Book Report: Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall

This was suggested as the Boneshaker Science Book Club selection for January, and I accepted that recommendation readily, because I was completely out of ideas. I guess I thought it would be more of an overview of her life’s work or more of a conventional memoir, but instead it’s a framing of her life in terms of her religious beliefs, which was not terribly interesting. The discussion at the book club was a lot more interesting than the book itself, and touched on Dr. Goodall's "religious privilege," which I thought was a great way to express the way that I feel about how she presents her beliefs. She had a very pleasant, un-forced religious upbringing, so she has positive feelings about it, and doesn't seem to realize that many others had different experiences with religion. 

Book Report: Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

This book was the first graphic novel nominated for the Man Booker Prize, so I put in my request at the library and waited patiently for months, assuming that it would be more than worth the delay once it arrived. And goddamn, was I disappointed in this book that I spent no money to acquire and read. It was really terrible, and I don’t want to dwell on it, but I need to make a few points:

The art is minimalist, which I don’t have a problem with, but it’s so unadorned that it’s difficult to tell the characters apart.

The dialogue is extremely flat, which when combined with the boring art, makes for a boring-ass reading experience.

The plot, such as it is, deals with the aftermath of an abduction and killing of Sabrina (in Chicago, I think), and the descent into Alex Jones-style conspiracy theorizing of Sabrina’s boyfriend. The dude is understandably depressed and shaken, but he’s an absolute cipher of a character, as is his high school friend whom he’s staying with in the southwest.

Everyone is a damn cipher, and their motivations and feelings seem completely arbitrarily assigned. Most of the heavy lifting of the plot is done by the disembodied voice of the conspiracy-theorizing radio host, which is a very alienating way to experience a story.

Thesis statement: Assholes in real life are also assholes online, I guess, and we’re in a real dark place as a country. I agree, but this book still sucks. At least it doesn’t take long to read.

Book Report: A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky

This was the Boneshaker Science Book Club selection for November, and it was a hit: we sold less than half of the books I ordered, the meeting room was double-booked for the discussion time, and only one person showed up for the discussion, which was held in the kids area. Killin’ it! That said, A Primate’s Memoir is an excellent book. Robert Sapolsky spent much of his adult life as a baboon researcher in Kenya, and he is a wonderful storyteller. I learned a lot about primatology, as well as life in Africa. Spoiler alert – the ending is brutal, but I thought the parts of the book directly dealing with the baboons were the least interesting part.