Ah, fall! That beautiful time of year when leaves take on the orange glow of the setting sun, acorns crunch under booted feet, crisp air cools hot cider from the local market, and—oh, it’s over, there it goes, it’s winter now.
The back cover copy from the publisher describes the book as “genre-defying,” but what is there to defy? This book doesn’t blend genres, or even transcend genre. Schwab simply renders the idea of genre irrelevant—because, in the end, it is. What The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue does—what any truly great book does—is transport and transform us. And in the end, that’s the only thing that’s important to remember.
The title of “Counting” contains some revealing wordplay: To count is to tally things up but, also, to count is to matter. In this book, the political scientist Deborah Stone explores the ways in which these two meanings of “count” are intertwined in society. She argues that our judgments are embedded in the way we count because of the decisions we make about what matters, and that we then use this to make concrete judgments that we claim are based on math when really they’re a result of our preconceived notions.
Zoellner teaches at Chapman and Dartmouth Colleges, serves as politics editor for The Los Angeles Review of Books, and is the author and coauthor of seven previous books. To say he is well-traveled is to say cheetahs run fast. Zoellner has logged tens of thousands of miles zigzagging the continent with a small tent, backpack, and hiking boots. His book is a fascinating investigation into American places and themes; metaphors for our country.
Who says there’s no use anymore for woolfell,
the skin of a sheep still attached to the fleece?