David's Updates en-US Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:57:46 -0700 60 David's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7628904149 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:57:46 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Best of Old Hob']]> /review/show/7628904149 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Various David gave 3 stars to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Best of Old Hob (Kindle Edition) by Various
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Review7627786822 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 12:52:46 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Exquisite Corpses #1']]> /review/show/7627786822 Exquisite Corpses #1 by James Tynion IV David gave 4 stars to Exquisite Corpses #1 (Kindle Edition) by James Tynion IV
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Review7627446649 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:30:19 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America']]> /review/show/7627446649 The Echo Machine by David Pakman David gave 3 stars to The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America (Hardcover) by David Pakman
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Review7619460491 Sun, 01 Jun 2025 16:18:46 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Our Winter Monster']]> /review/show/7619460491 Our Winter Monster by Dennis A Mahoney David gave 4 stars to Our Winter Monster (Hardcover) by Dennis A Mahoney
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Review7613255289 Fri, 30 May 2025 13:59:12 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 2: The Paper']]> /review/show/7613255289 Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 2 by Jonathan Hickman David gave 4 stars to Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 2: The Paper (Paperback) by Jonathan Hickman
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Review7612908682 Fri, 30 May 2025 11:22:27 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Married With Children']]> /review/show/7612908682 Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 1 by Jonathan Hickman David gave 5 stars to Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Married With Children (Paperback) by Jonathan Hickman
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Review7611757851 Thu, 29 May 2025 23:54:11 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right']]> /review/show/7611757851 Dark Money by Jane Mayer David gave 4 stars to Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (ebook) by Jane Mayer
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Review7610322718 Thu, 29 May 2025 12:15:15 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'Star Wars (2025-) #1']]> /review/show/7610322718 Star Wars (2025-) #1 by Alex Segura David gave 3 stars to Star Wars (2025-) #1 by Alex Segura
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Rating861544181 Mon, 26 May 2025 22:33:48 -0700 <![CDATA[David Estoye liked a review]]> /
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
"How much would you pay right now to laugh out loud, and laugh hard, about something that has nothing whatsoever to do with current events? Exactly. My thanks go to Net Galley and Perseus Books for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

The author is a journalist who caught wind of a tiny hamlet in New Hampshire that was taken over by libertarians:

“The four libertarians who came to New Hampshire had thinner wallets than…other would-be utopians, but they had a new angle they believed would help them move the Free Town Project out of the realm of marijuana-hazed reveries and into reality. Instead of building from scratch, they would harness the power and infrastructure of an existing town—just as a rabies parasite can co-opt the brain of a much larger organism and force it work against its own interests, the libertarians planned to apply just a bit of pressure in such a way that an entire town could be steered toward liberty.�

By the time the long-term denizens of Grafton realized the extent of the mayhem that these people intended, they discovered that “the libertarians were operating under vampire rules—the invitation to enter, once offered, could not be rescinded…At the same time the Free Towners set themselves to shaping the community to their liking, the town’s bears were working to create their own utopia.�
The newcomers� idea of liberty meant no enforcement of any law, and no taxes, even for basic infrastructure and services. And when the local bear population blossomed, it was every Free Towner for herself.

Hongoltz-Hetling provides a succinct history of the town, then introduces a handful of the key players. There’s a man that buys and lives in a church in order to avoid paying taxes; an Earth Mother type that decides the bears are hungry and should receive free donuts, seeds, and grains daily in her own backyard; several tent dwellers that eschew basic hygiene and food safety; and oh, so many, many bears. Some of the townspeople are identified by name, but those that prefer anonymity are identified by colorful nicknames.

At the outset we see jaw-dropping levels of eccentricity coupled with hilarious anecdotes, and true to his journalistic calling, the author spends a good deal of time in this tiny, lawless burg, and so he reports events not second hand, but from his own experience. My favorite part is the showdown between Hurricane the Guard Llama and an ursine interloper looking for mutton on the hoof. Another is the conflict between “Beretta,� the resident next door to “Doughnut Lady,� who hates all bears primarily because they are fat.

Eventually things take a darker, more tragic turn for some; the most impressive aspect of this story is the seamless manner in which the author segues from the hilarious to the heartbreaking, and then brings us back up for air.

Ultimately, the bears are emblematic of the need human beings have for cooperation and organization.

Though the material used for this story is rich and original, it takes a gifted wordsmith like Hongoltz-Hetling to craft it into a darkly amusing tale of this caliber. If I were to change one thing, I would lose the digression near the middle of the book with regard to typhus, Tunisia, and diseases shared by bears. It slows the pace and could easily be whittled down to a single paragraph. But the rest of this book is so engaging that I cannot reduce my rating by even half a star. My advice is to skim that passage, which eats up about five percent of an otherwise perfectly executed narrative, unless of course you like that aspect of it.

In six years of reviewing, and out of the 666 reviews I have provided to Net Galley—and yes, that’s the actual number, until I turn this review in—I have purchased fewer than one percent of the books I’ve read, either to give as gifts, or to keep. That said, this book is going under my Christmas tree this December. If you read it, you’re bound to agree: the story of Grafton is the best surprise of 2020.

Do it."
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Review7589593500 Wed, 21 May 2025 23:14:22 -0700 <![CDATA[David added 'The Disasters']]> /review/show/7589593500 The Disasters by M.K. England David gave 2 stars to The Disasters (Hardcover) by M.K. England
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