Jason Cox
Wow, what an awesome book. I need to do a full review on this, but the long and short of this is that this book was incredibly enlightening. It may have changed my personal position on the death penalty. If you aren't sure about this one, definitely pick it up and read it. Very well written. Humorous despite the dark topic. But totally worth the time.
This is a rather short story, which is fine for the intended purpose of this anthology (which is a great idea and very well executed in the stories I've read thus far.) Andy Weir's story explores a particular idea - that of the effect of Quantum Computing on Casinos and how someone might try to take advantage of it. I think it's a great idea and it really had my mind exploring other areas that might also be affected or influenced by this change.
If you go into the book looking for this level of involvement, you'll find an interesting story worth the short amount of time you spent. Don't expect deep character involvement. In many short stories I've read, it seems they focus on a specific character event that is life-changing. Perhaps that is what people are expecting here.
Enjoyment, in my experience, often is relative to expectation. Hopefully this short review will help set expectations in line with the piece delivered here. I liked it!
Back to the Bible
Dr. McArthur reminds us that truth is only found in the word of God through the scripture. An important reminder in this age of “personal truth” and reinterpretation of scripture to fit cultural preferences. I was challenged to examine my own heart with regard to where I seek truth and authority. Too often today we see “Christian influencers” directing the path of the Christian communities with quotes, anecdotes, and cultural relevance and leaving behind the authority of scripture. This book is a needed wake up call to get back to being scripturally literate in our walk with Christ. ( reviewed by Holley Cox)
I first read the Dark Phoenix Saga (as individual comics) during college in the early 90's. Given the release of the Dark Phoenix movie, I thought I'd re-read it to see any similarities. I'm not going to spoil either the comic or the movie, but I will say that similarities between the two are loose. Very loose. That said, the comic omnibus is fantastic. It covers Uncanny XMen issues 129-137 wherein Jean Grey is struggling with the Dark Phoenix, a cosmic entity that coinhabits her body and slowly gains control over her.
This is a classic XMen story arc and it occurs at a very key point in the history of the Xmen with many long-lasting effects going forward. Events from this arc essentially set in motion enemies for the XMen that lead to Days of Future Past, the Sentinels, the political adversaries that lead to the mutant registration act, Genosha, and essentially sets the broad course of the XMen for at least the next 20 years in print.
The artwork by John Byrne and Terry Austin is absolutely fantastic. It was IMHO the best artwork in comics during that era. The other thing to keep in mind is this is what lead into the explosion of mutant comics at Marvel. The XMen was changing. There's something of a reunion of the original teammates with the new members during Dark Phoenix. Not long after this run, mutants would go from 1 comic (Uncanny Xmen) to so many that it was difficult to keep up - X Factor, New Mutants, Wolverine, Excalibur, Longshot, XMen, and I'm sure there are tons of others.
This is a fascinating book on WWI that covers more of the political aspects of the events leading up to and during the war. It reads fairly neutrally and doesn't feel like it “takes sides.” There is general discussion of the military side of the war with various battles and their significance covered, but not likely in the same degree of detail as the political machinations going on are covered.
I will admit that my education on the Great War was woeful. Perhaps this is because I moved cities in 8th grade and somehow missed it. Or maybe it's just that I'm a public school kid and that's what we got. Anyway, I thought this was very well done and I'd love suggestions that cover WWII in the same way.
For those of you who feel like taking the time (the unabridged audiobook was 32 hours) to learn about a war from a century ago, you might be surprised. I was certainly surprised how much similarity there is now to that era. Especially where it comes to some of the reporting from newspapers and propaganda that went on prior to and throughout the war.
A Warning: The propaganda of the time drove the citizens into a frenzy. For the Germans, that made them believe they were justified in their actions. It made them willing to make tremendous sacrifices towards a war effort that maybe shouldn't have been supported so long if their citizens and legislators were more level-headed. For the Entente (Allies), the same thing was true, but it also drove them to a point that they were unreasonable in their expectations for war reparations from Germany/Austria/Hungary. It appears obvious in hind-sight, but this likely lead to the conditions that brought Hitler to power and ultimately directly lead to WWII. Our current political climate is equally divisive. People on both sides of the political street actually believe that the other side is literally “evil.” That if you expose yourself to thoughts from the other side that you are somehow doing yourself harm. In reality, we are all in our own propaganda “bubbles” of information which is self-selected and then algorithmically reinforced through social media which feeds you more ideas that are similar to your own. The best thing we can do is to reverse this trend and burst our own info bubbles. Look openly at the other side. Maybe this way we can prevent WWIII, or a second civil war.
4.5 stars. Eye-opening!
Extremely informative rundown of the recent changes that are transforming Europe. Living in America, this is completely ignored on our news services. I have heard of some of this stuff on the internet, but assumed it was condoned through referendum of the citizens of the various European countries. The truth was eye-opening and a bit frightening, to say the least. And I can see the leadership of this country doing the same thing here in the U.S. if given the opportunity.
This book is an absolute must read for everyone in our society. Any society. I cannot recommend it highly enough, because it is IMPORTANT. The topic is important, the discussion is important and most of all, it is important that YOU begin thinking about these things for you and your parents. As in right now.
Atul Gawande's Being Mortal explores the impact of aging on our bodies, our life experiences, our family dynamics, our societal structures, and our healthcare system. We as individuals rarely take time to think about our own future as we age and become more feeble and start having falls. What about our parents? What do you think about nursing homes? Is there a better option? Honestly, Being Mortal doesn't exactly give us discrete answers. But it's a very complicated problem and the first step towards getting better options and eventually a better answer is to start putting some thought into the situation. That is especially true for each of our individual families.
Beautiful art book filled with gorgeous full-color artwork. Nivanh Chanthara's style is super futuristic with a creepy edge and I love it. Almost exclusively (roughly) humanoid robots or cyborgs. Many spreads have both the pencil sketch in B&W along with the fully rendered final model. There are a couple of cool tutorials at the end to give you an idea of Nivanh's process. The quality of printing is impeccable. On par with Design Studio Press stuff. Nice, thick pages. Full color artwork, often full bleed which just looks and feels luxurious.
Some artists will try to squeeze in a story to explain things, but there's no time wasted on that here. I don't know that that makes much of a difference, though, because this type of book is eye candy. Buy it to flip through and take inspiration. Drive you to put a little extra time/effort into your own sketches and/or final pieces.
This is another fun Sci-Fi read. The characters are great and they make reasonable decisions given the circumstances involved (that's a low-bar expectation, I know, but it needs to be said regardless). It's a fun story. My only negative on the book (keeping it from 5 stars) is that it is very derivative of Star Trek in many areas.
This is book 1 of a series. I'll definitely be following up with the next one.
This is a fantastic history of what we currently think of as the tech industry. Walter Isaacson's history is extremely well written and eminently entertaining. As a nerdy kid who grew up loving computers in the late 70's and throughout the 80's, I had heard some of these stories before in part, but in each substory covered, Isaacson dives much deeper.
Starting with the stories of Charles Babbage (inventor of the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine) and Lady Ada (the first programmer, Mr. Isaacson follows the progression of the development of the computer. Alan Turing's entertaining yet tragic story is covered in detail as are his counterparts across the pond in America who are working on similar breakthroughs. The creation of Eniac and it's role in the Cold War. The early history of the personal computer is covered in detail. The foundations of Intel and the 8008 processor. Xerox Parc being 15 years ahead of their time (probably more). Hewlett and Packard starting up their company in a garage. The home-brew computer club. Pre-Apple computers. Apple computer's garage start up with Woz and Jobs. The foundation of Microsoft with Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer. There's even a bit of coverage of the evolution of the internet from early ARPAnet to BBSes and Compuserve to AOL and then the web in general. This is pretty much a skim discussion as you could do whole books on most of these things. Still, it helps bring it all together and makes for a pretty satisfying end.
This was a fantastic, fun read. A little “lighter” than many of Stephenson's books, but still with a good, deep jab of an idea.
It begins with a rather technical premise: what if, using theories of quantum physics, you could “bring back” working magic in a small area in modern day. And what if a secretive government organization is trying to figure this out in order to use it as a weapon against other countries which are presumptively doing the same to us?
Wild idea, right? It is, and it's a fun idea to explore. Somewhat like David Brin's The Practice Effect in the sense that the “way out there” idea is the obvious foundation and everything that comes after is direct consequence of the juxtaposition of our modern sensibility with that of the crazy concept. But what really makes this book is the characters and how they're developed. The stuff they go through and the time-structuring of the book add to the feeling that the main characters are truly in deep jeopardy.
This is yet another piece of evidence that goes on the “Why you should read everything Neal Stephenson writes” pile.
The premise was pretty cool - a computational biologist uses his unique skillset to create an algorithm that helps him find the likely location of bodies from missing people files. The writing was fair and the supporting characters are written pretty well. The problem is that the main character, who otherwise almost comes across as Asperger's-level analytical, makes really counter-character decisions repeatedly through the story. He goes forth and does stuff that just don't make any sense in light of everything he describes himself to be. And he just keeps doing it to an absurd degree. Even his self-talk is “why am I doing this?” “I shouldn't be doing this.” “Nobody will believe me or understand why I'm doing this.”
So rating the book was hard. I liked the premise. I wish there were more books with a biology professor as the main character (please suggest any if you know of others). I liked the AI algorithm part of it. I liked the supporting cast and the writing of those characters. The book gets 5 stars on all of that. But the main character stuff mentioned above is a 2-star kind of deal. And the main character is key to a fiction book, right?
Having read this book as a young-is child (probably in the 10-12yo range), I had nothing but fond memories of Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series (then a trilogy). But re-reading these in the last year, AWiT held up well and was even better than remembered, A Wind in the Door was pretty good and definitely gave me that “feel of wonder” that I remember from so long ago. But A Swiftly Tilting Planet was entirely, well, ugh. I just didn't enjoy it at all.
The story opens in familiar territory: the Murry family is gathered together for Thanksgiving dinner, along with Calvin's mother, Mrs. O'Keefe (now Meg's mother-in-law). The phone rings and it's the president, calling Mr. Murry with a huge dilemma... they have reports that a South American dictator plans to nuke the U.S.A. the next day. Perhaps Mr. Murry will be able to help them figure out how to change. Suddenly Mrs. O'Keefe comes alive with something of a chant, and charges Charles Wallace to find a solution. He meets up with a unicorn and goes back in time, kything into other people at different points in history. I can't say much more about it without spoilers.
The thing about this book is that one has to keep in mind that it was written at the height of the cold war during a time of extreme international tension with the specter of nuclear war that permeated everything in society. That angst comes through loud and clear in ASTP. With the political climate the way it currently exists here in the states, I don't think I was in the mood for political undertones. And the plot is extremely slow-developing. And it has alternate history aspects (which is not something which I've ever enjoyed much). So maybe it's just a “not the right book for me at this moment” kind of thing, but I just didn't dig it all that much this time.
Very interesting book about an interesting scientist. I'd go so far as to call him a “character.” In addition to winning the Nobel prize in physics, this guy lived a very full life, taking many opportunities and living his life to the fullest. There's an interesting contrast in the book which spends about equal time talking about 3 different things:
1. Scientific Endeavors
2. His involvement in science education
3. How to be successful picking up women in bars or casinos, and various other scoundrel-type activities.
Which of these is different from the others?
But that's kind of how the book goes. Its surprising all the different things he gets into. Different areas of science. Working on The Bomb. Rapid math in his head. Working with incredibly famous scientists. Playing drums in Brazil. Learning different languages. Talking about his enjoyment in spending time with beautiful women. How he learned how to essentially be a scoundrel. Seeing the difference in the education of science in Brazil compared to the US. Winning the nobel prize. Social faux pas with royalty.
It's a pretty wild ride.
This was an interesting book that really focused on the importance of developing habits, but did very little in the way of giving you methods to use which would enable you to implement those habits. Basically a book of anecdotes of individuals who used the power of habit to transform themselves and/or their company, taking things to the next level.
Fantastic book! It has been years since I read this originally, long enough that I'd essentially forgotten everything about it. It was definitely worth the re-read, though. The concept of the “Zones of thought” is so original, but makes a sort of sense that may have you wondering if it's scientific truth. And the way the concept is explored is pretty fantastic. It has some hard science edges to it that are reminiscent of Alastair Reynold's revelation space books, but I have to admit I prefer Vinge's prose. The characters are well fleshed out with motivations that make sense.
The plot line is also very well done. It's essentially a race in space. As I'm writing this, I find myself thinking of the race that makes up the majority of The Last Jedi movie and how horribly done that is compared to this one. Whereas TLJ's race is dumbfounding, making no sense from a scientific or plot line point of view, this one is exciting. You know the risks. The consequences. And it's a huge thing for not only those involved in the race itself, but essentially the rest of the galaxy as well.
This is essential reading for any fan of science fiction. One of the absolute best books out here.
While parts of this are interesting from a historical perspective, this book was just super hard for me to get into. I found myself loathing pretty much every person in the book. The tone felt like a narcissistic tech geek power fantasy, but with mostly bumbling and little true interest.
I do not recommend this unless you were personally involved in a social media startup in the mid 2000's.
What could happen if our country were hit with an EMP weapon or supermassive solar flare? One Second After is an interesting exercise in exploring that particular “what if.” I thought it was an entertaining read and certainly a thought-provoking read. I thought the characters were pretty well written. It's one that I couldn't put down once I picked it up.
3.5 Stars
The cool thing about this book is the idea of huge mobile cities on tracks lumbering around the countryside, devouring smaller or competing cities, along with the anti-traction league who believes the need for mobile cities is a thing of the past. The characters are a bit shallow, though likable enough. It's a fast-paced read and I think it'll do well as a movie with Peter Jackson at the helm. The writing style was just pretty bland to me, so I'm left with a bit of a decision as to whether I'll pick up the next in the series or not. Maybe my expectations were too high and I'm coming away disappointed?
Fascinating read about salt. This is an essential thing for our body and has apparently been the victim of pseudoscience since the turn of the 20th century. The author takes the time to go through old “data” and reports about salt as well as evaluating more recent and better quality scientific studies. The end result is that the majority of people do not benefit from salt restriction and actually may benefit greatly from increasing the salt in their diet for many reasons.
As a physician, I found the book to be sound and makes a ton of sense. He also talks about salt's place in several hormonal blood pressure and electrolyte regulation loops in human physiology and it's pretty eye-opening that we've lived and often practiced with these misconceptions for decades. It's very (eerily!) similar to the misconceptions on macronutrients (carbs, fats, proteins) that have lead to the current epidemic of obesity in America. It appears likely that these misconceptions all stem from the same groups who lobbied for their pet products (big corn/agra/sugar/processed foods) without sound science to back it up and who have been systematically been undermining sound science that has been released for these decades.
This is a must read for anyone who is health-conscious in any way.