A brash, engaging set of salvos that complicate our personal and political conditions.
A novelist and essayist delivers pithy and provocative takes on modern ethical and philosophical questions.
De Silva has a gentle manner with intellectual sacred cows: Do dying species really require our intervention? Might eating vegetables be just as morally questionable as eating meat? Do we defeat graffiti’s purpose if we treat it as art? Is the decline in the humanities in colleges such a bad thing? The author, who has a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge, takes on these and other questions via short essays. Stylistically, de Silva is part of a long tradition: Montaigne, Descartes, Barthes, and others have tried the quick-hit, more conversational style of philosophical writing as opposed to the fussier, more academic approach common to philosophy today. (The author has an essay about that, too.) But de Silva’s focus is mostly contemporary, looking at our current attitudes toward topics like terrorism, war, climate change, and technology. The brevity of the individual essays means the author has little space to do more than raise questions, which makes his comments sometimes read as glib, even trollish. For example, his assertion that a country unable to solve its own human rights issues lacks the standing to intervene in others’ comes off as fancied-up whataboutism. However, de Silva’s just-asking-questions approach is usually justified by the legitimacy of the questions. At his best, he reminds readers of their complicity in a host of moral quagmires. Thinking about war, for instance, as “a hazy, far-off thing is something positively desired by many of us, even if we don’t put it that way to ourselves.” Big tech firms, he writes, encourage “a stance of quiet resignation toward the world’s fate…and merely disciplining our emotional reactions rather than our destructive actions.” If brevity limits the development of certain ideas, the author’s approach also invites a wider audience.
A brash, engaging set of salvos that complicate our personal and political conditions.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-944866-76-1
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Clash Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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