Reviews and Comments

Written in a very casual, approachable style and full of good humor, I found this book to be a good intro to Socialism. I’d read many books on theory which were fairly deep and insightful and covered more ground, but this one would probably have been a good choice to read first to give me a good base of knowledge before delving deeper. The author does a good job of giving us a history lesson, defining what the term means and pointing us to a way forward. I can definitely recommend it.

Diving into this gigantic Marxist critique of consumerism, etc.

What an adventure. Weaving personal experience with myriad interviews and deep knowledge as both a musician and a listener, David Toop fills the reader’s mind with musical history. Not so much a chronological history as it is a tale of organic evolution encompassing everything from classical to dub, Musique concréte to minimalism, Kraut Rock to cosmic jazz. Going pretty far afield at times, you’ll find yourself reading an interview of Brian Eno on one page and a while later, an account of the author recording a group of shamans deep in the Amazon rainforest. Even if you’re not a huge fan of Ambient music, you may still get a lot out of this book. For me, it was a joy to read.

A chronicle of how the author, his friends and acquaintances responded to life under a totalitarian regime, The Captive Mind gives us a glimpse into life in Poland after it was swallowed by Russia following World War II. It’s an engaging, well-written account and makes you consider how you might react in such an environment. Hopefully, none of us will have to make such choices.

This book ran aground on my bookshelves around three years ago, and I’m finally rescuing it. Looking forward to the stories it has to tell.

The first of at least two books I'll read this year to help educate myself about totalitarianism and it's effects on citizens existing under it's thumb. It's also the book for which this Nobel Prize winner is most well-known.

A short but oh so great collection, including the historic poem which gives the book it's name. In this reread, I discovered that I liked the penultimate poem ('Wild Orphan') almost as much as Howl itself. A nice read to finish up the year.

Beautiful, serene prose. The poems in this collection are largely spiritual / religious in nature, and that mutes my attraction to them as I'm not particularly inclined to believe in a higher power. I know that he wrote other poems and songs, so I might do some research to see what else is available.

An excellent education on the recent history of class struggle and popular / indigenous movements in Latin America, charting their effects, their interaction with the leftist governments they helped elect and ultimately their absorption into and emasculation by the state apparatus. Chapters taking deep dives into Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela provided great detail, and the literary criticism of George Ciccariello-Maher's 'We Created Chavez' convinced me to acquire that text as well to further my understanding.

Reading again, not for the last time.

Chekhov is revered, and I'm sure he wrote many wonderful, compelling things. But the title of this book is a misnomer. I'd say that three were worthwhile, though perhaps all three had endings that left me wanting. And the other two were meh, at best. So maybe read some Chekhov, just not this particular collection.

Quite good I thought, if short. It kept my attention, describing the social life of a small town, the marriage of a daughter to a charming if mysterious man, and the events which followed, culminating in a death which everyone knew was coming. Except for the person who was to die.

A good primer on the history of modern democracy worldwide, it's various flavors and external events which propelled it to happen. Lots of info on the evolution of voting rights in each country which I hadn't been aware of. The author writes in a very approachable style. Recommended.