Micah D

Better than Brilliant

Reviewed: 11-13-23

Professors Clarke and Plant deliver a thoroughly researched, beautifully organized, insight-filled book read with authority by Laural Merlington. I expected this book to be good. I did not anticipate how much it would inform and influence my understanding of American history. I did not anticipate how much better prepared I am to understand varied perspectives on family life, government roles, and political theory. I did not anticipate how much I would love every minute I could devote to this book. Truly, there was never a lull, never a temptation to speed ahead; if anything, my first thought upon finishing was, "It'd be fun to go through again." Flawless. Fascinating. If you buy this book and don't like it, I will come to your house and cook you dinner.

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Important Topic, Godawful Book

Reviewed: 09-26-23

In old party game, Twister, players must somehow plant a hand here and a foot there till the combination becomes absurdly impossible. Jerome Gay is playing intellectual Twister in a book that moves from promising to disappointing to offensive. Gay continues to feed at the monied trough of regressive fundamentalism while kicking selectively at one of its legs. I wholeheartedly agree with all who have decried the whitewashing of Christianity, but I also wholeheartedly disagree with Gay’s genial embrace of the Bible manipulation system that supports such supremacist power plays. Gay avoids honestly addressing the sexism that accompanies whitewashing, instead appeasing fellow Bible manipulators with the chillingly creepy claim that “the Bible affirms roles” when addressing women; he doth protest much that his obvious misogyny is not misogynistic. At one point, the book descends to self-parody as he mounts a Lost-Cause defense of biblical slavery. For those wholly committed to and enriched by regressive fundamentalism and its biblical manipulations, this disingenuous book provides easy antiracist credentialing.

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Bait and Switch

Reviewed: 09-04-23

"The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom" is a profoundly misleading title inspired, it seems, by the publishing business model in the age of clickbait. Contrary to the implicature of the title, readers will learn very little about the Sacred Band -- approximately the volume and depth that could be conveyed by a magazine article. To what are the tricked consumers switched? An excellent book about the military history of Thebes over a substantial and meaningful period of time is delivered in place of the promised book. Romm is a knowledgeable, insightful scholar and talented writer, but this cynical bait-and-switch is a stain on his reputation.

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%$#@&ING BIBLICAL

Reviewed: 07-15-23

Cervini masterfully weaves the threads of an important life into an important story. I wish I had known this story. I wish I had discussed this story with teachers and friends. And at the family dinner table. I wish conversations occasionally included reference to relevant threads from Kameny's life, causing all to nod knowingly. I learned the Bible as a youngster, and I yet benefit from its lessons. But I am nearly breathless, almost in tears and filled with gratitude, as this book ends. This story belongs in a revered canon. A beautiful, meaningful, complex, tragic, and triumphant story lived courageously, Kameny's life is somehow news to me in 2023. Would that I knew it in real time. Ah, I'll now turn to evangelism, recommending the book to everyone who lives.

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A Real Voice

Reviewed: 06-21-23

Any five-hour book on the entirety of queer and trans history will make choices. This and that reader might react to this or that bit of history's inclusion, exclusion, or emphasis. And such makes for interesting book-club conversation. But here's the point: this well-organized, brief book has a voice behind all of its choices. I am not referring to the vocal qualities of the narrator (which are excellent, by the way) but to the distinct, confident , engaging perspective of the author. McElhinney is unmistakably passionate about and fascinated with her subject, and readers/listeners gain an unfiltered experience of her considerable wisdom. Erudite, insightful, candid, warm, encouraging, respectful, grounded, ... -- all of these and more are apt descriptions. Listening to this book was a downright terrific experience.

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Thoroughly Enjoyable If Not Comfortable

Reviewed: 06-18-23

The book includes some great lines, and the author/narrator has terrific comedic timing. Along the way in this brisk book, the author dispenses good advice with confidence and humility. The wisdom does not rise from a keen sense of historic context or science; rather, his genuine humility, extensive personal experience, and uncommon smarts combine to produce darn good suggestions that are worthy of consideration. That the delivery includes palpable encouragement is a bonus.
I find it interesting that one of the kinks he mentions with joy and positivity was commonly included as an imagined event in aversion therapy four decades ago (because it was considered to be the most aversive event imaginable to pair with – and therefore eventually inhibit – gay sex).
I do not mean the following as a criticism. A book cannot do everything, and this book achieves plenty. I could relate to his experience of the Boston meeting he mentions late in the book, but I could not relate to his triumphant party that followed. Indeed, I experienced the former more times than I can count from adolescence through adulthood, but I find his description of the latter as other-worldly and rising from privileges unknown to me. Hmm, that sounds like more of a criticism than I intend. Please instead read that as a criticism of the cards I’ve been dealt. The author broadly did a terrific job of making space even for me (gay, cis, hyperconventional, monogamous, kinda old).

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Achieved What the Title Promised

Reviewed: 06-15-23

The title promised a "quest" and a "global history" -- and I imagined that achieving the latter would almost certainly doom the former. That is, I feared a "barrage" of technical bits rather than a shared journey. The author, aided by an excellent narrator, organized and presented a brilliant story of humanity's quest for morality. Finishing the (audio)book brought satisfaction; I had experienced something -- and "quest" seems a fitting term. I do not have all the answers, but I have some new ways of thinking about myself and my world. At an amusement park, some rides are just okay, and some you immediately want to ride again. I finished this (audio)book moments ago and feel the urge to restart it, confident there's more to experience and enjoy.

That the western world has experienced significant changes in the last decade is evident in an anachronism that appears a couple of times in the book. Since 2014 when this book was written, "practicing homosexual" has shifted from a relatively neutral term to be presently understood as a linguistic signal of moral suspicion if not contempt. Even this example may be addressed via Malik's central thesis regarding change.

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Guilty as Charged (and I love it)

Reviewed: 04-22-23

I am reminded of the Roberta Flack song, Killing Me Softly. With warmth and clarity, Desmond writes here about me. My temptations. My failings. And my opportunity to achieve the greater privilege of living in a community without the poverty I have helped sustain. He writes as if he knew me, and his words speak to my life and my pain -- somehow even as he wonkily establishes the nature and determinants of modern poverty in America. Honestly, I sorta felt like I already knew "it," but there was something right and even comforting about engaging it through such a well written and well narrated book.

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Unflinching

Reviewed: 04-13-23

Somehow the author manages to weave an incredibly complex history into an engaging story -- without stridency, axe-grinding, or poignancy. The author is simultaneously discreet and blunt. The survivors are treated with respect, even as their complicated lives are plainly described. The accused are afforded appropriate linguistics but the author is utterly direct in standing up to individuals and institutions. This book proclaims into being a model of the perseverance, courage, skill, and discipline needed to respond to evil without looking away. I was impressed by how many times my mind tried to take off-ramps as i progressed through the book -- how many comforting rationalizations I seem to have learned. Kenneally tenaciously kept me on track. And she resisted the siren editorial call of a conciliatory ending that might have sold a few more books. This is not a book that frees from responsibility the church that is mudsplashed by history. Absolutely unflinching. And needed.

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A Remarkable Achievement

Reviewed: 03-29-23

Asgarian brilliantly defines the boundaries of this complex situation and delivers a compelling, multifaceted story. Readers (listeners) will both appreciate and be frustrated by the rough edges of reality that weren't replaced with narrative hooks and cliches. Asgarian has a point of view, but she is careful to provide the raw data that allows multiple perspectives to form. I sometimes disagreed but never felt as though that disagreement would be unwelcome. She has a talent for delivering detail amid warmly established depth. This book could have veered toward pedantry or toward poignancy in the hands of a less talented writer; Asgarian, however, was in full control of a complex narrative. This is an author with a distinctive voice, and the narrator did a good job of achieving fidelity with that voice (so good that I found myself losing track and thinking that the author had provided narration). I experienced the epilogue as awkwardly tacked on -- not bad but not in the same voice as the rest of the book and almost certain to be dated long before this excellent book is surpassed.

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