Books Roundup for May 2019

I finally finished Alexander Hamilton! Between that and moving to a new house, I only managed to finish one other book, and start a 3rd. I read about 450 pages – down from the beginning of the year, but I suppose that’s to be expected. Let’s jump into it.

Book 1: Alexander Hamilton

As I mentioned last month, I really enjoyed the book. It was an interesting look at not only Hamilton’s life, but a lot of early America. It’s wild that he seemed to be at every major event at the genesis of the country.

I captured my thoughts pretty well through Goodreads, but here’s perhaps my favorite thought:

“There was a comment in here about propaganda and repeated claims becoming real. I guess no matter the time period, human nature is still human nature.”

I strongly recommend it if you’re into the musical or American history. Summer seems like a pretty good time to read it too.

Book 2: Captain America vs. Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology

If I’m being totally honest, there are 2 reasons I read this:

• I just saw Endgame and wanted more
• This didn’t make the cut for moving, and I wanted to read it before getting rid of it.

It wasn’t a super easy read persay, but it was really interesting (it made me read the Civil War comics too!). There were some interesting thoughts on how our environment affects us, and the psychological similarities and differences between Cap and Iron Man (and how they affect us, the fans). My sole thought from the book is this:

Freud is weird. But I really liked the book. It confirms that Cap is my favorite superhero.

Freud was super weird. He was obsessed with sex. Did you know that?

Currently Reading: The Right Side of History

First, let me say that of all the books I’ve read this year, publicly stating that I’m reading this has garnered the most response.

Whether you like someone or not (reasonably or unreasonably), I think that if they are presenting good ideas, the book is worth reading. I didn’t agree with everything on Homo Deus, but I still enjoyed it.

I’m ~100 pages in and as someone who generally agrees with Shapiro, I think he’s presenting some interesting facts, stories, and data, which he’ll use later. My most recent thought in Goodread is:

This book is making me appreciate my Jesuit education from The University of Scranton. It also makes me wish I had paid attention a little more in my philosophy classes.

So far, he’s thesis about how we need to keep learning Western Civ rings true for me. I think we need to know how we got here so we appreciate it. I’ll probably finish this in the next week, so look for my full review next month!