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#BookReview: I Told You So by Matt Kaplan

Interesting History That Can In Fact Comes Across As Extended Ad For Author’s Day Job. I was perusing the existing reviews on Goodreads as I sat down to write this review, as is my custom, when I saw a 2 star review mention that this book felt, to that reviewer, at least partially like an extended ad for the author’s day job as a science reporter for The Economist and actually agreed with that point in retrospect.

Written almost as much in a memoir style as even a popular science history type book – the author’s bread and butter for twenty years now both in articles for The Economist and in books on various topics over the years, if you didn’t know (see what I did there? 😉 )- this is actually the second book this month I read that dealt with a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweiss and his pioneering antiseptic work in the 19th century, with the other being The Great shadow by Susan Wise Bauer, about the history of sickness and healing more generally whereas Kaplan’s text here focuses more on how right Semelweiss was… and how much a price he paid for being the one man that was beginning to get at least something right in an era when The Establishment (to use a more modern phrase) was oh so very wrong.

Semmelweiss’ story is the binder of this narrative, but along the way we encounter a few others similarly situated, from the famous (Galileo, Lister (whom Listerine is named after, to give those who may not be familiar with the name an idea of why it may be significant), and Pasteur, among others) to the more bleeding edge and let’s say not-yet-as-globally-famous, even though this modern set has at least one Nobel Prize winner among it and one who was essential in the creation of the COVID 19 vaccine.

The history is well written – as should be expected with someone of Kaplan’s experience – and doesn’t shy away from relevant facts that may make the historical figures look not so great in modern eyes, yet the modern is, while still well written, perhaps a touch *too* personal, offering insights into Kaplan’s own training and direct interactions with some of the subjects he is profiling. This is where the more memoir aspects of the tale kick in, and again, these are still well written and engaging, they just don’t share the same psychological distance as is notable when Kaplan is writing of Semmelweiss and others.

Still, the only reason for the star deduction is, as long time readers of my reviews of nonfiction books can probably already guess, a lack of documentation, clocking in at just 12% of the overall text here, just shy of the 15% or so of even my more recent more relaxed expectations on this point after having read quite a few nonfiction Advance Review Copy books over these last eight or so years.

Overall though, the book is truly fascinating and brings to light quite a bit of obscure history of the last few hundred years, and does a great job of making the points Kaplan is trying to make quite clear without veering too deeply into preachiness. Most readers will likely learn quite a bit from reading it, and have a generally pleasant experience doing so.

Very much recommended.

This review of I Told You So by Matt Kaplan was originally written on January 30, 2026.

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#BookReview: Feed The People by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. Rosenberg

Food – Like Reading – Is Not Political, Despite Authors’ Claims. I came into this book expecting a more science/ tech look at why industrial food is good (it is, and the authors are correct on this) and how it can be made better… and instead got a book focused almost entirely on the politics of the food industry and why the authors think that the small food/ farm to table crowd ala Michael Pollan and others is wrong. While I tend to agree with the authors in outcome, their reasoning here was extremely elitist and pro-totalitarian-government-intervention, with nearly every recommendation they make ultimately coming down to “government should dictate either specific actions or at worst the range of choices that businesses and consumers will have available to them”.

Given that one of the authors works in NYC and the other in Europe, perhaps this is understandable cultural bias, and perhaps you, the reader of my review, will agree with their reasonings as well as their outcomes. But for myself, a former Libertarian Party official who tends to agree more with the writings of Ayn Rand and Lysander Spooner… yeah, there wasn’t much here I could actually endorse myself. 😉

Ultimately, it isn’t the specific direction they chose but the sheer fact that they considered these recommendations the only possible policies and did not even allow for the possibility of other possibilities that lost a star. I love finding texts that come from different perspectives, but I expect *any* nonfiction book to at least mention other potential views and why they are more easily dismissed in the views of the author(s), and this simply wasn’t done here – making the overall text have at minimum an appearance of elitism. Again, your mileage will absolutely vary there, and I know people personally who will five star this book as among the most important food books you will ever read and people who will wish they could give this same book zero stars as utter trash that should never be read by anyone *for exactly the same reasonings* that I’m ultimately winding up in the middle of the road there.

Oh yeah, kind of gave away that there was another star deduction coming there, right? This is one long time readers of my reviews will be quite familiar with in my reviews of nonfiction books – the bibliography simply wasn’t long enough, clocking in at just 10% of the overall text here. The applicability of the Sagan Standard (“extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”) is perhaps debatable given the ultimate discussions of this book, but even without applying Sagan, I’ve maintained for years that in my vast reading of even Advance Review Copy nonfiction books over the years, a bare minimum – by my later expanded standards – of roughly 15% documentation is needed to get this star, and as noted, that is actually expanded , as for many years I required a bare minimum of 20%. So yeah, 10% simply isn’t going to cut it there.

Still, for all this, read this book. Seriously. You may want to defenestrate it because it openly embraces unions and calls for more of them. You may want to defenestrate it because it says openly and honestly that if we are going to provide meat for billions of people, industrialized animal farming is the only realistic way that is going to happen. But you should read it anyway, no matter your own political persuasions, because ultimately this *is* a pretty realistic book looking at exactly how we can feed the masses going forward, even if it is an extremely pro-government-mandate and anti-individual liberty view.

Oh, and I repeat the title, since the authors were so adamant in the opposing view: Food is **NOT** political.

Recommended.

This review of Feed The People by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. Rosenberg was originally written on January 29, 2026.

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#BookReview: Adrift by Will Dean

What If Carrie Never Developed Superpowers? Seriously, that’s the kind of vibe I got from this book, particularly with the way Carrie is set up with such an abusive and controlling parent and is mocked so heavily at school, both of which are features here.

No, this isn’t “Will Dean” the way I’ve read him these more recent books (Last Passenger, The Chamber), wherein there was some truly isolated setting and some huge twist… and you know what, it actually works in his favor in this case, because he is still able to craft an isolated type of story in an atypical setting and still uses the setting quite well to propel his story, so it still fits with the overall style I expect from him… just in a very unconventional and unexpected manner.

Now, for those who can’t handle stories with heavy amounts of (primarily non-physical) abuse, manipulation, and bullying… yeah, this story isn’t going to be for you. You do you, and if/ when you think you can handle a story of this type, this one will still he here, still as excellently written as it is already.

But for the rest of us, while dark, this really was a rather compelling tale, just one a bit off beat. There really aren’t any real “thriller” elements here through the majority of the text… and that may actually be one of the most insidious aspects of this story. Instead, this is a far more all-encompassing cold, steady drum beat of so many seemingly simpler, more prima facie innocent *enough* abuses that its spectacle is in its very banality. Yes, dad in particular is a bit of a weirdo, but at the end of the day he’s also just a “normal”, if particular, dad (of a certain era, at minimum).

If you want a Michael Bay style story with explosions in every other paragraph… this aint that. But if the idea of an entire book more akin to the first bits of the Carrie story is something you find intriguing… you’re going to love this book.

Very much recommended.

This review of Adrift by Will Dean was originally written on January 27, 2026.

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#BookReview: What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean

Proof That The Greatest Romances Don’t Always Involve HEA. Oh that title is sure to roil up oh so many in booklandia, but this tale really is, at least in some ways, proof of something I’ve personally long held, that the greatest *romance* stories known to humanity don’t always involve a happily ever after.

Like Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, we get an all too brief but oh so epic romance tale for the absolute *ages*… before we see it shattered in an instant. The love – and the tragedy – are far *too* real in MacLean’s words, and the room will get quite dusty indeed through this section of our tale.

And then, like Without Remorse again, we get a new romance at some time period after the initial one, and this is where we spend the majority of the tale (unlike Without Remorse, which is as much military thriller as it is romance… indeed, Clancy *set out* to write a military thriller, he just also included one of the best romance tales I’ve ever read even now).

This one too is divided – we see the couple coming together, and again here MacLean truly makes us *feel* it. Unless you have a block of solid granite in your chest, you’re going to be swooning through this section. It really is one of those truly epic love stories that really makes you feel what these characters are feeling.

But then we flash forward several years again, and this time reality has set in. We’re beyond the honeymoon period, and life is taking its toll. Here we get to the real drama of the book, and again MacLean does a superb job. Various conflicts are happening, and MacLean does a great job of making them all too real. Some of the drama is unfortunately plucked from so many peoples’ experiences, some of it is more reminiscent of the chronically underrated Hundred Foot Journey – but with a twist more familiar to many romance novels and indeed all too familiar to far too many people’s real lives. Here, MacLean does a superb job of making each character – at least those at the heart of these conflicts – feel like they could be sitting there reading these words over our shoulder – they feel *that* real.

And then that back third or so. Simply stupendous. Just. Wow. I’ve read a few of MacLean’s books in recent years, and I do believe this one to possibly be her most powerful yet, certainly among those I’ve read. And yes, it is in this back third that we really see the true power of what I said in the title of this review – sometimes the greatest romances don’t involve a happily ever after. Sometimes the greatest romances of all are the ones that change us forever.

But that isn’t actually a spoiler of anything here. You’re just going to have to read this book to find out exactly what MacLean did here to make me say that. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean was originally written on January 27, 2026.

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#BookReview: It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica

Solid Mary Kubica Thriller. That’s really all long time fans of Kubica need to know – she’s written yet another thriller that will have you breathlessly up way too late in the evening because “just one more chapter” keeps being repeated. One where the twists are coming almost literally until the very last word of the text.

For those new to Kubica, while I can’t honestly say I’ve read *everything* she’s written, I’ve read several – enough to know her current style at minimum, and like I said above, this is *exactly* her current style. So if you’re into books like what I described earlier, congratulations, you’ve found a new author you’re very much likely to enjoy quite a bit from, including this book.

Beyond the standard though, Kubica actually works several interesting tweaks into the story here that help it standout *somewhat* without necessarily being something you’re still going to remember a few hundred books down the road (whenever that may be for you). Enough to keep even voracious readers interested and guessing, even when you think you’ve seen every possible variation of every possible twist. Yes, you may have seen this one before too… but I can almost guarantee you that you haven’t seen it done *quite* like this.

Overall a very fun book and a great one when you need a distraction from the so-called “real” world for any reason at all.

Very much recommended.

This review of It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica was originally written on January 26, 2026.

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#BookReview: Citizenship by Daisy Hernandez

Ironic Downfall. Seriously, how much more ironic can you get than a book about citizenship being felled by… *a lack of documentation*????

To be clear, there are *many* more issues with this book. The biggest being that it is marketed as a critical and intellectual examination of the concept of citizenship (which is intriguing and deserves to be written about)… and instead what we actually get is a racist memoir that openly proclaims that the entire concept of citizenship was created whole cloth in the US in the 19th century to keep the brown person down and give the evil white man a way to exclude brown people while claiming to be objective. Seriously.

Now, maybe that last bit is something you tend to agree with. Even there, you should be pissed off at this book because it doesn’t even begin to try to objectively make this case. Further, when you make an extraordinary claim such as what this book proposes, the Sagan Standard applies and extraordinary evidence is expected – yet there is next to no documentation, clocking in at just 8% of the Advance Review Copy that I’ve had for four months before finally reading it just weeks before publication.

All of this noted, it actually was rather intriguing as a personal memoir of one person’s thoughts and experiences on the subject at hand. So yes, *as a personal memoir*, this book works much better than as any form of objective intellectual endeavor, and from the memoir angle it really is a compelling read of one person’s thoughts.

But that’s not what this is being marketed as, at least at this stage. At this stage, it is being marketed as much as a scholarly work as memoir, and as a scholarly work this book utterly fails in every conceivable respect.

Still, read this book as a memoir. Please. Hernandez has a clear and rare voice, and her story needs to be heard. I just wish she had put as much effort into integrating it into an actual objective examination of the topic as she did in expressing how evil the white man is.

Recommended.

This review of Citizenship by Daisy Hernandez was originally written on January 23, 2026.

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#BookReview: The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross

Strong Tale of Multi-Generational Grief Marred By Preachiness On Certain Topics. First off, let’s clear the air about one thing: Harper Ross isn’t a debut author. This is “Ross” debut *under that pseudonym* and *in this specific genre* of magical realism, but Ross is actually a well established author that I’ve read and reviewed many books from over the years and we actually know each other through that level of communication and speaking about book related topics on social media a few times.

Because I know Ross, I can tell you that while those who believe her to be a debut author could think that perhaps the seriousness of certain sections of this book was new to her, I actually know that these types of discussions were actually where she had been already heading, and indeed she had had similar types of discussions in other books I had read from her.

And honestly, I thoroughly enjoy what she was attempting to pull off here and much of what she did in fact pull off. As a whole tale, this book is an *extremely* powerful look at loss and regret and parents trying to do what is best for their kids and adults seeking to navigate all of their complex relationships as best they can. Seriously, on all of these notes, this is quite likely the most depth and emotion Ross has ever achieved – which is saying quite a bit, because if I remember correctly, some of those prior books involved a few dusty rooms.

One thing that sets this book apart – beyond the obvious – is that in not having some of the guard rails and prerequisites Ross once had, she was more free to plumb real emotional depth and not be hogtied on some levels by previous requirements, and this freedom combined with Ross’ apparently innate storytelling strength really allows her to excel here in areas she wasn’t really allowed to go into before, certainly not to this level or for this long. Yes, there were some *moments* of such depth in prior works, but here the entire tale is more rich and full within these spaces than Ross has ever done before. Which was truly awesome, and knowing some of the prior books, it really does go to show just how great a storyteller she is that she can navigate from one to the other.

Where this book falls is in its heavy handed preachiness on a couple of key topics in particular. As both are spoilers since they are not in the description – and one is absolutely a spoiler since it is *the very secret the description says is in the story*, I’ll not reveal here what they are. Instead I’ll add a postscript after the ultimate recommendation with the spoilers but with several lines of warning before I speak to them for people who do not wish to see them. I will also enclose them in spoiler tags on platforms where this review appears that support such tags. That way you, the reader of my review, can choose to look for them or not. Now, Ross has gone perhaps a touch heavy on similar ish issues before – but it was never to this level. Perhaps a downside of not having those guardrails and prerequisites she was bound by in earlier efforts, or perhaps just a genuine misstep in these even more contentious times. Ross has her views on these subjects and I have mine and let’s just say that we learned long ago neither is going to change the other. Unfortunately for this tale, she just goes *so very hard* within the book for several pages on one of them in particular, and the book ultimately suffers for it. Yes, this is specifically about the secret in the description, which is revealed in the story at around the 90% ish mark.

Ultimately, I’m truly elated to see Ross writing again. I truly love her style and what she is able to do, and I think this particular tale is actually *on its whole* a great new evolution of her capabilities. I genuinely hope St. Martin’s agrees and keeps her on for quite a while, but if something every happens and she finds she must, I hope Ross is never afraid to perhaps go the Independent route to get her stories out. The world would be lesser without them. Truly. But Ross, you know I’m not going to bullshit you: Find a way to get your message across without being so heavy handed about it. Please. You can integrate those exact same topics into the story and have them not be so preachy, and you’re good enough to figure out how to do that.

Very much recommended.

And now for the spoilers.

I’m adding several lines here so that people can stop reading and not see what I’m about to write.

Or at least that is my intention.

Seriously, if you don’t want to see spoilers, STOP READING NOW.

Don’t make me warn you again. SPOILERS AHEAD.

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two topics that Ross is heavy handed on:
1) alcoholism and treatment. For most of the tale, this is actually handled *really* well. Even through most of the fallout of some of the alcoholic’s actions, Ross still does quite well with showing an emotional and powerful tale. It is specifically during the treatment section and its fallout that Ross gets particularly preachy, and it does come across as just too much. Add in that Ross highlights an unconventional (for many) path/ doesn’t highlight the most well known path (or at minimum have a throw away line about how problematic it can be itself and thus the character doesn’t want to go that route), and you’ve got something that is both preachy and contentious, and it doesn’t actually add much to the story to be this preachy and contentious here – if anything.
2) Abortion. This is the secret from the description, and pretty well everything about the entire discussion here is heavy handed and preachy. It comes across more as a semi-moderate 2020s feminist lecture about the topic (in that at least one character thinks the boyfriend should have been at least informed about the pregnancy before the abortion, while still emphasizing that it was entirely the girl’s decision) than a real heartfelt emotional scene the way Ross was clearly intending. It is also something that by its presence and in particular the way Ross chose to handle it will turn at least some segment of readers completely away. Which is a business level decision rather than a storytelling one, at least to this reviewer. I know from prior works that Ross *can* be at least slightly more balanced on contentious issues, but that prior restraint/ balance doesn’t really come through here *at all* except for the one line (ish) about wishing the boyfriend had been informed first.

This review of The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross was originally written on January 23, 2026.

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#BookReview: Country Life In Georgia In The Days Of My Youth by Rebecca Latimer Felton

Fascinating Look Into A Bygone Era From A Truly Remarkable Woman. Rebecca Latimer Felton was born in 1935 in DeKalb County, GA. She died in Cartersville, Ga – my own hometown – in 1930, just 53 years before my own birth. Her grandparents witnessed the American Revolution. Mine were children when she died – one of them a small child when Felton became the first female US Senator – and, in the same moment, the last formerly slave owning US Senator – in 1922.

This book is both a memoir of her early years through the Civil War and just beyond and also a collection of several of her writings and speeches as she became politically active in the last decades of her life, becoming a leader in both (white) women’s suffrage and the temperance movement that eventually lead to Prohibition – and its repeal – in her final years.

Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind has become a legend in American lore of the antebellum and Civil War periods. Meanwhile, Felton’s *real* story of those same periods has largely been forgotten. Even in Cartersville, where a home still stood on her plantation land *this Millennium* (as an abandoned lot, according to my memory of living just a mile or so away) until it was destroyed by arsonists in 2001, Felton’s name appears on a couple of shopping centers and a couple of roads near where her plantation once was.

This story, *her* story, deserves to be read and understood far more than it currently is. Felton was absolutely a person of her time and era, and this book shows it. She does not hide that she owned slaves. She is quite clear that she believes the white race superior to the black – or any other. Yes, that even means that she uses a certain word beginning with “N” that is virtually *never* used by anyone other than the most hardcore avowed racists of the 2020s. Even with these views however, Felton makes great effort to explicitly state – and devote a decent section of this book to conclusively proving in her own way – that the Civil War was explicitly because rich Southerners wanted to defend slavery specifically. Though in one of the more prescient statements that many today should take heed of, she also explicitly states that at least the politicians of Georgia had wished – and genuinely believed – that they could peaceably secede from the Union without bloodshed.

*And yet*, Felton also speaks highly of the society the Cherokee Nation built. She shows herself, particularly in the speeches and writings that form the back end of the book, to be a strong and stirring leader in pushing for women’s rights – not just to vote, but to be free from spousal and societal abuse. Indeed, it is clear that one large reason she was so passionate in her views of temperance was due to how drunk men treated the women around them – reasons that some of my own grandparents would see play out in their own lives after both of my grandfathers served in WWII and both survived the meat grinder of the Battle of the Bulge only to both be there to directly see the concentration camps liberated by them and their fellow American soldiers.

I’m not going to bullshit y’all. Felton is truly a fascinating and complex woman, and by 2000s standards, particularly 2020s standards, yes, she can be quite problematic indeed.

*And yet*, by the standards of her own era, she was more progressive than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or even Bernie Sanders are considered today.

Read this book. Learn about an era that so many today have so many strong and passionate views on *from someone who was actively there*. Even as someone who grew up separated by just a few decades in time and barely a mile in distance from Felton, who went to elementary school literally down the road from the last home Felton lived in, even *I* learned many things about this era that *I* had previously never known, and it opened even my own eyes in several ways. Thus, I have every confidence that anyone not both from Cartersville and at least as knowledgeable of its history as I am will absolutely learn a great deal here, even if this is admittedly a difficult read almost a century after Felton’s death.

Very much recommended.

Download this book from the Internet Archive here.

This review of Country Life In Georgia In The Days Of My Youth by Rebecca Latimer Felton was originally written on January 21, 2026.

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#BlogTour: The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman

For this blog tour, we’re looking at very solid penultimate book in its series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com), Substack, and YouTube:

Solid Penultimate Book In Series. This is one of those entire series where you’re going to want to read the entire series before this point – including the short story prequel that sets everything up – before you get here. Even though this one stands alone (*ish*), you really need that deep understanding of all that is going on here to fully appreciate this story, and really those prior books are just as strong as this one, so if you see this one first and are interested in it at all, you’ll be glad you read them first anyway.

For what this book – and its predecessors – actually is though, it really is quite good. We get a dual timeline with both women’s fiction and romance elements in both timelines – enough that yes, this book technically satisfies all known RWA/ RNA requirements to be “officially” classified as a romance novel – and all elements here are done remarkably well. Considering that some other authors struggle at times with one timeline or genre and Kelman here is not only juggling, but excelling in, a combined four different genre/ timeline combinations is really quite astounding, and an absolute testament to her storytelling abilities.

If you enjoy dusty rooms or cutting onions, you’re going to love this book. (To be clear here, men don’t cry. The room is either very dusty or we’re cutting a lot of onions. We. Never. Cry. (And yes, this is a joke, but a joke explaining the other joke. 😉 )) If you enjoy books that both transport you to another place *and* make you *feel* something within it, you’re going to enjoy this book. If you enjoy books that are close enough to reality that you can more easily switch your brain off and accept the one presented in front of you, you’re going to enjoy this book.

And when you get done with this book… well, you’ll be glad to know that apparently we can expect the conclusion to this series later in 2026. I’m not sure *how* public the release date of Book 5 here is -I asked the publisher directly and have a longstanding working relationship with them across dozens of reviews every few months for several years now – but I feel reasonably confident that no one will get too upset with me for saying simply “by the end of this year”. 😀 And seriously, I can’t wait. Definitely going to be one hell of a back-end-of-2026 read, just as this book was one hell of a Book 5 of 2026 read for me.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman”

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#BookReview: The Price Of Mercy by Emily Galvin Almanza

Leftist Language Will Annoy Some Readers. Read This Anyway. Straight up, Galvin Almanza is absolutely a product of her time – in this case, “her time” being 2010s Harvard and Stanford and then abolitionist activism. So the words she chooses – “latinx”, apologizing for being white, etc – are going to annoy at least some readers.

From my view (see postscript for a brief bio relevant to this discussion)… this book is right up there among the ones those new to the field should consider. Those in and around criminal justice will likely know most everything Galvin Almanza presents here – or at bare minimum have largely similar stories of people they did know more directly. Her writing style is engaging – far from the academic speak one might expect from a Stanford Law lecturer and much closer to the dynamism one would expect from a tenacious advocate of the accused during a trial. While this is far from a John Grisham or Randy Singer courtroom drama, Galvin Almanza’s overall style bends more in that direction than a desert dry academic treatise.

One weakness here was her framing of the “racist” origins of policing, but again, that’s the culture Galvin Almanza comes from. It is unclear at this time if she’s ever even heard of Radley Balko’s excellent history of policing The Rise Of The Warrior Cop, released between The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (who blurbed this book, in case you, the reader of my review, missed that) and the 2013 execution of Michael Brown. Balko has a much more even handed look at the rise of policing in the American tradition, tracing it back even beyond the first “Shire Reefs” in feudal England and up through 2010 or so (with a 2020s update I’ve yet to go back and read). Even here, however, Galvin Almanza’s incorrect history of policing comes across more as a cultural/ worldview thing than an attempt to mislead the reader – she appears to genuinely not know the actual history at hand and genuinely (and uncritically) believes the constant leftist refrain.

That particular weakness aside, however, this is a particularly well documented book, clocking in at about 28% documentation on even the Advance Review Copy edition of the text I’ve had for several weeks before finally reading roughly a month before release. It is quite clear that on most of her points, Galvin Almanza both knows exactly what she’s arguing and is more than willing to show you her work – which is always appreciated (and, yes, frankly expected) in any nonfiction work.

Ultimately Galvin Almanza’s proposals – because all books of this type must end with proposals in nearly as ironclad a genre rule as RWA/ RNA types try to insist that any romance novel end in a happily ever after – all come down to variations on “more funding” and for the most part are things most that are familiar with the field have already heard of before, but Galvin Almanza does put at least enough of her own specific vision in here that the text is still worth reading to see exactly what her own brand of reasoning comes out as.

Overall this was a strong book of its type, just not an overly novel one other than in Galvin Almanza’s own particular experiences.

Very much recommended.

Brief bio of me: Hi, I’m Jeff, and I used to work for a District Attorney for a bit as their office tech guy. Even got sworn in as a witness in one particular trial, in addition to helping my bosses with an “everyman” look at the case he had in a couple of cases. Even then, I was *also* a Libertarian Party official and an anti-police-brutality activist working with an org that has long went by the wayside (at least relative to what it was) and which particularly after Michael Brown’s execution in 2013 was rarely heard from again as more prominent orgs rose up. I even, at some of the very times Galvin Almanza was being recognized as one of the most promising young lawyers in America, had a database that virtually no one knew of, but which made me *the* world’s leading expert in mass shooting, school shooting, and killed by police events – at least in terms of the data I had and was actively both collecting and analyzing.

Which is a particularly long winded way of saying that I’ve been around the block more than a few times as it relates to the subject of this book. Frequently around it, rarely directly in it, but very much close enough to know much of what was happening… from most every side.

This review of The Price Of Mercy by Emily Galvin Almanza was originally written on January 19, 2026.