Jeff Sexton

South Florida Noir. This really does have that combo South Florida / Noir vibe to it, and if you approach it from that sense... it tends to make more sense. In the end, this is a tale of one man and his daddy issues, and while ultimately nowhere near the literary feat of The Great Gatsby, also gives off some similar vibes there too.

Note that the Amazon listing even for the Kindle book shows it dramatically shorter than what Goodreads currently shows it as - 209 pages on Amazon (which feels closer to accurate with just how quickly this book reads) vs 336 on Goodreads (which feels remarkably long for just how quickly this book reads). And yes, as I am writing this review a full week before release, that means I read an Advance Reviewer Copy and a Goodreads Librarian can update the page count on that site at any point between when I'm writing this review and when you are reading it. So if this has been corrected, ignore this part of the review. :)

Overall, this is a great, fun, short read perfect for a bit of escapism and perhaps a degree of catharsis. Maybe not a Dr. office read, and arguably not really a beach read either, yet perfect for one of those languid hot humid Southern summer nights. Particularly if you happen to be *in* South Florida at the time, and likely particularly with a good cigar in one hand while sipping a fine Old Fashioned. Damn, now *I* need to read this book again in that manner. :) Very much recommended.

Wokeism (n): The Tendency Towards Social Justice Turned Toxic. Got your attention with the headline here, right? Good. Now sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how "it's done".

When you get beyond David Auerbach's Meganets, when you get beyond Tobias Rose-Stockwell's Outrage Machine, when you get to the *person* you think you so adamantly oppose...

... what happens when you find out that while they may come from a different culture than you, the human condition remains the same across cultures, and ultimately they share quite a bit of commonality with you?

What happens when you find out the monster at your door, the horrid kaiju that is threatening your children and your very way of life...

... is just another person who is just trying to protect his own way of life and his own kids, who thinks that *you* are the horrid kaiju threatening *his* kids and way of life?

What happens when you stop shooting at each other for just one minute...

... and find out that you had far more in common than you ever had different all along?

Don't get me wrong, this book has a few problems. Currid-Halkett still tends to be at least somewhat elitist and/ or condescending to those opinions she disagrees with, and there is quite a lot of discussion of COVID here - the latter point being the star deduction, as even in 2023 I remain adamant in my one-man war against any book that mentions COVID, and the single star deduction is my only "real" "weapon" there.

Overall though, it is on the higher end of normally well documented, at 29% bibliography, and fairly well reasoned overall. For those that want to avoid the fates shown in David French's Divided We Fall... this book is one that so very many people will need to read and take to heart.

Very much recommended.

Solid (Mostly) Escapist Romance. This is one of those romances such that unless you’ve dealt with one of the all-too-real but also not-every-person issues it uses for a sense of drama – cheating and/ or lying partners and grandparents’ declining health in particular – is going to be largely just escapist fluff that is perfect for some much needed respite from the so-called “real” world. At just over 300 pages, it reads perhaps a touch quicker than that number would indicate, while still telling a solid and compelling story full of hijinx, misunderstandings… and meddling grandparents. Kind of perfect for the Hallmark Romance crowd, really, and truly straight up their alley. Overall a mostly fun tale that hits all the expected notes while not diving too deep into any real drama. Very much recommended.

Chilling Thriller With A Unique Take On Ghosts. Straight up, know that this book is about a child murder - if you can't handle that, this isn't the book for you. For those of you still here, Dunnett does a solid job of showing the aftereffects of an unsolved child murder on the family the child leaves behind, before transitioning into a cat and mouse game to try to stop the killer before he strikes again. These elements of the story are well done, but have been done time and time and time again... and again and again and again. To the point that there is an entire genre of these types of tales, and this tale is on par with its genre mates - if you like the genre, you're probably going to like this one, and vice versa.

What sets this book apart, really, is its take oh ghosts - how they present, what abilities they have, what they know, etc. And here, Dunnett really does a remarkable job of showing how his particular brand of ghosts could work within the overall story being told here. Overall a truly entertaining book with an intriguing take on ghosts. Very much recommended.

Almost A Texas-Based The American President. Mostly in overall tone, and with this one being in some instances both funnier and more poignant than even that classic movie - though far from its extremely quotable climactic speech - if you enjoyed that movie, you're very likely to enjoy this book. In both, you get a lot of Democrat-heavy politics, so if that is a major turn off for you - either because of the specific politics or because you don't like real-world politics in your fiction, particularly your romantic fiction, generally - ummm... this may not be the book for you. If you *do* enjoy Democrat politics but want your Democrat politicians to be shown as near John Galt mythic heroes... eh... you're going to be disappointed here, as both of our leads are shown to be very flawed people who happen to meet and fall in love in the middle of an intense campaign. And speaking of the campaign itself, this was actually a remarkably solid look at the inside of campaigning in America today, for all its positives *and* negatives, so there is that - but again, if you're reading for more pure escapism... that may not be what you want.

Overall the book used its near 400 page length well, showing both a slow burn "fake" romance *and* the various political escapades quite solidly, while allowing several secondary characters various chances to shine as well. All told, this is a solid story for what it is that may not be what everyone wants, but there is nothing technically wrong with what it is. Very much recommended.

Strong Claims Need Strong Documentation. Ultimately, the greatest weakness of this book comes down to the title of the review - and the reason for both star deductions here. The text is barely documented at all, coming in at just 10% or so of the overall text - well below the 20-30% which is more typical in my extensive experience reading advance reviewer copies of nonfiction texts. Though as I've begun noting of late, I may need to revise that expectation down a touch - to 15%, not 10%. The other star deduction comes from the other part of the title - while the overall premise about the titular Outrage Machine seems sound and the explanations directly on it seem fairly spot-on, Rose-Stockwell uses the sciences, history, and even semi-current events in a way that actually brings to mind the practice rampant in the Christian nonfiction space known as "prooftexting", wherein Bible verses are cited outside of their context, and often even contrary to their original context, in "proof" of some point or another. Here, Rose-Stockwell does this with the sciences and history, both near and far. Yes, many of the examples he cites seem at least somewhat relevant, but even in the most relevant of them (such as his discussion of COVID), he ignores and even denigrates needed context which deviates from his intention. At other times, he simply gets the needed context quite wrong, which was particularly noticeable in his treatment of some of the issues surrounding the Founding of the United States and which other, far more well documented, texts have explored in much more and more even depth.

All of this noted, to be crystal clear, this really is an important book that when focusing on its central premise of the Outrage Machine and how it works both now and throughout history, is actually quite good. I was simply hoping for a better argued, perhaps slightly more academically rigorous, explanation of the topic at hand - and this is almost more of a memoir form of discussing how Rose-Stockwell realized the idea himself and came to explain it to himself, if that makes any sense. But again, truly an important work that can legitimately add to the overall discussion, and thus recommended.

Modern Sherlock Holmes/ Police Procedural Blend. Here, we get yet another police procedural set in Great Britain, so the terms and some of the procedures are a bit different than American audiences generally expect, yet are in-line with other similar books I've read. This particular new series has a different bent than most in that its central (series titular) character is a trained tracker/ behaviorist, and his backstory and actions here are reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Original Detective. His tracking abilities are also reminiscent of the more modern day author David Wood's Bones Bonebrake, and indeed both Lane and Bonebrake have connections to the same region of the US. This book also features a bit more of a disturbed villain than usual, and some scenes may be a bit much for some readers. Nothing overly graphic, and certainly not "on screen", but the Carrie-type religious abuse is quite heavy handed, while also being necessary to establish the full depravity and insanity of the villain. Overall, a compelling series starter - which is great, since new publisher Storm Publishing is re-releasing almost the entire series under new titles on the same day. Very much recommended.

Next Up. Yet again, Wood shows that he knows his characters and audience quite well - this is yet another excellent Maddock and Bones tale with both of them working together, along with a wide range of the friends they've picked up over the years, to solve some puzzle involving some long lost artifact. We get the same banter and action that the audience has come to expect, and we get the same quick (120 page or so) tale that has come to typify these later works in particular - meaning they're never too much of a time commitment even for people new to the series. Though this one does reference *several* prior tales, so those who are anti-spoiler absolutists... well, this *is* listed as Book 15 of the series... :D The addition of an in-world park that is clearly distinct from, yet also clearly similar to, a certain real world park with complexes in both Los Angeles and Florida is even better, with quite a few solid jokes (and some mild, one-line and move on type, commentary). Adventure fans and/ or anyone looking for a quick read that could likely be completed while sitting in a doctor's waiting room, look over here. Very much recommended.

An End, Once And For All? This is one hell of an action-packed thrill ride, with Tess, Po, and Pinky struggling as never before to figure out and then confront an enemy that may yet prove to be too powerful for even their considerable combined might. For the first time since I began reading this series (admittedly late in its run), Po and Pinky in particular have finally met an opponent who can best them - which produces even tighter and more visceral fighting sequences than the still-great "normal" for this series.

And then... that ending. Not a Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King ending at all - more like a Fallout one or the one at the end of the Mass Effect Original Trilogy (whose soundtrack song over this sequence provides the title of this review). And unlike Mass Effect 3 in particular (and more similar to the widely-regarded-as-best-single-game-in-the-franchise Mass Effect 2), the overall action of the book goes pretty well right up to the moment the "After" is triggered.

If this is truly the end, what a way to go out. And if these characters ever do get a chance to come back... what a way to leave it until that time. Very much recommended.

Visionary. Outsider. Hero. One of the great lines from the movie The Imitation Game (whose trailer I was just watching as I tried to find this quote, and where I found the title of this review) that has always stuck with me is "Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine." Obviously, in the context of The Imitation Game, it is about the legendary "Father of Computer Science" (and suspected Autistic) Alan Turing.

Barber, in *this* text, makes it clear that it could very equally be said of a man who may well go down in history as at least as important as Turing himself - Frank Hursey. Hursey was a South Carolina native living in Connecticut who discovered a remarkable property of a fairly common substance - and then set it aside like Mordin in Mass Effect 2 looking at some gadget he was no longer interested in. Until Bart Gullong came into his life and recognized the significance of what Hursey had found - and together, the inventor and the salesman/ marketer would go on to change the course of world history.

Barber, through a seemingly episodic format where he provides brief biographical sketches of each of the key players in the unfolding drama while keeping the narrative squarely focused on Hursey, Gullong, and their products, tells a story at least as motivational as anything has ever been told about Turing's own life. A story of a almost literal garage inventor who finds and develops a substance that has literal world changing powers.

A substance that can make battlefield - or anywhere else - traumas far more survivable, by finally solving a problem humanity had never before solved in its known history - how to stop mass bleeding.

This is the story of how Hursey and Gullong found, developed, and marketed the substance to the US military - and then later found mass market appeal in nearly every segment of the economy that might find a desire to stop a potential bleed out.

Including, per Barber, Taylor Swift having it near her at all times in the case of an attack at one of her concerts.

The only reason for the star deduction here is the slightly lower than my expected average of 20-30% on the bibliography, clocking in here at 16% instead. And as I've noted in other reviews of late, given that so many more recent texts are clocking in closer to this 15% point, I may well need to revise my expected bibliography size down a touch.

The tale opens with the story of the Battle of Mogadishu and the subsequent movie form of it, Black Hawk Down. Don't be surprised to see a movie form of this book itself at some point. Very much recommended.

When The Pendulum Swings... Where Will Vladeck Be? This is one of those historical/ current event analysis books where, particularly in the "coming of age" of a novel (ish, as Vladeck shows) concept of the "shadow docket", it will be interesting to see if the author is just as adamant against the idea when his own "team" is using it as heavily or moreso as he is when his political opponents do. Though to be clear, the history and analysis here, while necessarily hitting the current (post-Trump era) SCOTUS the hardest for doing this the most *because they have*, does an excellent job of showing just how we got to this point where it was even possible for this particular problem to exist at all. On that front... there isn't a political "side" in current America or American history that is fully blameless in enabling or using this bad behavior, and Vladeck shows this quite well indeed and indeed seems to be a fairly objective-ish student and teacher of legal history. For such a dense overall topic, Vladeck handles the telling of the tale quite well, such that even people who have barely ever heard of the Supreme Court of the United States of America will be able to clearly see what the current problem is and how we got to this point and why both of them matter.

Indeed, the only real reason for the single star deduction is the slight lack of documentation, coming in at just 15% of the overall advance reviewer copy text rather than the more typical in my experience 20-30%. Though as I've been noting a few times on similar points of late, given just how many newer nonfiction books seem to be coming in within that 15-20% range, I may yet need to recalculate my seeming average.

Overall an intriguing tale, and one that every American truly needs to understand - and Vladeck does a remarkable job of making that particular task as easy as reading this particular book. Truly great work making such a dense topic so relatable and understandable, and very much recommended.

Flawed Premise And (Slightly) Lacking Documentation Mar Otherwise Intriguing Discussion. Make no mistake - Provost and Kennard show quite a few corporate abuses in several different areas throughout this book, and they do in fact make a strong case that this has influenced government to a very strong degree in the post WWII era. Where their premise is flawed (which is where one of the two stars deducted comes from) is that they constantly state that this is "overthrowing democracy" when in fact it is *utilizing* democracy to effect a form of democracy known as "corporatism" - which is a term the authors never once use in the text at all, and which is actually much more precise to their overall premise. The other star deduction comes from the bibliography coming in at just 18% of the text, which is slightly under the 20-30% that is more typical of such texts in my own experience. (Though given how many books of late are coming in closer to 15%, I may in fact need to examine all relevant data and perhaps revise this down?)

Still, even with the flawed premise and not quite enough documentation supporting it, this really is quite an eye opening look at the various abuses of corporate power across the globe and how they have caused quite a bit of harm and perhaps unintended consequences, and for these looks alone, it is absolutely worthy of reading and could enhance the overall discussion of related topics. Recommended.

Small Town Southern Mystery Draws In Feds. While technically this is Book 4 of the Quinn and Costa series, they and their team don't actually show up for a decent chunk of the beginning of the book - it seemingly took them longer to come into this narrative than Book 3, The Wrong Victim (which does get referenced here, for those that cannot stand any spoilers whatsoever). But once they do show up, things begin escalating quite quickly and as always we see the various team members doing what they each do best and what makes them such an effective team. As is the norm of "freak of the week" police procedurals, we also get a fair amount of team and personal development of much of the team as well, and in the end the reader is left ready for the next adventure. This is a well told and well paced tale that even at 400 pages, doesn't quite feel it - it reads more like maybe a 320 pager or so. I'm very much looking forward to Book 5 in this series, and this entry is very much recommended.

Beautiful, Emotional Tale Of Survival. This is a road trip tale, and thus you go in expecting both some bumps and some growth, but *how* Drake manages to execute on both is quite remarkable. Drawing on the entire American soldier experience from the Forgotten War in Korea to the modern War on Terror in Afghanistan - America's longest war - and also incorporating the realities of being poor in America, this is one of those fiction tales that may in fact hit a little too close to home for many - but read it anyway. The one group of people that I may say stay away from this book, perhaps, is those who struggle with cutting, as it is in fact a significant part of this story and is shown extensively enough to be uncomfortable - and yet still all too real - for anyone. Beyond that though, the grit, realism, and ultimately hope shown here are quite cathartic even to those who have never been in these exact scenarios, and there are several points late in the book where you'll swear whatever environment you're in while reading them has become quite dusty indeed. Truly an excellent tale, well told, and with particular care to all of the subjects it brings forth. Very much recommended.

No Matter What You Think About The Bible In American Politics - You're Wrong. This is one of the better books I've ever come across in showing just how the Bible has been debated throughout American history, from its earliest days through Trump, January 6, and even into how Biden is currently using it. And it does a phenomenal job of showing just what I said in the title here - no matter what you think you know about the Bible in American politics, no matter what you personally think about how it has been applied and should currently be applied... you're wrong. While having perhaps a slight tinge of anti-whiteness here (in that the most heavy criticism tends to land squarely on the actions of white people), Schiess really does do quite a remarkable - and remarkably even - job of showing that no one is truly "evil" or even "uneducated" about the Bible (well, specific people in specific circumstances may be), they simply have different methods of understanding and interpreting it which lead to divergent conclusions based on both the text *and those extra-text methods*. And the sides have flipped and flopped throughout even somewhat recent American history such that neither can go more than a few decades without having to explain some prior interpretation from "their" side away.

The documentation here comes in at a slightly low yet still respectable 21%, and while Bible verses are cited throughout the text, there is no actual "prooftexting" here - verses are cited not to prove a point, but to cite which elements of which passages different groups were interpreting different ways at different points in American history.

Indeed, perhaps the only real valid complaint here is that I'm fairly certain this book could be a few times is barely 200 pages... and *still* not cover the topic in true depth. And yet, the depth it does manage to pull off in these pages is still quite remarkable indeed. Very much recommended.

Activist Polemic With Little Documentation - But The Pictures Are Stunning. Quite honestly, the description on this book as of the time I write this review roughly 10 days before publication (yes, meaning this is an advance reviewer copy with all that this entails) is quite misleading. The description makes it seem as though the reader is getting a well documented history of the history of water control and its current problems and potential solutions to those problems. Instead, this is an activist screed from the very beginning, with next to no documentation - just 7% of the text, when 20-30% is far more typical in my extensive experience.

Thus, as is very nearly always the case, one star was deducted for this lack of documentation. The second star is deducted because of the obvious slant and the strawman arguments so heavily used throughout the text. The third star is deducted for the inaccurate description provided by the publisher.

This is *a* history though, and from the activist, anti-dam perspective, a solid one in the mold of one preaching to the choir - as choirs never ask to see documentation, taking everything the preacher says on faith alone. Which is not science or journalism. ;)

And yet, the pictures provided throughout are truly stunning. Whoever took them did some truly excellent work in that space, and I can honestly recommend this book for the pictures alone. Which is why it doesn't sink any further in the rating.

Overall a dense and blatantly biased yet still somewhat interesting read, and absolutely get this for the pictures alone. (Meaning you need a print or tablet version of this book. :D). Recommended.

A Grandmother's Love. This is, ultimately, a tale of a grandmother's loves - for her daughters, her granddaughters, and her home. O'Loughlin does an excellent job of making the grandmother feel like an active character, even though she is already dead in the very first scene, and indeed the grandmother winds up driving the narrative as much as anything else. Outside of the grandmother, this is a tale of one woman's decisions as her life is thrown into chaos in more ways than one, and now she is tasked with repairing a house and her cousins... while also repairing what she can of her own life. It is a tale of learning and loving and the mistakes we make big and small and the love and understanding that gets us through them all. Written very conservatively without being preachy, this is one that the "sweet"/ "clean" crowd will like, and those that expect more cursing and/ or bedroom action in their women's fiction/ romance blends may find a bit lacking. Overall a solid tale for what it was, this is absolutely one worthy of a few hours of your time. Very much recommended.

If Jimmy Buffett's Secrets Had Secrets. Seriously, if you take the classic line from The Avengers where Tony Stark says about Nick Fury, "his secrets have secrets", and add an equal part Jimmy Buffett coastal/ tropical "WTF" kind of vibe... this book is a pretty solid idea of what you would get there. Set primarily in and around the general Charleston, SC area, we also get a jaunt into the Upcountry around Greenville as well for a scene or two (while completely ignoring the Midlands area of South Carolina, around Columbia and Aiken, where I once lived for a few years).

But the mysteries (yes, there are actually several - the "secrets have secrets" I was referring to above) are compelling, and our heroine is both remarkable and remarkably flawed, making for a greatly relatable story even as the more fantastical elements of it play out.

Overall the book truly works well, particularly as a series starter. We get a complete tale with no obvious lingering threads, but in a way that the reader *wants* to come back to this world and see what happens next. Very much recommended.

Crystal Palaces Still Hide Much. Growing up, it seemed that one aunt in particular always had the perfect... well, everything, other than not having kids herself and having married a couple of times. She was the one that my brothers and I always dreaded coming over, because we knew we would have to clean the house to her (damn near white glove) level, and we *hated* that. (Meh, we were young Southern boys. ie, not exactly the cleanest neat freaks around. ;) )

Get to a point about the freaking book, Sexton...

I've noted in reviews of other books in this series that Bratt manages to detail small town rural northern Georgia (outside of the Atlanta Metro area) remarkably well, and here Bratt shows even more of both the features and the bugs of the region. Including the all-too-real scenario of the aunt who has it all... but doesn't, as I've learned later in life. In real life as in this book, there are a lot of trials and travails that for various reasons the person chooses to hide, particularly from their siblings' kids and even from their siblings themselves. Even the exact scenarios here... are all too common. (To be clear, even now I have no idea about the exact circumstances in my real-life aunt's case.)

Fortunately (so far as I know), it never got quite as intense as the one scene from the trigger warning in the book. And while I'm no fan of trigger warnings... yes, even that nearly successful attempted suicide scene - it is stopped in the last seconds by an intervening action - deserves a mention in reviews at minimum, as it *is* something that could cause others issues. Seriously, that thing was *that* intense, some of the most tense moments Bratt has ever weaved into any of the dozen or two of her books that I've now read.

But that is still just one scene in an otherwise compelling book that continues the story of Deputy Taylor Gray's family and community, this one with yet another heinous and yet all too real crime, though I do not remember seeing an author's note to see if this one (like others in the series) was based on specific cases from the general region.

Start with book one, but go ahead and order the entire series if you haven't yet. You're going to want them all anyway. ;)

Very much recommended.

Realistic Look At The Practical Side Of Trying To Eliminate Household Garbage. I intentionally read this book immediately after reading Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis (which is scheduled to release about two months after this book), and the convergences and divergences were quite interesting. Franklin-Wallis' text is absolutely the better, more well-rounded, guide to almost the entirety of the overall waste problem around the world, and is has nearly triple the overall percentage of the text as bibliography - indicating *far* more actual research and documentation. This is actually the first star deduction - the lack of bibliography. Perhaps more excusable in a more memoir-based book such as this, but even among memoirs, getting closer to that 20% range on documentation is more typical in my own experience with reading Advance Reviewer Copies of these types of books.

But where *this* text stands out is in just how *practical* it is. Schaub is apparently effectively a performance artist whose medium is memoirs, and she has to learn quite a bit along the way and ask a *lot* of questions of people that I'm honestly not sure Joe Blow (who can't say that he is working on a memoir) would ever have actual access to. But even outside of all the questions Schaub asks of various waste industry professionals and activists, she has to wrestle with the day to day realities of truly trying to eliminate 100% of her family's trash - for an entire year. A year which turned out to be 2020, and thus involve the worst parts of the global collapse and home imprisonment. Which is where the star deduction comes in, as I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT COVID. Yes, even in 2023.

Nevertheless, the challenges Schaub had to surmount were indeed quite formidable, and in the end she learned a hard fought, depressing for some, lesson: Ultimately, eliminating 100% of garbage cannot currently be done in modern society. *Perhaps* as a true Homesteader/ Survivalist - which Schaub is not and therefore did not test -, but for the vast majority of those living in the modern, Western-ish society, it simply cannot be done.

Read the book to see how close Schaub and her family got and all the trials and travails they had to go through to get there. Schaub writes in a fashion that comes across as both no-nonsense and humorous, and the tale reads well because of this. Her ultimate recommendations... let's just go with "Your Mileage May Vary" on. If you're a avowed environmentalist fan of Bernie Sanders... you're probably going to like a lot of them, perhaps all of them. The further away from that archetype you are, the less you're likely to agree with her recommendations.

Still, regardless of where you think you'll land on her recommendations - and thus, how much you'll want to throw this book on the nearest trash heap, pour gallons of gas all over it, and light it up (even if it is on your Kindle) -, read this book to see just how hard it is to eliminate household garbage in the US, and perhaps start thinking about some possible solutions for your family or possibly policy solutions for your local community, your state, and/ or your nation that more align with your own principles.

Overall, this book is very much recommended.

Comprehensive Look At The World Of Waste. I've seen bits and pieces of some of this in some books, such as Plastic Free by Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, Unraveled by Maxine Bedat, Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy, Pipe Dreams by Chelsea Wald, and Sewer by Jessica Leigh Hester, just to name a few. And I've even lived a version of some of it, having worked at a US nuclear waste disposal facility a couple of times over a period of a couple of years. But this is the first book I've ever found that really covers all aspects of waste from nearly every possible angle. About the only glaring omission, perhaps, is space junk - the orbital debris that causes headaches for new and existing satellites and the International Space Station and could one day cause a *major* problem terrestrially via knocking all satellites out of usability (an issue known as the Kessler Effect, and used quite well in the late Matthew Mather's Cyber Storm trilogy of fiction).

But what Franklin-Wallis *does* cover, he truly does cover in remarkable depth and clarity, using a combination of direct interviews and scholarly research to give both a human face to each particular issue and ground it in its full severity. This books is truly quite eye opening in several different respects, and will likely greatly add to the overall discussion of the topic... assuming enough people read it. Which is, in part, where this review comes in. Go read the book already. :)

The documentation is *maybe* *slightly* low at about 21% of the overall text, but this is actually within the lower bound of "normal" in my experience, and thus not worthy of a star deduction nor even true criticism, I'm simply noting it because I try to make a similar note in most non-fiction reviews.

Overall truly an excellent book full of both reality and hope, and very much recommended.

Indiana Jones Meets The Mummy Meets Starship Troopers. Ok, ok. Indiana Jones and The Mummy are self explanatory, Sexton. Both of those are adventure stories that take place in the same basic time period, and if you’ve got an adventure in that period that goes to Egypt at all, ok, The Mummy comparison works. We get it. (Sexton notes that it also works due to actual events late in the book…) But WTF dude???? How the HELL can you compare *that* type of book to Starship FREAKING Troopers? Are you out of your FREAKING mind???? (Sexton explains that there is a particular creature in this tale – foreshadowed by events earlier in the tale – that is at least somewhat reminiscent of a particular bug in the movie form of Starship Troopers, one of Sexton’s favorite movies that he can just turn on and let run any time. Enough for his brain to make the connection, at least. 😉 )

But enough of my internal discussion here. Seriously, this is yet another solid adventure from Wood, and one that actually manages to connect this series to Woods’ more extensive one in a rather blatant way… that you’ll have to read the book to find out. Very much recommended.

Questionable Sources Mar Intriguing Premise. This book's general premise - a strategy for the American Right to lean in to its traditional principles, ignore "Climate Change", and yet still manage to out-green the American Left - is a truly intriguing idea, one Klar has clearly put quite a bit of thought into. His general plan does in fact read like a Republican was trying to put together exactly that type of plan, but in a fairly realistic, "this is actually politically viable" manner. (Rather than the "pie in the sky" so many demagogues of all stripes generally propose.)

What calls this book into question are the sources it uses - two, in fact, that I've reviewed before and which have proven to be questionable themselves (Chris Smaje's October 2020 book A Small Farm Future and Shanna Swan and Stacey Colino's February 2021 book Count Down). Citing either one as what the author considers to be legitimate evidence would be enough for a star deduction on its own, and thus the two star deduction here.

Contempt Is The Dissolver Of Unions. Yes, that is a particularly memorable line from the book - and a warning. Here, Samson discusses the history, biology, and sociology of our "Tribe Drive" - ongoing and apparently bleeding edge research in all three fields - and shows how it has brought us to where we are... and how we can better utilize it to achieve a more peaceable and prosperous future for all. Yes, some of this book is a touch... out there... for some, such as Samson's admitting to basing some of his thinking of this topic on his use of psychedelic mushrooms, peyote, and similar compounds. And yes, there are things here that partisans left and right will likely complain about - some legitimately, some less so. And yes, in ultimately recommending a form of at minimum confederation of federated governments - if not outright anarchism, which he discusses without ever using the term, yet never precludes that the groups he discusses could become official "governments" - perhaps Samson is even a touch idealistic. And yet, the documentation is solid at around 20% of the text (not counting footnote discussions at the end of each chapter, which may bump that to around 22-25% of the text). Further, the book lays bare in scientific terms that which I've largely understood and have been advocating at various points for the last 15 years or so, through my own active political activism days and into my efforts to promote reading and literacy now.

Overall an intriguing, thought out book and one that adds greatly to the overall conversation around groups, governments, coalitions, and politics, and thus one that anyone who seeks to truly understand and use these concepts truly needs to read and understand. Very much recommended.

Solid Work Within Its Field. For those already familiar with the arguments presented here - at an extremely high level, essentially that religious leaders rarely know what the hell they are doing and tend to create "bad religion", but Jesus Himself is "good religion" - this is fairly standard stuff, presented in the fairly typical Christian Living genre format of some essay around a given topic with a few application questions at the end of the chapter. At least as someone well versed in what Mr. Hunter was talking about, there was nothing particularly ground breaking here, but perhaps this is the presentation that will allow some to approach the topic - in which case I'm fairly certain Mr. Hunter and I would agree that it would have been worth it for that reason alone.

The star deduction here is for the rampant proof texting, but it is rare to find a book in this particular genre without this practice.

And the other thing I felt I needed to call out here was the devotion of the final chapter to a particular ministry... where it turns out that its leader is one of Mr. Hunter's mentors, as he mentions just pages later in the Acknowledgments. This to me felt at least a touch improper, perhaps another similar minstry could have been highlighted there rather than one so closely personal to Mr. Hunter. But this is far from an allegation of actual impropriety, simply something that pings my own ethical philosophy - which I never hold anyone else to.

Overall a solid work in its field, and one worth considering even if you *are* familiar with the general arguments. Very much recommended.