stellarexplorer: A New Hope

Starting out fresh in 2017, with an enthusiasm for upcoming reading, and for posting about it here! I'm not a reading goal person. I aim to follow my curiosity and my bliss!

Well, here's a lovely place to sit and have a chat! I went and reviewed that link in MSG 143 of the previous thread about beef stew and discovered I was doing it all wrong! Now I must revisit my process of making beef stew. Although I always add sherry to my beef stew (just as he had recommended). So at any rate, I've starred this thread and will be popping in and out.

Love the title, Good luck and happy reading!

>2 jillmwo: I love a hearty beef stew in the winter, and I had NO idea how much improvement was possible. I thought I made a good one ... until I made this one. Each little item adds something worthwhile. Please do let me know how it works out if you make it!

>3 majkia: Thank you, majkia

Wishing you a happy new year and plenty of opportunities to relax with a good book (or two)

Happy New Year, my friend! :o) You know I'll be here.

I'm counting on it and grateful for it! Wishing you a wonderful and improved 2017!

Happy new year! May your curiosity in books take you to amazing and wonderful things!

Looking forward to following along in this new year. :)

Happy new year - any thread that starts with beef stew is one I need to star :)

Happy New Year! Interesting differences between this beef stew and a good Cape Malay bredie.

Happy new year! I hope it brings you some great books!

Here you are!
Wishing you many great books in 2017! Wishing me the opportunity to read about your many great books in 2017!

Happy 2017. As with others here I have been smitten with yearning for the beef stew. We have book bullets in other threads but this is the first beef bullet I have spotted.

>2 jillmwo: Would that be MSG 163?

>14 pgmcc: Well I hope I hit you with that beef bullet. You'll thank me.

>13 LizzieD: How lovely to have a visit! Please drop by impromptu, but if I know you are coming, I'll roll out the red carpet!

Happy New Year! It's a lovely rainy day here and now I'm craving beef stew, but the rest of the family has their hearts set on pizza.

>14 pgmcc: >16 stellarexplorer: Beware, beef bullets are messy.

Anyway, hope your 2017 is filled with books! I'll reserve my ringside seat here :)

Happy New Year. May 2017 bring you many good books to read.

A Girl in Time by John Birmingham

I admittedly got involved in this book, and enjoyed it. But it's really not something I could recommend. I read it because an Australian friend who is a huge fan of this Australian writer rated it highly. I expected that the 5 stars he gave it would turn out to be more out of his fanship than objectivity. Of course there is no such thing anyway.

This book is similar to many of Birmingham's previous efforts in that he takes an old trope that is almost embarrassing to repeat, and does it anyway. Previously, he's sent modern aircraft carriers into the middle of the Battle of Midway. Ademittedly, that's fun. In this case, a young woman from Seattle in October 2016 is whisked off in time and left to try to get back. I've encountered that kind of scenario before, I think ;)

Let me mention the most entertaining part of this book. I'd do that fancy spoiler thing I've seen around these parts, but I don't know how to do it.

Oh! The disclaimer: The views reflected in this book that are of a quasi-political nature do not necessarily reflect the views of management or of this station. But here it is:

The time traveling young woman misses in her attempt to return to October 2016, and instead returns to 2019. She finds a country altered. The US is now a police state. Hillary is in jail. Trump is an absolute dictator. All Muslims have been sent to the Mexican border to build The Wall.

That is definitely the highlight of the book, but its a small part. I'm sure many would find this a fun read, but that's not to say that it is good.

I am resolved to read something next that I feel I have a high likelihood of liking so I do not get the exaggerated but not entirely untrue reputation for being a negative curmudgeonly stick-in-the-mud. At least I like cheese.

>20 dovelynnwriter: If you want to add a spoiler tag to your posts, all you need to do is write <spoiler>the text of the spoiler</spoiler> and it'll render the text as a spoiler that gets hidden.

I hope your next book will be more enjoyable!

Thank you Lynn!

You're welcome! I hope it helps! You can copy/paste the code and just edit the text in between the spoiler tags as well if you want to.

>19 stellarexplorer: Ouch. Well, you didn't hate it or you would have left it unfinished, am I correct? I do hope you pick up something you enjoy completely next.

>23 clamairy: Definitely didn't hate it. But it's also not worth investing in a comprehensive critical review.

I have a number of nonfiction books ready that I know I'll like, but it's been a few months since I read fiction that I loved.

Maybe I'll try The Lions of Al-Rassan. I have a good feeling about that one, and I liked Under Heaven, my one previous Kay, very much.

>24 stellarexplorer: If you do decide to read Lions I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

>25 clamairy: I totally get how gunshy you would be about book recommendations after the episode that shall not be named. I too hope I would like it as much as you did.
Or more, even!

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Who doesn't love magic? The Magicians is a book about magic, in fact much of it takes place in a school of magic. The difficulties of the school of magic in the post-Harry Potter world notwithstanding, another problem presents itself. As delightful or terrifying as magic may be, books with magical themes are still books, and as such the magic alone is not enough. They need characters to care about, creative world building, a plot to move things along, etc.

I enjoyed a lot about this book. In particular, the world building was convincing and easy to clamber onto. The author offers quite a few clever ideas and innovations that bring pleasure. The action proceeds apace, with little lag. We sense that we are faced with real people facing real problems and real relationships, albeit in a magical setting, which is an accomplishment.

There are problems here. While the characters are consistent and believable, they are, for the most part, not especially likable or easy to root for. I will not here elaborate, but in general these are callow, immature, rather selfish individuals with little sense of themselves or their purposes. It's a rather lost group, and their magical studies apparently do little to help them find themselves. With one notable exception, but no need for spoilers here.

The second issue had to to with payoff. I think it's fair to say this book rarely gives the reader the gratification desired. There is more frustrating rather than gratifying the reader. This might still make for a great book if done well, for a clear purpose. Think Jude the Obscure. But Grossman was not successful in conveying this, at least not to me, and so I depart this world with some sense of frustration and misfired potential.

One thing desperately lacking here is any sense of charm. There is magic with no charm or joy. Good writing and creative ideas ameliorate this somewhat, but insufficiently to be able to recommend this without reservation.

I am starting Naomi Novik's Uprooted. I am hopeful that I will be able to fully embrace my next book. I've run into a bit of a dry spell lately.

>27 stellarexplorer: Sorry you didn't enjoy it more, but might I ask what it was that drew you to it in the first place?

>28 stellarexplorer: This also won't be like Hardy, but I hope you enjoy it. I'm about half the way through it at this point and I'm still quite pleased with it.

>29 clamairy: I received it as a gift from someone who was trying really hard to think of something I would like. He's someone I exchange gifts with yearly, and I knew he was really trying to find something that might be roughly in the ballpark of my reading tastes. He reads almost no SFF - I gave him a sampler of a few classics, but I can't say he much liked them. He reads contemporary "literary fiction". Funnily this one, almost an anti-fantasy fantasy book, is the only fantasy I think he's read in his adult life. And then I'd heard others who'd read it, heard there was a Scify Channel production, so I thought it would be worth a read.

Looking forward to the Novik, haven't read her before. Glad you are enjoying it! And also looking forward to the coming months. I read a lot more from February to September than October through January, because I'm a sucker for football. {blush} I have a lot of things I want to get to.

>27 stellarexplorer: Doesn't sound very appealing! Unlikeable characters usually put me right off, and it takes a heck of a lot to make up for that. I hope you have better luck with your next venture.

>27 stellarexplorer: I'd been curious about this one. I think I may pass now.

>27 stellarexplorer: I completely agree. This was the most depressing fantasy book I've ever come across. A pity, because the world building was good. But I would never recommend it to anyone.

Narilka, Sylvia, clammy, thanks for your comments and visit.

You too zjakkelien, and it's good to find we saw this the same way. (And while I have your attention, may I take a moment to mention to you that it was a great pleasure to have visited your city of The Hague last summer? What a lovely place! I'd never been there before and I was struck by so many things. Especially just how livable the place was. Amsterdam was a great place to visit, but I'd much rather live in The Hague!)

>34 stellarexplorer: Then we agree again! I think Amsterdam is nice for tourists, and it has neighborhoods that I would probably enjoy living in (if I could afford it!), but I much prefer to live in the Hague. It's not quite as crazy and has a bit more space. To me, it feels more relaxed than Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is the LEAST relaxed place I've ever been. It felt like one giant epileptic seizure. Nice buildings and lay out, but exhausting.

That's interesting. I've not been in Amsterdam since the mid '90's, but I never felt as if it were particularly manic when staying there. Has it changed dramatically in the 20 years since I last visited?

I did see The Hague briefly and I did think that area was lovely.

It could have been where we stayed, but we did walk from the Crown Plaza (our hotel) to the Van Gogh museum and back (while getting lost a bit) so it wasn't like we stayed in one spot. Just SO MANY cars, bikes, boats and people. Made Brussels seem calm by comparison and Bruges like a back water. We found some fabulous little restaurants and side streets, but boy it was tiring after a few hours.

It's probably a different matter if you live there and instinctively understand the rules, but there are a million bicycles coming at you from every direction. It seems that they know exactly where they are going and how to speed around safely. But for the uninitiated, walking in Amsterdam feels like one false move will get you run over by a bike. It seems very easy to step in the wrong place and have caused offense or danger. As a result one walks with a sense of vigilance and anxiety. Manic describes it too. The place is energetic, active, scenic, but no one could say it's calm.

Hahaha, I remember a friend of a friend telling me she had been to Amsterdam and hated it because of the bikers that kept ringing their bells at her. When I asked, though, she admitted to stepping onto the road or biking lanes, and that is indeed asking for trouble. That would annoy me too, if someone stepped right in front of me when I was biking somewhere!

But I can imagine it can be overwhelming if you're not used to it. On top of that, the sidewalks tend to be narrow in Amsterdam, so there isn't that much space to walk to begin with.

I enjoyed visiting Amsterdam last year, and it is a beautiful city, but I totally agree with >39 stellarexplorer:. I do think it's good that cycling is so dominant though, much better than the streets being filled with cars. If I were going to live in the Netherlands I'd prefer Leiden, Utrecht or Rotterdam of the cities I visited.

Heartily agree with Sakerfalcon about Utrecht. If I were to move to the Netherlands, I'd also look hard at Wageningen or Baarn or, remembering that even tiny, remote places have excellent public transport, Ermelo (nod to the place of the same name in Mpumalanga) or Otterlo.

>42 hfglen: Really? You have an Ermelo too?

>43 zjakkelien: 26.52 South, 29.96 East. It's quite a bit bigger than the one in Gelderland.

>44 hfglen: I am flabbergasted. I see a lot of names end in 'spruit'. To me, that is reminiscent of sprouts (Brussels sprouts = spruitjes in Dutch). But I guess it has a different meaning to you?

>45 zjakkelien: Not sure what Dutch word it would map to. Here it indicates a small (probably seasonal) stream. I'll confuse you further by telling you that Bronkhorstspruit (east of Pretoria) is named after a General Brohkhorst, not after the presence of watercress. And it's a pity that the GD isn't wired for sound, or I'd come out with the old chestnut of the Last Outpost pronunciation of Winklespruit, Kloof and Botha's Hill.

>46 hfglen: Well, I know how I would pronounce that, but I imagine your pronunciation could be quite different!

To me, Bronkhorst is just a town, and I have never heard that it means something. Are you saying it has something to do with watercress? Ah, googling tells me it is bronkors in Afrikaans. In Dutch, it is waterkers.

Man, these things can be confusing!

I have had a lot of trouble with fiction lately, and even though I am reading and so far enjoying Uprooted, I haven't had that delicious feeling of being so drawn to a book, that I don't want to do anything but read it.

But that has now happened. It is a tome, but hard to imagine anyone ever doing it better. This is not a review because I'm only 125 pages into an 800 page book. Nonfiction often grabs me by the throat in a way that fiction does less frequently.

The book is Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I've been thinking about nuclear war a lot recently. I won't go into the details as some of it borders on politics, although I can say that I am concerned that sparing our children the traumatic and ridiculous experiences of hiding under the desk at school in preparation, and Fallout Shelters, etc may have weakened the concern they ought to have about these weapons. There really is a before the bomb/after the bomb divide, the seriousness and danger of which cannot be understated.

So I listened to a wonderful Dan Carlin Hardcore History 6 hour podcast which was chillingly entertaining, rewatched 13 Days (movie about the Cuban Missle Crisis), rewatched Fail-Safe, watched the documentary "The Day After Trinity" about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. I can get obsessive about a topic.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a comprehensive, impeccably-researched broad-scope account of the developing of the bomb. It ranges in granular detail across the science of the prior 50 years and the dramatis personæ. It details the broad context in which the wholesale slaughter of noncombatants became acceptable. And of course presents the actual making of the bomb, which I haven't gotten to yet.

Incidentally, this won The National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Critics Circle Award.

I can't put it down. And I am remembering with satisfaction what it is like when I am captivated by first-rate nonfiction.

I am on page 459 of 790. The Manhattan Project has just started, and Oppenheimer has arrived in Los Alamos. Long, if fascinating, lead up!

>49 stellarexplorer: Just added it to my wishlist. :o)

My pre-order of New York 2140 just arrived. Can't wait to read it. KSR is one of only 3 authors whose work I buy and read sight unseen, no other information necessary.

Unfortunately, other reading commitments prevent me from opening it up today with intention to devour!

>51 stellarexplorer: I don't buy KSR books because I know I'm unlikely to ever re-read them, but I DO always read his work, thanks to the library. I just read a positive review about this book and I look forward to your report. I put it on hold as soon as I saw it in the library's on-order list, but it won't get to me for a bit yet.

>53 tardis: Preordering his books is a delightful indulgence, but a more affordable one than a Lamborghini. At least that's what I tell myself, lauding my temperance!

This latest acquisition puts my collection at precisely 4600 books. KSR is a fitting author to navigate across that milestone:)

>54 stellarexplorer: I agree. I always figure that I don't smoke, drink, gamble, or do drugs (and like you, no Lanborghini), so buying books is perfectly reasonable. I buy a few favourite authors in hardcover, too.

KSR is indeed worthy to establish such a milestone. My 4600th book was a hardcover by Barbara Hambly :)

>55 stellarexplorer: Congrats, and I had no idea who KSR was until I looked. I have heard of one of his books so I don't feel completely out of the loop.

>57 clamairy: oh boy! I am jealous - you have some great books to look forward to, clammy! While I love his voice and so many of his books, I think my favorites may be the Science in the Capital trilogy beginning with Forty Signs of Rain. These are near-future books with a focus on global warming, but with memorable, colorful characters through whom the author expresses his expansive breadth of knowledge and interests. But a case can be made for many others.

>56 tardis: I must confess that I don't know the work of Ms. Hambly. What should I know?

I'll agree with >58 stellarexplorer: with regard to the Science in the Capitol trilogy. Very interesting insights into how science and policy operate. (I also am somewhat partial to KSR's Antarctica because of its rendition of the exploration of that continent and because of the back story to the work. He wrote it on an NSF grant that included living there in Antarctica with the scientific community.)

>59 stellarexplorer: & >60 jillmwo: Oh, gang up on me why don't you? :o)

>59 stellarexplorer: I've never read a bad book by Hambly. Her characters are so real (which considering she mostly writes fantasy is quite a trick). Her Benjamin January mysteries are set in slave-era New Orleans - a violent, bleak time (esp. if, like Ben, you're black) but fascinating. Bride of the Rat God is set in 1920s Hollywood, and is amusing and scary. The series I buy in hardcover is her take on vampires, starting with Those Who Hunt The Night. Her vampires are Not Nice. Really, start at the beginning of any of her series.

>61 clamairy: LOL

>62 tardis: I have read the first two vampire novels from Hambly and really enjoyed them. The writing style and characters pulled me in right away. I need to track down book 3 one of these days to continue the series.

>59 stellarexplorer: A couple of years ago we had a group read of Stranger at the wedding by Hambly, which most of us thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm looking forward to the new KSR too. I hope my library gets a copy.

Thank you ScoLgo and Sakerfalcon. I will have to track down some of her work.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

This is a powerful, deeply affecting book. Its 800 pages are dense, and require much of the reader. But in return is a comprehensive account of the development of the atomic bomb: the nuclear physics of the first decades of 20th century that made the effort possible; the historical context that led to its construction; the scientific collaboration at Los Alamos and how the feat was accomplished. Throughout and in a forceful closing, Rhodes offers a thoughtful examination of the results, implications and challenges the bomb brought to the world.

Many books fail to stand the test of time; but the three decades since its publication have only affirmed its centrality in telling the story of the atomic bomb. Rhodes had access to some of the key figures in the making of the bomb who were then still alive, which supplemented his exceptional talent for writing history and the history of science. And to the reader’s good fortune, Rhodes happens to be an impeccable prose stylist. The book justly received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award.

As a reader of the history of science, I was firmly in the grip of Rhodes’ delivery of the familiar but ever thrilling story of nuclear physics from the early discovery of xrays and radioactivity (Röntgen, Becquerel, Curie) at the end of the 19th century through its culmination here in Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner’s discovery of nuclear fission. While told in meticulous detail, this long section reads like a scientific thriller.

Any serious account of the making of the atomic bomb must contend with the responses of the scientists to the consequences of their work. Three figures cast giant moral shadows over this story, all of them central to the intellectual underpinnings of the Manhattan Project. Leo Szilard is well known for his letter with Einstein to FDR informing him of the feasibility of a bomb, and warning of the possibility of a German nuclear effort. He was also the man who developed the idea that connected nuclear fission to a bomb: the nuclear chain reaction. And yet as the bomb neared completion, Szilard exhausted himself in trying to encourage the United States not to use it. Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant director of the Manhattan Project, is seen after his greatest success to labor under the impossible burden of having brought such destructive power into the world. Finally, Neils Bohr, among the greatest and most influential of scientists, is shown as the conscience of his peers. Bohr used his authority to present to the Allied leaders his concept of the complementarity represented by the bomb. In this he meant that the destructiveness of the weapon contained an inherent opposite – that the power of the bomb necessitated fundamental changes in political arrangements, and in fact required us to put an end to war. The alternative was an arms race leading to the unthinkable.

Rhodes ultimately puts the atomic bomb into its most important human context: with Bohr’s notion of its complementarity, comes the imperative to face the fundamental changes wrought by nuclear technology. He argues that the modern nation-state has appropriated the power of science and fashioned out of it a death machine. He sees citizens “slowly come to understand that in a nuclear world their national leaders cannot, no matter how much tribute and control they exact, protect even their citizens’ bare lives, the minimum demand the commons have made in exchange for the political authority that is ultimately theirs alone to award.” Our minimal protection is the mere hope of the restraint of others similarly armed. Seventy years after Hiroshima, thirty years after the publication of this book, are we any closer to addressing the imperatives thrust upon us?

In 1946, Einstein famously warned “The splitting of the atom changed everything save man’s mode of thinking, thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Einstein was right about so many things. Let us hope that ultimately this too will not prove to be one of them.

>67 stellarexplorer: Thank you. Absolutely great review. I think I took a direct hit on this one.

>67 stellarexplorer: Great review!

Thank you both! I enjoyed writing it.

>67 stellarexplorer: Awesome review!
I do hope your reading dry spell has dissipated.

>71 clamairy:

Thank you! And yes, I think I'm into a fair weather phase now. I'm reading a fun book that I will review soon, a page turner about a Latino Los Angeles drug gang led by an intriguing young woman... and in the car, Gravity's Rainbow, which I've never read, and is dense, with wonderful sentences, and undeniably good. (Did I mention that it's dense?) Not an easy read, but I'm glad I'm reading it.

>72 stellarexplorer: Oh! I loved Gravity's Rainbow! Well... at least the few and far between parts that I understood. ;)

>73 ScoLgo: yeah, it's a bear. But a great bear!

Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love

Lola is the tale of a Latino drug gang, and a portrait in miniature of life in the LA barrio. I enjoyed this book, breezing through it rapidly. It might be a perfectly acceptable light beach read (with some violence requisite for the genre) if not for two bonus elements: the novelty of an engaging female gang leader, directing loyal male soldiers, and the glimpse into a way of life not often viewed from the outside. The book argues that escape is not a meaningful goal, and that the inhabitants of this realm will not feel at home elsewhere. 4 stars, promoted from 3.5 for believability and readability.

>75 stellarexplorer: Bang! Right. Between. The Eyes...

You know I already have way too many books to read before shuffling off this mortal coil, right? ;)

>76 ScoLgo:

You know I already have way too many books to read before shuffling off this mortal coil, right? ;)

Does not compute! Significance of irrelevant data not understood. What has number of books in possession have to do with the acquisition of more books? No connection found.

>77 pgmcc: Agreed. But he did specify reading them...

>76 ScoLgo: I am honored to have harpooned you!

>77 pgmcc: Haha! Too true... I must remember to repeat Umberto's quote to myself daily as I often lose sight of the real reason for compiling a library.

>79 stellarexplorer: Thanks for the review. It was an unexpected potshot that hit the bulls-eye. I have added Lola to my Overdrive list with the library. Of course, it will have to wait until the four titles I currently have on hold become available and are subsequently consumed.

This may be the moment to cite a favorite (paraphrased) quote from Saul Bellow that I have on my profile page:

"My books stand as guarantors of an extended life -- one far more interesting and meaningful than the one I am forced to lead daily."

>81 stellarexplorer: That's couldn't be more appropriate.

>81 stellarexplorer: I love that quote. Seriously considering theft.

>81 stellarexplorer: Excellent quote!

I am now engrossed in KSR's newest tome (600+ pages), New York 2140. So far it has the wonderful world building, slightly wacky sincerity, and cornucopia of ideas that characterizes his work generally. Which is to say I'm liking it. Sea level has risen 50 feet, much of lower Manhattan and the surrounding lower areas are under water, and accommodations have been made. Including securing the stability of buildings whose lower floors are submerged, a proliferation of building in northern Manhattan which stands on higher ground, skywalks to get from building to building, etc. Well done so far, but not less that one would expect from him. He's thought about these issues for a long time. How it holds together as a work of fiction I cannot yet say, but at 50 pages in, it has me wanting to continue...

>85 stellarexplorer: I'm looking forward to this one, so will be keen to see what you think as you continue reading.

I have a painful dilemma. I am reading Gravity's Rainbow in the car. It's probably a very worthy book, but I am finding it painful to tolerate. It's like taking bad tasting medicine because I think it will be good for me. And yet, I feel I should have this book under my belt. Yuck! I hate reading books because I really should, though I do it not infrequently.

I am also 300 pages into KSR's 2140, which I hope to review in a week or two.

After seeing a few other's experiences with Pynchon this year I think he's one I'll pass on. Good luck though!

>87 stellarexplorer: You mean reading as in listening to while driving? Or reading while someone else drives? Either way if it's painful then stop, at least for a while. You can always try again in a few months (or years) to see if it still tastes bad, am I right?

>87 stellarexplorer: I ended up having a pretty good time with Gravity's Rainbow but... it is very dense and the going can be slow due to the spaced-out and digressive nature of the narrative. It took me a looonnnggg time to read as I did not even try to go at it all at once. I would read a chapter or two, then take a break with 3 or 4 other, lighter novels, before coming back to tackle a little more. Took me nearly a year but I did find myself picking the book up more often as I worked my way into it. I occasionally thumb through it now for a chuckle or two, (I enjoyed the subversive humor).

>87 stellarexplorer: If you are determined to keep going, maybe you could try switching to a different format. Some books work better in print for me, and others in audio.

Or see if there is an interpretive dance version. ;o)

>90 ScoLgo: I've done that with a few things. Sometimes walking away for a while helped me focus on them more clearly when I finally picked them up again.

>88 Narilka: >89 clamairy: >90 ScoLgo: >91 SylviaC:

Narilka, thanks. If I ever finish, I'll report back!

ScoLgo, yes, small doses might work, but I think I OD'd!

clammy, while I'm driving. Alone. With an impossible non-linear hard-to-engage-with plot.

Sylvia, I agree. I strongly suspect audio is the worst format for this particular book.

You will all be pleased to hear that I have put it away for now. Thank you for your support!

I am pursuing a research project on the reception of the physics community and the general population to Einstein's 1905 papers, and to a lesser extent to his 1915 General Theory. I have been able to find little information on this topic. I am particularly interested in the period just after the papers were published, perhaps 1905-1911.

I have located two books Comparative Reception of Relativity (a collection which can be purchased for roughly $300!) and Understanding Relativity: Orign and Impact of a Scientific Revolution by Stanley Goldberg. A little less tailored to my interests is Einstein's Jury by Jeffrey Crelinsten.

Might anyone here have a suggestion?

Have you tried putting the titles of the two books that you have found useful into Google Scholar to see what subsequent articles or books cite those two? That might be one slightly round-about way of finding other relevant materials for your research. (Forgive me if that seems too obvious. I never know how aware folks may be of such tools for these types of projects.)

>95 jillmwo: Thanks Jill. I did find some potentially helpful papers that way. I have to find a way to get access, as most of them require substantial payments or an institutional connection I don't have anymore. I think there may be a way to get access as an alumnus of my alma mater - I have to check. There appear to be almost no books on the topic, only papers in academic journals.

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

New York 2140 is a wild romp through Venice-cum-New York City in the aftermath of two massive ice melts that have significantly submerged large parts of Manhattan. People live in the skyscrapers of the city even as the lower floors are underwater. The rivers and canals are now traversed by all manner of watercraft, where before the subway and automobile reigned. KSR captures the indomitable energy of the city, which persists and thrives despite the drowning. The book is vivid, wild, untamed with colorful characters.

It is also chock full of ideas and chaos and survival. Readers familiar with Stan’s books will recognize impeccable research – in this case especially into New York City history, global financial shenanigans, and the science of sea level rise – and the courageous risk-taking that characterizes much of his work. Prominent in the cake mix are the author’s utopian leanings, with a healthy icing of critique of capitalism. I use that odd expression in part to try to imitate his fearless inventiveness at new verbal constructions, puns and neologisms, seemingly unconcerned about the inevitable failure of some portion of these. And most elicit at least a wry smile.

Under all this energy is a carefully constructed structure, with repeating sequences of orderly chapters each one following a particular character. The structure appears to mimic in abstraction something of the grid-like face of the city itself. The homage to Dos Passos’ cinematic, panoramic experimentalism is hard to miss. In the end, one may wonder about the payoff; after all, this is a long and imperfect novel requiring the time and persistence of the reader. But against that is balanced dynamic world-building, an entertaining romp without let-up, and a serious consideration of a future that seems ever more possible. Maybe the most fun one can have with global warming!

4/5 stars

>97 stellarexplorer: Oooh, that looks wonderful. It's a singleton, right? Not umpteenth in a series?

>97 stellarexplorer: How's the violence level?

>97 stellarexplorer: That sounds interesting. It's going on my wish list.

>98 clamairy: Yes, an old-fashioned stand-alone.

>99 SylviaC: Violence level = zero

>100 Narilka: Just to be clear, I gave it four stars rather than five. My bias is that KSR is one of my very few "favorite authors", so I'm predisposed to want to spread the gospel. This is a very interesting book, it's getting a lot of attention in the Halls of Organized SF, but it's not flawless, and it's not his best book. It is highly ambitious. But, and I hate to say this, but there's at least a little truth to it: I admire the book more than love it. That said, it's worth a read. But I feel morally obligated to add this corrective/disclaimer.

IMHO, his best books, the ones I've enjoyed most, are the Science in the Capital series beginning with Forty Signs of Rain, followed by The Years of Rice and Salt (an alternate history with the premise that the Black Death wiped out 99% rather than 33% of Europe), 2312, Aurora, the Mars Trilogy (which made his career and was highly awarded) and Shaman. In approximate but don't hold me to it order.

Onto the list it goes, then.

>97 stellarexplorer: I'm really excited about this one now!

>94 stellarexplorer: >95 jillmwo: Much thanks jillmwo -- thanks to your suggestion I now have in my possession Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity: Emergence, 1905 and Early Interpretation, 1905-1911

In combination with Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution and Einstein's Jury: The Race to Test Relativity, and several journal articles, I now have a wealth of material for my research project. The idea is to try to understand something of scientific revolutions in general by studying the scientific prologue to Special Relativity, and the response by the physics community and eventually the world at large. I find this an extremely rich and fascinating topic. There are certain issues that I come back to time and time again through my life, each time immersing myself in its details in greater depth. Physics and the history of science is one of those central themes.

>104 stellarexplorer: Are you aware of Einstein's explanation of Relativity to reporters when he arrived in the US and was asked what it was? He said, and I paraphrase, "If you spend a minute sitting on a red hot stove it will feel like an hour, but if you spend an hour with a red hot woman it will feel like a minute. That is Relativity."

>105 pgmcc: Thanks -- I hadn't heard that before Peter, but a little research shows that variants of the phase appeared back in 1929, when Einstein was still in Germany. The earliest formulation appears to have been "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” Shortly thereafter, selected US newspapers decided in their wisdom to shift "nice" to "pretty". I was unable to find any reference at all to Einstein having applied the adjective "red hot" to either stove or girl.

>106 stellarexplorer: Interesting detail. At least you did not discover that he didn't say it at all which is the fate of many qoutes attributed to Einstein on the Internet. :-)

>104 stellarexplorer: Great success! I'm glad it worked for you. Now you can settle down to some serious investigation. (Although I am a bit intimidated by anyone who is up to the challenge of self-educating themselves about a subject with that degree of complexity. Personally, I stick to the humanities.)

Although in some moods, I too can enjoy KSR. Characterization isn't his strong suit, but he does make some areas of science much more approachable. Have you read the book he did on an NSF grant, Antarctica? I have to go look up that Shaman title now.

>108 jillmwo: That one is owned but not yet read. But I know many people think it's great. Agree character isn't his strength, but he's also not Asimov. He usually has a position to put forward, and usually it's one I'm sympathetic to. And he does it well.

Finished Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. A virtually plotless book of unusual form and construction. Some beautiful writing. Subject matter profound, and still inevitably obscure. I admired and respected it, though was not especially entertained.

>110 stellarexplorer: I haven't read the book, but I think that's a nice, succinct summation. It perfectly describes how I've felt about some of the odder things that I've read.

>111 SylviaC: Thank you Sylvia -- I'm glad it resonated!

I acquired several more volumes for my Relativity project:

Einstein's Generation: The Origins of the Relativity Revolution by Richard Staley
Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics by Andrew Warwick
Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Galison (May 22)
Frontiers of Physics 1900 - 1911 by Arthur Miller

It's easier to find them than to make time to read them! But I am excited to have enhanced my collection on this fascinating topic.

>110 stellarexplorer: Have you read Saunders's short stories? I loved a lot of Tenth of December, especially the title story.

>114 Jim53: No, I haven't. Thanks for the suggestion - I'll have to check it out!

I've been remiss lately, but I have posted an interesting piece about elephant history here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/265909#6125995

Upcoming I'll also be reviewing Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos, Ted Chiang's short story collection Arrival, formerly titled Stories of Your Life, and The Rise and Fall of DODO, the recent collaboration between Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland centering around time travel, witches and magic.

The rise and fall of DODO is on my TBR pile, so I will look forward to your review of it.

>116 stellarexplorer: No worries. Many of us a posting sparsely these days.

Ok, update time. I finally have a moment sitting in the airport waiting to fly home from Aruba. It's been a delightful summer for vacations this year. I spent a few days in LA in July visiting college friends, and a few in SF visiting another friend. Then I met stellarwoman in Boulder for a week in Grand Lake, Colorado outside Rocky Mountain National Park. Glorious! And I'd love to retire to Boulder, but I don't think I'll be allowed.

Just spent the last week on a family vacation to Aruba before stellarkid returns to college and stellargirl starts high school. Can't complain!

So to books -- next post!

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

For months, I avoided writing something about Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. It was complex and only suited to summary in the most superficial way. Or so I tell myself. More likely, I am not up to the task. The book is an introduction to the current scientific understanding of the nature of space and time, emphasis on the former. While I wouldn't describe it as technical per se -- lacking the mathematics that would further illuminate but also complicate the material -- it is nonetheless challenging. The material requires the motivated nonphysicist to persist and focus, and the effort is well rewarded.

Greene offers a substantive review of quantum mechanics and general relativity, both necessary to examine current conceptions of space and time. The punchline, at the risk of imprecision, is that we cannot look at space in a common sense way at all. There are important ways in which space does not involve a conventional notion of locality; quantum phenomena resist explanations that rely on the familiar behavior of quotidian reality; at the smallest dimensions space and time themselves seem to lose meaning; ultimately there is no such thing as “empty” space, as what appears empty is actually roiling with the energy of quantum fluctuations.

Having established this basis, Greene uses these concepts to paint a picture of cosmic inflation and quantum loop gravity theories, aiming to show how these prominent approaches account for space itself and the vastness of the universe.
Where is the controversy, one might ask? Ultimately, the trajectory of the book leads to Green's great personal interest in physics, string theory. We see how this theory, if true, might address some of the current mysteries in our understanding of space and time. But there are those for whom them’s fightin’ words. Some argue that string theory lacks the quality of falsifiability, and as such cannot be taken seriously. If you are a staunch adherent of this position, you no doubt do not need to be reading this review.

The book was excellent and I highly recommend it. I found it all rather thrilling.

And a direct hit with The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O....

Arrival by Ted Chiang. A collection of short stories.

Ted Chiang's short story collection was formerly titled Stories of Your Life, after the once eponymous story. The collection has been renamed Arrival , but it was the original story that inspired the recent major motion picture. "Stories of Your Life" is probably familiar to many, and is the best of the collection. It tells of a linguist called upon to attempt communication with an alien species, and through that process, time and causality are radically altered and understood in a new light.

I also enjoyed "Understand", a story of a brain-damaged man who is given an experimental drug to attempt to repair the injury, the side effect of which is an acceleration of his cognitive processes and a dramatic increase in his intelligence. He becomes something more than human, but is he alone?

Yes, I did promise to review The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
The truth is that I got through the first hundred pages or so, and it was fine. But not so fine -- not Cryptonomicon fine -- that it was not subject to supplanting by something else. I have it on good authority that it is worth finishing, and I intend to get back to it, but I took a side track, as described below.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

This book elegantly and gently tells the story of an aging military man and a ten year old girl, taken at age six and recently released by the Kiowa Indians. The Colonel undertakes the task of returning the girl to her remaining family through the lawless Texas under Reconstruction after the Civil War.

Complicating matters is that she has lost all apparent memory of her previous life, and is in speech and culture now entirely Kiowan.

Beautifully written, News finds a lightness in dark material. It addresses the profound difficulties in sundered cultural identifications, and speaks to the new human connections that one would hope are still possible.

Teaser: I am currently reading a novel that I expect will become my favorite of the year. But I am only halfway through, so I am reluctant to say more until I finish. It's really good. Stay tuned!

>120 stellarexplorer: I tried as hard as I could to read Greene and finally decided I just didn't want to work that much. I'd love to have a basic understanding of all that stuff, but I just couldn't do it. Maybe in my extreme old age I'll try again.
Thanks for your review of the Jiles. I'm off to do further investigation. I won't be in such a frenzy to lay hands on *D.O.D.O* now; frenzy transferring to *NY 2140*. Thanks, friend.

I'm happy to see you're still reading, stellar!
(I'm not even trying to keep up with posting, at this point.)

So have you moved on to The Emperor's Soul yet? You did say you thought it would be some time in August that you'd get to it.

>128 jillmwo: Thanks Jill. I'm sure you're familiar with the ever-changing reading plan. The best laid plans and all that. It's currently second in line after my current book, in the fiction category :)

But I haven't forgotten. I've even gone and taken the step of obtaining it!

*cough*
'Bout time.
😉

Wow. The bullets are flying, and they ain't book bullets! :)
At this rate, I'll have the thing read by the end of September, max. Barring disaster.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles


I’m not sure when I last read a book as delightful and smart as this one. Count Alexander Rostov, cultured young gentleman of the old Russian aristocracy, has run afoul of the new Soviet regime, and is sentenced to live under permanent house arrest in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol. And so ends the unfettered period in a formerly vigorous and expansive life. A novel that takes place almost entirely within one structure, however grand and intricate, might feel claustrophobic. Anything but! For the Count is a reservoir of deep inner strength, of manners, of commitment to an identity, and every page crackles with the authenticity of his personhood.

The writing here is impeccable. Many times I was tempted to turn to those around me to read a particularly enchanting passage. It was hard to do so, because such lines are the fulfillment of a chain of description and preparation, of which the felicitous ending is but the fitting culmination. The prose is charming, concise, unadorned, and elegant.

The colossal weight of a desk is accounted for: “A king fortifies himself with a castle, a gentleman with a desk.” This is a book of sublime miniatures: A sister’s silver scissors fashioned in the shape of an egret has a golden screw at the pivot representing an eye. Throwing the clasps, a leather case opens like a giant book to reveal 26 pairs of glasses “each shaped to its purpose, from the grand embrace of the Burgundy glass down to those charming little vessels designed for the brightly colored liqueurs of southern Europe”. And of immense ideas as well. The vastness of inner life confronts the constraint of the external. Enduring values are set against the inevitability of change. Tolstoy’s view of history gurgles always in the background, as the reader grapples with the relationship of individual action with the impenetrable play of events.

I laughed, I cried and I called out in appreciative satisfaction. Loose ends duly tied up, with interest. A banquet served in words, best savored slowly. This is everything a book should be. Run, don’t walk.

I loved that book, too!

>132 stellarexplorer: That is on my To Read list!

>134 SylviaC: You will surely enjoy it, Sylvia. I should have added that a slow and careful read is well rewarded. This is a book to savor.

edited to add that I have so altered the review

>132 stellarexplorer: It is on my wishlist now, what a lovely write up you have given it!

>132 stellarexplorer: Sounds like a must-read! I have added it to the ever-ridiculously-lengthening wishlist.

>136 MrsLee: >137 jillmwo: I am very pleased to have been persuasive enough to get it on your wishlists! You must let me know what you think when you get to it. I would be very surprised were you to be disappointed.

> 132

A powerful bullet!

>132 stellarexplorer: I placed a hold on the ebook. I'm #105 in line for 5 copies! By the time I get it I'll probably have no clue who recommended it. :o/

>140 clamairy: When you post about how much you loved it, I'll remind you ;)

>132 stellarexplorer: I'm really looking forward to reading this, when it comes out in paperback. Your review has made me even more impatient!

>132 stellarexplorer: A stellar review, friend! I'm almost literally in the midst of it, and it's everything you say.

>142 Sakerfalcon: Thank you, and please do let me know what you think, Claire!

>143 LizzieD: Peggy, Thank you and I am so glad you are enjoying it!

>132 stellarexplorer: added to my wishlist too. I'm #67 in the queue at the library.

>132 stellarexplorer: A Gentleman in Moscow is on my shelf. I generally avoid reading reviews of books the I haven't read yet. When I spotted your comments on this book I was intrigued and read the first sentences of both the first and last paragraphs. That was enough. I am pushing this book up the tbr list.

>145 Jim53: >146 pgmcc: I've been recommending this, and everyone has been happy with it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

My first Sanderson, after numerous recommendations that this is the best of his works to start with. This is more of a novella than a novel, and even reads more as an extended short story. As a result, it’s scope is narrow, and character development is limited. The construction of a peculiar magic is done well. The protagonist, a Forger, has the ability to alter the present form of things by altering their past histories. For example, a shabby old table acquires a lustrous sheen when it’s past is reworked so that it has been well-maintained over the years. Under threat of execution, the Forger is tasked with applying her skills to a person, something never before done. In particular, she must modify the emperor, wounded and in a vegetative state, to appear vibrant and well to his subjects.

I am aware of a strong impulse to damn the book with faint praise. I will try to resist. I enjoyed the book as far as it goes. The writing is good if not extraordinary. If this is a book to establish a world of further adventures, it’s off to a good start. As a stand-alone, it works effectively within the scope of its length. I did wish for a deeper insight into the characters. I’m glad to have read one of Sanderson’s books. I’m not sure how quickly I’ll rush off to read another.

>148 stellarexplorer: I'd probably have recommended Mistborn if you wanted a deeper experience. Still at least you enjoyed it. The Emperor's Soul is a novella set in the same world as Elantris, so it builds upon that world though it is only linked to that story indirectly.

>149 Narilka: Thanks Narika. I am aware of Mistborn, but received many suggestions to start here. Maybe I’ll continue with Mistborn at a later date. That said, for fiction, unless it’s one of my very favorite writers, I seem to prefer to familiarize myself with a new writer rather than to go deeper into the further works of. But I would like to choose the very best of that new writer.

The Emperor's Soul was good, but it didn't grab me the way Mistborn did. I don't think I'd recommend Soul as the best representation of his work.

Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar

Yes, this is a book about greed and the naked pursuit of riches at all cost. Steven Cohen is one of the world’s wealthiest men, founder of the now-defunct SAC Capital Advisors, and while he is no doubt a talented trader, the phrase “ill-gotten gains” could not be more aptly applied. Cohen ran a hedge fund for many years that aggressively sought and profited from insider information, extracting billions illegally from the market. Kolhatkar’s account of Cohen’s career portrays his working class background, precocious early successes, and rise to dominant position in the industry. Along the way, we are treated to the illicit delivery of information by corporate confederates, and the depraved extraction of dollars through the manipulation of trusting relationships.

But this vivid telling is as much about about the pursuit of Cohen and his empire by the FBI, the SEC, and the US Department of Justice. The story mutates into that of hardworking and devoted attorneys and investigators whose years of persistence and passion in trying to bring Cohen to justice and to right the shameless wrongdoings on Wall Street comes to little in the end. Justice does not prevail. Cohen pays 2 billion dollars in fines to settle up his differences with the US government. Apparently this is a trifling inconvenience in a career undeterred and unrepentant. In a short time he is seen writing nine-figure checks for Giacometti sculptures, and the following year his profit exceeds the $2 billion fine.

The pace and interest increase steadily and deliberately during the second half of the book. Kolhatkar is a skilled journalist and former financial analyst, and she takes on a complex web of financial dealings and delivers it all as riveting thriller. Depressing though the denouement may be, a clear view into Wall Street criminality can be had in a form that manages to feel embarrassingly like entertainment.

American War by Omar El Akkad

So much promise. The coming war in the US. A line from the turmoil and division of today to the ruinous, violent severing to come.

So sad that promise was not realized. The book is slow. Tedious. Painful. Perhaps the intent was to elicit in the reader some of the emotions that would follow in the novel’s scenario. But as a reading experience, this one is a disappointment.

>152 stellarexplorer: That account of his chicanery just sounds depressing. Did the book leave you feeling that way?

>154 jillmwo: Well, more angry than depressed. But it made for an illuminating and engrossing read. I do recommend it for anyone who has an interest in finance, Wall Street, the mindless pursuit of money, or white collar crime where the perpetrator has more resources than the government.

Is there a deaccessioning thread? I donated about 175 books today, all expendable works. That makes around 300 so far in 2017.

This culling made it possible for me to move two bookcases out of the living room and into a 12’x10’ room I think of as “The Library”. The Library now accommodates 7 substantial bookcases. I have a separate office where I keep my science fiction, about 60 shelf-feet of it, including the first SF books I ever acquired as a kid - from the venerable Science Fiction Book Club.

I now have some space for “newly acquired TBR” (so as not to lose them in the vast morass of books in the house), can get some piles of books off the floor, and also have the rare luxury of some empty shelves for future acquisitions.

Oh - the living room is being repurposed as a gym, the motive behind the above efforts. I ordered rubberized flooring samples today.

I’m also considering culling the SF. I’m increasingly willing to part with older paperbacks or others in so-so condition. My working concept in recent years is that if I ever do read these in the future, I wouldn’t read those copies. I’d get a new one or buy the ebook. It’s not a pleasure to read a yucky edition. The exception is the older hard to get out of print SF. It would be difficult to part with those.

Culling is such a nasty word when applied to books.

>156 stellarexplorer: That is hard work, adjusting your mindset to move on. Good job! Curious about the living room being repurposed as a gym. Do you have a family room, or some space for relaxing in? I suppose your library?

>158 suitable1: It’s true, but I have the same attitude about my cattle when it’s their time. I guess I just prefer to look directly at the harshness of life.

>159 MrsLee: Great question! It is lovely to know you were paying attention!

So the kids are older now (20 and 14), one in college but a frequent visitor (and probably a future returnee for a while). We all agree a workout space would suit our family needs better at this point.

But it wouldn't work if, as you surmise, we didn’t have a family room for group viewing and winter hibernating.

>161 stellarexplorer: It sounds like a great plan to me. Having a gym in house removes excuses. :) Although, I've managed to find enough exercises to do in my small space, it would be lovely to have room for equipment too. Ah well, someday. Right now we have room for mom, so it's all good.

>162 MrsLee: Room for the necessary people is certainly the bigger priority!

>157 stellarexplorer: - I find older titles to be somewhat variably available as ebook! Do check before you de-accession something as even books from the 90s may not be around. Not just publisher inertia but author contracts etc effect this - and many manuscripts were just that, and an electronic file version never existed. Living in the US does help - there are still geographic restrictions on ebooks.

>164 reading_fox: Thank you r_f. I haven’t touched the sff yet. I have a feeling many of those will be hard to find again in any form.

What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology by Addy Pross

We lack an adequate theory of what life is, and therefore cannot give adequate answers to fundamental questions in biology. What are the principles at work in abiogenesis, the emergence of life from inanimate chemical building blocks? What principles guide life’s arrant defiance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the demand that systems tend toward maximum disorder? How is it that life, which behaves as if it has purpose could come about from a universe without purpose? I was prepared to report that this book was dry, pessimistic, and set up the reader for a lackluster attempted salvation by our heroic author/scientist. So the unexpected urgency that overcame me upon completion took me by surprise. After I finished the book, I realized I wasn’t finished at all. I needed to review to make sure I understood these proposals, research the status of Pross’ ideas in biology, and write it all out for the sake of clarity.
A complete summary of these ideas is beyond the scope of this review. I will focus on the core concept, one with which I had not previously been familiar. He argues that despite efforts to identify the historical origin of life on Earth some 4 billion years ago -- ocean thermal vents, the clay template model, primitive redox reactions across proto-membranes – it is likely we will never have conclusive answers about these matters. The more knowable – and more important – question surrounds the principles at work in the establishment of life and in propelling it from the simple to complexity.
A fundamental characteristic of life from a chemical point of view is its organization, its movement from the simple to the complex. Life persists despite by its very nature opposing the principle that guides all physical systems: the thermodynamic tendency to move toward maximum disorder, toward a state of maximum stability, toward the endpoint of reactivity. The explanation has always made sense. Systems can resist this thermodynamic imperative as long as they have an input of energy that powers the opposing tendency toward disorder. What Pross has done is to detail how life gets around the Second Law without violating it, and in so doing he elaborates explanatory chemical principles that illuminate the nature of life.
The proposal here is a fundamental chemical principle that allows life to perpetuate itself despite the inexorable requirement of the Second Law. His idea comes out of the field of chemical systems, specifically replicating systems. Replication is fundamental to life. Life makes more copies of itself. The genetic code is copied and recopied billions of times per day. Every protein in every cell is replaced in a perpetual process of making more and more of the chemicals of life. The better at replicating, the more persistent life is over time. Replicating systems are stable, in the sense of persisting, not by reaching an endpoint of reactivity as in classical chemical reactions. Instead, replicating systems are stable when they are powerfully able to sustain the activity of replication by ready access to the reactant materials used in the replication process. In this way, living systems have a different kind of stability than do conventional chemical reactions, which can be called dynamic kinetic stability. A waterfall supplies a visual example. It is a system that persists by the constant turnover of its materials (water) and the ongoing energy supply that comes from the conversion of potential to kinetic energy. Like the waterfall, life is driven by the stability that comes from the nature of replicative chemistry. For the author, a division between chemistry and biology is misleading. Biological systems are a form of organized and “complexifying” replicative chemical systems.
Pross concludes with his own definition: life is a “self-sustaining kinetically stable dynamic reaction network derived from the replication reaction”. It’s a beautiful addition to our understanding of what is fundamental about life. The book was valuable to me. I recommend it highly if the topic is of interest. If this brief review doesn’t intrigue you, I’d suggest something else.

I just finished Dominion by C J Sansom. 1952 England. Britain made peace in 1940, and is now dominated by Nazi Germany. WWII never happened as such. Churchill is in hiding, figurehead for the Resistance. Pretty good, well thought out and researched historically. Not a truly great book, but a decent one though, with an interesting idea and world. I enjoyed it. 4 stars

>166 stellarexplorer: It's not that you don't make it sound intriguing. You do. The issue is that it sounds as if it might prove too challenging to those of us who might tend to bluff our way through seriously scientific discussions. (People like me who listen wide eyed and subsequently make non-committal noises as conversation.)

>167 stellarexplorer: My husband enjoyed that one, too!

>168 jillmwo: Thanks Jill. Yes, I tried to give an accounting of the book, but didn’t want to encourage anyone who wasn’t going to enjoy or be up for the work involved. I definitely wouldn't want to represent that the book is a piece of cake. For me it was a thrill, though. :-)

Greetings, Friend. I wish I thought that I'd read and understand your big book - not happening. I'm thankful that you could and did.
Getting back to my level, I wonder whether A Kindness of Ghosts appeals to you at all. I don't quite recommend it to you, but I'd be interested to know what you make of it.

Thank you, Peggy. I will have a look - as you know, I regard you as a most trusted reader!

With the 20 books I removed from my collection today, my total subtractions since 2013 come to 442, representing just under 10% of my library. This is a good thing. I’ve eliminated the unnecessary, the volumes never to be reread in an unpleasing physical state, the undesired, the head-scratching how-did-I-ever-get-this books. And I’ve created some actual shelf space!

Regarding success noted in >172 stellarexplorer: , *Jill sighs enviously*

>172 stellarexplorer: That's quite an achievement.

Nice achievement! I hope you manage to keep a little open shelf space—it represents the unlimited potential of what could be there. Not that I would know the feeling. Even though I donate about 100 books a year on average, I never manage to get beyond the books-stacked-on-the-floor stage.

Thank you, guys.

>175 SylviaC: I didn’t mean to suggest that I have exceeded the stacks-on-the-floor standard. There are still some large book-stalagmites that have formed permanent excrescences in the bedroom and in my “study” aka science fiction room. But I have created some shelf space.

The most important shelf space for me is a place for new arrivals to dwell for a while, visible for potential reading, lest they be absorbed into the general population of the library. It’s sort of a new book purgatory before an ultimate shelving location is determined. Prior to this innovation, I had confronted many sad cases of desirable books lost to posterity by immediate designation.

>176 stellarexplorer: I keep trying to read enough to empty one shelf by my reading chair for a sort of "on deck" stack; but thus far no such luck.

Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto

Don’t be fooled by the subtitle. This is a headlong, breathless history of Amsterdam. But the heart of its project is global and abstract. Shorto, an American living in the city, explores the origin of the concept of liberalism in Amsterdam. Liberalism here is roughly defined as an ideology centering around the priority of the individual and the core value of human freedom. Shorto wants to convince us that these ideas originated in Amsterdam’s early history, were honed and amplified during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, and then bequeathed to the world where they have played a outsized role ever since. However persuasive this considerable claim – and it succeeds in no small measure – the book takes the reader on a ride that is not confined to the intellectual. This history of an idea is the backbreaking work of a community reclaiming land from the sea, the voyage over distant seas to the riches of exotic Java, and the tolerance that allowed the Jewish Baruch Spinoza to dwell and blaspheme as a minority in the Protestant city.

Shorto tells a foundational story about the origins of liberalism in Amsterdam: the struggle to reclaim land from the sea required communal effort unlike conditions elsewhere in Europe. Reclaimed land became the property of individuals who were free to rent, buy or sell it. The sense of communal affiliation was enhanced, and individualism simultaneously strengthened. Feudalism thus never became entrenched in the Netherlands as the dominant economic form. I will tell you what Shorto does not: the story is a myth, with elements of reality. I am not qualified to weigh in on the proportions of the two. Scholars differ in accounting for the economic circumstances of Amsterdam from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance. But it is an effective story, one that makes for a coherent, if fanciful, narrative of what came after.

The rest of the book is a colorful romp through the last four centuries in Amsterdam through the lens of liberalism and the emergence of the individual. The exploits of the Dutch East India Corporation which enriched the city; the development of a stock market which afforded the small-fry the chance to get a piece of the action; Rembrandt’s depiction of the primacy of private individual experience; Spinoza’s revolutionary rejection of religious authority and the grounding of belief in human reason, something over which institutions hold no monopoly. And we are treated to the author’s account of the dissemination of these values through a variety of channels. Notable among these are a “Dutch-invasion” account of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and its subsequent influence on the world through emerging English power; and the Dutch role in the establishment of New York and the spread of its ideas to the New World.

I can quibble over the details. Shorto has fallen in love with Amsterdam, and has a tendency to romanticize it. How much of Dutch tolerance and liberalism is deeply-held principle and how much expediency? What about the dark side of capitalism, if Amsterdam is its parent? But this is a colorful tale well-told. One cannot but emerge impressed with the dynamism of the story, and the power of the city’s history and influence.

>178 stellarexplorer: Now that one looks as if it would fit in well with my resolution to read more non-fiction in the New Year.

Welcome to the 2017 edition of my Favorite Reads of the Year.

In recent years I have maintained a tradition of sending off the list of the books I’ve enjoyed the most at the end of each year. I’ve shared these with my various online reading communities. I always have fun with any feedback and I peruse the lists of others with great interest.

I hope you enjoy --

Best wishes for the New Year!

stellarexplorer


Guidelines:

1. I try to limit myself to five books each at most in fiction and nonfiction. I had an excellent year in nonfiction, and somewhat less stellar but still good in fiction.
2. It’s ok to cheat on Guideline #1.
3. The books are not necessarily published this year, just read.
4. Previous lists available upon request

FYI: This year I wrote reviews of almost all books I read for online posting and to consolidate my sense of what I read, and consequently they tend to be a little more extensive than the ones I’ve offered in previous years. My apologies for the length of a few of these.



Nonfiction


The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

This is a powerful, deeply affecting book. Its 800 pages are dense, and require much of the reader. But the return is a comprehensive account of the development of the atomic bomb: the nuclear physics of the first decades of 20th century that made the effort possible; the historical context that led to its construction; the scientific collaboration at Los Alamos and how the feat was accomplished. In a forceful closing, Rhodes offers an astute evaluation of the results, implications and challenges the bomb brought to the world.
Many books fail to stand the test of time; here the three decades since its publication have only affirmed its centrality in telling the story of the atomic bomb. Rhodes had access to some of the key figures in the making of the bomb who were then still alive, which supplemented his exceptional talent for writing history and the history of science. And to the reader’s good fortune, Rhodes happens to be an impeccable prose stylist. The book justly received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award.
As a reader of the history of science, I was firmly in the grip of Rhodes’ delivery of the familiar but still electrifying story of nuclear physics from the early discovery of xrays and radioactivity (Röntgen, Becquerel, Curie) at the end of the 19th century through its culmination in Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner’s discovery of nuclear fission. While told in meticulous detail, this long section reads like a scientific thriller.
Any serious account of the making of the atomic bomb must contend with the responses of the scientists to the consequences of their work. Three figures central to the intellectual underpinnings of the Manhattan Project cast a giant moral shadow over this story. Leo Szilard is well known for his letter co-written with Einstein to FDR informing him of the feasibility of a bomb, and warning of the possibility of a German nuclear effort. He was also the man who developed the idea that connected nuclear fission to a bomb: the nuclear chain reaction. And yet as the bomb neared completion, Szilard exhausted himself in trying to encourage the United States not to use it. Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant director of the Manhattan Project, is seen after his greatest success to labor under the impossible burden of having brought such destructive power into the world. Finally, Neils Bohr, among the greatest and most influential of scientists, is shown as the conscience of his peers. Bohr used his authority to present to the Allied leaders his concept of the complementarity represented by the bomb. In this he meant that the destructiveness of the weapon contained an inherent opposite – that the power of the bomb necessitated fundamental changes in political arrangements, and in fact required us to put an end to war. The alternative was an arms race leading to the unthinkable.
Rhodes ultimately puts the atomic bomb into its most important human context: with Bohr’s notion of its complementarity, comes the imperative to face the fundamental changes wrought by nuclear technology. He argues that the modern nation-state has appropriated the power of science and fashioned out of it a death machine. He sees citizens “slowly come to understand that in a nuclear world their national leaders cannot, no matter how much tribute and control they exact, protect even their citizens’ bare lives, the minimum demand the commons have made in exchange for the political authority that is ultimately theirs alone to award.” Our minimal protection is the mere hope of the restraint of others similarly armed. Seventy years after Hiroshima, thirty years after the publication of this book, are we any closer to addressing the imperatives thrust upon us?
In 1946, Einstein famously warned “The splitting of the atom changed everything save man’s mode of thinking, thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Einstein was right about so many things. Let us hope that this too will not prove to be one of them.








Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto

Don’t be fooled by the subtitle. This is a headlong, breathless history of Amsterdam. But the heart of its project is global and abstract. Shorto, an American living in the city, explores the origin of the concept of liberalism in Amsterdam. Liberalism here is roughly defined as an ideology centering around the priority of the individual and the core value of human freedom. Shorto wants to convince us that these ideas originated in Amsterdam’s early history, were honed and amplified during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, and then bequeathed to the world where they have played a outsized role ever since. However persuasive this considerable claim – and it succeeds in no small measure – the book takes the reader on a ride that is not confined to the intellectual. This history of an idea is the backbreaking work of a community reclaiming land from the sea, the voyage over distant seas to the riches of exotic Java, and the tolerance that allowed the Jewish Baruch Spinoza to dwell and blaspheme as a minority in the Protestant city.
Shorto tells a foundational story about the origins of liberalism in Amsterdam: the struggle to reclaim land from the sea required communal effort unlike conditions elsewhere in Europe. Reclaimed land became the property of individuals who were free to rent, buy or sell it. The sense of communal affiliation was enhanced, and individualism simultaneously strengthened. Feudalism thus never became entrenched in the Netherlands as the dominant economic form. I will tell you what Shorto does not: the story is a myth, with elements of reality. I am not qualified to weigh in on the proportions of the two. Scholars differ in accounting for the economic circumstances of Amsterdam from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance. But it is an effective story, one that makes for a coherent, if fanciful, narrative of what came after.
The rest of the book is a colorful romp through the last four centuries in Amsterdam through the lens of liberalism and the emergence of the individual. The exploits of the Dutch East India Corporation which enriched the city; the development of a stock market which afforded the small-fry the chance to get a piece of the action; Rembrandt’s depiction of the primacy of private individual experience; Spinoza’s revolutionary rejection of religious authority and the grounding of belief in human reason, something over which institutions hold no monopoly. And we are treated to the author’s account of the dissemination of these values through a variety of channels. Notable among these are a “Dutch-invasion” account of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and its subsequent influence on the world through emerging English power; and the Dutch role in the establishment of New York and the spread of its ideas to the New World.
I can quibble over the details. Shorto has fallen in love with Amsterdam, and has a tendency to romanticize it. How much of Dutch tolerance and liberalism is deeply-held principle and how much expediency? What about the dark side of capitalism, if Amsterdam is its parent? But this is a colorful tale well-told. One cannot but emerge impressed with the dynamism of the story, and the power of the city’s history and influence.






The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

For months, I avoided writing something about Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. It was complex and only suited to summary in the most superficial way. Or so I tell myself. More likely, I am not up to the task. The book is an introduction to the current scientific understanding of the nature of space and time, emphasis on the former. While I wouldn't describe it as technical per se -- lacking the mathematics that would further illuminate but also complicate the material -- it is nonetheless challenging. The material requires the motivated nonphysicist to persist and focus, and the effort is well rewarded.

Greene offers a substantive review of quantum mechanics and general relativity, both necessary to examine current conceptions of space and time. The punchline, at the risk of imprecision, is that we cannot look at space in a common sense way at all. There are important ways in which space does not involve a conventional notion of locality; quantum phenomena resist explanations that rely on the familiar behavior of quotidian reality; at the smallest dimensions space and time themselves seem to lose meaning; ultimately there is no such thing as “empty” space, as what appears empty is actually roiling with the energy of quantum fluctuations.

Having established this basis, Greene uses these concepts to paint a picture of cosmic inflation and quantum loop gravity theories, aiming to show how these prominent approaches account for space itself and the vastness of the universe.
Where is the controversy, one might ask? Ultimately, the trajectory of the book leads to Green's great personal interest in physics, string theory. We see how this theory, if true, might address some of the current mysteries in our understanding of space and time. But there are those for whom them’s fightin’ words. Some argue that string theory lacks the quality of falsifiability, and as such cannot be taken seriously. If you are a staunch adherent of this position, you no doubt do not need to be reading this review.

The book was excellent and I highly recommend it. I found it all rather thrilling.










Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar

Yes, this is a book about greed and the naked pursuit of riches at all cost. Steven Cohen is one of the world’s wealthiest men, founder of the now-defunct SAC Capital Advisors, and while he is no doubt a talented trader, the phrase “ill-gotten gains” could not be more aptly applied. Cohen ran a hedge fund for many years that aggressively sought and profited from insider information, extracting billions illegally from the market. Kolhatkar’s account of Cohen’s career portrays his working class background, precocious early successes, and rise to dominant position in the industry. Along the way, we are treated to the illicit delivery of information by corporate confederates, and the depraved extraction of dollars through the manipulation of trusting relationships.

But this vivid telling is as much about the pursuit of Cohen and his empire by the FBI, the SEC, and the US Department of Justice. The story mutates into that of hardworking and devoted attorneys and investigators whose years of persistence and passion in trying to bring Cohen to justice and to right the shameless wrongdoings on Wall Street come to little in the end. Justice does not prevail. Cohen pays 2 billion dollars in fines to settle up his differences with the US government. Apparently this is a trifling inconvenience in a career undeterred and unrepentant. In a short time he is seen writing nine-figure checks for Giacometti sculptures, and the following year his profit exceeds the $2 billion fine.

The pace and interest increase steadily and deliberately during the second half of the book. Kolhatkar is a skilled journalist and former financial analyst, and she takes on a complex web of financial dealings and delivers it all as riveting thriller. Depressing though the denouement may be, a clear view into Wall Street criminality can be had in a form that manages to feel embarrassingly like entertainment.
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What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology by Addy Pross

We lack an adequate theory of what life is, and therefore cannot give adequate answers to fundamental questions in biology. What are the principles at work in abiogenesis, the emergence of life from inanimate chemical building blocks? What principles guide life’s arrant defiance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the demand that systems tend toward maximum disorder? How is it that life, which behaves as if it has purpose could come about from a universe without purpose? I was prepared to report that this book was dry, pessimistic, and set up the reader for a lackluster attempted salvation by our heroic author/scientist. So the unexpected urgency that overcame me upon completion took me by surprise. After I finished the book, I realized I wasn’t finished at all. I needed to review to make sure I understood these proposals, research the status of Pross’ ideas in biology, and write it all out for the sake of clarity.
A complete summary of these ideas is beyond the scope of this review. I will focus on the core concept, one with which I had not previously been familiar. He argues that despite efforts to identify the historical origin of life on Earth some 4 billion years ago -- ocean thermal vents, the clay template model, primitive redox reactions across proto-membranes – it is likely we will never have conclusive answers about these matters. The more knowable – and more important – question surrounds the principles at work in the establishment of life and in propelling it from the simple to complexity.
A fundamental characteristic of life from a chemical point of view is its organization, its movement from the simple to the complex. Life persists despite by its very nature opposing the principle that guides all physical systems: the thermodynamic tendency to move toward maximum disorder, toward a state of maximum stability, toward the endpoint of reactivity. The explanation has always made sense. Systems can resist this thermodynamic imperative as long as they have an input of energy that powers the opposing tendency toward disorder. What Pross has done is to detail how life gets around the Second Law without violating it, and in so doing he elaborates explanatory chemical principles that illuminate the nature of life.
The proposal here is a fundamental chemical principle that allows life to perpetuate itself despite the inexorable requirement of the Second Law. His idea comes out of the field of chemical systems, specifically replicating systems. Replication is fundamental to life. Life makes more copies of itself. The genetic code is copied and recopied billions of times per day. Every protein in every cell is replaced in a perpetual process of making more and more of the chemicals of life. The better at replicating, the more persistent life is over time. Replicating systems are stable, in the sense of persisting, not by reaching an endpoint of reactivity as in classical chemical reactions. Instead, replicating systems are stable when they are powerfully able to sustain the activity of replication by ready access to the reactant materials used in the replication process. In this way, living systems have a different kind of stability than do conventional chemical reactions, which can be called dynamic kinetic stability. A waterfall supplies a visual example. It is a system that persists by the constant turnover of its materials (water) and the ongoing energy supply that comes from the conversion of potential to kinetic energy. Like the waterfall, life is driven by the stability that comes from the nature of replicative chemistry. For the author, a division between chemistry and biology is misleading. Biological systems are a form of organized and “complexifying” replicative chemical systems.
Pross concludes with his own definition: life is a “self-sustaining kinetically stable dynamic reaction network derived from the replication reaction”. It’s a beautiful addition to our understanding of what is fundamental about life. The book was valuable to me. I recommend it highly if the topic is of interest. If this brief review doesn’t intrigue you, I’d suggest something else.




FICTION


New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

New York 2140 is a wild romp through Venice-cum-New York City in the aftermath of two massive ice melts that have significantly submerged large parts of Manhattan. People live in the skyscrapers of the city even as the lower floors are underwater. The rivers and canals are now traversed by all manner of watercraft, where before the subway and automobile reigned. KSR captures the indomitable energy of the city, which persists and thrives despite the drowning. The book is vivid, wild, untamed with colorful characters.

It is also chock full of ideas and chaos and survival. Readers familiar with Stan’s books will recognize impeccable research – in this case especially into New York City history, global financial shenanigans, and the science of sea level rise – and the courageous risk-taking that characterizes much of his work. Prominent in the cake mix are the author’s utopian leanings, with a healthy icing of critique of capitalism. I use that odd expression in part to try to imitate his fearless inventiveness at new verbal constructions, puns and neologisms, seemingly unconcerned about the inevitable failure of some portion of these. And most elicit at least a wry smile.

Under all this energy is a carefully constructed structure, with repeating sequences of orderly chapters each one following a particular character. The structure appears to mimic in abstraction something of the grid-like face of the city itself. The homage to Dos Passos’ cinematic, panoramic experimentalism is hard to miss. In the end, one may wonder about the payoff; after all, this is a long and imperfect novel requiring the time and persistence of the reader. But against that is balanced dynamic world-building, an entertaining romp without let-up, and a serious consideration of a future that seems ever more possible. Maybe the most fun one can have with global warming!





A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I’m not sure when I last read a book as delightful and smart as this one. Count Alexander Rostov, cultured young gentleman of the old Russian aristocracy, has run afoul of the new Soviet regime, and is sentenced to live under permanent house arrest in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol. And so ends the unfettered period in a formerly vigorous and expansive life. A novel that takes place almost entirely within one structure, however grand and intricate, might feel claustrophobic. Anything but! For the Count is a reservoir of deep inner strength, of manners, of commitment to an identity, and every page crackles with the authenticity of his personhood.
The writing here is impeccable. Many times I was tempted to turn to those around me to read a particularly enchanting passage. It was hard to do so, because such lines are the fulfillment of a chain of description and preparation, of which the felicitous ending is but the fitting culmination. The prose is charming, concise, unadorned, and elegant.
The colossal weight of a desk is accounted for: “A king fortifies himself with a castle, a gentleman with a desk.” This is a book of sublime miniatures: A sister’s silver scissors fashioned in the shape of an egret has a golden screw at the pivot representing an eye. Throwing the clasps, a leather case opens like a giant book to reveal 26 pairs of glasses “each shaped to its purpose, from the grand embrace of the Burgundy glass down to those charming little vessels designed for the brightly colored liqueurs of southern Europe”. And of immense ideas as well. The vastness of inner life confronts the constraint of the external. Enduring values are set against the inevitability of change. Tolstoy’s view of history gurgles always in the background, as the reader grapples with the relationship of individual action with the impenetrable play of events.
I laughed, I cried and I called out in appreciative satisfaction. Loose ends duly tied up, with interest. A banquet served in words, best savored slowly. This is everything a book should be. Run, don’t walk.




News of the World by Paulette Jiles
This book elegantly and gently tells the story of an aging military man and a ten year old girl, taken at age six and recently released by the Kiowa Indians. The Colonel undertakes the task of returning the girl to her remaining family through the lawless Texas under Reconstruction after the Civil War.

Complicating matters is that she has lost all apparent memory of her previous life, and is in speech and culture now entirely Kiowan.

Beautifully written, News finds a lightness in dark material. It addresses the profound difficulties in sundered cultural identifications, and speaks to the new human connections that one would hope are still possible.



Arrival by Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang's short story collection was formerly titled Stories of Your Life, after the once eponymous story. The collection has been renamed Arrival , but it was the original story that inspired the recent major motion picture. "Stories of Your Life" is probably familiar to many, and is the best of the collection. It tells of a linguist called upon to attempt communication with an alien species, and through that process, time and causality are radically altered and understood in a new light.

I also enjoyed "Understand", a story of a brain-damaged man who is given an experimental drug to attempt to repair the injury, the side effect of which is an acceleration of his cognitive processes and a dramatic increase in his intelligence. He becomes something more than human, but is he alone?

I bow before your non-fiction "Best Of" choices. I believe I might have to stop reading forever if I had to finish *Fabric/Cosmos* before I could move on. Would that it were not so! (I think my best non-fiction choices were The Boys in the Boat and Beyond the Beautiful Forevers or The Fires of Vesuvius or Jonathan Swift:His Life and His World, all quite different from your reading.)
You know how I feel about the Count, and I look forward to *2140* and the Jiles.
I'm here because I'm reading and enjoying and being muddled by Too Like the Lightning. Have you / will you read / read it? Off to see whether I can find some chat about it elsewhere.

Thank you for checking out my list! You just might find that the audiobook provides a more fluent experience of Fabric...

No, I haven’t read Lightening, but I’ll be very interested to learn whether I should after you’ve finished!

At your recommendation, I am now grateful to be reading and enjoying HHhH

I'm just catching up on your thread now. I have to ask, are you using that new exercise room?

OMG: it’s the greatest thing ever! Thanks for asking. Stellargirl is highly mechanical and did all the measuring and brain work for the installation of the heavy duty gym flooring. I was the brawn, doing the cutting and placement. We did hire someone to paint the room and mount a large screen tv on the wall.

Now the room is large, beautiful, and welcoming, and I am working out during the winter like never before. It’s wonderful to have a pleasing comfortable place to exercise. I hope wherever I live in the future I’ll always have an accessible workout space like this one!

Also I found Stephen Malinowski’s incredible graphic music video designs on YouTube, and they are fantastic generally, but great for watching on the spinning bike!

Example:

https://youtu.be/ljGMhDSSGFU

>184 stellarexplorer: That's great to hear. Hoping to set up a similar space when I move. (Not a whole room, but a dedicated corner.)

I'll check out that video when I'm on a bigger screen.

I hope you love it!

Okay, THAT is just too cool. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that!

Yay! I had a feeling it wouldn’t be what you were expecting! ;)

Wow!
I swim, but I can totally see how that would be quite a motivator. Congrats to StellarGirl for a successful design!

Thanks Peggy! Now if I could infect her with my love of reading....oh well, she’s great as she is —

You've been awfully quiet.

Yeah, thanks for saying so. I’ve been...retrenching a bit. RL has pulled on me some, I’ve been meditating, being mindful, which rightly sets one more firmly in the moment. Not sure where I’ll end up re:being less quiet. But I’m here, feeling good, and hoping you are too!

Good for you! I haven't had much free time myself. Though I do feel like the constant hum in my brain has quieted quite a bit since my son moved out. I'm not feeling terrible. LOL I do feel like there is too much on my plate, but that is nothing new.

I'm very happy for you. :o)

No reviews at present, but here's what I've read recently:

Fiction:
Book of Joan: A Novel by Lidia Yuknavitch
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin

Nonfiction:
Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy From a Buddhist Perspective by Mark Epstein MD
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris

Currently reading:
Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich
Halfway through, it presents an astonishing body of new knowledge.

Next:
Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
10% Happier by Dan Harris
Finity's End by CJ Cherryh, in preparation for a rare new Alliance/Union book expected in early 2019

I have also been busy preparing for the launch of my new YouTube channel. I expect this to demand a lot of my time, but I think I may have found something I can get excited about and pour a lot of creative energy into. I expect it to be a good month or so at least until the Grand Opening.

Whoa! A new YouTube Channel???? How is an interested person to find it? Information, please!
Meanwhile, I'm thrilled to hear about a new Alliance/Union book in the making. You know I love them even more than *Foreigner*, and I love and adore *Foreigner*!!!!!

I will be sure to let you know. I don’t yet have a link to share. It’s in the preparatory stages right now.

I entirely agree re: A/U. Very exciting! It isn’t clear where the new book will fit into the existing timeline. But the best guess suggests that familiarity with Finity’s End may be useful. Of course that may prove incorrect. But a reread couldn’t hurt, right?

>196 stellarexplorer: How exciting! Be sure to share the link when it's ready.

>195 stellarexplorer: How was that Sam Harris? I'm a big fan of his, but I was unaware of this book.

(Edited for touchstone.)

>199 clamairy: Great minds! I find him valuable. Have you checked out his podcast, The Waking Up Podcast? He has really interesting guests, and he himself, whether you agree with him or not, is a refreshingly articulate user of the English language.

Because I listen to his podcast, a lot of the book was familiar. I liked it anyway however, as I’ve been exploring many takes on this topic. I’d recommend it.

I will definitely share the link to The YouTube channel. Right now I’m super excited about it. I’ve always been a seeker of privacy on the internet, so even though I will not be putting my name on it, this is a major departure for me. I plan to put out an ongoing series of short videos with the theme being “things that fascinate me”. It will probably draw on some of the topics I’ve introduced in the History at 30,000 Feet group, some of the book reviews I’ve done of particularly interesting books, and other material I’ve collected over the years. And new discoveries. I have always been in the position of saying to the next person “Hey! Have you heard about this amazing thing?!”, with variable responses ;)

My YouTube channel preparations are going very well. I have acquired adequate video shooting and editing skills, and photo editing skills for making thumbnails. The content is the easy part. The whole thing is great fun. I have two videos completed, and when I finish four I will make the channel public. Enjoying sinking my teeth into a new creative project, especially because I just can’t get myself to come home after a long day and write. The challenge is that this is so time consuming I’ll need to figure out how to not let it interfere too much with reading!

>201 stellarexplorer: Well, things tend to go in cycles. The reading will return and, in the meantime, I look forward to the release of your channel.

Thank you Jill. I hope you like it!

Here’s the announcement I’ve been working on for the last several weeks: my new YouTube channel is up and running! I’m very excited to announce the Grand Opening of Shouting From The Rooftops.

The link to the first video:
https://youtu.be/cTl-0NnhuDk

This is my effort to convey the things that inspire my sense of curiosity, fascination, awe and wonder. They are miniatures; 5 minutes or so is my aim. They will run the gamut from science to history to great books I’ve loved to just things I think people might want to know about.

I’ve made the first four videos, and have just released the first one. Well really the third one, because there’s an enormous learning curve and I didn’t want to lead with my first meager effort! I’ll be releasing two a week for the first two weeks and then the goal is a new one each week if I can keep up. Please excuse the awkwardnesses and the missings-of-the-mark in these first several. I’m working hard to improve!

Two requests: please subscribe as I need 100 subscribers in order to qualify for a dedicated YouTube URL, ie something along the lines of YouTube/ShoutingFromTheRooftops. Also, may I ask you to please forward to anyone you think might be interested?

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy!

>204 stellarexplorer: Great!

Who Are We and How we Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of Ancient DNA by David Reich

This book is an exiting look at a revolutionary innovation. The author is one of the foremost experts on human paleogenetics. an emerging field radically influencing traditional paleoanthropology. Over the last few years, DNA technology has advanced from the examination of the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA to whole genome analysis. The results are staggering. The history of the human migrations that colonized the globe over the last 50,000 years are rapidly being made clear. The primacy of the mixing of populations in human history is laid out. Even the contributions of other ancient human populations, for example the Neandertals and Denisovans, to the human genome are becoming clear.

In this book, Reich conveys the methodologies and recent results of this work. I am in awe that questions about human origins I have pondered for most of my life are rapidly being answered. As Reich indicates, much of the specifics in the book will change over the coming years due to the pace of research. But the insight in this book leaves one well prepared to assimilate the wealth of discovery that is surely coming. To me, it’s essential reading.
Four and a half stars for the book itself, but five for importance!

>206 stellarexplorer: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've been eyeing that one since I saw it mentioned in the 'History at 30,000 feet: The Big Picture' group. I just know I won't get to it for a while, so I will wait for it to either go on sale or until after I move.

>207 clamairy: I know it’s partly my intense interest in this, but I found it thrilling.

There is a 50 page coda about race, gender, and other implications which have gotten some play among people who want to argue against some of his points that relate to contemporary society and social issues. I was really fine with the coda, but it’s a shame for that section to in any way minimize the significance of the underlying work.

My library does not have it, but Southold's does in both paper and digital form, so as soon as I get that new library card number it will be one of the first things I request. (Might not be until Fall, though. I'll be reading fluffier stuff until then, I think. My brains are already turning to guacamole from the stress.)

It was my birthday, a big one that ends in a zero. I’m giving a speech next week at a party, but I gave it a test run tonight at a small gathering of friends. Was lovely.

On the reading front, I finally read Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, which I enjoyed a lot.

It’s been a difficult reading year because of my video projects. One per week, and they take 12 hours or so to make. That eats up all my free time, but I’m committed to it for now. The link to the channel is on my profile page.

I just started Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the few authors whose every book I read. So far, so good. But then he’s very reliable.

In nonfiction, I did manage to reread Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe. This was excellent the first time, and even better the second, partly because it was especially useful for a video I made called “Measuring the Earth: Ancient Science”, and also for a follow up “What Sized Earth was Columbus Seeing?”

I did just acquire two books I’m looking forward to with fresh new views on biology:

A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth by Peter Ward and Joe Kirschvink

And

The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen

And several others that look good:

Neal Boscomb’s The Winter Fortress about the famous sabotage of the Nazi heavy water plant in Norway. I bought this in honor of Joachim Ronneberg, leader of the mission who recently died at 99.

and

Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Almost two years' worth of posts in one thread, and I must admit I didn't get around to every detail, but I found your YouTube - cool!

Need to reflect on the discussion on Amsterdam from almost two years ago, though... because to me Amsterdam is quite the laid-back place, compared to a lot of cities that I've been to. It is certainly more accessible than for example the city I live in, Stockholm, despite Stockholm's population being only slightly larger than that of Amsterdam.
To me part of it has to do with the bikes, and the way people ride their bikes, ie the opposite of how I read in what you expressed of your experience.

It's curious how differently things can be perceived and experienced!

(People, and that includes me, bike a lot in Stockholm, too, but in a much less relaxed way. Swedes, especially middle aged males on designer racer bikes, can be extremely rude and unforgiving.)

I enjoyed Name of the Wind greatly when it first came out, and pre-ordered the sequel... which never arrived, and never arrived, and... finally I cancelled my pre-order, and never got around to pick the series up again, ages later, when Wise Man's Fear finally was released. Maybe I should give it a new chance.

>211 Busifer: Personally, I think Name of the Wind should have been a one-off. The second book had some good spots, mixed amongst a lot of frustration for me.

>212 MrsLee: Ah. I haven’t heard anything in particular about it, publishing coincided with my hiatus. As fantasy isn’t my main genre I think I’ll take your insight as advice and stay with the first one. There are so many other books out there, waiting to be read!

>212 MrsLee: Good to know, MrsLee. I have the sequel, but haven’t yet started it. I did finish the first with many questions I’d hoped the sequel would shed light on. Still planning to give it a try...

>211 Busifer: Interesting about Amsterdam, Busifer. Perspective matters. I am curious to compare to the biking situation in Stockholm. I have the impression there is more room for pedestrians in Stockholm, but I’ve never been there, so it’s totally a bias I hold...

>211 Busifer: And thanks for checking out my YouTube!

>214 stellarexplorer: Room for both pedestrians and people on bike, relatively speaking, but the past 5-6 years has seen a spike in bike commuting, mainly by 40-50-ish males who have invested in super-expensive bikes and a lot of extra gear, who think everyone but them is a nuisance. To avoid slower riders speedster bicyclists sometimes uses the main streets instead, which in turn infuriates the motorists... and so it goes, everyone is angry at everyone ;-)
In comparison everyone in Amsterdam - or the Netherlands - know that bikes have precedence, so heads are not as hot, and people are generally more nice.

I do exaggerate a bit, but I've been shoved aside by speedster bikers, son has been screamed at when he were uncertain of which way to go, and I do personally know some of these middle-aged lycra-guys and see the things they spew on Facebook. The inner city speed limit applies to them, too, but they a) tend to forget that, and b) you can't brake that fast when on a bike at high speed, or you'll fly off.

>216 Busifer: Sounds familiar. Around here "sports cyclists" seem always to use the roadway on principle, even when there's a marked and empty cycle track alongside. Mutter mutter grumble.

>210 stellarexplorer: >211 Busifer: Glad to hear you enjoyed Name of the Wind. I really enjoyed it also, and the sequel, but I do agree somewhat with Mrs. Lee, the sequel was not up to the first book. It wandered a lot and seemed to get stuck in its own head quite a bit, if that makes sense. Still the world and the characters were worth it. Some short stories and novellas have been written since. Those books have almost achieved the stature of Martin's books in the sense of anticipation by fans - lots of fans clamoring for the next book while the author basically says they'll get around to it when they are darned good and ready.

I too really enjoyed Name of the wind, and I've reread it too - unusual for me these days when my TBR pile is so huge. I agree with MrsLee and Jim about the sequel not being as good. Not much happens in the first half, but I enjoyed it in the way that you enjoy hanging out with old friends - not doing anything special but just catching up. When the plot got going I found it very self-indulgent with far too much time spent on Kvothe's unrealistic sexual prowess. I will still read book 3 if it ever appears though.

>217 hfglen: - there's often (at least in the UK) several very good reasons not to use a cyclepath, to the point where the default becomes don't use it, even though occasionally they're great. (not going where you're going, least safe at junctions, surface frequently worse than road). There are no easy answer other than whatever mode of transport you're using, be considerate of everyone else - something that just seems too hard for some people.

Also agree with all of the WMF comments, for all of the words not enough happens, and the main plot doesn't advance at all.

On the topic of Patrick Rothfuss, now that I am halfway through book two Wise Man’s Fear, here is what I’m feeling:

(Mild Spoilers ahead)

I agree it’s not as well done or as picturesque as Name of the Wind, largely because the sequences in book one that tell of his childhood with his parents and their outcome, and his time as a boy making his way alone in Tarbean are so colorful and vivid. But it’s still good.

Second, even though it’s a story I’m interested in hearing, a few things bug me.

One is what feels like a gratuitous sexism. The boys at the University are caricatured as oblivious to women, and continually critique each other as “girly”, etc, using feminine references as putdowns or failings. This seems awkward, forced, archaic, and sloppy to me.

Second, and this might be remedied by the end of book two (not finished) but there is a major disconnect between the grown character of Kote the tavern owner with the larger-than-life past, and the awkward, out of control, self-defeating but promising lad at Unversity. Really, we need to know more of how to connect the two or it just seems unbelievable, unfulfilled, a device.

>221 stellarexplorer: This definitely didn't persuade me to pick it up ;-)

>221 stellarexplorer: I've had Wise Man's Fear in my TBR for some time now, but am reluctant to pick it up because the third book is so slow in coming. It's been so long since I read the first one that I'm afraid I will need to reread it to get ready to read the second one, but then would have to read them both again before the third one and who knows when that will be!

As far as your second point, maybe it just suffers from Middle-Of-Trilogy-itis? I have found plenty of other "second" books that seem unfulfilled until the third book fills the gaps.

>223 Darth-Heather: You could well be right, I’m just saying it needs to happen or the series will be diminished. Maybe it is the pace of new books that has me without full trust in the author...I may be unfair to him, however. I hope you are right.

That said, I am still enjoying book 2 despite its issues.

>224 stellarexplorer: I had some of the same feelings about book 2. Parts of it were a bit felt like filler, but I really enjoy the story that he's putting together. I don't mind the Kvothe the adult vs. Kvothe the young adventurer contrast, maybe someday the author will fill in what's happened since and why, that's the whole story, right? However, I don't have a lot of faith we'll see the end of this series as he seems stubbornly insistent on feeling absolutely no responsibility for finishing it. I'm sure he will some day, but that day may be a long time from now. Enjoy the books while we have them though, they are good, he's writing what I think is high quality fantasy.

>225 Karlstar: I agree with you Karlstar, with the exception of some of the problems of characterization and odd gender language and attitudes that are sometimes distracting and disconcerting (I think in general the minor characters are less fleshed out than one would want). But overall, yes. Good fantasy, I wish he would get on with it -

>226 stellarexplorer: I remember when the first book came out, a bookseller told me that the whole trilogy was sold as already complete, so I wouldn't have to wait long for subsequent volumes. What a crock!!

>227 littlegeek: preaching to the choir! :)

I think I would rather an author didn't force their writing though. I would like to read that in-between story which is missing, but if he wrote it out of obligation, not inspiration, I don't see it being any better than what I can imagine it to be.

FAVORITE READS OF 2018

This year’s reading was limited compared to years past. This is because my YouTube channel has required around 12 hours a week, which has seriously eaten into my reading time. On the other hand, I have managed to make a lot of videos, so that’s all to the good.

I have made a video version of this Favorite Reads of 2018 lavishly adorned with images :), which can be found here:

https://youtu.be/VwafAUXU94U

These are books I’ve read this year, not necessarily published this year.

NonFiction

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich

I loved this book!
An exciting look at a revolutionary innovation, this book was a revelation! The author is one of the foremost experts on human paleogenetics, an emerging field radically influencing traditional paleoanthropology. Over the last few years, DNA technology has advanced from the examination of the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA to whole genome analysis. The results are staggering. The history of the human migrations that colonized the globe over the last 50,000 years are rapidly becoming clearer. We see the primacy of the mixing of populations in human history. Even the ancient contributions to the human genome of other early human populations, for example Neanderthals and Denisovans, are not lost, but in fact detected and discerned.

In this book, Reich conveys the methodologies and recent results of this work. I am in awe that questions about human origins I have pondered for most of my life are rapidly being answered. As Reich indicates, much of the specifics in the book will change over the coming years due to the pace of research. But the insights in this book leave one well prepared to assimilate the wealth of discovery that is surely coming. To me, it’s essential reading, and I do intend to make some videos on this topic soon!

I give this 4 and a half stars for the book itself, but five for importance!

Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy From a Buddhist Perspective by Mark Epstein MD

This book lay in wait for many years. Without argument, the title is fantastic! While Buddhist ideas have been useful in Western psychotherapy for a long time, it is rare to find an author with Epstein’s combination of both Buddhist and psychoanalytic sophistication in depth. This is not the book for someone looking for an introduction to Buddhist ideas, nor is it a self-help book. But it is a fascinating insight into how a an expert integrates Buddhist insights into western psychological thinking.

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris

Sam Harris, most rational spiritualist, offers this concise guide to striving for meaning and happiness. The appeal is neither to theology nor to the conventional sources of satisfaction alone: hedonic pleasure, family, wealth, contribution to others. In this he follows the Buddhist insight that while these may bring temporary gratification, they are transitory, and that there is more enduring serenity and bliss to be found beyond these through clarity about human life and the workings of our minds.

The book is in part memoir of Harris’ own spiritual journey. He credits early drug experiences with teaching him that there is more joy to be found in life than he had previously understood. He subsequently spent many years with Buddhist teachers in Asia. Harris came away with a Buddhist meditation practice that he regards as among the most important of spiritual tools.

To me, the first chapter on spirituality is a useful encapsulation of the problem of happiness and Buddhist perspectives on it. Harris then attempts to integrate his Buddhist practice and his experiences with his knowledge of Western science, especially neuroscience, and philosophy. I find this part of his thinking less useful. He offers tools for beginning a meditation practice, and a structure for thinking about spirituality without appeal to faith. Overall, he has performed a valuable service.

Harris became a voice of the New Atheism after The End of Faith. Perhaps he owed his readership this book, a way back to spirituality!

Fiction

The Fifth Season by ‎N. K. Jemisin

If the book weren’t enough, I’d be intrigued by Jemisin’s unprecedented success. She is the first author ever to win the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novel in science fiction or fantasy three years in a row. She burst on the scene with The Fifth Season in 2015, and followed it up with two terrific sequels.

The Fifth Season takes place in the Stillness, a place not Earth, where cyclical conditions mean civilization and empires rise and fall, and perhaps are in the process of falling once again. The inner lives of characters carry the narrative (the author is a psychologist by training who used a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to allow her to write full time!). This is a story of trauma, of betrayal, of internecine politics. Description eclipses judgments here. A villain is perhaps not so easily vilified if understood in her own context. There are great empires, and small constituencies laboring quietly in their own interests. And years of training sometimes equip the disenfranchised with unexpected resources in a grand narrative of power and collapse.

HHhH by Laurent Binet

What is the obsession with Reinhard Heydrich? I suppose it must be that Himmler’s right hand man in the SS was the highest ranking Nazi to be assassinated during WWII. An architect of the Holocaust, force behind the Einsatzgruppen paramilitary death squads, and Deputy Reich Protector of the largely Czech Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Arguably the intended successor to Adolf Hitler. WWII alternate history aficionados ever since find it convenient to thwart his assassination, establishing for him a prominent role in a new timeline. Witness Amazon’s production of The Man in the High Castle or Robert Harris’ Fatherland for two recent examples.

This book is hard to characterize, and in the hands of a lesser author, would have been a mess. It is part biography of Heydrich, part thriller as we follow the heroes Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš as they parachute toward destiny and near-certain death in Nazi-controlled Prague. But in Binet’s hands, HHhH (acronym from the German meaning “Himmler's brain is called Heydrich”), is also meta-historical meditation on writing history, personal memoir of Binet himself, travelogue as the author researches his book: in other words, this book has a unique structure and an idiosyncratic plan, and I am happy to say that he pulls it off gloriously.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This popular recent work of fantasy is the first in a series. Rothfuss is above all a storyteller, and that makes up for what amount to niggling criticisms. The book has an intriguing protagonist in Kvothe, who has burnished a reputation as a larger-than-life master of magic and force of nature. He hides from his many enemies in a remote town as Kote the tavern keeper, dictating his memoirs. This book details Kvothe’s childhood arc from promising but utterly alone young boy eking out an existence among orphans on the streets, to his goal of reaching the University. The worldbuilding is colorful and vivid, and the pacing never lags. The action takes place in a pre-technical world, as does so much fantasy. It could roughly be the Game of Thrones realm, physically and technologically. And the book lover, a group to which the author no doubt belongs, will understand the appeal to young Kvothe of the library of the University, whose vast stacks may hold the key to understanding his past.

There’s some YA language, but why not, I suppose, as Kvothe is a teen through most of the telling. There’s too much caricatured anxiety of male romantic inexperience for my taste.

I’d dish out more criticism, but I think it would be undermine my main message: while flawed, this is a colorful story that entertains.

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

More often than not a Kim Stanley Robinson book is on my list of yearly favorites. This is both a tribute to his productivity as a writer, and to his poetic and thoughtful style. I’ve been hooked ever since his acclaimed Mars Trilogy from the early 1990s beginning with Red Mars, the long tale of the terraforming of that planet.

But Robinson has written many other worthy and delightful books, all with fidelity to the science, linguistic experimentalism, and an introspective narrative voice, distinct and unmistakable.

In Red Moon, he turns his attention to the near-future politics of lunar life, China having gained ascendancy there. It is no surprise that his vision of the human experience on the moon is convincing and informed, from the challenges of locomotion to the perception of Sun and Earth from the lunar surface. As with many of Robinson’s novels, his utopian aspirations and concerns for the future of humanity rest close at hand. This inspires some and tires others. I’m in the former camp. This book also feels like the author’s attempt to grapple with the rise of the world’s future hegemon. Chinese society thirty years hence is energetic and vibrant, riven and restrictive. I found the grand stew that is Red Moon quintessential Robinson.

The Object-Lesson by Edward Gorey

This very short book is on my list because it represents the reading I’ve had time for since the advent of my video career. It is 32 pages long, lovingly and pithily illustrated in pen and ink, with one sentence per page. Perfect!

If you are not familiar with Gorey’s work, there’s that too. These words come to mind: obscure, absurd, enigmatic, compelling, charming. Meaningful and yet hard to say exactly what that meaning might be. I recommend this book. And I can promise one thing: it will not require a large commitment of your time!

Edward Gorey's books are wonderful! A great choice for your limited reading time.

I know you've been busy, and I hope that the YouTube channel isn't sucking up all of your free time.
I finally got to watch your Favorite Reads of 2018 and your Ten Awesome Books for 2019. Nicely done! I too have the latest Pollan on Mount Toobey, but in my case I bought it as an Audible book. I'm not terribly far into it, but I am enjoying it immensely.

Also, thanks for the reminder about Who We Are and How We Got Here. I've added it to my OverDrive holds. I think you recommended it last Summer, and it looked fascinating, but it wasn't available from my former library's consortium. I'd completely forgotten about it due to the moving process.

Thanks so much for watching, and visiting!

I’m through about half the Pollan book, and it’s quite good, intriguing, etc. What prevents me from raving more, and this wouldn’t be applicable to last people, is that I’ve heard several interviews, podcasts, read an article (NYT? New Yorker? I forget) and by now the book seems familiar as I read it. I’ve gotten the main points, so may not need the whole book....but still, recommended.

Yes, I still think Who We Are is riveting stuff, for a technical difficult science-y book...

YouTube: yes, unfortunately it’s around 12 hours a week, most of which comes out of former reading time :(

I hope you are enjoying your new environment. By the look of your gorgeous photos, which I love seeing!, it seems you are!

Just finished Educated by Tara Westover. My review:

Tara Westover begins her memoir by emphasizing that it is not about Mormonism. And she is right. There are fanatics and extremists of all stripes, kind and malevolent, disciples of all belief systems, even among adherents to the disavowal of religious beliefs. What Westover does in her book Educated is to communicate her story of growing up under the yoke of an odious physical and emotional abuse. The context is a family steeped in a rigid, intolerant fundamentalism. But the effect might be similar in any destructive family environment in which a collective covenant, sealed like a sacred pact, conspires to protect its own perverse falsehoods.

Much of the power of her story comes from one interpretation of the title’s meaning. Westover grew up in a family that denied her a formal education - she was less homeschooled than part of the labor pool in the family’s scrap metal and herbal medicine business in a remote part of Idaho. In a meaning she would no doubt disavow, it feels like a redemption to read of her educational journey: her private study to pass the college entrance examination, her discovery of an unknown wider world at BYU, and her trajectory to Cambridge University where she is ultimately granted her PhD.

Her disavowal would come from other meanings of the title. The task, her becoming educated, involves something far more difficult than academic study. The obstacles before her are immensely greater. Facing an unbending family narrative, she seeks to undo the gaslighting, to learn to trust her own memories and perception, and to craft and believe her own truth about her family and her life. The price she pays for this deliverance is steep, but her efforts necessary and courageous. There are valuable lessons here at a this historical moment. It is a success in itself that stories like that of the author are sometimes no longer shrouded in darkness.

>234 stellarexplorer: This book sounds fascinating. You didn't find it disheartening to read about her upbringing? I suppose knowing she'd obviously made it through might have helped a bit.

Not disheartening, more horrific yet fascinating. To think there are many people, in the US, growing up under conditions like this is not something that is front and center. Yet we know it exists. This is beyond the garden variety perversity of abuse alone. Im sure it does make it easier to know from the beginning that the author is a writing from a point where at least she in some way she has escaped her upbringing. The need to find one’s own truth in the face of such craziness keeps the narrative alive.

I think it’s worth a read - I’m glad I read it.

>236 stellarexplorer: I read this earlier in the year and agree wholeheartedly with your review and comments. I think Westover managed to write about her childhood in such a way that the book never became a misery memoir - she didn't dwell on the bad things, rather narrated them quite dispassionately. It was a fascinating and inspiring read, I thought.

Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Ok, Mr Rothfuss. I have now read the first two of your promised Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, beginning with The Name of the Wind. In fact, I was enough taken with the first both to have read all 1007 pages of the sequel, and to have placed both books on my annual Favorite Reads list. The first book graced my 2018 list. Your protagonist Kvothe has burnished a reputation as a larger-than-life master of magic and force of nature. He hides from his many enemies in a remote town as Kote the tavern keeper, dictating his memoirs. The second book takes off where the first ended, and I will stipulate that the world building is excellent, and the telling satisfying.

But now we need to have a talk. Can we admit that this little venture of yours is not a trilogy? That given that Book One came out in 2007, Book Two in 2011, and that your readership has waited 8 years without the promised concluding volume, there is good reason to suspect you are having problems? That your second book, while enjoyable and admirable, didn’t advance your central unfinished task one iota, ie. telling the story of how Kvothe comes to find himself the tavern owner-in-hiding, after a monumental and unrivaled career having achieved a reputation for actions of world-altering significance?

For you to conclude this tale would be an impressive - and after 8 years - surprising achievement. And in a single volume? Almost inconceivable. I don’t see how we avoid drawing the natural parallel to
George R R Martin’s well-known difficulties in concluding his more famous fantasy series. You have taken on more than you knew when you began. Your story has expanded beyond what you once expected. Maybe yours is the fate of recent ambitious fantasy. The story sprawls in many directions; it begins to direct the story with you hitching along for the ride. Your creation has become your master. Where are you, Mr. Rothfuss? I plead with you: make me eat my words!

>238 stellarexplorer: I remember when the first volume came out, a bookseller was really pushing it on me and told me the whole trilogy was already written, they were going to release one per year. What a crock!

I no longer read trilogies until all the books are published.

>238 stellarexplorer: Well said! I've seen too many articles defending Rothfuss (and Martin) and the status of them not finishing their series. I agree with littlegeek - I don't think I'll start any more multi-volume series unless I'm confident the author is going to finish. They haven't held up their end of the bargain. We entered a bargain where we paid money to enter their story, with the understanding that money would not be wasted reading a story that might never finish or be complete. Rothfuss keeps defending his inability or lack of interest in finishing - fine, future buyers beware!

>239 littlegeek: & >240 Karlstar: The problem with that line of thinking is that if everyone did it then no 2nd books would be released (never mind a 3rd) as nobody bought the 1st.

>239 littlegeek:, >240 Karlstar:, >241 AHS-Wolfy: I would be happy if we could get away from trilogies altogether. Write the first novel. Make it big. Make it good. Give it a finish. If the readership explodes and the author is inspired, go ahead and write another book. One which also wraps up at the end. :)

Hear! Hear!

>242 MrsLee: Thank you all for your responses. I love Mrs. Lee’s solution. Make the first one a completed piece. Don’t make promises. Don’t leave the reader hanging. If you, the author, like the work and the world, write more. Just don’t violate the reader’s trust in the way your most recent book ends!

>242 MrsLee: Great idea! I guess we have Tolkien to blame for the idea that fantasies have to come in threes. Other genres have series (like mysteries), but only in fantasy is it the norm to have a long story in three installments.

>245 littlegeek: It wasn't Tolkien's idea at all. He wanted it published as one volume. But paper was expensive at the time and his publisher insisted it be broken into three parts. He never approved of the third book's title either, as it is a major spoiler.

I'm on the fence about book series. I've been steering clear of them for decades only to have fully embraced them again in my dottage.

>246 clamairy: - my copy of LotR is titled as six parts - bound as a trilogy, and as you say always intended to be one story.

>238 stellarexplorer: fully agree with your description of WMF.

Fantasy trilogies. There is an issue of author investment, I think, in worldbuilding. Fantasy requires a much more detailed world than SF* or straight fiction, and having put that much effort into building a world properly (Tolkein took 40 years!) I don't begrudge authors then exploring it fully over several books. Robin McKinley writes mostly standalones, but I'm not sure they're absolutely better for it, often leaving the ending perhaps lacking all the details one would wish. But if it is finished without an extended epilogue (Scouring the Shire) it can be hard to tie everything up properly, and then if you do have one, all the pace and drama of a tense ending is dissipated into we went home.

We (Or FantasyFans?) did have a long running standalone suggestions thread : https://www.librarything.com/topic/183452 which turns out to have been started by me! I do like standalones, but am happy with series too.

*and even in SF there's a lot of series. Partly again from history when books were mostly serialised in magazines.

>247 reading_fox: You can build the world and tell all kinds of stories set there, in fact, GRRM is doing that right now with Westeros. He just hasn't bothered to finish the original story and that's annoying.

>247 reading_fox: I like this explanation: Fantasy requires a much more detailed world than SF* or straight fiction, and having put that much effort into building a world properly (Tolkien took 40 years!) I don't begrudge authors then exploring it fully over several books.

Once I've invested my own time and brain space in envisioning their world, I like to stay awhile too. I prefer to wait until an entire series is published, then read it all in one long span.

Its nice when each book has it's own story arc and climax, even if the books lead into each other and make up pieces of the overall plot. I like the satisfaction of even small resolutions.

I'm kind of curious why folks think fantasy requires a more detailed world than SF? Some of the best SF writers include physics, IT, economics, politics, military strategy and many other details in their works, not to mention aliens, which can fill in the niche of dwarves and elves or even dragons.

>250 Karlstar: I agree with this, Karlstar. When I think about the complexities of the worlds, to take two examples, of CJ Cherryh or more recently Ann Leckie, they are detailed, extremely well thought out, and complex. I don’t think fantasy and SF can be meaningfully differentiated from each other by the requirements of their world building. There are strong and weak examples of world building in each. The best fiction in general has wonderful world building.

>251 stellarexplorer: I find that while I nod at everything everyone has said I also find that I agree with you: a good story is a good story, which generally includes good world building and interesting characters and character development. And while I used to think of fantasy as good versus evil, swineherd to prince, and magic, I'm more starting to think of it as as nuanced as anything else, when it's good, though with magic or the magical/mythical as a core component instead of technology, science and economics.

>253 Busifer: Well said, Busifer!

Happy New Year everyone! It’s been a light reading year for me as my energy has been going into making videos, but here are my favorites:

FICTION

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Ok, Mr Rothfuss. I have now read the first two of your promised Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, beginning with The Name of the Wind. In fact, I was enough taken with the first to have cited it on my 2018 list, to have read all 1007 pages of this sequel, and to have placed this one too on my annual Favorite Reads list. Your protagonist Kvothe has burnished a reputation as a larger-than-life master of magic and force of nature. He hides from his many enemies in a remote town in the guise of Kote the tavern keeper, dictating his memoirs. The second book takes off where the first ended, and I will stipulate that the world-building is excellent, and the telling satisfying.

But now we need to have a talk. Can we admit that this little venture of yours is not a trilogy? That given that Book One came out in 2007, Book Two in 2011, and that your readership has waited 8 years without the promised concluding volume, there is good reason to suspect you are having problems? That your second book, while enjoyable and admirable, didn’t advance your central unfinished task one iota, ie. telling the story of how Kvothe comes to find himself the tavern owner-in-hiding, after a monumental and unrivaled career, having achieved a reputation for actions of world-altering significance?

For you to conclude this tale would be an impressive - and after 8 years - surprising achievement. And in a single volume? Almost inconceivable. I don’t see how we avoid drawing the natural parallel to George R R Martin’s well-known difficulties in concluding his more famous fantasy series. You have taken on more than you knew when you began. Your story has expanded beyond what you once expected. Maybe yours is the fate of recent ambitious fantasy. The story sprawls in many directions; it begins to direct the story, you merely hitching along for the ride. Your creation has become your master. Where are you, Mr. Rothfuss? I plead with you: make me eat my words!

Elleander Morning by Jerry Yulsmam

This book is an unexpected treat. Yulsman, a photojournalist by profession, wrote only two novels. This is a shame; he should have written more. For a book that begins with an assassination, that of young Adolph Hitler in 1913, I find myself surprised to describe this book as charming. The novel has an intriguing narrative structure, the pleasure of puzzles to be solved, but its charm in no small part comes from the two captivating and enigmatic protagonists: the eponymous Elleander Morning, the assassin herself, and her granddaughter to whom she bears a striking resemblance. The author served in Europe and North Africa during WWII, and here he devotes himself once again to defeating the Nazis. This counterfactual world, one in which that war never occurred, is a satisfying place to spend some time.

Behind the Throne by KB Wagers

While this may not be transcendent SF, I did thoroughly enjoy it. The basic plot idea is that the black sheep of a royal family unexpectedly assumes the role of heir to the throne after an evil cabal murders much of her family. The world-building is well done, with the creation of a female-dominant society somehow derived from a Hindu-historical background. That may sound odd, but I thought it worked well. The protagonist is a bad-ass ex-princess-cum-gun runner, who needs to step up to her duty never having expected that mantle thrust upon her. Her mission, and the first person telling, draws the reader in and I remained interested throughout. I just may read the sequel, even though I am notoriously not a completist!

NONFICTION

Educated by Tara Westover

Tara Westover begins her memoir by emphasizing that it is not about Mormonism. And she is right. There are fanatics and extremists of all stripes, kind and malevolent, disciples of all belief systems, even among those who reject religious beliefs. What Westover does in her book Educated is to communicate her story of growing up under the yoke of an odious physical and emotional abuse. The context is a family steeped in a rigid, intolerant fundamentalism. But the effect might be similar in any destructive family environment in which a collective covenant, sealed like a sacred pact, conspires to protect its own perverse falsehoods.

Much of the power of her story comes from one interpretation of the title’s meaning. Westover grew up in a family that denied her a formal education - she was less homeschooled than part of the family labor pool in a scrap metal and herbal medicine business in a remote part of Idaho. In a meaning she might well disavow, it feels like a redemption to read of her educational journey: her private study to pass the college entrance examination, her discovery of an unknown wider world at BYU, and her trajectory to Cambridge University where she is ultimately granted her PhD.

Her disavowal would come from other meanings of the title. The task, her becoming educated, involves something far more difficult than academic study. The obstacles before her are immensely greater. Facing an unbending family narrative, she seeks to undo the gaslighting, to learn to trust her own memories and perception, and to craft and believe her own truth about her family and her life. The price she pays for this deliverance is steep, but her efforts necessary and courageous. There are valuable lessons here at a this historical moment. It is a success in itself that sometimes stories like hers are no longer shrouded in darkness.

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

This book is hard to describe. It does you little good to hear that it is written by one of the world’s great scientist-writers, and even less that he is a founder of the field of loop quantum gravity in theoretical physics. I could report to you that Rovelli has a genius for unification. He translates the challenging language of the science of time and grounds it in a philosophical perspective that is illuminating, poetic, rare and rarefied. Rovelli’s book grapples with the unbridgeable gap between what our science indicates and our myopic human understanding of reality. We extrapolate from our limited interactions with the world through brains unequipped for the task. And yet Rovelli renders our struggle into sublime poetry. But this too does you little good to hear. I recommend the book most highly.

I offer one quote, evocative of time, the author citing the Hindu epic the Mahabharata: “Every day countless people die, and yet those who remain live as if they were immortals.”

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian

I was in love with Big History before it was formally inaugurated by David Christian with his influential book Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History in 2004. Christian espoused a view of history that I’d unknowingly held since a small child: that a history that starts with written language is a very small one; that one that begins with the human career is only slightly larger. That a human-centric history is in fact parochial.

Though Christian’s work has motivated an academic discipline, he was far from the first nor only exponent of its essentials. A very abbreviated list, if you’re a lumper and not a splitter, might include Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Sagan, William McNeill, and Jared Diamond. Big history has since become incorporated into many high school curricula, influenced by Bill Gates who was so gobsmacked that he founded the Big History Project in collaboration with Christian as a worldwide effort to promote the teaching of the subject.

Big History is history writ large. It encompasses all we know about the past, starting with the Big Bang, through the formation of galaxies, solar systems, our planet Earth, the origin and evolution life on Earth, human evolution, and eventually the human spread around the globe and human society. It seeks universal patterns of explanation and is by nature necessarily multidisciplinary.

Origin Story is Christian’s updated account of this discipline, and his claim is that Big History represents a modern creation story, a secular creation story. In this way of seeing things, a species-wide narrative of our origins is still being elaborated, is continuing to unfold. But its elements are visible. And if we are able to make the transition to a sustainable future — far from certain as, human conflict aside, 10,000 years of unguided human geoengineering careen toward a global environmental confrontation — our descendants may well tell much the same story.

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>255 stellarexplorer: oh dear, another book by Carlo Rovelli. That’s definitely a BB.

>256 haydninvienna: My apologies. I like poetry ;-)

>255 stellarexplorer: Glad to hear you enjoyed Elleander Morning. I too was pleasantly surprised by that book and also think it's a shame Yulsman didn't write more.

>255 stellarexplorer: Happy New Year to you too and I hope your message reaches Mr. Rothfuss, though from what I hear, he just doesn't care what we think.

>258 ScoLgo: I don’t even remember where I heard about the book: maybe from you? A hidden gem.

>259 Karlstar: Happy New Year, and I imagine you are right. It’s possible he can’t afford to care.

>255 stellarexplorer: I enjoyed Rothfuss' first book, but never started the second. Maybe because I didn't hear as many good things about it. Oh, and my daughter claimed it had weird magic sex ninjas in it. Heh heh Not that this would be a deterrent for me.

Welcome back!

>262 clamairy: The weird magic sex ninja section was one of the things that made the plot grind to a halt. It was not nearly so much fun as it sounds. I liked the first part of the book, which also doesn't advance the story much. It was like hanging out with old friends, you're not doing anything special but it's just good to spend time with them.

>263 Sakerfalcon: "It was not nearly so much fun as it sounds." Yes, that is exactly what she said! I might just listen to it instead of reading it. That might work better for me.

>262 clamairy: >263 Sakerfalcon: Yeah, I had forgotten about that brief interlude. If asked to describe the main plot thread, I wouldn’t have thought of it. Agree with Sakerfalcon: agreeable to follow along. I enjoyed it. Although I am not a big fan of series, especially unfinished ones.

>262 clamairy: Haha, I know I read that book, but the old memory is not what it used to be. You'd think I'd remember that!

Oh dear. First bullet of the year taken with Elleander Morning.

From what I've heard, Rothfuss is suffering from (a) some serious writer's block and (b) having too much fun hanging out and doing conference appearances with the Penny Arcade guys.

>267 Marissa_Doyle: Back in 2012, I contributed to a Kickstarter campaign called 'Save the Sci-Fi'. Of the dozen or so books that I received from that project, Elleander Morning was the best by a country mile. I hope you enjoy it.

>268 ScoLgo: Hey! I contributed to that Kickstarter too, and I didn’t get Elleander Morning until you mentioned it! (I think)! And, iirc, they are out of business now.

>266 littlegeek: That was the problem. It wasn't memorable. :)

>270 MrsLee: LOL!

Happy New Year! Here are my annual favorites comments:

Favorite Reads of 2021

Nonfiction

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett

It’s hard to top the opening paragraph in this short primer about the current scientific understanding of our brains: “Once upon a time, the Earth was ruled by creatures without brains. This is not a political statement, just a biological one.” In fact, Lisa Barrett, eminent neuroscientist and University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, evidently enjoys slyly sprinkling her account with pertinent political examples affording her plausible deniability. On the human construction of social reality: “We could have a leader who says terrible things on video, and then news outlets could agree that the words were never said. That’s what happens in a totalitarian society. Social reality may be one of our greatest achievements but it’s also a weapon we can wield against each other.” The book may cover complex material, but the author delivers it with a sense of fun and humor.

While Barrett is at the forefront of neuroscience research, her book also demonstrates her ability to translate complex and technical material into clear and concise communications, easily absorbed by the reader. Extensive references and expanded details are available on an associated website.

She dispenses with well-intended fallacies about the brain, substituting instead cogent explanation with minimal jargon. Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain reads like a synthesis of the last decade or two of the thinking in brain science. She has performed an invaluable service by distilling this emerging understanding into a set of bite-sized narratives that summarize how neuroscientists think about their subject.

I particularly appreciate her attention to metaphors. People have long put forward their ideas about the brain, often seemingly oblivious to their metaphorical and often misleading consequences. For example, one hears the distorted claim that the left side of the brain is linguistic and logical, while the right is intuitive and creative. That one was especially in vogue when I was a neuroscience student in the late ‘70s. People use phrases like “the storage of memories”, as if the brain handles files like a computer and places them in an ordered location for later retrieval. And no, your brain doesn’t have an ancient reptilian layer dedicated to instinct and survival. To her credit, she devotes time to warning about the lure of simplification, wherein metaphor can substitute for explanation, and alerts the reader to examples of her own use of metaphor, along with her reasons and intentions.

While this slim volume doesn’t require even more compression here, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something about one of her central teaching points about the brain. This is no substitute for Barrett’s careful and clear narrative. The brain uses the sensory data it’s receiving to help you survive. It does it’s best job at this essential task not by waiting patiently for clarity about the meaning of the information it’s receiving. One cannot afford to confirm that a charging tiger is in fact about to sink its teeth into your throat. Instead, the brain anticipates, utilizes memories of past similar experiences and brain states, and uses these to make predictions about what is likely to happen next. We are not aware of this process, but the neural conversation about predictions results in one winning prediction and, to quote Barrett “…the winning prediction becomes your action and your sensory experience.” So in an essential sense, your brain is a prediction device which accelerates your responses, efficiently acting to help you survive. In fact, we couldn’t do something as simple as bouncing a ball were it not for our brain’s ability to accurately predict the behavior of bouncing balls and the body’s interaction with them.

I’ve left out most of the actual lessons in favor of offering the flavor of the book. I’d highly recommend Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain for anyone interested in a mini-exposition of current neuroscience thinking. Or for anyone like me who could benefit from an update!

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

During his productive years in the decades before and after WWI, the Austrian-Jewish writer Stefan Zweig enjoyed wide readership in Europe outside Britain. Not that his work was necessarily consecrated by critical acclaim; in fact he praised many writers who regarded him as a second-rate talent. Yet he wrote in a clear and lucid style, expressing himself easily. He was perhaps most appreciated for numerous novellas and his short biographies of distinguished people such as Mary, Queen of Scots, Magellan, and Erasmus. His work has seen something of a revival in recent years, at least partly due to the publication of a new translation of The World of Yesterday and to the success of the Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson cites the book as an inspiration for the film.

This is Zweig’s only memoir, and as the title conveys, its subject is the loss of the Europe and in particular the Austria of his youth. He wrote most of it a few steps from my door, a refugee from Hitler in Ossining, NY. Zweig paints an expansive portrait (one that some later termed “The Habsburg Myth”) of life in pre-war Austria. The first chapter “The World of Security” summarizes what had been lost: durability, continuity, safety, prosperity, a place for the flourishing of the arts. He details the educational process and sexual ethos of pre-War Austria. Zweig had been a fully engaged member of Viennese cafe culture of the early part of the century. It is hard not to sense a nostalgic romanticism in Zweig’s account, and yet I think he gets a pass for sentimentality having lived through the monstrosity of WWI, Fascist Europe, and for writing while contemporaneously fleeing the Third Reich.

This reflection is fascinating on several levels. First, Zweig had personal friendships with many of the great artists and thinkers of his day. We hear his deep interchanges with Rilke, Rodin, Freud, James Joyce, Maxim Gorky, Richard Strauss, Toscanini, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Theodore Herzl, and Romain Rolland. If you saw the recent Beatles Get Back documentary, these conversations read like delicious eavesdropping, akin to listening to Paul and John at lunch, privately talking with a microphone secretly placed in the flowerpot between them.

Second, while we are familiar with the facts of the European catastrophe from 1914 through the late 1940s, personal accounts enrich one’s understanding of the events and their effect on individuals. In Zweig’s case, we hear the observations of an astute observer, a man who regarded himself as a citizen of the world, if Austrian in particular. He recounts his reaction as he heard about the German mobilization in 1914 while on a beach in Belgium; his despair at the restrictions in communicating with friends and fellow writers living outside the Central Powers even by letter; the proverbial wheelbarrows of cash to buy a loaf of bread after the war; the first time he heard the name Hitler; his sense of the increasing presence of menacing Brownshirts in Austria; his near relief to hear of the death of “my old mother” in 1938 Vienna, knowing she was now safe from further suffering. He had felt distraught after Nazi rules prevented Jews from sitting on public benches, depriving his weakened mother of her daily walk that required periodic rests.

Finally, there is the question of his suicide. Zweig mailed the manuscript to his publisher the day before his suicide in February 1942. He was not in hiding, like some who fled the Nazis. He was living north of Rio de Janeiro, in safety, facing East as he contemplated Europe. He was found dead with his wife, double suicides, of a barbiturate overdose. A final testament read “I think it better to conclude in good time and in erect bearing a life in which intellectual labour meant the purest joy and personal freedom the highest good on Earth.” And yet one need only read The World of Yesterday to appreciate - though perhaps not anticipate - this sentiment and its implications. It permeates the book. His beloved Europe irretrievably broken. His sense of beggardom as a man without a country. The enormity of the losses. He conveys a conversation with Gorky, who asserted that no one in exile had yet produced worthy art. And yet, it is only fair to wonder why Zweig was unprepared to look to the future. To continue his work, as so many other artists and thinkers did. To mention only a few: Einstein, Chagall, Mondrian, Schönberg, Hannah Arendt, Levi-Strauss, Thomas Mann. And the hordes who started life again after surviving the concentration camps. While it permeates the book, it’s also in the title. The World of Yesterday. By 1942, and probably long before, Zweig was a man of the past. His love, his passion, his sense of belonging, his core identity were in the Europe destroyed. He saw no more for himself but to bear the unbearable weight of what was irretrievably gone. He saw no future. But he left a remarkable memoir, a testament to what he loved and lost.

The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen

The title speaks immediately to David Quammen’s ambitions. This is no ordinary work of science journalism: you are embarking on a literary adventure which will make you rethink nothing less than Life on Earth. Is this volume an account of a foundational alteration in biological understanding, or an illuminating portrayal of a rich body of contemporary scientific history,? In an interview, Quammen seems to distance himself from the fervor of its subtitle, offering two alternative elevator pitches for this book. It’s either a history of molecular phylogenetics, or the story of the greatest biologist of the 20th century who you’ve never heard of. Clearly one approach sells more books. The story of self-perceived outsider biologist Carl Woese - and frankly how much of an outsider are you if, while perhaps belatedly, you are elected to the National Academy of Sciences? - becomes the scaffolding for the story of major recent developments in our understanding of the nature of life and the causal mechanisms behind evolutionary change.

The author took almost 400 pages to tell this story and to argue his thesis. So please bear with the length of this woefully short version: There were once a few bedrock principles in evolutionary biology, beginning with the work of Darwin, who published On the Origin of Species in 1859, and elaborated by many others. Unique individuals make up membership in species. Species segregate and isolate from other species, and are the entities that collectively make up ever larger units of biological classification. Groups of species may be members of the same genus, groups of genera of the class, and so on to ever larger entities. The order, the phylum, and ultimately the largest groups, Kingdoms or Domains, have historical and structural relationships that allow us to arrange them into an organizing principle of biology: The branching tree of life.

Quammen’s goal is to show how three discoveries invalidate these categorical concepts that once were core to biology. The field of molecular biology, which studies the chemical basis of cellular activity, is central to this story. That work was accelerated by Watson and Crick’s explosive 1953 publication of the structure of DNA. The discovery of DNA and RNA, and the proteins they code for, have allowed us to examine similarities and differences in life forms. We can now compare living organisms not based primarily on their physical appearances or subjectively perceived affinities, but instead based on a tracing of genetic lineages. These genetic similarities and differences offer powerful new information about how life forms are actually related to each other. Life contains its history and its relationships to other organisms within its genetic code. Except that’s not entirely true, but let’s skip over that for now.

First, there’s the story of Carl Woese, who in the late 1970s made a startling discovery, now universally accepted within biology. In the interest of simplification, since antiquity two kinds of life were recognized, plants and animals. In the seventeenth century, Leeuwenhoek identified microscopic life, and eventually the recognition came that there was a fundamental divide between two kinds of microscopic life: those made up of cells like those in our bodies, the cells that form complex life, called eukaryotes, among whose traits is a nucleus with genetic material located within. And a second group, prokaryotes - we might call them bacteria at this point - whose structures are simpler. What Woese did was to study the RNA in the protein-making apparatus in all cells, called ribosomes, and he made an extraordinary discovery. There were two groups of simple bacteria-like organisms which were genetically dramatically different, and had been genetically and historically separate for billions of years. Now what had looked like one group, bacteria, were two: bacteria and a new group called Archaea. To Woese, the most fundamental tree of life needed to be redrawn to three “domains” of life: bacteria, archaea — and eukaryotes. All complex life is composed of the last group. Others draw trees that look a little different, but still take account of Woese’s discovery. Remarkable! And a blow to the traditional trees of life that had previously been drawn.

About a decade earlier, Lynn Margulis had published groundbreaking work, controversial at the time, that also shook the field. She proposed, in what is now accepted biology, that at some point in the distant past (as in billions of years ago), simple cells incorporated other simple cells - in a process called endosymbiosis - allowing the development of larger and more complex cells. These larger cells were eukaryotes, and their energy-producing organelles, mitochondria, were originally bacteria. The eukaryotic cell is thus seen as a chimera. Further research yielded an unexpected reality: At some point roughly two billion years ago, an archaean host incorporated a mitochondrion-like bacterium, and the result was the eukaryotic cell. This cell had access to thousands of times the energy of simple cellular life, and led to the cells of which all complex multicellular life on Earth is composed. The branching tree of life might not be so vertical after all, if rather than diverging (as tree branches do) through slow mutation and genetic isolation, but rather, at least on one occasion, fundamental branches crossed over and united. Perhaps the history of life is more like a web than a tree?

The recognition of lateral gene transfer (LGT) is for Quammen the final blow to the tree of life metaphor. Most common in bacteria, sometimes whole sections of genetic material are donated by one species to another. This is a primary mechanism of antibiotic resistance. One resistant strain can donate the genes for that resistance to an entirely different species, making that type of bacterial group resistant too. It turns out that wholesale donation of DNA between bacterial groups is common. Species don’t diverge only through the slow accumulation of mutations over time. That’s the branching tree model. They can share their beneficial mutations, allowing — at least in bacteria — a much faster mechanism for genetic and evolutionary change.

So far so good. This book is a deep exploration of our understanding of biology and evolution. It’s well worth reading. Quammen is an accomplished prose stylist. I suspect you now know enough to determine whether you want to broaden your understanding of current biological thinking with this account. But a bit of my own perspective, if you’ll bear with me a little longer.

I remember learning about LGT, in high school biology in 1974 as a discovery decades old. Granted, we know more now. The insight that Archaea is a separate line, and that endosymbiosis led to the eukaryotic cell, is approaching almost half a century. So while not entirely new, these truths do add up to something big. When concepts as solid and categorical as species and vertical evolution, or the structure of the tree of life, become conditional and not absolutes after all, that is no small matter. Our ideas about biology and biological change are modified.

Will this overturn biological thought? No. Mainstream biologists are finding trees of life useful and important to this day. New trees, more informed trees, trees based on molecular and genetic data are still introduced, developed, and modified frequently in the molecular phylogenetic literature. Are the discoveries Quammen articulately reports revolutionary? Arguable. Revolution is a strong word. One could argue that our understanding of the principles underlying life and evolution have expanded and become more sophisticated in fascinating ways.

Biologists are rightly concerned about creationists. Any demotion or flaw in Darwin is fuel for manipulation and misuse. Of course it is absurd that the expectable errors of Darwin a century and a half ago could possibly invalidate the scientific support for evolution firmly established since his time. His theories originated in an entirely different era of science. The ideologically motivated twist the inevitable shifting of paradigms in science for their own ends. But biologists do need to express their ideas clearly and articulately, to minimize the chances of misuse or misunderstanding.

Like Newton before him, Darwin advanced some of the greatest insights in the history of science. Where Newton fell short, supplanted or corrected by Einstein and the truly revolutionary discoveries of twentieth century physics, he could not have known or done better. This does not diminish his genius. If anything, we marvel at his accomplishments. And what of Darwin and the twentieth century biology he helped to father? Biology has provided recent correctives. Old absolutes like vertical evolution and the ever-diverging tree of life are replaced; new mechanisms for genetic change are uncovered; new images like webs - not only trees - are useful. Are these developments revolutionary, like those that superseded Newton’s work, or are they evolutionary, expanding the scope of biological understanding? I offer a beer to all comers and a lively exchange of views!

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

If journalism is the first rough draft of history, this effort twenty years after straddles the two. The focus is on the what and not the why, and any interpretation or context is the immediate and preliminary, as expressed at the time. Two decades begins to sound like history, but this book is mostly about the event itself as it unfolded and the events on the ground as they were lived. Passing the 20th anniversary of America’s worst terrorist attack, a whole generation has grown up unaware of the details of that grim day. And for those who lived through it, it remains an unforgettable “where were you then” moment in lives which for most contain only a handful of such moments.

Garrett Graff has amassed a monumental collection of first person accounts, descriptions, and memories, as well as contemporaneous news reporting and commentary to tell the story of 9/11. We revisit that day through those who escaped the World Trade Center or survived the Pentagon attack, those on the phone with loved ones on the fourth plane, first responders, many of whom lost family and coworkers, and political and news figures. These accounts are organized into readable chapters, each telling a story chronologically beginning in the the early morning, and topically, as the day unfolded in multiple places and in multiple ways. The political reactions and responses are part of the narrative. Witness the title, which refers to the grounded US air fleet, and the one plane still airborne: that of President George W. Bush on his way back to Washington.

Do you want to read a comprehensive narrative of the 9/11attacks? I can only say that I did want to be reminded. I will never forget both the confusion and horror for me personally that day, and the aftermath in NYC in the days following, as a feeling of shared trauma and intimate connection united everyone for a brief moment. It was a singular experience, and I recall a feeling of privilege to bear witness personally to the tragedy through the experience of New Yorkers. The details of that day are not pretty, although many are heroic. And forgetting isn’t my preferred style. I prefer remembering, acknowledging, being aware, and accepting where possible. An important piece of my life is more strongly anchored and won’t blow away.

Fiction

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

It is no secret to long-time readers of this annual that I hold Kim Stanley Robinson in high regard, and in more years than not include one of his books. Robinson is prolific, having written 21 novels and numerous essays and short stories. His works are varied in style, some with nontraditional narrative structures. All of them are meticulously researched with his characteristic scientific fluency. Many are what might be termed “near future science fiction”, focusing on his concerns about the direction of the challenges humans face. Among these, a subset could be called “climate fiction”. They include his mid-2000s Science in the Capital trilogy, starting with Forty Signs of Rain, set at the intersection of climate and policy in Washington. He followed these a decade later with New York 2140, a story of resilience in a partially submerged Manhattan - Venice-like - that owes much to the spirit of Dos Passos.

So KSR has been thinking deeply about climate for a long time. The Ministry for the Future feels like the culmination of this body of work. But it's the culmination from a particular point of view. A fictional Ministry for the Future works out of Zurich, established by the Paris Climate Accords. Its responsibility is to advocate for future generations not yet present to advocate for themselves. As such, this is KSR’s vision of climate mitigation, and he tosses the kitchen sink at the problem. Not for the purpose of promiscuously unburdening himself from every idea in his head, but with the idea that if we are to survive the coming catastrophe, every possible approach is worth considering and may play a role in the urgent imperative work ahead.

It’s hard not to admire the research that went into this novel, and to consider that he’s on to something. The scope is vast, from pumping glacier melt and refreezing it in Antarctica, to establishing habitat corridors for animal conservation, establishing a globally-accepted carbon coin that financially incentivizes keeping carbon in the ground, to contending with an increasing violence of ecoterrorism.

Should you read this for its novelistic charm? Not necessarily. But he’s so remarkably thorough in his imagining of how we might approach climate change, that it seems that everyone might profitably read this, if only not to be so demoralized. It's a tonic for the paralyzed. All is not yet lost.

Robinson is an optimist. That’s a helpful place from which to start.

Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

I am a sucker for immortality novels. The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson is a favorite, This Immortal by Roger Zelazny is something of a classic of the genre. And depending on where you want to draw the line, you could include the uploadable consciousness genre of which perhaps Richard K Morgan’s Altered Carbon is a prototype. If you are a lumper rather than a splitter you could well start all the way back at The Epic of Gilgamesh. Death tends to rankle 😉 , and so it’s really no surprise that people tell stories that circumvent that eventuality.

Given her reputation as a master of science fiction and arguably the most influential African American science fiction writer — Samuel Delany and N. K. Jemisin notwithstanding — it’s perhaps surprising that I hadn’t read Octavia Butler earlier. Notably, she was honored recently when the landing site of the Mars rover Perseverence was named for her. Wild Seed was the first of five Butler novels I’ve now enjoyed. I learned only later that Wild Seed was the fourth in a series known as the Patternist series, dealing with issues of telepathy, human engineering and the human future. This novel, while written later, is the earliest chronologically in the series, establishing its origins.

Butler’s story loops around two central characters. Doro was born thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, and perpetuates himself by abandoning his body and taking over a new one, killing the previous occupant in the process with little remorse. He is driven to control the breeding of people with special powers, organizing villages in early America dedicated to this mission. Anyanwu is a mere centuries old, having been born in a village somewhere roughly within modern Nigeria. She has exquisite control over her body, able to repair any damage on a cellular level, and to use her powers to heal the sick. She has the ability to alter herself into other guises, shapes, people, and notably can assume the body and behavior of animals. When Doro encounters Anyanwu, he wants her for his breeding program. But for the first time he faces his own limits, and the possibility that another person has powers he cannot control. Anyanwu loves Doro but not his killing, and tries to negotiate a delicate path between her own potential death at Doro’s hands and protecting those at risk from his brutality.

Wild Seed embodies many themes apart from the immortality that initially drew me in: patriarchy, gender and race relations, eugenics and the improvement of the human species. But what propels the novel is Butler’s confident storytelling. She is in firm charge of her work at all times: language, pacing, character and plot all handled with aplomb. The reader basks in the warm security of a trusted writer. I love the experience of knowing I am in good hands, and that the author will not let me down.

Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

This one was a reread, and yes, inspired by the terrific Netflix series. It was a pleasure in the ‘80s, and again three plus decades later. Summary: young girl in orphanage overcomes adversity in rising to international chess supremacy.

Why is the orphan trope so popular in literature? Dickens, Jane Eyre, Anne of Green Gables and Harry Potter are just a few which come easily to mind. The terror of being alone in the world, unprotected from danger, in the care of neglectful or malevolent custodians….emphatically apply in the case of Beth Harmon. The 8 year old is sent to an orphanage after the death of her mother. She and the other residents are chemically sedated at night, a practice unfortunately utilized in mid-20th century American orphanages. Her deliverance begins in the basement, as she follows the janitor playing out chess games alone. We watch a prodigy emerge.

This book is distinctly about three interweaving themes: surviving a childhood of neglect, a young woman in a world of male power, and more than anything, that elusive entity we call genius. We are enchanted by the brilliance of a young girl, whose gifts are hers uniquely, uncultivated by instruction, sui generis. The contrast between her outer deprivation and her inner creativity make it hard to avert one’s eyes. It’s a powerful story of sweet redemption and ultimately ascendency. Drug addiction, loneliness, and confusion notwithstanding.

Full disclosure: I am a fan of chess. As a child I followed life in chess during the Cold War, saw the culmination of Bobby Fischer’s career in defeating Boris Spassky, participated in tournaments in the 1970s. Tevis captures much of the spirit of tournament chess during that fraught era, and the successful portrayal of that atmosphere contributes to the realism and satisfaction of the book.

Queen’s Gambit is something of a page turner. It’s hard to put down. You are heavily rooting for the protagonist. Deliciously entertaining.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Please bear with me because this book is not entirely the execrable midden it may seem - there’s a reason it made this list - but I can’t talk about it without first the accumulated rant. I don’t mean to offend by suggesting that if Weir is not exactly the Dan Brown of SF, he may well be the Clive Cussler or the Robert Ludlum. Which is to say that he is a writer with redeeming ideas but lacking the craft to express them skillfully. He is either uninterested in character, or unable to invent a protagonist other than the one he already created for his breakout The Martian. And to the chagrin of fans who saw potential in that first novel, he has again written a story of a lone individual, stranded apart from all other humans, attempting to save the day using only his sheer problem solving skills and the memory of high school physics. (Do we really need another iteration of Mr Fossil’s 11th grade semester one physics formulas, like distance equals half gravity times the square of time?) In fact, if there is one thing that Weir’s books seem to be “about”, it’s setting up technical problems he has transparently already solved, and showing you how smart he is by offering the solution. His work is not as puerile as that of, for instance, Ernest Cline (Ready Player One), but on that very dimension is unfortunately considerably to the left of Steven Gould (Jumper).

That said, Weir has invented one of the most scientifically realized alien life forms I’ve ever encountered. Granted it is unicellular, but the microbial details are thoughtful and considered. So if you prefer your SF with a plausible dollop of biochemistry and a coherent bacterial lifecycle, this may be the book for you.

I have to admit that after my initial recoiling, I did get drawn into what might be described as an SF thriller. And he has spent a lot of energy on plot. Most of his energy it would seem. The fate of the Earth, after all, is at stake. Without giving away much, Weir does establish an engaging tete-a-tete between human and yet another plausible alien - nonmicrobial - so kudos for that.

Weir is committed to offering up literary comfort food, no need to chop or braise. It’s not hard to see why his books sell; we are a busy people, and one is to be congratulated for reading at all. And yet, embarrassing as it is to admit, the book is a tasty guilty pleasure.

Ministry for the future is on my TBR pile, so I'm glad to see that you rated it highly. And I really must get around to reading the Wild seed books this year; the omnibus has been sitting on my shelf for a while.

If you like KSR, this is really terrific! And Wild Seed - made me want to read her great works!

>272 stellarexplorer: I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, but I see your point about the character. Still, very good scifi in my opinion.

>272 stellarexplorer:
I have read and enjoyed two of Stefan Zweig's works, The Post Office Girl and Confusion. I have a number of his other works, including his memoir, The World of Yesterday. Until reading your post I had not realised his death followed so closely after his writing The World of Yesterday. I did know he had died of suicide and that he had fled Austria to get away from the Nazis, but I had not looked into the details.

Your post boosts my interest in reading the memoir sooner rather than later.

Thank you!

>275 Karlstar: Yes, despite my problems with the book, it still made my favorite reads list, so I don’t disagree with you. But I may not have liked it quite as much as you did. Glad you enjoyed!

>276 pgmcc: I appreciate your comments, because I did a close reading of the book, and put a lot into organizing my thoughts about it. I’ve accomplished something if I alerted you to something that you might profitably read!
Thank you for responding!

Happy New Year

Here are my Favorite Reads of 2022

NONFICTION

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
by David Graeber and David Wengrow

What if we ask ourselves how we come to be trapped in such tight conceptual shackles that we can no longer even imagine the possibility of reinventing ourselves? This is my paraphrasing of the authors’ simple yet provocative question, the one that motivates David Graeber and David Wengrow’s synthesis of decades of accumulating knowledge in anthropology and archeology. The sheer efficiency of that question pleases me, as I labored in deep concentration over a richly documented synthesis of a body of work. Surely no one person could possibly be expert in the fullness of this material. The back matter - endnotes, index and bibliography - of this encyclopedic work are fully 30% of that of the text. And as I read, rapt and consumed by topics that have driven me for much of my life, I wrestled with doubt that I could convey the essence of a book of such scale in short form like this.

If there is one essential thing to glean from the authors’ ten year effort, it is this: without knowing it, we have all been subject to a basic story about the last some 30,000 years of human history. Roughly this is a story about original small bands of human beings; the advent of sedentism and agriculture in the Neolithic Revolution; the rise of cities and empires; and the growth and complexification that bring about the political structures and social control requisite for large scale human societies. It is Graeber and Wengrow’s project to demonstrate that this conventional account - to use their schema - is wrong, is boring and comes with dire political implications. It is a myth that dates largely to the Enlightenment. In abandoning it we can begin to consider other narratives of human history. Not only are alternative social arrangements abundant historically, but the accumulating evidence offered by new scientific tools and the research of recent decades allow us to see an ossified false narrative. Actual human societies are far more varied and quirky, and far less limited than we need or should believe. Given that unchained history, future human societies may achieve far more freedom and variety than we tend to assume.

Any attempt to convey the evidence and even the full arguments presented would occupy a substantial fraction of the 526 pages the authors took. So I will offer a few ideas and examples from the book. I highly recommend exploring the entire synthesis.

The only possibility in this account is to oversimplify. The authors see the Enlightenment narrative stemming from the work of Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes, whose nearly opposite accounts of history have been elaborated and reified over four centuries. In brief, for Rousseau, we began in freedom and only in settling into organized societies did we arrive at the current state of restriction and inequality, as humans “ran headlong to meet their chains”. For Hobbes, the original “state of nature” was notoriously “nasty, brutish and short”, and only by voluntarily surrendering to a central authority did people establish a “social contract” that protected them from the predations and misery of human life in its “uncivilized” state. Graeber and Wengrow argue that both narratives are wrong, and contributed to the emergence of views of human social arrangements that limit us intellectually, politically and socially.

For a practical illustration, consider the tendency toward explanations of human arrangements that suit our preexisting beliefs. For example, for centuries there have been people arguing for the existence of some kind of proto-economy or “primitive trade” very early in human history, based on the discovery of materials, precious stones, shells, etc. found hundreds or even thousands of miles from their original sources. However there are many other explanations for this distant dispersal. To share only one example, it is now understood that in many indigenous North American societies, women would play gambling games. Often they bet shells or other objects of personal adornment. One well known ethnographer estimates that many of the shells and other exotic materials found far across the continent arrived by the nonintuitive means of repeated wagering over a long period of time. This example not only indicates something of the explanatory limitations of motivated or biased conjecture, but shows the failure to account for the sheer wackiness - the authors use the word “quirky” - of human behavior, and how hard it is to anticipate its myriad forms.

One of the strengths of The Dawn of Everything is its ability to present familiar accounts of history whose faulty logic, upon exposure, can readily be seen. For example (and others have delved deeply into this area), they suggest that the role of foragers in the construct of the “Agricultural Revolution” is to stand for everything that farming is not, in order to help explain what farming and the agricultural life is. “If farmers are sedentary, foragers must be mobile; if farmers actively produce food, foragers must merely collect it; if farmers have private property, foragers must renounce it; and if farming societies are unequal, this is by contrast with the ‘innate’ egalitarianism of foragers. Finally, if any particular group of foragers should happen to possess any features in common with farmers, the dominant narrative demands that these can only be ‘incipient’, ‘emergent’ or deviant in nature, so that the destiny of foragers is either to ‘evolve’ into farmers, or eventual to wither and die.” We see how the prevailing concepts have defined our viewpoint, regardless of their reality.

Graeber and Wengrow review the evidence refuting that agriculture was adopted once humans learned its methods. Rather, many groups were uninterested, seeing it as unnecessary, even while understanding both the techniques involved and the attendant labor costs. It was adopted and rejected many times in many places, and there was apparently nothing inevitable about groups choosing to farm. Many other societies found ways to cultivate with minimal human involvement. And there is Richard Lee’s famous account of his discussion with an anonymous Bushman, who when asked why he hadn’t emulated neighboring tribes by adopting agriculture, replied, “Why should we, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?”

Such is the flavor of the book. In miniature and abbreviation.

This is a provocative and important book. One of its brilliancies is that any particular claim or example can be questioned without altering the fundamental point. Some have objected to the characterization of Rousseau’s thinking. Others have challenged the notion of a Native American “Indigenous Critique” that influenced Enlightenment thinking. And so on. Such critiques, however regarded, alter little if at all the fundamental claim here. It is hard to imagine marshaling any evidence or material of this breadth and volume without eliciting objections among some. And even harder to reject the fundamental insight that, despite one’s doubts about certain particulars, humans have lived within an exceptional range of social choices and arrangements over a vast period of time. In this, the authors are incisive and persuasive. I find this point of view truthful and exhilarating!

So what if we ask ourselves how we come to be trapped in such tight conceptual shackles that we can no longer even imagine the possibility of reinventing ourselves? Graeber and Wengrow have rendered a liberating service: the invitation to regard ourselves and our history more clearly, with less bias. We see more clearly who we have been and who we are. Optimistically, with such awareness we envision future human life with greater freedom. And who couldn’t use an extra dollop of optimism right now?

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
by Oliver Burkeman

How long is the average human lifespan? See title. Not very long, even for the longest-lived.

There is almost nothing unfamiliar in Four Thousand Weeks. It reformats wisdom all of us have surely heard before. And yet I would love to meet the enlightened being who couldn’t benefit from this liberating book. Perhaps this is true of all wisdom. The task isn’t so much to assimilate the radically new; it’s how not to forget.

Time management traditionally helps overly busy people to become more efficient in getting stuff done. Organize, prioritize, eliminate distraction, improve focus. Burkeman has done us the service of writing a time management book whose central suggestion is that instead of trying to get more done, we ought to acknowledge the reality: we will never get done even a fraction of what we consider worth doing. We are finite creatures. The brevity of life is almost an absurdity. Time is the currency of our lives. All the frenetic energy spent trying to accomplish a minute portion of what is worth doing would be better spent in greater balance with the sense of wonder and gratitude that we exist at all.

We know this. We find elements of it in diverse cultural and spiritual traditions. Edward Young, writing in the eighteenth century, memorably wrote: “All men think all men mortal but themselves.” Marcus Aurelius’ admonished in the second century CE: “Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. Now.” Earlier still came the Buddhist insight that all we have is the present moment.

Efficiency will never empty our inboxes. The decks cannot be cleared. The mistake is in pretending otherwise. The good news, Burkeman suggests, is that we can admit defeat, and move on with living within what’s gloriously attainable. This way lies what freedom is humanly possible.

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
and
Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic by Scott Gottlieb

It was with a sense of kindred familiarity that I opened Michael Lewis’ new book The Premonition, subtitled A Pandemic Story. Lewis is among the distinguished contemporary writers of narrative nonfiction, and the dust jacket blurb suggested a story close to my own experience. A group of rogue experts saw the COVID-19 pandemic coming before most did, including those tasked with the job. This sounded like The Pandemic Meets The Big Short - the latter Lewis’ fascinating and famous story of those in the financial world who saw what few others did during the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2008. While I was oblivious to that coming financial crisis, I too recoiled at the inevitability of a catastrophic pandemic in January of 2020. I have written about this elsewhere . As an observer versed but non-expert in emerging viral threats, I was eager to read about the foresight of savants.

The Premonition invites us into the thinking of some brilliant outside-the-box thinkers. These doctors, public health officials, and administrators understood early on the threat we in the US faced, and were in a position to try to take some action. But propelled by Lewis’ characteristically irresistible storytelling, it turns out that in the most meaningful sense, these accounts are the mere scaffolding for a far darker and more urgent revelation. Because if I knew by mid-January 2020 that we were facing no less than a viral disaster, why was the country so ill-prepared? Where was the testing, the messaging, the preparation of the public for what would need to be done? Where was the truth-telling that would bring us together for the necessary NPIs - non-pharmaceutical Interventions - that would buy time, slow the spread, and prevent the hundreds of thousands of deaths that would otherwise occur before a vaccine could protect us?

That is the real message of The Premonition. At multiple levels, the institutions and leaders who could have made a difference failed the people they were charged with protecting. The politicization and culture of the CDC - despite its continued capacity to produce world class academic research - meant suppression of the truth, unreadiness for testing or necessary medical supplies, a craven obedience to an incompetent Administration primarily concerned with the next election, and not to put too fine a point on it, gross negligence.

We may have thought we had a functioning public health system. But the pandemic revealed the shocking absence of such a cohesive arrangement. Instead, early on what constituted public health amounted to a balkanized set of sometimes dedicated but always local offices. In most cases, individual officials in local public health leadership waited for advice from on high that never came. In January and February 2020, the truth was actively suppressed. That the virus was already spreading within the US was not a mystery to the Administration or to its leading health officials. Federal and many state leaders calculated that keeping the public in the dark was a better policy than entrusting them with the information that might have enabled them to protect themselves. Those within the health system who understood the reality found themselves silenced and shuttled to the side, or simply ignored.

The protagonists in Lewis’ telling deserve a medal, but no doubt they would say they were just trying to do their jobs. This is an eye-opening book. It’s an intelligent page-turner with a mission. If we are to be better prepared for the next one, we had better be clear about two matters: what went wrong, and the perilous, regrettable condition of our public health institutions. Oh, and I’ll add one more thing. Can we deeply acknowledge the hazard that the next time may be much worse?

Which brings us to Scott Gottlieb’s Uncontrolled Spread, which I pair with Lewis’ book. Note the subtitle: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic. I don’t want to be too hard on Gottlieb, Commissioner of the FDA during the Trump administration from 2017-2019. His constructive aim is to use what we learned during COVID-19 to outline steps that might prevent or mitigate the next pandemic. This is a noble goal, especially given that however much we may wish it were otherwise, that monstrosity is necessarily coming. Gottlieb dutifully relates his particular account of the failings of the system, all familiar and fair.

His account stands not fundamentally in the service of history. For Gottlieb, the disaster animates a series of practical proposals, ideas widely held within the mainstream virology and public health communities. These are important and necessary suggestions which deserve a broad and visible hearing: viewing health and emerging diseases as a national security issue (global, right Dr Gottlieb?); creating and funding permanent reserves in our capacity for the production of health supplies, including equipment and testing capability; improving surveillance including the use of cutting edge genomic tools to do so. Lastly, expecting that international cooperation in early reporting may be limited, given the disincentives involved.

But Uncontrolled Spread is unsurprisingly restrained and understated when it comes to the CDC and its shortcomings. The introduction explicitly states this is not a book about politics. Gottlieb argues that many of the same systems failures would have occurred no matter who was in charge. Possibly, though a partial truth at best. I will not recount Trump’s many actions and statements, public and private, that contest this interpretation. I can’t help but wonder whether Gottlieb is still so involved in the political world of US public health that he is unwilling to be too harsh on colleagues or former colleagues. The same might be said for his careful language regarding the handling of the pandemic by the Trump Administration. In contrast he fervently holds China’s feet to the fire for their delay in full early disclosure, even as US intelligence nonetheless warned the Administration of a worrisome outbreak in China as early as November 2019. And even as the protagonists of The Premonition were able to calculate with remarkable precision the coming events in January 2020 from public sources alone.

There will no doubt be a wave of attempts to reckon with what just happened to the US and the world as we emerge from the worst pandemic in a hundred years. The two books I have paired here crystalize an essential piece of what that reckoning requires. What good are policy recommendations without a direct and open assessment of the failures that such recommendations aim to correct? Without clearly confronting the failures and malfeasance in the national response, policy blandly lacks the requisite sense of urgency and incisiveness.

We ought to start by acknowledging the unmitigated disaster that might have been reduced. How many of the more than one million direct deaths, losses that will weigh forever on loved ones and on the nation, might have been avoided with a conscientious and vigilant response?

Uncontrolled Spread falls short in assessing responsibility. In fairness, it is a constructive book that tries hard not to offend. But offense should be the least concern in favor of honesty, and Gottlieb misses major parts of the failing. Generously, it’s a first attempt at transforming the global tragedy of COVID-19 into actionable measures for better protecting the country and the planet from the inevitable. In that sense, it’s a thoughtful and useful effort. Let us hope we remember our history and take action, rather than adopting the usual strategy of being destined to repeat it.

Fiction

When We Cease to Understand the World
by Benjamin Labatut

Wow. Many books are great, some are even works of genius. But I don’t remember ever before feeling that a book is unique in its essence, in its very construction. This one is. To paraphrase Philip Pullman’s cover blurb, it feels like Labatut has invented a new genre. This work cleverly and almost diabolically blends fact and interpretation, fiction and nonfiction, in a way that is delightful and unsettling. There is a frisson of discomfort to read a reliable account of people well known to you, mostly famous and important scientists, to trust an author’s impeccable research, only to have the hairs on the back of your neck rise as you realize that the narrative has shifted into an account that didn’t take place. Or only might have taken place, so that you find yourself in the realm of neither fact nor fiction. You have been subtly taken in by a shrewd and unreliable narrator, one who is working to his own mysterious purposes.

What makes this book the richer, is that while no knowledge of the characters is required, the more you know about them, the deeper the mysteries. I have spent much time with many of the principals, as the intellectual revolution of 20th century physics has always fascinated me. Einstein of course, though he is mostly a silent partner here. Haber, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, de Broglie, Bohr: these are more than heroes to me. They are the authors of one of the greatest intellectual accomplishments of humankind: the quantum revolution and quantum mechanics. A beautiful theory which yields correct results without fail. And which many would describe as inscrutable and incapable of being fully understood outside of the math.

So to put Labatut’s methods under the microscope, in a way that will spoil nothing, Fritz Haber invented the chemical warfare that introduced a heinous new method of killing during WWI. Days after its first use, his wife Clara died by suicide. One possibility historians have entertained is that the motive was her revulsion at what her husband had created. But there was no note, and the matter remains unresolved. In Labatut’s telling, Clara accuses Haber of perverting science and killing on a massive scale, and she shoots herself in the chest. Apart from the curious conviction of the narrator, Labatut here has done something fascinating yet subtle. He has taken one possibility, and by observing it, reified it. In this version, we observe their argument, and one of many possibilities is made concrete: we now have a result. In a parallel to quantum physics, a result remains in a state of possibility until observed, at which time it assumes definite characteristics. Schrodinger’s cat is both dead and alive until the box is opened. Once examined, Clara kills herself because of Haber. Brilliant, and yet the reader must work to see the parallel.

The title: When We Cease to Understand the World. What are we to make of this? Clearly quantum mechanics is the manifest topic. Perhaps the most entrenched, unassailable theory in science, and yet not understood in human terms. But Labatut has something more in mind. Like elementary particles, the very “ceasing to understand" itself has a host of possible manifestations. We know things but are ignorant of their ultimate consequences. We derive formulae but can’t follow our logic in doing so. We don’t understand our own cognitive processes in reaching conclusions. Some claim to understand things that no one else can follow, in a triumph of subjectivity. The consequences are personal and painful, not only theoretical and philosophical. Something has been lost, something that Labatut sketches out gracefully through compelling vignettes. We are disconnected from ourselves, forsaking our human way of perceiving ourselves and our environment.

Labatut has written a beautiful book. His research is impeccable. There is a longing here for a time when the world was more comprehensible. Where is the acknowledgment of our changed relationship to what and how we understand? How effectively and elegantly he expresses his lament - almost paralleling the process of the creators of quantum theory! I feel astonished at his creation of a form in which to do so. This is a work of art, and an achievement to be reckoned with.



Annihilation
by Jeff Vandermeer

This book mesmerized me. The challenge is to say anything about the actual book, as any thoughtful statement requires qualification, in particular an acknowledgement that any definite interpretation is provisional. Every deliberate word augments the literary realization of the unique ecosystem in which the protagonist - if it is in fact proper to call her that - finds herself or is entangled in or is altered by or voluntarily chooses. You begin to see my point.

A concise summary will suffice: A biologist is part of an expedition to mysterious Area X, a region where an inexplicable and different living environment has taken hold. Is this ecosystem of terrestrial origin? What is its nature?

What is more helpful, probably, is reaction. I was suffused with unease, a sense of the sublime, with perfection, beauty and terror all together. I'm reminded of some of the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich.

Annihilation takes you on a ride from page one. I can’t do better than Warren Ellis’ succinct blurb: “Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent.” Indeed. This is a masterful work. It’s not casual reading, and not only because it would be a pity to skim through the purposive telling and the fitting language of the narrative voice. This is a book that leads the reader into mystery and perplexity, beyond well rewarded. One needs to puzzle out with effort the uncertainties and subtleties of this realm. It is that pressing imperative that makes the reader feel as if they are personally exploring this confounding place.

Happy New Year!

I love Annihilation! Have you read/are you planning to read the sequels?

The Premonition was very good indeed. I remember reading a small news item in the Washington Post in late December 2019 about a new respiratory illness emerging in China, and wondering if this would be it.

>280 Karlstar: Happy New Year to you, and to all who discover this spot!

>281 Sakerfalcon: Well, I'm open to reading more, as I loved the book. However, I am not a completest, and usually prefer a new book or author I haven't read to completing a series. Plus, I'm pretty convinced that the proliferation of series over stand-alones is to a considerable extent a business decision, and not always in the interest of the reader or the books. In this case, I really felt that I was ok to leave it where it was. Fantastic writing and world-building. Can it really get better, or am I now at the apex?

>282 Marissa_Doyle: Yes, I also was on it very early. I was in a dilemma, because in early January 2020, I knew for sure a pandemic was on its way. This was not broadly understood, even though some had divined the reality. As a doctor, I grappled with whether I ought to be the bearer of this news to my patients when so little was really known and they had come for a visit for completely different reasons. I ended up publishing a paper about this strange and difficult period.

>279 stellarexplorer: Hi, Stellarexplorer. I came across a post you recently made to LizzieD on the 75 Books group, and came over to take a look. Oooo, you reviewed When We Cease to Understand the World, and it's a great review. I took the liberty of forwarding it to a book group I participate in, because we just read this for last month, and your detailed analysis is wonderful.

Lots of great reading over here. I hope to come back to visit from time to time.

Judy (ffortsa in 75 Books)

>286 ffortsa: He doesn't come in here too often anymore, sadly. You might be better off leaving your note as a private message. He is more likely to see that.

>286 ffortsa: Hi Judy, just found your comment, and I was so pleased that you read and liked my review. Terrific book! Often reviews can feel like shouting into the ether, so I thank you deeply!

>287 clamairy: Thank you for helping! I miss our communications - I may start to become a little more active here again, as things settle down in what has been busy and crazy period in my life!

>289 stellarexplorer: It would be nice to see you hanging out here again, as Clam said.

>290 jillmwo: So kind! Thank you - I feel the same way. I enjoyed your book ownership survey post, and it also reminded me of the many joys of being here. Look forward to further conversation!