Category Archives: Book Notes

Alain de Botton: RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS

Posted on Monday 7 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion (Pantheon, March 2012, 320pp, including 8pp acknowledgements, picture credits, and index.) This is a book by the pop-philosopher (I don’t think that’s an unfair term) and writer best know for HOW … Continue reading →

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C.S. Lewis: MERE CHRISTIANITY

Posted on Friday 4 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1952. This edition: HarperOne, trade paperback, 2001, xx + 227pp) This is famous as one of the most popular ‘apologetics’ for Christianity. (Coincidentally, I did recently see a poll of the most popular books about Christianity of the … Continue reading →

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Todd May: A SIGNIFICANT LIFE

Posted on Thursday 3 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “Human Meaning in a Silent Universe” (University of Chicago Press, 2015, xi + 197pp, including 13pp of acknowledgments, notes, suggestions for further reading, and index) This is the first of three slender books I’ve collected over the years by … Continue reading →

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Penn Jillette, GOD, NO!

Posted on Tuesday 25 August 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales” (Simon & Schuster, August 2011, 231pp) This is an odd book that is superficially about religion and atheism and the author’s own version of a “ten commandments,” but … Continue reading →

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Caro Claire Burke, YESTERYEAR

Posted on Monday 17 August 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

(Knopf, April 2026, 391pp) I read the bestselling novel YESTERYEAR, by Caro Claire Burke, three weekends ago, on a trip to LA to spend time with family on the occasion of a 1st birthday and a new house, and it … Continue reading →

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Yuval Noah Harari: UNSTOPPABLE US, Vol. 3

Posted on Wednesday 12 August 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “How Enemies Become Friends” (Bright Matter Books, February 2026, xxi + 181pp) Here is the third of Harari’s world’s-history-for-children books, taking a 30,000-foot view of the big changes over the millennia of human history. Each book has four chapters. … Continue reading →

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Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson: ABUNDANCE

Posted on Tuesday 21 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

(Avid Reader Press, March 2025, 288pp, including 66pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index.) This book takes the optimistic stance that we are capable of building what we need, and that we can solve many of the problems we perceive today. … Continue reading →

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Kurt Andersen: FANTASYLAND

Posted on Tuesday 14 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History (Random House, 2017, 462pp, including 22pp acknowledgements and index) Here is a book by a writer who doesn’t generally write this type of book. Andersen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Andersen) writes mostly novels and TV, and … Continue reading →

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Toby Ord, THE PRECIPICE

Posted on Monday 6 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity (Hachette, 2020, 468pp, including 225pp of resources, acknowledgements, appendices, further reading, notes, bibliography, and index.) Here is book about existential risks, a topic on which I have several books, though this one … Continue reading →

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William MacAskill, WHAT WE OWE THE FUTURE

Posted on Tuesday 23 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

(Basic Books, August 2022, 333pp, including 83pp of acknowledgements, appendices, figure credits and data sources, notes, and index) This book, which I read shortly after its publication in 2022, is by a young Oxford philosopher who is at the center … Continue reading →

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