Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. Sure, you could read advertising blurbs on Amazon, but wouldn’t you be more likely to believe a neighbor with no skin in the game over a corporation being fed words by publishers? So in this series, we are sharing these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com.
“The Every,” by Dave Eggers (McSweeneys Books, 2021)
This is a sequel to “The Circle,” about a mega tech company that aims to observe and capture everything from everyone (think: Google or Facebook). Flash forward, and now The Circle has purchased “the jungle” (I don’t have to spell out that reference) and has renamed itself “The Every.” Our incensed and idealistic heroine decides to infiltrate The Every and take it down from the inside. Her plan is to come up with ever more absurd and intrusive apps for The Every to deploy, believing that the public will recoil in horror and abandon The Every. But her ideas of absurdity delight The Every with ever more pervasive surveillance opportunities, which, it turns out, are ever more comforting to a public that has become weary of making any choices. One character actually exalts “a world message of peace-through-surveillance.” This is Eggers at his satirical best, as he illuminates the dangers on the path toward an AI-driven world. — 4 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“Once There Were Wolves,” by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron Books, 2021)
“If we’re talking about conservation, about saving this planet, we have to start with our predators. Because if we can’t save the predators, we’ve got no chance of saving anything else.” Inti Flynn is a scientist leading a reintroduction of wolves in Scotland to heal the ecology of the land and foster biodiversity. From her father in Alaska, Inti has learned to love the forest and respect nature. From her Australian mother, a police detective dedicated to helping abused women, Inti learns about investigation and distrust of people. She is a synesthete: what she sees, she feels. This extreme empathy is her superpower, but as is true of other superpowers, it can be a curse as Inti is vulnerable whenever people and animals around her are hurt. Unfortunately, there is much within this book to dispense damage. Dogmatic and confrontational, Inti is as unwelcome in the Scottish community as are her wolves to the sheep and cattle farmers. McConaghy’s gift for beautiful imagery enriches this book. “I pressed my cheek to one of the tender, elegant [aspen] trunks. Wind whispered through its naked branches, and against my eyelids, my lips. A kiss. I could almost hear it breathing, could feel its heartbeat beneath and around and above me, the oldest language of all.” — 4 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
“A Journal of the Plague Year,” by Daniel Defoe (Project Gutenberg, 2023)
And you think we had it bad with COVID-19! This literary classic, a fictionalized account published in 1722 and placed in 1666 during one of Britain’s huge bubonic plagues, set the standard for all subsequent dystopian novels. It’s fascinating to read the narrative — long thought to be real, not fiction — and trace the development of events and changes in human responses so true to life during our pandemic. One of the discoveries: Passengers on ships moored in the Thames River and isolated from carriers saved themselves from the pestilence. (Get a free copy courtesy Project Gutenberg at gutenberg.org). — 4 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver; bonniemccune.com
“Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better,” by Jennifer Pahlka (Metropolitan Books, 2023)
A call for a more nimble, “agile” approach to tech-based projects run by the U.S. government. This approach elevates smaller, “bite-sized” projects, rather than behemoth projects claiming to fix everything that take a decade to define, another to complete, and are by definition obsolete by the time they are rolled out. Pahlka writes from broad experience, having served as U.S. Deputy CTO, 2013-2014, and as founder and executive director of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Code for America. Project and product managers, especially, will love this thought-provoking book. — 3 1/2 stars out of 4; Kathleen Lance, Denver
