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Category Archives: Politics and Civic Interest
One Life at a Time, Please
One Life at a Time, Please© 1988 Ed Abbey204 pages Ed Abbey’s final few years were spent in obsessive work, as he knew he was dying and wanted to make provisions for his family. The Fool’s Progress and One Life … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged American Southwest, anarchism, Edward Abbey, essays, Nature, sports and outdoors, travel
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Adventures with Ed
Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey© 2003 Jack Loeffler308 pages “He walked across the desert at least a thousand times,” Tom Russell sang of Abbey in his “Ballad” thereof. Jack Loeffler was with him many of those times, as … Continue reading
People Habitat
People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think About Greener, Healthier Cities© 2014 F. Kaid Benfield304 pages The built environment can have an enormous effect on human happiness, facilitating it or obstructing it; think of the frustration of taking care of errands … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged cities, essays, Politics-CivicInterest, sustainability, urbanism
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Postcards from Ed
Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast© 2007 ed. David Petersen337 pages “Saving the world is only a hobby. Most of the time I do nothing.” Although I was first drawn to Ed Abbey by his nature … Continue reading
Together
Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World© 2020 Vivek H. Murthy352 pages People are generally open about their physical health; indeed, for men of a certain age, it’s their favorite topic of discussion — at least, … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, Society and Culture
Tagged civic awareness, mental health-illness
6 Comments
Dopesick
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America© 2018 Beth Macy384 pages More people are expected to die from accidental drug overdoses in the next five years than have died in the previous fifteen, part of an overall … Continue reading
Unstitched
Unstitched: My Journey to Understand Opioid Addiction and How People and Communities Can Heal © 2021 Brett Ann Stanciu224 pages Brett Stanciu had a problem. Someone kept breaking into her small library, pilfering money, and smoking cigarettes. She knew who … Continue reading
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town© 2021 Chuck Marohn 272 pages Chuck Marohn is a licensed engineer and urban planner who, in 2008, began sharing his concerns that the current approach to both building and financing … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged Chuck Marohn, cities, civic awareness, infrastructure, transportation, urbanism
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Of Babylonians, demons, and bankers
Continuing in the Big Book Catchup… Paul Kriwaczek’s Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization covers Mesopotamian history from the establishment of Eridu to the rise of the first Persian empire. This is a survey of thousands of years of … Continue reading
Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged ancient world, doomsday, essays, fantasy, goods/services, Gore Vidal, health/wellness, history, Middle East
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Slanted
Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism© 2020 Sharyl Attkisson316 pages I stopped watching television news in 2009, a decision made for me by the overnight obsolescence of my TV set when the industry … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged journalism, media, Politics-CivicInterest, Wokeistan
6 Comments