Missive #271 Published 2 May 2024

If this had been a text for American History, more people would have loved history! Bruce Lancaster brings the people and events to life, and I found myself reading it as though it were a novel. Not only was it history, it was well written history! Henry Knox, Dan Morgan, Francis Marion, von Steuben--all the men who have been just names became living, breathing people. — edited Customer Review @ Amazon

This is an excellent history of the American Revolution. What made it even better, the author was a writer and a novelist that wrote it to be read by the plebs not academic elites. He was also able to write the entire book without using a single footnote. Highly recommended. So far all the books I have read in the Mainstream of America Series are recommended.

Missive #266 Published 22 April 2024

The third novel [and last] in a World War I alternate history series [Black Chamber] where America's greatest weapon against Germany is Black Chamber secret agent Luz O'Malley and technical genius Ciara Whelan. Only they can protect America's best hope of winning the war.

Missive #263 Published 18 April 2024

Most of Pollan's books are about food and eating but this one about architecture was very interesting. I enjoy the way he ties the main subject of a book to side issues that relate to that subject. If you expect this book to be a 'how to' build a hut then you will be disappointed but if you want to read a well written book then give this a try. I'll be reading more of his plants, cooking and eating books as time permits.

Missive #262 Published 15 April 2024

Great book. Not a great novel. But rather a highly thought provoking Socratic dialogue with an agenda to introduce the reader to evidence based, experimentally derived public policy creation and the behavioral engineering world view.
It's important to remember, the book was first published in 1948. So yes, much of it is dated. But it's brash, atheistic, rational, highly pragmatic, dialectical approach would be ahead of its time if it were written in 2019.
Skinner is perhaps the most misunderstood and wrongly maligned Psychologist ever. But in the age of internet based, algorithmic behavioral tracking, behavioral forecasting and behavioral modification, ignore Skinner at your own peril.