Man V. Nature

Man V. Nature by Diane Cook is a marvelous accomplishment. I felt cautious going in; at first glance, this appears to be (yet another) suite of stories about the world winding down, the apocalypse, our slow decline as a species.  Yes, this is true.  But this collection adds something strange, off kilter to each story.  Cook’s tales spill over beyond the borders of post-apocalyptic themes.

What we get is the uncanny. Stories of worlds that are familiar and yet off; a persistent pull when reading for normalcy, of the standard emotions we all feel in any given situation, and Cook’s extraordinary ability purposely withholds this. What we get is a world we can’t grasp or understand.

The Value of Hawaii: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future

The Value of Hawaii: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future by Craig Howes (Editor) and Jonathan K. K. Osorio (Editor), present a variety of essays about the swirl of challenges that face our fiftieth state.  Far from being the paradise of tourist and ex-pat dreams, Hawaii is a real place with real, and difficult social, political and economic issues. This books shines a light on these problems,  while offering many solutions.

These essays were mostly written in and around 2008, at the start of the Great Recession.  So most of the writing on the economy and policy is colored by the collapse of Hawaii’s booming housing market, and the sharp drop in tourism.   Eleven years later, these essays are not doubt out of date.  How do things stand now?  As an economy with all of its eggs in the tourist basket, perhaps nothing has changed at all.   Hawaii is still a dangerously one note economy. 

Tefillin: Wrapped in Majesty

Tefillin: Wrapped in Majesty by DovBer Pinson, is a Chabad, Hasidic journey through the literal and figurative meaning of the wearing of tefillin. Pinson is a non-dualistic Jew, which is the basis of Chabad.  All things are G-d.  There is nothing else.  Through this lens, Pinson examines the various levels of meaning of putting on tefillin, especially in the realm of the Kabbalah.

This is a useful book for those who want to add the spice of kavanah, intention, to the very Jewish act of donning tefillin.  

Bone Dry: Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution

Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution by Alan C. Ziegler is the “go to” text for the study of Hawaii’s ecology.  You need some degree of natural science knowledge to read this book and get something out of it.  This book is a textbook, and the bone-dry prose leaves no doubt as to its status.  The writing here is inspirational.

The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao

The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, by Ian Johnson, certainly has an insider perspective on the topic at hand.  Johnson is fluent in Chinese, knows many people, and explores the issues generated by the practice of religion in China deftly and thoroughly.

Johnson shows how religion has become a greater part of life in China following Tienanmen Square.  Many people have turned inward following the political crackdown of 1989, mainly in semi-legal, small Protestant churches.  

The government, in turn, has attempted to promote some religion, especially Confucianism, to the replace now empty Socialist values of “Communist” China with a philosophy and religion of that is still ingrained in the Chinese psyche. 

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science

Douglas Starr’s The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science, is a fascinating journey examining the emerging field of forensics in the late 19th century.

Catching a serial killer necessitate the tools of modern, mass life which were just emerging in the 19th century.  Medicine, psychology, police investigation, were all become more scientific.  The telegraph allowed police departments to share information about crimes in disparate location.   Physical details of career criminals were kept on file and widely shared.

Generally, what we now call the collection of data came into being;  with an organized, and accessible body of traceable information, serial killers could no longer move from place to place, commit their terrible crimes, and go undetected, as this book clearly illustrates.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself, by Harriet Ann Jacobs, is a first-person narrative of Ms. Jacobs, who was a slave in the antebellum south.  Her story as a slave really begins when she reaches puberty, and her master makes it known he will control her sexuality (he already has children by eleven other slave women).

Ms. Jacobs, although a slave, works tirelessly to avoid victimization and works for the betterment of her life and the life of her children.  Her sacrifices are monumental. She hides in a crawlspace for seven years after running away from her master before heading north. 

Slave woman were victims of sexual exploitation and violence, of course, in many if not most case.  But Ms. Jacob’s shows how much agency some slaves had; they tirelessly worked to improve their lot, and the lot of those around them.  The were real, whole people in every sense.

Devotion: A Novel, by Madeline Stevens

Devotion: A Novel, by Madeline Stevens, is certainly a fascinating work, full of tension and strangeness. Stevens is a strong writer, with a wonderful ability to build a sense of menace from all the accumulated details of life, both the banal and extraordinary.  She uses language powerfully.  Her sentences have punch. 

But when I was done, when I pulled back from the novel, I could not resolve broader, almost philosophical issues of the work.  It is about gender, power, class, sexuality and sexual power, the private self and the public self – all this is true.  But I don't know how they fit together. 

As I can't fit the pieces together, I fall back on the narrator as mentally unwell... which seems like a cop out. There is a vexing complexity or confusion at the heart of Devotion.