Reviews and Comments

Derek Caelin

DerekCaelin@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years ago

Seeking a Solarpunk Future

Climate Feminist | Biodiversity | Open Source Software | Civic Tech | Games | Justice | Regenerative Ag | Green Energy | He/Him/His.

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R. F. Kuang: Babel (AudiobookFormat, HarperAudio)

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …

astounding

Content warning Spoilers

Liz Carlisle: Healing Grounds (Hardcover, Island Press)

A powerful movement is happening in farming today—farmers are reconnecting with their roots to fight …

Hope in Soil

This book gave me hope. The path towards regenerative agriculture is not hidden from us, it's just not broadly known how various communities (Black, indigenous, latin) are practicing them every day. The knowledge we need is held by these people. To appropriate Gibson's message, "the future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed."

Yet.

There's also plenty to learn, and unlearn, about the history of the U.S. treatment of nonwhite people who worked the soil.

reviewed Buddhist Economics by Clair Brown

Clair Brown: Buddhist Economics (Hardcover, 2017, Bloomsbury Press)

"Traditional economics measures the ways in which we spend our income, but doesn't attribute worth …

Economics and Buddhism made tangible together

I've recently tried to correct two mistakes I made in college. The first was in assuming that economics was a) esoteric and b) only for "money people" - business school types, in other words. The second was in failing to pay significant attention in a class I took on Buddhism (my teacher once called me out on the fact that my copy of our class' sole book had clearly never been opened). Clair Brown's "Buddhist Economics" approaches both of these reputedly ineffable subjects with simple, clear, and powerful language.

Simply put: the tenants of Buddhism - the acknowledgement that we are interdependent beings, that much of our suffering is derived from our desire to gain more wealth, more possessions, more status, more experiences - are shown to be relevent when making decisions at a personal and societal level to promote happy, full lives.

Meanwhile, the book stresses that economics is …

Emily St. John Mandel: Sea of Tranquility (Hardcover, 2022, Alfred A. Knopf)

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled …

Incredible

This book washed over me. I loved the story and the way it made me feel about family, about time. The way the different stories knit together, the moments of realization that the author flawlessly sets up and executes... all of it. Lovely.