Wrapping Up 2020

This year was tough all over.  In addition to the world-wide pandemic disaster and the US election disaster, your humble correspondent faced treatment for deadly illness.  (Ironically, I probably would have been homebound much of the year even without the pandemic.)

Nevertheless, the blog persists!  Without interruption!  The blog has surpassed 2500 days in a row of daily posts.

This year saw over 34K hits*, which is more than 90 hits per day on average. This is up 6K (>22%) from 2019.

Once again, much of this traffic has been a “long tail”, a hit here and there on old posts.  With about 3000 posts from almost 7 years, these dribs and drabs add up.

From the stats I have, the traffic has been extremely bursty.  Throughout the year, I see a week or 10 days with 50 hits per day, then 4 or 5 days with 250 or more hits, then another period of less traffic.   (The standard deviation was over 97, with a mean of 94) This happened again and again, with no clear pattern or known underlying driver.

Combined with the long tail already mentioned, it’s difficult to draw conclusions.

(*I should note that I am only using the default stats provided by wordpress.  I do not have enough information to know exactly how they are collected, or what possible sources of error or omission exist.)

Round Up

For convenience, here are some year end summaries.

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Great Names For Bands

As always, I’ve noted some “great names for a band”.  Dave Barry pioneered this joke for many years in his columns.  My variation is mainly taken from or nearly quoted from actual, real, “I am not making this up” scientific and technical articles.

Here are this year’s bands:

Rocks from Ryugu
Rocks from Ryugu with Bennu Dust
Wing Models of Yi
The Great American Biotic Interchange
Venus Feelers
Skid n’ Bump – All-mechanical, Mostly Passive
Clockwork Cucaracha
Scotch Yoke Clinometer
Double Octopus
Compound Obstacles
The South Pole Wall  (also ia great name for a cocktail)
Solar Canals of Gujarat
Bottlebrush block copolymer photonic crystals
Antarctic Frogs
First Fossil Frog
Eocene High Latitude
Gondwanan Cosmopolitinism
Tape-spool boom extraction system
Flux Lobe Elongation
Magnetic Pole Acceleration
Towards Siberia
Possible common capture events
Radially Symmetric Fertile Parts
Pendicle Bending
Wing Heart
Scent Pads
Failed Squid Meal
Prey Seizure

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Books Reviewed

As always, I wrote short reviews of books I read this year, usually appearing every Sunday.  Over the whole year, I reviewed 55 fiction and 24 non-fiction books.

Glancing at the list, I would especially recommend:

Fiction:

The City We Became  by N. K. Jemisin
October Man by Ben Aaronovitch (And other stories by Aaaronovitch)

Non-Fiction:

Trekonomics (2016) by Manu Saadka
Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Here are the links for all the reviews.

Books Reviewed in the 4^th Quarter

Fiction

Dead Lies Dreaming by Charles Stross
Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow
Missionaries by Phil Klay
A Visit From The Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan
Cuyahoga by Pete Beatty
Quillifer the Knight by Walter Jon Williams
October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Non-Fiction

Billion Dollar Loser by Reeves Wiedeman
Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A World Beneath The Sands by Toby Wilkinson
The Price of Peace by Zachary D. Carter
Time of The Magicians by Wolfram Eilenberger
Wagnerism by Alex Ross

Reviews From Q3

Fiction

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
Point B by Drew Magary
Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
Love and Theft by Stan Parish
False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
Moon Over Soho (2011) by Ben Aaronovitch
Midnight Riot (2011) by Ben Aaronovitch
Whispers Underground (2012) by Ben Aaronovitch
Broken Homes (2013) by Ben Aaronovitch
Foxglove Summer (2014) by Ben Aaronovitch
Lies Sleeping (2018) by Ben Aaronovitch
The Hanging Tree (2015) by Ben Aaronovitch
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
Life for Sale (1967) by Yukio Mishima
A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane

Non Fiction

14 Miles  by DW Gibson
Dark Towers by David Enrich
Trekonomics by Manu Saadka
1177 B. C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline
Empires of the Sky by Alexander Rose

Reviews From Q2

Fiction

88 Names  by Matt Ruff
Providence  by Max Barry
Shakespeare for Squirrels  by Christopher Moore
All Adults Here  by Emma Straub
Afterlife  by Julia Alvarez
Wake, Siren  by Nina MacLaughlin
How Much of These Hills is Gold  by C Pam Zhang
The Automatic Detective  by A. Lee Martinez
Tyll  by Daniel Kahlmann
The City We Became  by N. K. Jemisin
Little Fires Everywhere  by Celeste Ng
Arabella of Mars (2016) by David D. Levine
Arabella and the Battle of Venus (2017) by David D. Levine
Arabella the Traitor of Mars (2018) by David D. Levine
The Orphan’s Tales, Vol 1.: In the Night Garden (2006) by Catherynne M. Valente
The Orphan’s Tales: Vol 2.: In the Cities of Coin and Spice (2007) by Catherynne M. Valente

 Non Fiction

Istanbul  by Bettany Hughes
Tacky’s Revolt  by Vincent Brown
The Library Book  by Susan Orlean
The Lives of Bees  by Thomas D. Seeley
Unworthy Republic  by Claudio Saunt
How to Hide an Empire  by Daniel Immerwahr

 Reviews From Q1

Fiction

Shadow Captain by Alastair Reynolds
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Trace Elements by Donna Leon
Processed Cheese by Stephen Wright
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Highfire by Eoin Colfer
The Feral Detective by Jonathan Letham
Hi Five by Joe Ide
Agency by William Gibson
Zed by Joanna Kavenna
Naked Came The Florida Man by Tim Dorsey
A Small Town by Thomas Perry
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

Non Fiction

The Shadow of Vesuvius by Daisy Dunn
Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Imagined Life by James Trefil and Michael Summers
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan
Island People (2016) by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
The Accursed Tower by Roger Crowley

Blog Round up Q320

During the third quarter blogging continued daily even while off line events pressed.  I was not sure I would be able to continue, so this is an important personal milestone.

As usual, there were notes about dinosaurs and cryptocurrency and solar power.

There is a steady stream of important research on the Cryosphere, AKA, “the ice is melting”.  Frankly, it’s getting pretty repetitive:  the ice is melting everywhere.

There has also been a lot of interesting research on what I call “the social psychology of robots”.  As robots enter into more intimate and complicated interactions with people, they push the philosophical boundaries of robots and humans.  Just how “human” is a humanoid robot?   And how do humans think about and treat human-link machines?

Furthermore, almost every classic social psychological experiment can and maybe should be repeated with humanoid robots in the mix.  This is now a minor industry.

Band Names

As always, I collected ideas for band names, straight from real articles.

Venus Feelers
Skid n’ Bump – All-mechanical, Mostly Passive
Clockwork Cucaracha
Scotch Yoke Clinometer
Double Octopus
Compound Obstacles
The South Pole Wall  (also ia great name for a cocktail)
Solar Canals of Gujarat

Books Reviewed

As always, weekly book reviews.  This quarter I reviewed 18 fiction and  5 non fiction works.

Fiction

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
Point B by Drew Magary
Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
Love and Theft by Stan Parish
False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
Moon Over Soho (2011) by Ben Aaronovitch
Midnight Riot (2011) by Ben Aaronovitch
Whispers Underground (2012) by Ben Aaronovitch
Broken Homes (2013) by Ben Aaronovitch
Foxglove Summer (2014) by Ben Aaronovitch
Lies Sleeping (2018) by Ben Aaronovitch
The Hanging Tree (2015) by Ben Aaronovitch
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
Life for Sale (1967) by Yukio Mishima
A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane

Non Fiction

14 Miles  by DW Gibson
Dark Towers by David Enrich
Trekonomics by Manu Saadka
1177 B. C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline
Empires of the Sky by Alexander Rose

 

Book Review: “Utopia Avenue” by David Mitchell

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

I really like this book.  No, I really loved this book.  Probably for the wrong reasons, but I can’t help myself.

This is what me and pretty much every red-blooded kid dreamed of—joining a band—a good band—and touring!  Meeting the gods and goddesses (dead ones by name, others by description).  Doing it and living it and, as Terry Pratchett said, “sticking your fingers in the mains of the universe, just to see what happens”.

Like a lot of things, the beginning was wonderful, and I wish we all could have stayed there and then forever.  Everything was new and promising, we were all young and foolish and, however beat up, we had no idea what the world could do to us.

But life goes on, even for rock and roll bands. Especially for rock and roll bands.  Things happen.  Love and loss.  Pain and joy.  Parties and loneliness.

And, for a band, the worship of the crowd and the divine communion of live music.

It’s all so innocent, and yet serious and dangerously powerful, too.

Hey—welcome to rock n roll.

Where to those songs we love come from?  This story gives David Mitchell’s version for some of the songs we would have loved if they were real, and love all the more because they’re made up.

Like rock and roll itself:  the fiction is better and realer than “reality”.

Relax and go with the flow.  Don’t over think it, or take it too serious.  It’s just rock and roll.

The kids will be all right.  We hope.

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1. David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue, New York, Random House, 2020.

 

Sunday Book Reviews

2016 Roundup and Books Reviewed in 2016

In 2016, this blog passed the milestone of posting at least once per day for1,000 days in a row! January 5 will mark three years of daily posts to this blog.

My blog may not be great, but it is consistent!  Or at least persistent.

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Regular readers know that this blog is somewhat random, touching on any topic I find interesting enough or have something to say about. But some topics were visited more than once.

This year saw many posts on coworking and similar “co” movements (cohousing, platform cooperatives, the future of work, the sharing economy, etc.)

These posts give you a preview of a new book that is in preparation, titled, “What is coworking?” It should be available in early 2017. I.e, Real Soon Now.

I posted nearly weekly about cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and the communities that have risen around these technologies.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has so many perspectives, it is hard ot keep track, but some of the topics overlap with coworking, the sharing economy, and similar “bottom up” movements.

Reflecting earlier research, I have also posted frequently about HCI, particularly wearables, and haptics. I know quite a bit about these topics, though the most important thing is that no one really knows how to use them well.

I posted nearly weekly about robots and bio-inspired design. Robots are really cool, though in this area I am just an enthusiast, not an expert.

Other general science-y topics have included dinosaurs (naturally) and animal intelligence. I have also posted frequently about space exploration and remote sensing of the environment especially observing the retreat of the ice.

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I should note that I had been posting comments on items picked up from Wired magazine on line. In fact, I was reading Wired so regularly, I was just about to subscribe. But then they decided to close off access to me unless I accept their advertising or pay $1 per article. I might have subscribed to this deal, were it not for the fact that even the “ad free” option still wanted to aggressively track me. So I stopped reading Wired.

You know what? I never even noticed it was gone.

I think you miscalculated, Wired

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On a less contentious topic. Following Sensei Dave Barry, I suggested a number of names for rock bands based on current topics and reading.

I suggested some band names with cryptcurrency themed names, including “Fintech”, and “Hard Fork” (not to be mistaken for “Haardvark”, which I have actually heard of.)

Other nerdy names might be “Feather Evolution” or the Saturn themed “First Ring Grazing Plunge”

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Books Reviewed

As always, I posted short book reviews every week. In case it isn’t clear, these are all books I read this year.

In total, I wrote about 100 books (a happy milestone, purely by luck). The majority of the books are relatively recent, and, with only a few exceptions are recommended.

But if I had to pick a few “best” books, I would say:

Best Fiction: Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley

 An eagerly awaited sequel to the The Rook (2012), this is easily one of the most enjoyable and imaginative fantasies of the year.

Best Non-fiction: The Euro by Joseph Stiglitz

A timely and riveting explanation of what went wrong in the Eurozone, and what might be done to salvage the situation. Considering the subject matter, I was expecting difficult and obtuse reading. Instead, I found it clear and easy to understand, if hard to swallow.

Walking the Walk:  How to Make Money (and a whole lot more) by Sharing by Claire Marshall

In a totally category, “walking the walk”, there are quite a few  important books about how to live right, but  the 2016 nod must got to Sensei Claire Marshall.  Actually living for a month in “the sharing economy”, and now teaching that “we are happiest when we share”.

Other notable reads

I read new  books by old favorites by A. Lee Martinez, Charles Stross, Carl HIasson, Connie Willis, and others.

I started reading Donna Leon, and wrote about a few of her books (there are many more great novels on the back list to be read).

I found some great new favorites, including Guy Adams.

In non-fiction, there have been several great books about animal intelligence, by Jennifer Ackerman and Frans De Waal. Many new articles and books about dinosaurs are coming out.

In addition to Stiglitz, Robert J. Gordon’s book on economics was good.

At a more personal note, there were a number of ebooks about “the new way of work”, by people who are  definitely walking the walk, including Angel Kwiatkowski and Beth Buczynski, Sebastian Olma, and Anastasia Cole Plankias.

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For reference here is a list of the books reviewed in the fourth quarter:

Fiction

1636: The Chronicles of Dr. Gribbleflottz by Kerryn Offord and Rick Boatright
A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor
Crosstalk by Connie Willis
Curioddity by Paul Jenkins
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
For a Few Souls More by Guy Adams
Hag-seed by Margaret Atwood
Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling
Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride
The Terranauts by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Nonfiction

Best State Ever by Dave Barry
Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy
The Euro by Joseph Stiglitz

And here is a consolidated list from Q1, Q2, Q3:

Fiction

2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
A Question of Belief by Donna Leon
A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
Beastly Things by Donna Leon
By Its Cover by Donna Leon
China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
Coconut Cowboy by Tim Dorsey
Empire State by Adam Christopher
Falling In Love by Donna Leon
Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Made To Kill by Adam Christopher
Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen
Monstrous Little Voices edited by David Thomas Moore
Once A Crooked Man by David McCallum
Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen
Rewired edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Robot Uprisings ed. by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams
Save Room For Pie by Roy Blount, Jr.
Slade House by David Mitchell
Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley
Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Assistants by Camille Perri
The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black
The Clown Service by Guy Adams
The Decent Proposal by Kemper Donovan
The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey
The Golden Egg by Donna Leon
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson
The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez
The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams
The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
The Hike by Drew Magary
The Rain Soaked Bride by Guy Adams
The Regional Office is Under Attack by Manuel Gonzales
The Underground Railroad by Colin Whitehead
The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon
Vinegar Girl by Anny Tyler

Non fiction

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans De Waal
Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Coworking: Building Community as a Space Catalyst by Angel Kwiatkowski and Beth Buczynski
Coworking: How freelancers escape the coffee shop office and tales of community from independents around the world by Angel Kwiatkowski and Beth Buczynski
Digital Nomads: How to Live, Work and Play Around the World by Esther Jacobs and André Gussekloo
Dude, Where’s My Drone: The future of work and what you can do to prepare for it by Liquid Talent
Hedy’s Folly by Richard Rhodes
How to Make Money (and a whole lot more) by Sharing by Claire Marshall
Inventology by Pagan Kennedy
Labor of Love by Moira Weigel
Magic and Loss by Virginia Heffernan
Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle
Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery and Billion-Dollar Deals by John LeFevre
The Farm on The Roof by Anastasia Cole Plankias
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
The Global Code by Clotaire Rapaille
The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humbolt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J. Gordon
The Serendipity Machine: A Disruptive Business Model for Society 3.0 by Sebastian Olma
The Tyrannosaur Chronicles  by David Hone
Tribe by Sebastian Junger

 

2016 Wrapup

 

Books Reviewed in First Quarter 2016

A Housekeeping post: the  list of books reviewed in first quarter 2016.

Fiction

Coconut Cowboy by Tim Dorsey
Falling In Love by Donna Leon
Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley
Made To Kill by Adam Christopher
Monstrous Little Voices edited by David Thomas Moore
Once A Crooked Man by David McCallum
Slade House by David Mitchell
Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams
The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon

Non Fiction

Dude, Where’s My Drone: The future of work and what you can do to prepare for it by Liquid Talent
Hedy’s Folly by Richard Rhodes
Inventology by Pagan Kennedy
Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle
The Global Code by Clotaire Rapaille
The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humbolt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
The Serendipity Machine: A Disruptive Business Model for Society 3.0, by Sebastian Olma
How to Make Money (and a whole lot more) by Sharing by Claire Marshall

Book Review: “Slade House” by David Mitchell

Slade House by David Mitchell

David Mitchell writes complex, time travelling, magical fiction. Previous works including The Cloud Atlas (2004), which I loved (though I haven’t been motivated to even try the movie version). Slade House is shorter than some of his earlier big whumpers (he has written some pretty long books…), but it does not disappoint.

The titular Slade House is quite mysterious and menacing, periodically appearing at the same time as a series of seemingly unrelated people disappear. Bad things are afoot here, but it’s not at all clear what is going on, or how to stop the horror.

Mitchell’s story is very tense and terrifying. It is told from first person viewpoints, which certainly adds to the mystery and the horror: it isn’t at all pleasant to have a first hand account of these events.

The characters are interesting and Mitchell deftly gets us to understand and sympathize with them in short order. In this, I admire his skillful writing.

For me, the biggest weakness in the story is that the supernatural underpinnings of the plot give us little way to guess what is coming next. Just when we think we understand what is happening, we discover that things are not what they seem. Magic is rather unpredictable, and this makes the story impossible to predict. It’s really not fair.

(Perhaps this objection is why I don’t generally read “horror” and supernatural stories–fairness to the reader demands the fictional world be comprehensible, not arbitrary.)

Overall, this is a well written story, if less that totally satisfying. But there is no outsmarting the storyteller. We have no choice bot go along for the ride.  Fortunately, Mitchell is a master storyteller.

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1. David Mitchell, Slade House, New York, Random House, 2015.

 

 

Sunday Book Review

Year End Round Up #1: Book Reviews In 2014

Starting the year end round up, here is a list of book reviews that appeared here. The most popular was a review of “Social Physics” by Alex Pentland.  I also experienced a “Colbert Bump” for a 2013 review of “Who Owns The Future” by Jaron Lanier.  The far-away all time favorite was “Book Reviews: Recent Popular Books about Big Data and Analytics”, with a classic long tail from 2013.

In total, I reviewed about 100 books, as well as comments on articles and reports.

For convenience, here is an index.

4th Quarter 2014

Nonfiction

@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris
City of Lies by Ramita Navai
Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter
Hack Attack by Nick Davies
Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen
The Freelancer’s Bible by Sara Horowitz
The Human Age by Diane Ackerman
The Talking Point by Thomas R. Flanagan and Alexander N. Christakis
Wayfaring Strangers by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr

Fiction

Abracadaver by Laura Resnick
Beautiful You by Chuck Palhniuk
Hieroglyph edited by Ed Flinn and Kathryn Cramer
Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran
Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
The Peripheral by William Gibson

All Books Reviewed in 2014

Fiction

A Highly Unlikely Scenario by Rachael Cantor
A Million Ways to Die in the West by Seth MacFarlane
Abracadaver by Laura Resnick
Adultery by Paulo Coelho
Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel by Jacqueline Koyanagi
Beautiful You by Chuck Palhniuk
California by Edan Lepucki
Crash by Guy Haley
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Hieroglyph ed. by Ed Flinn and Kathryn Cramer
Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard
Koko Takes A Holiday by Kieran Shea
Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn
Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran
Metatropolis edited by John Scalzi
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
On The Razor’s Edge by Michael Flynn
Palimpsest by Catherynn M. Valente
Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
Reach for Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan
Ripper by Isabel Allende
Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
Sleeping Late On Judgment Day by Tad Williams
Space Opera edited by Rich Horton
Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark
The Alchemist by Paul Coleho
The Bend of the World by Jacob Bacharach
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Doctor and the Dinosaurs by Mike Resnick
The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
The Folklore of Discworld: Legends, Myths, and Customs from the Discworld with Helpful Hints from Planet Earth by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson
The Fun Parts by Sam Lipsyte
The Intern’s Handbook by Shane Kuhn
The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Misfortune Cookie by Laura Resnick
The Outsourcerer’s Apprentice by Tom Holt
The Peripheral by William Gibson
The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
The Spider Woman’s Daughter by Anne Hillerman
The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon
Tiger Shrimp Tango by Tim Dorsey
Traveling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
When It’s A Jar by Tom Holt
Wikiworld by Paul Di Filippo
Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland

Nonfiction

@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris
A Novel in a Year: A Novelist’s Guide to Being a Novelist by Louise Doughty
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Body of Work: Finding the Thread that Ties Your Story Together by Pamela Slim
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
City of Lies by Ramita Navai
Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter
Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution by Fred Vogelstein
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
Hack Attack by Nick Davies
Hacking H(app)iness: Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking It Can Change the World by John C. Havens
Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love by Richard Sheridan
Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen
Knossos And The Prophets Of Modernism by Cathy Gere
Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth by Joseph Alexander MacGillvray
Mysteries Of The Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, And The Forging Of History by  Kenneth D. S. Lapatin
Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Operation Shakespeare: The True Story of an Elite International Sting by John Shiffman
Privacy in the Age of Big Data: Recognizing Threats, Defending Your Rights, and Protecting Your Family by Theresa M. Payton and Theodore Claypoole
Schliemann of Troy: treasure and deceit by David A. Traill
Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread – The Lessons From A New Science by Alex Pentland
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times by Adrienne Mayor
The Freelancer’s Bible by Sara Horowitz
The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals by Thomas Suddendorf
The Human Age by Diane Ackerman
The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch by Lewis Dartnell
The Lost Tomb by Kent Weeks
The Myth of Mirror Neurons by Gregory Hickok
The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margaret Fox
The Science of Shakespeare: A New Look at the Playwright’s Universe by Dan Falk
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Talking Point by Thomas R. Flanagan and Alexander N. Christakis
Tone deaf and all thumbs?: an invitation to music-making by Frank R. Wilson
Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture by Erez Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Wayfaring Strangers by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr
Writing On the Wall: Social Media-The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage
You Can Date Boys When You’re Forty by Dave Barry

 

Book Review: “The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

As in earlier works (The Cloud Atlas (2004), Black Swan Green (2006), etc.), Mitchell once again plays with time. The story proceeds through many settings in time and space, with lovingly detailed and nostalgic recreations of the past. Past, present, and future, highly realistic and totally fantastic, all magically stitched together.

This book is beautifully written, well worth reading.

The characters are memorable. I notice the “good guys” are realistic and sympathetic and deeply developed. On the other hand, the “bad guys” are shallow caricatures. Some are in between. This must be deliberate-we know he can write characters.

The plot is part fantasy, part real life. Perhaps the hidden, supernatural story is intended to give added meaning to the otherwise inexplicable events in life. If there is a deeper message here, I’m not getting it, because neither the fantasy nor the “real” life seem to have a lot of sense to them.

The description of locations is nicely done. But the best part of the book is the dialog, which, in places, is wonderfully funny and interesting.

The worst part of the book is the overall dark, sad, depressing nature of the story. A novelist is allowed to make us feel the hopelessness of loss and aging and social disintegration; and boy, oh boy, Mitchell takes the opportunity. I could barely stand to finish the book, it is so crushingly depressing—a sign of great writing, but very demanding.

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1. David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, New York, Random House, 2014.