A YA Series, a First Contact Novel, and a Startup Book Walk Into a Bar—Pursued by Wolves
We Are Not Saved
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The Origin of Politics - Kibbutzim, Chimps, and Children
We Are Not Saved
Would you like some genetics in your politics? The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations – Social Disintegration, Birth Rates, and the Path to Extinction By: Nicholas Wade Published: 2025 256 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Wade offers up an evolutionary psychology account of how to make politics actually function; how, when you try to disconnect politics and the exercise of power from core human nature, as shaped by evolution, things go off the rails. What authorial biases should I be aware of? Nicholas Wade worked as a science writer for...
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A Case for Latter-Day Christianity - (i.e. A Case for the Christianity of Mormons)
We Are Not Saved
I feel like I should make some clever connection between this book and the discussion which raged about the Shroud of Turin, but nothing occurs to me. A Case for Latter-day Christianity: Evidences for the Restoration of the New Testament’s “Mere” Christian Church By: Robert Starling Published: 2019 360 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A broad, and intensive defense of the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). With a special focus on tying that theology to the theology of the early Christian Church. As such it spends a lot of time examining differences...
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Taking Religion Seriously - Can You Get to Belief Purely Through Reason?
We Are Not Saved
In which I mostly talk about the Shroud of Turin. Murray only spends seven pages on the it, so my review is not comprehensive. Actually, never mind. That's what the top sections are for. Taking Religion Seriously By: Charles Murray Published: 2025 152 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Murray’s journey from agnosticism to belief, a journey that is largely intellectual rather than spiritual. Because it was largely intellectual, it’s also more explicable. This allows Murray to write a different sort of conversion story, one that’s more amenable to being mapped out as a...
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Children of Mars - Sid Meier's Civilization Lied
We Are Not Saved
Back when Rome was just one Italian settlement out of many, but a settlement with a dream! Children of Mars: The Origins of Rome's Empire By: Jeremy Armstrong Published: 2025 288 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The deep history of Rome. What we actually know about its legendary founding, its early rise to prominence, and the shape of its military. Additionally, the development of Roman identity and how that identity interacted with the other elements. What's the author's angle? This belongs to that genre of book which takes recent scholarship and archaeological evidence and uses it to...
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Origins of Efficiency - The Glories of the Modern World
We Are Not Saved
We have a lot of nice things. We’re really good at making nice things. We should preserve these nice things. But also nothing lasts forever? The Origins of Efficiency By: Brian Potter Published: 2025 384 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The clever and incremental ways we’ve vastly increased humanity’s ability to make stuff. We’re constantly finding ways to build stuff cheaper, faster, and with fewer resources. What's the author's angle? Potter is probably best known for his Substack Construction Physics, which covers infrastructure, manufacturing, and building stuff in general....
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The New Testament in Its World - A Brief, Thousand-Page Intro
We Are Not Saved
Everything you wanted to know about 1st Century Palestine, but were afraid to ask… The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians By: N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird Published: 2019 992 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An deep dive on the New Testament covering (as the subtitle suggests) the history: Second Temple Judaism against a Greco-Roman background; the literature: the New Testament’s genesis, structure, authors and audience; and theology: the religious claims of the book, the doctrine, miracles, and...
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Superbloom - Volume 23 in the "Social Media is Awful" Series
We Are Not Saved
Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart By: Nicholas Carr Published: 2025 272 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? On its surface, this is a fairly typical anti-social media book, though Carr does have some interesting things to say about weaknesses inherent to the medium: content collapse, algorithmic engineering, and hostility generation. All things I’ll get to in a bit. What's the author's angle? Carr comes from the Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman school of media criticism. Media have inherent properties that lead to different sorts of communication, and different...
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We Belong to the Land - The Best Palestinian Making His Best Case
We Are Not Saved
A story of one Palestinian’s fight against brutality, bureaucracy, and bishops. We Belong to the Land: The Story of a Palestinian Israeli Who Lives for Peace and Reconciliation By: Elias Chacour and Mary E. Jensen Published: 1990 212 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An autobiographical account of Chacour’s struggles as a Palestinian Christian working to build up his community in Galilee (Ibillin) while under continual pushback from Israeli bureaucracy and internal church politics. What's the author's angle? At the time the book was written Chacour was a Melkite Greek Catholic...
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Five Fictional Books In Search of a Common Thread
We Are Not Saved
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I actually never got around to discussing the Lord of the Flies element of this book. But trust me it’s in there!
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
By: David Grann
Published: 2023
352 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
This book is about what happened to HMS Wager, a Royal Navy ship that was shipwrecked on the south coast of Chile in 1741. The journey before the shipwreck was brutal, and it only got worse from there. Out of an initial crew of roughly 250, only about 36 eventually made it back to England.
What's the author's angle?
Grann is a writer for the New Yorker who has written three books centered around unearthing interesting and often tragic historical events. His first book was The Lost City of Z. (Which I have read, and it was quite good.) His second and best known book is Killers of the Flower Moon (which I have not read). This is his third book in that same vein.
Who should read this book?
I quite enjoy books like this: true survival stories, particularly those framed by ambitions and sensibilities we can barely imagine in 2025. It’s also history at its pointiest, the tale of a single ship, and really just a handful of men. (The book largely focuses on just three.) If all that sounds appealing, then I think you’ll like this book.
Specific thoughts: The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there