Alec MacGillis' book "Fulfillment" follows workers of mega-company Amazon and the consequences of their actions on workers and cities. The book reports deeply on what it sees as the sociological effects resulting from Amazon's treatment of workers and communities. The stories themselves are interesting but not successful in telling the complex story of commerce, politics, and sociology. Inequality has increased in America, though it is unclear even after reading the book why big business or Amazon should be shouldering the majority of the blame. Something does not add up in this story, and I believe that the anecdotes provided would need to be linked to the broader story of America that simply is not told in this book. The reader is left wondering what exactly is to be done with Amazon, or without Amazon, or with some alternative system.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. This is an amazing book about Amazon that tells its story from over a dozen characters all across the country. And it also comes at it from over a dozen angles, diving deep into the history of workers in warehouses, political lobbying, the growth of Mom and Pop stores to giant companies and so much more. But the heart of the story is really the everyday characters who populate so much of the book: People working at Amazon, mostly in the warehouses, people trying to compete against them and people trying to take them on politically. Truly fascinating and well researched.

A devastating account of the labor market in America. There was a time when a job could give fulfillment - but for more and more people this word is associated only with huge warehouses, not personal happiness. And in no small part, the responsibility for this situation bears one company. It may seem easy to unjustly vilify the Big Tech, but Alec MacGillis doesn't rely on bias or prejudice: he gives us terrifying stats and numbers, as well as personal stories of ordinary, hard-working people who suffer from the long shadow of Amazon.

It is great non-fiction, full of painstakingly accumulated details and impressive research, but beautifully written and engaging like a novel. Highly recommended!

Thanks to the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

I'm really fascinated by the premise of this book, but I did not finish it because it got too far into the minutiae of each character's life. At times I forgot what I was reading about or what the point was.

Amazon's Long Shadow. This book seeks to show the America that was, and the America that is in the Age of Amazon and how the former became the latter. And in that goal, it actually does remarkably well. Sprinkling case study after case study after case study with history, political science, and social science, this book truly does a remarkable job of showing the changing reality of living and working in an America that has gone from hyper local business to one of hyper global - and the giant blue smiley swoosh that has accompanied much of this transition over the last 2o years in particular. Very much a literary style work, this perhaps won't work for those looking for a more in-depth attack on Amazon, nor will it really work for those looking for a true in-depth look at Amazon's specific practices. But it does serve as a solid work of showing many of Amazon's overall tactics and how they are both the result of change and the precipice of other change. Very much recommended.