All Reviews
Reviews are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent review appearing first in the list.
On Inhumanity
As the title may indicate, David Livingstone Smith’s main purpose in ‘On Inhumanity’ is to offer a theory of dehumanization. Smith has previously published a book on dehumanization, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (St. Mart
The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics
The most appropriate words to describe The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics are: clear, concise, and concrete. The handbook is edited by Bob Fischer who teaches philosophy at Texas State University, and he is currently one of the most competent scholar
Read the full review of The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics
The Logical Alien
Edited by Sofia Miguens and published in 2020 by Harvard University Press, The Logical Alien: Conant and his Critics is an imposing 1069-pages collection devoted to the problem of the possibility of illogical thought. Could we imagine beings who would rea
Edvard Munch
Who was the man behind The Scream, the iconic painting that expresses the anguish of the twentieth century? Sue Prideaux raises this question in her biography Edward Munch: Behind the Scream about the Norwegian painter Edward Munch (1863–1944). The biogr
Rethinking Causality, Complexity and Evidence for the Unique Patient
This open access, multi-authored volume distills the work of an interdisciplinary research project, CauseHealth, conducted from 2015 to 2019 at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, which attempts to address theoretical and practical challenges to un
Read the full review of Rethinking Causality, Complexity and Evidence for the Unique Patient
Punk, Post Punk, New Wave
I grew up during the punk era and new wave eras, and was at least aware of the culture, though I was a long way from taking on a punk identity. I did go to a bunch of shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainly at the famed City Gardens in New Jersey.
Psychiatry Reborn
Psychiatry Reborn is an important and timely book, tackling a subject that has increasingly preoccupied psychiatry and philosophy of psychiatry over the last two decades. The central problem is identified succinctly in the first line of the introductory c
The Sapphire Child
The Sapphire Child is the second in a series, but can be read on its own too. It’s an historical romance set mostly in India during the 1930s and 1940s. It is a long book at 532 pages, or 13.5 hours in the unabridged audiobook performed pluckily by Elizab
A Thousand Ships
A Thousand Ships is a novel of sorts. It tells the story of the battle of Troy from the point of view of the women in the story. This is not a completely new idea: Pat Barker did the same in her 2018 work The Silence of the Girls. Barker’s approach emphas
Why Free Will Is Real
In Why Free Will is Real Christian List defends a compatibilist libertarian position in the metaphysical debate over free will. List’s position is compatibilist because it holds that an agent’s free will is compatible with a scientific worldview. It is li
Propelled
Boredom, frustration and anticipation are states of mind that most people try to avoid. In search of happiness, pleasure and meaningful activities we tend to see these emotions as a failure to achieve the good life. In Propelled, Andreas Elpidirou argues
Shed No Tears
Shed No Tears is the third Cat Kinsella detective novel by British author Caz Frear. She has been writing a book a year since 2018. Cat is 26 years old, a London detective with ambition. This mystery starts with the discovery of an old set of bones, which
Socrates in Love
It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of Socrates, as presented by Plato and other sources, upon western thought. He shifted the intellectual discussion from a proto-science of nature to an inquiry into the lives and institutions of human living
Anxious People
Anxious People is already a bestseller. Backman’s previous book A Man Called Ove was a huge seller. It’s surprising for Swedish novels that are not about grizzly serial killers. But Anxious People does feature plenty of existential dread, thoughts of suic
The Manhattan Nobody Knows
William Helmreich died of coronavirus in March 2020. He had three volumes of urban walks in Brooklyn (2016), Manhattan (2018) and Queens (2020). They are great books to dip into if you are interested in New York City, and they may serve as a record of the
Burnt Sugar
Burnt Sugar is a novel of contemporary middle class India, told by a disaffected wife, burdened by her relationship with her demented mother. The narrator, Antara, has a bad attitude about most things. The first line is “I would be lying if I said my moth
Clean Hands
The work of two distinguished contributors to the philosophical literature on volitional disorders such as addictions, obsessions and compulsions, Clean Hands? is a clear and thought-provoking discussion of one of the most puzzling corners of psychopathol
Waiting for an Echo
It has long been clear that the US prison system is brutal, that mentally ill people are likely to be imprisoned, and that imprisonment is likely to either cause or worsen mental illness in prisoners. In Waiting for an Echo, Christine Montross spells out
The Push
The push refers, of course, to the mother’s push to give birth to the child inside her – a moment of pain and pleasure that produces a new being. And perhaps another push as the story unfolds. Written mostly in the second person it comments on relationshi
Stoic Philosophy and Social Theory
Ancient philosophers and schools of Ancient times have always been influential in shaping the modern theories of on psychological and social aspects of society. Lou Marinoff’s groundbreaking book Plato not Prozac! marks a milestone in applying philosophy
Against the Loveless World
The author has written a beautiful, inspiring and enlightening novel that comes with my unqualified recommendation. Among the several treasures the novel provides are; a celebration of the strength and compassion of women in many of the complicated roles
Adaptive Yoga
One of the current trends of yoga instruction is a move towards greater inclusivity and equity. Previous titles such as Accessible Yoga (Jivanna Heyman, 2019), Yoga for Everyone (Dianne Bondy, 2019), and Every Body Yoga (Jessamyn Stanley, 2017) have soug
CIA
Professor Millick begins his short (136pgs.) but absolutely fun to read book with a bit about how he came to fulfill his lifetime desire to work for the CIA: When I got older, I wanted a job that was just as exciting. What were some other possibilities? M
A Manifesto for Mental Health
Skepticism about the current state of affairs in psychiatry is not new, as evidenced by a burgeoning literature that is likely to be familiar to the readers of this site. This book is an updated and extended version of the author’s A Prescription for Psyc
Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology
Since the National Institute of Mental Health declared its independence from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder with the introduction of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) research programme, psychiatry and its philosophy have been
Read the full review of Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology