Which book are you reading now? Volume XIV

[EgonSpengler]

Let me know what you think of it. For some reason, I just don't trust Ronan Farrow. Probably how he went from working in the Obama administration on security issues and writing a book on it; to investigating sexual assault by celebrities. Not a lot of overlap in those skills.

I'm less than ¼ through it, but so far it's clearly focused on State's side of events, which I guess is implied in the title. Farrow interviewed every living former Secretary of State, but so far it doesn't seem like he interviewed any former Presidents or Secretaries of Defense. He is nonpartisan, with plenty of criticism for the administrations of both G.W. Bush and Obama. The early chapters are focused mainly on Afghanistan and Pakistan. John Kerry, Henry Kissinger and Richard Holbrooke talk about the Vietnam War a little bit (Farrow notes that Obama hated Afghanistan being compared to Vietnam), and Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton and Richard Holbrooke talk a little but about the former Yugoslavia. (I think Robert McNamara and Warren Christopher had already passed away when Farrow was writing this book.)

I remember being a little concerned about the role of Pakistan in '01-'04 - I remember a Dexter Filkins article many years ago that didn't make me feel better - but it never seemed to come to a head (I did note later, though, that the Obama administration only told Pakistan about the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound when our troops were on their way out of that country, which I thought was telling, all those years later). Farrow's book tells more of the story, and seems to paint the Pakistani government as culturally dishonest. In one anecdote, a US ambassador confronted a Pakistani general for completely misrepresenting their meeting at a subsequent press conference, and the Pakistani general looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting that he actually tell the public what they'd discussed. In another story, the ISI sold some of the weapons given to them by the US... to the CIA.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It's funny to me how the act of writing something down dates the thought and can make it look foolish with hindsight even if it was on point when written down.

The book I'm currently reading about the future of space exploration was written in 2014/2015, right when re-usable rockets and CubeSats were taking off (no pun intended). The author obviously knows what he's talking about when it comes to space stuff, but somehow he completely missed the impact that CubeSats and reusable rockets would have on the market. On the other hand, he spends a lot of time talking about Mars One. To be fair, this was before Mars One had been definitively proven to be a scam but even before that point, everyone with a brain knew it was a scam and this author harmed his credibility by referencing them as much as he did.

 

[Takhisis]

Terry Pratchett's A blink of the screen, a collection of short stories from Discworld and beyond.

I've just finished reading El sari rojo by Javier Moro (published in English as The Red Sari: a dramatised biography of Sonia Gandhi). Interesting. It chronicles Sonia Gandhi's life but really is a biography of Indira Gandhi and, by extension, the Congress Party from the 1960s until the late 2000s.

And I've just finished Javier Moro's Pasión india, about the Spanish wife the rajah (later maharajah) of Kapurthala once got himself.
Doubles as a family chronicle and a history of the fall of the Raj, the disjoint between the various Indian princes (including the Nizam of Hyderabad, the wealthiest man in the world at the time) and their subjects. Between that and El sari rojo you get a (hi)story of India from the end of Company rule onwards. Very interesting.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

This one didn't pull me in, so it took a while to get through it despite it being plainly written and relatively brief. It's not bad, it's just I've read this same book a dozen times from as many authors and Mr. Impey didn't bring a lot of new stuff to the table. He seems to have lots of connections which is the book's saving grace.

The book is structured as an argument for why we should expand into space and it has a parallel mini-narrative in it exploring the day-to-day life of a future deep space explorer as they prepare to and then finally leave the Solar System. This mini-narrative is distracting; it consists entirely of exposition without dialogue and he is unable to breathe any kind of life into the characters. It also doesn't really do much to illuminate either future tech advancements or how daily life might adjust to the rhythm of deep space.

What this book excels at however is being a general reference of what was going on in NASA and the American space industry (and a bit of international developments) from about 2005-2015. He also correctly (IMO) points out how crucial it is going to be to set up a fair, equitable and international framework for the commercial exploitation of space and the claim of in-space real estate. Unfortunately, he illuminates no potential outcomes and he fails to build an interesting discussion around the historical anecdotes he brings up.

He set himself up for interesting arguments but just fails to really connect with the reader and show them how things will change. He just more or less tells the reader how things were, which makes it not the same book his publisher marketed it as. He also gave some really bad and wrong explanations of rocket engines which was kind of odd to read.

Spoiler How Poorly the Book has Aged :

It's a shame though that he picked the wrong trends to write about in this book - he talks a lot about Virgin Galactic (hasn't flown customers 10 years on) and Mars One (total scam) while almost omitting SpaceX and CubeSats entirely. To be fair, he wrote this right when those two things took off but it's still amusing how dated some of this book is and it's only 5 years old! He did correctly point out the rapid progress that China was lining itself up to achieve around that time frame. They are still catching up but at a rate which suggests they will surpass the US and European space powers in technological prowess and number of space missions potentially within this decade.

Spoiler Random Tidbits on Human Physiology and History :

Mr. Impey makes the argument that humans are more or less designed to explore. He posits as evidence a particular gene that is associated with risk taking which is highly prevalent in populations which have engaged in long-distance migration. He also points out the gene is thought to have originated right around the time when humans were first leaving Africa which is an intriguing possibility. On another physiological tangent, Mr. Impey points out that pretend play seem to be uniquely human traits. Apparently Jane Goodall observed very little pretend play in all her years of chimp observations.

Spoiler Random NASA/Space Industry Tidbits :

I did not realize that NASA itself is largely responsible for the birth of the entire academic community of planetary scientists. I mean, yes, this makes sense, but what surprised me is that NASA spent a lot of money basically bribing colleges and universities to hire postdocs and open new departments and labs.

NASA also hired an artist in residence once in an attempt at raising its public image. The relationship went south when she showed up on her first day and asked when she was going up and they flatly refused to even discuss it. Le lame, she would have been great and inspiring.

The US kicked out one of its most gifted rocket scientists (who made important WWII contributions) during the Korean war simply because he was from China originally. He would have been one of the founders of NASA (he helped found one of its centers - the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL - really big deal]) but instead ended up helping found China's space and ballistic missile programs.

The global space industry grew from $64B to $190B from just 2001 to 2012!

The moon's gravity is low enough that we can build a space elevator on it right now with known materials.

James Cameron tried and failed to convince NASA to fly a 3D high definition movie camera on the Curiosity rover.

Overall, Mr. Impey is a good writer and he knows a lot about what is going on in the industry but he fails to make a case for why space exploration is necessary and compelling for human progress. I think he would make a good space journalist (he's an astrophysicist).

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I've set an 80 book reading goal for this year - previously managed my 50 and 75 book goals in the last two years.

Currently reading:
Humility is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age
Code Warriors: NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union
Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities

thats quite the nice list. been meaning to read code warriors myself.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I have just finished reading

The Keeper of Lost Things

by

Ruth Hogan

which is quite a good book, albeit with occasional quirks.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Did y'all know that libraries will let you check out magazines? I just found that out and brought home some Popular Mechanics but I regret it. I had forgotten how juvenile the magazine is and while I truly appreciate the graphic design of the content, I don't find it informative enough by and large to care to read it. Now I gotta fit another bike ride into my schedule to take them back early.

 

[Takhisis]

Terry Pratchett's The Carpet People.

 

[abradley]

Just finished
"The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power Paperback – March 11, 2014
by Max Boot (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 123 ratings
{Snip}"

Enjoyed it, lots of info on America's 'Small Wars'.

But does it really come to the right conclusions, he's right we've won some small war situations and we should keep in mind 'hearts and mind' policy in any war.

IMHO we should abid by Tucker Carlson's advise, 'Take care of us first!'

 

[Birdjaguar]

@abradley That video was so full of total BS and FoxNews talking points that became unintelligible by the end. He even blamed Max boot for repeatedly lying and and never accepting blame for anything. Pretty striking given that that is Trump's standard MO.

 

[abradley]

@abradley That video was so full of total BS and FoxNews talking points that became unintelligible by the end. He even blamed Max boot for repeatedly lying and and never accepting blame for anything. Pretty striking given that that is Trump's standard MO.

Yes, tucker's peice is an opinion piece that goes against most 'Civ Fanatics' views ... good, we need more/differing view points on the forum ... don't we.

PS
Thanks for your critique I mean that, thanks.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

A lot of people say summarizing David Wallace's Infinite Jest is difficult, but I find the blurb on the 2016 edition ("A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in America") to be quite sufficient. This edition has a foreword by Thomas Bissell which lays out key observations about the novel. Many of the subjects discussed (drugs, tennis, continental politics, etc.) are concerned with the matter of people trying, and most often failing, to find meaning in life. This is examined through the eyes of many, many characters in a story arranged non-chronologically. For me it was the insightful analyses/observations and surreal humor that stood out. The writing style which prioritizes re-reading and utilizes long sentences is not for everybody, but I found it enjoyable. I found few things (e.g. getting the DEFCON scale backwards) disagreeable.

 

[Synobun]

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin was... trying. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars but this is mostly due to recognizing the generational difference and that I am spoiled as a modern reader. She was from a different time, and this book is a relic of the 60s. She even talks about this at the back of the book where she says that fantasy at the time was simply Merlin and Gandalf. So from that lens, I can see how this book would be pretty good.

But today, with the glut of options available, I'd be hard pressed to recommend this to anyone. The story isn't bad, but the writing and narration is sub-par. The omniscient POV is a malus and does not work for the story being told.

I'm now moving onto Nemesis Games by James Corey. It's a bit shorter than the other Expanse books I've read so far—maybe I'll actually finish this before I have to return it and renew the hold.

 

[Arakhor]

She does did all sorts of things with her Earthsea books, not all of which I enjoyed, but there are several interesting things about Earthsea - the setting is a large archipelago, the people aren't Caucasian and everyone has secret names of power.

(Edit: I hadn't realised she'd died.)

 

[tjs282]

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin was... trying. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars but this is mostly due to recognizing the generational difference and that I am spoiled as a modern reader. She was from a different time, and this book is a relic of the 60s. She even talks about this at the back of the book where she says that fantasy at the time was simply Merlin and Gandalf. So from that lens, I can see how this book would be pretty good.

But today, with the glut of options available, I'd be hard pressed to recommend this to anyone. The story isn't bad, but the writing and narration is sub-par. The omniscient POV is a malus and does not work for the story being told.

Well, it is a kids' book...

I first read it when I was about 9 or 10 (early 80s), and liked it at the time (better than the Narnia books, anyway). I remember feeling a little discombombulated when Sparrowhawk didn't show up until about halfway through The Tombs of Atuan, though.

Re-read the whole trilogy recently, and yes, it's dated noticeably, but so has an awful lot of (most?) SF(&F) from that era (and earlier; my shelves are stacked with secondhand SF paperbacks).

On-topic, I'm now reading Tiamat's Wrath (which I'm enjoying, but which will likely also look pretty dated in 50 years' time...)

 

[Leifmk]

Me, I'm re-reading Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon.

It's a quite unique book; published in 1930, it pretends to be an account of the future history of our species and its descendants, across two billion years. The science is (necessarily) dated and the author's own political and social ideas shine through a fair bit (especially in the near-future section) but the scope and vision and perspective is... something else altogether.

(Then he wrote Star Maker which spends the first chapter giving a brief summary of the above, then pulls out the stops and REALLY gets going.)

 

[hobbsyoyo]

On-topic, I'm now reading Tiamat's Wrath (which I'm enjoying, but which will likely also look pretty dated in 50 years' time...

How so? I find they're pretty good about future prediction stuff but obviously there's a lot of science fiction nonsense in the book.

 

[Synobun]

I'm now moving onto Nemesis Games by James Corey. It's a bit shorter than the other Expanse books I've read so far—maybe I'll actually finish this before I have to return it and renew the hold.

Spoiler Expanse Book 5 :

Just getting into this. Please tell me Amos and Alex aren't gone the entire book. Am I going to hate this book? I feel like I'm going to hate this book.

Especially after the prologue reveals a character who is fifteen years old and a REALLY COOL BAD ASS, which is befitting of a YA but not this.

cc: @hobbsyoyo

 

[hobbsyoyo]

No pretty sure they're in it but it's been a minute
lemme check online and report back

100% they're in the book as main characters with their own subplots

 

[Synobun]

No pretty sure they're in it but it's been a minute
lemme check online and report back

100% they're in the book as main characters with their own subplots

Spoiler :

Yeah, but... away from the rest? I just read the chapter where both of them simultaneously decided to sod off from Tycho.