I’d picked up The Spirit Level at some point last year, but hadn’t actually got around it reading it. When I heard one of the authors was hosting a local event, as part of a festival of ideas and politics I decided now was the time to read it.

The Spirit Level attempts to relate income inequality to a whole host of other societal problems, such as violence and mental health. This was done by comparing the two with data sources from the World Bank, the World Health organisation, the United Nations etc. I would have preferred there to be a little more science, but what there was was convincing.

The authors find, not surprisingly, that where there are great disparities in wealth, there are heightened levels of social distrust.

Each chapter highlighted a different societal problem and compared it to income inequality. Where there were higher rates of inequality, the social problems increased consistently.

The contrast between the material success and social failure of many rich countries is an important signpost. It suggests that, if we are to gain further improvements in the real quality of life, we need to shift attention from material standards and economic growth to ways of improving the psychological and social wellbeing of whole societies

The talk by the author was interesting, if not mostly what I’d just read! He has a new book out, The Inner Level. I’ve yet to look into it, but I think I will now…

These books are a huge pleasure of mine - I won't say guilty pleasure, because I refuse to be guilty about anything I read. Nonetheless, they are like a bit of cotton candy, tasty but without much substance. This is the 18th in the series of books centered around Joe Pickett, erstwhile Wyoming Game Warden and man who has destroyed more state cars than anyone in fiction or reality.

Box has a formula for the Pickett stories - Joe is in the doghouse with his agency brass and is dispatched by the Governor to handle some problem that really has nothing to do with being a game warden, but which needs a man of discretion and integrity to deal with it. Shit goes badly wrong. Joe blows up a house or destroys a truck, or both, some bad guy or another ends up dead, and a conspiracy at the highest levels of business or government is uncovered, Joe is again persona non grata and he fears that his family will starve. His mother in law, a truly awful person, tries to get his wife to leave him.

Before the Trump administration, these huge conspiracies felt a whole lot more fictional. But, I digress.

Anyway, this one follows the formula. There's a new governor, as Governor Rulon has lost the election to a fancy pants ivy league rich guy Republican who looks the part of Governor, but has the grasping heart of any one of the Trumps, which is to say, he likes money and doesn't much care where it comes from. There's also a missing British woman who was vacationing at the very exclusive, very expensive, very five-star vacation ranch, a game warden who has just up and disappeared, and a puzzling situation with Nate Romanowski, master falconer.  Joe is instructed to find out what happened to Kate, the missing woman, without making too many waves.

Joe makes waves. It ends predictably, which is to say badly.

I don't think that it would really be possible to pick this series up on book 18 and make a lot of sense out of the various characters and plot lines without the backstory of the preceding 17 installments. Nonetheless, it's a solid entry into the series, and an afternoon with Joe Pickett is always good fun.

Taking a brief break from vintage fiction to read something brand new! This is one of the few series that I stay current on - along with Ruth Galloway, Inspector Gamache & to a slightly lesser degree (because I'm stuck on book 14 and I can't quite get myself past it) Harry Bosch.

Started this a few days ago.  This is book 13 of the Joe Pickett series.

Another Joe Pickett book down.