patlo's Reviews (1.32k)

An excellent, very approachable introduction to Elinor Ostrom and her research into community management of common-pool resources using example stories.. think water rights, forestry, space exploration, fishing, climate, open source software…

I’m doing some work and thinking around The Commons, The Common Good, Common Pool Resources - and this is a great intro to Ostrom’s Nobel Prize winning work.

I do wish it were a bit deeper, but it’s a wonderful introduction.

The overall story of the memoirist, an Indigenous woman in the Ecuadorean rainforests who grows up to lead an anti-oil-company challenge, is fantastic. 

The way the story is told is very slow, and takes about 60% of the book to get to her environmental work. I nearly DNF’d, for the slow plot development r, but stuck it out. 

The final story is ebullient, challenging and victorious. I just wish it hadn’t been a slog to get there.

Reminiscent to Frederick Buechner’s amazing Godric in how it enfleshes and personalizes a minor Christian saint with a REAL HUMANITY.  

Starts very well, and I absolutely adored the final 50 pages, but it lags a lot in the middle. In particular, the cycles of minor challenge, easy resolution, advancement, by the main character got annoying. There were some complex challenges that were simply brushed away. 

Lovely and engaging writing. Very good, and could have been great. 

Interesting characters and fresh retelling of Arthurian legends, but I just didn’t care enough to want to continue. 

There’s no momentum in the story. The first big surprise is interesting; the real plot doesn’t start until around the 50% mark in this 22 he audiobook, and then it loses momentum again.

  Returning my library copy early so that another reader might enjoy it. 

Good overview but in general somewhat shallow and un memorable.

An excellent, quick, important, serious and hopeful read about how we prepare for and resist tyranny, using lessons from the regimes of Hitler and Putin as primary examples. 

Whether you see the incoming USA administration, or outgoing one, at risk of tyranny, this is a thought provoking read.