Tag: nonfiction

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#BookReview: The Big Necessity by Rose George

Interesting. Possibly Benefits From My Reading Audible Version. The day I was finishing reading this book, my own dad was being congratulated for reaching 15 years working at Cobb County, Ga’s RL Sutton Water Reclamation Facility. One of my brothers had also worked at a similar facility several years ago, before dad even started working there, so I’ve had a tangential knowledge of at least some of the issues raised in this book for even longer than the near 20 yrs since George first began writing it back in 2006.

And this tale is absolutely interesting. Perhaps a bit dry at times, and certainly with many references from earlier tales in the book the deeper you get into it, but as a global tale of how the world takes on the issue of “solid waste management”, as the US euphemism goes, this was truly a fascinating and globe trotting tale that perhaps spent a bit more time in the Indian subcontinent than it arguably should have and could maybe have used a foray into South America, but was still utterly fascinating in what it did cover nonetheless.

From the origins of sewers as we currently know them in London to the high tech roboticized toilets of Japan to the open defecation so prevalent even then in India as George was writing this book, this is a globe trotting adventure that takes us on a look at an area of life that we all do… and do our best not to think about.

Ultimately this was a very well written examination of its topic, and one that I would love to see yet another update to – or perhaps even a full on sequel of – now that we *are* approaching the 20 yr anniversary of George’s first research into the topic.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Big Necessity by Rose George was originally written on February 3, 2025.

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BookAnon.com’s Top 24 Nonfiction Books of 2024

I wound up reading 208 books this year, so culling those down to even 46 was a bit of a challenge. I really do encourage you to check out them all, even the ones I rated as 1* are ones that you may enjoy, should you disagree with my thoughts on the books at hand.

With that noted, here are the 24 nonfiction books that stuck out the most to me this year, listed in publication order. Note that all of these books released in 2024, as this year I decided to limit the lists to exclusively books both read and released in the year in question.
Continue reading “BookAnon.com’s Top 24 Nonfiction Books of 2024”

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#BookReview: The Gift Of Not Belonging by Rami Kaminski

“New” (Yet Also Obvious, At Least For This Reader) Research Marred By Lack Of Bibliography. As I noted in the title just now, really the only objective flaw in this text, at least the Advance Review Copy of it I read in December 2024 months before actual publication, is the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at an almost non-existent 2%. Given the particularly strong claims made within this text, that is a *shockingly* small amount of evidence to support Kaminsky’s claims, which while I acknowledge are based on his personal career as a therapist, still need actual documentation from outside sources in order to be more fully believed and accepted as objective reality.

This dearth of documentation was the cause of the star deduction, but otherwise this was an interesting, if obvious – at least to me – read.

Maybe it is due to being Autistic, maybe it is because I’ve always felt I lived my life between two worlds in virtually every possible arena, maybe it is any number of other factors, but Kaminsky’s arguments about an “otrovert” – a term he is coining here to mean someone predisposed to be focused outside of any group – felt rather obvious to me. In claiming that both extroverts and introverts ultimately want to be part of whatever community they find personally valuable, but otroverts exist more along the periphery and don’t feel those communal bonds as importantly… Kaminsky’s arguments made a lot of personal sense to me, as this is largely the way I’ve felt throughout my life. Indeed, in my later teen years I actually explicitly told those around me that I needed to learn what I believed for the simple reason that I believed it to be true – not because those of my community or any other community decreed it to be true, but because I had done my own research and reached my own conclusions. At the time I believed this was something every adult should do – though as I’ve grown over the near three decades since, I’ve realized that few ever truly do. Instead, most ultimately subscribe to some minute variation of the beliefs of those around them or those they have some strong online or otherwise physically distant relationship with. Which again, makes Kaminsky’s arguments ring true to my own personal observations.

But while my personal observations may flavor and direct my own personal beliefs and, through communication, can help influence the beliefs of others, I hesitate to claim my observations as true *conclusions* of objective reality and instead try to always point out that they are simply my own views. I’m just the blind mouse reporting my own observations as I feel around my own little section of the elephant, and my own direct observations could in fact be wrong in the more general and objective sense.

Which is why I *really* wanted to see a LOT more documentation here, because Kaminsky’s points *do* ring true to me – but without far more documentation from far more sources, it is truly hard to know if this is just a viewpoint Kaminsky and I largely share or if there truly is this third personality type out there, and that societal understanding of this third personality type could prove beneficial in the long run *if it is shown to objectively exist*.

Read this book. Kaminsky does a great job of laying out his arguments in a largely conversational, easy to follow manner, using a lot of personal and (non identifiable) patient anecdotes. Make your own call about whether you think Kaminsky is on to something or is a crank that shouldn’t be trusted. Write your own review of this book explaining which side you fall on and why. And hell, maybe together our reviews can provide a level of documentation that this text is utterly missing. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Gift Of Not Belonging by Rami Kaminski was originally written on December 28, 2024.

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#BookReview: Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

Not As Much Of A Hit Piece As One Might Expect. If you see that a self-proclaimed “environmentalist” is writing a book about nuclear energy and specifically the Diablo Canyon Power Plant along Central California’s coast, many would likely assume this is going to be little more than a thinly veiled hit piece about how evil the plant is and how it should never have been extended.

And one would be WRONG in that assumption… mostly.

Tuhus-Dubrow instead actually does a reasonably balanced-ish (if still clearly tilted slightly (your mileage may vary on how “slightly”) towards the anti-nuclear position) approach of looking at the totality of everything about nuclear power in the 21st century, showing its evolutions from its earliest incarnations in the middle of the previous century when many thought nuclear power could usher in a Pre-War version of the world from Fallout (briefly seen in the opening sequence of Fallout 4, for example) into its most modern – and promising yet highly contested – forms, using the Diablo Canyon facility as the basis of much of the overall narrative.

Along the way she makes it a point to talk to many on both sides of the issue and give the requisite brief biographies of each of the key players to the narrative she is constructing, as well as discuss in varying detail the whole of the nuclear power saga – everything from its well known incidents to its lesser known incidents to how *exactly* spent nuclear fuel is stored (mostly, she never details the process involved at facilities such as South Carolina’s Savannah River Plant, where I’ve worked a couple of times in a couple of different software engineering roles) and most everything in between. She discusses the various pro- and anti- groups that have formed over the years and actively interviews several leaders on both sides.

But it is during these interviews in particular that Tuhus-Dubrow develops a new term she clearly means and uses as a pejorative throughout much of the text, specifically to describe many – if not all – on the pro-nuclear energy side: “nuclearists”.

Still, even this wasn’t truly significant enough to necessitate the star deduction. Instead, that comes from the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 11% or so of the Advance Review Copy of the book I read nearly four months before publication.

Ultimately, no matter your position on nuclear energy and even if you, like I, have actively worked in the field for any length of time, you’re going to learn something from reading this book. So give it a read, and make sure to write your own review about your own experience with it. And then go read the fictional Viral Apocalypse series by Michael McBride, showing one way Diablo Canyon could actually someday help cause the Apocalypse. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow was originally written on December 28, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Great River by Boyce Upholdt

Nothing Technically Wrong – Yet Your Mileage Will Absolutely Vary. This is one of those books where there is nothing technically wrong – even the bibliography clocks in at a healthy 30% or so – and yet with the way Upholdt chooses to write this book… eh, a lot of people are going to have a lot of problems with it.

The book does a decent enough job of going through (at a very high level, mostly) the breadth of the history of the Mississippi, particularly as it relates to human interaction with the river, from the earliest of “Native American” (themselves recent immigrants, at this point in history) all the way forward into 2020s era issues. But make no mistake, if you’re looking for a more geography-based examination of the river… this really ain’t that. Instead, this is far more of an engineering look at the engineering challenges of living amidst the river and shaping it – as much as possible – to human needs of the given era… no matter how ill-advised or not quite thought through or understood those efforts to shape it may have been in any given era.

One large point of contention here, for many, is the “less than straight” narrative flow, as Upholdt may be talking about 19th century efforts (or even 2020s efforts) and suddenly be doing a deep dive into ancient efforts either using an earlier tech or perhaps in the same area of the river. Similarly, we may be in New Orleans and suddenly jump to Chicago or St Louis or vice versa. These jumps worked reasonably enough for my own mind, but I also fully admit my own (Autistic) mind is very different than many, and not everyone will be able to follow such jumps with such ease.

I think, for me, the largest point of contention for my own personal tastes was Upholdt’s prevalent and pervasive denigration of anything good about Western and/ or white efforts within the River, getting quite preachy at times about how other societies’ efforts were “better” in some way or another according to his own tastes. No, I’m not defending in any way actual evil and vile actions that anyone of any race did along the Mississippi – humans are idiots in the best of times, and across all of humanity across all of time, there will always be people behaving nobly and people behaving abhorrently no matter their demographics. My issue with Upholdt’s commentary is simply that he routinely excuses the bad in every other group while highlighting the bad in Western/ white people and ideas.

But maybe my reading of the text was off and you don’t see any of that. Maybe my reading was spot on and you see it – but agree with Upholdt’s views on the topics at hand. As I said in the beginning, your mileage is absolutely going to vary on this book.

If you’re interested in the history of human engineering as it relates to the Mississippi River, you’re ultimately going to find this book at least somewhat enjoyable no matter your particular beliefs about any given topic, though there may indeed be sections where nearly anyone will also want to rapidly defenestrate it at the closest available opportunity. Read the book for yourself, decide for yourself what you think of it, and write up your own review of it. Feel free to call me out in your review if you truly think I deserve it. Just read the book for yourself if you think it is something you might be interested in and write your own review when you finish it. (Or even if you DNF it, write your own review noting where and why in the text you decided to DNF.)

Recommended.

This review of The Great River by Boyce Upholdt was originally written on December 28, 2024.

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#BookReview: Unforgiving Places by Jens Ludwig

Wherein Academia Catches Up To Eminem And Dr. Dre. First up, I gotta give Ludwig credit here, the text is 41% bibliography, which is truly remarkable – on the higher end of any book I’ve ever read. So, truly, kudos. No matter what those sources may say, the fact that they were so prevalent throughout the text is a good thing where I come from – at worst, it is crystal clear the information being used to present the narrative.

And before we get into the meat of the review, I do need to note that Ludwig’s reliance on the terms “System 1” and “System 2”, while perhaps academically accurate… also makes his arguments less clear and concise, as one has to constantly remember what “System 1” and “System 2” mean. So for this review, I’m going to do what Ludwig should have done and refer to them as “Automatic” and “Thinking”.

Basically, Ludwig’s entire point is that gun violence is not a question of “bad people” – as he claims the GOP likes to proclaim (in a fair amount of straw man, but perhaps with some valid enough straws) or of “bad environments” – as he claims the Democrats like to proclaim (in a similar amount of straw man/ straws), but rather *bad decision making*. Ummm…. duh, doc. From there, Ludwig’s entire premise centralizes on disrupting the Automatic action and forcing the person about to commit gun violence – be it murder or suicide – to *think* about what they’re about to do and whether they really want to do it.

So this entire 352 page book that clocks in at 41% documentation is essentially a long way of saying exactly what Eminem and Dr. Dre said in Guilty Conscience over 20 years ago.

Ludwig does in fact lay out the arguments in a very systematic, academic manner. Though he *does* rely *way* too much on Chicago, the *very* place most Americans think of as having the *worst* problem with gun violence in the entire country (and as Ludwig himself admits in the text, having perhaps only the second worst gang problem in the country, IF it is behind LA’s gang problem in any given year). But given that at least one recurring example used in the narrative is the doc walking his own dog… maybe there are reasons Ludwig didn’t look too much further afield.

But seriously, read the book. Maybe it will help crystallize in your own mind exactly what Ludwig does throughout the text: the arguments and policies of the last century clearly aren’t really moving the needle on the issue, so perhaps it is time for new ways of thinking. Of finding ways that disrupt the Automatic system and instead force individuals into the Thinking mode for even 10 minutes (or up to 3 hrs or so, in the case of suicide attempts, apparently).

Maybe if enough politicians read the book, maybe if Barack Obama or Bill Gates put it on their 2025 reading lists, maybe more people will consider these thoughts, and maybe things might actually get better.

Maybe if we’d listened to Eminem and Dre 20 yrs ago, we might have already been there.

Very much recommended.

This review of Unforgiving Places by Jens Ludwig was originally written on December 22, 2024.

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#BookReview: Fewer Rules, Better People by Barry Lam

The Practical Case For A More ‘Libertarian’ Ethic In All Walks Of Life. First off, let’s acknowledge that the Libertarian Party in the US is a joke of its former self that has squandered in these last few years all the hard-won gains it had achieved in its first 40 years – including the first so-called “third” Party candidate with over a million votes in any US election *ever* (John Monds, Governor of Georgia, 2010, followed by the LP’s Presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, in 2012 and again in 2016).

But seriously, forget about the LP and every instance you’ve ever heard of “libertarianism” in the media, particularly over the last 15 yrs or so.

What Lam does here, instead, is build a far more practical case for largely the same ideals. No, he never specifies “remove this government agency” or “that mandate is unconstitutional” or some such, his arguments are far more practical and every day – why must a mandate exist to buy coffee from a coffeeshop that doesn’t even open (at least on certain days) until 10am exist? Why shouldn’t I be able to buy coffee for my 8a meeting from a different vendor who is open at that time? As but one example Lam actively cites.

Time after time after time, case after case after case, Lam builds his argument chiefly around the insanity of the proliferation of laws, mandates, and rules across the US in particular. Even mandates with lofty ideals often wind up *harming* those ideals in their specificity and implementation, according to Lam, in a common theme throughout this text.

While entirely a philosophical, if practical philosophy, text, the writing style is far from a Mill or a Thoreau – this is far more approachable and conversational, easy for basically anyone with the reading skills to actually read the text to follow through logically and understand Lam’s points.

No, the singular flaw I found here was dearth of its bibliography, clocking in at a paltry 9% in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read just a couple of months before publication. Had this had double (or even triple, if I’m being hopeful here :D) the documentation it does, it would be a truly flawlessly executed book that strongly and persuasively makes its case quite well indeed.

Overall a compelling book written in an easily approachable style, this is one of those books that anyone committed to “Liberty in our lifetime” (as the LP once proclaimed) should read, take to heart, and begin beating the drums for. It makes the case for its points truly better than most libertarians of any era have, including the oft-cited (in LP circles) Harry Browne.

Very much recommended.

This review of Fewer Rules, Better People by Barry Lam was originally written on December 12, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger

Rare Blend Of Science And Mysticism Marred By Racism And Misandry. Quite honestly, I read the Audible version of this book, where Schlanger’s wonder of her topic comes through in her breathy, reverent reading of her text – and kudos to her, as not many authors can pull off reading their own text for the Audible version. (Though yes, this *is* far more common in nonfiction.) But *because* I read the Audible, I actually had to borrow this book from the Jacksonville Public Library, where I live, to check the length of its bibliography – which does in fact clock in at a relatively healthy 25%. So despite the extraordinary claims made throughout this text, at least it is reasonably well documented.

All of the above noted, however… Schlanger makes some *remarkable* claims throughout this text, and while I don’t agree with at least one 1* review on Goodreads that she was nearly dogmatic – my summary of that review’s arguments – about her insistence on her so-broad-as-to-be-nearly-useless definitions of concepts such as “intelligence” and “communication” and “consciousness”, I *do* agree that Schlanger stretches these words so as to be nearly incomprehensible to anyone.

While Schlanger does a remarkable job as a journalist covering all aspects of her chosen topic, she also crosses the boundary lines of science and mysticism so early, often, and frequently that to read this book is very nearly to watch a Dr. Strange MCU movie and accept that the conceits of its mystic “sciences” are real in the reality in which you are reading this review. Her skills as a writer make the text flow beautifully and, again, reverently… but the grasp on objective reality one would normally expect in a popular science book… isn’t always as “there” as it should be in such a book. Instead, Schlanger’s embrace of the (at least near) mystic is more readily apparent, particularly through certain sections of the text.

And while this is bad enough, and let’s call it a half star deduction, these are almost style issues – few would bat an eye if this were labeled more a philosophy or ethics book than a science book.

No, the real problem with the text, at least for me, was the frequent excusing of mystics claiming to be scientists by claiming that their mysticism is no worse than far more accomplished actual scientists such as Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, pointing to their own mystic beliefs (common in their era over 100 yrs ago) and proclaiming “but those were white men” (an exact quote) and so their mystic beliefs were excused. No ma’am. Their mystic beliefs were excused because they achieved great scientific accomplishments. The people you excuse have not reinvented the way humans live or communicate many times over, and if they ever manage to achieve a similar accomplishment, you won’t be the only one excusing their mysticisms. It is the blatant and pervasive racist misandry of these types of comments throughout the text that results in the other half star deduction, as they are not *so* pervasive as to necessitate a full star deduction of their own.

Overall this is absolutely an interesting read on many fronts, one that one can learn a great deal from and on that is documented enough that its claims should be taken seriously – but as we all know, sources *can* be cherry picked, so a great deal of discernment and further reading is also very much in order after reading this text.

Recommended.

This review of The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger was originally written on December 11, 2024.

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#BookReview: Sea Of Grass by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty

Seemingly Comprehensive Review Of Its Field Marred By Dearth Of Bibliography. This is one of those books you pick up randomly because “hey, I don’t actually know more than the very rough basics about the American Prairie”, and it will actually give you a largely well rounded view of the entire topic, from its ancient origins and pre-European development through the Indian Wars/ Manifest Destiny era and through the Dust Bowl years all the way up to mostly current farming tech/ practices in the region. Yes, the commentary is titled perhaps a touch toward the left side of the dial, but honestly it wasn’t anywhere near as pervasive or preachy as some other similar texts tend to get, so eh, it was enough to mention here but now I’m moving on.

No, the real problem, at least with the Advance Review Copy edition I read roughly 6 months before publication, is the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 7% of the overall text – a far cry from even the 15% of my newly relaxing standard for bibliography length, much less the 20-30% of my former standard. So that’s the star deduction – for all of the facts presented, there simply isn’t anywhere near enough bibliography to back them up – much less the more editorial commentary.

Overall a seemingly strong primer on the topic, I know I learned a lot about a lot here, and I suspect many will as well. I simply wish it had been better documented.

Very much recommended.

This review of Sea Of Grass by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty was originally written on December 3, 2024.

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#BookReview: Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp

Anti-Western Ideology And Dearth Of Bibliography Mar Otherwise Solid Enough Examination Of The Topic. This is one of those books that has a lot of great information… and then doesn’t really document where that information came from. Clearly, Clapp traveled extensively and did a lot of first hand observations – which is clear from the narrative. And yet there is also quite a bit of discussion of histories old enough (yet still modern enough) that Clapp could not possibly have conducted such interviews himself, such as one comment from a letter from an activist in 1992 Guatemala regarding the trade in trash being more lucrative at the time than the drug trade! Thus, there is enough that wasn’t directly observed that the bibliography should have been longer than the 13% the Advance Review Copy form of this book I read a few months before publication had. Still, that was only call it a half star deduction, as 13% is really close to the 15% that I’m trying to relax my standard to (from 20-30%).

The other half star deduction is from the explicit and pervasive anti-Western commentary – at one point going so far as to claim that “Indigenous societies were in greater touch with Earth’s natural rhythms than white settlers. They had a more profound sense of moral purpose.” While this statement was perhaps the single worst in the narrative, there were numerous similar comments spread throughout the entirety of the text, enough that some may wish to defenestrate this book early and often.

But don’t. Read the book. There really is quite a bit here, and while some of it is included in other works on the trash trade and trash life cycle – such as Year Of No Garbage by Eve Schaub, Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy, and Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis – Clapp manages to go to other areas (such as Indonesia) not covered in these other works and show their own problems and opportunities in stark clarity. Indeed, remove the blatant anti-Western bias, and this is truly a solid work in the field, showing a wide breadth of the overall problem of the life of trash after it is thrown away and now nothing ever really solves this particular problem… in part due to the classic peril of there being too much money to be made by *not* solving it.

So read this book. Maybe you agree with the author’s biases, maybe you’re vehemently opposed to them. Either way, I’m almost 100% certain that even if you happen to be an actual expert in the global trash trade… you’re *still* going to learn something from having read this book.

Recommended.

This review of Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp was originally written on December 2, 2024.