Review: Zion's Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature

Zion's Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature by Sheldon Teitelbaum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating collection of stories. The stories are quite varied; though there are two things that I felt ran throw them all. The first is that the default background was Jewish. This is hard to define or pinpoint exactly, but there was something just, well, Jewish about the stories. Sometimes it was explicit but other times, it was more just something there. The second thing is that almost all the stories, if not all, were a bit dark. As though one could sense a kind of underling traumatic or tragic in each one. Some were funny or sweet, but even in those there was some thing lurking underneath. Maybe these are really two sides of the same thing; but it is interesting that this collection of stories all seemed to have that element. Maybe this is the genre, or maybe it's the editors.

I think it's important to pay more attention to the "speculative literature" part of the title rather than the "Zion's fiction." The latter suggests science fiction, while speculative captures a broader range of stories: including science fiction, but also fantasy and horror. There are no bright lines between these genres, but there are certainly paradigmatic versions of each. In any case, these stories were all mixed, maybe a bit more heavy into the fantastical and horror elements. Only a few could be categorized as "pure" science fiction (if there is such a thing).

I'd probably prefer something more science-fiction-y and less fantasy/horror; but I still was interested in all the stories.

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Review: Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour

Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour by Mike Lupica
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was fun; a few surprises that fans of the Spenser-verse will enjoy. The plot was a bit unfocused, several elements that didn't have a payoff and confused things. Maybe these were meant as red-herrings, but if so they weren't well executed. Lupica has a good feel for Parker's characters and can emulate the witty repartee, but Parker's plot were tighter and more focused. Still I enjoyed it.

Two quibbles: I am not sure how this plays if reading it, but listening to it there were too many "he said"s and "I said"s in the dialogue. It was distracting in the audio. Overall, I like the narrator, though there was some uptalk that could be distracting.

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Review: Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History

Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History by Nellie Bowles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An interesting look back at when the world went bat-shit crazy for a few years. Bowles has an interesting perspective as a former reporter at the NYT and self-described San Francisco progressive. She was an insider of sorts and as a journalist is able to approach her our journey through this craziness as a reporter would. It makes it a personal story without being overly so: she's covering herself and her journey.

There isn't any thing too deep here: Bowles is not digging into the philosophic or psychological ideas or motivations: she is reporting on them. She is reminding us of what the cadre of media and academic elites said and did at the time. This is important as people forget or smooth out what happened to seem less scary or crazy. Bowles reminds us that people really did say and mean defund the police. There really were people on the progressive left that pushed (and still do push ) racist "antiracist" ideas. And so on through gender, education, COVID polices, housing and homeless, prosecution.

Bowles started out in those camps, but slowly over time, reality pushed back and made her question a lot of what was being said and done. Some might say she's red-pilled or whatever, but she still seems to hold many of the same traditionally progressive views points but in more moderate and centrist ways. It's telling that a move to middle is regarded as something radical.




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Review: Robert B. Parker's Payback

Robert B. Parker's Payback by Mike Lupica
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As always, I love being back in the Spenser-verse. Lupica does a good imitation job and I enjoyed reading it. There are definitely some choices he makes that I don't think Parker would have, but the flow of the plot, the wit of the characters, and the dialogue are Parker-esque, or close enough.


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Review: SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient -Powered by the Science of Games

SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient -Powered by the Science of Games by Jane McGonigal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed and got a lot of the first part of the book where McGonigal discusses the psychology and philosophy behind games and the connections to our lives. Part 2 is practically focused discussing various ways to implement and use the approach. It's the self-help portion of the book. Part 3 are more detailed listings of quests one can do. I didn't listen to the latter (not really conducive to an audio book).

Parts 2 and 3 don't really work well for the audiobook, though I think quests and methods can be helpful. What's revolutionary about the approach is the process, not the ideas. It's a lot of ways to help tap into one's social network and inner strengths. Psychological, not a lot a new here. But the use of game-like behaviors and structures can be very helpful.

I plan to dig deeper into the scientific literature McGonigal includes; I think there is a lot to the connection between how we play games and how we can approach living our lives.


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