Everything starts somewhere. For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, …
The File Is Real
3 stars
A prequel set just before book 1, The Affair tells how Reacher gets pushed out of the Army. The Army sends him to Carter Crossing Mississippi, where a young woman has been murdered and the town thinks the perpetrator must've been a soldier from the nearby Kelham Army Base.
This episode takes us back to early Reacher novels, where he can't put a foot wrong at all.
Including the sex scenes. Reacher can't do wrong, but Lee Child certainly does. These should have been whittled down a lot.
I finished the last five books on a recent business trip to Germany. 16 hours travel time each way, plus a few trips cross-city via U+S Bahn is a lot of time for reading and listening to audiobooks.
A young Jack Reacher knows how to finish a fight so it stays finished. He …
An uninspired story of Reacher's childhood
2 stars
Second Son goes back to Reacher's childhood, specifically age 13 when his family is newly stationed on Okinawa. Local bullies threaten the new to town Reacher brothers. Reacher kisses a girl on the beach. Reacher acts and, worse, talks like adult Reacher. He gets to solve crimes like adult Reacher, including explaining to military investigators exactly where his father's missing code book has ended up. At age 13. Just scan right.
A brain-bending investigation of why some people never change their minds—and others do in an …
Interesting ideas
4 stars
McRaney explores the psychology of persuasion, intrigued by the work of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and their Deep Canvassing technique. The other method that he covers is Street Epistemology, which isn't specifically supposed to change minds. Just make people look hard at their reasons, which if those reasons are bad maybe they'll consider changing them on their own.
The rest of the chapters explores psychological concepts around persuasion and the final chapter is one on social change and networks of human contact. That last chapter is frustrating because McRaney presents it as if the change that spreads through human social thought is inevitably positive in the long run (LGBTQ people are so accepted! Anti-vax people that really opposed covid vaccines are mostly getting vaccinated in Britain now!) The book was published in 2022, so the current backlash against trans people hadn't reached the heights it has, but we've been …
McRaney explores the psychology of persuasion, intrigued by the work of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and their Deep Canvassing technique. The other method that he covers is Street Epistemology, which isn't specifically supposed to change minds. Just make people look hard at their reasons, which if those reasons are bad maybe they'll consider changing them on their own.
The rest of the chapters explores psychological concepts around persuasion and the final chapter is one on social change and networks of human contact. That last chapter is frustrating because McRaney presents it as if the change that spreads through human social thought is inevitably positive in the long run (LGBTQ people are so accepted! Anti-vax people that really opposed covid vaccines are mostly getting vaccinated in Britain now!) The book was published in 2022, so the current backlash against trans people hadn't reached the heights it has, but we've been watching it build for a while so I'm not so optimistic that social change is positive.
However, the methods of persuasion discussed seem intriguing if somewhat distasteful. Both methods emphasize being judgement free of people's bad and harmful positions in order to change their minds. In the context of canvassing, I can do that (I worked on Washington state's 2012 marriage equality referendum). Keeping judgement out of my conversation for short term conversations while canvassing is much easier than keeping it out of a long term relationship with relatives. I might be more successful on topics like housing (with some training, of course) that don't directly threaten people because of who they are.
A worthwhile overview and read, but don't consider this a how-to. For that, read & train up on the methods after reading this book.
There’s deadly trouble in the corn county of Nebraska . . . and Jack Reacher …
Reacher trips over yet another massive criminal conspiracy
3 stars
Reacher stumbles into a rural Nebraska county while hitchhiking away from the events in 61 Hours. While drinking coffee at a rural motel bar, he overhears an alcoholic doctor turn down visiting a woman who is experiencing a nosebleed. Reacher keeps his nose out of lots of other people's business, but he suspects the woman is a domestic violence victim and badgers the doctor into visiting, with Reacher along for the ride.
The woman turns out to be the wife of a local county heavy, so Reacher is off on another adventure battling local crime bosses, much like a one man A-Team. Before the end of the book, Reacher aims to end their control, at least the terrorizing people into silence part.
A former international hostage negotiator for the FBI offers a new, field-tested approach to high-stakes …
possibly some good advice, but it's presented as a buffet
3 stars
Voss premise is that negotiating is an emotional exercise rather than an intellectual one. so he presents a bunch of techniques that he says are designed to subtly play on people's emotional processing. I assume they work well if skillfully wielded, though i can't be sure. but he never puts it all together into a coherent method. the techniques remain a grab bag. lastly, the book does not present any way for the reader to practice the techniques, though he talks about such practice in classes he teaches. consequently all except type a personalities are likely to find it intimidating.
"A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in …
OK, but eye-rolly in parts
3 stars
Michael is a male escort catering to women. Stella is an autistic woman who lacks confidence. She hires Michael to teach her how to be better at sex, then to he better at relationships. Of course it turns into more.
But the conflict relies on characters that hear one thing said and assume it means another. lots and lots of that. And each character blows those meanings up into all sorts of drama that could have been avoided by asking what they meant.
