The Maniac, Benjamin Labatut

The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut is the story of John Von Neumann.

Started: 10/23/2023

Completed: 10/29/2023

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is an odd novel.  I chose to look at it as non-fiction, despite its being a novel and including details that nobody could actually know.  The story of Von Neumann's life is told from the perspectives of the people who knew him.  Each had a different, distinct voice and covered portions of his life which were often overlapping.  It was interesting and very odd.  I can recommend it, but with the sole reservation that that you need to know about the life of Von Neumann in order to really follow it well.

Salvation, Peter F. Hamilton

 

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton is the first book in the Salvation Series

Started: 8/13/2023
Completed: 10/28/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: A list of "must read" sci-fi books.

Review:

Overall I enjoyed this book and I liked the way that all of the different details of an alien civilization came to light.  I think it is worth reading the second.  I especially liked the use of portals and looking at how that changed the world.

The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff

 

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Started: 10/20/2023
Completed: 10/23/2023
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Groff seems to have one voice:  suffering.  This novel is an ode to suffering with most of the varieties of suffering possible discussed.  It is an unpleasant read, though well written.

Mobility, Lydia Kiesling

 

Mobility by Lydia Kiesling

Started: 10/16/2023
Completed: 10/20/2023
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The main character in this book is not very interesting.  The book jolts back in forth in time and I found the plot plodding.  What "foreshadowing" there was was extremely obvious and  kind of lead to a certain amount of dread.  I don't remember any foreshadowing that lead to good things.  The main character is repeatedly described as intelligent and seemed to do well in a school environment yet remained mystified by simple concepts like the stock market.  I found the details about clothing and makeup made no difference to the story...maybe they are the kind of details that "set the scene" in the way a description of a landscape does, but it was hard to me to take anything away beyond the image itself.  Maybe this is a me problem.  Normal major events (divorce, marriage, birth of a child, etc.) seemed to occur between chapters while masturbation, hook ups, and cheating seemed to occupy whole chapters.  This book oddly seemed to be about sex without being graphic.  I don't know, it was just a weird mix and I found it hard to enjoy.

The Struggle for a Decent Politics by Michael Walzer

 

The Struggle for a Decent Politics:  On "liberal" as an adjective by Michael Walzer

Started: 10/15/2023
Completed: 10/15/2023
Recommendation: Mildly Recommended
Recommended By: my wife

Review:

For most of this book, this seemed like an academic parsing of words.  I guess I should have been ready for that from the title.  Towards the end, there was a little bit more on the application.  As theory books go, this was very readable and very approachable.  Like most political theory, I felt that this book described what already happens rather than builds a coherent theory.  I know that is unfair to this author who is a full fledged theorist and who went to great lengths to make this book coherent from a theoretical point of view.  All the same, it sort of felt like using "liberal" as an adjective was pointed at, "what is the liberal version" of a lot of different types of politics.  In addition, he did address what types of politics are simply incompatible with "liberal."  I guess the heart of the issue is that the way that Walzer defines "liberal" (which may be entirely correct) was at odds with my understanding (which probably is closer to "progressive") so I frequently found his uses of the term jarring leading to less understanding and not more.

The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart

 

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart is the first book in the Drowning Empire Trilogy

Started: 10/11/2023
Completed: 10/16/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

To me, this seemed like a modern take on Frankenstein.  The world building was quite good and very consistent.  I was fully enmeshed in each new concept as it came and the idea of using life force as a source of magic is a good one.  I look forward to the next book in the series.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Started: 10/10/2023
Completed: 10/11/2023
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a light read.  The octopus is used to move the plot forward and bring together the human main characters.  It is a fun change and ascribes a lot to an octopus, but makes the book enjoyable.

American Prometheus, Bird and Sherwin

 

American Prometheus:  The triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Started: 8/3/2023
Completed: 10/10/2023
Recommendation: Nobody
Recommended by: The book behind the movie

Review:

So, wow, there is so much to this book.  It has an incredible amount of detail that blew me away.  I thought I knew about the brain group behind the atomic bomb, but I only knew part of it.  As I learned more about Oppenheimer and how he came to work on the project there was a tremendous amount of stuff that happened beyond simply learning and teaching physics.  I learned more about Oppenheimer as a person who was struggling with what the right thing was to do his whole life.  I feel like his participation in the atom bomb project is the only reason that we know so much detail.  His life was otherwise ordinary in many ways--particularly his difficulty with his family life.  How he handled the things he faced, however, was novel.  Instead of leaning into the problems and working to resolve them, he seemed to skirt them.  It felt like he found physics a puzzle that he wanted to solve, but his daily life held no such interest and his troubled childhood (as a child of luxury, but often on his own) set the stage for the rest of his life where he was provided endless resources, but his personal life seemed fragile.  Now, of course, I want to see the movie!

Trust, Hernan Diaz

 

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Started: 10/5/2023
Completed: 10/8/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: The Pulitzer Prize

Words for which I sought help:

sauternes -- a French sweet wine from Sauternes in the Graves section of Bordeaux.

Review:

What an amazing book.  A story within a story within a story within a story.  Yep, that many layers.  And each story teller has an interesting and distinctive way of telling their own story.  I cannot imagine what it took to put this story together but I was riveted.  Simply awesome.

The Wren, The Wren, Anne Enright

 

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

Started: 10/3/2023
Completed: 10/5/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The incredible amount of detail layered into this book reminded me of Housman's poem, "Yonder See The Morning" writ large.  The endless detail, however, builds a mat of reality that binds the characters to the world from cold tears on the bottom of one's chin to wiping crumbs from one's mouth with a detailed description of a white on white napkin.

"Revelation is the way things make sense when we are wired for some type of knowledge but not yet switched on."  I found this statement remarkably insightful--I keep coming back to it.  It feels like it is broadly emblematic of the book where revelations crystalize repeatedly and this wandering through some pretty basic lives is an enjoyable path to walk.

Yellow Wife, Sadeqa Johnson

 

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

Started: 10/1/2023
Completed: Did Not Finish
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I had a hard copy of this book sitting around, so when it showed up in audio at the library, I put it on my list.  I have no idea why I bought it.  This book is just one incredibly sad scene after another.  Of course, I know what slavery was like (particularly for women) and I've stared hard into the face of it.  I did not, however, need a full length novel dramatizing the inner horror for me to get it.  I cannot imaging having to live through it.  I just cannot read it.  It is bad for my soul to know in gory detail how horrible humans can be to one another.

Galileo's Error, Philip Goff

 

Galileo's Error:  Foundations for a new science of consciousness by Philip Goff

Started: 9/29/2023
Completed: 10/1/2023
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

The positions in this book are well argued, well crafted, and compelling.  Goff aligns with several other philosophers whose impression of the world I find compelling.  Pan-psychism is a big pill to swallow and, though the arguments were compelling, it is so unsettling a concept that I think it deserves a lot more thought.