Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny   Robert Wright
Describes human cultural evolution as derived from the ongoing progress of nonzerosumness, a concept from game theory. Besides being an incredibly clumsy term, I am deeply suspicious of looking back over history and seeing patterns that lead inevitably to where we are now. Also, I think he is straining to identify an underlying logic to anything to do with human “development.” Interesting history of the increasing complexity of human cultures. Wright really gets off kilter in the second part of the book where he talks about natural selection “designing” and “inventing” things. His engaging prose style made it an enjoyable read, but I am completely unconvinced by the “logic” he thinks he sees, and his notion of a human destiny. The third part about teleology and spirituality at the end was so bad to be embarrassing. A shame.

Escape Clause   John Sandford
Entertaining, well-written, latest Virgil Flowers police procedural. This time Virgil is investigating the theft of endangered tigers from the Minnesota Zoo, multiple resulting murders, and an attack on his girlfriend. The plots develop nicely, the characters are interesting enough, and the banter is humorous. As usual, Camp’s prose is clear and pulls things right along. Very enjoyable, I like Virgil, didn’t really want it to end.

Terminal World   Alastair Reynolds
Science fiction novel about a far-distant future earth. Begins with what might be understood as a gloss on Dante’s journey. Characters get a little thin, almost stereotypical. Reynolds kind of falls in love with the world he created and spends too much time describing details that aren’t really important to the plot, and there is a lot of discussion among characters, so the narrative bogs down a little. And the lengthy, and much-too-numerous, conversations are stilted and implausible, got tedious. The ending is weak. Too much work for the payoff, too bad.

Men in Dark Times   Hannah Arendt
Collection of essays about people, political and intellectual, under duress during the war years in Europe. Especially interested in Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Jaspers, and Walter Benjamin. As always, Arendt is highly intelligent, analytical, and insightful. Unfortunately, she discusses quite a few people I do not find interesting or that  influential, such as Roncalli, Dinesen, and Gurian. Wish she had included an essay on Heidegger. Her work, in general, is important and was highly influential in the 20^th century.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind   Yuval Noah Harari
Disappointing book about homo sapiens. Liked his use of the term sapiens to designate what we usually call humans, and humans to designate all homo genus species. But the book has an odd condescending tone, as if the its audience is in middle school, and Harari is giving them a moralistic lecture. For example, “The story of these fundamental features of our universe is called physics…The story of atoms, molecules and their interactions is called chemistry.” Unfortunately, none of the information was new to me. Not a good book, a waste of time. Really glad I didn’t purchase a copy.

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945   Tony Judt
Very well-written, highly intelligent history of Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Excellent overview and summary of the state and conditions in Europe at the end of the war. Also, a very good account of the conditions and circumstances of Europe’s political and, especially, economic recovery, by state. Really liked his use of film history and analysis as indicator of social conditions, and film attendance as sign of economic well being. Excellent account of the development of the European Economic Community (Common Market) and eventually European Union. Good information about the Hungarian (1956) and Czechoslovak (1968) invasions by the Soviet Union and causes. Excellent information on the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is a very good book.

The Vegetarian   Han Kang
Novel constructed from three novellas connected by the stories of Yeong-Hye who becomes vegetarian because of seemingly psychotic dreams. Told from three different perspectives. Emotionally dark, couldn’t understand why any of the characters acted the way they did, felt off-balance throughout. Even though it won the Man Booker International Prize, didn’t really like it.