Oath and Honor

Liz Chaney's appropriately titled book Oath and Honor is a detailed account of the actions of Donald Trump and his associates starting with the election of November 3, 2020. Liz, her staff, and the House Special Committee engage in an in-depth examination of the creation of the "Big Lie" and the January 6, 2021 insurrection. The book is well written, with short chapters explaining each of the unlawful actions by the Trump administration, including the 7 parts of Trump's plan. She gives special attention to the brave individuals that stepped forward to protect our democracy and national security. Like all politicians, she is overly self aggrandizing of both herself and her team. Nonetheless, she bravely stood up to her party to protect the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power. By doing so she paid the price of loosing her seat and her power. 

Beartown

Beartown is the first of a trilogy about a small hockey town in northern Sweden. The story revolves around the lives of a male junior hockey team. The boys have to decide between loyalty and standing up for their principals. They are not only faced with deciding what is right and what is wrong, but what is good verses evil, weakness verses strength, the "Heights" verses the "Hollows", Beartown verses Hed, and the "three C's" (character, community, and culture) verses just "Win". 

The story follows the Andersson family and the dark and disturbing rape of their 15 year old daughter by the star player. The characters are complex, particularly Benji and his secret. Several of the players show their evil gang side and divide the town by blindly supporting the star player Kevin. On the other side, the strong Andersson women, Ramona, a few supportive fathers, and even the black jackets quietly stand up for the good side of Beartown. 

The story feels a little like both "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "Missoula" in addressing dysfunctional male athletes and a strong young woman overcoming a physical attack and injustice. Don't mess with Maya. 

American Ramble

Stanley's selection is an appropriately titled detailed recounting of a month-long walk from Washington D.C. to New York City. The author had recently completed a second round of cancer treatments and is clearly grateful to be alive. His hyper-awareness, interest in strangers, ability to join in, and listening skills provide ample material for a book about a walk. He throws in some American history from the settlers and Indians, the American Revolution, the Civil War, to the World Trade Center. He travels through various "countries", both urban and rural. I learned things about Washington, Jefferson and Madison, the Conestoga wagon, Mason and Dixon, Lincoln, Buchanan, and the influential Senator Stevens. He speaks of a time when people and horses were the way to get around, until the train came around in the 1800's, and that there are still areas where things move much slower. Neil once again points out that humans may be the only creature that gets to experience awe or wow. 

Heartbreak

"A Personal and Scientific Journey" by Florence Williams is a recap of the trials and tribulations of a fifty year old woman dealing with the trauma of a sudden and unexpected divorce from a 25 year marriage. The author is an outdoors journalist that turns to nature for solace. She embarks on a solo rafting adventure and later even tries psycodelic drugs in search of "Awe". She reaches out to family and a community center for support. She engages a gene consultant to monitor her recovery process by tracking vital indicators over the three year recovery (ie. you want more Best1 and less AGIR). The author concludes that "We seemed to know what was working for me - social support, time in nature, and purpose." Overall the author seemed to navigate her personal trauma well. She has the benefits of being in relatively good health, still young, active, and financially and professionally secure. You wonder, what's with the guy?

Blue Skies

TC Boyles' 2023 novel feels like an extension of his 2000 novel "A Friend of the Earth" set in 2025 with the absurdity of the state of Florida thrown in. The matriarch mother tries to hold the dysfunctional daughter and the wondering son together in the Anthropocene world under total destruction. The story is set in the Santa Ynez Valley with extreme heat, winds and fires, along with the heat, rain and flooding of the Florida coast. The daughter lacks considerable common sense and is an alcoholic. The son is uncommitted and bitter with the state of earth and the loss of his arm. The daughter incredibly purchases an invasive Burmese Python that ends up killing one of her twins, because she can. As the owner says, "owning a snake is a basic Constitutional guarantee-life, liberty, and happiness, right?"

The book is very depressing and the humor is very black. Even with the butterflies on the last page, the author offers little hope. I hope his imagination is wrong and that mankind will change.

How to be Perfect

"How to be Perfect, The correct answer to every moral question" is a light-hearted, philosophy for dummies book by Michael Schur. Schur takes on many of the deepest questions facing mankind through the eyes of many of history's greatest philosophers. From Aristotle's virtue ethics, to Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mills utilitarianism, to Immanuel Kant's deontology, the author tries to answer moral questions. He moves on to Scanlon's contractualism, to African ubuntu, to Thich Nhat Han's mindfulness, to William James' pragmaticism, to Singer's selflessness, and even to Ayn Rand's egotistical selfishness. Throughout the book Schur provides cleaver stories and classic case studies, such as the run-away trolley. He often references a favorite TV series of mine that he wrote and created called "The Good Place." For example, Ted Danson asked the character Chedi (a Kantian rules based philosophy professor) "Has anyone told you what a drag you are?" Chedi responds, "Everyone, constantly." It becomes clear that no one can be perfect and in fact it is not necessarily a good thing. There are so many moral dilemmas and rules that one gets moral exhaustion. We look for little digressions but look out for the Overton windows. We don't want to become Atlas Shrugged or engage in "whataboutism". Schur finishes up with Satre's existentialism, Frank and the luck factor, and the effect of privilege on our ability to make good choices. He concludes that "nobody is perfect" and goes on to apologizing. How moral is good enough? The important thing is that we keep striving to be better. We owe it to ourselves and to others. "Try again, fail again, fail better."

Victory City

Salman Rushdie's novel is a provocative tale of the 247 year life of the god-like heroin Pamopa Kampana and the rise and fall of the mythical city of Bisnaga (1335-1565). The young Pampa gives rise to the city from seeds. She aids the cowherds Hukka and Bukka in molding Bisnaga into a glorious city with arts, culture, and powerful women. Bisnaga is constantly challenged by foreign invasion from factions in the south, sultans in the north, and Portuguese in the west. There is also the challenges of theological "advisors" with excess power challenging free will, women's rights, and education. The initial five "remonstrances", or protests, involved the separation of church and state, the observance of mass worshipping, policing morality, making war, and the pursuit of the arts. Bisnaga experiences years of glory with wealth, poetry, temples and military conquests. There are also years of decline with beheadings, poisoning, blinding, and unrest. Eventually Bisnaga falls and Pampa meets her demise upon completing her manuscript. The fictional tale warns the reader of the threat of theological zealots and ruthless, unjust, and/or sly rulers. The many lessons of Bisnaga can be applied to all social orders and countries. 

Rules of Civility

Amor Towles' book is a story of the events and relationships of a woman in her twenties in Manhattan in 1938. The story begins and ends with Katey reminiscing of her adventures and affairs with Tinker, Eve, Wallace, Dicky, and Anne. Katey has become successful and happily married, yet you feel a little sadness for the people in her past, especially Tinker. 1938 was a special year filled with good friends, fast times, Jazz, successes, and personal loss. The characters are mostly likable, friendly, and civil. The book ends with an appendix of George Washington's "Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation" that was kept by Tinker and picked up by Katey. The final entry #110 reads, "Labour to keep alive in your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire Called Conscience."

Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver's book is a grueling coming of age novel of an orphan growing up in the rural south. Demon is born to a junkie mother, abused by a step father and foster care, blows out his knee playing football, and gets addicted to drugs. Despite the best efforts of two teachers, a bullied friend from foster care, the Paggots, June, and Angus, Demon takes a long road to the bottom with drug addition. The book highlights the opioid and meth epidemic in poor communities in the US, along with its origin. Demon and Tommy explore the plight of the poor rural south through comics and a pending graphic novel. They compare the hustle in the cities for money verses the struggles of the poor land people. They defend the resilient people of the land as having the advantage of finding a way to get by with little to no money and the help of the local community. At least before the drugs.

Lessons in Chemistry

Stanley's selection is a favorite of mine. It was recommended by our neighbor and I have passed it on to everyone I can think of. It is about a fictional female character that overcomes the abuse and challenges of a 1950's male dominated field of Chemistry. With the aid of her wits, determination, and good looks, she is able to overcome all obstacles to survive and eventually triumph. 

Horse: A Novel

Geraldine Brooks is an Australian, horse-loving, history buff. The historical fiction is both a celebration of a great horse and a depiction of the discrimination against black people in America. Her story covers the period surrounding the civil war, a brief story from the 1950's, and a current day discovery and love affair. The book studies the anatomy of the horse and details the art of painting the champion. Lexington is possibly the greatest American horse of all time from a racing and stud perspective. Her story tells the reader about the horse as well as the individuals that helped make him special.

My favorite quote came from the artist Scott when speaking of the southern soldiers. "They were, all of them, lost to a narrative untethered to anything he recognized as true...their complete disregard-denial-of the humanity of the enslaved, their fabulous notions of what evils the Federal government intended for them should their cause fail-all of it was ingrained so deep, beyond the reach of reasonable dialogue or evidence."

Age of AI

The Age of AI is an ambitious undertaking by three older guys to explain the benefits and threats of a broad and hard to define technology. The authors explore three examples of what they classify as artificial intelligence with a chess playing program (AlphaZero), an anti-bacterial drug development program (Halicin), and a language generative program (GPT-3). They identify the development of AI and AGI as a major development in human history and compare it to the introduction of the printing press. They emphasize the dangers of a run away AGI that can threaten our very existence. They call for guardrails and safeguards to be developed to monitor and control the machines. As apposed to the last book that recruited young people to altruistically guide AI, the authors suggest a more top down, philosophical and governmental control. Either way, the potential benefits and risks are monumental. 

What we owe the future

William MacAskill is a very young Oxford professor of philosophy that introduces the reader to "longtermism" and "effective altruism". He challenges each of us to address the biggest challenges facing the human race for the sake of all future generations to come. He addresses the threat of collapse and extinction of civilization from nuclear war, climate change, asteroids, bioweapons and pandemics, and artificial intelligence. He describes the lasting impact of social values and norms through the example of slavery and describes the danger of locking in values. He suggests the we can do more than be just good citizens and good consumers and should take action to improve the future. He suggests that each individual should utilize their individual talents for maximum impact. "Beyond donations, three other personal decisions seem particularly high impact to me: political activism, spreading good ideas, and having children."

MacAskill loses me on the subject of population and I believe he downplays negative human behavior that has a lessor impact. I personally see over population as a major threat and have less concern about continued technological advancement. I also see a greater need to address the small stuff like plastics and work hard on spreading all good ideas. On the other hand, MacAskill walks the walk. He is a modest living vegetarian that donates a significant portion of his earnings and encourages others the do the same. I have shared the book with my son-in-laws and I do believe that we have a unique opportunity to help affect the lives of mankind for millennia to come.

Discussion questions:

1. What does the author mean by the title?

2. Who is the author's targeted reader? Why?

3. What can we do to help the future of mankind?

4. Why does the author encourage more children? Do you agree?

5. What is the author's take on religion and value setting?

6. Do you feel threatened by AI? AGI?