Life Undercover by Amaryllis Fox

Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is some stuff, particularly when she is in high school, that is difficult to wrap my mind around. But overall a very interesting book that inspires a lot of thought about what our foreign policy and how much we ask of our intelligence agency public servants.

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Mao II by Don DeLillo

Mao II by Don DeLillo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s really hard to write a book that is both literary and has a good plot. This is literary only. It’s about human groups, God, politics, and terror, and how these things relate. It’s also about writing, writers, and the importance of art.

But in my opinion, the actual plot is awful. I don’t care about any of the characters except maybe Karen but I want to read a whole book about Karen’s adventures (as a Moonie and beyond) and thoughts. I didn’t care for Karen’s self-objectification though. And then the characters have sort of random unrelated actions that don’t unify into a narrative.

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Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mind blown. This is a lot like stepping into an intermediate or advanced class on intersectionality which is tough for me because I'm still trying to get a beginners' foundation in feminism, race equality, and intersectionality. Nonetheless, wow. I can't believe that I managed to get a law degree without ever even hearing about the prison abolition movement.

There's so much in here, so much to process, that I can't tackle all my thoughts on it yet. It makes me feel like I need to do a lot more reading to fully wrap my mind around the concepts Davis introduced.

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Failed States by Noam Chomsky

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The premise of this book is that America is no great hero of democracy at home or abroad. While Chomsky makes his case, the book is so heavy-handed and doesn't examine counterarguments or nuances. We are to believe all our leaders are evil or sold out completely? While I agree with his ideas and policy aims, I think the reality of being a political leader is a lot more complicated.

The best chapter was Chapter 6 about all the ways that we're undermining democracy at home. Of course, some intellectuals argue that increased democracy is not what we need, but leaders that are independent of special interests. Special interests might always have an edge in a democracy with free speech, even if the influence of direct money on politics were limited. Chomsky doesn't examine any of these differing views.

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Other tags: Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sudan

Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner

Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Starts out a little slowly but then becomes progressively more interesting. I did not have a good grasp of what the FBI has been doing since its creation- if anything I had an incorrect idea of what it does. I was particularly disturbed by the section on the FBI spying on Civil Rights leaders.

The ending is really interesting and hopeful because of all the positive changes in the Bureau.

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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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The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fergeson tried to present a history of currency and monetary policy but he got mired in the history of it, and it seemed to lose focus. Some sort of point or thesis would have given this shape. He ended up tackling a lot of topics and I learned a few things here and there but not as much as if he'd given some direction to his sometimes conservative and sometimes liberal points.

Also, because he was focusing on the "history" aspect of his book it was organized at first in a chronological order by category of "innovation" but then the chronology fell apart with Chapter 6. This was just a little disorientating in an already thesisless tome.

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The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan

The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel is about terrorism in India, both the victims and the terrorists themselves and their relationships. The novel is brilliantly written and the author is apparently a hardcore literary genius. The author's descriptions of grief are moving and real.

My only issue is that there's a little shark-jumping at the end that I suppose is actually a metaphor? I hope it is, but it still put a damper on the overall experience for me.

I strongly recommend this book to people who love literary fiction or who have an interest in terrorism.

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The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is basically about the end of American hegemony. According to the author, this was partly caused by America ruining worldwide trust with the second Iraq war, buy mostly caused by China and India's quiet economic development, and Russia's increased aggression while we were busy with the Middle East. Most of the book is a description of the politics and economics can of America, China, and India. Then there are some warnings and hopeful statements about how this might all lead to greater security. But this was back in 2008. I'm having a hard time imagining how our precarious position in the world is going to work out okay with Trump at the helm.

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Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a long refutation of the concept that it is helpful to security or morally right to maintain American hegemony. It is also, to a lesser extent, a refutation of that democratic peace theory (the theory that democratic countries go to war with each other less) somehow contributes to increased world peace.

The book is a scathing indictment of American foreign policy which is equal parts nightmarishly frightening (talks about American "terrorist actions") and somehow also totally boring. I think it's important to read, but good luck with that.

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