Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

I would describe this book as philosophical speculation at its best, and biased pessimistic summaries at its worst. It's format and topics make you think “textbook”, but in reality the bulk of his chapters are his own summary of what those facts mean in the scope of human history, regardless of how many scientific findings he includes. This doesn't mean the book is poorly written or not interesting. If I'm rating this book solely on enjoyment and how interesting it was, I would give it a solid 4.5 stars. However, there are some hot takes in here that I can't get on board with. From the glorification of foraging society to stating that religion is no more than collective imagination, there are too many of the author's biases bleeding into his insanely depressing view of humanity. I also say this knowing full well that my own biases (a Christian worldview being my primary), will impact my opinion on any book.

I rate my books on the following scale:
1 star - would not recommend, would not re-read
2 star - might recommend to the right person, would not re-read
3star - would recommend to the right person, probably would not re-read
4 star - would recommend to most people, but might not re-read
5 star - would recommend to almost anyone and would re-read

With that in mind, I'm rating this 3-stars because, while I wish more people would read books like this and be able to discern the biases, many people will read this book and take it as fact. I also would not re-read this book specifically, but will continue to read books in the topic of human history to continue to round out my understanding of homo sapiens and how we have adapted to our every-changing world.