At the end of each year, I list people whom I think were most heroic. In 2026, I will include Michael Lewis.
I’ve been familiar with the author for years. Adam McKay directed the Oscar-winning film adaptation of The Big Short, which explored the impending 2008 subprime mortgage debacle and how some continued to game the system. The film was great, IMO.
At the October 6 book review for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library, the topic was Who Is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service, a 2025 non-fiction collection that “explores the essential, behind-the-scenes work of career federal employees,” edited by Lewis. The reviewer was Patrick Wildes, Director of the Albany Law Center.
From Penguin: “Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers, including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell, to join him in writing about someone doing an interesting job for the government. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.”
Not a compliment
Lewis’s most recent book is Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, w
From Amazon:
“Blockers. It wasn’t a compliment. In the new Washington, it was the worst thing you could be—especially if you worked in the federal government and wanted to keep your job. A Blocker was a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn’t get the message—and, most of all, someone who didn’t belong.
“Michael Lewis found six of them.
“Blockers is the story of people who believed they had a calling, who were convinced they were doing something the country couldn’t do without, and then discovered they were no longer wanted. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, and another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods; another helped uncover the mysteries of cystic fibrosis.
“There was also a security guard.”
In both books, Lewis recognizes the value of hard-working federal employees whose service, especially in the latter tome, has been unjustly denigrated. As Dylan sang: “I pity the poor bureaucrat…”
I’m going to tell you why you should attend FFAPL book reviews and author talks. For one thing, you might learn some obscure facts. 
Here are the Albany Public Library book reviews for late June/July on Tuesdays at 2 pm in the large auditorium at the 161 Washington Avenue branch, sponsored by the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library. 
ITEM: Locally, the show of FFAPL treasurer David Brickman, Neighborhood Abstracts, has been extended through mid-May at McGreevy ProLab and ProPress in Albany (link 
Yes, my mail delivery still sucks. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I saw a mail truck on our street. She started to feel elated. I said there was little correlation between seeing the vehicle and our receiving mail; sure enough, nothing in our mailbox. A couple of days earlier, I saw a mail truck on my block, actually three doors down, and a package was delivered there. Indeed, I received a package recently, on a day when we received no other mail.