Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions are Made ***

The goal of this book is to argue for the theory of constructed emotion and against the classical essentialist theory of emotion. Our experience and interpretation of emotional states is not universal or innate but rather conceptual.

I was very impressed in the early chapters by Barrett's clear presentation of how constructionism works, how it differs from relativism, and how it doesn't deny the reality of the constructed experiences. Her examples are well chosen, such as how different cultures actually see different stripes within a rainbow. I am a strong constructionist, so I delighted in the friendly exposition and in the idea that Barrett had neurological evidence to back it up.

Things got a little wonky when Barrett delved deeper into the brain science. Her explanatory aptitude dried up: the explanations were neither informative nor illuminating. Then things went off the rails in the second half of the book. She wants to explore how the theory of constructed emotion affects -- or should affect -- our views on human nature, healthcare, and the law, but her observations are trite (try yoga! be aware of your biases!) and often don't follow from the theory (rational thought and emotional reactions are not independent, which could be equally true with an essentialist theory of emotion).

Max Brand, Gunman's Reckoning and The Untamed ***

Max Brand is the final author in the Classic Westerns collection Evelyn game me for my birthday. Gunman's Reckoning (1915) and The Untamed (1919) share several features which are perhaps Brand trademarks. His descriptions make prominent use of sound, such as the sound of a train or the whistling of Whistlin' Dan; the stories take place over a short time period in only a few locations; the heroes are reluctant gunfighters who prefer to use their wiles rather than their side-irons; the young rancher's daughter inspires self-sacrificing love from the hero, who must court danger to help another man into her arms. All of the characters are strongly concerned about their reputations and come up with overly elaborate ruses to save face. None of the men understand women or fail to fall victim to their charms.

Suketu Mehta, This Land is Our Land *** 1/2

These days, a great many people in the rich countries complain loudly about migration from the poor ones. But as the migrants see it, the game was rigged: First, the rich countries colonized us and stole our treasure and prevented us from building our industries. After plundering us for centuries, they left, having drawn up maps in ways that ensured permanent strife between our communities... They stole our minerals and corrupted our governments so that their corporations could continue stealing our resources; they fouled the air above us and the waters around us, making our farms barren, our oceans lifeless; and they were aghast when the poorest among us arrived at their borders, not to steal but to work, to clean their shit, and to fuck their men.

This Land is Our Land bills itself as "An Immigrant's Manifesto," but it is as much a jeremiad as any anti-immigration screed. Mehta cherry-picks anecdotes and studies to make a vivid and angry pro-immigration argument. I happen to agree with most of what he says, but he doesn't make any serious attempt to convince opponents.

Mehta's boldest and most interesting idea appears on the very first page: that immigrants are "creditors" to whom rich countries owe a debt. "You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have come to collect." I find this perspective illuminating, albeit overstated. It shows how the ethical issue of immigration is similar to the question of reparations for African Americans: society has benefited at their expense and morally owes them compensation in return. And as with reparations, the proper remedy (even the very possibility of remedy) is unclear.

In support of his view, Mehta offers a comprehensive and depressing vision of the ways that the Western powers have undermined -- and continue to undermine -- the developing world. He also makes more familiar pro-immigration arguments about the effect on the economy and culture of the host country (lower crime rates and higher economic activity among immigrants).

To the people who voted for the populists: Do not fear the newcomers. Many are young and will pay the pensions for the elderly, who are living longer than ever before. They will bring energy with them, for no one has more enterprise than someone who has left their distant home to make the difficult journey here... They will create jobs. They will cook and dance and write and play sports in new and exciting ways. They will make their new countries richer, in all senses of the word. The immigrant armada is actually a rescue fleet.

John DeMont, The Long Way Home ***

The Long Way Home is exactly the kind of book I want to buy and read on vacation: "A Personal History of Nova Scotia" that covers the history of the place I'm visiting and shows how that history is reflected in the present. Surprisingly, I came across the book in Montreal rather than Halifax.

In addition to learning the highlights of (European) Nova Scotian history -- the competition between the French and English, the Acadian Expulsion, the influx of Loyalists, the impact of the two World Wars, fishing, shipbuilding, and coal mining -- I saw how the psyche of residents has been shaped by the short-lived nature of most of its booms. Its location gives it key advantages that led to it being "from the European view of things, the oldest part of Canada," but people and industries tend to move on after just a few years. The town of Shelburne, for example, grew to nearly 17,000 residents around the time of the American Revolution, but most of the people were gone by the 1790s. Nova Scotia's "defining myths and stories are mostly about loss and sheer determination."

I got what I wanted from the book, even though DeMont's prose and the organization are merely serviceable.

David Huebert, Peninsula Sinking **** 1/2

I picked up Peninsula Sinking from the "Atlantic Canada Authors" shelf at a store along the Halifax waterfront. It's advertised as a collection of stories about "Maritimers caught between the places they love and the siren call of elsewhere." In other words, it seemed like a perfect book to read while touring Nova Scotia.

All eight stories take place in Nova Scotia, but the plots or characters don't feel specific to the Maritimes. They have a classic structure, appealing everyday characters, and a compassionate tone. The main characters often have interesting jobs (woman's prison guard, submarine officer, Canadian Equine Federation clerk), and animals play an important role in nearly every story. The stories are engaging, enjoyable, and the right length to read in a single sitting. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this low-key book.

Ling Ma, Severance ****

Reviews of Severance tend to emphasize the apocalyptic part of the plot: an epidemic of Shen Fever, which causes people to mindlessly repeat routines from their lives, such as setting the table, trying on clothes, or watching TV. Readers drawn to Severance based on the zombie-like premise will be severely disappointed, because that premise forms a surprisingly small part of the story. The book uses it as a device to explore life as a millennial, the immigrant experience, and the commodification of America. 

The metaphor was particularly clear to me near the beginning, when our heroine Candace's boyfriend imagines a future where New York City is taken over by chain stores and restaurants that offer a simulacrum of its vibrant culture, and Candace finds herself taking photos that perpetuate the same cliches. Humans continue to desire the same experiences even when the original meaning and impetus for them is lost.

The book also tells the story of Candace's parents emigrating from China, and her job as production coordinator for a publisher. I enjoyed all of the component pieces, and felt like they all contributed to the core theme in more or less obvious ways. Narratively, though, the different elements felt disjoint.

Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here ****

While browsing the Philosophy section during our recent visit to Powell's Books, I found myself intrigued by An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time. I suddenly realized that I wanted to know more about the nature of time. (This is exactly the kind of experience I want and expect from Powell's: the abrupt upwelling of a desire I didn't know I had to explore a subject or author.) That specific book was new and expensive with few mixed reviews, so I wandered over to the Physics section and considered the numerous options with "Time" in their title. I ended up with From Eternity to Here, which admittedly doesn't have "Time" in its title.

I am very happy with my choice. From Eternity to Here is exactly what I hope for in a science book: an engaging style, a new perspective, and just the right percentage of material that goes over my head.

The fundamental mystery is why time travels in just one direction when all other dimensions of spacetime allow travel in any direction and the laws of physics are inherently reversible. The answer – or the evidence that points toward an answer – has to do with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that entropy is always increasing. Why and how did the universe start in a state of such low entropy? In other words, pondering the nature of time reduces to pondering cosmology, information theory, and the laws of physics, the mysteries of relativity, quantum mechanics, gravity. Carroll does a nice job of showing how the various mysteries fit together. He is also honest about the limitations of our knowledge: while the goal of science is "to understand the behavior of the natural world," our comprehension of the fundamental mechanisms falls short of that goal.

Physicists are completely confident in how they use quantum mechanics – they can build theories, make predictions, and test against experiments, and there is never any ambiguity along the way. Nevertheless, we're not completely sure what quantum mechanics really is.

Whenever I read a book like this one, I always wonder what conceptual breakthrough will finally allow us to understand what's going on.