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mikefromco's reviews
90 reviews
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
5.0
The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy by Aaron Perzanowski, Jason Schultz
informative
medium-paced
3.5
As with most tech reporting, it’s a touch dated by now, but introduces some solid points and argues passionately against the “you will own nothing” approach of many SaaS and subscription business models.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the posited solutions but I did find it a well written and coherently argued book about the subject. I would recommend it, especially since it takes a somewhat right-leaning approach to property rights of individuals but with a left-leaning enforcement argument.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the posited solutions but I did find it a well written and coherently argued book about the subject. I would recommend it, especially since it takes a somewhat right-leaning approach to property rights of individuals but with a left-leaning enforcement argument.
The Intimate City: Walking New York by Michael Kimmelman
4.0
An interesting perspective, but it lacks any kind of research or depth but an interesting introduction to the neighborhoods of New York City
Sunbelt Blues: The Failure of American Housing by Andrew Ross
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.5
The author is a prolific writer and well-known professor so I expected a lot and I was generally pretty happy with this book.
It struggled with poor layout and strange assembly with at times a zoomed in look at individuals lives (by far this book’s best moments) and sometimes at a stateside policy view (the weakest aspect where the author occasionally steps out of his expertise).
The first third was quite good, a look at homelessness and drug use and the carved out middle of the Florida communities it focuses on. Then it switches to talk about HOAs, Condos and Disney-communities which is good but not great, it’s very one-sided and is very story heavy instead of actually offering some data. It features a single antecedent that is focused on heavily. Finally, the end was focused on the state policy of Florida with some poorly set up, and often times shoe-horned-in, commentary about housing development, which the author is clearly not a fan of.
Also, this book in its title talks about “American housing” and it’s just not, it’s about Florida. It talks about issues that only affect Florida, and often times it ignores vital factors that are not as much of a problem in the rest of American that are in FL because of the lack of a property tax. Which is fine, but this is a community level case study; not a compendium on housing policy and failure.
A good book but this one is very clearly the left-populist approach to housing that at times argues against new housing (for the wealthy) and accidentally starts to say no housing ever.
It struggled with poor layout and strange assembly with at times a zoomed in look at individuals lives (by far this book’s best moments) and sometimes at a stateside policy view (the weakest aspect where the author occasionally steps out of his expertise).
The first third was quite good, a look at homelessness and drug use and the carved out middle of the Florida communities it focuses on. Then it switches to talk about HOAs, Condos and Disney-communities which is good but not great, it’s very one-sided and is very story heavy instead of actually offering some data. It features a single antecedent that is focused on heavily. Finally, the end was focused on the state policy of Florida with some poorly set up, and often times shoe-horned-in, commentary about housing development, which the author is clearly not a fan of.
Also, this book in its title talks about “American housing” and it’s just not, it’s about Florida. It talks about issues that only affect Florida, and often times it ignores vital factors that are not as much of a problem in the rest of American that are in FL because of the lack of a property tax. Which is fine, but this is a community level case study; not a compendium on housing policy and failure.
A good book but this one is very clearly the left-populist approach to housing that at times argues against new housing (for the wealthy) and accidentally starts to say no housing ever.
Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? by Graham Allison
slow-paced
3.0
This book is already suffering from being outdated. It’s fine, it has a decent historical approach to a modern situation.
It just sticks to the Thucydides Trap motif for so long it becomes incredibly dry and basically have waves the Cold War away as not the same when it’s far far more similar than Athens and Troy.
Just dry and I wasn’t a fan.
It just sticks to the Thucydides Trap motif for so long it becomes incredibly dry and basically have waves the Cold War away as not the same when it’s far far more similar than Athens and Troy.
Just dry and I wasn’t a fan.
The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans--And How We Can Fix It by Dorothy A. Brown
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Such a great addition to the scholarship on Black disenfranchisement from systemic racism with an easy to read style but still scholarly approach! Excellent book with both explanations of the issues, historical context, and then solutions and suggestions for repairing such issues stemming from the wealth gap.
Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law by Preet Bharara
fast-paced
4.5
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
challenging
fast-paced
2.75
I really don’t have anything to add that shc's review didn’t say better.
Just too quick for the nuance this topic really should require.
Just too quick for the nuance this topic really should require.