Tag: nonfiction

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#BookReview: The Projects by Howard A. Husock

Important History That Should Spark Needed Discussion. First up, I fully admit I am *far* from a public housing expert of any kind. I read books like this to learn about issues, not because I already know about them. The closest first hand knowledge I have of any of this is growing up in Exurban Atlanta and being generally aware of the Atlanta news… right as the Atlanta Projects were coming down and being rethought in the late 90s/ early 2000s around the time of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. And even then, even while working with a community service oriented collegiate honor society throughout my college years in this period, while we worked a lot with various “community revitalization” efforts, we never really worked in the Projects. Maybe some other Atlanta chapters did (Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Spelman, etc), but my school just in the suburbs (Kennesaw State) didn’t.

All of that tangential personal history dealt with, the actual text here is great for sparking discussion on a few different, yet mostly related, topics… but the text here is also written almost as a textbook. It *feels* like something you would actually take a class on with this as the text and expect to be quizzed and tested about the various people and dates and movements and philosophies and such, yet it isn’t as dry and formal as an actual academic paper tends to be. It is one of those University Press (NYU, in this case) titles that seems truly destined to be *most* read as a textbook, very nearly explicitly designed for exactly that… and yet it *should* be read by a much wider audience, particularly among the “leader” / “influencer” / “organizer” set, because it really does have some interesting things to say about the entire history up to 2023 or so – and, somewhat, of the potential future – of public housing in the United States.

Among the discussions relevant here are the Nazi-based origins of public housing as we now know it in the 2020s – literally, the leaders who first proposed the national laws that led to the Projects openly praised Adolf Hitler and many of his acolytes of the late 1920s/ early 1930s – when their antisemitism and violence was already clear, but well before their “final solution” began. How can we openly embrace the freedom and diversity we claim to hold so dear in the US in the 2020s while also advocating for ideas that are in places almost word for word out of Hitler’s own mouth?

Another discussion point that Husock actually does a truly phenomenal job of exploring, even if a touch tangentially, is reparations. No, not for slavery – by and large, clear records of that don’t exist and the people directly affected by it are long dead. HOWEVER, the black communities whose property was effectively stolen -via so-called “eminent domain”, where the government can dictate the price it will pay you for your land – … this happened in the 1930s and later. We have actual property records of those who owned that land at that time. While many of the owners themselves are now dead, as many of them would have been born around the turn of the 20th century, some of the later ones – the projects built more in the “golden era”, as Husock describes it, of the 1950s and early 1960s… some of those original owners *may* still be alive. In either case, it is very likely that direct legal heirs of many of these people – their kids, grandkids, or even great-grandkids – are very much alive today and could be more adequately compensated for what was taken from their near ancestor. In theory, this could be seen as a just remediation for sins that while in the past, are still recent enough to bear accurate justification. Obviously, this would have to be more completely thought through and debated by those with far more knowledge of the specifics than I have, and likely far greater philosophers and ethicists than I will ever begin to approach claiming to be, but I do believe that Husock lays the basic groundwork for such conversations quite well in this text, and it should be read for this if for no other reason.

The final major discussion that Husock leads to here in the text is actually the very original discussion – what, if anything, should be done regarding public housing: Who should fund it, who should manage it, who should benefit from it, *is it possible* to truly benefit from it, under what conditions can it be successful, what is “successful public housing”, etc?

Husock makes clear that in certain times and places – even in this Millennium – public housing *has* worked and *can* work – but he also makes equally clear that the realities of public housing have rarely lived up to the ideals and goals of its proponents.

Read this book. Even if you yourself happen to be a public housing expert, you’re still likely to learn at leasta few things here. Write your own review of this book. And, perhaps more importantly, write to your governmental “leaders” at every level from your local City Councilman (as Housing Authorities are run by local leaders) all the way through your Congressman and even the President (as Federal policy is set in DC) and let them know your thoughts after reading it. Maybe, just maybe, we can actually get these discussions had in the manner than they are due.

Oh, and the star deduction? The bibliography clocked in at just 11% or so, which is short of even my recently relaxed standard of 15%.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Projects by Howard A. Husock was originally written on May 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Crossings by Ben Goldfarb

Well-Documented Examination Of How Roads Affect Animals. The subtitle of this book in particular is at least slightly misleading, as the book isn’t so much about all the ways roads impact ecology as much as how roads impact animals. It also isn’t so much about the “future of our planet” so much as it is about preventing extinction of migratory animals in particular.

But for what it *is*, this is actually a well documented (38% of the overall text) examination of how roads impact animals and how we can make them better for the wildlife around us… and thus ultimately safer for us. (As Goldfarb points out, at least at one point deer were the most deadly animal in America, far surpassing sharks or even snakes or even insect stings, due to the sheer volume of people killed in crashes wherein they either hit deer directly or swerved to avoid doing so.)

Indeed, much of the book is spent discussing largely three topics: roadkill, animal crossings, and to a slightly lesser extent, noise pollution and how it affects animal crossings and roadkill. Along the way we get sidetracked to a discussion of LA’s cougars, Tasmania’s world record roadkill, Interstates preventing deer migration in the Rocky Mountains, and even some discussion of salmon migration in the Pacific Northwest, among others.

If you’re looking for a book about the *totality* of how roads affect ecology… this isn’t that.

If you’re looking for a historical/ current look at how roads affect animal life… you’ve come to the right place.

And yes, Goldfarb has rather frequent leftist political rants sprinkled throughout the text, but none anywhere near as severe as the ultra leftist reviews eviscerating this book, so take that for what it’s worth – while annoying, I’ve read books with far worse rants with far fewer interesting facts, so I personally didn’t think it was *too* terrible – hence the reason I didn’t deduct a star for it. But your mileage will absolutely vary there, so just be aware of this before coming into this book.

Recommended.

This review of Crossings by Ben Goldfarb was originally written on May 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: Proof by Adam Kucharski

Not As Bad As It Could Have Been. Quite honestly, if I had known up front that I was reading a book about proof and certainty written by a *COVID “scientist”*… I would never have picked the damn book up to begin with. Those fuckers have been more wrong than flat earthers, and the world learned from dire direct personal experience to not believe a word they say.

This noted, Kucharski does at least admit that even he was wrong in at least certain areas, so the fact that he wasn’t trying to defend everything he and his colleagues did to us and all of their blatant mistakes was at least somewhat refreshing and gave this review its title.

Kucharski actually does a good job here with writing about precise concepts in layman and approachable terms, and even raises great (and hitherto unknown even to me) points about how even Euclid’s Elements ultimately shaped decades of American politics… via one State Senator working himself through it in order to learn how to be a more convincing orator. That particular State Senator being none other than later President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

Similarly, other sections are also quite enlightening about other forms of proof, even going so far as to at least allow for the possibility of Bayes being wrong in his Theorem (a topic explored much more fully in the much more targeted work Bernoulli’s Fallacy by Aubrey Clayton) – which not many books about proof and statistics have ever done, at least in my experience as a former math and math related fields major and avid reader. (LONG story short, I came within a half dozen classes of getting degrees in Computer Science (the one I ultimately did get), Mathematics, and Secondary Mathematics Education at once… almost 20 yrs ago to the day as I write this review.)

Ultimately, the star deductions are for the long focus on COVID, which even 5 yrs later still warrants a star deduction in my own personal war against books focusing on that topic, and for trying to defend the scientists who were pushing so much of the damaging narratives – including, it seems, Kucharski himself. In a book about “proof” and “certainty”, where history has now proven that one group of scientists in particular was so *incredibly* wrong in their “certain” judgements, to defend that very group of scientists as correct is to actively deny reality, and this cannot be ignored in such a text as this. (I’ve since come to forgive/ be far more lenient about more passing references to that horrible period of the 21st century, by the way.)

Now, maybe your political positions align more with Kucharski’s. Maybe you still believe the blatant lies the world was fed about that period that ultimately caused far more harm and devastation than the actual virus ever did. In which case, you’re going to LOVE this book.

But for those like me who believe that every single one of those “scientists” should find a more appropriate job that suits their actual knowledge and skill level – burger flipper, maybe? – eh… read this book anyway. Kucharski really does have some great stuff here, when he’s not talking COVID.

Recommended.

This review of Proof by Adam Kucharski was originally written on May 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees

Solid Nonpartisan Examination Of The Psychology Of Nazism – And All The More Terrifying For It. This is one of those *detailed* looks at the full history of Nazism, all the way back into its origins in the 19th century, that uses different psychological concepts as the focus of each chapter and shows how both the leaders of the Party and even the German laypeople fell under its spell.

Even with most chapters being a detailed history of the Nazi period of Germany and with only the final “Twelve Warnings” chapter having really anything to do directly with life a century later, the parallels to political life now – on *all* sides – become quite clear, even without Rees having to explicitly detail them. Whether it be the anti-immigrant MAGA or the anti-white “Woke” Left, the parallels to the various psychological foibles of Nazism are quite clear in Rees’ history here – which makes it all the more utterly terrifying.

Because no matter what modern society wants to think, and as a great grandson of an American soldier who was a German POW during WWI and a grandson of two survivors of the Battle of the Bulge on the American side (one of whom earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for this actions in that particular battle) of WWII, I think I have some space to talk here: Nazis did utterly horrific things, this is clear. Things that would drive those who even witnessed them – even as liberators – to lifelong alcoholism after the war, and that was among the *better* effects. But Nazis were *not* some mythical monster. They were utterly, completely, 100% human – and we and our society – *any* of us – could fall into their depravities much easier than we like to think in the 2020s. Rees’ history here makes this all too clear, and should serve as a clarion call to *ALL* of us, no matter our political beliefs or reasonings.

Read this book. Apply it to your political enemies – that’s the easy part. Then critically look at those closest to you politically… and apply it to them as well. That’s hard. Then critically look into your own mind, seriously examine your own thought processes and how you believe what you believe, and apply this book to that as well. That’s the hardest part of all. Yet it may indeed be our only way of truly preventing the horrors of the past from becoming a prophecy of a future that could come again.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Nazi Mind by Laurence Rees was originally written on April 25, 2025.

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#BookReview: Life Is Fighting by Kevin Robert Kesar aka WWE’s Karrion Kross

On Par With Foley and Jericho RE: Best Written Wrestling Memoirs. Admittedly, my favorite memory involving Kross as a wrestling fan, one I actually repeat occassionally, was actually something his opponent said to him a few years ago. He was in a feud in NXT as the NXT Champion with the former NXT Champiom, Adam Cole (now working for rival promotion AEW) when Cole said to Kross “This brand has done everything in their power to make *you* feel special. You got the cool music, you got the lights, you got the fog machine, you got the girl. You know what they do to make Adam Cole feel special? They ring the freakin’ bell.” This was during the COVID, “Thunderdome” era of WWE/ NXT, when Kross had a shaved head and was tearing through any and all competitors – a period he does in fact discuss over the course of this book.

I actually read the book on Wrestlemania 41 weekend in April 2025, specifically on Wrestlemania Sunday – when Kross wasn’t on the card, but would ultimately have a “run-in” during the AJ Styles/ Logan Paul match… and then go on to cut what is likely the defining promo of his main roster career after the event, in a 3 minute video that has already gone viral this week with many calling for now WWE Hall of Famer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Head of Creative for WWE, to give Kross a push the likes of which he hasn’t really seen since that run he was on when Cole made the comment above.

I mean, I already had the memoir of a current WWE Superstar in my hand on Wrestlemania Weekend, I needed something to do before the show started up Sunday night, this book is sub-300 pages and thus a relatively quick read… so… yeah.

And y’all, it really was an excellent look into the life of Kevin Kesar, both long before the Kross character ever came into being – and even a fair amount of how Kesar created Kross – and at least some about his new career as Killer/ Karrion Kross. Indeed, most of the text is actually spent on his pre-WWE days – while there is *some* discussion of his WWE colleagues, the singular most common one discussed is his now-wife, known by her government name of Elizabeth but known to wrestling fans as the character Scarlett, a witch who both empowers and is powered by Kross’ brutal warrior.

Those looking for a lot of behind the scenes name dropping are going to be sorely disappointed. Kesar keeps the book focused on himself, even when discussing Elizabeth/ Scarlett. Even when others are in the scene, such as when he is meeting Elizabeth those first few times before they really started dating, or when he finally gets the call from WWE, or even when he and Elizabeth get married on an Alaskan glacier after having both been recently “let go” from WWE (and before they were both ultimately brought back), throughout the tale we see much more of Kesar than anyone else… as s memoir should be, to an extent, but also not as perhaps some fans reading wrestling memoirs specificlaly would necessarily like as much.

Instead we get all of Kesar – at least as much as he is willing to discuss publicly, even/ especially in book form. We see his early days as a kid watching wrestling and knowing even then that he wanted to do that “someday”. We see his beginnings in what turned out to be a very “unsanctioned” dive bar bare knuckle fight. We see his first career as a bouncer and later professional bodyguard, in Vegas and beyond – again, without any name dropping and with quite a bit of channeling Patrick Swayze in Road House, specifically as it relates to professionalism, treating people well, and “being nice”.

And then… a scene that ultimately reads much as the church scene from the original Kingsmen movie played out. I don’t want to go into too many details and spoil the scene, but this scene will very likely be one of the most memorable scenes in the entire book for readers, perhaps even above and beyond even his wedding (which, as he mentioned in the text, he did put pictures of on Instagram, and they truly were absolutely stunning) or anything he has done to date (as of the writing of the book) in WWE. This scene is *BEYOND* bonkers, and it really shows Kesar in all of his abilities outside of WWE.

Overall a very easily read and very approachable book about a guy that even guys that consider themselves dangerous likely would at minimum pay extra attention to if they saw him on the street, and yet the text shows that Kesar’s mind is at least as skillful as anything he can make his large, muscular body do. A guy who is much more easily approached here, at the standoff distance of a book, than he ever is staring into a camera with that fire in his eyes. Kesar takes pains to make sure the reader understands that he knows 100% that Kross is a character, and that outside of WWE work, Kross prefers to be known as “Kevin” – even among friends he works with. Yet he also does a damn good job of showing that while Kross may be borderline (or even well beyond borderline) psychotic, Kevin is a very sane – yet also still quite dangerous, when he needs to be – man. One who is, despite his appearances (both intentional and not, at times), as much a philosopher as a fighter – and thus proves to be as adept at writing as he is at fighting… and breaking bats. (Check his Instagram for that last. 😉 )

Very much recommended.

This review of Life Is Fighting by Kevin Robert Kesar was originally written on April 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Whack Job by Rachel McCarthy James

Short, Accessible Primer On The Field. While a lot of the 2* reviews criticize this book claiming that the author “never defined ‘axe murder'” and that the overall narrative “lacks cohesion” and/ or “doesn’t show enough murder”, I feel like these reviewers are being perhaps too pendantic and/ or legalistic. Instead, the author makes clear – repeatedly – that this book is about the evolution of both the axe and its use as a mechanism of killing humans – regardless of whatever government decrees at the time may or may not excuse certain individuals (particularly those working for said governments) for killing their fellow humans. For those of us who feel that *any* killing of *any* human for *any* reason is murder… this book is absolutely a primer on the history of axe murder, in all of its varying forms over the expanse of human existence.

The book begins with the earliest axes and the among the earliest proto-humans, showing that injuries above the “hat line” of the head are generally considered “intentional acts” (ie, murder) rather than accidental, as that particular region of the head is apparently difficult to injure accidentally, at least according to the text here. There is apparently at least one example of just such an injury in an early protohuman that seems to have been caused by one of the earliest, flint-knapped, hand-held axes, before handles were later added to axes, and this history is the core of the beginning of the book.

The book then goes through the evolution of the axe and its uses as tool for clearing land – and in warfare and government-sanctioned executions, particularly during the reign of Henry VIII of England – all the way up to the 2020s in showing how homeless people will often carry an axe (or its smaller form, a hatchet) as a basic tool of survival in the streets, both for clearing debris and, when needed, for personal defense. And yes, Lizzie Borden is discussed along the way.

Indeed, the one area the book is lacking, the reason for the star deduction – and the reason one *should* be at least somewhat skeptical of the author’s perhaps more fantastical claims, including those about modern era homeless people, is that at just 13% documentation, this book falls short of even my more relaxed standards of 15% documentation, much less my older, more stringent need to see at least 20% documentation. Carl Sagan had it right in proclaiming his standard of “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”, and sadly, this book is simply lacking – if by not much – in this regard. A more complete bibliography could have landed this in the 5* territory, it simply wasn’ present in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read.

Overall this really is a short, well written, approachable and understandable primer on the general topic of humans killing other humans (ie, humans committing murder) with a particular tool (the axe, in all of its various forms) over the course of human evolution. Yes, it is missing many key details and events, but in its brevity it is clear that it is meant to be more a primer of the topic than any extensive discussion thereof, and as a primer it works remarkably well to encourage people to do their own research into the topic, should they be so inclined.

Very much recommended.

This review of Whack Job by Rachel McCarthy James was originally written on April 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Secrets Of The Killing State by Corinna Barrett Lain

Utterly Horrific. The crimes of Josef Mengele (Auschwitz) and Shiro Ishii (Unit 731) during WWII will (hopefully) live on in infamy throughout human history as among the worst things governments have ever done. Sadly, even since then, humanity has shown its horrific side more times than any of us care to really think about, be it genocides in Myanmar and Rwanda, the continual sex trafficking that despite efforts has never been eradicated, the child sex scandals that have rocked so many once-trusted professions, and many, many other ways.

While none of the above should be downplayed in any way whatsoever, they *do* set the stage for the horrors of this particular tale in that we know that most of those involved in the above were the bad guys. They were monsters clothed in scrubs or robes or wearing ties. Here, the monster is… well, the government itself and the sheer ineptitude of its bureaucracies and even legislative and executive leadership – not to mention the judicial leaders that are *supposed* to alleviate some of the worst excesses of the legislative and executive branches, but as Barrett Lain shows here, rarely do when it comes to the mechanisms of putting condemned criminals to death via lethal injection in the United States.

What Barrett Lain lays bare here in this very well documented (29% of the overall text) expose are the true horrors of lethal injection – the very execution method *specifically created* to give the *illusion* (as Barrett Lain makes clear) of a “humane” murder. Except that, as noted often within this text, the particular mechanisms of how this is done in humans are actually so barbaric and horrific that they are actively outlawed for use in animals!

No matter your position on capital punishment, no matter how much you may think a particular convicted criminal (or even, as is so often the case in social media, people merely accused of various crimes and yet so many still clamor for their execution before even a criminal conviction, without any form of legal due process as guaranteed for all persons – not just citizens – in the US Constitution) “deserves” to die… you NEED to read this book.

Read this book, and consider your own conscience. Can you honestly say after reading this book that this particular method is truly reasonable in its actual application today? Can you honestly say after reading this book that you are 100% comfortable with your own loved one going through this exact process? Because as others have noted in so many other works about the other problems with the American retribution system, there are next to no actual guarantees that you or your own loved ones won’t face this fate at some point, no matter how good and righteous you may feel you are – there are simply far too many laws – even laws with felony penalties! – within the US now, to the point that *no one* can truly know when they are not running afoul of at least one of them in any given moment or action. Read this book, examine your own conscience, and truly ask yourself if you could do this job or ask your best friend to do it. Read this book, examine your own conscience, and ask yourself if you could bear to allow your children to witness this process.

Read this book, examine your own conscience, and write your own review.

As SCOTUS has decreed, as documented by Barrett Lain here, that the condemned must offer an alternative to lethal injection for their challenges to have even a possibility of even being heard, let me state clearly here now that I would vastly prefer a firing squad to the inhumane and downright barbaric practice of lethal injection. As for me, while I’ve been an advocate of permanently ending the death penalty in favor of life without parole for many years now, even I hadn’t been fully aware of just how utterly horrific this particular execution method – posed to the US public as the more “humane” option – truly is, and I for one now count as one calling for the end of this particular method even if capital punishment must be allowed to continue.

Read this book, examine your own conscience, and let the world know in your own review whether you agree with me or not.

Very much recommended.

This review of Secrets Of The Killing State by Corinna Barrett Lain was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Let The Lord Sort Them by Maurice Chammah

Solid Examination Of The Topic Told Mostly Via The Stories Of Those Involved. To be a bit more precise, if the topic at hand is “the rise and fall of the death penalty” throughout the United States generally… this book doesn’t fare as well. While it does make various attempts to show national issues and trends in capital punishment, the subtitle here really should more accurately be “The Rise And Fall Of The Death Penalty *In Texas*” (emphasis mine)… which is 100% accurate as to what you’re getting into with this book.

Chammah does a solid job of using his case studies and biographies to show the different people involved in the various cases and how they came to be in the moments they found themselves, and while the stories *can* get a bit too muddled and choppy at times when a lot is going on at once, it really isn’t any different than a multi-POV fiction novel only sporadically popping in with certain characters’ perspectives, which is a storytelling strategy I’ve seen more than once – and thus this really wasn’t a problem for me, but could absolutely be an issue for some readers. He does a similarly solid job of showing the various cases and people that played into the rise of capital punishment in Texas and the broader national trends that were occurring at the same time… and the same with the fall, showing the various people and cases that were leading that effort in Texas and how broader national trends also came to bear there as well.

Overall though, this is a reasonably well researched book, clocking in at about 17% documentation, per a Twitter conversation I had with the author, as I read the Audible version of the book and had no easy access to a Kindle or print copy of the text for purposes of this review. (My local library system here in Jacksonville, FL did in fact have print copies available even at the branch barely a mile away from my apartment, but I was working on this review before I could get there and it did *not* have eBook copies available, unfortunately.) Far from the best documented I’ve ever seen, as I’ve read a few books approaching or seemingly even over 50% documentation, but also within the more relaxed 15% or so standard I’ve been trying to adopt these last few years.

For those interested in capital punishment and related issues, this is going to be a book you should absolutely check out. Even for more general audiences, this really is a solid look at this particular topic, and you’re going to learn some things from reading it – even I did, and I’m at least somewhat well versed in the topic already due to prior reading and activism.

Very much recommended.

This review of Let The Lord Sort Them by Maurice Chammah was originally written on April 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior

Negative On Everything. Straight up, this is the most depressing book I’ve ever read other than The Road by Cormac McCarthy – which is the singular *worst* book I’ve ever read. Kendzior’s all-encompassing and ever present sense of doom drips from every page, and it is truly exhausting to even read a book that is this utterly bleak. I truly can’t imagine living life so utterly despairing – even in my own darkest of times. And this was the reason for one of the star deductions. This tale could have been phenomenal, even transcendental, as a more hopeful look at traveling the US to see its various national parks – and it could have been such even with a pessimistic world view and even with the author’s rampant cognitively dissonant political views intact. Simply write with a more hopeful tone than what is presented here!

The other star deduction is the dearth of the bibliography, clocking in at just 7% of the overall text, well short of even the 15% or so I would expect to see in even my more relaxed bibliographical standards of these last couple of years.

For those that see the United States as something to “survive, not thrive” as Kendzior so often notes – even during the Obama and Biden years! – and those that see “women treated as second class citizens, no longer having the same rights as men” (a paraphrase, but not too far off from an exact quote)… you’re probably going to think Kendzior a savant here, describing exactly how you feel to a T.

For the rest of us that choose to look on every situation, no matter how bleak, with hope – indeed, particularly for those of us who will *NEVER* see our own political preferences win in any ballot box, given the current state of affairs, yet we fight on for a better future for everyone anyway – this book is going to be one you’re going to want to defenestrate early and often.

To be quite honest, had I not accepted this as an Advance Review Copy given the strength of Kendzior’s prior work A View From Flyover Country, I would have been right there with you. Had I known how utterly depressing this book would be – obvious in even the first few paragraphs, much less the first chapters – I would have returned it in a heartbeat and never looked back.

As an exemplar of how at least some Americans are feeling and have felt for several years, yes, this book will stand as a time capsule of an era.

But it is also *a* time capsule, and one that will earn its place in the annals of history – if it is remembered that long – for how wrong it is. For how utterly depressing it is, even in a time when America and Americans are more prosperous than literally any generation before them. Things that were science fiction even in my own childhood, just a few scant years behind Kendzior’s own, are now science fact. Devices and technologies that Kendzior describes *in this text* as using at various points were barely imaginable in my own childhood, certainly to the level that they both now exist and permeate modern life.

Yes, we absolutely face challenges today, as *all* eras have faced. Denying this is denying reality at least as bad as Kendzior does. But for a book so replete with so much historical data about so many different places, Kendzior seems to miss that many of the very eras she discusses had *just* as many problems. Hell, not only this, Kendzior openly discusses the history of “Blood Island”, where politicians and others would go to duel… and yet still decries a heated political rally as a “coup”, even when no weapons were present other than in the hands of police.

No, this is a book that will play well with a very particular mindset and a very particular political view… and in all honesty, the only use anyone outside of that mindset and worldview would have to read this text is simply to see this mindset and at least attempt to understand it. Hell, maybe you’ll have more success on that point than I have after reading this.

Recommended. Only for certain readers.

This review of The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior was originally written on March 27, 2025.

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#BookReview: Lost At Sea by Joe Kloc

Interesting Expose Of A Particular Community, Suffers From Problems Typical Of Its Form. As an almost anthropological examination of a particular culture that arose over decades in a very specific region of California – the roughly six square mile region known as Richardson’s Bay, an offshoot of San Francisco Bay – this text is a pirate’s treasure trove. Specifically, as it examines the “unhoused” people who have claimed homes among the derelict and otherwise vessels floating in the bay, the so-called “anchor-outs”, it truly does a phenomenal job detailing the history of how the culture arose, a lot of the features of the specific culture, and even a lot of both the key historical figures of it and at least some of its living practitioners.

As a *journalistic* piece… it may fly in today’s “lived experience” version of “journalism”, where objectivity and distance from subject are defenestrated in favor of being “up close” and “real”… but it still would have been enhanced by being a more old school journalistic type text, at least to my mind.

Instead what we get here is almost an action, thriller, and memoir mashup wherein the author inserts his own views into the text, but the story itself becomes one of a community’s fight for its right to survive and the dastardly developers and government officials seeking to eradicate it from history once and for all.

Which for a narrative, works well. For what is supposed to be a nonfiction work… maybe doesn’t work as well.

The star deduction comes in from the dearth of bibliography, which is likely due to not much written work existing about this particular group or its history, but still, there is quite a bit here that *could* have been documented more thoroughly, if even detailing newspaper or other media reports about various events over the years.

Very much recommended.

This review of Lost At Sea by Joe Kloc was originally written on March 17, 2025.