en-US Sat, 22 Mar 2025 10:02:38 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7425054880 Sat, 22 Mar 2025 10:02:38 -0700 /review/show/7425054880 Stuart gave 4 stars to Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World (Belfer Center Studies in International Security) by Graham Allison
I first became familiar with Lee Kwan Yew several years ago, during the first Trump administration and the early days of coronavirus. I was in my early thirties, had largely settled down in the suburbs, and was a few years into my job as a science teacher at a high-poverty school. Like others who settle, I was becoming more conservative, albeit with a declining faith in democracy. And so, the algorithms must have detected these sensibilities, delivering an old Charlie Rose interview to the audio feed that accompanies me during the long morning commute. I think it is safe to say I was receptive.

Actually, that is an understatement: I was particularly captivated by his emphasis on social harmony and the centrality of family. These ideas are, of course, top of mind for many in education, but I had also returned home several years earlier, and was having conversations about kids with my fiancee. I read the Confucian classics and made more phone calls, wrote more letters, hosted more dinners, and attended more family functions. Perhaps these changes are common and long in the making, but this is how they happened for me, and they have had a profound and positive influence in my adult life.

This book is mostly about geopolitics, but the ideas that enticed me several years ago, those about culture and stability, do shine through. The format is a little awkward: it is Q&A but the answers were taken from transcripts of earlier interviews, some decades old. I would categorize the main thrust of the book as a well-stated case for economic liberalism and markets, but without political liberalism in China. Like most books about markets, the focus is on potential winners, and little is said about what to do with the millions of potential losers. (This book was published before the populist backlash swept the West. In hindsight, I appreciate how these otherwise disappointing events have shifted the conversation about economic development.)

At the heart of modern conservatism is a tension between tradition and change, and it is not clear to me if the Prime Minister ever reached a satisfying compromise in his lifetime. (Lee died in 2015, two years after the book went to print.) I suspect what I find appealing in Lee is a product of my age and of certain commitments I have made in life; I am not, for example, interested in leaving education and joining a start-up, but that is exactly the kind of dynamism he wants for his country.

I have never visited Singapore, but I have spoken, at length, with several who have. The impression I have is of a faraway city-state whose appeal is similar to that of American suburbs: it is a good place to find work and raise a family. It is clean, wealthy, and has good schools. But it comes at a cost, and that cost is a certain social and cultural vibrancy. It is not clear if Lee's dual aspirations for Singapore are completely compatible with one another, and I do not know of an example of where this quixotic combination has succeeded. ]]> Review7257640388 Sat, 25 Jan 2025 23:26:39 -0800 /review/show/7257640388 Stuart gave 4 stars to Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West (Paperback) by Cormac McCarthy
This is the most violent book I have ever read. It is a dreadful read in many respects. All of the main characters are evil, the sort who rape and murder innocent people without hesitation, and they remain that way until their long-foreshadowed demises. It is the sort of book where you become accustomed to reading about children who go missing after last being seen in the bedroom of a stranger. I distinctly remember feeling relief, not disappointment, when one of the men has his head split open by an axe.

Still, the book is impressively written, and I especially liked the conclusion. (The earlier sections were not as good: I felt there were too many passages about the bleak landscape that ended with "and they rode on".) I was disappointed to learn that it sold less than 5000 copies when it was published, calling to mind the wealth of serious literature that never finds an audience.

The book has a strong Biblical sensibility to it, and I think there are hints that the work is a critique of the secular rationalism that was emerging in the era of westward expansion. The relationships are universally transactional, and the main antagonist, a paragon of evil, is a learned man with scientific interests and great personal charm but whose morals anticipate the crushing totalitarianism of the age that followed.

The book is also rich in symbolism and open to many interpretations. I am undecided on whether the antagonist is the Antichrist but it does seem clear that his existence in the psyches of men is more important than his physical existence. ]]> Review7208765611 Sun, 12 Jan 2025 18:54:42 -0800 /review/show/7208765611 Stuart gave 3 stars to Fashioning Identity: Status Ambivalence in Contemporary Fashion (Dress and Fashion Research) by Maria Mackinney-Valentin
About a year ago, I decided that I wanted to read a good book about fashion (and by fashion, I mean fashion theory, with ample historical context) but this was surprisingly hard to find. I settled on this text because it was recommended by Parsons students on Reddit. It was also highly rated on this site.

I am giving Fashioning Identity three stars because, while it was thought-provoking, I'm not sure that it scratched my itch, so to speak. The theory was scattered at best, and the historical context was nonexistent. (I did supplement with several chapters of Bonnie English's A Cultural History of Western Fashion, which itself was only so-so.)

The structure of this book is as follows: each chapter focuses on an item, or trend, and describes how that item or trend subverts traditional fashion paradigms in some novel way. (By traditional fashion paradigms, I mean the class-based ones, where the tastes of an urban aristocracy are emulated by the provincial illiterati, and then lose cultural cachet in a cyclical process.) The structure is risky, because the credibility of each chapter depends on how well the chosen example resonates with the reader. In my case, I found the latter chapters (on band T-shirts, soccer jerseys, and lumberjack shirts, all male fashions) more interesting than the earlier ones. (Does anyone even remember the vintage dress Julia Roberts wore at the 2001 Oscars? My fashion-forward wife does not.)

I also felt the writing style was too academic (and hence, inaccessible) for its content, although it may just be that the author is not a very talented writer. She uses the term "dialectical" as if it never went out of fashion (pun intended) and has a tendency to cram in several words ending in "-tion" in most of her sentences. She repeats herself a lot and summarizes, at the end of each chapter, all of the main points in the earlier chapters. My wife suspects she was a grad student who published her thesis, but the math doesn't quite work out in this particular case.

Basically, I think the book lacks a certain theoretical coherence (recall that each chapter investigates different kinds of subversion) and a longer historical perspective, and it suffers as a result. Besides, it is not really all that complicated: as societies become wealthier, socioeconomic distinctions become a lot less influential, and so modern fashion reflects the rise of a more fragmented (or, to use her word, ambivalent) culture. A few words about postmodernism and pastiche are probably warranted here but I recognize this may be inconsistent with, you know, coherent historical narratives.

The author does cite three works extensively. While I have not read any of them, I will list them here for all others interested in reading a good book about fashion:

La Moda by Georg Simmel

Fashion, Culture and Identity by Fred Davis

Adorned in Dreams by Elizabeth Wilson
]]> Review7154802088 Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:14:52 -0800 /review/show/7154802088 Stuart gave 3 stars to Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking (Hardcover) by Samin Nosrat
So, I liked this book more for its presentation than its substance, but I would still recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the science of cooking, especially as a first book on the subject.

I'll start with the good: the author is a very good writer. We are told she started her career in food while pursuing an English degree in college, but I suspect her writing will prove to have more of an impact in the long run (if it hasn't already) than her dishes. I also liked the illustrations, which were, at times, whimsical, but at other times very informative. It made the book fun to read.

... and I learned a few things too! (As I write this, I am testing out the low-and-slow salmon recipe. I was mindful of the pan depth and the salt I used to season the fish.)

And now, the bad: The book could have been better organized. There are sections of text that segue, sometimes unexpectedly, into recipes. And it can be hard to find things. For this reason, I would not recommend it as a reference text.

And lastly, the authors handle on food chemistry is... well, a little shallow, but I suspect the publisher may have encouraged her to go easy on the details. (Perhaps the right call: the book is a bestseller, as far as I know.) Still, there were a few explanations that made me think the material was still new to her. ]]> Review7136950711 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:58:23 -0800 /review/show/7136950711 Stuart gave 2 stars to Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents (Paperback) by Lindsay C. Gibson
So, I did not read this book for what it had to say about my parents. While I recognize some of the characteristics described in this book in their personalities, I have not lived with them since 2002. Independent and married now, I read this book for what it had to say about me, and that is where it comes up short. (Pun intended, because I am five foot six.)

I liked this book when I started it, because it articulates the experience of its intended audience well, and that can be a tremendously empowering and validating thing to read. (In my mind, the intended audience is demographically similar to the clients featured in the book: mostly middle-class women, mostly unmarried or childless, who have imbalanced relationships with their mothers.)

But the further I got into the book, the less I liked it. The author constructs a model of parenting that is all Yin and no Yang, a model she unconvincingly ties to established science, and one that generates several preposterous false binaries. She does not anticipate what her critics will say, and she does not preemptively deal with those criticisms well. Instead, it is implied that all other views on this matter, whatever their historical significance, are generational products of incurably immature minds. Please.

Experience has taught me that identifying and isolating emotional immaturity and externalization in targeted individuals is not always a very useful exercise, because traits like this exist on a continuum, so there is a real risk that the net we cast to ensnare our potential abusers is too wide. I also disagree with the notion that feelings are self-evident truths (consider, for example, a phenomenon described in the book, about how the heart directs us away from people who would treat us well) and so I think the tacit endorsement of this view is irresponsible and derelict in its provision of insightful self-help.

Experience has also taught me that it is possible to have meaningful relationships with very imperfect people, so long as you understand what the constraints of each relationship are. Like individuals, each relationship is unique, and navigating their contours can add a great deal to the vibrancy of human life.

(Edit: I cannot resist sharing an image that illustrates one of the book's many absurdities. The author tells us that our need for emotional intimacy has deep, evolutionary roots. This is not controversial by itself, but her line of reasoning made me wonder if the author believes our primitive ancestors talked out their feelings between bouts of being chased down by saber-toothed cats.) ]]> Review6869318662 Sun, 22 Sep 2024 21:01:41 -0700 /review/show/6869318662 Stuart gave 3 stars to Mexico: From Montezuma to the Fall of the PRI (Paperback) by Jaime Suchlicki
3.5 stars.

I have read several books about Mexico. This one is short (200 pages) and satisfactory, but it is a little dated, published in the early years of Vicente Fox (nearly a quarter of a century ago). It is appropriate for a long travel day, a worthwhile read if you know little to nothing about Mexico.

This book does a fine job of describing the political vacillations of New Spain and the early republic. I liked the author's observation that Mexican independence was, in a sense, a conservative revolution, in the same way American independence was (oriented around the ascendancy of the local elite more than any meaningful reordering of society) and how the progression of both countries is rooted in an unfulfilled political promise. I also liked his nuanced assessment of the Reforma: the liberals sold the confiscated church lands to American speculators because the local Catholic nobility did not gravitate to such transactions, and this changed society in a number of ways. (The author implies the Catholic Church was a better feudal overlord to Mexico's poor and indigenous communities than the foreign capitalists were, but I think he could have explored this topic in more depth than he did.)

The book is less interesting after Cardenas, reading like a king's list of mediocre Mexican politicians. (The author is kind to Salinas, and I wonder if historians will take his side in the long run. For now, I think there is ample evidence that he and his family were crooks.) I would have liked a better balance of social and political history, to better understand the student uprisings in the 60s, but also violence in Chiapas (to say nothing of the drug cartels).

Note: I did not read the second-to-last chapter, about Mexican-Americans living in the United States, mostly because I was more interested in Mexico. ]]> Review6828584579 Sat, 07 Sep 2024 19:54:18 -0700 /review/show/6828584579 Stuart gave 4 stars to Immune: a Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive (Hardcover) by Philipp Dettmer
The author of this book is the creator of Kurzgesagt, the beloved science channel on Youtube. I occasionally turn to his channel to better understand science concepts, and this is exactly what happened when I finished the chapter on inflammation in Robbins Basic Pathology. The immunology videos featured promotions for this book. Ultimately, I took the bait and ordered it.

Since the author's stated aim is to better communicate the complex workings of the human immune system, I think this book succeeds on its own terms. My understanding of it has improved, although I would have liked to have seen more (and better) infographics. (The channel is primarily known for its visuals and its dry, macabre humor. I suspect the limited illustrations reflect the independence of the work, which originated as a passion project of the author.)

I commend Dettmer for his overall style (short chapters with tangents in the footnotes, very creative descriptions and analogies, a German sensibility that pairs well with the material) and think he is an effective teacher. However, I also think his channel panders too much to audiences interested only in the sensational and speculative aspects of science. There are one or two heterodox ideas at the end of the book that an uncritical reader might interpret as the mainstream scientific consensus. ]]> ReadStatus8382383190 Sat, 07 Sep 2024 19:53:18 -0700 /review/show/6324110898 Stuart finished reading The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis by Jane Piper Clendinning
]]> Review6705249005 Fri, 26 Jul 2024 20:43:09 -0700 /review/show/6705249005 Stuart gave 4 stars to The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen (Hardcover) by Cook's Illustrated
I'm not usually a fan of books written in the listicle format, but this one gets a pass: the concepts are organized in a way that makes it easy to intuit the bigger picture. The book starts with meats & other animal products, then moves on to vegetables, herbs & spices, baked goods, fruits, and desserts. The book reminds me of Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking but less encyclopedic, with a greater emphasis on cooking, practical knowledge, and experimentation. I liked that the authors examined each idea in their test kitchen.

Some things I learned:

1. The enzymes that tenderize meat are deactivated at 120F, but this doesn't matter for tough cuts, because collagen gelatinizes at 140F, which ultimately tenderizes the meat and also aids in moisture retention. Malliard reactions occur at 300F, for meats as well as baked goods.

2. The relationship between salt and moisture in food is complex. Basically, salt on the surface of food will withdraw moisture, but only until the salt dissolves into the food itself. Then, it will attract water.

3. To loosen a matrix of egg proteins, add starch. To do the same for gluten, dilute water with alcohol.

Recommended for those who are clueless in the kitchen (and those who are not). ]]> Review6324110898 Fri, 12 Jul 2024 02:53:31 -0700 /review/show/6324110898 Stuart gave 3 stars to The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis (The Musician's Guide Series) by Jane Piper Clendinning
3.5 stars.

Everything I know about music I learned from this book. It is very thorough. It is also quite technical and does not make for light reading. It took me a long time to finish it - like, over a year - and I read several chapters more than once.

I also own two editions of this book: a physical copy of the first edition (2005), and a digital copy of the third edition (2016). In terms of organization, the third edition is an improvement, but still not perfect, for reasons I will explain later. I also bought the CD set for the first edition and a CD player, which I do not recommend: there are 3 CDs, each with 90+ tracks, and they are not arranged in the same order as they appear in the book. So there is a lot of searching for song clips that are, in some cases, only a few seconds long.

I think the book teaches the basics (notes, scales, chords, etc), counterpoint, harmony / tonality, and chromaticism well but teaches forms and modernism less well. Even where it succeeds, I don't think it is a great standalone resource. (I ended up watching a lot of YouTube videos, for example.)

Some suggestions, for the team at W.W. Norton & Co:

1. Focus on the common practice period, merge redundant chapters, and trim the fat. When it comes to technical writing, economy and clarity are best practices.

2. Arrange the chapters into smaller units that better describe the content. The third edition divides the middle 750 pages into two units about diatonic and chromatic harmony. Really? The distinction strikes me as a minor one, because these chapters cover a lot more than that.

3. The absence of overtones and temperament is a shame, and I think it would be advantageous to include these topics before the others. Understanding consonances, dissonances, and resolutions is much easier with this foundation - but, as a practical matter, I recognize that rooting music theory curricula in acoustics and physics may be enrollment suicide. ]]>