Za
This is a love story with a sci-fi twist.
In this world, two opposing forces, Garden and Agency, move forward and backward in time (upthread and downthread) to affect events to ensure the survivability of their peoples. Red (Agency) and Blue (Garden) are rivals who at first taunt and compete with each other, then - through secret letters and notes they leave one another - fall in love. They never meet - both wear different faces and take on different identities at each mission - at least not in flesh, but get to know each other intimately through words. We follow their clandestine relationship, as they attempt desperately to evade the detection of their oppressive leaders, and of the mysterious Seeker.
The writing is lush and poetic, even as it narrates death and violence (which, as human history will attest - and both of them do traverse history, mentioning along the way Khan and Caesar, among others - is full of blood and cruelty), destruction and desolation. It gives us a tantalising glimpse of what can be done and undone should we have the power to travel through time.
But this novella by American writer Max Gladstone and Canadian author and poet Amal el-Mohtar is not about human history. It is about love's power and how it spans space and time, and overcomes all odds to survive.
#booknotes #reads2020 #scifireads #thisishowyoulosethetimewar
More a 3.75 than a 4.0 because I got terribly irritated that the author - a Malaysian who lives abroad - couldn't fact-check that Malaysia has not had a jury system since 1995. When that error occurred in the first quarter, it took me more than 50 pages to settle into the story because the mind was wondering what other fact about my country - our country - he got wrong.
But once I got settled in, the tragedy of Hock Lye drew me in. The story focuses not just on the dark and exploitative migrant labour scene in Malaysia but also on people - like Hock Lye and his Mom - who are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty. The Malaysia that is painted in this story is not pretty - everyone is corrupt (exaggeratedly so, I must say) and the system (like the drains) is broken. It's in these broken places that people like Keong, Hock Lye's friend, and the people running the illegal labour racket, survive.
Truly thrilling, and informative. Love the author's reference notes and bib at the end.
Not the most relaxing read but worth it to appreciate the beauty of language and the weight of every single word in a piece of literature. She includes a reading list (“Books To Read Immediately”), from which I confess I've only read 5%. There are plenty of extracts from literary classics to illustrate what good writing is. And she makes me want to read Chekhov.
A book that merits a second, even a third, reading.
3.5 stars. Not so much lessons as in perspectives, I feel. Appreciated the questions he raised about the need for our “fictions”, whether we really have free will (no), and whether we know our own minds (negative) but didn't find them as insightful as his arguments within the first two parts on technology and politics. Much prefer his earlier books.
On my fourth BuJo but still a lot to learn. A beautiful book that's also packed with wisdom. Begs another reading to cull all the helpful tips and advice, plus reminders on elements I've not yet incorporated.
Note: This was my first encounter with W Gibson.
This was not the easiest collection of short stories to read, because the author's descriptions of the future are so vivid, manic, and unapologetically hard-core specific you get disoriented at the world he's painting. In his world(s), social divides are magnified and the synthetic get woven into the real, reinforcing rather than mitigating human flaws. The stories buzz with energy, the characters are gritty, emotive, and the science seems just out-there plausible.
Three of the 10 stories are author collaborations. Favourites are New Rose Hotel (corporate espionage in a way I've never read), Red Star, Winter Orbit (Russian astronauts in space), and Burning Chrome (which has the most beautiful descriptions of computer hacking, and viruses).
Will pick up Gibson's Neuromancer soon.
I had never been as engrossed in a non-fiction book as I was with this one; there were so many jaw-dropping passages within the book.
This is the story of Theranos, founded by Elizabeth Holmes, who was heralded as the next (female) Steve Jobs / Bill Gates for ‘revolutionising' the blood-testing industry by inventing (or attempting to invent) a device that could run “hundreds of tests” with a small pin-prick of blood. Despite the regulations governing the industry, and the usual demand for peer-reviewed studies and scientific data, Elizabeth Holmes, with the help of her partner-boyfriend, the much older Sunny Balwani, managed to dupe CEOs (including of Safeway and Walgreens), investors (Rupert Murdoch among them), the government (high-ranking military officers included), politicians (she rubbed shoulders with the Clintons and even attended Obama's events), and highly respected older individuals (former Secretary of State George Schultz comes prominently to mind), for a dozen years on the viability of her (non-viable) products through a combination of charm and charisma (Elizabeth's), legal bullying (mostly of staff who were made to comply with harsh confidentiality clauses), inspection blind-siding (inspectors were only allowed into certain sections of the laboratories), and (eventually) damaging shortcuts (the labs did not follow proper procedures, and patient results were often inaccurate).
It's also a telling tale of how easily we can be duped by the media (Forbes and Fortune helped catapulted her image, because the editors themselves fell into her “reality-distortion-field”) and by the endorsement of people who are generally held in high esteem by the society we live in (George Schultz, for example, believed in her until right up to the end, even estranging his own grandson in his beliefs).
Elizabeth Holmes remains a fascinating character. It's tempting to believe she started out with truly noble intentions, but then got snared herself in her own hype and ambition (she saw herself as the next Wunderkind and, growing up upper middle class, wanted to be rich), and that of her product's potential (how does that quote go? if you repeat a lie over and over, people will believe you?). I'm pretty sure Silicon Valley hasn't seen the last of her, and the world certainly hasn't seen the last of people like her, who weave such a compelling smoke-screen around themselves, that very few people are able to see through the tales. We are human, and we all want to believe the Wizard of Oz is real.
The story itself is well-laid out, taking us step by step on Theranos's incredible journey from being just another start-up to what was considered the darling of the tech world (at its highest point, Theranos's stock was valued at US$10 billion). There's plenty of end-notes, for the diligent reader who likes to follow the trail of breadcrumbs, but this also means the main narrative doesn't get bogged down with too much facts and technical details.
It's been awhile since I was so enthralled by a novel, and a fantasy novel at that. It seemed like such a daunting read at first but the story weaved its spell after the first few pages. Slow-paced? Not when every sentence is such a delight to read. Complex characters, an intriguing magical system, period atmosphere, and a plot that unspools into darkness.
3.5-stars from me. Enjoyed the different closed-door mysteries and the twist for each, plus the intriguing mathematical hypothesis and tale that wrapped around the mysteries. The book is like a candy box of murders, differently flavoured and wrapped. It's a clever way to house and thread short stories together. Ultimately, because there were many characters, detectives, suspects, and victims, the reading is from a distance and the ending had less emotional punch. Still an enjoyable and unique read.
3.7 / 5.
This was a solidly entertaining thriller, with main characters who keep you guessing. I'd give it a 4 if not for the ending which, while satisfactory, felt like it was missing a few ingredients. Nonetheless, this was a really enjoyable page-turner which delivered on an interesting premise.
Giving it a five star rating because it made me laugh even though the discrimination Elizabeth Zott faced was no laughing matter. A thoroughly brisk and enjoyable book despite the long flashback.
The atmosphere and surrealist tone of the stories, especially for The Missing Girl and Nightmare, adds to their creepiness. Love her style, even if, for Nightmare, the ending was abrupt and gave me question marks than answers.
If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say “Invisibility” was the theme running through the stories. In the first, so little information about the missing girl could be obtained from the people around her including her own room-mate that it's as if no one paid her any attention; in the second, a child lends a woman the cloak of Invisibility she desires; and in the third, no one notices a woman even when a van is blaring her exact description on the streets of New York and escalating rewards (a yatch, $50k, unlimited travel, etc) are offered for her identification.
These stories don't have the shock twist and horror of The Lottery; the sense of dread is present but mild, and in all three, peters off at the end.
Worth a read if you're keen to become more familiar with Shirley Jackson's works.
A more thought-provoking read than I expected and I had to slow my reading speed significantly to absorb the arguments.
A well-argued essay (and response to its feedback) not just on computers and why he prefers not to use one but also on technological progress, feminism, and the environment.
I'd only vaguely heard of Berry but in these past two weeks, I've heard his name and books mentioned at least three times.
If the TBR pile is reduced, perhaps I will pick up his novel Hannah Coulter.
Very helpful tips from top performers, conveniently categorised and with added commentary, too, by Tim Ferriss.
A huge book about a group of humans trying to save the living sentinel of our earth - trees. Richard Powers's writing is beautiful and lyrical, bringing trees to life in a way no encyclopaedia nor textbook ever could.
The human characters are nowhere near the number of trees that populate this book, but for a novel, there are many: 9. We meet them individually then together: the descendant of a farming family, a second generation Chinese American, a bright but odd kid, a lawyer and the woman he can't live without, a young, scarred soldier, a crippled tech genius, an academic, and a beautiful uni drop out.
Many of them meet within the second half of the book and become members of a radical green movement to save the earth from human plunder.
I normally shy away from books with a strong message but the writing is so evocative, the information on trees so fascinating, and the author's presentation of the human experience so unique that the 500 plus pages didn't feel heavy.
This was not an easy book to read, but it is one that will make you look at trees and plants with a lot more respect and wonder, and it could be the one to make you realise the real cost of our neglect of the environment.
This was a tough novel to get through, not because it was badly written (quite the contrary) but because the subject matter made me put the book down every few pages for an emotional breather.
The story itself is based on a true story of two fathers - Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli - who each lost a young daughter due to violence. They each become members of Combatants for Peace, seeking to find common ground through shared tragedy which - they hope - will lead to greater compassion and eventually, perhaps, to that elusive peace.
In form, the novel stands apart. It is not in any chronological order, nor is it in any sort of logical order. Passages of story are interspersed with factual snippets and anecdotes that sometimes are only tangentially connected to the main novel. There are even photos to illustrate parts of the novel. Rami's and Bassam's story also go back and forth in time. Oddly though, you can make sense of the tale, and (mostly) appreciate the excerpts on birds, mathematics, riot-control gas, Mitterrand's last meal, among others.
The writing is beautiful. Even when McCann is describing birds, you just want to settle in to the prose. His narration of the personal tragedies of Rami and Bassam and how they each come to terms with it is deliberate, almost in slow motion when he goes in and out of their anguish. Violence is not white-washed and neither are the injustices.
It is a heavy read - there isn't much levity in the story nor the prose - but the writing is graceful. An article said that the author broke up the passages into 1,001 paragraphs echoing 1,001 Nights (NY Times). I didn't count them and there is nothing said in the author's acknowledgements; the form of the novel did help in breaking up the tragic reality of the story.
The book though, I feel, is about hope, a reminder that as long as there are people like Bassam and Rami who can advocate for peace despite their suffering, there may still be a chance for an end to violence.
#booknotes #apeirogon #colummccann #reads2021 #novel #bookstagram #thereadinglife
As with other Ishiguro works I've read, the narrative of Klara and the Sun floats me along, like a gentle river. The point of view character is Klara, an Artificial Friend (AF), a humanoid designed to befriend humans and have their best interests at heart.
From the storefront from which she observes human goings on outside the window and arrives at a conclusion that will shape her decision in the later part of the story, to a home in the countryside, after she is selected and purchased by Josie, a sickly child of about fourteen, for company, Klara's point of view is an interesting one.
Visually she discerns the world through geometric shapes, angles, light and shadow. At times, her vision divides into squares with each segment a piece of out-of-place jigsaw, the result like an abstract art work. Despite this, Klara is unusually perceptive, even compared to newer AF models, with a deep curiosity about, and compassion for humans.
Can almost humans make life better for humans? This is an intriguing concept, and the premise begs deeper exploration of humans and machines, AI and its applications, and what constitutes human-ness. Because the story is told by Klara, we are at a point removed from the drama, and the human interactions - especially the scene of Klara's friends at her home - take on a slightly surreal quality.
In the time and age of the story, parents are expected to have their children “lifted” or genetically enhanced but there are side effects. One can deduce that the children are the first generation to be able to benefit - or die - from the process of genetic enhancements. Josie's childhood sweetheart and neighbour, Rick, is unlifted and life for him presents different prospects with fewer opportunities. In the second half of the novel, there is another reveal, when Klara is taken to the city and discovers what Josie's mother has in mind for her, should Josie not become better.
The story reveals information in slow drips. The narrative is leisurely, and though the eddies become more turbulent in the second half of the novel, the pace remains sedate. I had no trouble with this. The slow pace enabled absorption of the world Klara inhabited, a world where creators (humans) questioned the value and virtues of their own creations.
Having read Never Let Me Go, which was sad and deeply disturbing, I found Klara and the Sun to be a more hopeful rendition of the same theme, albeit still a melancholic one. If there is a criticism, it is that there is no central question to be answered, or explored. In NLMG, the rights of clones comes into sharp focus but in this one, there are instead a multitude of smaller questions. The question of what makes us human is explored, but I am reluctant to settle for Klara's touching but simplistic conclusion.
Klara and the Sun is a moving narrative of humans and machines, the latter of which can be programmed to have our best interests at heart even while we humans with our complicated intelligence and tangled emotions often act against our own.
A second read, and I detest Heathcliff anew even as I wonder at his eternal love for Catherine. Tragic and even brutal. Abusive. But the dialogues are beautifully written, and the desolate setting a plausible reason for the small cast of characters and inter-family marriages.
A book that's sure to put a smile on your face. It has fewer clever and whimsical lines than the originals but all the stories stay true to character and highlight the charms of Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.
More a 2.8. Well written of course but all characters were hard to sympathise with, and DeMille tends to make all his women folk beautiful and sexy (a trend across all the books of his I've read), and - in this tale - still dependent on the men folk. I didn't like a single character in this story, and couldn't care less if all of them got blown to bits by the Russians.
This book had me from page one, and didn't let go until the end.
It's 1954 in America, and 22-year-old Vietnam War vet Atticus Turner is driving through Indiana to get to his father's home in Chicago. His car has a flat and with no working spare in the boot, he trudges to the nearest car repair shop to buy a tyre. But the men there wouldn't serve him because he's black, and there's nothing he can do about it. He waits for hours by the side of the road, keeping low, reading a Ray Bradbury (he's a fan), before a service from fifty miles away comes to fix his tyre. When he drives to Chicago the next day, he gets pulled over and his belongings ransacked by a police trooper who doesn't believe he really has books in the trunk of his car.
So opens Lovecraft Country and from the first scene onwards, it is like a train picking up speed, the landscape a segregated but normal America, then the land allows us glimpses of creatures from the dark, and the atmosphere suddenly crackles with magic.
The stories don't have a single central character but the protagonists of each chapter are members of Atticus Turner's family, who, because of their heritage, gets drawn into a power struggle that is as old as time, involving ancient forces beyond normal comprehension. The stories are inter-connected and lead to one satisfying finale.
The novel is fashioned on Lovecraft tales, but without the purple prose (or that's how I recall Lovecraft tales, at any rate) and cleverly interwoven into the fabric of 1950s reality for black Americans, racism very much at the fore and centre, affecting where they lived (and where they could live), where they schooled, how they shopped, and how they travelled (Atticus's Uncle George publishes ‘The Safe Negro Travel Guide' which lets black travellers know which motels, restaurants, and cafes would serve them). The story's villains are constructed of bigotry as well as the supernatural.
It is this brilliant mash-up of ancient and unknown terrors with the familiar horrors of racism that makes this novel a thoroughly exciting, memorable, and entertaining read.
There are parts I have to return to, to understand better, but Neil de Grasse's sense of wonder at the vast universe, and the science it contains, is palpable and draws you in as surely and relentlessly as a gravitational pull (could not resist that!). I may not still be able to understand pulsars or quarks perfectly, but I do understand how little we know of the space we occupy and how insignificant earth is, in the vastness of it all.