What We Are Reading Today: By All Means Available

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Updated 24 June 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: By All Means Available

Author: Michael Vickers

This is a riveting and illuminating insider’s account of the military and intelligence worlds at every level.
In “By All Means Available,” Michael Vickers recounts his remarkable career, from his days as a Green Beret to his vision for victory in Afghanistan to his role in waging America’s war on terror at the highest levels in government.
In captivating detail, he depicts his years in Special Forces, revealing how those experiences directly influenced his approach to shaping policy, and offers a deeply informed analysis of the greatest challenges facing America today.
Vickers not only describes a long and interesting career, spanning decades and several US presidents, but offers insight into his efforts to expand his understanding of the choice points encountered in international politics.
Vickers’ memoir, in closing, focuses on his role in various activities, partnerships with other US-based professionals and representatives from other countries.

 

 


Book Review: ‘Horror on the Brain’ by Austin Lim

Updated 11 May 2025
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Book Review: ‘Horror on the Brain’ by Austin Lim

Why do we get a kick out of being scared? Why do we find it difficult to look away from a train wreck? In “Horror on the Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Science Fiction,” neuroscientist Austin Lim takes a scalpel to that question — examining fear, not just as a feeling nor merely as a survival mechanism, but as a thrill, and even a form of entertainment. 

Published recently by Prometheus Books, the work dives into the science of what horror does to our brains and why we keep coming back for more.

“Curiosity exists only because of the unknown. Conveniently, the unknown is also the birthplace of horror,” writes Lim. “Even before literacy, people had been making haunting ‘what-if’ stories about the biggest unknowable: what happens after death.”

I was hooked.

Lim, who teaches neuroscience at DePaul University in the US, has made a career of blending biology with pop culture. He brings that dynamic energy to this book, cutting through academic jargon to explain the science behind it: how blood, suspense and dread dig into our brain’s deepest wiring. And why. 

Each chapter dissects a different horror hallmark: jump scares, body horror, creepy music, monsters — even killer AI. Lim shows how horror stories hijack our neural pathways, from the amygdala’s panic response to the brain’s craving for novelty and resolution.

He argues that horror is more than shock value; it is a mental playground where we rehearse danger, confront taboos and make sense of the world’s chaos. Being scared jumpstarts us. Like a rollercoaster, that rush of blood and brush with danger make us feel alive.

Among the most provocative insights is his take on gore and violence. Why do we flinch — yet keep watching?

Lim explains how exposure to violence can affect empathy; how cultural background shapes what we fear and why some viewers are desensitized, while others are rattled for days.

“Horror on the Brain” is part neuroscience, part social commentary. A wicked read.

Lim also unpacks horror in literature and speculative fiction, tracing how science fiction from “Frankenstein” to “Black Mirror” taps into the same neural circuitry as slasher films. 

Lim’s writing is sharp and crystal clear. You do not need a science degree to follow — just a curious mind and maybe a strong stomach. 

This book will make you think twice about what really makes your skin crawl — and why you like it.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Dragonflies of North America’ by Ed Lam

Updated 11 May 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Dragonflies of North America’ by Ed Lam

Dragonflies are large and beautiful insects, diverse in color and pattern. This premier field guide provides all the information you need to identify every male and female dragonfly found in North America, whether in the field, in the hand, or under the microscope.

The extensive illustrations are the heart of the book. Close-up color portraits of each species, often several times life size, show the best possible specimens for close examination.


What We Are Reading Today: Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget Read

Updated 10 May 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Little Bosses Everywhere by Bridget Read

In “Little Bosses Everywhere,” journalist Bridget Read tells the gripping story of multilevel marketing in full for the first time.

“Little Bosses Everywhere” exposes the deceptions of direct-selling companies that make their profit not off customers but off their own sales force.

The book lays out an almost prosecutorial case against many multilevel marketing schemes, explaining why regulators need to take the industry seriously, and the larger story it tells about whom the economy has set up to fail. 

The book “reads like a thriller as it investigates the birth and growth of this shadowy and sprawling industry that polished up door-to-door sales with a new veneer of all-American entrepreneurialism,” said a review in The New York Times.

The book primarily focuses on a broader analysis of pyramid schemes and their history.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘King Leopold’s Ghostwriter’

Updated 08 May 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘King Leopold’s Ghostwriter’

Author: Andrew Fitzmaurice

Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (1809–1897) was a model establishment figure in Victorian Britain, and a close collaborator of Prince Metternich, the architect of the Concert of Europe.

Yet Twiss’s life was defined by two events that threatened to undermine the order that he had so stoutly defended: a notorious social scandal and the creation of the Congo Free State.

In “King Leopold’s Ghostwriter,” Andrew Fitzmaurice tells the incredible story of a man who, driven by personal events that transformed him from a reactionary to a reformer, rewrote and liberalized international law—yet did so in service of the most brutal regime of the colonial era.

In an elaborate deception, Twiss and Pharaïlde van Lynseele, a Belgian prostitute, sought to reinvent her as a woman of suitably noble birth to be his wife. Their subterfuge collapsed when another former client publicly denounced van Lynseele.


Book Review: ‘Oil Leaders’ by Dr. Ibrahim Al-Muhanna

Updated 08 May 2025
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Book Review: ‘Oil Leaders’ by Dr. Ibrahim Al-Muhanna

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Muhanna’s book, “Oil Leaders: An Insider’s Account of Four Decades of Saudi Arabia and OPEC’s Global Energy Policy,” offers a detailed narrative of the oil industry’s evolution from a Saudi perspective, drawing on the author’s four decades of experience.

Published in 2022, the book coincides with global energy crises triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Al-Muhanna relies on data from OPEC, the International Energy Agency and interviews to provide an anecdotal biography of key figures who shaped oil politics, targeting a broad audience including policymakers, researchers and industry professionals.

The book is divided into 11 chapters, beginning with the influential role of Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani, whose overconfidence and perceived indispensability are critically examined.

Subsequent chapters highlight other pivotal figures, such as Hisham Nazer, Yamani’s successor, and delve into events such as the 1991 Gulf War.

The narrative also covers Luis Giusti, of Venezuela’s PDVSA, whose disregard for OPEC quotas sparked tensions, and discusses OPEC’s struggles with production cuts and falling oil prices in the late 1990s, which led to economic crises in oil-exporting nations such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Al-Muhanna explores the political ramifications of oil price fluctuations, noting how high prices influenced US presidential elections and shaped diplomatic interactions, such as George W. Bush’s visit to Riyadh.

The book also examines the rise of Russia under Vladimir Putin, the privatization of Saudi Aramco as part of Vision 2030, and the roles of contemporary leaders such as Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and former US President Joe Biden in shaping global energy policy.