**The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. Easy to digest and well-reasoned arguments as to how racism bleeds public goods, harming all of us.
**Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran. Beautiful, campy, nostalgic, heartbreaking. A vision of pre-AIDS New York gay culture through the enduring characters of the fabulous Sutherland and the tragic Malone.
The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T-Rex and How it Shook Our World by David K. Randall. Overwritten and oversold. Not much story here, despite Randall’s attempt to make you think otherwise. I largely disagreed with his assessment of the private thoughts of his protagonist, paleontologist Barnum Brown.
**The Overstory by Richard Powers. (Finished) Subtle, methodical, deeply thought through and far reaching. Much like its topic — the trees — this novel requires time, and investment. But the healing lessons that both process and product leave you with is well-worth it.
The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Starts out very strong, frays at the end. But is in many ways the prototype to how space empires have been depicted ever since.
**Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland. Fascinating and fast read despite the enormity of its scope. Holland’s argument is that we live in an inescapably Christian world. Not only is he probably correct, I found myself rather relieved to know that.
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Simple, sweet, of another time.
**Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment by Cory Doctorow. Thoroughly enjoyable. Four bite-sized short stories of a Black Mirror depiction of our modern world. Juicy and imaginative.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. (Started) The American City in this instance is my home city of Milwuakee. It’s giving me an on the ground look at the fabric of the city that I never knew about growing up. A story of the cycle of homelessness and substandard housing.