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November 20, 2017

From The Economist:
All men are created equal, but they do not stay that way for long.

From The TLS (Terri Apter on Books of the Year 2017):
[The] most moving is Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A memoir of (my) body (Corsair). Gay depicts the terrifying banality of a gang rape that marked her physical and emotional life from the age of twelve. Her survivor’s story is both understated and inspiring. Another, very different highlight of 2017 is Peter Clarke’s The Locomotive of War (Bloomsbury). Clarke reveals the subtle interplay between personalities and history. We see how the key figures – David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and John Maynard Keynes – had very different experiences of war and how these shaped our political, social and economic histories. Clarke also provides an original, intriguing and sometimes disturbing account of the role liberal guilt has played in triggering and justifying war.

From The Guardian (Tessa Hadley on "The book I wish I’d written"):
I feel this about all the books I love. It’s not envy: a kind of voluptuous emulation, feeling your way inside another mind and sensibility and perceptions. But the truth is you can’t write anybody else’s books, you can only write your own. Still, I wish I’d written Colm Tóibín’s gravely beautiful Nora Webster.

From The New York Times:
If the nation cut the cost of health care administration in half, [Uwe Reinhardt] said, the savings would be enough to insure everyone.

From The New York Times (Andy Weir on "Tell us about your favorite science fiction books and short stories."):
I think my favorite is “I, Robot” by Asimov. It was the first book I read that had multiple stories taking place in a consistent setting. It made the setting so rich and believable to me. Heinlein’s “Tunnel in the Sky” gave me a love of survival stories.
As for recent fare, I absolutely love “Ready Player One” by Ernie Cline. I even wrote fanfiction for it that Ernie included in a later edition. That’s every fanfic author’s dream right there.
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