Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon.
The creator of the utterly brilliant HBO show “The Wire” once spent a year following the lives and cases of detectives on the Baltimore Police Department. The result is a non-fiction book that goes into the complicated life of police officers, the politics of police departments and cities, and the daily horrors the detectives are exposed to. Simon is very even-handed showing the dark side of policing, as well as the positive and near-impossible side of working America’s violent streets. Some of the stories are moving, others are downright hilarious, and some crime scenes are described in such graphic detail that you will never get the images out of your head after you read them. Nevertheless, this is the book to read if you want a no-holds barred look into policing in the United States. As for the TV show “The Wire;” all Americans should be required to watch all 5 seasons to better understand how this country’s crime, policing, government, media, and politics work and don’t work.
The Red House: A Novel by Andrea Lee. Very few novels or works of non-fiction deal with the large island of Madagascar –which is located off the Southeast corner of Africa. In fact, there is very little scholarly work or historical books on Madagascar. Along comes this novel about an African-American woman who is a scholar teaching in Milan. She and her Italian husband spend each summer at their red house in a northern beach town in Madagascar. It’s a mysterious island made up of indigenous people mixed with settlers from Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Indonesia. It’s culture and its problems are very unique. The lead character must not only learn to adapt to life in this unusual place, but also deal with the fact that on Madagascar, she, an African-American, has more power and priviledge than the local Madagascar people they employ. It’s a great book about what it means to be an ex-pat, a minority, and a visitor on this unique island.
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypse, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Mass Extinction by Peter Brannen. Who knew that a book about the carbon cycle, tectonic plates, and the previous extinctions on Earth could be so fun and fascinating. The book demonstrates that high levels of carbon dioxide have routinely caused problems for life forms on Earth. Not every creature is killed in any extinction, but the Earth’s climate changes challenge the vast majority of life forms on Earth–particularly mammals. Compared to other life forms, humans are particularly unsuited for huge variations in temperature on the level that the Earth has routinely seen. The book argues that periods of low CO2 are abberations in Earth’s history, not the norm. He’s a great, easy-to-read Science writer.
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. It turns out that people lie a lot when they take surveys. But one place where they don’t lie is in their private google searches. The author mines big data to learn about what people really think about some of the touchiest topics out there. The book is amusing, funny, and fascinating. While correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation, there is a lot to be learned regarding people’s true opinions, desires, concerns and prejudices from big data.
The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning by Hallgrimur Helgason. A funny novel about a Croatian mafia hitman who is now being hunted himself. In an effort to avoid being killed, he flees to Iceland where he hides his identity and learns about quirky Icelandic culture with the locals.
Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes- the Yamomano and the Anthropologists by Napoleon Chagnon. Chagnon did some groundbreaking anthropological work with the remote and very violent Yamomano tribes of the Northern Amazon. Beginning in the 1960’s, he discusses his challenges adapting to their world, the violence and dysfunction he found, and the increasingly politically-correct Anthropologists who preferred to downplay anything that didn’t idealize the Yamomano’s hunter-gatherer lives.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Koreans that are born and raised in Japan are considered a low-caste, minority group it is better to ignore. This novel follows 3 generations of Korean women beginning during the Japanese occupation of Korea which led many Koreans to re-locate to Japan where they have never been welcome or viewed as equals. It’s a touching novel that shows the challenges immigrants and demonized minorities face. You will care about the women that drive this story.
The Rise of America: Remaking the World Order by Marin Katusa. A book that goes against common thinking that argues that America is on the brink of another great rise, instead of decline. Katusa, A Canadian who made his fortune in the mining industry, argues quite persuasively that the U.S.A. is still indispensible to the world in a way China and other countries are not. He focuses on the strength of the dollar, credit-swaps, and the difficulty of doing business in many of the world’s countries. He’s probably a little too optimistic, but he is correct that the China-dominating-the-world thesis is overblown. Regardless, the next 10 years are going to suck no matter what. Everyone agrees on that; including Katusa.
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen. Mental illness is a common problem in the United States. And mentally ill narcissists with bully personalities are particularly dangerous. This is the true story of three girls in Washington State raised by their highly manipulative mother. It’s not a pleasant or happy read. It offers a deep, insight into a severely psychopathic personality and how that can affect the whole family.
Sex, Drugs, and Opera: There’s Life After Rock and Roll by Roland Orzabal. Yes, that’s right! The lead singer of the 80’s British pop group Tears for Fears wrote a novel; and it’s super fun. It’s the story of an 80’s washed up rock star who is offered the chance to be a part of a television talent show to resuscitate his career. Aside from the fun insights into the life of a rock star past his prime, it’s also a fun look at middle age, the music industry and celebrity. He’s not only a great songwriter, Roland is a wonderful novelist!
Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and An African Regime Gone Bad by Michela Wrong. Anyone who has been to Rwanda knows that the first visit is quite shocking. The streets are cleaner than in the U.S., there’s virtually no street crime, and even the speed limits are low and obeyed. It’s a beautiful, well-organized country that has rebounded from the horrific civil war that killed 800,000 people due to ethnic violence. But there’s a dark side to all of this law and order. The resentments and wounds of one of the worst civil wars in the last 50 years are still there under the surface. And Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s perpetual leader, rules with an iron fist and a highly active secret police. It’s not only interesting because Rwanda has a very unique story, but also because the trade-off between authoritarianism and a crime-free and relatively prosperous society is one that will be a common theme in the next couple of decades as AI, populism, and surveillance societies grow.
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. This novel takes place in Georgia as the Civil War comes to a conclusion and the South grapples with its loss. Two African-American slaves are given their freedom and a white farmer dares to give them employment. But nobody in the newly liberated South is interested in seeing two black men making a living as free men. It’s easy to believe that life was heaven for the slaves as soon as they were liberated from captivity, but in many ways, the struggle was just beginning.
Affluence Without Abundance, What We Can Learn from the World’s Most Succesful Civilization by James Suzman. There are less hunter gathering societies in the world that ever. The Bushmen of the Kalahari (San) have been, perhaps, the most resilient society on Earth. Their ways of hunting, communicating with each other, ethics of sharing and finding contentment with less is inspirational and relevant. It describes a tribe that is much closer to how humans have lived throughout human history than how we do now. For that reason, it allows us to juxtapose our lives with theirs to ask the question: How healthy is our modern lifestyle truly?
The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Sci-fi writer KSR takes us about 10 to 20 years in the future when too many extreme climate events are occuring for the world’s governments to stay as passive as they are. A mostly toothless, bureaucratic organization is created by the United Nations and it’s committee has to navigate the politics, the science, the terrorism, the conspiracy theories, and the migrations that climate change has caused. The book goes deep into the science as well as the bureaucracy and politics of climate change. While there is a main character, many chapters are written from the point of view of key people, groups, and even from the point of view of elements and inventions. The opening scene of a deadly heatwave in India is petrifying and something that is entirely plausible in 2021. In fact, the temperatures described in this fictional book have already occurred in Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico in low populated areas. It’s a temperature that is so hot and humid, the human body loses the ability to sweat and cool itself off–thus literally frying. This is a great way to learn about the challenges of climate change; and yes, it is balanced, and if anything errs on the side of optimism.