The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler

 

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

Started: April 5, 2025
Completed: April 7, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nebula Award Committee

Review:

This book is both a conservation work as well as a Science Fiction work.  That is a tough combination.  I have been sort of wrapped up in the concept of "uploading" one's intellect into a computer and this book examines that possibility while also looking at the possibility of recreating extinct creatures (not really Jurassic Park) while at the same time examining how those creatures would impact the environment and still be subject to the very conditions that brought them to extinction.  This is well done for the most part and the shifting perspectives are useful.  The book is brief, however, so it feels like the characters are truncated and only one of the characters undergoes meaningful change or development.

Amity and Prosperity, Eliza Griswold

Amity and Prosperity:  One family and the fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that I heard about on the NYT Review of Books pod cast.

Started: 10/19/2019

Completed: 10/23/2019

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By: The New York Times

Review:

This book will not make you happy.  It will embarrass you as an American.  Nobody will read this book and think that the United States is great or even functional.  I found the book frustrating and the dark message arrived at the same time as some personal dark times so it was a double whammy.

This is similar to Love Canal.  The start is equally horrifying.  The woman at the center matches.  This is not the same story.

I can recommend it, but I'm not happy about it.

Destiny of the Republic, Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic:  A tale of madness, medicine, and the murder of a president by Candice Millard is a book that I decided to read after hearing Ms. Millard on NPR.


Started:  6/26/2013
Completed: 7/3/2013
Recommendation:  This book got the Best Book awards for a reason.  It is great.   Read it.
Recommended By:  NPR

Review:

When thinking of presidents, Garfield rarely jumps to mind.  Frankly, I only knew his name because he was assassinated.  Equally obscure to me was Chester Arthur (his VP who became president upon his death).  This book is not really a biography of Garfield although it covers the basics.  It is, however, a good character sketch and also gives a great look into the leading figures of the day.  I love the way that I got surprised at all the coincidences and the people tying into the president.  In some ways, I think that this story is the intersection of the American Ideal with Reality.  The boat crash which partly opens the story is a wonderful metaphor for what everyone thinks will be the good side of the American dream crashing into the reality of people with too much power.  This book is remarkably well written, carefully engaging, and myopically fascinating.