'The Miracles of the Namiya General Store' by Keigo Higashino

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, Keigo Higashino (3.0)

I found this a sweet story that drew me in well, but didn’t hold me throughout. I think it had to do with the time jumping narrative and too pat coincidences. The General Store is a run down, seemingly abandoned shop in a distant suburb of Tokyo. The rumor has it that the old owner would give advice – if you dropped off your letter stating your situation and question, he would answer the next day in the box behind the store. Mr. Namiya was wise and his advice thoughtfully given. Early on we realize that something is odd about the store and the advice keeps being give long after the death of Namiya-san. I enjoyed many of the tales as we followed those who got advice, whether they adhered to it or not. While sweet, about two thirds of the way through, the coincidences were too much for me.

'Atmosphaera Incognita' by Neal Stephenson

Atmosphaera Incognita, Neal Stephenson (4.0)

This re-released novella is a short, wild ride – a treat for Stephenson fans that don’t have time for his usual 1000 page tome. Our narrator takes us on a journey to make the tallest building. Being Neal Stephenson, this is not Burj Khalifa type tall, this is a 20 km high behemoth, where near the top you can see the curvature of the earth and have to wear space suits. In just over 100 pages, we follow the design and construction of the building with all its unique challenges (winds, materials, etc.). While there is not a lot of time for character development, we get an Elon Musk type visionary with his childhood friend cum real estate mogul as our narrator. It does work, as the building is really the main character with most of the pages devoted to its description.

'The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined' by Steven PInker

The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, Steven Pinker (2.0)

I was hoping that this book would be uplifting, but should have realized that with over 1000 pages, we likely would need to review the violence in detail in order to establish that it has declined. I found that to be very painful. For those who want a scholarly review of all the violence of human history, Pinker does an extremely thorough job. Unfortunately I did not need 10-20 cases reviewed for every act of genocide, type of torture and incentive for murder. I almost never do this – but I skipped through many examples. I believe I got the point by reading the first two chapters and the last. One interesting note is that this was published in 2012. There was a particularly prescient comment about narcissistic leaders that should scare us all!