Growing up as I did – big family, big house, big neighborhood – there was plenty of chaos yet no clearer rule: you cut, I choose. When we’d tussle over that king-sized Charleston Chew, no one could argue the core fairness of one of us dividing said Chew and the other picking first, ensuring a perfectly divided Chew. Kids could…
Author: Chris Bond
Book Report – Pharma by Gerald Posner
On the same day I prepared to review Pharma by Gerald Posner, I tested positive for COVID-19 (or what the wittiest among us call Corona). Figure I had it coming for one of three reasons: too few “Hope you’re staying well during these unprecedented times!” messages in the inbox to ward it off; too much belief that plagues miraculously disappear…
Book Report – Beach Reads
The last thing anyone wants to hear about in July is a business book, right? To wit, below are a handful of books for pleasure I’ve found to be every bit worthwhile. May you enjoy any of them during your downtime. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – As she proved again recently with her novel Commonwealth, Patchett is a…
Book Report – White Working Class by Joan C. Williams
On his first post-Beatles LP, John Lennon paid testimony to the “Working Class Hero,” those he told an interviewer he saw being “processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery.” In 1970, the year his song first hit the airwaves, nine in ten 30-year-olds earned more than their parents at that age; as of 2014, only half did. Over…
Book Report – Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
The term “uncanny valley” was coined in the 1970s at the Tokyo Institute of Technology to capture the revulsion stirred in observers when robots start looking a bit too human (picture the range from cute to relatable to freakish). That Anna Wiener borrowed it to title her memoir demonstrates the intersection of intelligence and wit found across its 275 pages.…