Book

Missive #527 Published 7 July 2025

The world is in the grips of mass formation—a dangerous, collective type of hypnosis—as we bear witness to loneliness, free-floating anxiety, and fear giving way to censorship, loss of privacy, and surrendered freedoms. It is all spurred by a singular, focused crisis narrative that forbids dissident views and relies on destructive groupthink.
In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, world-renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology Mattias Desmet deconstructs the societal conditions that allow this collective psychosis to take hold. By looking at our current situation and identifying the phenomenon of “mass formation”—a type of collective hypnosis—he clearly illustrates how close we are to surrendering to totalitarian regimes.

Missive #524 Published 3 July 2025

Emmy-award winning gadfly Mike Rowe presents a ridiculously entertaining, seriously fascinating collection of his favorite episodes from America’s #1 short-form podcast, The Way I Heard It, along with a host of memories, ruminations, illustrations, and insights. It’s a delightful collection of mysteries. A mosaic. A memoir. A charming, surprising must-read.
Mike Rowe’s The Way I Heard It collects thirty-five fascinating stories “for the curious mind with a short attention span.” Five-minute mysteries about people you know, filled with facts that you didn’t.

Missive #522 Published 2 July 2025

Where others saw only sage, a salt lake, and a great desert, the Mormons saw their "lovely Deseret," a land of lilacs, honeycombs, poplars, and fruit trees. Unwelcome in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, they migrated to the dry lands between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada to establish Mormon country, a wasteland made green.

Like the land the Mormons settled, their habits stood in stark contrast to the frenzied recklessness of the American West. Opposed to the often prodigal individualism of the West, Mormons lived in closely knit – some say ironclad – communities. The story of Mormon country is one of self-sacrifice and labor spent in the search for an ideal in the most forbidding territory of the American West.

Missive #522 Published 30 June 2025

I did not like this book as well as An Evening of Long Goodbyes but it is an 'interesting' read. The author has a couple more that I'll read when I can get to them.

Missive #519 Published 23 June 2025

1812 to the Civil War"" has the stirring drama of a good historical novel. He ignores minor trivia, stresses key events and personalities. There are fascinatingly detailed portraits of such figures as the choleric Jackson, the treacherous Santa Ana, the moody Lincoln. And there are firm action accounts of the Battle of New Orleans, the Alamo and the Mexican-American War.

Missive #515 Published 14 June 2025

How far would you go? In the future, an artist specializing in historical records creates a piece of art based on three separate accounts of the Zombie Pandemic. What follows is a patchwork tale of survival and horror as two lovers struggle to survive the undying dead and the collapse of an America turned charnel house.

Missive #513 Published 12 June 2025

"[A] passionate, compelling, and disturbing argument that the ills of democracy in the United States today arise from the default of its elites." ―John Gray, New York Times Book Review (front-page review) In a front-page review in the Washington Post Book World , John Judis wrote: "Political analysts have been poring over exit polls and precinct-level votes to gauge the meaning of last November's election, but they would probably better employ their time reading the late Christopher Lasch's book." And in the National Review , Robert Bork says The Revolt of the Elites "ranges provocatively [and] insightfully."

Missive #512 Published 11 June 2025

Dear Reader,
My SHADOW SOLDIERS have gone to extreme lengths to bury their pasts. But while it’s one thing to try and escape a deed, can one ever really run from oneself? This is the conflict faced by Rafiq Zayed, a mercenary who tries to hide the fact that the blood of ancient warrior sheiks pulses in his veins. But, in a bid to stop a global threat of almost incomprehensible proportion, Rafiq is forced to return to the land of his birth.

Missive #511 Published 9 June 2025

Finley Peter Dunne was a Chicago-based U.S. author, writer and humorist. He published Mr. Dooley in Peace and War, a collection of his nationally syndicated Mr. Dooley sketches, in 1898. The fictional Mr. Dooley expounded upon political and social issues of the day from his South Side Chicago Irish pub and he spoke with the thick verbiage and accent of an Irish immigrant. Dunne's sly humor and political acumen won the support of President Theodore Roosevelt, a frequent target of Mr. Dooley's barbs. Indeed Dunne's sketches became so popular and such a litmus test of public opinion that they were read each week at White House cabinet meetings.

Missive #509 Published 7 June 2025

How far would you run to escape your past?

For eight strangers in a Los Angeles backpacking hostel, even the other side of the world isn’t far enough.

The craving for a new identity and the chance to start again is something they have in common. But the search for a fresh start isn't as easy as they'd imagined.