Its that time yet again — it’s Amy’s birthday! Shhh… I’m smart enough to not say her age (…well, I wasn’t smart enough in this post last year – Amy’s Birthday, but thats besides the point). Please join me in wishing Amy a tremendous birthday!

She’s had a very busy year since her last rotation around the sun. She’s given birth, further cemented her job, and written a lot of articles here for the blog, as well as done a lot of work for us behind the scenes. (And she’s been a pretty swell girlfriend too, not gonna lie. A great secretary and an even better girlfriend.)

So again, please join me in saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her. If you see her today, tomorrow, this weekend, or anytime before August 31st – please wish her a birthday. (And yes, I’m only giving you until the 31st, after that its no longer belated, its just late, and rude, and don’t even bother saying it.)

Taking a Look Back

Let’s take a look back at Amy’s articles she’s written for us here at The Beer Thrillers. Starting with her weekly column. After coming back from the pregnancy, she delved into writing us a weekly column, and we’ve been ever so appreciative of it. You can find her weekly column articles here:

• Brewfests with Anxiety (Amy’s original weekly column start)
• I’ve Missed Drinking (A Look at Non Alcoholic Beers)
• Beer and Pretzel Review: Legends and Lore (St. Boniface Brewing Company) and Garlic Parm Pretzels (Pretzels.com)
• Peanut Butter Eggs, Easter, Beer, and YAH Brew’s Shimmy Shake (Beer Review)
• Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots
• Amy’s Day Off
• It Was All A Dream (A Visit to YAH Brewing)
• Just Another Weekend (A Hike at Saint Pete’s Trail and Hares Hill Brewing)
• I’m Pretty Darn Lucky (Happy Mother’s Day)
• Ready to Kick of the Summer
• Beer Review: Beer Devil IPA (Niagara Brewing Company)
• World MS Day
• Have you ever picked a beer based on the can art?
• Happy Father’s Day
• What is Your Summer Time Go To Beer?
• Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles
• Baby’s First Ffej
• We Can’t Always Be a Glutton Right? – Perfect Portions and Allusion Brewing Company
• Beer Review: Pocono Punch (Barley Creek Brewing Company)
• Getting Sworn In: A Sneak Preview of Sworn Brewing
• Beer Review: Tropical Stout (Troegs Independent Brewing and Windy Bridges Brewing LLC)
• RAR Brewing Brings the Nostalgia with Muppets Out of Order Series
• You can find all of Amy’s articles here: Amy’s Archive of Articles.

Thats quite the list right there… but wait…. there’s more!

Beer Review: Sorbetto 40 (Ever Grain Brewing Company)

Let’s start off with her first article, dated November 17th, 2021. Miss Amy loves her Sorbetto series by Ever Grain Brewing Company, and she wanted to kick off her articles with them. A quick excerpt:

“There is a secret part of me, well not so secret anymore, that is OBSESSED with the sorbetto line. Maybe a little obsession with the yinzbetto line. The Sorbetto series was the line of beers that got me through quarantine and coincidently celebrating my 40^th birthday over quarantine as well. The thrill of a new sorbetto announcement STILL tickles my fancy.”Beer Review: Sorbetto 40 (Ever Grain Brewing

You can find her article here: Beer Review: Sorbetto 40 (Ever Grain Brewing Company) by Amy Wolfe.

Beer Review: Missile Toad (Ever Grain Brewing Company)

Did you know that Amy loves Ever Grain Brewing Company? Yea… its not really a big secret that she’s a huge fan of their brewery and their beers. Her second article here for The Beer Thrillers blog was a second Ever Grain Brewing Company beer review; this time Missile Toad. Dated on December 22nd, 2021.

A quick excerpt:

“When this tasty season treat came out last year when we were all stir crazy from quarantine I went on a long, long adventure with my friend the Missile Toad. I am normally not a fan of the grapefruit notes in my beer, but this triple IPA holds up with a high ABV, very light straw color and a not so boozy taste.”Beer Review: Missile Toad (Ever Grain Brewing Company)

You can find her article here: Beer Review: Missile Toad (Ever Grain Brewing Company) by Amy Wolfe.

Beer Review: Riff Mountain 7 (South County Brewing Company)

Another favorite of Miss Amy is South County Brewing Company, and her third beer review (and her third article) for the blog reflects that – with South County’s Riff Mountain number seven.

A quick excerpt:

I first tried this beer (the first iteration / the first version of it / the first variant of it) when kicking off my three – week furlough from my full-time job. Of course, I decided to kick off my work furlough, while celebrating still having a full-time job, by joining friends at South County Brewing Co. It was a wise decision. Riff Mountain took me on a smooth hop ride that was fitting to kick off a three – week furlough to disconnect from work and a global pandemic.Beer Review: Riff Mountain 7 (South County Brewing Company)

This article, dated December 28th, 2021, was her third article and her third beer review. You can find the article here: Beer Review: Riff Mountain 7 (South County Brewing Company) by Amy Wolfe.

Beer Review: Sorbetto 42 (Ever Grain Brewing Company)

A bit ironic (or just coincidence, or whatever term you want to use), but Miss Amy also reviewed Sorbetto 42. Perfectly timed here for her 42nd birthday. And as you can see, she really does love Ever Grain Brewing Company, and loves their Sorbetto series. This article was dated January 16th, 2022.

A quick excerpt:

There is a secret Sorbetto dance I perform when I see Ever Grain post they came out with a new Sorbetto. I might do a similar celebration dance for the yinzbetto series and Drippity announcements too. Since it’s so darn cold out, this dance was effective at also warming up my cold bones.

Yes, I’m still obsessed with the Sorbetto series. I just feel like Ever Grain gets me when it comes to this series. It was everything I needed in my life and well…. still need! The forty second one in the series does not disappoint! Check out my other Sorbetto review – Beer Review: Sorbetto 40 (Ever Grain Brewing Co.) or my other beer review from Ever Grain Brewing (Beer Review: Missile Toad)

(You can find other Ever Grain beer reviews here as well: All Together, Peanut Butter Udder One, Multiple Beer Review: Barrel Aged Barleywine, You Think Darkness is Your Ally?, 3rd Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout, Cinn-a-Bunn).Beer Review: Sorbetto 42 (Ever Grain Brewing Company)

You can find her full article here: Beer Review: Sorbetto 42 (Ever Grain Brewing Company) by Amy Wolfe.

Brewfests with Anxiety

Amy’s next article was a departure from her beer reviews, but a big article that she felt very strongly about and (in my opinion) her best piece of writing. In it she talks about anxiety, panic attacks, and brewfests, and how to best combat the anxiety attacks at brewfests. This article came after we went down to the Cushwa 5th Anniversary Brewfest. Her article is dated January 23rd, 2022.

A quick excerpt:

I went to a crowded Brewfest and I didn’t have a panic attack.  This is huge. No, this is a massive victory for me, my anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy in social settings.

As an avid beer lover being able to attend a Brewfest and sample many brews is a mecca of the craft beer drinking lover.  Let’s be honest, when you are in a large crowd and can barely move even the social butterfly will feel some twinges of nervousness.

What often leads to a bad situation is I know I will feel less anxious if I drink more, thus often leading to a less than enjoyable evening.  Not to mention the “clean up” of an evening that I drank too much to mask my panic attacks.

I still remember one of my first panic attacks as a young 20 something.  I walked into my small, hometown bar.  All those parked in their regular spots at the bar and those enjoying an evening out in groups at tables all turned to look who just walked in the door.  I felt a tightening around my neck and I was able to inhale very little oxygen. Brewfests with Anxiety

You can read the full article here: Brewfests with Anxiety by Amy Wolfe.

Beer Review: Phantomania (Fourscore Beer Company)

Amy’s latest and most recent article was another beer review, again from another of her favorite breweries – Fourscore Beer Company out of Gettysburg PA. This one is dated March 9th, 2022. But have no fear, she has quite a few projects she’s working on her for the blog, and she’ll have new articles soon. (She’s also working on a much bigger project with Scarlet Emma in production, due to arrive November 22nd).

A quick excerpt:

There are so many things to unpack about this beer. I feel like I’m always on the hunt for the next tasty hazy IPA…and let me tell you I like them hazy!  That perfect Hazy IPA reminds me what it feels like when Homer has that drooling eye roll moment.

The tropical and citrusy aroma of Phantomania quickly took me away to a better place than central pa during a freezing rainy day!  It must be this fabulous hop combination.  It ends on a bitter taste, but it just cleanses that palate and you are ready for the next satisfying sip.Beer Review: Phantomania (Fourscore Beer Company)

You can read the full article here: Beer Review: Phantomania (Fourscore Beer Company) by Amy Wolfe.

The Amy Wolfe Archives

If you want to be able to check out the full archives of Amy’s writings (and where each new article will go when she’s written them and been tagged in them), you can check this out:

• The Amy Wolfe Archives

Happiest of Birthdays

I want to say thank you to all of you reading and wishing Amy a happy birthday. But most importantly I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Amy, and say how very much she is loved, appreciated, and valued. She is a tremendous soul, on top of being a wonderful mother, fantastic girlfriend, and great beer drinker, and a pretty kick ass girlfriend.

Cheers to Amy!

Happy Birthday!

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

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We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

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I think for most Americans, we can all picture exactly where we were on September 11th, 2001. Same for older generations with Kennedy’s assassination, or Pearl Harbor, or big other catastrophic events. Especially if they hit home or were local.

I was in study hall, early morning, I was 16 at the time, and was sound asleep and woken up and my teacher put the news on. At this point the first plane had hit, and we witnessed the rest live. Not much school happened that day, and I honestly don’t remember being taught a single thing that day, or even the rest of that week or weeks. I had turned 16 on August 27th 2001, and on September 11th, 2001 – the entirety of the world changed in an instant.

Noam Chomsky

A quick biography of Noam Chomsky, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Avram Noam Chomsky^[a] (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian,^[b][c] social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”,^[d] Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.

Born to Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner.

An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals“. Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard Nixon‘s Enemies List. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. Chomsky began teaching at the University of Arizona in 2017.

One of the most cited scholars alive,^[20] Chomsky has influenced a broad array of academic fields. He is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. In addition to his continued scholarship, he remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, neoliberalism and contemporary state capitalism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mainstream news media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements.

Noam Chomsky (Wikipedia)

For more information on Noam, you can also visit GoodReads – Noam Chomsky, as well as numerous other philosophical and literature based sites on the web. He is a renowned linguist, educator, philosopher, essayist, and political commentator.

Interviewers

Some of the interviewers for this book are:

• Marili Margomenou
• Miguel Mora
• Natalie Levisalles
• Il Manifesto
• Hartford Courant
• David Barsamian
• Radio B92
• Elise Fried
• Peter Kreysler
• Gionarle del Popolo
• Michael Albert

Book Review

GoodReads Blurb:

In 9-11, Noam Chomsky comments on the September 11th attacks, the new war on terrorism, Osama bin Laden, U.S. involvement with Afghanistan, media control, and the long-term implications of America’s military attacks abroad. Informed by his deep understanding of the gravity of these issues and the global stakes, 9-11 demonstrates Chomsky’s impeccable knowledge of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia, and sheds light on the rapidly shifting balance of world power. Speaking out against escalating violence, Chomsky critically examines the United States’ own foreign policy record and considers what international institutions might be employed against underground networks and national states accused of terrorism. 9-11’s analysis still stands as a measure of how well the media is able to serve its role of informing the citizenry, so crucial to our democracy in times of war.

9-11 by Noam Chomsky (GoodReads)

It’s now been just over 20 years (read this in February of 2022) since the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9-11 (September 11th, 2001). So there has been some time and perspective, to how the attacks happened, what all has transpired since, and everything else surrounding the world in that time frame. I’ve aged 20 years (good god now I feel old), I’ve witnessed the “War on Terrorism” and our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and numerous other places in the world. Saw the attack in Islamabad that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden, and how the world has changed as a whole due to all of this.

It’s amazing how well this piece of work holds up, and how Noam Chomsky’s opinions, intellect, and insights are almost prescient. Especially considering this is a collection of interviews, and not just a full on essay by Chomsky (to be fair – there is an essay at the end of the book).

It is a rushed book, and a rush series of interviews collected and edited into this volume. Which is all the more reason why this is actually an impressive work – twenty years after the fact. Chomsky certainly sheds a lot of light on events leading up to 9-11 from a non-American perspective and gives some form of indication and idea of why the attacks were not a complete and total ‘surprise’ by the world at large. He brings up salient points on how America could (before the attacks) have been considered the largest terrorist active country in the world, with regards to our actions in Beirut, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

This isn’t an pro-American piece of work, and Chomsky doesn’t paint America in the most sympathetic light. This isn’t to be confused with him believing it was a justified attack. Far from it. Nothing justifies what happened on 9-11 and Chomsky wants to be very clear about that. But our actions in Afghanistan, radicalizing fanatical Islamic groups, our actions in Beirut, and Nicaragua, and numerous other countries over the past few decades (leading up to 2001 – 1990s, 1980s, 1970s), certainly doesn’t make us the complete victims we always believed us to be. And don’t get me wrong here – we are victims in this attack. Its an immeasurable and incomparable attack. Pure innocents and civilians died. This wasn’t a ‘war’ attack on a military unit. This was a terrorist attack on innocents.

Like I said above, Chomsky brings up a lot of good points, many of which I only learned years after September 11th, 2001. Especially since I was younger then, in my teens, and my knowledge and research base wasn’t nearly what it is today. The interviews in the book are done well and Chomsky comes off very well, and in his normal talking and writing style. There is some bad or off point questions, but I believe they’ve edited this enough that its coherent, makes sense, and stays on point and topic and creates a nice piece of work with the book.

My GoodReads Rating: ***
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.73 (as of 2.18.22)
My LibraryThing Rating: ***.5

Book Reviews

Interested in more book reviews by us here at The Beer Thrillers? You can check out some below:

• On Bullshit (Harry G. Frankfurt)
• Free Will (Sam Harris)
• Free Will Explained (Dan Baker)
• The Philosophy of Snoopy (Charles M. Schulz)
• The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart – 1200 Essential Words (Robert W. Bly)
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk (David Sedaris)
• Buddhism 101 (Arnie Kozak)
• Life’s Journey According to Mr. Rogers (Fred Rogers)
• Fail Fail Again Fail Better (Pema Chödrön)
• The Book of the Sith and the Jedi (Daniel Wallace)
• For The Love of Beer (Dr. Alison E. Feeney)
• For the Love of Beer Event

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. Stay tuned for more beer reviews, book reviews, hikes, and much more going on in the world of The Beer Thrillers. Please follow us on social media, and leave any comments and questions you have.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you!

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

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Book Reviews

In general, I’m going to start trying to do a better job of keeping up with book reviews; where as soon as I read the book and finish it, I’m pulling out the laptop or getting on my desktop computer and opening up the blog, and writing down the beer review. Because as it sits, I have a backlog of book reviews to throw up here on the blog now that I’ve added book reviews to the blog as part of the various sections.

I’m a rather prolific book reader; some might even say ‘voracious’ but thats a cliche and I tend to avoid them (or at least try to). Most years I hit 100+ books as per my GoodReads Book Challenge. This year I set myself up for 110, and I’m woefully behind. (This marks book number 74; though I have about 8 books or so that are all nearing completion). In the old days, before I let life really fully intervene and stress pile up, and everything got backlogged, as soon as I finished a book, I would be doing a quick semi-review / semi-write up thing on GoodReads and it would immediately post to GoodReads and my personal Facebook.

But it seems I am getting further and further backlogged, with articles for the blog, travelogues that are in states of half written or just started or not even written but need to be, old hikes that I did from the summer but haven’t written yet, and now book reviews. I need to get better in the habit of – book closed – or hike completed – or beer drank – and write up the review / article. Now that I have everything kind of condensed on the blog here, I think once I get caught up, my stress of it all will ease up and I’ll be better able to maintain a good steady pace of it.

It will also mean I actually get the articles written 1) on time 2) written period and 3) more written. Keeping myself to the grindstone and making sure I stay in the habit of writing frequently, on time, and as soon as completion, will only help that. Because as you further distance yourself from the event (ie. I finished a day of brewery hopping on Day 2… but start to write it on Day 5… and don’t finish it… by Day 9… I am becoming less and less inclined to write the travelogue) (or if I finish a book on Day 3… by Day 7 I am less likely to write the book review), it seems like you can push and put it off more and more.

So this is my attempt to right that ship and to get into a better habit of writing. Hopefully I can still make the reviews and everything fun to read, wordy, interesting, and with lots of information. I was discussing with a new writer for the blog (she’ll be posting here shortly) about my procrastination with articles seems to stem from all the side stuff. The categorizing, the tagging, the uploading to social media accounts, the making it more presentable, checking SEO rankings, etc, etc. The little nuts and bolts of it all. I love writing and enjoy the writing. Its doing things like copy and pasting HTML code and links, and if I’m writing a beer review with a pop culture reference, tagging things and tying it back in with its property (ie. a Simpsons beer with gifs from the show), that just bogs me down and makes me procrastinate and not write as much.

But not anymore… this is me writing (instead of righting…. see what I did there?) the ship. I just finished this book, and now I am launching into the book review. Huzzah!

The Book Review

Ok, so preamble out of the way. Lets get into my actual book review. Now I am streamlining a bit here. Whereas before I might have done a whole section on the Buddha, on Buddhism, with hundreds of links to various sources, I think I’m gonna opt for simplicity here. (I am also looking to finish Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut today, and having that book review up later tonight as well, where I might do much more of that, especially since today is Vonnegut’s birthday – he would have been 99 today – and its also Veteran’s Day).

At this point, I think most people have a general understanding of The Buddha and Buddhism. If you don’t, here’s two quick Wikipedia links:

• Buddha
• Buddhism

This book is a summary of both concepts – the Buddha himself, as well as Buddhism and everything that it all entails. I feel like sometimes / gravitating closer to all the time – that these ‘summary’ style books can be very hit or miss. Either too much information is given and its not really a summary, its a full on dictionary of Event X or Person X or Subject X; or it is such a brief summary that to even get a more rudimentary knowledge of the subject you are digging through websites or running through a bibliography of books.

This is 253 pages of text, plus index and other source notes at the end, and I think it does an overwhelmingly good job of covering Buddhism. I am not an adherent, I do profess that I find it fascinating, I do try my hand at meditation and mindfulness from time to time, but in my ADHD addled brain, and my angst and anxiety, I am horrible at given schedules and times and things and am not perfect (nowhere near it) at keeping to regiments or staying on hand.

My attempts sometimes at meditation and mindfulness is like the old Atari game of pong, but with four thousand balls bouncing around and thirty different paddles. All the while Donald Duck is screaming in the background.

So I have to say I really like Buddhism and what the Buddha stands for. I have read numerous works about the Buddha, read some of the various dharma and teachings, and one of my bucket list goals in life is to trace the steps of the Buddha (as well as Jesus, as well as do the Appalachian Trail). So I have a great admiration for the philosophy / religion and the practice of it.

I am not perfect in my knowledge of Buddhism, but have what I would deem a rudimentary and basic level understanding of it. From karma to the noble truths, to the three fires, the three jewels, sangha, dharma, nirvana, etc. And I also know how Americans / Westerners have misinterpreted much of it. This book does a very good job of righting some of those wrongs. Expressing how karmic values work, and how karma itself works. As well as samsara, and the wheel, etc.

It also does a good job of delving into the aspects of it that makes it more philosophical rather than religious – and vice versa. The book also covers all the various schools, techniques, thoughts, ideas, and expressions of Buddhism and the Buddha.

It gives a great biography of Siddhartha Gotama Buddha and his family life, his path to the middle way, and everything else. It also does a good job of dispelling some rumors and even calls out the beliefs that people have that most likely didn’t happen.

This is a phenomenal starting point for anyone wanting to get a good idea about Buddha or Buddhism. Its not an academic work, its for laypeople and to help give them a clearer understanding and idea of the subject. When checking this into GoodReads I see its part of a series, others in the series include: American Government 101, Astrology 101, Accounting 101, Architecture 101, Anatomy 101, Mythology 101, Grammar 101, Investing 101, Economics 101, Art 101, Management 101, US History 101, Weather 101, Philosophy 101, Poetry 101, Religion 101, US Lit 101, etc etc (some thirty plus books in total).

I honestly only found this because it was in the ‘new non-fiction’ section at the Hershey Library. I find part of why my reading is so eclectic is due to always stopping at the ‘new non-fiction’ and ‘new fiction’ sections right in front of the door when entering. Its the greatest way to broaden one’s ideas and senses – by checking out books that you normally wouldn’t and reading subjects you normally wouldn’t.

I fully recommend this to anyone looking to get more information on the subject of The Buddha, Buddhism, meditation, and/or mindfulness. Its a good read, its quick, well laid out, informative, and written in a nice and concise and fun way.

My GoodReads Rating: ****
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.76
My LibraryThing Rating: ****

GoodReads Blurb:

Learn everything you need to know about Buddhism in this clear and straightforward new guide.

Buddhism was founded thousands of years ago, and has inspired millions of people with its peaceful teachings. Buddhism 101 highlights and explains the central concepts of Buddhism to the modern reader, with information on mindfulness, karma, The Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way, and more.

Whether you’re just looking to understand Buddhism or explore the philosophy in your own life and own journey to Enlightenment, this book gives you everything you need to know!

GoodReads: Buddhism 101 – From Karma to the Four Noble Truths, Your Guide to Understanding the Principles of Buddhism by Arnie Kozak

Other Book Reviews To Check Out

• The Philosophy of Snoopy (Charles M. Schulz)
• The Art of Stillness (Pico Iyer)
• Plotted – A Literary Atlas (Andrew DeGraff)
• How To Be Interesting (in 10 Simple Steps) (Jessica Hagy)
• On Bullshit (Harry G. Frankfurt)
• Free Will Explained (Dan Barker)
• Free Will (Sam Harris)
• What More Philosophers Think
• Heart and Brain (Nick Seluk)
• Machiavelli – The Art of Teaching People What to Fear (Patrick Boucheron)
• Wit’s End (James Geary)
• For the Love of Beer (Dr. Alison E. Feeny)

Thanks For Reading

Thank you for reading. And thank you to all of our veterans today, on Veteran’s Day. We appreciate your commitment, and time served, and your honor and duty to America.

Be sure to check back later, after my hike at Hawk Rock, and stop at Liquid Noise, when I should be uploading the book review of Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect on today – what would have been his 99th birthday.

(And be sure to check out our Instagram page as we are likely to be posting pictures!)

Cheers!

–

-B. Kline

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Free Will

As I discussed in my last book review on here – Free Will by Sam Harris – (posted yesterday, read back in March), free will, philosophy of the mind, and similar topics are some of my favorites to think about, discuss, debate, and read about in the philosophy milieu.

Dan Barker is a determinist despite his language in the book, he uses the term ‘harmonic free will’ and makes many analogies to music throughout the work. But he comes on the side of Sam Harris and others in that he believes in a deterministic viewpoint of free will.

For those interested in reading more about Free Will, definitely check out my review of Sam Harris’s book, and check out the links at the very end of the article, to some interesting works, as well as YouTube videos. I will also have some reading related links in this article as well. Ones that I think will help readers in general, rather than just about Free Will.

Book Review

Similar to most small philosophy books, this is a quick read. Chapters are two to three pages, with complete page breaks and and empty pages (with re-quotes of his own previous paragraphs on them), chapters have headings and titles and are mostly 3/4th pages.

Aesthetically, the book is really great. The feel of the pages, the overall look and appearance and presentation of the book is top notch, and it look drives buys, and it is definitely in that realm of ‘pop academia’, where, its academic study written to be mainstream and written to be consumed by everyone. Big bold chapter titles, lots of spaces and blank pages, with quotes, and little birds on a telephone wire imagery, so it really has this appeal, and it makes the simple quick read look longer, so it kind of gives that false ‘wow, I’m smart’ feeling to it after you’re done reading it. Its pretty. I like it. But it is what it is, and I’m just pointing that out.

I would recommend reading some other literature on Free Will in advance of this. Not that you have to; but it would help. Primarily as a basis, and a background to this. But also because this does reference quite a few of other works. Mostly Sam Harris’s ‘Free Will’. (Luckily for me I read these in that order.)

The chapters are broken down into small little bites that lead up to bigger fuller thoughts. He gives you a piece of this, a piece of that, and then gives you the whole. He takes a few chapters to build up an idea, presents the full idea to you, and then tells you why this idea matters. The biggest thing is, he comes up with ‘harmonic free will’. Its part of his music analogies.

Harmonic Free Will

His idea of harmonic free will, falls in line with what he calls ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ thinking. He says not everything is compatible on the same line of thinking. That there’s latitude and longitude thoughts. Vertical thoughts and horizontal thoughts. And so this is where he develops ‘harmonic free will’.

His idea of harmonic free will is that he stands by his guns (or attempts to look as if he does) that he’s a determinist. He then builds up the idea that we ‘NEED’ to believe in free will. That we have a ‘societal free will’ and a ‘moral free will’ that we all need to keep in mind. That this is what keeps us moving.

He brings up the case where a small town in 1916 hung an elephant, he discusses his chipmunk friend, and he brings up a few other cases and things of various note to explain this and give it a background. Basically he says while free will might not exist, we have societal free will, and we need to believe in it if we want to keep going as humanity. Otherwise, we are no different than his ‘Little One’ chipmunk friend. That this breakdown of free will is both compatible and incompatible (so he calls it ‘acompatible’ because of the tiered levels of looking at things that he describes).

He kind of has to run in circles to get to this point however. Stating how we have to construct our own societal moral values, and that we only have free will in regards to this societal moral values. That even a person by himself must create his own society onto himself to affect himself to have free will; otherwise he is basically no different than an animal, running on instincts and has no self – autonomy.

Conclusion

This is a bit convoluted, but it gets him to where he wants his point to be. He runs through various analogies to get there. Including Wilson (the volleyball from Castaway) to show how we fabricate our own societies. He discusses the comparisons between societies of people, and animals. But his main thesis of the work is the ‘harmonic free will’, and the ‘acompatibility’ of determinism and free will. Stating that their on two different levels of cross thought, (horizontal thinking vs. vertical thinking) and that doesn’t make one more wrong than the other. Just different. Just at cross points that need to be examined together.

Dan Barker is ordained and a former preacher, and now jazz pianist and writer. He writes as one you might have expected to be a former preacher. He’s not outright hateful of religion and theology – but he certainly paints them in a light here, especially in regards to the free will debate. His prose is nice. Elegant even. He does get a bit convoluted with his analogies. Ultimately this is worth reading. His explanations and thoughts are pretty good, and does add weight and merit to the free will debate. Sadly, his overall argument is a bit lacking, but his writing to get there, while at times convoluted, is interesting. There is a preponderance of analogies, that some might not enjoy. (Especially if one doesn’t get the references.) He also goes on a bit too long about the chipmunks and music too. (Mileage may vary of course on this.)

My GoodReads Rating: ***
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.84 (as of 8.27.21)
My LibraryThing Rating: ***.5

Further Reading

These are some links I think will give you some further reading on ‘free will’ and the debate of ‘determinism vs. free will’. I suggest checking them out. I also suggest checking out the generic ‘book’ and ‘reading’ links here as well. Also, make sure to check out the ‘further reading’ section of my ‘Free Will’ by Sam Harris book review.

• Free Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Determinism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Do we Have Free Will?
• Five Philosophers on Free Will (PDF Doc)

Reading articles / memory articles:

• How to Remember What You Read (Farnam Street)
• How to Remember Anything You Want – Backed by Science (Science Pocket)
• The 50/50 Rule
• Best / Effective Ways to Take Notes
• How to Take Notes While Reading

As always, thank you everyone for reading. Please check out our other works – including book, beer, and hike reviews. As well as brewery reviews, hop growing, home brewing, travelogues, brewery news, and all kinds of nonsense here on The Beer Thrillers blog.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

The Start of Book Reviews

While this isn’t the first book review on The Beer Thrillers – that honor goes to “For the Love of Beer” by Dr. Alison Feeney – this is the first non – beer related book review on The Beer Thrillers. But as I said in my last post “The Beer Thrillers Moving Forward” I’ve been wanting to do this and branching out the blog a bit more in different directions. Is the blog still going to be primarily about beer and breweries? Most certainly. This is actually something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time, and am finally now just pushing ahead and doing it. If people don’t like it, too bad, they can ignore the posts and stay at our blog for the beer reviews, brewery reviews, etc. I read roughly 100 – 110 books a year, and I’ve been wanting to write and combine my various interests on the blog (beer, books, hiking, gardening, sports, video games, etc.) and this seems one of many natural ways to do it.

I’ve already done this similarly with many of my travelogue articles. Most of them are hiking adventures or visits and tours with Ming or other people that include stops at breweries along the way. The travelogues seem to be some of the more popular posts (and outside of the March Madness tournament we just did, my travelogue about the 1000 Steps Trail and Levity Brewing is a top ten visited article here on The Beer Thrillers).

So why am I starting off with “Wit’s End” by James Geary? Well, frankly its because its the latest book I’ve read and finished. So, I figured I’d start with the most recent book read, and work back on some of the others, as well as the ones I am still reading and finishing. So there will certainly be no lack of book reviews, that’s for sure.

Wit’s End

Let’s tackle this book and give it a proper review. Not sure if I’m going to follow a specific way of reviewing every book similar to how I do my beer reviews (Example: Chocolate Covered Pretzel by Braxton Brewing Company) or if each book review will be something different onto itself.

Maybe its apropos that I start my first non book review here on the blog (well, first non – beer related book review) with one titled “Wit’s End”. This might just be the end to the wit here on The Beer Thrillers; or will it? Who knows, maybe this will grow the blog even further, who knows again. Shrug.

Wit’s End by James Geary is a series of essays on the various forms of wits and witticisms and how it’s used. Each is written in different styles, from poems, to a screen play, to a faux academic (scientific) journal article, etc. Different essays to discuss the different ways wit is used, created, performed, and displayed.

There is a decent bit here, and the book both reads fast and slow at times. Which might also be a bit of just my reading style, where I’ll get into the book, and read a fair bit, then lose myself and be bored of it, and start picking up the numerous other books I’m reading (usually four or five books at a time), and jump about. Damn you ADHD.

The writing style is obviously all over the place as each essay is done in different styles. And for the most part I think this works; but I also think Geary is a bit lackluster in some aspects to it. Not fully delving into the styles, or relying too much on the styles to get his point across rather than the work and words themselves. I enjoyed some of the essays, whilst others fell completely flat or were uninteresting, and this wasn’t primarily due to just the styling or the writing, but the actual work behind it. I haven’t read anything from James Geary before, but his writing prose seems both deft and also incomplete at times. There is quality writing, but there is also a lack of putting two and two together and making connections.

I love reading about creativity and intelligence, because I am often curious how it spawns, why I have the thoughts or ideas in my head and where things pop in at. As someone who is often told “Where the hell do you get your ideas from” or “why do you think the way you do”, I love trying to read about how this all works out; and sadly, this doesn’t do a real good job of explaining any of that.

I’m also not a big ‘punster’ and there is quite a fair amount of that in this, with a few essays / chapters fully devoted to it. Despite being a dad, I’m far from prone to dad jokes – which the pun is a staple of – and for that, actually puns usually bore me. I’m not angered by them, just bored of them. I don’t believe of them as the “lowest form of wit” but I also just tire of them easily.

I wish there was more substance to this, and more on ‘how wit is derived’ rather than describing various forms of wit. Because I think we can all point to something witty when we hear / see / read it; and so I rather see the inner workings, the behind the scenes, rather than the obvious and what I can clearly see in front of me.

I think this is an entertaining read, but I think it just lacks a lot of substance and could use a lot more to it. Frankly wish the general idea behind it was a bit more expansive than what we got, or maybe the scope was a bit different than what the book alluded to it being.

Similar to my beer reviews, where I gave my Untappd score, followed the global average Untappd rating, I will do the similar here but with GoodReads. GoodReads and LibraryThing are my primary forms of Book Cataloguing and recording using apps; they are basically the Untappd for the book world. I started with LibraryThing many years ago (honestly can’t even remember, but I want to say 2013 or maybe 2012. Sadly, GoodReads has surpassed it and I use that much more now (despite my not caring – and actually loathing – of Amazon). GoodReads only lets you review in full stars, where LibraryThing let you review down to the 1/4th star. So I will most likely be giving my review scores to the 1/4th star (similar to Untappd letting you review to the 1/4th bottle cap), but showing my rounded score via GoodReads, and then showing the global average GoodReads score.

My GoodReads score: **3/4 (rounded – ***)
Global GoodReads Score: 3.32 (as of 4.5.20).

Thank you everyone for reading my first non – beer related article on the blog and site. Curious how reaction will be to me using my beer blog to post non – beer related things and more personal things. Who knows, maybe the blog gets expanded into all kinds of new categories in the future, and it’ll look just like one gigantic spider with tons of spider webs linking to millions of things. Or maybe in the future I’ll branch out and just have a different site for these things and move them over to there.

Let me know in the comments what you think of the branching out. What you think of me doing book reviews, etc. Don’t worry though, there will still be beer related content here on the blog, especially from the other writers, as I take a bit of a hiatus from the beer side of things personally for a bit. Thank you for joining us here at The Beer Thrillers. Be sure to stay tuned for many of the various things in the future that I have planned.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!