Jason Cox
Struggling to understand why there is seemingly endless unrest in what should be a time of peace?
Start here. Simply fascinating book originally written in 2014 and updated in 2018 with additional material covering Trump. Even though this doesn't cover the time of COVID, you can almost predict some of the stuff going on with it based on what came before.
Very interesting read that makes one question current monetary policy (as if there weren't reason enough for this already) and truly points out how destructive the Fed's long-standing policy of quantitative easing has been actively hurting the middle class and is the primary cause of the growing wealth gap.
Wow! How did I not get taught this stuff in 17 years of schooling (not including Med school of course)? The topics covered in this one should be required education for not only every American, but every individual in a “free society” of any sort.
What's crazy is that for a book that was written in the 1980s and covers events mostly prior to 1950, this book is shockingly relevant at our current time.
If you have an Audible subscription, I believe this is included in your program and I would definitely recommend it if you want to be blown away by how prescient some guys writing in the 1600's and 1800's and early 20th Century were about politics and society.
Set in a world with a totally different class system, but which has a Victorian feel to it. This feels like a dystopian mix of steampunk Golden Compass and maybe a little Handmaid's Tale. The young female protagonist is enjoyable without getting too Mary-Jane-esque powerful. The world-building is fascinating, but raises a lot of questions about “how this all works” as there are some magical elements to it.
My sense is that this book intentionally sets the scene, raising those questions to be worked out later. It's mostly fast-paced with a couple of areas where it gets bogged down a tiny bit. In this one you get to know the protagonists Cettie and Sera and their separate worlds which do eventually come together to no reader's surprise.
A fascinating look into the glory years of the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works as written by former leader of the division, Ben Rich.
Contextual Note
My love of airplanes started at an early age as a child growing up in Houston, TX we were very poor, but my Dad would take me to Intercontinental airport just to watch the airplanes come in and take off. He had a pair of old binoculars and he taught me how to tell all the planes apart. We'd go see the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds anytime they were within driving distance. I loved all the different, beautiful planes of the American fleet. We had books full of photos and specs of all the world's aircraft. Dad and I would talk airplanes for hours, debating the virtues and vices of each of them. His favorite was the F-14 Tomcat. My favorite fighter was the F-15. But my overall favorite jet was the SR-71. That blackbird was the prettiest plane ever drafted. Most of my childhood, I grew up wanting to be a pilot or astronaut, likely due to all these discussions. /context
This book explores the inner workings of the Skunk Works unit in Lockheed Martin from the development of America's first jet fighter (the P-80) to the U-2 and the first true stealth airplane, the F-117 (along with its predecessor, the Have Blue prototype). And of course the SR-71! There's a huge focus on the founder of Skunk Works, Kelly Johnson and how he ran the shop. There are many anecdotes from pilots who flew these craft on missions and the unusual situations and the politics that were affected in this crazy time in history (1950's - 1990's). You'll also find plenty of discussion of the bidding process and competitions between aircraft companies of that age.
It is all simply fascinating. The very end also includes some insight into how the process actually prevents the citizens from getting the most out of our tax dollars and some suggestions that might help.
If you've ever sat around and had a discussion about which airplane is your favorite (ever in your life), you'll probably enjoy this one.
Fantastic book covering the ideologic concepts that have been ingrained into the institutions of the West (and particularly the United States) and is the primary antithesis to the concepts of liberalism and enlightenment along with Judeo-Christian values in the culture war that is currently underway.
Pluckrose and Lindsay do a fantastic job of accurately describing the origins and evolution of these “theories” and how they are implementing their ideologies into reality. They also discuss how this is has affected society and what to expect as it continues to grow in popularity. There is real, serious danger here. If you cannot see it, it may be helpful to step outside of your bubble and look again. As a warning: if you are firmly planted on the left, you'll want to skip this book as you will almost certainly be cancelled and lose friends if you are caught reading it. This level-headed look at these topics is verboten.
If you have high-school aged children and are considering sending them off to college, this book is a must read as those children will be indoctrinated with these ideologies in almost every college/university in the United States and will be opposed to the ideology that most Americans grew up thinking of as wholesome and helpful.
I enjoyed Martha Wells' All Systems Red as a first novel in a series. It was a short read and moved quickly with solid characters and situations that were pretty interesting.
That said, many people have gushed on this series to such a degree that I was expecting something remarkable and to me it was pretty darned basic. Murderbot as a character has an interesting enough situation that I can see this setting up for future conundrums and different situations than run-of-the-mill space opera. But it was, in my mind, barely touched upon. The other members of the squad introduced were reasonably solid, but there was little exploration of their group. It felt like the author was trying to write in such a way that the reader is supposed to assume things about those characters without having to actually “go there.” Making assumptions about people IRL is a dangerous and fault-ridden tactic, so that felt unsettling to me.
Can those of you who gush about this book, please tell me what I'm missing? Thanks in advance.
This is essentially a nit-pick of an enjoyable story, though. I do look forward to the next one, and have it in my Kindle library.
Interestingly, for such short pieces, I found it interesting that the price is higher for these than a typical novel ($12.99 as opposed to $9.99) and I found myself balking on hitting that buy button for this reason. Introspectively, I find my own reaction interesting and don't know what to make of it other than some sort of value proposition which has nothing to do with the writing, story, etc.
This was fantastic. Just finished reading and still absorbing it.
This sequel to The Final Empire (and book number 2 in the Mistborn series) takes place shortly after the events in the first book and takes most of the same characters through the consequences of what happened there, after the death of Kelcier and the Lord Emporer at Vin's hands. It is extremely well plotted and written. The characters are fantastic. There is intrigue, plot twists, surprise, battles and adventure.
...And loss.
Wow! Simply Wow!
If you haven't read this yet, it NEEDS to be your next book.
Are you a Christian? A conservative? Anyone who opposes the ideology that is sweeping the world and taking over every institution in society? Maybe you haven't been able to put a name to it (read Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay to explore that), but you probably feel the changes that have been coming, slowly at first, but now at an accelerating pace.
People who lived in the Eastern Bloc countries at the end of World War 2 recognize this feeling and the societal change all too well. They went through it before and they see what is going on now. In this book by Rod Dreher he talks about his discussions with these very people and what they recommend Americans do about it.
This is a very practical book and one I think I might even read again later this year. To take notes and start making plans.
If you are an average American who holds the classically liberal beliefs that have created this country (freedom, individual liberty, autonomy of self, enlightenment values, loosely Judeo-Christian morality)....
You simply MUST READ THIS BOOK ASAP!!!
The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe
This is a look at the handling of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus pandemic worldwide from a particular (skeptical) viewpoint. While I don't necessarily agree with even most of the points raised, it does bring up excellent questions and points out the stark authoritarianism with which the 4th Estate (media) and the Elites have combined to produce the profound economic, social, and political consequences we have seen. It uses genuine publicly available data from around the world to look at how different countries and regions have handled the pandemic and the outcomes derived from their policies.
I found this book challenging and interesting, and not a small amount unsettling. Worth a look.
Interesting discussion of the problems in Darwinian evolution and well worth consideration. Especially more consideration than most in the sciences give these ideas.
If you, like me, have been steeped in the education of science and various scientific fields (I have a B.S. in Biology, minor in Chemistry and MD in medicine), you cannot escape the indoctrination into Darwinian Evolution. What you will find, though, if you dig a little deeper, is that the gatekeepers of the various scientific fields will “cancel” any person who verbalizes any challenge to strict Darwinian Evolution as the answer to all the questions related to “where did life come from.” Whether you end up believing D.E. or not, this book is a good look at the problems with evolution as it is currently understood. Problems that are not explained or well explained from a scientific viewing (science being the process of skeptical inquiry in order to ultimately discover truth).
The book is rather detailed and covers many different angles of these problems. Look through the chapter index for that info.
Here, I will just say this: if you consider yourself scientifically minded, one should always be HIGHLY skeptical of any information or ideology wherein the people holding power squelch all discussion or consideration without directly refuting the hypotheses presented. This doesn't just pertain to this book. You will find this same thing happening throughout the world we live in. Almost always when you see this occur, the people with power are discarding good ideas for other ideas that allow them to control a narrative, power, financial opportunity, or a combination of these.
I absolutely loved Ready Player One, so I was pretty psyched to get into Ready Player Two. This book, however, was a disappointment.
The formula was very much the same, but unlike the first book, the characters' motivations don't make nearly as much sense. There's a huge, overly-preachy discussion of alternative sexuality that really didn't serve any purpose in the plotline. Clearly this was just included to meet the required standards of appeasing the culture fascists that currently run the SF/Fantasy realm. But it wasn't done well and it wasn't ‘integrated' into the story (like Aech's was in the first book) in any way that mattered.
Whereas in RPO, the 80's geek culture reference were very well integrated into the story and felt fun and added to the enjoyment, in this one it felt totally forced and done in a way that just felt “blah.” I imagine based on the reviews out there that many people felt this way about RPO, but I totally loved it in that book. I can't pinpoint why it's so much different in this book, but it was. Also, the romantic angst included in this book was pretty poorly done. In the first one it felt fairly realistic and you were rooting for Z and Arty to end up together. In this one, the gulf was too large and Z just talked about it too much, instead of the feelings being “acted out” in the story.
The gang still gets to go on an egg hunt. They do visit cool places, like John Hughes World, Middle Earth, and a planet devoted to the artist we all know as Prince. These were fun and cool. If they hadn't been, this would have been 2 stars at most. Because the plot holes were huge. Character action just didn't seem to match up with motivation and turned on a dime without explanation. I also didn't like the trope of things getting progressively more and more negative with the hope that the end rescues the whole book. It makes for a pretty miserable read in huge sections in this case. And the end was OK, but didn't make up enough to create the feeling of satisfaction. It took me almost a month to get through the audiobook! That should tell you something.
Fantastic practical book for Christians of all ages
I wish I had read this book 30 years ago. Such fantastic practical advice that is straight up Biblical. Really helps to demystify the concept of “searching for God's path for me.” Also informs on why so often we are earnestly praying for His direction, but don't get clear instructions. Those two concepts alone make this short read worth its weight in gold!
Highly recommended!
Christians in America have been witness to the secularizing of our country over the past few decades. It is clear that not only is this process accelerating, but there is a growing anti-Christian sentiment that is clearly seen if you look. So, what are we to do about it?
This is a good start in finding that direction. We must come to the realization that the concept of a Christian America is a futile pipe-dream. And attempting to hold back the tides of change will only serve to hasten the destruction of Christian society as we know it.
It may be time to take the Benedictine Option. Interesting idea with good discussion of it. It may not be the perfect solution, but it has a lot of positives and may be just what we need in this crazy moment.
Being a classic of the genre of science fiction, this has been on my “to read” list for a very long time. I think I kept postponing it because I always thought the movie was kind of boring (although I need to re-watch it now that I'm older, I think it might have just been too cerebral for me as a younger child when I first watched it).
I listened to the audiobook, which was fantastic. Arthur C. Clarke read the introduction himself, which told how he wrote the book with Stanley Kubrick with the intention of making a movie. Also of note is they were writing this as the “space age” was in it's early infancy, which is cool to think about as you're reading the novel.
In the end, I enjoyed this quite a bit. Now, I'm wondering about reading 2010... What do you think? Is it worth it?
Interesting look at elements of the political right from a very libertarian viewpoint. Though I consider myself libertarian, Michael Malice always seems to take things to an entirely different (Rothbardian?) level, but also does it in an “in your face” style. I definitely learned a number of things that I wasn't expecting. Definitely a worthwhile read.
Simply Fantastic!
Sanderson's books have been recommended over and over again and now I see why. Totally loved this book. It has the most fascinating “magic system” i've yet encountered and the way he presented it was extremely well done. Also, the characters are fantastic and endearing. Vin. Kelsier. The whole crew. Definitely has a fantastic “high fantasy” feel. The story moved along (flowed) extremely well and the ending was both satisfying and left me wanting to pick up the next one immediately.
I'll definitely be picking up the rest of the series so I can continue this journey.
Really, I'm quite blown away. Probably the best Fantasy novel I've read in years and years.
