Books finished in February:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2014) by Ashlee Vance. Interesting and engaging about a visionary entrepeneur in online payments (PayPal), electric cars (Tesla), space travel (SpaceX), and solar power (Solar city). Musk comes off as a brililant, vain, and eccentric control freak. It will be interesting to follow him further.

The Three-Body Problem (2014) by Cixin Liu. Chinese science fiction. Something about the narrative was unlike the (Western) science fiction literature I am familiar with. An interesting experience. The parts from the cultural revolution seemed caricatured, but maybe it really was like that then.

Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio (2015) by Misha Glenny. Nem ends up as Don of the Rocinha favela in Rio. In Misha Glenny’s telling, Nem is more of a businessman than a criminal, and a provider of peace and prosperity, at least compared to other Dons. But several types of police, other gangs, and other dangers are always present in this corrupt world.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in January:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons (2002) by Roberty M Sapolsky. Very good book about baboons and humans. Written by an American working in Kenya. Probably very tiresome if you do not like the author’s sense of humour, but I found it ok, and really liked the book. Recommended.

Aurora (2015) by Kim Stanley Robinson. Warning: Spoiler alert! Review: Aurora is a sceptical take on space exploration. A space ship and its inhabitants reach the “Earth analog” Aurora 160 years after leaving Saturn. When starting to terraform Aurora, they discover a deadly prion and give up the project. Most return to Earth, where they start to advocate that trying to establish human settlements on other planets is futile, because either such a planet is alive, in which case it will be poisonous, or it is alive, in which case it will take too long to terraform. The novel takes biological og sociological challenges seriously, but the position that societies of tens of thousands of people will not be large enough to survive and thrive long enough to terraform another planet or reach a suitable one seems puzzling, as many long-living tribes in human history have not been larger than that. Nevertheless, good to read something less optimistic and smoothly-going than many other accounts of space exploration (though the space ship people have their share of luck as well). Ends with a meditation of the value of the nature on Earth and the experiences it gives us, which even though space exploration is exciting, should not be forgotten.

The UnAmericans: Stories (2014) by Molly Antopol. Short stories about Americans with Eastern European backgrounds. Did not do much for me.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in November:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Iron War: Dave Scott, Mark Allen, and the Greatest Race Ever Run (2011) by Matt Fitzgerald. Modern triathlon classic given to me by an old friend. Ranges from the ridiculous (Madam Pele…) to the sublime (the race). Fortunately, the good parts dominate. Recommended.

Seveneves: A Novel (2015) by Neal Stephenson. “The hard rain” might be the most awesome plot setting I have ever come across. The story itself, about a human society descending from seven Eves trying to survive in space, goes from the near to the far future, and like always with Stephenson includes lots of technology, economics and politics as well as becomes a little long-winded at times and has some ups and downs. But overall recommended.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in October:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

A busy month with too much work.

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (2010) by Wes Moore. Two Wes Moores from the same area in Baltimore, one becomes a Rhodes scholar and decorated army officer and writes this book, the other ends up in prison on a life sentence for murder. Though both were in trouble and had absent fathers, one had it generally worse, and I think the author underplays the difference in family backgrounds and circumstances between the two, especially when explicitly contemplating what made the difference. But despite the thin plot, the book does provides a view into life in a poor place in a rich country. Ok.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in September:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will (2015) by Geoff Colvin. We are at the fourth turning point of workers (1. Industrial technology, 2. Electricity, 3. IT). Amazing advances by computers and robots. In stead of asking what computers can never do, ask what we will insist that humans do. Examples of the latter include roles of accountability for important decisions, like judges in court of law, CEOs, generals, other types of leaders; dealing with organizational issues where the conceptualization and nature of a problem keep changing; and areas where we want to look someone in the eye, like a doctor (this one puzzled me, given the advances made by computerized diagnosing). All this assuming society still run by humans, and that cyborgs that look perfectly like humans have not come into being. The value of empathy in forgin interpersonal connections. Good examples of the value of practice, often in various forms of simulations, from the military. Colvin makes the claim that human teams are still key, however the amassed evidence is here a bit short on causal relationships. Luckily this is not a trait running through the book. Recommended.

Guantánamo Diary (2015) by Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Writing in 2005, Mohamedou Ould Slahi from Mauritania tells the story of how in 2001 he was detained by Mauritianian authorities, transferred to Jordan, then Afghanistan, then in 2002 to Guantanamo, Cuba, where he has remained since. It is difficult to evalutate a book like this, both because the author has obious incentives to represent his story in a certain way, and because the other side does not go out with all they supposedly know. It is hard to not be moved by his story, though, and the reasonableness with which he describes his situation, himself, and his guards. The New Yorker and the Guardian have good reviews. Recommended.

Annihilation: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy) (2014) by Jeff VanderMeer. An expedition sets out to explore the abandoned, mysterious “Area X”. Too much horror/fantasy for me. Not recommended.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in August:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Apex: Nexus Arc Book 3 (2015) by Ramez Naam. Action-filled conclusion to Naam’s Nexus trilogy (Nexus, Crux, Apex). Against a backdrop of geopolitics, drug policy, fear of the unknown, development policy, and human rights, transhumans, AI, and humans clash. The first book (Nexus) provided the basic “science fictional” elements, here we see how these play out on the political scene, with its many actors with different motivations. Recommended.

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World (2014) by Steven Johnson. Popular history of six innovations: Glass, cold (refrigeration), sound (recorded), clean (hygiene), time, light (artificial). Ideas that went through several phases and continually changed societies and opened up new possibilities and unintended consequences. A wealth of stuff to learn, but pay attention, otherwise things will go past you, as happened to me on this reading. Nevertheless recommended. Apparently also a TV series, favorably reviewed by Cory Doctorow.

Between the World and Me (2015) by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A long letter from the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son about being black in the United States. From slavery to today’s frequent killing of black men, by other blacks, police, and others, “black bodies” have been or been in the danger of being “taken”. Coates is pessimistic and despairing, even though the US of today is surely an improvement from slavery, and from even 50 years ago. However, his aim is neither to count the successes, nor discuss policy, but to emotionally tell (his son) how bad he thinks the situation still is, and how he sees today’s wrongs as a continuation of the past’s. Recommended.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in July:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Reamde: A Novel (2012) by Neal Stephenson. Not what I expected from the author of Cryptonomicon and the Baroque cycle. It starts off promisingly with modern, hot topics like a bitcoinlike virtual currency, the mmorpg T’Rain and its gold farmers, and ransomware, but quickly develops into a simple action story packed full of unbelievable coincidences, with a conflict between evil, largely unidimensional Muslims and others. Disappointing.

The Book of Daniel: A Novel (1971) by E. L. Doctorow. Novel based on the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were put on trial for espionage and executed for treason in 1953. In the book they are called Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, and the story is told through their son Daniel. From his viewpoint, the pair, and particularly the father, come off as self-righteous and somewhat narrow-minded, though harmless, and likely innocent. According to Wikipedia, in the real world the children also believed in their parents’ innocence for a long time, though were convinced otherwise in the end. Finished the book a few days after the death of E. L. Doctorow. Interesting to learn about the people executed for espionage against the US in recent times, but I would not really recommend the book. (Trivia: The story ends in Disneyland, where Cory Doctorow‘s novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom takes place, but apparently the two are not related.)

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in June:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Confessions of a Bad Teacher: The Shocking Truth from the Front Lines of American Public Education (2013). Owens (according to himself) quit a good job in publishing to make a difference as a schoolteacher, but was driven out in less than a year by an impossible (and in the end even criminal) principal. Of course everything in the book is from Owen’s own viewpoint. Anyway, two main points are that too many demands and responsibilities are placed on teachers (individualized teaching; keeping order; contact parents; please principal, etc), and that the culture of blaming the teacher for all wrongs must stop. That sounds sensible enough, but he is way too unnuanced in the discussion of data and measurement, of which there are supposedly no advantages. Paradoxically, one of his own recommendations is even more comprehensive tests, which of course would raise all the same issues. Overall, the book is an easily accessible viewpoint in the school debate, but should hardly be taken as a final word.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in May:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Now, May was a really busy month.

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (2015) by Robert Putnam. Putnam’s (born 1941) generation grew up in the post-war period and experienced the economic boom and opportunities for upwards social mobility of that era. Their kids, the subjects of this book, have not done as well, however. Drawing mostly on interview material, Putnam tells the stories of many struggling families and how a class divide is growing. That divide is partly economic, but the cultural dimension is just as important, in particular the one having to do with parental behavior. Resourceful parents plan when to have kids, manage to exploit all opportunities, prevent risks, and raise their children to have the right attitudes, while parents with bad parenting styles don’t. Residential and social sorting is part of the problem – kids of not-so-great parents get less exposure to other good role-models than before. Putnam is concerned, first on the part of these people themselves, but also on part of democratic governance, as “the opportunity gap undermines political equality and thus democratic legitimacy (p.239)”, and “[a]n inert and atomized mass of alienated and estranged citizens, disconnected from social institutions (p. 239)” might give rise to “antidemocratic extremism (p. 239)” when pressured, as in Germany in the 1930s. He stresses that we have not seen the worst yet, as he believes that this type of inequality is still growing, and that we will see that when today’s kids become parts of the labor and education statistics. Recommended.

Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids (2010) by Mark Hyman. American culture in general and parents in particular are driving kids and youth in sports until it hurts. An example is overuse injuries and surgery for young athletes becoming much more common. Hyman recounts several stories of crazy parents and coaches, and though these surely exists, I believe he too often loses sight of the positive sides of sports. But I support the general advice to take it easy and listen to kids and stop before it hurts.

Ratings and old books are in the library.

Books finished in April:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence (2014) by Laurence Steinberg. Importance of self-regulation and self-control. The age of puberty is creeping downwards, documentable from things like when girls develop breasts and get their period and when boys’ voice starts to crack. The reason is not better health, rather lack of sleep, more body fat, more light exposure that triggers melotonin production, various chemicals. For boys this development is not necessarily bad, but for girls it is, since when they mature physically before mentally and emotionally, they will often orientate towards older peers without being able to handle the corresponding challenges. A key is that the pre-frontal cortex, which handles self regulation and control do not develop earlier. The brain does develop substantially is adolescence, though, so there may be much to gain from interventions and guidance in this period. Perhaps by exploiting that the adolescent brain is particularly tuned to pleasure (which may be why memories from that period are so vivid)? Much in the book’s later parts is common sense advice, but overall it is an interesting read.

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (2011) by Tim Wu. Goes through the modern “information” businesses in the US – telephone, radio, television and film, and internet. A recurrent theme is how upstarts become (power-abusing) empires. The communication network determines who gets heard. Bell vs Gray controversy over the invention of the telephone. The Bell company exploiting its monopoly and sabotaging competitors. Broadcasting and sports. Modern mass media is sometimes accused of weakening local communities, but Wu claims that at least radio had the opposite effect. Tinkering and voluntary sharing important in the early days of radio, but less and less, like internet and computers today. Hollywood censorship code possible to implement because of centralization of power. A second recurrent theme is “the utopia of openness vs the perfection of the closed system.” Will today’s information giants be different from before? Do not bet on it.

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt (2014) by Michael Lewis. Makes a compelling case for the waste of resources in zero-sum games and manipulation of parts of the finance sector. Great read like most of Lewis’ books, but much is hard to evaluate, and I feel that there is still much that I do not know.

Ratings and old books are in the library.