I hadn't thought I would do another book review on this site. But this book is important enough and worth a review. I recently read 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. It was a very good book. I got a lot out of it. I wish it had been around and I'd read it 10, 20, 30 years ago. I bought my copy at Chapters. It was marked down on special, I had some Chapters next purchase limited time promo, and I had a gift card. So I got a good deal too.
Dr. Peterson is a great thinker of our times. Right up there with David Sklansky and Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I'd been hearing stuff about Peterson so I was keen when this title came out. I knew I had to read this book after the infamous Channel 4 Newman crushing by Peterson.
The book opens strong with the famous discussion on lobsters and hierarchies. The whole book is full of great stuff. There is a lot in there and Peterson, a practicing clinical psychologist and academic from Harvard and University of Toronto, makes pretty much every paragraph work. So it can read a bit dense but definitely keeps the reader engaged and is worth reading every sentence, pausing to think, and perhaps reread some paragraphs, maybe read 1-2 pages at a time and absorb. So it's a worthwhile read, personally challenging in parts, manageable but I would not call it a quick read if you are motivated to benefit from it.
So definite recommend really for anyone, especially younger people with most of their lives still in front of them. There is a lot of misinformation in our society and culture. Peterson cuts through it and exposes it and offers solutions. 12 Rules is a great counter, an actual realistic positive way forward.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Saturday, December 02, 2017
The Books Everyone Read
I recently read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It was a good book. It held my attention through the 800 pages. It makes you think. Set in the 19th century Imperial Russia, many of the themes are still relevant today.
I'd always meant to read that book. It was one of those books I grew up thinking everyone read. Well I thought everyone read them. So with Anna along with these other titles I've completed in recent years I have finally completed the task to read these books that everyone read.
Atlas Shrugged
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Anna Karenina
There are still some classic books that I've been meaning to read for a long time and perhaps I will get to them. So the reading and learning journey continues.
I have some ideas but I'm not entirely certain what to make of Anna. I'd be interested to hear the views of others who have read it and what they think it is about.
I'd always meant to read that book. It was one of those books I grew up thinking everyone read. Well I thought everyone read them. So with Anna along with these other titles I've completed in recent years I have finally completed the task to read these books that everyone read.
Atlas Shrugged
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Anna Karenina
There are still some classic books that I've been meaning to read for a long time and perhaps I will get to them. So the reading and learning journey continues.
I have some ideas but I'm not entirely certain what to make of Anna. I'd be interested to hear the views of others who have read it and what they think it is about.
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Submission by Michel Houellebecq
Continuing on the theme of French culture I read Submission. Another title I'd heard of here and there and had been meaning to read. After a short wait it appeared at the library. It was pretty cool of the library with Camp of the Saints. They didn't have it but special borrowed it from a university. I hadn't even asked them to to that. +1 for Halifax regional library.
Anyway Submission is modern, published in 2015. So there's Internet and all that. And lots of French culture. Delicious food, fine wine, beautiful architecture. The author Houellebecq describes the classic French culture in an inviting way. It made me want to go to France and take in the culture firsthand. oh well, perhaps someday anything is possible.
The protagonist is a mid 40s tenured literature professor in Paris. His specialty is Huysmans, a 19th century French literary figure I personally have never read and know nothing about. The professor is tellingly unmarried and childless. He has something of a love interest, Miriam, a graduate student about 20 years his junior. Miriam is Jewish and decides to leave France for Israel in the face of a rising Muslim Brotherhood. In the book Miriam professes her love for the professor, but what she loves is in her words France. The professor is, France. The literature, the cheese, the meats, the wine and brandy, the secular humanism.
The author goes on a spiritual journey of his own, learning about Islam and exploring his own post Christian identity, spending time at a monastery. I did find a really interesting passage in the book defending polygamy that made me think. The argument is science-based, natural selection. The most successful males would naturally attract more female mates who would want to settle with him, even if he has one or more wives already. If this leaves the less successful males unattached and without children then that's the market, natural selection, which is consistent with nature. It was certainly a thought provoking argument. I'd never thought of polygamy that way I must say.
It was a good book. I recommend it. I think there are more themes in this book the author is getting at that I likely missed. So that makes it interesting as well. It would be cool to discuss the book with other readers.
Anyway Submission is modern, published in 2015. So there's Internet and all that. And lots of French culture. Delicious food, fine wine, beautiful architecture. The author Houellebecq describes the classic French culture in an inviting way. It made me want to go to France and take in the culture firsthand. oh well, perhaps someday anything is possible.
The protagonist is a mid 40s tenured literature professor in Paris. His specialty is Huysmans, a 19th century French literary figure I personally have never read and know nothing about. The professor is tellingly unmarried and childless. He has something of a love interest, Miriam, a graduate student about 20 years his junior. Miriam is Jewish and decides to leave France for Israel in the face of a rising Muslim Brotherhood. In the book Miriam professes her love for the professor, but what she loves is in her words France. The professor is, France. The literature, the cheese, the meats, the wine and brandy, the secular humanism.
The author goes on a spiritual journey of his own, learning about Islam and exploring his own post Christian identity, spending time at a monastery. I did find a really interesting passage in the book defending polygamy that made me think. The argument is science-based, natural selection. The most successful males would naturally attract more female mates who would want to settle with him, even if he has one or more wives already. If this leaves the less successful males unattached and without children then that's the market, natural selection, which is consistent with nature. It was certainly a thought provoking argument. I'd never thought of polygamy that way I must say.
It was a good book. I recommend it. I think there are more themes in this book the author is getting at that I likely missed. So that makes it interesting as well. It would be cool to discuss the book with other readers.
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail
I finished another book. I'd had Camp of the Saints on my list for some time. It was an interesting book. I'm glad I read it. I found the ending satisfying.
The book is about a group of about 1 million refugees from Calcutta who board a ramshackle flotilla of 99 boats and make their way to Europe. After a long journey they eventually land in the beautiful south of France on the Mediterranean.
At times I found it remarkable that this book was written in 1973. Considering current events and the voluntary mass migration from the Middle East and Africa into Europe. Life imitates art and a number of events in recent months have unfolded pretty similar to in this book. The author touches a number of themes including demographic decline, and the erosion from within of Western confidence.
I gained an appreciation of French culture and food from this book. It would be cool to go to France some day and experience it firsthand.
The book is about a group of about 1 million refugees from Calcutta who board a ramshackle flotilla of 99 boats and make their way to Europe. After a long journey they eventually land in the beautiful south of France on the Mediterranean.
At times I found it remarkable that this book was written in 1973. Considering current events and the voluntary mass migration from the Middle East and Africa into Europe. Life imitates art and a number of events in recent months have unfolded pretty similar to in this book. The author touches a number of themes including demographic decline, and the erosion from within of Western confidence.
I gained an appreciation of French culture and food from this book. It would be cool to go to France some day and experience it firsthand.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
A Disgrace to the Profession by Mark Steyn
I finished another Steyn book. Always a treat. I read A Disgrace to the Profession. It's about the infamous "hockey stick" temperature graph from Michael Mann in 1998. The graph showed constant temperature from the year 1000 to 1800, then a spectacular rise in temperature coincidental to the start of the Industrial Revolution.
The graph made the cover of the 2001 IPCC report, as well as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Mann along with his graph shot to international celebrity. Today Mann hangs out with James Cameron and Jessica Alba, quite the career for a university professor.
Over the years I'd kind of heard stuff damaging to the hockey stick, especially in the climategate email scandal. Something about some Canadian researchers McIntyre and McKitrick had discredited the hockey stick.
Steyn pulls together the data around the hockey stick from scientists around the world. The book is organized into 120 chapters of about 2 pages each. Steyn lets the scientists to the talking, and what they have to say about Mann and his hockey stick is devastating. Impressive and thorough. Still despite all the science Steyn organizes it into easy, enjoyable to read chunks.
This is an excellent book and anyone interested in the full story around the earlier years of global warming (since rebranded climate change), and it's infamous hockey stick would find this an enjoyable and very enlightening read.
--
Ok so what of it
The thing is, it seems to hardly matter today that the hockey stick has been discredited. Mann and the hockey stick had their moment, they served a purpose at the time. Since then everyone has just moved on. It doesn't matter if the hockey stick is good science or junk science.
global warming has been renamed to climate change, and suddenly per Gavin Schmidt, nobody cares what the weather was 1000 years ago. In fact nobody cares what the weather was like 10 years ago. There's been no warming since 1998, but no matter.
The magic of "climate change" is that environment activists no longer have to rely on something that can be measured like temperature. The problem with measurements is that you may not get the numbers you want. In fact they don't have to rely on those scientists at all with their "natural variance", "confidence levels" and "uncertainties". ain't nobody got time for that.
Yellow journalism, Yellow science
During the global warming years science and activism were perceived to have become blurred. Hence the Climategate scandal and "hide the decline". When science produced the numbers and hockey stick graphs that activists, the UN/IPCC and the government bureaucracy that funded them wanted, everything was good. Anyway Ayn Rand warned about "government science" in Altas Shrugged and Climategate was pretty close to what Rand was warning about.
And so it continues. In the last Canadian federal election, shockingly, tenured scientists on the federal payroll, the "neutral" bureaucracy, shamefully came out openly campaigning against Stephen Harper and for Justin Trudeau. Right after Trudeau won the election, the scientists got their political payback, Trudeau has announced hundreds of new federal government jobs for scientists will be created. Everyone knows where Harper and Trudeau stand on climate change, so the scientists know what the expected result of their research will be. anyway nice work if you can get it.
What exactly is climate change anyway? How do we measure it? How can we possibly know if the "problem", if it exists, is getting better or getting worse. blah blah blah, the downfall of global warming is that temperature could be measured. WithGolsteinism climate change, there's just perpetual crisis, indistinguishable from the course of human events or natural climate variability that were going to happen anyway.
Keeping it Going
After the hockey stick Al Gore got an Oscar and $500 million dollars. The IPCC got a Nobel Prize. Goldman Sachs can high frequency trade some carbon "market." There's so much invested in the current setup and so it has to be kept going.
In 2014 it came out in Australia a weather station was moved to a warmer place in order to produce higher recorded temperatures, and change the temperature number fed into the UN from a decline to an increase. Doing your part Australia science.
In the United States in 2015 NASA/NOAA magically changed stable temperatures into warming temperatures years after they were reported link link. You thought Mann's bristlecone pines were unreliable? So now even the modern temperature record can be altered after it was published in an Orwellian way to produce a desired political result.
Well what do you expect fromThe State Science Institute NASA, an agency of the federal government. Perhaps President Obama just stopped by one day, just happened to be casually holding his tire iron, and the just offand "suggested" to the head of NASA that they "review" their published temperature records from 1998 to the present to make sure the published numbers are "right".
The graph made the cover of the 2001 IPCC report, as well as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Mann along with his graph shot to international celebrity. Today Mann hangs out with James Cameron and Jessica Alba, quite the career for a university professor.
Over the years I'd kind of heard stuff damaging to the hockey stick, especially in the climategate email scandal. Something about some Canadian researchers McIntyre and McKitrick had discredited the hockey stick.
Steyn pulls together the data around the hockey stick from scientists around the world. The book is organized into 120 chapters of about 2 pages each. Steyn lets the scientists to the talking, and what they have to say about Mann and his hockey stick is devastating. Impressive and thorough. Still despite all the science Steyn organizes it into easy, enjoyable to read chunks.
This is an excellent book and anyone interested in the full story around the earlier years of global warming (since rebranded climate change), and it's infamous hockey stick would find this an enjoyable and very enlightening read.
--
Ok so what of it
The thing is, it seems to hardly matter today that the hockey stick has been discredited. Mann and the hockey stick had their moment, they served a purpose at the time. Since then everyone has just moved on. It doesn't matter if the hockey stick is good science or junk science.
global warming has been renamed to climate change, and suddenly per Gavin Schmidt, nobody cares what the weather was 1000 years ago. In fact nobody cares what the weather was like 10 years ago. There's been no warming since 1998, but no matter.
The magic of "climate change" is that environment activists no longer have to rely on something that can be measured like temperature. The problem with measurements is that you may not get the numbers you want. In fact they don't have to rely on those scientists at all with their "natural variance", "confidence levels" and "uncertainties". ain't nobody got time for that.
Yellow journalism, Yellow science
During the global warming years science and activism were perceived to have become blurred. Hence the Climategate scandal and "hide the decline". When science produced the numbers and hockey stick graphs that activists, the UN/IPCC and the government bureaucracy that funded them wanted, everything was good. Anyway Ayn Rand warned about "government science" in Altas Shrugged and Climategate was pretty close to what Rand was warning about.
And so it continues. In the last Canadian federal election, shockingly, tenured scientists on the federal payroll, the "neutral" bureaucracy, shamefully came out openly campaigning against Stephen Harper and for Justin Trudeau. Right after Trudeau won the election, the scientists got their political payback, Trudeau has announced hundreds of new federal government jobs for scientists will be created. Everyone knows where Harper and Trudeau stand on climate change, so the scientists know what the expected result of their research will be. anyway nice work if you can get it.
What exactly is climate change anyway? How do we measure it? How can we possibly know if the "problem", if it exists, is getting better or getting worse. blah blah blah, the downfall of global warming is that temperature could be measured. With
Keeping it Going
After the hockey stick Al Gore got an Oscar and $500 million dollars. The IPCC got a Nobel Prize. Goldman Sachs can high frequency trade some carbon "market." There's so much invested in the current setup and so it has to be kept going.
In 2014 it came out in Australia a weather station was moved to a warmer place in order to produce higher recorded temperatures, and change the temperature number fed into the UN from a decline to an increase. Doing your part Australia science.
In the United States in 2015 NASA/NOAA magically changed stable temperatures into warming temperatures years after they were reported link link. You thought Mann's bristlecone pines were unreliable? So now even the modern temperature record can be altered after it was published in an Orwellian way to produce a desired political result.
Well what do you expect from
Sunday, May 08, 2016
The Great Equations by Robert Crease
I've finished another book. A Brief Guide to The Great Equations The hunt for cosmic beauty in numbers by Robert P. Crease. It's strange I just noticed that "brief guide" part now. Oh well.
It was a good book. Definitely nonfiction. There are 10 chapters, each giving a famous equation and some of the story that led to the equation, and some biography of the great thinkers and scientists who made these discoveries.
The book goes in time from Pythagoras through to the 20th century. The equations get progressively harder as the book progresses. It starts with the familiar Pythagoras theorem a2 + b2 = c2, and Newton's F = ma.
Toward the end it gets into tensors with Einstein's general relativity and second order partial derivatives with Schrödinger's equation. It loses me in the late chapters. I don't know what a tensor is in math -my bad. I haven't solved a second order differential equation in many years and it's basically lost to me. The discussions in the late chapters are also deep, going into configuration space which apparently contains i, and Hilbert space which is infinite-dimensional and that apparently "simplifies" things. oh well. I'm a layman with my limitations. I also didn't know what ontology and epistemology are. So I didn't get as much out of the book as some might have.
Throughout the book it's close to as much about philosophy as it is about physics and math. Which is a task to try to think about what the Heisenberg uncertainty principle "means" about the position and velocity of an electron, and free will or the future being already determined. I'm confident that it is not and there is true free will (though I offer no proof).
It was an interesting read. Harder than I thought it would be. It's good for the mind to try to grasp challenging concepts even if I don't grasp everything.
It was a good book. Definitely nonfiction. There are 10 chapters, each giving a famous equation and some of the story that led to the equation, and some biography of the great thinkers and scientists who made these discoveries.
The book goes in time from Pythagoras through to the 20th century. The equations get progressively harder as the book progresses. It starts with the familiar Pythagoras theorem a2 + b2 = c2, and Newton's F = ma.
Toward the end it gets into tensors with Einstein's general relativity and second order partial derivatives with Schrödinger's equation. It loses me in the late chapters. I don't know what a tensor is in math -my bad. I haven't solved a second order differential equation in many years and it's basically lost to me. The discussions in the late chapters are also deep, going into configuration space which apparently contains i, and Hilbert space which is infinite-dimensional and that apparently "simplifies" things. oh well. I'm a layman with my limitations. I also didn't know what ontology and epistemology are. So I didn't get as much out of the book as some might have.
Throughout the book it's close to as much about philosophy as it is about physics and math. Which is a task to try to think about what the Heisenberg uncertainty principle "means" about the position and velocity of an electron, and free will or the future being already determined. I'm confident that it is not and there is true free will (though I offer no proof).
It was an interesting read. Harder than I thought it would be. It's good for the mind to try to grasp challenging concepts even if I don't grasp everything.
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
I finished another book. It was The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I really liked this book.
It's the story of Allan Karlsson. He's a Swede born in 1905. On the day of his 100th birthday in 2005 Allan climbs out the window of his nursing home and goes on an eventful bus trip. Along the way Allan meets some interesting and funny characters. light fingered ne'er do wells and loafers provide spontaneous company and accompany Allan on this ad hoc journey late in his life. Along the way they have to stay a step ahead of the dangerous criminal gang Never Again who Allan has run afoul of. Also there is a police inspector who likes his drink, and an ambitious prosecutor who are trying to locate Allan and his new friends.
Through the book it tells Alan's remarkable life story. Allan early on develops a skill with dynamite. This proves useful through the 20th century. Later by chance Allan ends up at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project years and gains some useful insight while working as a steward there. Allan goes on a wild ride meeting famous world leaders from Franco in Spain to Lyndon Johnson and many in between.
It's a well written book. Pretty believable despite Allan's unbelievable life. Also quite amusing in parts. I can understand why this book is so popular. I'm glad I read it and recommend.
It's the story of Allan Karlsson. He's a Swede born in 1905. On the day of his 100th birthday in 2005 Allan climbs out the window of his nursing home and goes on an eventful bus trip. Along the way Allan meets some interesting and funny characters. light fingered ne'er do wells and loafers provide spontaneous company and accompany Allan on this ad hoc journey late in his life. Along the way they have to stay a step ahead of the dangerous criminal gang Never Again who Allan has run afoul of. Also there is a police inspector who likes his drink, and an ambitious prosecutor who are trying to locate Allan and his new friends.
Through the book it tells Alan's remarkable life story. Allan early on develops a skill with dynamite. This proves useful through the 20th century. Later by chance Allan ends up at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project years and gains some useful insight while working as a steward there. Allan goes on a wild ride meeting famous world leaders from Franco in Spain to Lyndon Johnson and many in between.
It's a well written book. Pretty believable despite Allan's unbelievable life. Also quite amusing in parts. I can understand why this book is so popular. I'm glad I read it and recommend.
Sunday, October 04, 2015
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I finished another book. It was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It took me a long time to read it, many years overall. I'd got it at the library years ago and got about half through it. Then I had to return it and never got back to it, though I'd never forgotten the book.
I saw it out on the display at the library recently and I grabbed it. I quickly realized I'd forgotten much of what I'd covered years ago so I started from the beginning. Thanks to the Internet I was able to renew the loan a couple of times and with a final push finish it this time.
It was a good book. A charming, enjoyable read. The March family are likeable and the book is targeted to a younger audience so it was an easy read. There was a difference between volume I and volume II you can see the second part was a bit contrived and didn't have quite the cadence of volume I.
I know there's a movie about it. Was interesting because it was written long before films were around. Yet reading it it has the feel of a screenplay we see in many modern books. I know there are a number of books around the March family but this is fine. I'm glad to have finished this book after all these years.
I saw it out on the display at the library recently and I grabbed it. I quickly realized I'd forgotten much of what I'd covered years ago so I started from the beginning. Thanks to the Internet I was able to renew the loan a couple of times and with a final push finish it this time.
It was a good book. A charming, enjoyable read. The March family are likeable and the book is targeted to a younger audience so it was an easy read. There was a difference between volume I and volume II you can see the second part was a bit contrived and didn't have quite the cadence of volume I.
I know there's a movie about it. Was interesting because it was written long before films were around. Yet reading it it has the feel of a screenplay we see in many modern books. I know there are a number of books around the March family but this is fine. I'm glad to have finished this book after all these years.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Tell All by Chck Palahnuik
I recently read Tell All by Chck Palahnuik. It was pretty good. A compelling read, it was a book where you always want to find out what's next.
The book is the story of the aging movie star Katherine Kenton. Kenton is from the old Grace Kelly/Joan Crawford Hollywood era. It's told from the perspective of her long time live-in companion Hazie Coogan. Hazie has made it her life's work to guide Katherine to success and avoid career, financial and relationship disasters along the way for Katherine as best she can.
Per the title, it's a book about "tell all" books. Using Crawford and Mommie Dearest as the posthumous pitfall that Hazie is trying to avoid. The catch about these tell all revelation books is that the subject must be dead for the tell all to be published. That creates some pressure on Katherine as she meets a charming young gold digger named Webster Carlton Westward III. The book itself is laid out as a kind of screenplay/script with chapter titles like "ACT I, SCENE EIGHT"
Typical of Palahnuik there are crazy twists. Also as in Survivor, the author explores celebrity and some of the manufactured steps taken to maintain a certain public look and image. There's the same kind of cynicism in parts of the arbitrariness and managed element of fame.
It's a good book. A fast read. I still have a few Palahniuk to read and I will continue reading them.
The book is the story of the aging movie star Katherine Kenton. Kenton is from the old Grace Kelly/Joan Crawford Hollywood era. It's told from the perspective of her long time live-in companion Hazie Coogan. Hazie has made it her life's work to guide Katherine to success and avoid career, financial and relationship disasters along the way for Katherine as best she can.
Per the title, it's a book about "tell all" books. Using Crawford and Mommie Dearest as the posthumous pitfall that Hazie is trying to avoid. The catch about these tell all revelation books is that the subject must be dead for the tell all to be published. That creates some pressure on Katherine as she meets a charming young gold digger named Webster Carlton Westward III. The book itself is laid out as a kind of screenplay/script with chapter titles like "ACT I, SCENE EIGHT"
Typical of Palahnuik there are crazy twists. Also as in Survivor, the author explores celebrity and some of the manufactured steps taken to maintain a certain public look and image. There's the same kind of cynicism in parts of the arbitrariness and managed element of fame.
It's a good book. A fast read. I still have a few Palahniuk to read and I will continue reading them.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Plague of the Undead by Joe McKinney
I finished another zombie book. It was Plague of the Undead by Joe McKinney.
In this book McKinney takes a different line about the origin of the zombie apocalypse. It's no longer Houston in the aftermath of a slew of hurricanes. This time it's a chemical food additive CDHL. It was realized too late that massive CDHL exposure causes the zombie state, and that everyone reanimates after they die.
The book is set in a town on the Mississippi river called Arbella. It's set 30 years into the ruined future. The residents of Arbella have survived and set up an agrarian pre-industrial society. The community has done well. The population has increased to 10,000 and is looking to expand beyond its walls.
An expedition team is assembled to venture out, see what's out there, and determine potential sites to expand Arbella. The book is about the expedition team and their encounters out in the wilds.
It was a good book. It felt a bit derivative of the later Walking Dead in that the zombie problem is largely under control, and a lot of the dangers are in the people they meet along the way. It's not McKinney's best zombie work. The Houston series is better, especially Apocalypse of the Dead. The book isn't really long and he ends it with a collection of zombie apocalypse short stories tacked on at the end. Some of those stories are strange, world war Z style, but a good read.
Maybe the zombie thing has run its course and I'm ready to move on. Still this was a good book. If I happen to see any more McKinney at the library I would grab it.
In this book McKinney takes a different line about the origin of the zombie apocalypse. It's no longer Houston in the aftermath of a slew of hurricanes. This time it's a chemical food additive CDHL. It was realized too late that massive CDHL exposure causes the zombie state, and that everyone reanimates after they die.
The book is set in a town on the Mississippi river called Arbella. It's set 30 years into the ruined future. The residents of Arbella have survived and set up an agrarian pre-industrial society. The community has done well. The population has increased to 10,000 and is looking to expand beyond its walls.
An expedition team is assembled to venture out, see what's out there, and determine potential sites to expand Arbella. The book is about the expedition team and their encounters out in the wilds.
It was a good book. It felt a bit derivative of the later Walking Dead in that the zombie problem is largely under control, and a lot of the dangers are in the people they meet along the way. It's not McKinney's best zombie work. The Houston series is better, especially Apocalypse of the Dead. The book isn't really long and he ends it with a collection of zombie apocalypse short stories tacked on at the end. Some of those stories are strange, world war Z style, but a good read.
Maybe the zombie thing has run its course and I'm ready to move on. Still this was a good book. If I happen to see any more McKinney at the library I would grab it.
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! by Nicholas Carlson
I finished another book recently. It was Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! by Nicholas Carlson.
It was a good book. A fast and compelling read. It seems like some time since I've read non-fiction. The book is the story of Yahoo, and their photogenic tech celebrity CEO Marissa Mayer. She took over as Yahoo CEO in 2012 after being a senior executive at Google where she was a wealthy early Googler.
Carlson takes an interesting approach. He spends quite a few pages discussing the history of Yahoo, its founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, and the succession of CEOs during its dizzying rise in the 1990s tech boom, crash, recovery in the 2000s, and subsequent attempts to recapture the excitement of the early years. From about the mid-2000s on Yahoo is dogged by disruptive activist shareholder campaigns, intense competition in search from Google, and the near-acquisition by Microsoft. Yahoo is blessed with a trump card, an extremely wise $1 billion investment in the yearly 2000s that Yang made for a large stake in Chinese portal Alibaba. The Chinese investment turned out to be incredibly profitable and as the fall 2014 Alibaba IPO nears it makes the Yahoo CEO a very desirable job.
Then Carlson discusses Mayer's early life and rise at Google, her first real job out of the distinguished symbolic linguistics program at Stanford. Mayer is highly intelligent, very hard driving and confident. She rose very high up at Google before taking the top job at Yahoo.
That left not too much pages for Mayer's actual time at Yahoo. Still it was a good read and we understand that the Mayer Yahoo narrative is a work in progress. At the time the book closes there is yet another new shareholder activist campaign from yet another hedge fund, this time putting pressure on Mayer.
I've been a fan of Yahoo. I've used Yahoo Mail, Yahoo home page, Yahoo poker, Yahoo chat, Yahoo domains, Yahoo briefcase, Yahoo notes, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Store over the years. I even just added the Yahoo most emailed RSS to my protopage home page after reading this book.
It was a good book. I'd recommend for anyone interested in the histories of Yahoo, Google and Mayer.
It was a good book. A fast and compelling read. It seems like some time since I've read non-fiction. The book is the story of Yahoo, and their photogenic tech celebrity CEO Marissa Mayer. She took over as Yahoo CEO in 2012 after being a senior executive at Google where she was a wealthy early Googler.
Carlson takes an interesting approach. He spends quite a few pages discussing the history of Yahoo, its founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, and the succession of CEOs during its dizzying rise in the 1990s tech boom, crash, recovery in the 2000s, and subsequent attempts to recapture the excitement of the early years. From about the mid-2000s on Yahoo is dogged by disruptive activist shareholder campaigns, intense competition in search from Google, and the near-acquisition by Microsoft. Yahoo is blessed with a trump card, an extremely wise $1 billion investment in the yearly 2000s that Yang made for a large stake in Chinese portal Alibaba. The Chinese investment turned out to be incredibly profitable and as the fall 2014 Alibaba IPO nears it makes the Yahoo CEO a very desirable job.
Then Carlson discusses Mayer's early life and rise at Google, her first real job out of the distinguished symbolic linguistics program at Stanford. Mayer is highly intelligent, very hard driving and confident. She rose very high up at Google before taking the top job at Yahoo.
That left not too much pages for Mayer's actual time at Yahoo. Still it was a good read and we understand that the Mayer Yahoo narrative is a work in progress. At the time the book closes there is yet another new shareholder activist campaign from yet another hedge fund, this time putting pressure on Mayer.
I've been a fan of Yahoo. I've used Yahoo Mail, Yahoo home page, Yahoo poker, Yahoo chat, Yahoo domains, Yahoo briefcase, Yahoo notes, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Store over the years. I even just added the Yahoo most emailed RSS to my protopage home page after reading this book.
It was a good book. I'd recommend for anyone interested in the histories of Yahoo, Google and Mayer.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
To Heaven and Back by Mary Neal
Another book read. To Heaven and Back by Mary Neal. This was an account of a medical doctor who drowns while kayaking in Peru. She is dead for several minutes before being revived. While dead she is met by spirits and guided to Heaven. In the book she tells her account of being dead and her time in Heaven.
Interestingly, the Heaven part is only a short passage in the middle of the book. The author writes about her life up to the accident, then the accident when she dies, then another major section of her recovery from the accident and her life in the years after.
It was a very good book. The author writes in an accessible style with short chapters and nice spacing between lines and paragraphs. I was impressed by how spiritual the author is even before her experience with Jesus and angels. I would recommend this book even for those who are skeptical or unsure if God is real.
Neal makes an interesting observation that angels can come in different forms, such as through animals. In her case it was an owl. others report crows carrying messages. a mysterious out of place person who comes seemingly unexpectedly out of nowhere at an opportune time may actually be an angel.
It was a good read for me. I grew up going to church and felt I was religious. sometime around after high school it fell away with me and I've been pretty much disconnected ever since. I still go to church a few times a year but I've never gotten back to the connection I had when I was young. This book was good it got me thinking about spiritual things some.
Interestingly, the Heaven part is only a short passage in the middle of the book. The author writes about her life up to the accident, then the accident when she dies, then another major section of her recovery from the accident and her life in the years after.
It was a very good book. The author writes in an accessible style with short chapters and nice spacing between lines and paragraphs. I was impressed by how spiritual the author is even before her experience with Jesus and angels. I would recommend this book even for those who are skeptical or unsure if God is real.
Neal makes an interesting observation that angels can come in different forms, such as through animals. In her case it was an owl. others report crows carrying messages. a mysterious out of place person who comes seemingly unexpectedly out of nowhere at an opportune time may actually be an angel.
It was a good read for me. I grew up going to church and felt I was religious. sometime around after high school it fell away with me and I've been pretty much disconnected ever since. I still go to church a few times a year but I've never gotten back to the connection I had when I was young. This book was good it got me thinking about spiritual things some.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Mutated by Joe McKinney
I've got through a few books of late. I finished another Joe McKinney Deadworld book. Mutated is pretty good. This picks up the story eight years after Apocalypse of the Dead. He picks up with the Apocalypse characters Nate and Ben. Nate is somehow immune to the zombie infection. As long as they don't tear him to pieces he can take some bites and scratches.
There are some new characters introduced Sylvia, Avery and Niki. At this point 8 years on some survivor settlements have been established. There's also some trade among the settlements along the Mississippi river. Which makes sense since the McKinney zombies drown in deep enough water so that would more likely emerge in the post apocalypse.
A new sinister force has emerged among the zombies. A terrifying Red Man who gets both the zombies and some human black shirt soldiers to work for him. He's overrun 4 of the 5 major survivor compounds. In the story Niki and Nate want to reach a mysterious Dr. Fisher who may be able to turn the tide on the zombies. The Red Man wants to find and eliminate the doctor and wants to use Niki to get to him.
It's a pretty good book. Not as great as Apocalypse of the Dead, but it was satisfying to see Nate again. The new characters are pretty solid. McKinney still captures the terror of the undead well. It's a fast paced read I got through most of it when home sick for a weekend over new years.
I think I have two more Deadworld books to read to complete this series. I'll look for them at the library.
There are some new characters introduced Sylvia, Avery and Niki. At this point 8 years on some survivor settlements have been established. There's also some trade among the settlements along the Mississippi river. Which makes sense since the McKinney zombies drown in deep enough water so that would more likely emerge in the post apocalypse.
A new sinister force has emerged among the zombies. A terrifying Red Man who gets both the zombies and some human black shirt soldiers to work for him. He's overrun 4 of the 5 major survivor compounds. In the story Niki and Nate want to reach a mysterious Dr. Fisher who may be able to turn the tide on the zombies. The Red Man wants to find and eliminate the doctor and wants to use Niki to get to him.
It's a pretty good book. Not as great as Apocalypse of the Dead, but it was satisfying to see Nate again. The new characters are pretty solid. McKinney still captures the terror of the undead well. It's a fast paced read I got through most of it when home sick for a weekend over new years.
I think I have two more Deadworld books to read to complete this series. I'll look for them at the library.
Friday, January 02, 2015
Influx by Daniel Suarez
I've finished another book. It was Influx by Daniel Suarez. It was pretty good. The author is back in form after a disappointing Kill Decision. It's not quite as good as the Daemon, but a fast paced and satisfying read.
The author tackles the question of why there has been so little innovation since the moon landing in 1969. Suarez angle is that there has been plenty of innovation, it's just almost all been suppressed. There is a super secretive Bureau of Technology Control (BTC) that has been controlling the introduction of fantastic innovations such as cold fusion, cure for cancer, human cloning, strong AI, quantum computers. Their justification is that these innovations would be so disruptive that they would cause more harm than good.
The book is about an inventor Jon Grady who invents a device to deflect the force of gravity. a gravity mirror. so the familiar notion of "down" can be inverted within some area and objects will "fall up". Working in a startup, this invention is seized by the BTC and they blow up Grady's lab under the cover of an extremist anti-techology group the winnowers.
Grady is invited to join the BTC as a researcher to continue to work on his gravity mirror for BTC use only. Jon declines and the BTC sends him to a prison known as Hibernity along with other dissenting inventors.
From there lots of things happen and it's a fast paced read as Jon joins some dissenters in BTC to attempt to release the Hibernity prisoners and make their fantastic discoveries public and bring down the BTC. All the while in the crisis the BTC leadership becomes increasingly heavy handed and militant to protect the inventions they have seized.
I could see this being made into a movie. The book was written in a way that would be adaptable to a movie treatment. Such as the golem monster and some fantastic scenes at the climax that would translate very smoothly to a big special effects film.
All in all a good effort by Suarez. I'll continue to watch for this author's titles.
The author tackles the question of why there has been so little innovation since the moon landing in 1969. Suarez angle is that there has been plenty of innovation, it's just almost all been suppressed. There is a super secretive Bureau of Technology Control (BTC) that has been controlling the introduction of fantastic innovations such as cold fusion, cure for cancer, human cloning, strong AI, quantum computers. Their justification is that these innovations would be so disruptive that they would cause more harm than good.
The book is about an inventor Jon Grady who invents a device to deflect the force of gravity. a gravity mirror. so the familiar notion of "down" can be inverted within some area and objects will "fall up". Working in a startup, this invention is seized by the BTC and they blow up Grady's lab under the cover of an extremist anti-techology group the winnowers.
Grady is invited to join the BTC as a researcher to continue to work on his gravity mirror for BTC use only. Jon declines and the BTC sends him to a prison known as Hibernity along with other dissenting inventors.
From there lots of things happen and it's a fast paced read as Jon joins some dissenters in BTC to attempt to release the Hibernity prisoners and make their fantastic discoveries public and bring down the BTC. All the while in the crisis the BTC leadership becomes increasingly heavy handed and militant to protect the inventions they have seized.
I could see this being made into a movie. The book was written in a way that would be adaptable to a movie treatment. Such as the golem monster and some fantastic scenes at the climax that would translate very smoothly to a big special effects film.
All in all a good effort by Suarez. I'll continue to watch for this author's titles.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
So I've finally read Atlas Shrugged. I've known about the book since I was a teenager. I'd been meaning to read it for quite a while. and now I have read it yay. it took a while, several months reading a few pages at a time.
It's one of those books that I'd heard of and knew I should have read. It's an important modern book, written in 1957. It was different some of it was from its time. Everyone smokes and cigarettes even are part of the plot. Achievement is important in this book and none of the major characters have any children to keep in mind as they make sweeping life decisions.
I'm not quite sure after reading it how Rand type thinking somehow came to be a pejorative. Rand is big on personal trade and value. She has no use for the supernatural such as religion, or an unseen collective "society" that works for the best for everyone. So Rand is in a sense a humanist, seeing the reasoning free man as the pinnacle.
In the book the protagonists are all attractive, with movie star legs like Dagny, chiselled features on the faces of the men Hank and Francisco. The villains like Wesley are described as slouching, loose faces, rounded shoulders.
So now I know Who is John Galt. I'm not going to tell you, read the book yourself to find out. It's a worthwhile read, not a short book at over 1000 pages. The dialog is a bit stilted in parts, especially the talks between Francisco and Hank. Still Rand is a good writer, a bit of a romantic I think and surprisingly sensuous.
There are some individual speeches in the book that are epic and would be interesting to see done by talented actors. Still I'm not sure if the book would make a great movie. Just because it's long and so much happens. even a three-hour film would have to cut a lot of important stuff out I would think. what would be interesting for modern times would be a graphical novel approach. that way they could string it out over as many volumes as they need while making the message accessible to additional audiences.
It's one of those books that I'd heard of and knew I should have read. It's an important modern book, written in 1957. It was different some of it was from its time. Everyone smokes and cigarettes even are part of the plot. Achievement is important in this book and none of the major characters have any children to keep in mind as they make sweeping life decisions.
I'm not quite sure after reading it how Rand type thinking somehow came to be a pejorative. Rand is big on personal trade and value. She has no use for the supernatural such as religion, or an unseen collective "society" that works for the best for everyone. So Rand is in a sense a humanist, seeing the reasoning free man as the pinnacle.
In the book the protagonists are all attractive, with movie star legs like Dagny, chiselled features on the faces of the men Hank and Francisco. The villains like Wesley are described as slouching, loose faces, rounded shoulders.
So now I know Who is John Galt. I'm not going to tell you, read the book yourself to find out. It's a worthwhile read, not a short book at over 1000 pages. The dialog is a bit stilted in parts, especially the talks between Francisco and Hank. Still Rand is a good writer, a bit of a romantic I think and surprisingly sensuous.
There are some individual speeches in the book that are epic and would be interesting to see done by talented actors. Still I'm not sure if the book would make a great movie. Just because it's long and so much happens. even a three-hour film would have to cut a lot of important stuff out I would think. what would be interesting for modern times would be a graphical novel approach. that way they could string it out over as many volumes as they need while making the message accessible to additional audiences.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Timeline by Michael Crichton
I finished another book. Timeline by Michael Crichton. It was a good book. A fast paced Crichton read. In the book a group in France is excavating a 14 century site with castles on opposite sides of a river. The work is sponsored by a secretive company called ITC from Arizona. While doing the excavation the team finds an unexpected document on ancient parchment. Another unexpected document arrives via a man found mumbling incoherently in the Arizona desert. The France researchers realize ITC knows more about the site as it was in the 14th century than they should and they are summoned back to Arizona.
Back in AZ ITC has been working on a fantastic device. Based on the famous double-slit experiments where it was shown that every electron in the universe somehow "knows" about every other electron. They exploit the multiverse to show with some leaps of logic that it is possible to travel back in time. The modern researchers are sent back to 14th century France to find and bring back their professor who went back a few days earlier and then failed to return.
Typical Crichton techno thriller there are numerous unexpected twists both in France in the past and in USA in the present. The transporters only work for 37 hours and it's a race against time on both sites to bring the researchers back.
I liked this book. It was from a good phase in Chrichton's career. Crichton does the "grad students thrown into crazy situation" theme pretty well and this is a strong title.
I found the book at Doull's, a fine store. I thought I might be finished with Crichton but on the sites I can see there's still a couple titles left.
Back in AZ ITC has been working on a fantastic device. Based on the famous double-slit experiments where it was shown that every electron in the universe somehow "knows" about every other electron. They exploit the multiverse to show with some leaps of logic that it is possible to travel back in time. The modern researchers are sent back to 14th century France to find and bring back their professor who went back a few days earlier and then failed to return.
Typical Crichton techno thriller there are numerous unexpected twists both in France in the past and in USA in the present. The transporters only work for 37 hours and it's a race against time on both sites to bring the researchers back.
I liked this book. It was from a good phase in Chrichton's career. Crichton does the "grad students thrown into crazy situation" theme pretty well and this is a strong title.
I found the book at Doull's, a fine store. I thought I might be finished with Crichton but on the sites I can see there's still a couple titles left.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rant: An Oral Biography Of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk
I finished another Palahniuk title Rant: An Oral Biography Of Buster Casey. it was pretty good. it's the posthumous story of an oddball named Rant Casey told by his friends and others who knew him. Rant becomes famous after his death for being patient zero in a major epidemic of a new strain of rabies.
the book was a bit hard to follow as there are symbols such as moon and sun next to the writers. the book is written in world war z style from the perspective of those who knew Rant. also there's reference very early on to things like party crashing and boosting which aren't explained until later. and important characters like Echo are intermingled early on with filler childhood friends. so you have to untangle things as you go.
as the story unfolds there are some major reveals which are done in a satisfying way. Palahniuk uses this major reveal technique well as he also did in Fight Club. the author was probably on to something with the ability in the ability to record and playback your sensory reality as you perceived it at the time. with Google glass we're moving in that direction now. so no need to climb Mt. Everest just do a playback from someone who got there and experience for yourself what it's like to reach the summit.
like all of the Palahniuk stuff I've read it makes you think. he touches on some deep topics like social segregation, fitting in, duty. I'm continuing chipping away at Chuck's work. will read some more when I get another chance.
the book was a bit hard to follow as there are symbols such as moon and sun next to the writers. the book is written in world war z style from the perspective of those who knew Rant. also there's reference very early on to things like party crashing and boosting which aren't explained until later. and important characters like Echo are intermingled early on with filler childhood friends. so you have to untangle things as you go.
as the story unfolds there are some major reveals which are done in a satisfying way. Palahniuk uses this major reveal technique well as he also did in Fight Club. the author was probably on to something with the ability in the ability to record and playback your sensory reality as you perceived it at the time. with Google glass we're moving in that direction now. so no need to climb Mt. Everest just do a playback from someone who got there and experience for yourself what it's like to reach the summit.
like all of the Palahniuk stuff I've read it makes you think. he touches on some deep topics like social segregation, fitting in, duty. I'm continuing chipping away at Chuck's work. will read some more when I get another chance.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney
I finished up another zombie book. It was Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney.
It was a good book. A typical McKinney fast and compelling read. This book is the origin of the dead city series. The story of where it begins in Houston. After 4 major hurricanes in two weeks Houston is badly flooded. Among all the death and rot and oil refinery chemicals stewing in the water the necrosis filovirus emerges.
The book is the story of two police officers in the Houston PD working in the emergency task force and their families. Sergeant Eleanor Norton and her boss Captain Mark Shaw. They are working together at the command centre at a Houston University. As the zombies emerge and overrun the university and the city it's a struggle to survive and get their families out and try to help the dwindling and desperate survivors as best they can. In the McKinney style their paths intersect through the story.
The McKinney zombies are interesting. They aren't the "undead". only a living person who is bitten by a zombie and then turns before dying of some other cause becomes a zombie. which makes more sense if you think about it; it's a bit like rabies or ebola in that sense. after all how can someone who is dead get some infection or virus or any condition.
I got the book at the library. they ordered it in for me. it's always a treat to be the first person to read a brand new library book. so I checked and I guess there's still two more in the dead city series to read. I'll definitely be looking for them to finish off this great series.
It was a good book. A typical McKinney fast and compelling read. This book is the origin of the dead city series. The story of where it begins in Houston. After 4 major hurricanes in two weeks Houston is badly flooded. Among all the death and rot and oil refinery chemicals stewing in the water the necrosis filovirus emerges.
The book is the story of two police officers in the Houston PD working in the emergency task force and their families. Sergeant Eleanor Norton and her boss Captain Mark Shaw. They are working together at the command centre at a Houston University. As the zombies emerge and overrun the university and the city it's a struggle to survive and get their families out and try to help the dwindling and desperate survivors as best they can. In the McKinney style their paths intersect through the story.
The McKinney zombies are interesting. They aren't the "undead". only a living person who is bitten by a zombie and then turns before dying of some other cause becomes a zombie. which makes more sense if you think about it; it's a bit like rabies or ebola in that sense. after all how can someone who is dead get some infection or virus or any condition.
I got the book at the library. they ordered it in for me. it's always a treat to be the first person to read a brand new library book. so I checked and I guess there's still two more in the dead city series to read. I'll definitely be looking for them to finish off this great series.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Picked it up at a yard sale I happened by with the kids one day. The guy wanted $2 for it. I offered a quarter. He said I could have it for free.
I'd heard of it but never read it. It was interesting. Only 35 pages and not too hard to read. The major points seem to be the workers seizing control of the means of production, abolishing of private property, and ban religion.
In chapter 2 there's a 10 point plan for the proletariat. Interesting that at least some of those items have been implemented.
In chapter 3 there's a survey of various other socialist and workers parties at the time of the writing in 1848. Later in a forward to a 1872 English translation Marx and Engels point out that "... the progress of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated". That remains true to this day. Marxism undeniably lives on while political parties and even countries have come and gone.
I'd heard of it but never read it. It was interesting. Only 35 pages and not too hard to read. The major points seem to be the workers seizing control of the means of production, abolishing of private property, and ban religion.
In chapter 2 there's a 10 point plan for the proletariat. Interesting that at least some of those items have been implemented.
In chapter 3 there's a survey of various other socialist and workers parties at the time of the writing in 1848. Later in a forward to a 1872 English translation Marx and Engels point out that "... the progress of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated". That remains true to this day. Marxism undeniably lives on while political parties and even countries have come and gone.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk
Continuing the Chuck Palahniuk series, I finished Stranger Than Fiction {True Stories}. It was pretty good. An easier read and less intense and disturbing than the novels of his I've read.
This is post Fight Club written in 2004 and the author is a bit more self aware shall we say. The book is a series of essays in several sections. The first section is crazy stuff Chuck saw through America like an annual demolition derby of farm combines. The middle section Chuck seems to be visiting/interviewing interesting offbeat type celebrities like Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson. The third section is Chuck writing in his own voice about meeting Brad Pitt (who recurs throughout the book), Hollywood life, the experience of being a famous author, his relationship with this father and the deaths in his family on his fathers side. He also discusses writing and some authors and writing style Chuck admires.
You would definitely have to read Fight Club first to appreciate this book. I liked it. Chuck is lucky, the former technical writer sitting in some corporate office writing about diesel engine drivetrains, then boom, this book he wrote and had pretty much forgotten becomes a phenomenon and Chuck becomes an unlikely part of the New York / LA scene - he seems to love every minute of it. I hope would too if that happened to me.
There's still some more Palahniuk to go through and I enjoy his work. So will continue this series.
This is post Fight Club written in 2004 and the author is a bit more self aware shall we say. The book is a series of essays in several sections. The first section is crazy stuff Chuck saw through America like an annual demolition derby of farm combines. The middle section Chuck seems to be visiting/interviewing interesting offbeat type celebrities like Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson. The third section is Chuck writing in his own voice about meeting Brad Pitt (who recurs throughout the book), Hollywood life, the experience of being a famous author, his relationship with this father and the deaths in his family on his fathers side. He also discusses writing and some authors and writing style Chuck admires.
You would definitely have to read Fight Club first to appreciate this book. I liked it. Chuck is lucky, the former technical writer sitting in some corporate office writing about diesel engine drivetrains, then boom, this book he wrote and had pretty much forgotten becomes a phenomenon and Chuck becomes an unlikely part of the New York / LA scene - he seems to love every minute of it. I hope would too if that happened to me.
There's still some more Palahniuk to go through and I enjoy his work. So will continue this series.
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