The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
Tim Alberta
A glimpse into what’s happened to American evangelicals over the past few years: and it’s a glimpse from the perspective of a faithful, very conservative reporter for whom the starting point is the question “what the fuck is going on with these people.”
Great insight into how the mechanics of extremism and radicalized politics permeate various sub-groups, and specifically into how already oftentimes borderline interpretations of Christian doctrine become even more fractured under the weight of political needs.
If someone is going to tell you that Putin’s linking of church and state is terribly wrong, but that Trumpism in America is sincere conservatism, I think this is a thorough, ornate and detailed answer as to why not at all, not at all. There are other characters besides Trump deflating. From Ted Cruz to the hapless Florida governor and Hershel Walker (whose candidacy in “GOD AND AMERICA” signs is a really bizarre story) to Tucker Carlson.
The church is a popular place to radicalize and spout nonsense, not just in the US. It’s also a rather sad game for the churches themselves. In exchange for a brief period of glory and enthusiasm for a few preachers, an institution that is supposed to deliver the good news and offer support for all in need becomes a place for heated self-presentation by people with their own political agenda – and these saviors also get tired for two terms; after all, the membership of their respective churches is rapidly declining. Whether it is Patriarch Kyrill’s fraternization with Putin, Polish PiS’s close relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, Trump’s efforts to occupy churches for himself and his cronies, or even Duke’s affinity for Zeman, we are witnessing similar tragedies around the world.
Churches have a place in the world and often offer unique services and assistance. But when the pulpit becomes a place to spout conspiracies, incite murder and hatred, and seek to bring not peace but escalated political warfare to everything that goes, we should all take heed.
Especially those of us who subscribe to Christianity. If we allow Christ’s legacy to be taken away by the merchants of hate and parties for whom it is just another scam, we have failed.
Ronald Malfi
The basic premise of “my wife died and strange things were left behind” quickly devolves into a very classic “serial killer” thriller that succeeds here and there in evoking “wow, could it have been THAT guy?” thoughts, but otherwise keeps wallowing in the same paragraphs, the same grief.
Which is understandable, but it goes nowhere. Everything, including the final capture, is terribly dull, and the attempt of keeping adding a supernatural element into things feels an awful lot like something the author added to upgrade the story after it was already finished.
It’s quite nifty that the book doesn’t even worry about downright asshole behaviour on the part of the deceased, nor does it feel the need to comment on it in any major way or loudly condemn it, leaving the reader alone to say “well, that was not good”.
Overall disappointing, I wouldn’t even recommend reading it as a distraction while on a train.
Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World
Ha-Joon Chang
A fun book that shows through different dishes that “this is what thinking about economics can look like, and this is what it looks like in practice”. The most interesting part, of course, is the author’s interest in going in and breaking down as many parts of what he sees as neoliberal economic orthodoxy as possible – from the futility of various types of statistics, to obtuse “free trade” reinterpretations of the history of industry building.
But it is no more than a taster. If you’re interested in how to think about economics, and to get a bunch of interesting recipes to go with it, it’s a tasty and reasonably short thing.
Ray Nayler
“Near future” – but the world is geopolitically completely bizarrely divided, including superpowers like the “Tibetan Buddhist Republic”. The world is thus supposed to appear close and graspable, if not deep and full of intrigue. But it’s just a masquerade; you don’t make depth by inventing fantasy technology and taking ten giant leaps to divide the world, and then cooking something up on top of it.
There’s also a problem with what Nayler is actually cooking up. AI, self-awareness, research, corporate espionage, drones, neural nets, empathic hacking…these are all cool props for some cyberpunk, but we don’t get his coolest stuff, we get a group of nerdy heroes who sort of exist, do their thing (even though the actual drama or at least “science” practically doesn’t happen in the story), and then somehow it all ends. Right down to the bizarre happy ending, actually, whose surprising “it was me all along” ending is… just terribly stupid, on the level of the shocking conclusion of The Glade Inn.
I love octopuses, I’m extremely interested in what they do, I’ve seen all the actual videos the author references. But how this turned into a rather less interesting story, where the extra curiosity of octopuses is completely covered by the magic of all sorts of AI, I just don’t understand. A hugely wasted opportunity.
The writing is quite fine, of course, and the individual scenes can be interesting, but both the plots and especially the endings and world-building didn’t work for me at all.
Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future
Chun Han Wong
Chronicling rise and current status of Xi Jinping with depth of context of both the historical events, deep party intrique and military and economical issues of China.
Only thing which I was really not interested in were the exact „unique treasures“ the author highlighted in his afterword: small ilustrations of day to day life, struggles and random human stories. However I fully understand that these will probably make the book much more palatable for most people.
Five stars, great work.
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find — and Keep — Love
Amir Levine, Rachel Heller
This could have been an email – email trying to explain ALL relationship movements and needs into one conflict, one personal paradigma.
It is an useful tool, but it can’t really cover everything and the repetition does not help.
Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities
Sherlock Holmes Cthulhu Casebooks #2
James Lovegrow
The story inside the story is the best part – something that would be entirely readable on its own. The metastory connecting the trilogy is too overblown and just…awkward, boring, cringy.
Writing is still good, inside jokes funny, some scenes and characters well set up. But the strategic direction was bothering me. Hope it will get better in the trilogy finale.
Gemma Files, Jesse Peper (Contributor), Jon Padgett (Editor)
The ideas are mostly interesting, the execution is not, and the horror stemming from „oh no, time loops / end of the world / WEIRD PLACE“ gets actually old real quick. It might suit you better, I was just not into it.