by William Ophuls ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2021
An eloquent, fact-based call to arms about climate change.
A treatise on the human resistance to the realities of climate change.
Ophuls notes at the beginning of his brief book that invoking the Titanicas a metaphor for impending doom is a bit tired, but nevertheless, when it comes to the subject of rapid climate change, “like that supposedly unsinkable ship, we are imprudently maintaining course and speed in the teeth of warnings that grave perils lie ahead.” When it comes to this willful blindness, Ophuls lays the blame on three human “mental defects that are especially problematic in the face of ecological warnings.” First, humans are lazy, greedy, and fearful; second, the human mind is inflexibly “sticky” (“once an idea is firmly lodged in the psyche, it can be almost impossible to dislodge, no matter how irrational or counterproductive it may be”); and third, the human mind is understandably boggled by the complexity of this particular problem. According to Ophuls, this inability to apprehend the full scope of some impending disaster is a recurrent failing; drawing on the cyclical-history theories of Oswald Spengler, author of The Decline of the West(1918), Ophuls considers everything from Earth’s dire health report to the fact that “existing institutions are largely incapable of resisting a slide toward authoritarian rule.” In one brief book, he does a competent job of summing up scientists’ consensus on the effects of climate change and explaining the ways we imperil our own survival on a planet that cannot sustain our reliance on fossil fuels, unmitigated pollution, and overuse of limited resources; i.e., our “profligate modern way of life.” Although Ophuls writes with a kind of solemn grace, readers should be prepared for a warranted bleak outlook, and those seeking glimmers of hope will have to look elsewhere. In Ophuls’ view, humans are unlikely to take sufficient action to mitigate the planet’s collapse.
An eloquent, fact-based call to arms about climate change.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2021
ISBN: 979-8754839793
Page Count: 62
Publisher: Bite-Sized Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ta-Nehisi Coates ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.
Bearing witness to oppression.
Award-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow Coates probes the narratives that shape our perception of the world through his reports on three journeys: to Dakar, Senegal, the last stop for Black Africans “before the genocide and rebirth of the Middle Passage”; to Chapin, South Carolina, where controversy erupted over a writing teacher’s use of Between the World and Me in class; and to Israel and Palestine, where he spent 10 days in a “Holy Land of barbed wire, settlers, and outrageous guns.” By addressing the essays to students in his writing workshop at Howard University in 2022, Coates makes a literary choice similar to the letter to his son that informed Between the World and Me; as in that book, the choice creates a sense of intimacy between writer and reader. Interweaving autobiography and reportage, Coates examines race, his identity as a Black American, and his role as a public intellectual. In Dakar, he is haunted by ghosts of his ancestors and “the shade of Niggerology,” a pseudoscientific narrative put forth to justify enslavement by portraying Blacks as inferior. In South Carolina, the 22-acre State House grounds, dotted with Confederate statues, continue to impart a narrative of white supremacy. His trip to the Middle East inspires the longest and most impassioned essay: “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes. In his complex analysis, he sees the trauma of the Holocaust playing a role in Israel’s tactics in the Middle East: “The wars against the Palestinians and their Arab allies were a kind of theater in which ‘weak Jews’ who went ‘like lambs to slaughter’ were supplanted by Israelis who would ‘fight back.’” Roiled by what he witnessed, Coates feels speechless, unable to adequately convey Palestinians’ agony; their reality “demands new messengers, tasked as we all are, with nothing less than saving the world.”
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780593230381
Page Count: 176
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by Bob Woodward ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2024
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
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