I'm Right and You're An Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It up
A great read on how all of us can improve our public discourse. Author James Hoggan speaks with notable researchers, academics, and public leaders on how our toxic state of public discourse came to be, and gets their recommendations for how to change this – as the title…
The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization
Reading …. I’ve borrowed this book to better understand the roots of democracy. Thankfully, I’ll have plenty of time to read it – there are no other holds at the library for this book. Borrow it (please don’t until I’ve read it) from the Hamilton Public Library.…
A World We Have Lost Saskatchewan Before 1905
Reading…Bill Waiser’s 717 page book is outside my usual reading, a look at the history of what is today’s Saskatchewan before the province was founded.Hopefully, I’ll be able to find the time to complete it. Borrow it from the Hamilton Public Library.…
Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory
Reading… Looking forward to completing Major General Julian Thompson’s book on how the BEF’s spectacular and unexpected success in escaping Dunkirk in 1940 was essential to the Allied victory in 1945 – despite leaving all their equipment and supplies behind. Borrow from the Hamilton Public Library.…
Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation
Toronto Star reporter Kevin Donovan shares his behind-the-scenes view of the journalistic investigation which finally brought down CBC’s golden boy Jian Ghomeshi. I know two people who Ghomeshi assaulted, both of them telling me of his behaviour in 2008 and 2009. The book gives more perspective on the…
Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt
Sarah Jaffe of The Nation looks at the grassroot movements rocking the American political discourse on both the left and right during the past decade. With on the ground accounts of these movements, from Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party, to BlackLivesMatter, Jaffe takes us closer to the…
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops
I only read the first two chapters before having to move onto projects, and returning the book to the Hamilton Public Library. I greatly enjoyed the details and insight of the stories shared in the chapters, a fascinating look at the early Black Ops operations of the Second…
No News Is Bad News Canada's Media Collapse — and What Comes Next
I read this book many months ago, and wasn’t planning to write a review. As I follow the state of the news industry closely, there wasn’t much that surprised me in the book. It was a good read, a good lament for the state of Canadian media which…
How English Became English: A Short History of A Global Language
A venture outside of my normal reading topics, this book on the history of the English language was well worth my time. The most fascinating chapters of the book discussed local variations of the English language and the future of our tongue in the Internet age with new…
One Day in August The Untold Story Behind Canada's Tragedy in Dieppe
The Dieppe Raid was the bloodiest day of the Second World War for Canada, and the bloodiest day for Hamilton as 197 men of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry died in the August 19, 1942 raid. For 70 years, the debate raged regarding the merits and purpose of…