Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World's Tallest Skyscrapers (Jason M. Barr)

Skyscrapers serve multiple purposes, with space for offices, retail, and living often rolled into the same tall building. In Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers, author Jason M. Barr explains the usefulness of skyscrapers in our modern history and advocates for their continued evolution as human progress marches on.

The skyscraper is in its second century of existence, from its humble beginnings in Chicago in the 1880s. As technology and construction design improved, taller and taller buildings gradually took over the skylines of major cities. While there have been pushes against tall building construction over the years, whether by city legislation or gentlemen's agreements, the skyscraper gradually won out in many urban areas. For example, Philadelphia had a gentleman’s agreement that no building could be taller than the top of William Penn’s hat at the top of its City Hall. Since that agreement was broken in the 1980s, 12 buildings have since exceeded the 548 foot height of Penn’s hat. Some of the tallest buildings on Earth now exceed 2,000 feet, and Barr even predicts that the first kilometer tall (over 3,100 feet) building will grace our presence at some point soon.

Some cities have pushed back against tall and supertall building construction, which Barr delves into with a discussion about the “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) and “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY) movements, property prices, and housing affordability. While some of this discussion is helpful in painting the picture of property prices, Barr drifts a bit too far into income inequality issues and away from the core issues of office and housing supply vs. demand that typically drives property values in many major cities. 

While the economic validity of skyscrapers is certainly a worthy topic of discussion, it felt like those issues needed more depth if they were going to get proper consideration. The story of the skyscraper, on its own, is certainly a very worthy topic without trying to weave in additional socioeconomic discourse.

MY RATING: 4

LOST: Back to the Island (Emily St. James and Noel Murray)

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since LOST premiered on ABC. For six seasons, LOST was the water-cooler TV show, and super-fans still dissect its mysteries and unresolved questions to this day. 

In LOST: Back to the Island, Emily St. James and Noel Murray recap many episodes of the show, providing thorough criticism of the good and bad. They also provide interesting analysis of why LOST became so popular, as well as controversies that still surround its legacy.

If you've never watched LOST, do yourself a favor and don't read this book before you binge the show. You'll be thoroughly confused. But for long-time fanatics (like me), LOST: Back to the Island takes us on a wonderful trip down memory lane. 

MY RATING: 4

Sonny Boy (Al Pacino)

There are not many actors as renowned for acting as an art form than Al Pacino. The only other two that come to mind are Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, and Pacino has been often compared to both. Sonny Boy is Pacino's long-awaited memoir, and oh, the stories he has to tell!

From his boyhood in the Bronx to his golden years in his 80s, Pacino shares the good, the bad, and the ugly. He's known, of course, for some of the best known films in history: The Godfather trilogy, Dog Day Afternoon, and Scarface to name a few. He's very honest about how he decides to take a role (sometimes it's just for the money as he admittedly does not handle money well), and the behind-the-scenes stories of each film are delicious. But despite being nominated multiple times, he never won an Oscar for his work until 1992's Scent of a Woman. But he has won two Tony Awards and two Emmys.

In his memoir, Pacino comes across as humble and honest. One would think that he would feel constant competition with people like De Niro, but he says that couldn't be further from the truth. 

I do wish Sonny Boy had better editing. The book rambles at times, especially at the end when he returns to telling more stories about his youth. It's also written in a very conversational tone, which doesn't always work well in book form. I'm sure it does in the audio version though, which is read by Pacino himself.

MY RATING: 3.5

The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People (Paul Seabright)

Organized religions are businesses to a degree. Like your local Starbucks or McDonalds, your local church has to raise funds to pay a minister and staff, plus manage a facility (or rent a space), and get a message out to attract followers. Unlike most businesses, churches are theoretically not supposed to be a profit-seeking venture (although some ministers have really forgotten this point). 

Whether you belong to a major organized denomination within Christianity or any other major world religion, there’s a degree of business savvy that is needed to maintain the organization of that religion. Paul Seabright’s book The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People discusses organized religion in the 21st Century using business as a parallel.

Much has been made of the decline of organized religion in Western Europe and North America. In the United States, mainstream denominations are declining in attendance as Americans are either forgoing church altogether or shifting away from one denomination to a non-denominational movement of some sort. While this decline is happening for many reasons, one concept that Seabright misses is the movement in some evangelical circles of what I’ll call franchise churches (think “Journey” or “Epic” as two examples). These are churches that are non-denominational, generally similar from one city to another, and in some cases with a pastor beamed in throughout the chain of churches to deliver the Sunday sermon. These churches have grown at the expense of denominations that have either suffered through scandal or political issues that have driven wedges between churches and between its membership.

Seabright correctly mentions that organized religion isn’t dying everywhere - Latin America, Asia, Africa are seeing some of its strongest growth globally at the expense of traditional belief systems. This is partly due to missionary efforts but also growing economic strength. With more money comes more options to spend. And giving ten percent of your pay or even “two mites” to your local congregation means there are plenty of opportunities for religion to make gains in these communities as a place to follow a belief system and be in a community. 

The Divine Economy is an interesting book that accurately captures big picture trends with organized religion; however, it missed the mark somewhat in not mentioning where in the West gains are being made at the expense of mainstream denominational decline.

MY RATING: 3.5