Review: The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class by Joel Kotkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently watched one of the “Great Courses” series on the Plague. The professor recording the lectures introduced the times of the plague by describing society, breaking it into the ruling nobles, the clerics, and the commoners, while introducing a new and up-rising class of merchants. The plague touched all classes, but obviously in different ways. For instance, nobles might be able to move to a location with no disease outbreaks, where commoners were often tied to their homes. I found this simplified breakdown of society easy to understand.

Fast forward to this book, and the author does roughly the same thing, but to explain how he believes society is changing to be more similar to plague-era society, with the commoners maintaining their spot as the lowest class. The other classes are the clerisy and the super-wealthy technocrats. The technocrats are the 1%, the richest people on earth, the billionaires, mapping to the nobles of old. They are generally supported by the clerisy, which are defined here as the journalists and thought leaders that often support the technocrats, similar to the clergy's duty in plague time. The author also mentions as a separate group at the end of the book the small business people, as a group that can work with other groups at different times for different reasons. These are very much the same groups as plague-era society, changed slightly for the times.

The focus of this book is mostly to describe the problem of the world becoming more like a feudal society. There really aren’t any prescriptive solutions to the problem offered. Interesting bits are the contrasting of Chinese and democratic societies going forward. The author sees the Chinese way of ruling as ascendant. For those interested in how the individual fares in this change in society, the author quotes from Piketty’s “Capital”, saying inheritance is becoming much more important.

The author provides many statistics and stories to back up his thoughts. It is quite readable, and unfortunately quite believable. I tend to like happy endings – but since I am not a billionaire this doesn’t have one. Makes you think, and worry.

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Review: The Rise of Silas Lapham

The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting title given the book covers more of the fall of Mr. Lapham. But that title puts a different filter on that decline. Nicely done. Well written for its time, this one reminded me of another recent read, Frank Norris’ “McTeague”. But where McTeague (and other Norris characters) decline through greed, Lapham seems to owe stubbornness for his downfall. Makes me wonder if greed is a Western American trait, as Norris’ books are about the West, while perhaps stubbornness is a New England trait. I’ll have to read more to validate that. This also offers an interesting (to me, maybe only to me) description of the early American paint industry. I had not understood the background, and now wonder how true-to-history this is. Looking forward to reading another Howells book, but hoping he changes the story, as this one got a bit depressing in its slide.

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Review: The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats Are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas

The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats Are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas by Daniel W. Drezner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Easy to read book on the state of idea expression. It doesn’t focus on the conferences, as I initial believed. Instead, it focuses on the people behind the distribution of the ideas – the intellectuals and the thought leaders. The author distinguishes these two types, with the first being the kind that can apply intellectual thought anywhere and the kind that would in the past show up as the intellectual on, say, “The Dick Cavett Show”, on a regular basis and speaking on a variety of topics. The perfect talk show guest. The thought leader is more of a one-trick pony, focusing on a single topic. Think of the famous author who writes books that are very similar, never far afield from the previous one. There appears to be more one-trick ponies nowadays. But I wonder if there is a dearth of talk shows with intellectual hosts driving this conclusion. I’d read more by the author.

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Review: Broken Horses

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile


Brandi Carlile book is a lot like her albums. There are plenty of heart felt stories that involve lovers and family. I wasn’t expecting to read about Brandi the fan, but here, she lays claim to being a common music fan, attentive to the musicians she meets along the way, famous and not-so. Another part that I didn’t expect was the beginning of her career, where she seemed to “pull herself up by her bootstraps”, from humble beginnings. Otherwise, this is the story you’d expect it to be. I listened to this in its audiobook version. Carlile sings some songs at the end of her chapters, her and her guitar. These were very nicely done. As an additional bonus, the last hour, or half hour (I lost track) is an album of additional songs. That was quite a nice bonus for the audiobook (although perhaps as a tradeoff for the pictures you don’t get, it lowers the value a bit relative to the paper version). Altogether a nice intro to a down-home yet quirky singer.

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Review: The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn't, and Get Stuff Done

The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn't, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I must enjoy reading personal productivity books, I’ve read dozens. This is another. I enjoyed the author’s voice in this one. I didn’t find anything groundbreaking, but it was another good reminder of how to be effective and efficient. I’d be willing to read more by this author.

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Review: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven’t yet gotten around to seeing the movie, so I took on this audiobook without much of an idea of what I was getting into. What I found was a well narrated book, with plenty of Hollywood trivia and casual name dropping, along with a series of scenes that fit together well, but didn’t seem to follow a plot, perhaps because of all the flashbacks. And I find, a few weeks after finishing the audiobook, that I can’t for the life of me remember the ending, which implies to me a fade to black. But it was fun to listen to. It reminded me of all those stories that celebrity guests would tell Johnny Carson, but with more detail, which made these characters seem more real than those real celebrities. I’d love to hear another by Mr. Tarantino.

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Review: The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age

The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age by Sridhar Pappu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Did anyone read “Summer of ‘68” by Tim Wendel? It covered the intersection of baseball and current events in the Summer (and Fall) of 1968. The focus was on the key pitchers of the time, Denny McLain and Bob Gibson, and the racial issues prevalent in the country. Wendel’s book was published in 2012. Fast forward 5 years to 2017. That’s when “The Year of the Pitcher” was published. And it’s about…the same things. I recall writing in my review of Wendel’s book that it mentioned the encroachment of football onto the stage, vying to replace baseball as “America’s sport”. I remember thinking this was an unexpected bit of history to share in a baseball book. Strangely, the same thing popped up in “The Year of the Pitcher”. The authors seem to have used some of the same sources. I’d guess these two books have about 80% overlapping topics, and perhaps 2/3 overlapping anecdotes. The obvious takeaway is that 1968 was a highly interesting year for baseball and American society. I’m not sure you need to read two pop-history/sports books on it. “Summer of 68” covered the fall as well. “Year of the Pitcher” talks a lot about Jackie Robinson, who was not a pitcher, nor was he facing pitchers at the time. Both titles were a little misleading. Having read both, I’d say both are good, with “Summer of 68” taking the nod based on a better cover and seniority.

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