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Booknotes 3.24

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Nonfiction

  • The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement, by Sharon McMahon, published 2024. Quite good. Lots of inspiring, hopeful stories from history, which was just what I needed when I read this. Speaking of the challenges these people overcame, by the way, it’s awful how America has been (and clearly often still is) so sexist and racist. Human tribalism is a hard thing to overcome. I feel like the gospel of Jesus Christ is an effective countermeasure, though.
  • The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen, published 2023. I heard about this from the newsletters of Austin Kleon and Ryan Holiday. Really liked it. For the past few years (I’ve mentioned this before), I’ve been using pretty much exclusively digital notes, but reading this got me itching to return to paper at least some of the time. The little that I’ve done so far has been satisfying. I didn’t know it took five hundred years for Florence to return to pre-plague population levels. I also hadn’t really thought about paper being so critical in the development of art, but it makes a lot of sense (having an affordable way to do lots of sketches and studies). In the part about the Dutch album amicorum, I suddenly remembered that when I was on my mission, the younger Thais (and missionaries, including me) had friendship books, which I had totally forgotten about. Two other parts that stood out to me and that I’m still thinking about: the idea of notebooks containing rough notes that later get transcribed into journals and then get refined and processed until they’re ready for publication, and the idea of notebooks as an actual extension of one’s mind — an SD card for the brain, basically. Oh, I also enjoyed the history of double-entry accounting.

Fiction

  • Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, published 2007, fiction. I read this for book group. It’s from the perspective of a woman who gets early-onset Alzheimer’s and shows what that’s like. Whew, it’s tragic. Fiction is a great vehicle for this type of thing, though — letting you experience something you probably haven’t (similar to Kindred). Looking forward to reading Genova’s ALS book at some point down the road.
  • The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman, published 2020, mystery. Quite liked it. Fun, delightful characters (Joyce especially), and twisty, too. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series, and then Osman’s newer series after that.
  • The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett, published 2024, fantasy. A twisty Holmes/Watson-style murder mystery, with big monsters in the background for flavor. Other than a few small parts I didn’t care for, I liked it. Especially the interesting worldbuilding. I still need to finish Bennett’s Founders trilogy, which also had interesting worldbuilding (magic ala programming).