The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami

 

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Started: May 4, 2025
Completed: May 9, 2025
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: I really enjoyed Conditional Citizens, so I thought I should give the author another try.

Review:

In this dystopian near future, constant monitoring of activity and even dreams leads to crime prevention by putting people in retention facilities prior to committing a crime.  These facilities are capriciously run by for-profit companies.  I really found it hard to constantly immerse myself in this environment.  I did not enjoy the experience nor find it enlightening (this kind of thing is already happening in our existing prison system).  The solution to the problem (instead of not being noticed, basically, be noticed for reasons the for profit doesn't like) seems pat and too quick.  I did not enjoy it.

A Brief History of Intelligence, Max Bennett

 

A Brief History of Intelligence:  Evolution, AI, and the five breakthroughs that made our brains by Max Bennett

Started: April 28, 2025
Completed: May 4, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book is what it says it is in the title.  I thought it might be a book skewed towards AI because it was written by Bennett, but it is not.  This book is far more skewed towards the evolution of intelligence and, more pointedly, toward the 5 major changes in that evolution that Bennett thinks led to modern intelligence.  Because Bennett is an AI expert and not an evolutionary biologist (or anyone who is an expert in the history of intelligence), I have decided to take his breakthroughs with a grain of salt.  In fairness, he makes a good case and he is motivated by his study of AI to do a good job in his analysis.  I could see a few obvious mistakes, but I also could feel his passion for the subject and that that made up for the issues.  There is nothing glaring and there is good reason to believe that this 5 breakthroughs are pretty reasonable tilting points (thinking of Gladwell) that led to modern intelligence.  My ignorance of the field overall makes it difficult for me to claim any sort of understanding that would allow me to judge for certain what is and what is not crucial.

Babylonia, Costanza Casati

 

Babylonia by Costanza Casati

Started: February 2, 2025
Completed: April 28, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I have read a lot about ancient Greece and ancient Rome.  My knowledge of ancient Persia and ancient Babylon is more sparse.  I am familiar with the myths and legends of the former, but know little of the myths and legends of the latter.  This book was a welcome look at some of the legends.  A female ruler in that era was virtually unknown and so it is always good to read a little bit more about how a woman might have come to power.  Surely, the author has gone into a considerable amount of fiction in order for this book to work as the actual historical record amounts to so little.  Nonetheless, I found the book enjoyable and an interesting way to imagine a woman coming to power in an environment where it seems so unlikely.  The cutthroat period was also something I knew only from an occasional glance at Bas reliefs and those were pretty awful.  Casati does a good job of offering a possible explanation for both how such things came about and how they might have affected those involved.  A good read.

The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson

 

The Diamond Age Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson is a book that has been on the shelf for a while.  I generally enjoy Stephenson.

Started: August 31, 2021
Completed: April 25, 2025
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

abattoir -- a slaughterhouse

abos -- An Aboriginal person

adumbrate -- indicate faintly

afflatus -- a divine creative impulse or inspiration

aleatory -- depending on the throw of a dice or on chance; random

anfractuous -- sinuous or circuitous

ashlar -- masonry made of large square-cut stones, used as a facing on walls of brick or stone rubble.

atelier -- a workshop or studio, especially one used by an artist or designer

barquentine -- a sailing ship similar to a barque but with only the foremast square-rigged and the remaining masts rigged fore and aft

brocade -- a rich fabric woven with a raised pattern, typically with gold or silver thread

caducity -- the infirmity of old age; senility

callipygious -- having a shapely or beautifully formed buttocks

caryatid -- a stone carving of a draped female figure, used as a pillar to support the entablature of a Greek or Greek-style building

castellan -- the governor of a castle

cicatrix -- the scar of a healed wound

coarct -- compress or constrict; press together

cocklebur -- a herbaceous plant in the daisy family with broad leaves and burred fruits, native to tropical America

coronach -- (in Scotland or Ireland) a funeral song

coruscating -- flashing; sparkling

crepuscular -- resembling or relating to twilight

decussate -- (of two or more things) cross or intersect each other to form an X

dramaturge -- a dramatist

dromond -- a large medieval ship of a kind used for war or commerce, chiefly in the Mediterranean

empennage -- an arrangement of stabilizing surfaces at the tail of an aircraft

enchiridion -- a book containing essential information on a subject

faience -- glazed ceramic ware, in particular decorated tin-glazed earthenware of the type which includes delftware and maiolica

foolscap -- a size of paper, about 330 x 200 (or 400) mm

foramen -- an opening, hole, or passage, especially in a bone

gallimaufry -- A confused jumble or medley of things

gamine -- (of a young woman) attractively boyish

histological -- studying microscopic biology or tissue under a microscope 

imprecation -- a spoken curse

ineffable -- too great or extreme to be expressed or described into words

ingenuous -- (of a person or action) innocent and unsuspecting

integument -- a tough outer protective layer, especially that of an animal or plant

jocose -- playful or humorous

knacker -- tire (someone) out

lacuna -- an unfilled space; a gap

lambent -- (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance

liminal -- occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold

masculate -- mark with a spot or spots; stain

mickle -- a large amount

milfoil -- the common Eurasian yarrow

Minnesinger -- a German lyric poet and singer of the 12th-14th centuries, who performed songs of courtly love

opprobrious -- (of language) expressing scorn or criticism

opprobrium -- harsh criticism or censure

oriel -- a large upper-story bay with a window, supported by brackets or on corbels

palimpsest -- a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing

particolored -- having or consisting of two or more different colors

pentatonic -- relating to, or based on, or denoting a scale of five notes, especially one without semitones equivalent to an ordinary major scale with the fourth and seventh omitted

Percheron -- a powerful draught horse of a grey or black breed, originally from France

perfidy -- the state of being deceitful and untrustworthy

perfuse -- permeate or suffuse with a liquid, color, or quality

petrichor -- a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather

pibroch -- a form of music for the Scottish bagpipes involving elaborate variations on a theme, typically of martial or funerary character

pissant -- an insignificant or contemptible person or thing

prurient -- having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters, especially the sexual activity of others

ramify -- spread or branch out; grow and develop in complexity or range

retroussé -- (of a person's nose) turned up at the tip in an attractive way

salver -- a tray, typically one made of silver and used in formal circumstances

scapular -- a short monastic cloak covering the shoulders

sintered -- produced by or subjected to sintering (the process of coalescing a powdered material into a solid or porous mass by means of heating without liquefaction)

snug -- a small, comfortable public room in a pub or inn

soporific -- tending to induce drowsiness or sleep

spall -- break (rock, ore, or stone) into smaller pieces, especially in preparation for sorting

spirochaete -- a flexible spirally twisted bacterium, especially one that causes syphilis

tantivy -- a rapid gallop or ride

tatterdemalion -- tattered or dilapidated

thermogenic -- relating to or involving the production of heat, especially in a human or animal body

trencherman -- a person who eats in a specified manner, typically heartily

vituperative -- bitter and abusive

Weltanschauung -- a particular philosophy or view of life

whilom -- formerly; in the past

Review:

I started this book as a loan from the library, but it was a very slow start and the constant need to look up words had me on the Kobo. The story plods along and I found it very hard to engage until near the end.  The sub-stories interlocked, but it took so long for each piece to find the other that it felt like I was reading several books at once within this one book.  The frequency of words that were obscure or unusual in their use made the book feel unapproachable.

Murder the Truth, David Enrich

 

Murder the Truth:  Threats, intimidation, and a secret campaign to protect the powerful by David Enrich

Started: April 18, 2025

Completed: April 25, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Enrich does a good job of bringing together the stories of individual cases and several law firms to argue that there is an active conspiracy to make it easier for the powerful to shut down news stories via libel suits.  It seems like the suits rarely (if ever) target the thrust of the article, but find some tiny mistake around the edges and attempt to tar the media organization as malicious.  There are some notable exceptions (Dominion's suits against media organizations like FOX, go after the heart of the matter).  Meanwhile, the lawyers who attack the media argue that the laws need to be changed as they face an exceedingly uphill battle to "hold the media accountable."  That is as it should be.  Media should minimize their mistakes (and, when a mistake is made, should own up).  There should be no need to go to court.  When media is doing its job well, it should be very difficult to sue them because they are, well, doing their jobs well!

Toto, A. J. Hackwith

 

Toto by A. J. Hackwith

Started: April 12, 2025
Completed: April 18, 2025
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I have read a lot of books that take place in Oz.  This wasn't awful and it was an interesting take of sorts.  The "good dog" is taken to quite an extreme and I did not find it compelling.  If you like dogs, this may work.

Gender Trouble, Judith Butler

 

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler  the subtitle for this book is generally "Feminism and the subversion of identity"

Started: April 7, 2025
Completed: April 12, 2025
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: My cousin

Review:

This is a technical book written in the jargon of the professional in gender studies.  I found a lot of the terms seemed archaic (to my ears the use of terms were just so unusual).  I listened to an audio book where the performer pronounced words like, "corollary" as "carol-aerie," and I found the pronunciation jarring as well as quickly making the sentence unintelligible.  I coped by going back and listening again, frequently.  This book is far from an easy read, but it is kind of fun to hear Butler reduce Freud to gibbering nonsense.