'Platero Y Yo (Platero and I)' by Juan Ramon Jimenez

Platero Y Yo (Platero and I), Juan Ramon Jimenez (3.0)

A sweet ode to a town and donkey in the southwest of Spain, this book is a series of one to two page vignettes between a man and his donkey, Platero. A Nobel Prize winner for his poetry, the small musings here are quite poetic. Cleverly he has written them as for children, but with a lot of symbolism and metaphors for adults to enjoy. Being written long ago, a few of the characters are written stereotypically. Sadly the flow of the words comes to a halt when you come upon misogynistic or racist terms. One can blame the time, though even with a lack of enmity, it still clangs in your ears. If you can get through the handful of these, the rest of the book is quirky and sweet, much like Platero.

'Radicalized' by Cory Doctorow

Radicalized, Cory Doctorow (4.0)

As usual, Mr. Doctorow has his eye on the key issues of our time and portrays them in interesting and compelling ways. He does it here with 4 short stories, most set in the near future. He imagines our emerging issues (i.e. income inequality, immigration, health care) playing out in ironic ways. While the subjects are usually depressing, these stories have hope buried here and there throughout. While the entitled money manager hides in his bunker after the Internet and society unravel, not all is anarchy in the outside he fights so strongly to keep out. I only found one of the stories so-so (I’ll let the reader figure out which one) the other three are fascinating and timely.