Review: A Damn Near Perfect Game: Reclaiming America's Pastime

A Damn Near Perfect Game: Reclaiming America's Pastime by Joe Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this cool little book from Joe Kelly and Rob Bradford. While nothing terribly insightful or groundbreaking, it is an authentic love letter to the game of baseball. Partly a memoir of Kelly's life in baseball, from t-ball to pro ball, it includes Kelly's reflections on the state of the game today and what he thinks it needs, as the title claims, to reclaim it's honored place as America's pastime. He discusses his run-ins with MLB brass and surprisingly productive meetings with commissioner, Rob Manfred. The last third of the book includes contributions from many other ball players and managers. From Mookie Betts and JD Martinez to Terry Francona and David Ross, and many more, we get a first hand perspective from those that have played the game on why they love the game. This book will speak to anyone who loves baseball.

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Review: The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work

The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work by Joanne B. Ciulla
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was disappointed in and at times frustrated with this book. While there is a lot interesting and useful – Ciulla traces the history of the meaning of work through time as well as laying out various theories of work and management ideas – I found it somewhat one-sided, platitudinous, and over-generalized. (Though obviously not the author's fault, it is is a bit of date as well.)

While Ciulla is by no means anti-work, anti-business, or anti-markets, there is an ideological flavor, shall we say, in much of the book. There are few philosophers or economists referenced that offer heterodox views of the sociological, economic, or moral claims asserted. In this way, the book is rather uncritical of its own claims, even as the author does catalog a range of views of work and life.

The paradox of a study like this is that it tries to draw from a wide range of views and takes on ‘work’, across time, but in so doing it tends to become somewhat superficial. There is this view, and there is that view, and then this other view. As the author acknowledges, “work” covers a lot of different activities and comes with a multitude of attitudes and views about it. Many of these are contradictory. And so in trying to something about ‘work’ it tends towards the superficial. Work is important, work is unimportant. Work is primary, work is secondary. Work is a source of meaning, work is destructive of meaning.

At its best, the book does challenge one to think more about the concept of work, the meaning of work in our lives, and the role it plays (or ought to play) in our lives. It’s just that it wasn’t often at its best.



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Review: Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World by Glenn S. Holland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is sweeping overview of the various religious traditions and ideas of the ancient Mediterranean. Holland covers Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Israelite, Greek and Roman religions, and then early Christianity. For each area, Holland sets up the various historical, archeological, and political contexts. Holland also finds ways to connect each of these periods/areas to each other, but without overdoing it either (he doesn't try to create some grand narrative, he's more or less pointing out similarities and differences and possible points of influence).

The course is quite useful as a general survey. Anyone looking for in-depth analysis, dissection, or critical analysis will be disappointed. But this is generally the case with Teaching Company courses. They are great surveys, giving you the context of knowledge to then dive deeper on your own. This course is the same: Holland's course provides the basis for one to pursue further research in any of these areas. But it is also good for someone who is just looking for the 10000 foot view.

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Review: Tiamat's Wrath

Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The penultimate book in this nine book series is action packed. Many of the earlier ones took a little bit to get going, but this felt like it jumped right back into the action of Book 7 and just kept running. I liked the POV changes between chapters that overlapped, giving the book a bit more frenetic pace while also signaling the simultaneity of various elements of the story.

One of the interesting leitmotifs of this book is the question of how to resist tyranny both ethically and authentically. What strategies are most appropriate and how do you go about these without losing who you are?

I can't wait to read Book 9, but I am sad to come to the end. These characters are so vivid and so well drawn, they live in my head for a long time after I finish the books.

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Review: Titan's Day

Titan's Day by Dan Stout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The follow up to Titanshade delivers the same engaging characters and setting. It's a unique mash-up of genres: part noir, part detective, part fantasy, part sci-fi. Stout's world building is subtle and interesting. The world is just familiar enough so as not to require lengthy exposition, but alien enough to make it interesting and novel. Readers of Michael Connelly's Bosch will see a lot of Bosch in Carter: the commitment to the murder victim; the belief that everybody counts, even in the face of an uncaring and sometimes corrupt bureaucracies.

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Review: Robert B. Parker's Blood Feud

Robert B. Parker's Blood Feud by Mike Lupica
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the Sunny Randall series and how Parker explored how the "machismo" code that Spenser lived by could be applied to a woman. I was a skeptical about Lupica taking over, but I think he did a competent job. There are definitely things that off; things that remind you that this isn't Parker. The depth of insight, the clarity of the prose, and quick wit are not quite to even a mediocre Parker level. But I enjoyed the book and the story; it was nice to live again with the regular cast of characters from the Spenser-verse.

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Review: Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy

Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy by Timothy Zahn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Of the three books in the Ascendancy trilogy, I liked this one the best. It brings to conclusion many of the various themes and plot lines of the earlier books. It doesn’t get as deep into the family/palace intrigue that the first did (which I didn’t care as much for). There is more focus on Thrawn and his allies and how they resolve the crisis that has been growing since the first book. I really like the way this triology raises the question about how different peoples interact with, use, and relate to the Force. It also sets up more of how and why Thawn ends in in the Empire, though I find there still is something of a disconnect for me. Thrawn is so competent, so intelligent, and really basically good, it can be a bit incongruent that he allies himself with the Empire (even if it is for the ulterior motive of serving the Ascendancy). It’ll be interesting to see the Thrawn we get in the Ahsoka series and if that helps to shed some more light on this.



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Review: The Fallen Man

The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This Leaphorn and Chee is much more of a classic mystery story. That is, many of Hillerman's stories revolve around a crime that juxtaposes the White Man's way of live with the Navajo way of life. But The Fallen Man doesn't really do this: there is a mystery that needs solving and the detectives work to solve it. Interestingly the cultural conflict, so to speak, is between the Navajo characters and how each of them adapt to contemporary life. As with all of Hillerman's books, the descriptions and immersion into this world are beautiful.

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Review: How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well

How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well by Catherine Wilson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After listening to a podcast interview with Wilson about this book, I was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing. I found it superficial both in its explication of Epicureanism and its application to contemporary life. There was little insight about Epicureanism or how to apply it to one’s life today. With the title of How to Be an Epicurean, I expected it to be “self-helpy” but I didn’t expect it to be as trite and insipid as the worst of the self-help genre.

Though each chapter starts with epigraphs of quotations from Epicurus and Lucretius, there is not a lot inside the chapters that connects directly to their writings. There is almost no way for the reader to check Wilson’s assertions about what Epicureanism says. There are no footnotes to indicate the sources. There is an appendix with quotations but there is no indication how these connect to the text itself. I get this is not a scholarly work, but this is a serious flaw and weakens Wilson’s analysis and presentation since it can be hard to tell where Epicurus ends and Wilson’s interpretation and views begins.

The application of Epicureanism to contemporary life is unfortunately as superficial.. Wilson frequently uses the rhetorical device of “The Modern Epicurean believes” but it is not at all clear to whom this refers or how the claims made in the guise of the Modern Epicurean connect to Epicureanism proper. It is hard to not to conclude that The Modern Epicurean is just Wilson and her views of how to think about the various contemporary issues regardless of how well these views cohere or not with ancient Epicureanism.

There are few caveats to my disappointment and criticism that might not apply to other readers. First, I’m a professional philosopher and this book is clearly pitched to a general readership, not those trained in philosophy. Second, I regularly teach Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things, and so while no expert on Epicureanism, it’s fair to say I’m quite familiar with Epicureanism. It might be that as a general introduction to Epicureanism, this is a good starting point for those with no background in the subject and that Wilson provides a spur to further interest in Epicureanism. However, the flaws I discuss here probably undermine it being that spur.


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Review: On Target

On Target by Mark Greaney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Greaney writes a fun action packed thriller. Court is an intriguing character, with a lot of room for development of the character. He's still a bit wooden and thin: but there is potential here for a great anti-hero type. The story here takes some interesting and even unexpected turns. It's outrageous and unrealistic in ways, but that's par for the genre (and part of the fun). It's a quick and fun summer read.

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Review: The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed Rowling's first foray into the detective genre. The mystery is well constructed. As with the Potter series, Rowling does a great job of characterization through dialogue, description, and action. This definitely is not Potter, but it is definitely Rowling. It is clearly her style and humor.

I listened to the audio version, which I think is the way to go. The reader is English and so the slang and dialogue are more authentic than whatever voice my brain would have given it.

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Review: Anaximander: And the Birth of Science

Anaximander: And the Birth of Science by Carlo Rovelli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book caught my eye at the bookstore; the title and description were right up my alley. I cover the Milesians in my ancient philosophy course, so I was interested to see what Rovelli’s take would be. The overall thesis is that Anaximander introduces into humanity two main ideas at the central core to science: a willingness to question every tenet, no matter its source, and the demand to put the answer in naturalistic terms. After explaining how Anaximander does this, Rovelli proceeds to show the importance and influence of these key ideas. The latter gets a bit too general, mostly because it is very broad over of the history of science. There was little new or insightful in these chapters. The connection that Rovelli draws back to Anaximander is pretty thin.

Rovelli’s presentation of Anaximander and some of the other pre-Socratics is pretty good. He also does some basic comparisons with civilizations in China, Babylon, and Egypt. However, in terms of trying to establish his claim that Anaximander was doing something novel and not done before, Rovelli needed to do some more of this kind of comparison.

One of the most interesting aspects of Rovelli’s account is his discussion of how Miletus, at the intersection of several different cultures, made these important scientific and philosophical advances. The decentralized nature of the Greek world at this time while also being in contact with the Mesopotamian and the Egyptian cultures gave Miletus the soil in which these new approaches could flourish.

The book is approachable and well-written. I think Rovelli does a good job of telling the history of science; though anyone already familiar with this material will likely not find much new.


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Review: What's the Use of Philosophy?

What's the Use of Philosophy? by Philip Kitcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this brief book, Kitcher offers his take on what is wrong with the discipline of philosophy and what he thinks it needs to do to fix itself.

I think Kitcher nails many of the ongoing problems in academic philosophy: the over-formalization, the reliance on intuition and thought experiments, the superficial understanding of other disciplines (in particular science), to name a few. Another focus of his criticism is that the discipline sees itself as having a core, namely metaphysics and epistemology, that gets all the prestige, leaving the peripheral to be neglected. While I think he’s correct in broad strokes, I’m not as persuaded that these pathologies, as he calls them, are quite as ubiquitous as he suggests. He captures some general trends, but it is not clear how deep or far these go. Kitcher himself acknowledges that since he first starting working on this project, the discipline moved in more positive directions.

Two things he doesn’t mention, or barely mentions, are (1) the teacher-researcher split and (2) the prestige of stardom.

In the last chapter, he does raise the teacher-research split; but I think he’s missing the important shift in higher ed towards large parts (and majority parts) of the faculty being teaching faculty instead of research focused faculty. I think his thesis might be interesting to explore in terms of how teaching philosophy is different than being focused on cutting-edge research. The former tends to fit more his view of the direction philosophy should take: syncretic, tied into practical concerns, and with an eye towards the audience. It will typically avoid most of the formalist and technical pathologies he’s concerned with, since the classes are not pitched at that level.
In terms of (2) above, there is far too much prestige given to the big names, the big programs, and the big journals. This feeds a lot of the problems he discusses. This is general academic problem, not peculiar to philosophy. (Indeed, it might even be somewhat better in philosophy as things go.) Still, if the concern is on how to cure the pathologies, there has to be some focus on one of the major causes of these pathologies.

My biggest disagreements with Kitcher lie in his positive project. It’s far too based on (philosophical) pragmatism and a bit too focused on the extrinsic value of what philosophy does. There is a value of philosophy that is more internal: that is, it has value that is not based on how it contributes to the university and other disciplines. And I think Kitcher dismisses that too quickly. That said, the syncretic, less formalistic, more practical approach is appealing to me. I just don’t want that to be it. There is a great value in diving deeply into the details. There is a great value of streaming to the 10000-foot view. We need both. The latter is not as well value in the discipline, but it’s not a zero-sum game where valuing the syncretic, big picture view means devaluing the analytical, minute focus.

The book is quick and easy to read. It likely wouldn’t interest any not in the field, though other academics might find it interesting to look inside another discipline.


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Review: Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars

Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the novel and it's gotten me all prepped for the new game. It was action packed and developed the characters and relationships from the game. There are two things that I might complain about. First, there was a lot of inner dialogue talk by the characters that could have been better developed through the characters actions (the old 'show me, don't tell' me saw). Second, while there is character development, it is relatively minor. Cal is who is he is. Merrin gets the most development and in many ways the book is far more about Merrin than any one else. Which is fine, I like Merrin and her story, but that's not really how the book is presented.

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Review: Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness

Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness by Timothy Sandefur
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic book. Sandefur does a masterful job of explaining the importance of these three remarkable women: Isabel Patterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand. He takes their ideas seriously, pulls no punches but is also exceedingly fair and charitable in his accounting of their ideas, works, and personalities.

I knew vaguely that Patterson, Lane, and Rand knew each other, but I had no inkling of the depth of the connections between them: personal connections as well intellectual and ideological. All three wrote important and influential works in the mid-20th century. Though Rand is likely best-known today, Patterson and Lane were important voices for (economic, intellectual, and personal) liberty and freedom in a time when then were few such voices. Patterson is best known today for God of the Machine and her decade’s long column at the New York Herald Tribune; and Lane for her work The Discovery of Freedom: Man's Struggle Against Authority and the Little House series she wrote with her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Though the three had important differences, together they provided a robust vision and defense of moral individualism and human freedom.

One of the most surprising things I learned is the role Sinclair Lewis played in the development of the work of all three writers. Sandefur explores how Lewis’ novels, as well as other works that formed what is called the “Revolt from the Village” literary movement provided by the inspiration and the foil for the novels of Patterson, Lane, and Rand. This movement challenged the conformity and oppressiveness of small town life, and arguably culminated in Lewis’ Main Street. Sandefur persuasively argues that Patterson, Lane, and Rand shared the concerns that works of the revolt focused on, but that they offered more optimistic and positive ways beyond what Lewis called the “village virus."

Sandefur’s book is a bit hard to categorize: it’s part biography, part literary criticism/analysis, part political history, and part intellectual history. How ever you categorize it, it’s a remarkable achievement and anyone with any interest in American history of the 20th century or the history of intellectual ideas should read this book. It should be a touchstone for any scholar thinking about the ideas of Patterson, Lane, or Rand.

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Review: Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault

Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault by Pierre Hadot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collection of essays by Pierre Hadot was mixed. Hadot is clearly deeply knowledgeable about ancient and modern philosophy, history, and literature. He brings this knowledge to bear on his discussions of the purpose of philosophy. I certainly learned a lot reading it. However, I didn’t find his overall argument persuasive.

Hadot has two main goals. First is to argue that philosophy, in the ancient period in particular, was primarily meant as a way of life, a distinctive, all-encompassing approach to living. He claims that most of the written works we have capture more of what he calls philosophical discourse, and not philosophy itself. These discourses are meant to train one in the transformative methods of living that constitute what philosophy actually is.

This leads to the second goal: the idea that the philosophical schools consisted mainly of what he calls spiritual exercises. This is where I found myself most critical. Hadot never really clearly defines or describes what is meant by spiritual exercises. He gives several examples, but it’s not clear what makes something an exercise and what sort exercises spiritual exercises are. This makes several the essays too wide-ranging; the ill-defined concept is able to be stretched to nearly anything that suited Hadot’s purposes.

Another problem with Hadot’s discussion about the role of spiritual exercises in ancient philosophy is that nearly all his examples come from the Stoics. He also references Plato and Lucretius’s Epicureanism as well. But Hadot frequently claims that these exercises are part of all six of the major ancient schools. This would have been more convincing if had drawn more evidence from all the schools. If Hadot had just focused on the Stoics and kept his claims tied to them, it would have been far more persuasive.

The essays did tend to be repetitive as well; the overall thesis and purpose was pretty much established in the first essay. The rest of the essays do not add all that much to it.


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Review: The Quick Red Fox

The Quick Red Fox by John D. MacDonald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In so many ways MacDonald and McGee are breaths of fresh air. The language and style capture a particular time and place, though not naturalistic. There is a romantic, stylized element to the stories and the characters. The plot of this story takes some interesting turns and McGee finds himself in a few pickles; but in the end, it's not really about the plot. It's the characters, the language, the setting, all wrapped up together into just the right mix.

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Review: Star Wars: Visions - Ronin

Star Wars: Visions - Ronin by Emma Mieko Candon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sadly, this book was a disappointment. I love the anime short it was based on, "The Duel". It was my favorite of the Star Wars: Visions shorts. And the idea of a more full-throated re-imagining of Star Wars in the context of a Japanese influenced tropes, images, and mythos was exciting. Star Wars itself was influenced by these and the idea of returning the favor was an excellent idea. I was really excited for this book. However, the execution falls short. There are interesting characters and settings, but the flow of the plot and the development of the characters and their motivations was not what it needed to be. I found myself rereading sections several times because I wasn't sure what was going on or why something was happening: it frequently felt like I missed some important piece of action. The individuals character were each compelling on their own, but their motivations for what they were doing and why they were doing it together was never clear enough. And I still don't quite understand the ending.

The way Candon handles the force, the Jedi, the Sith has a lot of potential; but it ended up being more confusing than insightful. The author's use of the singular they/them for the non-binary character could be confusing. There were several times I had to reread the paragraph because it wasn't clear if the pronoun's antecedent was the non-binary character or the group.

There was a lot of potential; lots of good ideas worth exploring and developing, but unfortunately it just didn't come together.

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Review: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Greenblatt’s The Swerve purports to explain how Epicureanism, in the form of Lucretius’ great poem, De Rerum Natura, created the modern world. This overstates, however, both the impact that Lucretius’ rediscover probably had as well as what Greenblatt actually shows. Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful book.

It is far more about the intellectual and theological world of the 15th and 16th centuries than it is about anything else. This is not the book to turn to in order to learn Epicurean philosophy, though Greenblatt provides a adequate sketch. The claims made about Epicurean influence on the early modern thinkers are interesting and provoking, but all together to thin. Lucretius’ work obviously had an influence and was important in helping to shape the thought of this period; but the extent of it is less clear. That is, Greenblatt is not able to make the counterfactual claim that had Poggio Bracciolini not found the manuscript in the early 15th century, the course of history would have been all that different. That said, it was discovered and did influence thinkers such as Giordano Bruno, Galilee, and Jefferson, among many others.

What makes this book so wonderful, though, is the tale Greenblatt weaves. His narrative explains how the ancient works found their ways into monasteries, how and why they were copied, and how they were lost. And then, of course, how they were rediscovered by likes of Bracciolini and other humanists. Greenblatt ends the book with discussions of how the Church responded to the growing influence of the work. As Greenblatt tells it, the Church saw Epicureanism as a particularly threat, in a way it didn’t see the other ancient others. The physics of Epicureanism as presented in Lucretius’ beautiful lines of poetry seemed to them utterly incompatible with Church dogma and thus merited special attention. So, while Aristotle, Plato, and the Stoics could all be made to fit in some way, Lucretius’ poem was stubbornly indigestible by Christian theology. Greenblatt doesn’t come right and out and say it, but I think he sees this utter inconsonance with Christianity as why it is the set of ideas so central to the making of the modern world.


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Review: Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark

Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark by Alva Noë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On one hand, I really rather enjoyed this book. The chapters are short and pithy. Noe’s musings about baseball are thought-provoking; and his love of baseball shines through out. His idea that baseball is all about deciding who’s responsible for what, left me thinking about baseball from a new perspective. The relation of baseball to language and linguistics was intriguing. Anyone interested in baseball will find the book charming.

On the other hand, I found myself annoyed and disappointed at times with the book. Clearly aware of the philosophy of sport literature, the author makes almost no mention or reference to it. So many of the topics he dives into he treats as novel and original, as if he’s the first to consider these topics philosophically, when they are well-trodden in the literature. Noe has some interesting insights, but these too could have been better had he engaged with the writings by philosophers of sport.

Noe is explicit that he’s not trying to write a philosophy of sport book; that his is more the musings of a philosopher obsessed with baseball. And there is much in the book that fits this vein. But much of the book is also engaged in philosophical analysis of arguments about topics central to sport. As such, it is, necessarily, a work in philosophy of sport. And on that front, one has to grade it down a bit because it doesn’t enter the dialogue where those conversations are taking place. To strain the metaphor, he’s swinging the bat, but not stepping into the batter’s box to face the pitcher.


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