali
average rating: 3.62
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves:
review:
This is not what I was looking for. I am trying to find the latest research on acne to support my adolescent children. This book is mostly about adult acne and how it could be a signal of other health co-morbidities and imbalances. I believe that and I appreciate the summary but this still didn't teach me what acne actually IS. This book has next to nothing about the function of the skin, the layers of the skin, what a breakout actually is, what is the advantage of the more popular treatments such as LED light, benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, etc. I'll keep looking.
]]> <![CDATA[Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror]]> 225746
Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger.

According to the author Michael Scheuer, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believe—at the urging of U.S. leaders—that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do.Blustering political rhetoric “informs� the public that the Islamists are offended by the Western world’s democratic freedoms, civil liberties, inter-mingling of genders, and separation of church and state. However, although aspects of the modern world may offend conservative Muslims, no Islamist leader has fomented jihad to destroy participatory democracy, for example, the national association of credit unions, or coed universities. Instead, a growing segment of the Islamic world strenuously disapproves of specific U.S. policies and their attendant military, political, and economic implications.

Capitalizing on growing anti-U.S. animosity, Osama bin Laden’s genius lies not simply in calling for jihad, but in articulating a consistent and convincing case that Islam is under attack by America. Al Qaeda’s public statements condemn America’s protection of corrupt Muslim regimes, unqualified support for Israel, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a further litany of real-world grievances. Bin Laden’s supporters thus identify their problem and believe their solution lies in war. Scheuer contends they will go to any length, not to destroy our secular, democratic way of life, but to deter what they view as specific attacks on their lands, their communities, and their religion. Unless U.S. leaders recognize this fact and adjust their policies abroad accordingly, even moderate Muslims will join the bin Laden camp.

ձ> 352 Michael Scheuer 1574888625 Natali 5
Here is what he said that no one heeded: The U.S. would suffer a great defeat in Afghanistan and that CIA intelligence from since the 1970s could have predicted that. The U.S. ignored its own intelligence in order to launch a nonsensical war in response to 9/11. He warns that the U.S. propaganda machine refuses to understand what Islamic terrorists want, which is for the U.S. to stop colonizing and bombing their lands. This author studied Al Qaeda at length and I learned so much about they want versus what the news tells me about them. That misunderstanding will strengthen the resolve of Islamist fundamentalist and blow up in our faces. Check, check and check. He also lays out how the U.S. has no interest in getting involved in foreign wars and as long as we continue to do so, we will bring about our own ruin, both with retaliatory attacks and financial ruin.

And yet this author is not all roses. He doesn't say that if we left foreign wars alone then the world would work it out itself. He says that a non-interventionist policy could in fact mean that we observe atrocities around the world and that is the way it may have to be. He says that we can help with aid but we should never intervene. That's something to sit with, isn't it?

Coincidentally I read this book after I read Orientalism by Edward Said. Said talks about how the West always misunderstands the East through a Western perspective. Michael Scheuer does the exact opposite. He does not try to understand Islamic conflicts through a Western lens at all. He simply points out how fundamentally different their beliefs are and how we can never force this through our own filter. This book is full of humility and study and I appreciate it so much. ]]> 3.79 2004 Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
author: Michael Scheuer
name: Natali
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves:
review:
This book is 20 years old but this author is owed a big fat "I told you so." Everything he lays out - not based on personal prediction but based on a lifetime of study - happened. This is further proof that those selling us war are not the same people as those studying wars. Idiots sell wars while the experts are silenced.

Here is what he said that no one heeded: The U.S. would suffer a great defeat in Afghanistan and that CIA intelligence from since the 1970s could have predicted that. The U.S. ignored its own intelligence in order to launch a nonsensical war in response to 9/11. He warns that the U.S. propaganda machine refuses to understand what Islamic terrorists want, which is for the U.S. to stop colonizing and bombing their lands. This author studied Al Qaeda at length and I learned so much about they want versus what the news tells me about them. That misunderstanding will strengthen the resolve of Islamist fundamentalist and blow up in our faces. Check, check and check. He also lays out how the U.S. has no interest in getting involved in foreign wars and as long as we continue to do so, we will bring about our own ruin, both with retaliatory attacks and financial ruin.

And yet this author is not all roses. He doesn't say that if we left foreign wars alone then the world would work it out itself. He says that a non-interventionist policy could in fact mean that we observe atrocities around the world and that is the way it may have to be. He says that we can help with aid but we should never intervene. That's something to sit with, isn't it?

Coincidentally I read this book after I read Orientalism by Edward Said. Said talks about how the West always misunderstands the East through a Western perspective. Michael Scheuer does the exact opposite. He does not try to understand Islamic conflicts through a Western lens at all. He simply points out how fundamentally different their beliefs are and how we can never force this through our own filter. This book is full of humility and study and I appreciate it so much.
]]> <![CDATA[No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam]]> 232060
Both fascinating and unsettling, Abdo's findings identify a grassroots model for transforming a secular nation-state to an Islamic social order that will likely inspire other Muslim nations.]]> 240 Geneive Abdo 0195157931 Natali 0 to-read 3.53 2000 No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam
author: Geneive Abdo
name: Natali
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters—And How to Get It]]> 31448995 should orgasm—penetration. As a result, we’ve created a pleasure gap between women and men:


50% of 18-35-year-old women say they have trouble reaching orgasm with a partner
64% of women vs 91% of men said they had an orgasm at their last sexual encounter
55% of men vs. 4% of women say they usually reach orgasm during first-time hookup sex
In Becoming Cliterate, psychology professor and human sexuality expert Dr. Laurie Mintz exposes the broader cultural problem that’s perpetuating this gap, and what we can do about it. Pulling together evidence from biology, sociology, linguistics, and sex therapy into one comprehensive, accessible, and prescriptive book, Becoming Cliterate features:



Cultural & historical analysis of female orgasm (spoiler: the problem’s been going on for ages)

An anatomy section (it’s all custom under the hood)

Proven techniques for cliterate sex (it starts with training the sex organ between your ears)

A comprehensive final chapter for men (because you don’t have to have a clitoris to be cliterate)
By dispelling the lies, misunderstandings, and myths that have been holding us back, Becoming Cliterate tackles both personal and political problems and replaces them with updated outlooks and practical skills needed to change our collective perspective on sex. It’s time to finally inform women and men on how to have satisfying experiences in bed that benefit both parties.

The revolution is cuming—and Becoming Cliterate offers a radical, simple solution to progress and pleasure for all.]]> 288 Laurie Mintz 0062484400 Natali 5
Merged review:

How did I get to this age and not know a lot of this!? This book dispels a lot of myths about sexuality and I appreciated it. This stuff is important and done injustice in our society. Recommend.]]> 4.26 2017 Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters—And How to Get It
author: Laurie Mintz
name: Natali
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/17
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:
How did I get to this age and not know a lot of this!? This book dispels a lot of myths about sexuality and I appreciated it. This stuff is important and done injustice in our society. Recommend.

Merged review:

How did I get to this age and not know a lot of this!? This book dispels a lot of myths about sexuality and I appreciated it. This stuff is important and done injustice in our society. Recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot, #1)]]> 26030734
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is—but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants.

As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home—until, one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her.

From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed novel about what happens when nature and technology collide.]]> 282 Peter Brown 0316381993 Natali 3 4.19 2016 The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot, #1)
author: Peter Brown
name: Natali
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/15
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves:
review:
If this book hadn't been so popular, I might have enjoyed it more but my expectations were high and I just didn't love it. My fourth grade daughter liked it and I read it to talk to her about. It makes for some good conversations about about living with the land and anthropomorphism. It's a good read for children. A bit less exciting for adults. Not sure if I'll read the sequel.
]]> The Day No One Woke Up 59464366 An out-of-this-world middle-grade adventure about finding friendship in the most unlikely of places.From the bestselling and Waterstones Children’s Book Prize shortlisted author of BOY IN THE TOWER. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things and authors, such as Ross Welford and Lisa Thompson.Something strange is happening in Ana’s city . . . she’s the only one awake. Confused and curious, Ana sets off to explore, bumping into the one other person who’s been able to rouse themselves � her ex–best friend, Tio. On a mission to discover what’s happening, Ana and Tio journey through the city looking for clues, their friendship mending with every step. When a mysterious creature suddenly materialises in front of them, Ana realises they’ve found the answer they’ve been looking for. But one question still Why them?Praise forHow I Saved the World in a Week:‘This tense, haunting zombie thriller perfectly balances terrifying peril with emotional depth.’–Guardian‘A fabulous page-turner� � Abi Elphinstone, author ofSky Song‘A compelling and timely survivalist journey� � Sita Brahmachari, author ofWhere the River Runs Gold‘A brave and powerful story� � Jasbinder Bilan, author ofAsha & the Spirit BirdPraise forBoy in the ‘An unusual and very impressive debut� � Fiona Noble,The Bookseller]]> 237 Polly Ho-Yen 1471193578 Natali 3 books-for-my-children
Merged review:

I liked the idea of this book but I don't think it was well executed. The end felt a little rushed and some of the creepy factor could have been played out a bit more. My 10 year-old daughter really liked it though. It creeped her out sufficiently enough to go sleep with her sister a few nights but it was a delightful thrill for her. She's glad she read it so it was worth the Kindle purchase!]]> 3.53 2022 The Day No One Woke Up
author: Polly Ho-Yen
name: Natali
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/15
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: books-for-my-children
review:
I liked the idea of this book but I don't think it was well executed. The end felt a little rushed and some of the creepy factor could have been played out a bit more. My 10 year-old daughter really liked it though. It creeped her out sufficiently enough to go sleep with her sister a few nights but it was a delightful thrill for her. She's glad she read it so it was worth the Kindle purchase!

Merged review:

I liked the idea of this book but I don't think it was well executed. The end felt a little rushed and some of the creepy factor could have been played out a bit more. My 10 year-old daughter really liked it though. It creeped her out sufficiently enough to go sleep with her sister a few nights but it was a delightful thrill for her. She's glad she read it so it was worth the Kindle purchase!
]]> <![CDATA[Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of our Times]]> 29358 560 George Crile 0802141242 Natali 0 to-read 3.99 2003 Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of our Times
author: George Crile
name: Natali
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Used to Like You Until...: How Binary Thinking Divides Us]]> 207297138
Binary thinking is much more than just the enemy of critical thinking, it’s also an immediate danger to our political discourse, our institutions, our way of consuming news, our relationships, our creativity, and even to our freedoms. All too often, we will let a single difference in viewpoint, an assumption, or an association be enough to write off another person entirely. We miss out on opportunities to connect and collaborate, all while the people in power benefit from our division.

Through humorous examples from her own life and insight only someone in her bizarre position can possess, Kat reminds us that the world doesn’t have to be so black and white. In her signature witty voice, Kat inspires us to lean into thoughtful consideration, genuine conversation, vulnerability, and only hating people when they really deserve it.]]> 208 Kat Timpf 1668067277 Natali 0 to-read 3.85 2024 I Used to Like You Until...: How Binary Thinking Divides Us
author: Kat Timpf
name: Natali
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Houseplants and Their Fucked-Up Thoughts: P.S., They Hate You (Fucked-Up Thoughts)]]> 61312282 Discover the cheeky musings of your houseplants in this quirky gift book—a delightful treat for plant enthusiasts who've ever felt those leafy side-eyes from their green companions.

Have you ever wondered if your houseplants are silently judging you?

Maybe you think you and your foliated friends are happily cohabitating. Maybe you bought them on a whim and hardly think about them at all. Maybe things are a bit more complicated.

Is it possible that your plants have inner lives that run deeper than their roots? That your fiddle-leaf fig finds you pathetic? That your majesty palm is deeply disdainful? Or that your philodendron has been eyeing your man?

Just because your plants can't speak doesn't mean they don't have a lot to say. Proceed with caution. Once you peek into the tangled minds of these dirt-loving deviants, you might never feel at home with your houseplants again.]]> 96 Carlyle Christoff 1951412702 Natali 5 3.95 Houseplants and Their Fucked-Up Thoughts: P.S., They Hate You (Fucked-Up Thoughts)
author: Carlyle Christoff
name: Natali
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:
I bought this as a gift for a friend but I read it first. It’s cute and funny. I especially like thinking about the astrology signs of houseplants. I got a good laugh about some of them. I actually did learn some things though! I didn’t know snake plants can filter the air and help allergies! I’m buying some!
]]> Dory Fantasmagory 20484662
As the youngest in her family, Dory really wants attention, and more than anything she wants her brother and sister to play with her. But she’s too much of a baby for them, so she’s left to her own devices—including her wild imagination and untiring energy. Her siblings may roll their eyes at her childish games, but Dory has lots of things to outsmarting the monsters all over the house, moving into the closet, and exacting revenge on her sister’s favorite doll. And when they really need her, daring Dory will prove her bravery, and finally get exactly what she has been looking for.

With plenty of pictures bursting with charm and character, this hilarious book about an irresistible rascal is the new must-read for the chapter book set.]]> 160 Abby Hanlon 0803740883 Natali 5 4.21 2014 Dory Fantasmagory
author: Abby Hanlon
name: Natali
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves:
review:
I read this in about 30 minutes because it’s on my daughter’s Battle of the Books competition list. It’s cute. Very imaginative. She’s the baby of 3 like Dory so I’m sure she’ll like it even more for that reason too!
]]> Orientalism 355190
In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. Essential, and still eye-opening, Orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world.]]> 424 Edward W. Said Natali 3
The major contribution of this book is that it showed how much of the West's knowledge of the Orient is centered around the West's own perspective and contribution. That has allowed the West to justify its conquer and colonization of Eastern countries and that continues today. Western leaders preach that since Eastern countries don't have the same rights as we do, we need to go and change all of that through force. That bit holds up.

As I read Said's description of Orientalism, I couldn't help but wonder if there exists a similar Occidentalism in the world. Surely, there must exist Eastern perspective of the West that is similarly flawed. How much of this egoism is unique to the West and how much of this can be attributed to flawed human nature and the limits of perspective? ]]> 4.13 1978 Orientalism
author: Edward W. Said
name: Natali
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves:
review:
I slogged through 30% of this book and had to give up. I did appreciate it and I can see why it was such an important book of its time but it references too many cultural artifacts that I don't know.

The major contribution of this book is that it showed how much of the West's knowledge of the Orient is centered around the West's own perspective and contribution. That has allowed the West to justify its conquer and colonization of Eastern countries and that continues today. Western leaders preach that since Eastern countries don't have the same rights as we do, we need to go and change all of that through force. That bit holds up.

As I read Said's description of Orientalism, I couldn't help but wonder if there exists a similar Occidentalism in the world. Surely, there must exist Eastern perspective of the West that is similarly flawed. How much of this egoism is unique to the West and how much of this can be attributed to flawed human nature and the limits of perspective?
]]> The Most Dangerous Game 157076 The Most Dangerous Game features a big-game hunter from New York who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.]]> 48 Richard Connell 1599869691 Natali 0 to-read 3.93 1924 The Most Dangerous Game
author: Richard Connell
name: Natali
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1924
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Brainwalker 30346601
Fourteen-year-old Bernard thinks outside the box. The only problem is that neither his school nor his ultra-rational physicist father appreciate his unique ideas. When he reacts to a stressful situation at school by mooning the class, his suspension sends him straight to his father’s workplace. After his frustrated father leaves him unattended, Bernard does what any teen would wander into the particle accelerator and accidentally get transported through a wormhole!

It doesn’t take long for Bernard to realize he’s in deep trouble. Not only did the wormhole drop him in the middle of a civil war over a depleted resource, but the battle is actually taking place inside his father’s brain. Bernard has one chance to save the dying side of his father’s creative brain from the tyrannical left side. Can he use his outside-the-box thinking to save his father’s life?

Brainwalker is a young adult sci-fi fantasy novel that turns the world of neuroscience on its head. If you like incredible fantasy worlds, fast-paced entertainment, and the human mind, then you’ll love Robyn Mundell and Stephan Lacast’s amazing journey inside the brain.

Buy Brainwalker to help the mind survive today!]]> 260 Robyn Mundell 0997652500 Natali 3 books-for-my-children
Merged review:

My 10-year-old son liked this. I read it after him and I liked it too but did not love it. It’s a nice introduction to science fiction and has some dense themes of life and energy and I appreciated that. The plot could really be tightened up though. Some characters were perfunctory and some of the story meandered unnecessarily. I’m critical as a 42-year-old reader but my son was less so at 10 and mostly I’m glad that this book is in his mental library now.]]> 4.31 2016 Brainwalker
author: Robyn Mundell
name: Natali
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/21
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves: books-for-my-children
review:
My 10-year-old son liked this. I read it after him and I liked it too but did not love it. It’s a nice introduction to science fiction and has some dense themes of life and energy and I appreciated that. The plot could really be tightened up though. Some characters were perfunctory and some of the story meandered unnecessarily. I’m critical as a 42-year-old reader but my son was less so at 10 and mostly I’m glad that this book is in his mental library now.

Merged review:

My 10-year-old son liked this. I read it after him and I liked it too but did not love it. It’s a nice introduction to science fiction and has some dense themes of life and energy and I appreciated that. The plot could really be tightened up though. Some characters were perfunctory and some of the story meandered unnecessarily. I’m critical as a 42-year-old reader but my son was less so at 10 and mostly I’m glad that this book is in his mental library now.
]]> <![CDATA[Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War]]> 40538865
But is that really true?

In Hate Crime Hoax , Professor Wilfred Reilly examines over one hundred widely publicized incidents of so-called hate crimes that never actually happened. With a critical eye and attention to detail, Reilly debunks these fabricated incidents—many of them alleged to have happened on college campuses—and explores why so many Americans are driven to fake hate crimes. We're not experiencing an epidemic of hate crimes, Reilly concludes—but we might be experiencing an unprecented epidemic of hate crime hoaxes .]]> 256 Wilfred Reilly 1621577783 Natali 0 to-read 3.95 2019 Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War
author: Wilfred Reilly
name: Natali
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity]]> 61153739 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert

Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.

For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of healthspan, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.

This is not “biohacking,� it’s science: a well-founded strategic and tactical approach to extending lifespan while also improving our physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s aim is less to tell you what to do and more to help you learn how to think about long-term health, in order to create the best plan for you as an individual. In Outlive, readers will discover:

� Why the cholesterol test at your annual physical doesn’t tell you enough about your actual risk of dying from a heart attack.
� That you may already suffer from an extremely common yet underdiagnosed liver condition that could be a precursor to the chronic diseases of aging.
� Why exercise is the most potent pro-longevity “drug”—and how to begin training for the “Centenarian Decathlon.�
� Why you should forget about diets, and focus instead on nutritional biochemistry, using technology and data to personalize your eating pattern.
� Why striving for physical health and longevity, but ignoring emotional health, could be the ultimate curse of all.

Aging and longevity are far more malleable than we think; our fate is not set in stone. With the right roadmap, you can plot a different path for your life, one that lets you outlive your genes to make each decade better than the one before.]]> 496 Peter Attia 0593236599 Natali 3
That said, nothing in this book is groundbreaking from other health books I've read but there are some motivating stats and studies. I came looking for some answers about a health issue in my family and I did find some good clues so overall I'm glad I read this. ]]> 4.33 2023 Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity
author: Peter Attia
name: Natali
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves:
review:
I did learn from this book but I'm not sure I want to live in this calculated way where I am in constant "prehab" for old age, obsessing about bloodwork and glucose metrics while working out. At one point I thought, "This guy is super intense" and then I got to the last chapter and he explains why he's so intense. I respect that but it's a little too much gamification of life for me. I am not the type to take the genetic test for the Alzheimer's gene. I already try my best to mitigate neurotoxins and stay healthy and build muscle and all that jazz. I can't have this scary stuff with me all the time. For some people, it may be a lifesaver. For me, it's too much of a focus on what could go wrong and life is scary enough without that.

That said, nothing in this book is groundbreaking from other health books I've read but there are some motivating stats and studies. I came looking for some answers about a health issue in my family and I did find some good clues so overall I'm glad I read this.
]]> <![CDATA[Human Action: A Treatise on Economics]]> 81912 Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Mises explains complex market phenomena as "the outcomes of countless conscious, purposive actions, choices, and preferences of individuals, each of whom was trying as best as he or she could under the circumstances to attain various wants and ends and to avoid undesired consequences." It is individual choices in response to personal subjective value judgments that ultimately determine market phenomena—supply and demand, prices, the pattern of production, and even profits and losses. Although governments may presume to set "prices," it is individuals who, by their actions and choices through competitive bidding for money, products, and services, actually determine "prices". Thus, Mises presents economics—not as a study of material goods, services, and products—but as a study of human actions. He sees the science of human action, praxeology, as a science of reason and logic, which recognizes a regularity in the sequence and interrelationships among market phenomena. Mises defends the methodology of praxeology against the criticisms of Marxists, socialists, positivists, and mathematical statisticians.

Mises attributes the tremendous technological progress and the consequent increase in wealth and general welfare in the last two centuries to the introduction of liberal government policies based on free-market economic teachings, creating an economic and political environment which permits individuals to pursue their respective goals in freedom and peace. Mises also explains the futility and counter-productiveness of government attempts to regulate, control, and equalize all people's circumstances: "Men are born unequal and ... it is precisely their inequality that generates social cooperation and civilization."

Ludwig von Mises (1881�1973)was the leading spokesman of the Austrian School of Economics throughout most of the twentieth century. He earned his doctorate in law and economics from the University of Vienna in 1906. In 1926, Mises founded the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research. From 1909 to 1934, he was an economist for the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. Before the Anschluss, in 1934 Mises left for Geneva, where he was a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies until 1940, when he emigrated to New York City. From 1948 to 1969, he was a visiting professor at New York University.

Bettina Bien Greavesis a former resident scholar, trustee, and longtime staff member of the Foundation for Economic Education. Shehas written and lectured extensively on topics of free market economics. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Human Events, Reason, and The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty. A student of Mises, Greaves has become an expert on his work in particular and that of the Austrian School of economics in general. She has translated several Mises monographs, compiled an annotated bibliography of his work, and edited collections of papers by Mises and other members of the Austrian School.]]> 924 Ludwig von Mises 0809297434 Natali 0 to-read 4.32 1940 Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
author: Ludwig von Mises
name: Natali
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1940
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Case Against the Fed 81976 168 Murray N. Rothbard 094546617X Natali 0 to-read 4.17 1994 The Case Against the Fed
author: Murray N. Rothbard
name: Natali
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)]]> 203956647 A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 059365322X.]]> 400 Richard Osman Natali 0 to-read 4.06 2024 We Solve Murders (We Solve Murders, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Natali
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power, and Facts]]> 197514374 Filling a gaping hole in menopause care, everything a woman needs to know to thrive during her hormonal transition and beyond, as well as the tools to help her take charge of her health at this pivotal life stage--by the bestselling author of The Galveston Diet.

Menopause is inevitable, but suffering through it is not! This is the empowering approach to self-advocacy that pioneering women's health advocate Dr. Mary Claire Haver takes for women in the midst of hormonal change in The New Menopause. A comprehensive, authoritative book of science-backed information and lived experience, it covers every woman's needs:
- From changes in your appearance and sleep patterns to neurological, musculoskeletal, psychological, and sexual issues, a comprehensive A to Z toolkit of science-backed options for coping with symptoms.
- What to do to mediate the risks associated with your body's natural drop in estrogen production, including for diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain.
- How to advocate and prepare for annual midlife wellness visits, including questions for your doctor and how to insist on whole life care.
- The very latest research on the benefits and side effects of hormone replacement therapy.
Arming women with the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of their lives, The New Menopause is sure to become the bible of midlife wellness for present and future generations.]]> 311 Mary Claire Haver 0593796268 Natali 2
I am giving this book two stars because I did learn some things about the natural cycle of menopause and it was well organized and she tries her best to present the most current research. I took off three stars for the bias towards pharmaceuticals and her own supplements and for using the term "people with menopause" in the beginning of the book. Nope. Menopause is for women. You'd think someone who researches this for a living would know that.

Also, how does one wean off of HRT? She doesn't say! She says that no doctor should ever put limits on how long a woman can stay on hormones, which means that you live in a simulation of your reproductive years forever? How is that a plan?

My takeaway as someone who is hopefully about five years away from menopause is to build muscle to the best of my ability and watch my health and diet because if I don't, menopause sounds like a real dragon!]]> 4.41 The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power, and Facts
author: Mary Claire Haver
name: Natali
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/08/19
shelves:
review:
So let me get this straight? When menopause hits and you lose your natural production of estrogen, you could get cancer or die of all manner of miserable ailments, but if you go on hormone replacement therapy, you could also get cancer or die of all manner of miserable ailments so this author's suggestions is to try the hormone replacement therapy and a handful of the supplements that she sells and roll the dice on the cancer bit because otherwise, menopause could make you hot, depressed, fat, smelly, asexual, itchy and bald. Fucking hell.

I am giving this book two stars because I did learn some things about the natural cycle of menopause and it was well organized and she tries her best to present the most current research. I took off three stars for the bias towards pharmaceuticals and her own supplements and for using the term "people with menopause" in the beginning of the book. Nope. Menopause is for women. You'd think someone who researches this for a living would know that.

Also, how does one wean off of HRT? She doesn't say! She says that no doctor should ever put limits on how long a woman can stay on hormones, which means that you live in a simulation of your reproductive years forever? How is that a plan?

My takeaway as someone who is hopefully about five years away from menopause is to build muscle to the best of my ability and watch my health and diet because if I don't, menopause sounds like a real dragon!
]]> <![CDATA[Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health]]> 196848596 A bold new vision for optimizing our health now and in the future.

What if depression, anxiety, infertility, insomnia, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer and many other health conditions that torture and shorten our lives actually have the same root cause?

Our ability to prevent and reverse these conditions - and feel incredible today - is under our control and simpler than we think. The key is our metabolic function - the most important and least understood factor in our overall health. As Dr. Casey Means explains in this groundbreaking book, nearly every health problem we face can be explained by how well the cells in our body create and use energy. To live free from frustrating symptoms and life-threatening disease, we need our cells to be optimally powered so that they can create "good energy," the essential fuel that impacts every aspect of our physical and mental wellbeing.

If you are battling minor signals of "bad energy" inside your body, it is often a warning sign that more life-threatening illness may emerge later in life. But here's the good news: for the first time ever, we can monitor our metabolic health in great detail and learn how to improve it ourselves.

Weaving together cutting-edge research and personal stories, as well as groundbreaking data from the health technology company Dr. Means founded, Good Energy offers an essential four-week plan and explains:

� The five biomarkers that determine your risk for a deadly disease.
� How to use inexpensive tools and technology to "see inside your body" and take action.
� Why dietary philosophies are designed to confuse us, and six lifelong food principles you can implement whether you're carnivore or vegan.
� The crucial links between sleep, circadian rhythm, and metabolism.
� A new framework for exercise focused on building simple movement into everyday activities.
� How cold and heat exposure helps build our body's resilience.
� Steps to navigate the medical system to get what you need for optimal health.

Good Energy offers a new, cutting-edge understanding of the true cause of illness that until now has remained hidden. It will help you optimize your ability to live well and stay well at every age.]]> 400 Casey Means 0593712641 Natali 0 to-read 4.14 2024 Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health
author: Casey Means
name: Natali
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Woman's Hormonal Health Survival Guide: How to Prevent Your Doctor from Slowly Killing You]]> 51711117 113 Angela DeRosa 0578405059 Natali 0 to-read 0.0 A Woman's Hormonal Health Survival Guide: How to Prevent Your Doctor from Slowly Killing You
author: Angela DeRosa
name: Natali
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mere Christendom 144689273 280 Douglas Wilson 1957905573 Natali 5
Wilson sets out to argue that democracy, freedom and free market economies are fundamentally Christian values. He goes further to argue that society has these things precisely because of Christianity. I am left with more questions than answers now. I wish I could invite him for a coffee to ask them. He is a very good writer and clearly an erudite man who has spent his life in deep study. That is undeniable.

He makes a very strong point that a moral society requires Christianity because if there is no God above the state, the state becomes God and we become a slave to the state. I cannot deny that is happening. He argues that if leaders were to accept themselves as servants of Jesus, they would resist the temptation to grow governments into God-like states and usurp freedoms. I'd honestly never thought of this in this way.

He warns about false idolatry of current political movements such as Evangelicals with Trump flags. He says that society's answers are not coming from the uniparty but only from a revolution of faith.

As I've stated, I'm not a practicing Christian but I really appreciated this book. It gave me a lot to think about. I'd like to be a part of this revolution of faith but I had not considered that it could come from a Christian church. Not sure where I'll go from here but I'll chew on this for quite some time.]]> 4.23 Mere Christendom
author: Douglas Wilson
name: Natali
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
This was an incredibly thought provoking book for me. I don't know why I kept reading after he made it clear in the introduction that it was a book for Christians but I'm glad I did because it pushed my boundaries in new and uncomfortable ways when it comes to the intersection of faith and politics.

Wilson sets out to argue that democracy, freedom and free market economies are fundamentally Christian values. He goes further to argue that society has these things precisely because of Christianity. I am left with more questions than answers now. I wish I could invite him for a coffee to ask them. He is a very good writer and clearly an erudite man who has spent his life in deep study. That is undeniable.

He makes a very strong point that a moral society requires Christianity because if there is no God above the state, the state becomes God and we become a slave to the state. I cannot deny that is happening. He argues that if leaders were to accept themselves as servants of Jesus, they would resist the temptation to grow governments into God-like states and usurp freedoms. I'd honestly never thought of this in this way.

He warns about false idolatry of current political movements such as Evangelicals with Trump flags. He says that society's answers are not coming from the uniparty but only from a revolution of faith.

As I've stated, I'm not a practicing Christian but I really appreciated this book. It gave me a lot to think about. I'd like to be a part of this revolution of faith but I had not considered that it could come from a Christian church. Not sure where I'll go from here but I'll chew on this for quite some time.
]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver Natali 0 to-read 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Natali
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Natali 0 to-read 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Natali
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Personal Odyssey 676654 320 Thomas Sowell 0684864657 Natali 5 4.37 2000 A Personal Odyssey
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Natali
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this. Thomas Sowell is like the James Dean of economics. He's kind of a bad boy, saying the things that the critical mass won't say and presenting the data that is unpopular. He's had quite the life and I appreciated the things he wanted to share after an important life in academics and politics.
]]> <![CDATA[The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class]]> 48573831 266 Joel Kotkin 1641770953 Natali 0 to-read 3.59 2020 The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class
author: Joel Kotkin
name: Natali
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy]]> 58130529
It all has to do with who our news media is written by―and who it is written for. In Bad How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy , Batya Ungar-Sargon reveals how American journalism underwent a status revolution over the twentieth century―from a blue-collar trade to an elite profession. As a result, journalists shifted their focus away from the working class and toward the concerns of their affluent, highly educated peers. With the rise of the Internet and the implosion of local news, America’s elite news media became nationalized and its journalists affluent and ideological. And where once business concerns provided a countervailing force to push back against journalists� worst tendencies, the pressures of the digital media landscape now align corporate incentives with newsroom crusades.

The truth is, the moral panic around race, encouraged by today’s elite newsrooms, does little more than consolidate the power of liberal elites and protect their economic interests. And in abandoning the working class by creating a culture war around identity, our national media is undermining American democracy. Bad News explains how this happened, why it happened, and the dangers posed by this development if it continues unchecked.]]> 312 Batya Ungar-Sargon 1641772069 Natali 5
And yet there is a section on Jews that confuses me. She makes a strong point that Black racism is overrepresented and then makes the case that Jewish racism is underrepresented because the founder of the Times thought that Zionism was a threat to Jewishness as a religion. This is a legitimate concern from Orthodox Jews. Many of them DO feel that Zionism is harmful to their religion and a threat to Jews all over the world. I don’t understand why she would present anti-Zionism as antisemitism. I think it is a lack of understanding of Orthodoxy but this part only represents 4 pages of the book

The epilogue has suggestions for how to resist the polarization that the media inflicts upon us and I loved them! She suggests that we do not offer the media our rage when they try to provoke it, we not cancel people for changing their position on things or engage in online pile-ons, and she calls for an understanding of the working class outside of the media’s conclusion that all Trump voters are acting against their own self interest. How would the media know anything at all about working class conservatives? They are not represented in newsrooms. The media is confused that conservatives value hard work, family, bootstrapping and religion so they punch down on those things. That’s why they deserve our hatred.

I was guilty of a lot of these elitisms when I worked in corporate media. This book validates the fact that I left but if I cared to fix the media, I don’t know what I would do with this book. To me, they are beyond the pale but should anyone in power be listening, you can find ways to put out the dumpster fire here in this book. ]]> 4.03 2021 Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy
author: Batya Ungar-Sargon
name: Natali
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves:
review:
This is a damning review of the media and exceptionally well done. She proves how the media has perpetuated culture wars at the expense of real issues that affect the American populace in order to perpetuate its own power. She begins with a history of the modern media and how its elitism is baked into its very existence as the New York Times was designed to exclude the working class in order to sell more expensive ads. The Washington Post cut circulation to Black neighborhoods in order to ensure their advertisers a more elite readership. So why do these publications grift so hard on race and gender when the broader populace is affected by more serious issues? Why do they tell us that Black people are hyper focused on racism when the data shows that they are not? It is in the media's interest to do so, that is why.

And yet there is a section on Jews that confuses me. She makes a strong point that Black racism is overrepresented and then makes the case that Jewish racism is underrepresented because the founder of the Times thought that Zionism was a threat to Jewishness as a religion. This is a legitimate concern from Orthodox Jews. Many of them DO feel that Zionism is harmful to their religion and a threat to Jews all over the world. I don’t understand why she would present anti-Zionism as antisemitism. I think it is a lack of understanding of Orthodoxy but this part only represents 4 pages of the book

The epilogue has suggestions for how to resist the polarization that the media inflicts upon us and I loved them! She suggests that we do not offer the media our rage when they try to provoke it, we not cancel people for changing their position on things or engage in online pile-ons, and she calls for an understanding of the working class outside of the media’s conclusion that all Trump voters are acting against their own self interest. How would the media know anything at all about working class conservatives? They are not represented in newsrooms. The media is confused that conservatives value hard work, family, bootstrapping and religion so they punch down on those things. That’s why they deserve our hatred.

I was guilty of a lot of these elitisms when I worked in corporate media. This book validates the fact that I left but if I cared to fix the media, I don’t know what I would do with this book. To me, they are beyond the pale but should anyone in power be listening, you can find ways to put out the dumpster fire here in this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits]]> 56854396 Joseph Matthews Natali 5
The first part about social security was especially helpful. I learned a lot and picked up some tips that I can do for myself and my family to help maximise our retirement earnings.

This is probably the most practical book I'll read this year. It's not exciting but it is important. The author does a great job presenting this in a palatable way so it's not too much of a drudgery. Every American worker should read a book like this at some point, and optimally before they need to rely on these programs.]]> 4.00 1988 Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits
author: Joseph Matthews
name: Natali
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/04
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves:
review:
This is not the most exciting of topics but it is a really important book. I picked this up because my father-in-law found himself suddenly permanently incapacitated and unable to pay for long-term care and my family and I realised how ill-prepared we were for this situation. None of us were well-versed in the options and I realized how little I personally knew about benefits and healthcare and the likes. I pre-ordered this book but unfortunately he died before it was published. After reading this book, however, I realise that his passing was a blessing for the system he was living under. Wow, what a terrible mess. Healthcare in the United States is a real shame. This author lays it all out in a way that everyone can understand and tries really hard not to opine but even he has to admit that this system "not a credit to the United States." I am glad that I am educated now but sad for what I am educated about.

The first part about social security was especially helpful. I learned a lot and picked up some tips that I can do for myself and my family to help maximise our retirement earnings.

This is probably the most practical book I'll read this year. It's not exciting but it is important. The author does a great job presenting this in a palatable way so it's not too much of a drudgery. Every American worker should read a book like this at some point, and optimally before they need to rely on these programs.
]]> <![CDATA[Black Rednecks and White Liberals]]> 3040 372 Thomas Sowell 1594030863 Natali 0 to-read 4.34 2005 Black Rednecks and White Liberals
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Natali
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Social Justice Fallacies 63092727
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.

However attractive the social justice vision , the crucial question is whether the social justice agenda will get us to the fulfillment of that vision. History shows that the social justice agenda has often led in the opposite direction, sometimes with catastrophic consequences.

More things are involved besides simply mistakes. All human beings are fallible, and social justice advocates may not necessarily make any more mistakes than others. But crusaders with an utter certainty about their mission are often undeterred by obstacles, evidence or even fatal dangers. That is where much of the Western world is today. The question is whether we will continue on heedlessly, past the point of no return.]]> 224 Thomas Sowell 1541603923 Natali 5
Sowell presents many facts about "progress" as it relates to social justice programs that I'd never read before. For instance, black poverty rates were falling precipitously for decades BEFORE the 1960s civil rights laws were enacted. Why is that? Because Black people follow the same trends as other ethnic groups: they prosper with every subsequent generation when offered equal opportunities for education and migration. And yet, social justice junkies proclaim that Black people need their help with social policies. What a LOL! These same policies often hurt the populations that they are trying to help and hand power to communist-minded politicians.

This book has a lot of paradigm-breaking chapters like this - things that I'd never heard or thought about. It left me with a lot to chew on. This was fascinating and I'm thrilled that my local library carried it! ]]> 4.34 2023 Social Justice Fallacies
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Natali
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written and eloquent explanation of why social justice programs often fall short of even the best intentions. Sowell relies on fact and not ideology. I've never read one of his books before but I most certainly will be reading more.

Sowell presents many facts about "progress" as it relates to social justice programs that I'd never read before. For instance, black poverty rates were falling precipitously for decades BEFORE the 1960s civil rights laws were enacted. Why is that? Because Black people follow the same trends as other ethnic groups: they prosper with every subsequent generation when offered equal opportunities for education and migration. And yet, social justice junkies proclaim that Black people need their help with social policies. What a LOL! These same policies often hurt the populations that they are trying to help and hand power to communist-minded politicians.

This book has a lot of paradigm-breaking chapters like this - things that I'd never heard or thought about. It left me with a lot to chew on. This was fascinating and I'm thrilled that my local library carried it!
]]>