THE BIG MYTH by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway

 . . . view of the world at first seems Hobbesian: nasty and brutish, full of fame and disease.

p. 177

Foundation, season 3

Been listening to the Bald Move podcast on Foundation (https://baldmove.com/category/foundation/). I was going to email them my thoughts on the third season, but they'd probably delete it, since I seem to be in the minority of not digging this season. Bit of a bummer because I binged the first two seasons in about two weeks when I was recovering from gall bladder surgery.

Where to start? I guess The Mule. Even though he was really only in one scene in the second season, I liked the original actor. Too bad he got fired. His understudy just isn't menacing. He's more of a laughable comic book villain. And that's my problem with the character altogether. The Mule is like something out a Marvel or DC Comics series, and I'm so bored with those brands.

What I loved about the first two seasons was the Game of Thrones vibe, where it was more about the politics of dying empire instead of superheroes and villains.

Another thing: Jared Harris is hardly in this season. He's such a great actor, he pretty much carried the first two seasons, along with Lee Pace. Now the Foundation relies on Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick, and she may be a pretty face, but her acting talent is limited. She's no Sonequa Martin-Green . . . that actress probably wouldn't have wanted to do Foundation after starring in Star Trek: Discovery. What acting great wants two sci-fi shows on their resume?

I'll probably finish watching the third season, but it's been a slog. Definitely not watching the fourth season.

HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty

 Marriage is a mysterious instituion, even from the inside.

Sometimes it can feel like a softly furnished minimum-security prison.

That was my experience anyway.

Chapter 77, p. 274

fiction was "the lie through which we tell the truth" (she was quoting Albert Camus)

Chapter 109, p. 437

"fate won't be fought"

Chapter 122, p. 479

THE PRINCESS OF LAS VEGAS by Chris Bohjalian

We'd never been the sort of sisters who spoke or texted all he time, and now the less contact we had, the better. It would have been a failed charade if we had tried to feign closeness.

Chapter One, p. 27

ELEVEN PERCENT by Maren Uthaug

 "Unhappy people mostly think about themselves,"

p.66

RABBIT MOON by Jennifer Haigh

In her view, the Disney franchise is yet another toxic American export, like carbon emissions or troop deployments or fast food or nuclear waste. . . . .  Claire found the cartoons insipid and weirdly moralistic. . . . .  She drew the line, however, at theme parks.  Each time they visited [[her husband's]] mother in Florida, [[their daughter]] clamored to go to Disney World.  Claire's answer, always, was a resounding "No."

p. 43

DIFFICULT MEN by Brett Martin

Under George W. Bush, matters of politics had a way of becoming referenda on the nation's masculinity: were we a nation of men (decisive, single-minded, unafraid to use force and to dominate) or girls (deliberative, empathetic, given to compromise)?

PROLOGUE, p. 13

Above all, no genre suited the baby boomers' dueling impulses of attractions and guilt toward American capitalism as well as the Mob drama. The notion that the American dream might at its core be a criminal enterprise lay at the center of the era's signature works. . . .

FIVE, "Difficult Men", p. 84

MY FATHER THE PORNOGRAPHER by Chris Offutt

The majority of Americans grow up in cities and suburbs and are afraid of the woods. Horror movies exploit this fear: the person alone in the forest, the sounds of unknown nocturnal animals, the sheer panic of being lost at night.

Chapter Fourteen, p. 99

STALIN: TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY by Dmitri Volkogonov

in the modern world, conflict is almost bound to end in stalemate. This shown in Korea, in Vietnam and in Afghanistan.

"Icy Winds", p. 541