Reviews and Comments

This is a worthwhile overview of research and case studies in how digital technology is engineered to be addictive and habit forming. As expected for a pop psychology–type book, it isn't critical of capitalism at all. Probably a good basic read for new parents trying to get a handle on how to socialize children around tech.

This isn't really for anyone who has practiced consensual nonmonogamy or doesn't identify with relationships based on domestic normativity in the first place. It's like watching a reality show.

Reading slowly. This is the third or fourth time I've tried to read Esther Perel. I find that there are bits and pieces that feel instructive or resonant, but the clients she writes about have such boring, bougie lives (one can probably assume that these are all people who could pay at least $200 a session to be in couples therapy) that I lose interest.

Pretty good intro to organized labor in the US. Bill Fletcher Jr. challenges myths that range from "unions are all racist" and "unions either ignore immigrants or the rest of us" to "unions and corporations are both too big and don't really care about the worker" by reframing the myth/question, scrutinizing how terms are defined, stressing the power imbalance between workers and corporations/the employer class, examining the roles of public policy and corporate funding, and providing examples from US labor history. Fletcher does not shy away from times that unions have been problematic, but also, since this book is short and introductory, it doesn't go deep into nuanced arguments. It would be great to see an updated edition since this book came out in 2012, so it doesn't cover how the landscape around independent contracting/misclassification has changed, or the ways that anti-union propaganda has evolved in response to the boom in organizing by young people over the past couple of years.

I made the mistake of reading other novels from Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine narrative universe before this one. If you haven't read Erdrich before, you should probably start here. There are plot details and characterizations that I didn't love, but her prose is chef's kiss.