Night Shade

Night Shade is the latest book by Michael Connelly about an LA County Sherrif detective in Avalon. Sergent Stillwell had recently been demoted from the LA homicide department for being a loose cannon and exiled to a sleepy Catalina Island. The story involves a mysterious death of a young woman that worked at the Tuna "Marlin" Club. The author references many Avalon and Catalina landmarks including Maggie's, the Casino, Harbor Master's office, The Sand Trap, Zane Grey Hotel, Buffalo Nickle, and Pebbly Beach. He captures some of the uniquely peculiar nature of Avalon and the challenges of a maintaining order and peace in a small town. I could not help to notice a few mistakes like there being a hardware store on Marilla, that you can drive completely around the Casino, or that there is coral on Catalina. Nonetheless, it is a fun, active adventure, who-done-it caper that could be the start of another Connelly series like the Lincoln Lawyer and Bosch. 

Next Book Club Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for August 12th at 6pm at Panda Inn. The book is Night Shade by Michael Connelly.

The rotation is Bill, Bob, John S, Dave M, David J, Stanley, and John H.

Abundance

Abundance is a book co-authored by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. It is a challenge to democracies to establish a new social order to accelerate technological advancement. They make the case that the major advancements of mankind have slowed by comparing the 1890's to the 1920's, to the 1990's to the 2020's. They are critical of the over regulating and NIMBY policies of the left as well as the overall disregard of advancements for the sake of profit by the right. I came away thinking the book is optimistic, with a faith in technology, and an alignment of collective genius.

"It is the promise of not just more, but more of what matters. It is a commitment to the endless work of institutional renewal. It is a recognition that technology is at the heart of progress and always has been. It is a determination to align our collective genius with the needs of both the planet and each other. Abundance is liberalism, yes. But more than that, it is liberalism that builds."

Who is Government?

Michael Lewis' latest book is a tribute to some outstanding civil servants at a time when they are underappreciated and under attack. He praises a coal mine safety expert in the Department of Labor, the man in charge of the national cemeteries, the group at JPL, the group in charge with calculating the CPI in the DOL, a cyber sleuth in the IRS, the woman in charge accessibility of the National Archives, his young goddaughter in the anti-trust department, and the woman in charge of gathering data on rare deadly diseases. Each the individuals and groups are apolitical and dedicated to noble, worthwhile causes that should be honored and not scorned. 

Some of my take-aways..."The United States is an Enlightenment project based on supremacy of reason; on the idea that things can be empirically tested; that there are self-evident truths; that liberty, progress, and constitutional government walk arm in arm and together form the recipe for the ideal state. Statistics-numbers created by the state to help understand itself and ultimately to govern itself-are not some side effects of that project but a central part of what government is and does." Biden is a rare case where a sitting President lost an election with a "misery index" (inflation plus unemployment rate) below 10 (7.2). Somehow the good news and reason did not translate. Interestingly, only7 percent of the current federal workforce under the age of 30.

There is no epilogue in the book, and you are left wondering what will become of each of them and their departments under the current administration. For that matter, what will become of our current social order and the vast number of essential governmental services? Lewis does wander off a bit into sports, detailed minutia, and his goddaughter. Nonetheless, he does effectively honor several important and unsung civil servants.

Book Ratings - 300 and counting

The following is the link to the complete list for your entry: Compete book list. Please click on the link and input your ratings on a scale of 1-5.

We are in our 26th year and have read over 300 books. We have read a lot of very good books with an average rating of 3.64 on a scale of 1-5. 90% of our books received a rating of 3.0 or greater with the top 10 4.5 or more. Stanley and Dr. J are the toughest critics with and average of 3.41 with everyone else averaging between 3.68 and 3.73. On the low end we have just a few that fall below the Mendoza line established by Who Moved My Cheese at 2.86. This includes the third book chosen overall (by me) of "A Pirate Looks at 50" and Bill's "There is no Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled"(which also holds distinction of the longest title). We still have only read one book twice, "The Limits of Power", in 2009 and 2014 and I still can't remember it even though it rated very well at 4.13 and 4.25.

The book list covers a wide variety of books consisting of roughly 2/3rds non-fiction. Topics include the classics, politics, business, adventure, history, science, environment, humor, and morality. Multiple authors include Thomas Friedman (4), Malcolm Gladwell (4), Bill Bryson (5), Phillip Roth (3), Dan Brown (3), Sam Harris (3), Michael Lewis (3) and 2 from Russell Banks, TC Boyle, Tom Brokaw, David Brooks, David Guterson, Laura Hillenbrand, Hope Jahren, Jon Krakauer, Krueger, Eric Larson, Annie Proulx, Alan Weisman, Eric Weiner and Irvin Yalom. We have branched out over the years to include a wide variety of authors and topics.

This Tender Land

William Kent Krueger's latest book is a story of four vagabonds on a quest for four separate goals. The narrator, Odie, is a 13-year-old searching for his home. His older brother is searching for his purpose, the Native American is searching for his roots, and the young girl is a visionary. They odyssey starts as an escape from the evil Indian retraining school by way of a canoe and continues down river. They meet up with a cast of characters through a depressed 1933 America in their journey towards their individual goals. It is a coming-of-age story in a troubling time, similar to Huckelberry Finn and Ordinary Grace. Overall, a very good read.

Revenge of the Tipping Point

Malcom Gladwell's latest book is basically a focus on tipping points for negative events. The "overstories" center on "superspreaders" that have feed epidemics in disease, crime, greed, racism, and addiction. Sometimes it takes 25% to be heard, 35% to make a change, or a very small percentage to do tremendous harm. Gladwell gets the reader into the minds of the bank robbers, Medicare fraudsters, anti-vaxxers, and suicide victims, and how their environments affect their behavior. He explains how we can identify these negative actors, sometimes unknowing, and minimize the damage.