A book I loved that found me at the right time. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a professor of plant ecology. She is also a Potawatomi women. In the book she tells stories of her culture and life exploring themes about the earth, plants, and animals and how we are all interrelated. Reciprosicity and the honerable harvest stories are the ones that struck me the hardest.
It's not Bitcoin but give it a chance, it might surprise you. From the publisher's summary:
"Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return."
Yeah, Stephenson's a lot more weird and occasionally goofy than folks sometimes expect at first. The thing in SevenEves where he had thinly disguised versions of Elon Musk, Malala, and Neil deGrasse Tyson as major characters was another thing that I've seen stop some folks when engaging with his works.
I got many chuckles from Stephenson's Diamond Age and its KFC-venerating Confucian jurists:
The House of the Venerable and Inscrutable Colonel was what they called it when they were speaking Chinese. āVenerableā because of his goatee, white as the dogwood blossom, a badge of unimpeachable credibility in Confucian eyes. āInscrutableā because he had gone to his grave without divulging the Secret of the Eleven Herbs and Spices.
Judge Fang switched back to English. āYour case is very serious,ā he said to the boy. āWe will go and consult the ancient authorities. You will wait here until we return.ā
āThe hour of noon has passed,ā said Judge Fang. āLet us go and get some Kentucky Fried Chicken.ā
The Hunter by Tana French. Probably one of the two or three best crime writers alive today, one of the few who crosses over easily into "literary" from within the genre. Fantastic so far.
This is a eyes wide open analysis of many aspects of what Auschwitz and the other Nazi atrocities meant to writer and survivor Primo Levi. Beautifully written prose full of warmth despite the gruesome topic. Especially interesting were the chapters on Gray Areas (Kapos and other collaborators in the camps), Stereotypes, and the Letters From Germans he received after publishing the German translation of his first book Survivor of Auschwitz/If This Is A Man. Sadly, 34 years after its publication, the errors he warns about are being made again and the risk of a slip towards brutality and horror could truly reoccur.
A classic! This is the biography of a man whose story cannot be told!
The Man Who Mastered Gravity is an intimate profile of Thomas Townsend Brown ā a little-known scientist whose unorthodox ideas about electricity and gravity have made him the subject of decades of speculation and intrigue.
Brown developed his novel concepts while serving in the U.S. Navy through the 1930s. In the first months of World War II he was abruptly discharged ā despite his consirable expertise in radio, radar, and mine sweeping.
Two weeks later he showed up at a top-secret aviation facility in Califoria. After that, Brown slipped behind a veil of secrecy from which he only occasionally blinks in and out of view. For example, in the 1950s, Brown formed NICAP, the first civilian organization dedicated to the study of unexplained 'aerial phenomena' (aka UFOs).
Boy bought a small toy yesterday.
Wanted a lion dance costume today.
I said give it a rest till next week, you already bought something yesterday
He apparently remembered what I preached too well -
he threw the small toy into the wastebasket šļø
(to up his chances of buying the costume)
Iām impressed & annoyed š”
Didnāt scream at him but reading this anyway to burnish my resilience.
Long battle with him ahead.
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking