Spent most of the February on Taiwan teaching, so did not manage to read as much as I would like.
Book of the Month: Here All Along
Disappointment of the month: Save the Cat I guess.
The Psychedelic Handbook: A Practical Guide to Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, and Ayahuasca
Most of it is quite practical, promotes reasonable harm reduction approaches (including very clear „you should not do that unless you have a very good reason“ and „people might abuse you“) and provides some basic orientation in the history and potential of the practice. Also clearly steers away from Grof-like mysticism and treats the substances as a tool (very often not a great one), not as a goal in itself. The constant reminder that “the risks are high and other tools are also very useful, probably better than substances” is honestly a very reasonable take that grounds the book.
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
How do you grapple with a failed assasination attempt? Rushdie did just that through writing.
It’s somewhere between memoir, essay, short story and medical drama. The flow of the „story“ is relentless, everything goes forward fast and everything seems very open and honest.
One weak part was the fictional interview with the would be assasin. It just did not hit any notes, Rushdie trying to intelectually stomp unknown person who is just not there while being sarcastic was something that was for sure important for the author, but it was hard for me to get any value from it, being somewhere halfway between a rant, a well deserved diss and, well, I do not know what.
Story of institutional violence, racism and structural changes in American society told through life of two fictional boys and one (somehow) fictional institution.
Short summary: Painful and to the point, just maybe a bit too much of a fiction for me to communicate all the pain and terror.
Longer musings about this would necessarily include some more problematic moral issues. The interactions between this being both fiction and non fiction at the same time lead to uncomfortable reflections. What was then real? Are the dynamics accurate? Is the final “grand escape” something that would work out or not: and is that even important? Is this how history should be done? So many questions to ask ourselves here.
Random horrific death of a super succesful Asian American novelist leads to her less successful friend taking on parts of her personality / heritage, while she slides into madness and everybody goes loco around them. Also, everything is META and the fourth wall gets so many holes that it can manipulate readers into actually believing the narrator and main character. Spoiler: They should not.
The review could be anything from 1 to 4 stars – depending on taste, how much you actually care about the real author, how sensitive you are to racist tropes and even how much you care about plot development (that part imho did not work out well).
Playing on a few meta levels at once, mostly being good at the funny parts and imho great on the main characters descent to madness, the book really fell off for me in the last 20 %. However, for my part, a solid read, can recommend.
The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
Yergin won a Pullitzer for comprehensive history of oil (The Price) so my expectations for his new book were very high.
However, if you have been paying attention to energy matters in the last five years, this will not tell you anything new or anything major. It stays mostly shallow, with some parts being a bit too passionate about details and dipping into ideology a bit too much. When you spend more energy deriding pipeline protestors for leaving a mess (!!!) than explaining what were they trying to do and why they were protesting (and for example why it was a bad idea) it just gives off massive weird vibes. The “weird” being “wow, why is this guy pushing his political preferences on me, did not sign up for that”: with a side dish of “why is he doing that in such a clumsy, manipulative way”.
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
The intro mostly summarises the author’s relationship to the duo, however, what unwinds after that is worth a lot of attention. DK and AT research is explained in simple terms, but what is even more important is the open and vibrant description of unique type of relationship. Great book – but hard to add anything beyond this summary.
Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life-in Judaism
Liberal Jew working as speech writer in politics describes her way deeper into the (very liberal) version of Judaism.
As a liberal Christian who worked in liberal politics, well, what can I say, this one has been written for me. Here All Along is a thought-provoking exploration of spirituality, mortality, and the complexities of Jewish faith. The author delves into personal reflections on death, ritual mourning, and the search for deeper meaning, offering fresh insights into the everyday practice of sacred traditions like the Sabbath and the concept of tzedakah/cedaka. While deeply personal, the narrative resonates universally, inviting readers to reconsider how rituals and community can enrich our understanding of life. I learned some new things (honestly, who thought conversion to Judaism can be done relatively easily), I got a lot of inspiration for my private life including just being a better friend/ neighbor and some new interpretations that I have not thought about in the past (see: Gehenna as proof of „you are never alone“ and „you always have a chance“).
Recommended even to very non-spiritual people, quite inspiring and well written.
Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green
More a collection of essays / articles than a coherent book, it still presents a good overview of the too often hidden prices of critical materials needed for the energy transition. Also, sadly, these things age real quick. Reminds me of the banger ideas like “peak lithium” or “peak cobalt” that were flowing around in 2019: and were proved to be completely off. Time will tell how many of the problems explored by Volt Rush will survive.
At the same time, just to be clear: for example the human cost of cobalt mining is very high and horrible, no doubts about that.
Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need
Just a few bulletpoints:
Snyder is _super_ certain in his method and in the IRON LAWS OF PHYSIC around screenwriting and how to actually sell and so on. And hey, I am sure that lot of the advice is good if you want to write family comedies, but outside of that genre it really falls off quickly. And for some people, just reading Snyder’s resume will be even bigger turn off: srsly, some stinkers, nothing’s really big. I have of course sold even less movie ideas, but well, I never tried selling movie ideas.
Some of the ideas are _solid_ and provide a good checklist (arc, story structure, hero’s journey, saving the cat). Some are just really too connected to writing a very, very specific piece. And some are just, well, random tips that you are free to throw out of the window.
All in all, a bit hard to recommend. It surely can dazzle, but I do not think it really provides much value for anybody a) outside of movies b) who actually already put in some writing time (like, few years).