Category Archives: Books

Allow Me to Retort

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Harry Katz

Elie Mystal thinks the US Constitution is trash. In Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution he makes a solid case.  Mystal is justice correspondent for The Nation and a graduate of Harvard Law School. Allow … Continue reading →

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How Rights Went Wrong

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Harry Katz

How did you feel on June 24, 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down the constitutionally protected right to abortion? Did you feel victorious? Elated? Vindicated? Did you feel that a terrible injustice had … Continue reading →

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A World on the Wing

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Harry Katz

I’ve been reading some pretty heavy stuff lately; books about the rise of tyranny around the world and some godawful decisions coming out of the US Supreme Court. I needed to take a break, read something a little more uplifting. … Continue reading →

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The Road to Unfreedom

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Harry Katz

I read widely and I follow news and politics closely, but in recent years I’ve often felt utterly baffled by world events. It’s like I’m trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box. I manage … Continue reading →

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How the World Really Works

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Harry Katz

Global climate change is an unprecedented challenge for the world.  To meet the challenge, we need to make unprecedented changes in the ways we live, work, produce, and consume.   In a new book called How the World Really Works: … Continue reading →

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The Advice Trap

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Harry Katz

The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever could easily be boiled down to three or four PowerPoint slides. In fact, I suspect the book originated as three or four PowerPoint slides that were … Continue reading →

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Friends

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Harry Katz

Ever heard of Robin Dunbar? He’s the guy who famously discovered Dunbar’s Number: 150. Wait, let me clarify that. Robin Dunbar did not discover the number 150. What he did discover is that 150 is roughly the largest number of … Continue reading →

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Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Harry Katz

On the surface, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia is a memoir of the years 2001 to 2010 when the author, Peter Pomerantsev, lived and worked in Russia.  In reality, the book … Continue reading →

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Greenwood

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Harry Katz

I was on vacation last week and took one of my periodic side trips into fiction. Greenwood, by Canadian writer Michael Christie, is a novel about family and trees and the relationship between them. It spans four generations of the … Continue reading →

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On Tyranny

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Harry Katz

I’ve lived my whole life in democratic countries. I’ve never experienced what it’s like to live under a dictatorship, thankfully. But these days, I’m worried. Democracy here in the US and around the world seems more fragile that it used … Continue reading →

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