The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wilson presents the modern theory of group selection (in contrast to kin selection) as the driving force behind the “eusocial” animals like ants, termites, and, of course. human beings.
Killing the Second Dog by Marek Hłasko
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Middle 20th century Polish noir – who knew? Not me. Great stuff.
Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN’s Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN’s Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox by Bill Simmons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A collection of Simmon’s articles about life as a Sox fan before and after their World Series win.
The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason by Mark Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Johnson explores the cognitive role of “image schemata”, which are recurring patterns and structures in our minds and which determine how we perceive and interpret our experience of the world. They also allow us to share meanings with each other as the schemata are derived from our bodily experience of functioning in the world and the similarity of our bodies and cultures lead us to have many of the same schemata in common.
Read more: Review: The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason →
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Classic Fitzgerald story about a person struggling with life and falling a bit short.
The Meaning of Human Existence The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Why are we here, what does it mean for us to be human, and now what are we supposed to do? Wilson’s answer to the first two questions is the same: we are the product of an ancient history of physical, evolutionary, and cultural processes which have been unfolding for millennia and longer and which are extraordinarily contingent and could easily have produced an entirely different form of life. And to be human is precisely to be the utterly unique current culmination of those processes in the form of our bodies, minds, predispositions, cultural patterns, and social institutions.
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Marvelous. I don’t read many memoirs, but I might have to change that. I loved this one.
Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand by Darrell Mullis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A simple but very easy to understand introduction to accounting using a lemonade stand.
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I don’t know much about hip-hop, but I think this history of the music, dance, and graffiti which combined to form it, the people that started it, and the communities that sustained it is pretty good. Not great, but good. There is an extensive list of further reading and listening and when the author gets out of the way and just tells us the story it’s really very good. And he does tell us a lot, including the more unsavory parts of the history from many perspectives. It’s when he tells us what it all means, in the stilted language of critical theory meets hip-hop jargon, that I got a bit glassy-eyed. I still don’t quite know what pre-millennial tension is.
Read more: Review: Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation →
Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles Blow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I didn’t know much about Blow other than his NYT columns, which I enjoy. This memoir recounts his early years from childhood to college. It’s a revealing look at a very interesting man.