Inventing Human Rights: A History by Lynn Hunt was a highlight.  From the development of empathy through romantic novels to the debates around the time of the American and French Revolutions—and especially surrounding the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen—the author traces the debates and thinking about what we now call human rights. Truly eye-opening for me, including for the fact that those excluded from political rights in the 18^th century included “executioners and actors.” Another human rights story, of sorts, was provided in Grant by Ron Chernow. What a life story—an admirable man who led for results and who owned his mistakes. I enjoyed the Audible version read by Mark Bramhall who did an admirable job of altering voices to let you know when someone was being quoted.

Enjoyable books that helped me learn some things about the world included Colin Thubron’s The Amur River: Between Russia and China. Full of engaging writing, anecdotes, people, politics, history, this travelogue of Mongolia, Russia and China brought back memories of times in those countries. The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers by Gordon Weiss was not easy to read; not because of the writing, but because of the history depicted in it. I had visited Sri Lanka a few months prior and had some knowledge of the conflict, but the brutality of the stories was still shocking. I also did some work in Cambodia, and Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land by Henry Kamm helped fill in some details in my understanding of that country’s modern history, especially the terrible parts. I am happily working there again and able to see the more positive recent developments. Lee Kwan Yew: The Grandmaster’s Insights on China, United States, and the World, by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, and Ali Wyne included some prescient insights about other countries, although not a lot of patience for alternative views at home.

Some other nonfiction included Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama. It didn’t grab me as much as the first book.  I do enjoy the broad-sweep-of-history approach to books like this, although some characterizations of writings of others did not seem right to me. (I don’t think Marx’s predictions were wrong because he did not predict the rise of the middle class…) John A. List’s The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale was all about scaling. It covered some traditional economic concepts, like diminishing returns, and some other behavioral and organizational concepts, all illustrated with anecdotes and experiments from his time at Uber and Lyft, as well as research of others.

Another nonfiction classic was The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, on Audible read by the author and Lalla Ward.  I loved the way Dawkins approached the updating and correcting of his 1976 classic, and he is as good a speaker as he is a writer. I didn’t realize that there was such overlap between evolutionary biology and economic applications of game theory, and I will do my best not to mispronounce “algae” in the future.

I enjoyed a few classic novels, including Miguel De Cervantes’ Don Quixote with a new translation by Edith Grossman.  George Guidall narrated the audio version, and it was great fun, especially when Sancho was in the story. Was he the first sidekick? The inspiration of Robin (or Alfred?), Tonto, maybe even Kato?  Was Don Quixote the 16^th century Mr Anderson of The Matrix? Me and Don Quixote, we’re like this.

I can see why The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has been so controversial—the language really is jarring. The opening explanation by the author that he was intentionally using distinct dialects lest readers “suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding” is important. I caught it on Audible, read by Elijah Wood. A classic, although I enjoyed Tom Sawyer more. I couldn’t help but think that Tom and Huck were the inspiration behind Dr. Evil’s explanation to Scott, that “you just don’t get it, do you?”

I can see the influence of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation on science fiction filmdom. The economic influences on geopolitics toward the end were interesting, as well as the theme of modernity vs religion. The bit near the end on women and their household appliances dated it, as did some of the exclamations, but a classic nevertheless.

I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson because it was on a top-ten list of books about corruption. I don’t see it that way, but, in any case, I found it an unputdownable pleasure.  Among other things, it drew my attention to the fact that Sweden criminalizes libel. (Others, too.) I grabbed The Judge’s List by John Grisham when I found myself at Dulles airport without anything to read. It reminded me why I like Grisham’s stories and storytelling so much. I caught The Egg and Other Stories by Andy Weir on audio. The collection of stories was fun as expected.

A few other audio books worth mentioning. I enjoyed Gary Numan’s (Re)volution: The Autobiography, learning about the origins of his sound and lyrics, and his reflections on everything from luck to health insurance. A bit TMI in places but made for funny stories. As a homebrewer, I was curious about kombucha, so Kombucha Curious by Duff McDonald caught my attention. I’m not sure it is such a cure-all, but it is tasty and I will have to give a try someday. In the not-exactly-books category there was The Road to Redunktion by Tenacious D. Fun listening and fun title. I listened to a rendition of Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe but found it hard to follow.

I slipped into my old habit of not posting right away and weeks became months which became years. Better late than even later.