Golden Gates, Conor Dougherty

Golden Gates:  Fighting for housing in America by Conor Dougherty is another take on the difficulty for the poor to find housing from a Wall Street Journal and New York Times author.

Started: 6/24/2020

Completed: 6/28/2020

Recommendation: Recommended if you are interested in San Francisco

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Given the subtitle, I really thought this was going to use San Francisco as a foil to talk about housing in America in general.  Not so.  This is a brief history of the YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement in San Francisco with the occasional drift into other California cities.

Maybe how journalists write books

I am beginning to notice that when a journalist writes a book it often reads like a series of long columns.  Journalists focus on events and get caught in the sequence.  To make the book seem less like a series of columns, they tend to mix up the order of the events, but this just adds a little to the confusion.  I see it like this...the journalist covered events A, B, and C.  In the lead up to A, however, "a" happened which seemed to be of no consequence, but it tied to "b" which resulted in B and it was only because A and B happened that C happened:

...a...A-----+

   |         |

   |   ......C...

   |         |

  .b.....B---+

So, the journalist deals with this in the book by starting with C and providing the lead up to C which takes us back to A and the lead up to A takes us back to "a" which ties into "b" that leads to B which gets us back to C again.  This happens then repeatedly through out the book.

I think that it must be editors who help journalists figure out how to do this, but I'm not sure.  My gut is that a journalist would prefer to crank through the material in the order it happened tying in the pieces as they go.  In this book, I can almost see where the editor made the cuts and the author tried to awkwardly tie the pieces back together with segues instead of surrendering to the march of time.  The book stumbles over time instead of integrating a series of only mildly related events into a coherent whole.

And now back to the review

There is a large cast of characters who appear and then disappear in the book without any seeming impact on the whole book.  I think that this is because so-and-so said thus-and-such and the important thing was not the person, but what that person said.  It feels like the author wants to make sure that the attribution is made, but cares little for the person.

It was oddly misogynistic to refer to one person (who is tracked throughout the book) as having acquired a ring and a bump in her belly to indicate she was married and starting a family. 

One cool thing that this author does is grab short phrases from community meetings and slap them atop each other one after the other.  This grabs the sense of the meeting without the need for the author to describe it.  It feels authentic.  It is an excellent technique and, I'm sure, quite hard to do well.

In the end, while this is an interesting story, I'm not sure how applicable it is to the rest of America.  The epilogue is literally an after thought that tries to draw tendrils across the country, but truly succeeds in suggesting that there are different stories everywhere and no real coherent approach (maybe that is the point, but, if so, the book loses its value by only looking at one).

Hiding in Plain Sight, Sarah Kendzior

Hiding in Plain Sight:  The invention of Donald Trump and the erosion of America by Sarah Kendzior is another book about how Trump became president.  I think my wife recommended this one to me.

Started: 6/19/2020

Completed: 6/24/2020

Recommendation: Recommended, until it does not matter anymore

Recommended By:  My Wife

Review:

Listening to this book was difficult for me.  I found the strident nature of the author's voice grating.  Sometime around the middle of the 7th part (of 9) something must have happened, because her tone became easier.  After a while it returned to its prior state.  I thought that this must have had something to do with the range of the woman's voice (I suffer hearing loss in the range of women's voices), but my wife heard it also.  I think that it might have to do with the cadence, but I'm not sure.  I think that the part I found easier to hear was done with a traditional journalist's cadence instead of the consistent (monotonous?...I dunno) cadence with which the rest of the book was done.

"The bedrock of autocracy is laid with the abdication of vigilance" sort of lays out the tenor for the whole book.  Letting things slide (allowing criminal activity to proceed unchecked) facilitates autocracy.  I write this on the day that a 3 judge appeals court said that the case against Michael Flynn (who plead guilty twice) should be dismissed.  Oh my God.

"It's in the public domain; it always has been" is Kendzior's catch phrase.  Trump runs a criminal organization and the evidence is readily available.  It is not dubious or a "maybe" it is flat-out there.  When we do not act on it we, as a society, kiss our democracy good bye.

Universal Darwinism, John Campbell

Universal Darwinism:  the path of knowledge by John Campbell is a book that I bought the minute I found out about it and it moved to the top of my reading list, then got buried under paper.

Started: August 2019

Completed: 6/19/2020

Recommendation: Just the first half (Quantum Darwinism)

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I got bogged down about half way through this book.  It was at the very end of the description of Quantum Darwinism when there was a heavy dependency on the Hamiltonian Operator which I simply did not understand.  Having said that, I really, really like Quantum Darwinism.  I think it explains a lot.

The Basic Premise of Quantum Darwinism:

It is a fundamental concept of quantum mechanics that the real world (in particular the quantum world, but this rolls over into the world we all experience) is based on probability.  This idea is extremely counter intuitive and flies in the face of our everyday experience:  there is not a probability that I am typing this up...it is a certainty.  So, how do we get from probability to certainty?  Scientists are fond of saying that we do not until we take a measurement (like Schrodinger's Cat).  Quantum Darwinism argues that probabilities are linked through Bayesian statistics.  Bayesian statistics says that one event is linked to another event.  Scientists are already predisposed to see this in the quantum world (the measurement is linked to the wave collapse).  The brilliance of Zurek was to point out the obvious:  everything is interrelated and the more things that are interconnected the fewer the probable outcomes until only one is possible from a macroscopic level.  Applying Bayesian statistics to quantum mechanics means that the different possible states atrophy into only a single reality as more and more quantum events interact.  Boom!  At a quantum level everything is probabilistic, but because so many quantum interactions occur before it is visible in the world we experience there is certainty.

Isn't Everything Bayesian?

Maybe, but if feels like Campbell is a boy with a new toy.  He views everything (and I mean everything) through the same lens.  Surely, the examples he chooses jive well with a Bayesian view, but it does not feel comprehensive in each field.  Maybe this is just too small a book for that or maybe it is cherry picking.  I am not really in a position to discern but the "universal" applicability feels forced.  That made it hard to read the rest of the book.

References:

This book referenced other works that I really should read and then go back and reread the front half of this book:

• Zurek, Wojciech; "Quantum Darwanism"; This explains how classical reality emerges from quantum processes
• Deutsch, David: "Quantum Theory, The Church-Turing Principle, and the Universal Quantum Computer";  This explains how the class of computable functions is defined by the law of nature
• Hamiltonian Operator
• Zurek, Wojciech: "Decoherence and the Transition from Quantum to Classical"

Personal Conclusions:

I think that this analysis of Quantum Darwanism holds in it the explanation of the arrow of time.  Interactions occur in an order and the order of those interactions determines the outcome.  I have not figured out how to formalize it mathematically, but I think that the order of interactions matters so we have time.

The End of October, Lawrence Wright

The End of October by Lawrence Wright is a pandemic novel recommended by my mother.  I am sort of dreading reading it.

Started: 6/17/2020

Completed: 6/19/2019

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By: my mother

Words for which I sought help:

porte cochere -- a covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through, typically opening into a courtyard.

Review:

This book has a certain echo of the current pandemic, but far more serious.  The chatter on the television seems so real largely because it is a novel that was recently written and so is suffused with the current regime.  That is really scary because the author apparently presumes that there is some Trump form of power that is retained into the near future.

I really disliked this book.  The basic research was good and the impact of the pandemic was reasonable given the constraints.  The characters were generally flat.  After the initial release of the pandemic the arc of the story was highly predictable.  It feels like the assault on the children was simply gratuitous.  I dunno...maybe too close to home, but I really didn't enjoy this book at all.

David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell

David and Goliath: Underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants by Malcolm Gladwell is a book that was on an anti-racist list (Dr. Clint Smith on Pod Save The People) provided in response to the George Floyd protests.

Started: 6/16/2020

Completed: 6/17/2020

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By: Dr. Clint Smith

Review:

Parts of Gladwell's take on the David and Goliath story were new to me.  He mentions the type of javelin as being something that was huge, but could be thrown a long distance given the straps on it.  I did a little research and this is true.  The rest of Gladwell's argument, however, is centered on the idea that Goliath really couldn't see very well and anticipated hand-to-hand combat (which is consistent with other things I have read).  Assuming that is the case, however, why would Goliath bring a weapon meant to be used at a distance?  He actually had two distance weapons (a type of spear made to be thrown and a javelin) so none of this really makes any sense.  It is OK, though.  The meat of the argument holds--David won because he did not play by Goliath's rules.

It feels like the conclusion of the book is that serious adversity uniquely primes individuals to resist.  In a sense, this forwards the broad statement that "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."  I have to admit, I think that "what doesn't kill you isn't done yet."  This difference of opinion does not put us in opposition, but it doesn't really lead us to the same conclusion.  It feels like Gladwell wants to say that we need individuals who have faced serious adversity in order to improve society.  I want to say we need a society free of serious adversity.

David didn't choose to confront Goliath because he had a history of serious adversity.  Who knows what his motives were, but I imagine he felt he was smarter than Goliath and that the loss of one shepherd boy was not really a great price for the Israeli people if he failed.  Or, maybe, this is just another story kind of like Washington "not telling a lie" that gets made up about famous people after they have become famous.  I guess the take away for me is that someone has to confront Goliath.  If I can think of a clever (out of the box?) approach, then it should be me.

Before They Are Hanged, Joe Abercrombie

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie is the second book in the The First Law series.

Started: 6/12/2020

Completed: 6/16/2020

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book drops right in from the previous one and finally explains what the First Law is.

The sweeping violence of this tale matches the prior and somehow one still gets to like the characters.   Even the most violent are somehow true to themselves and all seem to recognize how remarkably violent their lives are.  In some ways, this is a simple quest story and the quest does move forward in this book although it is hard to tell why some of the subplots are important.  The quest itself continues to be a harrowing journey.  Meanwhile, for the other characters who are not directly involved in the quest, the world seems to be following apart for pretty much everyone's perspective.

In other ways, the flat heads seem to play the role of monsters in a monster tale.  The flat heads fill the role of horrifying kill on site type of thing (to my mind they worked like enormous and truly dangerous spiders would to most people now) and we learn that Logan seems to have a berserker quality around them as well as the nature of his magical sword being defined.

All in all, the story remains compelling, the characters engaging, and the hooks have been driven deeper calling for the third book. 

The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman:  A tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary by Simon Winchester was a book that I saw briefly described in a column and the subtitle drew me in.

Started:  4/22/2020
Completed: 6/13/2020
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

What an interesting way to cover a truly boring topic.  Lexicography in general and the creation of dictionaries in particular are deadly boring.  Linking in a murder and a madman, well that makes it more approachable.  This book is broadly a sad account of a man whose grasp of reality was tenuous on a regular basis (at least nightly).  As a result of murder, however, the madman in resigned to a sanatorium and because he was a gentleman, he was given a lot of latitude which included occupying two cells and the acquisition of his own library of precious books.  This gave the madman the resources in both time and literature to be an enormous contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary.

My first encounter with the Oxford English Dictionary was in high school where I stumbled across the enormous number of volumes making the dictionary over 20 books.  It was on a corner shelf and, if memory serves, was an edition printed in 1932 (if that is possible).  I remember looking at the date when I could not find a word I thought was commonplace, but it was clearly a word that only became common after 1932 (maybe it was something like, "jet").  I can remember just flipping through the dictionary and finding definitions that were antiquated for common place words (I remember "fag" being a bundle of sticks or a cigarette).  I also found quotations that explained how the word was used (it was helpful later to be able to occasionally recall such a quotation when playing Scrabble).  For me, it was fascinating.  I remember looking up good words for hang man.  "Quiffe" was such a word which I will both never forget and doubt that I will ever have the courage to use.

I was also stunned to learn that Trench had been the person who had proposed the dictionary (I have a first edition of "Trench on Words" which is really interesting).  So, all in all, this book was one I really enjoyed.

MBS, Ben Hubbard

MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard is a book that came recommended by the New York Times.

Started: 6/9/2020

Completed: 6/12/2020

Recommendation: Not recommended

Recommended By: The New York Times

Review:

It is odd that a book about MBS and his rise to power focuses so much on Jamal Khashoggi whose murder occurred after MBS was rather solidly in power.  It feels like a look at MBS through the lens of Khashoggi.  I don't particularly have a problem with this, but it is odd to have a book about a person (MBS) that quotes someone else (Khashoggi) more extensively.  The stuff that is quoted from Khashoggi is not even about MBS, rather it is about Khashoggi and his point of view.  All of this is very interesting, but it feels like the title of the book is wrong.

It is also odd how the author injects his visa application woes into the tale.  It seems to put the narrator in the story of MBS' rise to power, but, at the same time, the narrator has absolutely nothing to do with that rise.  Maybe this is included in an effort to point out how difficult it is to get information about MBS, but it seems like if that is the point, then maybe don't write a book about MBS.  I don't know.

Similarly the digression and emphasis on women driving seems to go nowhere.  It is an interesting detail, but it is not a subplot.  It feels like the author thought this would go someplace, he followed it, but it really never went anywhere.  It is unclear whether women driving has made a huge difference for good or ill in Saudi Arabia.  One hopes that it is an improvement (clearly the author does), but the author does not make his case.

The author seems to have anticipated that either MBS would be deposed as the crown prince or MBS' father would have died propelling MBS into the kingship.  Neither happened and so it seems the author is awash in "I don't know."  In hindsight, I realize that this is a history written by a journalist.  Journalism, and particularly political journalism, is truly a thing of the moment.  Ben Hubbard saw the moment as the death of Khashoggi, but it appears he was wrong.  This was neither MBS' downfall, nor the obstacle over which he climbed to rise to power.

The afterword amounts to speculation and calls for revision once current events have actually become history.  This is an interesting book, but it is a book of the moment.  There is still too much to happen in order to climb to explain how MBS rose to power.

Under another title (like, "The Impact of the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi" or "Khashoggi and MBS;  Lives Intertwined") this book might have more value, but I think that the author (or editor) just overreached.

Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a book that I have had on my book list for a very, very long time.  I think I had it there as something that I could read with my children who have all aged past this book, but I cannot remember.  I think I have had it on my list of things to read since high school.

Started: 6/7/2020

Completed: 6/9/2020

Recommendation: Recommended for Young Adults

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Good and evil are not muddy by nuance in this book.  There is an adequate amount of mistaken identities which offers a certain degree of humor.  Everything is tied up neatly in the end and, effectively, everyone who should lives happily ever after.  A good story for kids to enjoy.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard P. Feynman

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman:"  Adventures of a curious character by Richard P. Feynman is another Feynman book.  I tend to find these irresistible.

Started: 6/5/2020

Completed: 6/7/2020

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Feynman was an interesting fellow.  This book recounts how diverse his life was and what pleasure he took in annoying people.  It is just a collection of stories and it gives a rather rosy picture of Feynman telling stories on himself that he most enjoyed.

The End of the Myth, Greg Grandin

The End Of The Myth: From the frontier to the border wall in the mind of America by Greg Grandin is a book about the USA from a Yale Historian.  Yeah, so, gotta read that one...

Started: 6/1/2020

Completed: 6/5/2020

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

This is an interesting look at how the concept of a "frontier" has strongly affected the way America grows and views itself.  One thing that is very well done is the effort to show how a border has morphed from a concept of an area of defense against attack, to a concept of an area where America is simply undermined by adding people to the country.  In the past, expanding into the frontier resolved problems because it was possible to just go somewhere else which was virgin territory.  Now, the frontier represents the last barrier against others infringing on the increasingly reduced availability of virgin territory.

It is worth noting that while individuals experience the border as a limit, changes to agreements (like NAFTA) allow for corporate growth without really looking at borders while, somehow, also providing within the structure of the agreement concepts that give the corporation supra-governmental control.  Built into these agreements are legal defenses that allow corporations to sue governments for profits that have not been realized due to legislation detrimental to the corporation (like clean water restrictions).  It is simply staggering.

As part of the post-Vietnam restoration, Reagan, the GOP, and the Tea Party have worked to destroy the social support structures that country.  More than half the population of the United States is living in poverty.  The country has turned over to a government that protects corporations at the cost of real people.  This is done through the concept of the frontier and protecting the border.  The wall is a "kind of geo-political realism" that argues that growth is a zero sum game (if I grow, you must recede).  The New Deal argued that "social citizenship" was important because growth was no longer the simple outlet to allow people to move to new areas.  Instead, we face corporations and governments that "exploit slave and cheap labor."  The very people who were once exploited for gain, become reminders that they can no longer be exploited in the same way.  Somehow, the conservatives (via Trumpism) have resulted in outrageous consumerism (like pulling out of the Paris agreement, which represented a restriction).  "Cruelty itself becomes a brazen show of American freedom."  How ghastly.  Once more, we see that cruelty is the point.

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a book I picked up at the Labor Day Festival.  I enjoyed The Goldfinch.

Started: 5/26/2020

Completed: 6/1/2020

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

bilious -- affected or associated with nausea or vomiting

chiton -- The chiton was a simple tunic garment of lighter linen and usually pleated that was worn by both sexes and all ages. It consisted of a wide, rectangular tube of material secured along the shoulders and lower arms by a series of fasteners. Chitons typically fell to the ankles of the wearer, but shorter chitons were sometimes worn during vigorous activities by athletes, warriors or slaves.

exegesis -- critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture

Review:

This book is an odd mix between a coming of age story and a mystery.  There is an immense amount of drama but the drama makes sense given the context.  It is about young people maturing under huge pressure.  As the pressure grows, the weather seems to change with huge swings and, itself, generates complications.  School, oddly, plays a small role, but serves as a structure for the whole story providing a framework for keeping track of time.

It is also interesting how important pay phones are to the story.  I wonder how well this concept of a pay phone will last as the book ages.  It seems like the current generation is having a hard time imagining a time without connectivity and the lack of knowledge of each other and outside world (see through the lens of pay phones and the occasional television references suggest that it might be hard to generations increasingly removed from this story to understand how the misunderstandings in location and time (both leveraged and unleveraged) might somehow exist.

The book is rich in characters (some of whom are simply unpursued).  The sense of this being a story (as told in some kind of 1950s novel or as in a movie) that is aware of itself leads to a disconcerting effort to "tie things up" while leaving plenty of areas incomplete--thus, the book becomes a sort of claim to completion without really being complete at all.