The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very fun short read. It's a bit spoiled by the fact that everyone knows the surprise before reading the book, but I still enjoyed the story. My other issues are that we never get to hear the juicy bad fun Mr. Hyde is up to and that Mr. Hyde seems to help Dr. Jekyll suppress him which makes no sense since Mr. Hyde is pure evil.

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Ghost Wars by Steve Coll

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There was a lot of really interesting information in this book that I was excited to read about. However, it was buried in a ton of information that while it did add a little color here and there, it largely bogged down my overall understanding of the topic. The main players in this narrative are the CIA, Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Massoud, President Reagan, the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, Bin Laden, Pakistan, President Clinton, the Taliban, and arguably the drones. However, there are thousands of individuals in this book with all sorts of personal details about them such as what sports their children played. I think an abridged version of this book would be great, but the full version was just too much. I finished it out of sheer stubbornness.

Having recently read The Black Swan and the related series of books, the thing that stands out about this narrative to me it how impossible it was to predict the long-term consequences of US action in Afghanistan during the Cold War. So if you're looking for answers or the ability to assign blame, there might be none to be found. The most likely cause as far as I can determine is fanatical religion itself.

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Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In many ways this book is more interesting than The Black Swan, and I agree with a lot of what Taleb writes about in the book. I especially enjoyed and agreed with his thoughts on diet. (Really!) But there are also more things in this book that can be picked apart, either because he is wrong or flippantly unclear about them. Maybe that just makes the book more interesting to discuss in a book club or seminar.

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Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This has everything: moral conscience, adventure, family, romance, feminism, politics, and religion. It's literary fiction and it has an element of fantasy. Some of it reads like a poetry. Worth reading.

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Human Acts by Han Kang

Human Acts by Han Kang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is heavy. It doesn't sneak up on you as the novel opens on a room full of corpses, but it does grow steadily more emotional.

This is a reminder to people who grow lazy and ignorant in comfortable democracies what the loss of democracy is really like. The right to peaceably assemble- protesting- is a right in free countries because when it is not, nothing else is free.

But this novel is also a general condemnation of humanity, and it stings.

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The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not like Taleb's other three "Incerto" books. This is a book of aphorisms. Initially, I had a negative reaction to this because I was expecting a book like Taleb's other books about predictions and random events. I think I also had a negative reaction because I'm mostly familiar with Buddhist aphorisms (and not with the classical Greek ones Taleb cites), and Taleb's attempt to write a book of aphorisms seemed arrogant.

But then I actually read them, and they're pretty good, and they fill the need for aphorisms for the modern increasingly complex world. It's a really short book so you can read it quickly, but more likely you need to think about most of the sentences for longer than you otherwise would. This might even require a rereading.

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The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a good expenditure of my time. Taleb makes a coherent argument about things I've previously thought about but vaguely dismissed both because of my desire to be normal and my fear of potential "black swans." I say "vaguely dismissed" because I can't actually dismiss my fears by just telling myself they are irrational; I can only avoid taking action to prevent the consequences.

I didn't totally understand all the writing about models in Part 3, but this doesn't seem totally necessary to understanding his larger points.

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Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some parts of this are very good and reminded me of guided meditations about mindfulness. However, there are a lot of parts about politics and about not traveling that I just can't get behind.

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Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This had a lot of interesting ideas, some new to me. However, the author's hatred of outlines and organizations was apparent well before he confessed it. Taleb seems to appreciate randomness in life, but also in his writing. The central point of his book is that we fail to appreciate how much is attributable to randomness and not to causality or personal ability. He seemed to jump around between examples in various different fields (medicine, journalism, markets), ancient literature, and logic. I would have appreciated this book more if it had a tight structure.

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Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this because Emma Watson's (United Nations Women) feminist book club chose it for this month's selection. I love the book club, but I did not love this book. I could see how some women might find it valuable, but it just wasn't my jam.

It told some scary fairytales and then asserted that these were a feminist balm for your sexist wounds. But I don't actually think so. For example, "La Llorona" seems to be about not being evil just because you're wounded or sad.

Also, the author blatantly overused the word "moist." Just unnecessary.

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