Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Book 24 of 2018 is Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger.

He talks about ancient cultures and primal cultures and current native cultures. He talks about how they have support and lack high rates of suicide because of support. The idea that the tribe and building a tribe is the way humans are meant to live.

Although I come from a modern tribal culture and the idea of building your clan, I disagree with the modern and ancient culture of total acceptance of who you. I can name many things like homosexuality, refusal to breed and wanting to leave the group as reasons why traditional tribes are not perfect.

He doesn't use data but instead make declarative statements about how the world should be and how a group of people you conform to makes that better.

There were some great ideas. We do need people. We do need acceptance or at least the place to voice who we are. We do need belonging.

My challenge is that it isn't as easy as finding a group to belong to. I belong to may groups and they satisfy a lot of my needs and wants. It's not black and white.

3 white defects to native American tribes out of 5.

Should I read this? Only with the intention to expand your philosophical views. Otherwise, nay.
What did I learn? We build our networks. They do not pick us.

IQ

Book 12 of 2018 is IQ by Joe Ide.

Reading about the trials of African Americans makes me cringe on the best of days but I can't live here and pretend it isn't happening. So this year, I am reading as much as I can bear.

This book was absolutely brilliant. Very Sherlock Holmes mixed with Spike Lee mixed with Quincy Jones. I want to stay in Isaiah's life and watch everything be solved through observation.

Great writing lets you live the story without fighting the words. Even with a dialect I don't read naturally and references that I have to take in context, this was easy and enjoyable to read.

Do read this.

5 inductive reasonings out of 5.

Should I read this? Yes. Read it. It's that good.
What did I learn? The geek shall inherit the Earth. Or at least those of us who were picked last for sporting teams. :)

When the Air Hits Your Brain

Book 11 of 2018 is When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick, Jr. MD.

This was an odd book to read in this #metoo time. It lacked the entitlement and megalomania that I expected from a surgeon. Maybe I've just dated the wrong surgeons.

This author said brain surgery isn't brain surgery and I find that interesting. A lot of people want to make their professions seem impossible to enter, exclusive or next to godliness. He didn't make it out that way.

The anecdotes were interesting and told perfectly. The only thing I'd change is the self pity. You're a neurosurgeon, I don't feel sorry for you.

4 barbaric scull drilling tools out of 5.

Should I read this? Yes, it was fascinating.
What did I learn? Every profession is a life of learning but not everyone dies.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Book 1 of 2018 is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

This is my life and my mother's life and my sister's life but in another country.

I said to a friend that this resonated with me and she asked if it was hope. I luckily didn't scoff out loud. Non-whites don't need hope. We are not hoping for white acceptance.

This book empowered me. It encouraged my strength built through adversity, rejection and overt discrimination. It articulated why I don't fall down or crawl away when someone from the ruling class kicks me.

I don't need to. I'm more robust than they will ever be. I see your ignorance, fear and awkwardness and continue being the lioness.

Everyone who does not identify as white must read this. I am so sorry I waited so long.

5 children's roars out of 5.

Should I read this? Yes. Just everyone. Read it please.
What did I learn? Australia doesn't have any idea about the plight of our Indigenous people.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

Book 70 is The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn.

After Helter Skelter, I have been seeking similar styles of books which give insights in to famous situations. This is the first I've found that was as interesting. It is not as well written but it is hard to put down.

This book takes you through Jones' life from his childhood with his disturbed delusional mother on to his marriage and building of the church to the final Kool-Aid (it wasn't that brand actually) mass suicide in French Guiana.

The Jonestown Mass Suicide

It was not so hard to see why people followed him. He just wanted to be followed and sold a left leaning charitable view of his church which seemed to help people. He then isolated and controlled his flock.

We look back and wonder why governments would let this happen but I'm sure no one expects Jonestown. I wouldn't have.

4 miraculous fake healings out of 5.

Should I read this? It's interesting. So, yeah.
What did I learn? I always thought the mass suicide took place in the US. Now I know it was South America.

What Happened

Book 44 of 2017 is What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

It is rare that I read a book right after it is released but having stood in the middle of the storm that was the 2016 US elections as an outsider watching it unfold, I wanted to look behind the curtain.

There are two sides if not twenty to what happened in November 2016 but this was the one I wanted to understand. How did someone so qualified for the job lose to someone who wasn't? It made no sense to me.

On reading this, I have had some major realisations.

I respect Hillary Rodham Clinton for the strong woman she is and the inroads she has made for women all around the world.

Her politics are still too conservative for me but I put that down to her generation and age. She was born in a different time and a more conservative world than most people in America today. I have no doubt that was one reason people could not connect with her.

And lastly, women are losing well before they even start. To be the first at anything or the only woman in the race is harder than anyone can imagine. You are not judged equally because there are no women to compare you to. So instead, you are judged as not being a man. She articulates this much better than me.

The reason I recommend people read this book is because she gives hope where others use fear. She tries to stand back and work out what she owns in this journey but does not take all the blame. She gets angry and punches out and although it's not ladylike, it's awesome to see. Why must women bow out quietly when they weren't treated fairly in the situation.

You should read it.

4 insights out of 5.

Should I read this? If you lived through the election that Trump won and see it as the election that Hillary lost then yes, yes you should read this.
What did I learn? So much American political history from both sides of the fight.

Hopeless Magic

Book 30 of 2017 is Hopeless Magic from the Star-Crossed series the by Rachel Higginson.

I read the first book from this series a month ago and enjoyed it enough to want to read the second book.

After finishing this arduous read with a whining teenage girl and her band of merry teenage men chasing her along with the "once you have sex you are bonded for life" message, I was glad it ended. There will be no more reading from this conservative non-subtle instruction on how young women cause trouble by speaking their minds and should think carefully of who they will marry because he owns you forever.

It. Was. Painful.

This had to have been written by a middle aged suburban housewife who wished she had never married her boring muggle husband.

1 spoilt Omaha teenage victim out of 5.

Should I read this? No. The first book ends implying more lies ahead in this book but nothing does.
What did I learn? First books in a series should be standalone.

A Cool Breeze on the Underground

Book eleven of 2015 is A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow.

I think this book would appeal to Americans and their view of the English rather than British people and Australians alike.

The story is simple and exciting but nothing new. Sometimes, that is ok. It is a quick read and written in a digestible way.

3.5 con men out of 5.

Should I read this? Yeah, it's ok. Maybe if you don't have anything else you really want to read and want something light and easy.
What did I learn? From reading books, I know too much about detoxing someone addicted to heroin.