Hey,
A month has passed and I’ve read some books again, with a few words on each.
The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World
Oona A. Hathaway, Scott J. Shapiro
The Internationalists deals with one of the most neglected and ridiculed diplomatic acts in history: the Briand-Kellogg Pact, through which in 1928 most great powers agreed that war is actually illegal. “BUT HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT THERE WAS A WAR AFTERWARDS, HUH, IT WAS ALL POINTLESS!” is the most common supposed burn of this effort, and honestly, I pretty much shared it.
And here is the first convincing deep explanation of why this is actually a truly pivotal moment in world politics and why from this point on we count a new world order in which conventional war is an extreme tool that moreover needs to be elaborately wrapped up, and not a perfectly normal thing that states regularly do. Beautiful, very solidly supported, and subversive.
Kate Alice Marshall
What Lies in the Woods is a very highly rated thriller about three girls who experienced trauma years ago, playing at magic, manipulation, and whatnot. Men appear only very marginally, but unlike other “women’s horror” authors, this is noticeably smarter, has some twists, and actually works with them above the level of “and then they were mean to her, for she was a woman, misunderstood.” It has nice moments, the premise “a generation later we deal with what happened to us in the past” is good. There might be genuinely too many plot twists though — the fourth through eighth didn’t have much impact. But it’ll do.
Usagi Yojimbo #31: Pekelná malba
Stan Sakai
I deliberately read just one Usagi, Pekelná malba (Hellscreen). Nice collection and the titular Hellscreen is a very, very lovely variation on “detective story in a monastery.” Love it.
Patrick Radden Keefe
Empire of Pain is, after Dreamland and Painkiller, probably the culmination of my reading about the opioid crisis. An extensive, immensely meticulous and well-edited chronicle of the family that ruled the world of painkillers for decades. Even in the critical moments, fairly decent — a number of scandals could have been blown up by several orders of magnitude more. Very interesting also as a look into the pharma industry, without the ambition to immediately change it and propose solutions.
Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein
Noise is an attempt to make a second Thinking Fast and Slow, and to force it. Yes, both biases and random noise, bursts of emotion, fatigue, and misunderstanding seep into our decision-making. Yes, AI computes many things somewhat better. But it’s all terribly hollow, with regular THIS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD. Especially for a book from 2021, it’s actually quite surprising how many problems and existing findings it simply ignores. Can’t recommend.
Otfried Preußler
A delightful selection of three times thirteen mini-stories from German folklore. Sometimes they’re just mini-descriptions at the level of a footnote, sometimes a slightly longer joke or spooky tale, sometimes just “and this happened to me, wild right.” For some reason there are also longer stories with twists, changes, and narrative arcs. If you like fairy tales and folk stories, go for it.
Bestie Burdenské: Okupované území
Evan Dorkin
Beasts of Burden has completely lost the charm of talking animals solving adventures and instead expands an ENORMOUS world of epic magic hidden in ordinary history, but actually why not. Entertaining, inoffensive.
Benjamin Ho
Why Trust Matters is my new favourite economics book, because it focuses on the concept of trust, its building, its economic meaning, and the fragility of current systems. Debts, the stock exchange, investments, institutional environments of states, and how it all affects the economy (and therefore how much bread you can buy). Very nice.
Junji Ito
Junji Ito is an icon and an absolute madman. Tomie is a collection with the central motif of a mysterious ever-returning femme fatale who occasionally suffers from a need to create the worst possible dramatic ending. Sometimes you’re just oversaturated with the bizarreness and grossness and it simply doesn’t work. Otherwise, though, nothing to fault — you can spend a nicely unpleasant afternoon with it.
Kateřina Surmanová
It’s genre fiction, sometimes a bit too simple, sometimes it runs from a very nicely told local story toward deities and worldwide affairs and whatnot. And yet it’s one of the best things I’ve read recently. Craftwise honest, with interesting characters, although curiously often women are defined by breast size, which is already a bit bizarre. The number of characters is just right to keep track while sounding diverse enough. Honest, good, and despite the respectable length I wanted to keep reading and at no point was I completely embarrassed to be reading it (which I can’t say about other books). So a pleasant surprise, thumbs up, and I’ll actually happily read more from this author. Still, one should keep in mind it’s a bit like a Czech version of It set in a village grocery store, but if you approach it with that ambition, I think it’s a fine experience.
Jón Daníelsson
The Illusion of Control deals with crises, financial regulations, fragility and stability of systems, and all related topics. Most of the time it oscillates very well between “all these methods are bullshit and we should know it” and the admission “sure, but even a bad method can be used well, and we need some information.” It shattered a few of my convictions, which is nice. Where it’s completely confused is again AI, where the author masterfully builds a straw man and REALLY punches it, as well as spewing bile at “young people who don’t understand.” At that point it bears such a strong resemblance to Taleb that you almost want to ask the author if he also rejects toothpaste. Overall fine, if you’re interested in crises and specifically financial regulation.