The Premonition: A Pandemic Story - Michael Lewis ----------------- 2.5 Stars

I've really enjoyed books written Michael Lewis. I've read a few and was so impressed (review from a few months ago) with Going Infinite, the story about Sam Bankman-Fried, I figured I'd enjoy The Premonition: A Pandemic Story. Unfortunately, it was my least favorite Lewis book to date.

One of the things that I've been so impressed by, is Lewis's ability to write books so quickly about topical modern events. The Going Infinite book was like that and this book was written only a year after the pandemic was in full swing (this book was published in May 2021). To have detailed and lengthy books come out so quickly, Lewis has to work quickly; I mean, I think there's no other way to do it. Unfortunately, this book really feels like it was written in a few months. While it started out drawing the reader in and had a great few opening chapters, I found it unravelled the more I read it with the final chapters seemingly all over the place.

The book has some pretty interesting stories about the response in place for the COVID pandemic. In addition, Lewis does a great job of identifying fringe people that were not and are not famous but play into the pandemic response across America. And, like many of his books, these small, unknown people and stories really are the best parts of the book.

However, as an overall narrative, I just found it to fall flat. Besides jumping from subject to subject with not always the most logical order (at least most of the time it was chronological), I struggled to follow some of his anecdotes. Their relevance to story often left me questioning why it was included. Truly, by the final chapter or two I felt like he was stream of conscious writing, which seems so odd for a fiction story. 

I'm not sure I'd recommend this book. While I love Lewis, I thought I'd get a bit more insight about how the pandemic played out and the various responses of the government (Fauci and Trump are bit characters at best). Of course, it's still a fairly enjoyable read with some interesting people involved, just not one of my favorite by a very strong writer. 

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari --------------- 2.5 Stars

On my list to read for a while, I was excited to finally tackle Sapiens during the Winter Break. I actually started it in early December and figured it'd be an engaging read that I would get through quickly. Well, I was wrong in a couple ways.

Coming in at nearly 600 of fairly dense writing, I struggled to get through and enjoy this book. It was odd though, when I was reading it, I often was interested and did find it engaging, but I really struggled to read in long bursts and want to pick it back up day after day. Taking over a month and a half to get through (while having larger amounts of free time than normal), I was a bit surprised this book didn't resonate with me more fully.

If you are not familiar, the book has a great premise. Here is it as Amazon writes it better, "From renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?"

Really, its a history of humans; a subject that seems fascinating. And many parts of the book really are fascinating. I learned a ton about the biology of people, the evolution of Sapiens, and became more much more aware of how many things have changed. I think this book does an amazing job offering perspective about our current world and living while also making you realize just how big and long our universe has existed.

I also will say that Harari's writing style is enjoyable. Again, for a nearly 600 page retrospective about the history of humans, he does a fairly good job of keeping the reader engaged through an informal, and occasionally funny, writing style. It actually reminded me a lot of a Bill Bryson book I love titled, A Short History of Everything. Bryson's book was much more science focused and bit more humorous, but similar all the same.

Ultimately, I don't know if I struggled to engage with this book because other things preoccupied me (tv, phone, family) during Winter Break or it just a book that I would have struggled with regardless of place and time. I am thinking more and more it's the latter. I usually fly through books when I have some time away and usually read multiple during previous Breaks. It's also odd as I tend to prefer books about people and politics rather than other areas of non-fiction. But again, this book never could make an impression on me.

So, I leave it to you to decide what you think. With a 4.3 Goodreads and 4.6 Amazon rating, it's clearly a book that many enjoy (and a Obama and Bill Gates summer reading pick!). And, the content was great and I actually did learn many things. However, I never felt super excited to get back to it and stay engaged with it.