A lot of interesting information, but a bit of a slog due to repetition. He's covering a huge swath of time & geography. That's difficult & he managedA lot of interesting information, but a bit of a slog due to repetition. He's covering a huge swath of time & geography. That's difficult & he managed to break it up fairly well as is shown in the table of contents below. It is a credible effort, but it had problems throughout. Well narrated & I can cautiously recommend reading this, but I've certainly read better books on genes & human history. 3.5 stars rounded down because his bias is just too obvious.
He bent the facts to fit his agenda a bit too often. He makes a big deal out of the math which shows that the genetic variance within a race is greater than between races however they're defined. (I had no idea there were so many!) He points out how much harm these ideas have caused in great detail (Agreed!) & he takes Nicholas Wade to task generally for his ideas in this area, but never meets any of them head on & avoids how often they work well in real life. For instance, he never pointed out just how the 3 major race idea works in a field like forensics (bodies are often identified by race due to bone structure differences) & medical treatments/issues since that would have undercut his argument badly.
His discussion of Darwin's cousin Galton is another example of pretty good with gaping holes. Galton was a 'great' man, both for good & ill, which Rutherford makes clear. He mentions Roosevelt, Churchill, & Stopes, but didn't mention Margaret Sanger or Madison Grant (Bronx Zoo, Bison Society, & a couple of parks). Perhaps that's because he's from the UK, but he also ignored the role Galton's eugenics ideas had in forming the modern conservation & ecological movements. Sanger's efforts led to Planned Parenthood while Grant's book went on to become Hitler's bible. Vogt, the father of the modern ecology movement & a director of PP, coupled Galton's ideas with those of Malthus. Maybe all that would have been too much of a tangle, but I find it fascinating how such great ideas & intentions went so right & wrong. He could & should have found room for this, but he spent too much time repetitiously hammering his point home.
That last sentence pretty much sums up the book: good points that are repetitiously hammered into the reader at the expense of full exploration of the topic. He obviously knows his field & his explanations into just how complex & far reaching minor genetic changes can be are excellent, but his focused PC bias is tough to take at times.
Table of Contents Introduction PART ONE: HOW WE CAME TO BE 1: Horny and mobile 2: The first European union 3: When we were kings i: The king lives on ii: Richard III, Act VI iii: The king is dead . . . PART TWO: WHO WE ARE NOW 4: The end of race 5: The most wondrous map ever produced by humankind 6: Fate 7: A short introduction to the future of humankind Epilogue...more
Wonderful collection & well narrated. I particularly liked the introductory pieces to each story. The ends to which Morrell has gone to research his sWonderful collection & well narrated. I particularly liked the introductory pieces to each story. The ends to which Morrell has gone to research his subjects is fantastic. No wonder they read so well.
The stories were a mixed bunch, but all thrilling. Some were about 'protectors', others had a Twilight Zone feel, & the final one is based on 'Little House on the Prairie', although it is darker & more realistic in a lot of ways.
I normally can find the ebook & would review each story, but I couldn't this time. Suffice it to say it is highly recommended. ...more
People have always lied for a variety of reasons & they still do. Hardly a shocking revelation, but who has lied, how they propagated, & what lies arePeople have always lied for a variety of reasons & they still do. Hardly a shocking revelation, but who has lied, how they propagated, & what lies are still around is both infuriating & intriguing. There's very little new about them & that makes this short book well worth reading. The author also has a great sense of humor which especially comes out in the audio edition. Highly recommended.
Introduction: He starts out by telling us that we're all full of shit & don't even realize it. His inability to track his own lies due to the sheer numbers & shades takes the sting out & sets a good tone. Ben Franklin is a frequent example, not all bad.
1-The Origin of the Specious: He tries to define "truth", especially by what it isn't & this explains in large part why lies are sprinting around the world while the truth is still lying in bed. The truth is limited, often boring &/or bewildering while lies aren't limited & often appeals to our biases & desire for a good story.
2-Old Fake News: I had no idea Benjamin Franklin was such a liar, but it was interesting learning about it & just what 'truth in news' meant in the past. That leads well into the next chapter.
3-The Misinformation Age: Print has really given lies wings. I've always tended to believe the written word more than hearsay. That's obviously a mistake. His examples of the early newspaper stories when they started early in the 19th century are horrific. Not just the bat people's civilization on the moon or the bathtub hoax (Which even sucked in President Truman!), but the sheer amount of bad reporting of even mundane happenings. His example is of a snake that was killed in Brooklyn & none of the six newspapers that covered it could agree on a single detail of what had actually occurred. Wow!
4-The Lie of the Land: I thought "Here there be dragons" would sum up this chapter, but Phillips has plenty of great & horrific examples. (People paying money to colonize & wind up stranded.) Even stranger is Sandy Island which was finally removed from Google Maps in 2012. It might not have been quite the scam Phillips makes it out to be since there was a pumice raft found in about the right spot. Yeah, even Phillips, a fact checker by trade, has inadvertent issues with the truth.
5-The Scam Manifesto: I've read about Poyais & MacGregor before, but Phillips' account shows the true horror & highlights how tough it is to stamp out a lie even when hundreds die. On the funnier side, Thérèse Humbert managed to turn a locked safe into 2 decades of high living. Incredible.
6-Lying in State: Politicians don't lie as much as I think? Wow. He makes a case for this, but then shows just how devastating their lies can be. I knew most of the examples, but it was still interesting & then he came up with Ben Franklin's Seminole Indian Hoax & floored me. I'd vaguely heard of it, but had no idea of the ramifications.
7-Funny Business:Wherever there’s money to be made, there’ll be someone willing to twist the truth to make it. Not particularly shocking, but I loved how he started out with Steve Jobs & Bill Gates, both of whom sold products that didn't work yet. The difference between them & frauds are that they did deliver a working product. Apparently we've had shady dealers for almost 4000 years! Clay tablets from 1750BC show that Ea-nasir of Mesopotamia was a shady copper trader. Sheesh!
8-Ordinary Popular Delusions: Great examples about herd bullshit loops. Not the first time he's covered them, but his point this time shows just how bad eye witnesses & the press together can be. King James got named here, but not for his bible. Instead it was for . He literally wrote the book on witches (It's free on Gutenberg here.) & his participated in torturing them & keeping all their worldly goods, of course. It makes me wonder if the change of "poisoner" to "witch" in "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" was really a bad translation.
Conclusion - Toward a Truthier Future: He explains that bullshit has always been with us & we just have to deal with it. New methods of spreading it (hacked/incorrect Wikipedia pages, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are not the problem, just one more symptom of an underlying issue we've always had & probably always will.
“Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified; it has no reality, but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it. In this field, the soul has room enough to expand herself, to display all her boundless faculties, and all her beautiful and interesting extravagancies and absurdities.” This was written by the lead author of the scientific panel that investigated Mesmer & incidentally the first to use a control group. It was Ben Franklin. LOL! Fitting & a perfect way to end.
Munroe writes the xkcd comic, so this is humorous, but there are a lot examples of the proper use of physics. Besides, who doesn't want to explore theMunroe writes the xkcd comic, so this is humorous, but there are a lot examples of the proper use of physics. Besides, who doesn't want to explore the myriad ways to dig a hole or create a lava moat around your house? I thought I'd have to read another book in between, but between intriguing investigations & Wil Wheaton narrating, it had no trouble keeping my attention & it kept me chuckling the whole time.
I'll let the ToC speak for the rest. Those marked with an arrow weren't in the audio book. Introduction 1. How to Jump Really High 2. How to Throw a Pool Party 3. How to Dig a Hole 4. How to Play the Piano → How to Listen to Music 5. How to Make an Emergency Landing 6. How to Cross a River 7. How to Move 8. How to Keep Your House from Moving → How to Chase a Tornado 9. How to Build a Lava Moat 10. How to Throw Things 11. How to Play Football 12. How to Predict the Weather → How to Go Places 13. How to Play Tag 14. How to Ski 15. How to Mail a Package 16. How to Power Your House (on Earth) 17. How to Power Your House (on Mars) 18. How to Make Friends → How to Blow out Birthday Candles → How to Walk a Dog 19. How to Send a File 20. How to Charge Your Phone 21. How to Take a Selfie 22. How to Catch a Drone 23. How to Tell If You’re a Nineties Kid 24. How to Win an Election 25. How to Decorate a Tree → How to Build a Highway 26. How to Get Somewhere Fast 27. How to Be On Time 28. How to Dispose of This Book...more
Another great addition to the Parker novels. I wish the library had it on audio, but they don't so I read a print version. Very glad I did as it fillsAnother great addition to the Parker novels. I wish the library had it on audio, but they don't so I read a print version. Very glad I did as it fills in a lot for the next book, Ask The Parrot. Be prepared to read it immediately after this one since this one ends on a cliff-hanger. I hate/detest that, so it loses a star for that.
Otherwise, this was a top notch, typical Parker novel. As usual, everything goes wrong, but Parker stays cool & takes care of business. He's not a very nice guy; he defines "amoral". He knows what he wants & doesn't much care what happens to the rest of the world so long as they don't get between him & his goal. When they do, he takes the most efficient path through the obstacle. Lots of fun!...more
There's a lot to be learned from history. The current popularity of destroying, vandalizing, &/or moving all Confederate statues simply ignores & whitThere's a lot to be learned from history. The current popularity of destroying, vandalizing, &/or moving all Confederate statues simply ignores & whitewashes it. Yes, some of the statues can & should be moved, but they're all being treated the same & they shouldn't be. This quick sketch Confederate Kentuckians shows that well. Families were split apart over the issues with many becoming Confederates because they believed in state rights & 'the North invaded Kentucky's neutrality', even though they'd argued against secession before. Some were young, dumb, or had Southern loyalties through family & friends. It wasn't a simple choice for them.
With the advent of the Civil War, [Roger Weightman] Hanson was faced with the same dilemma that confounded many of his contemporaries. Torn between his love for the Union and his sense of obligation to the rights of the State of Kentucky, he determined to uphold the Constitution but desired to remain neutral. To George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, Hanson publicly avowed to be a "Union man without ifs or buts." Soon, however, he did a political about-face and decided that his future and his ties lay with the Confederacy. Hanson was not alone in his decision. Two of his four brothers joined the Confederate ranks, and two others embraced the Union cause. Like Kentucky, the Hanson family was torn apart by the war.
I didn't pay much attention to what most of these soldiers did during the Civil War, but read about their early life, why they joined the Confederacy, & what they did later. Some were outright bastards, but there's a lot of diversity. Some went on to become excellent citizens. Abe Buford is best known around here as starting Bosque Bonita Farm, a Thoroughbred breeding & racing stable, even though he was also governor of the state during part of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.
A better example is John Castleman's statue which was recently removed. Even a brief look at the history of Kentucky & Castleman shows that he was a pretty great guy who didn't choose well as a young man. He was just 19 when he joined the Confederacy, but later was a strong & early advocate for social justice in Louisville & his statue was dressed in civilian attire - it was NOT a Civil War statue. He said he'd salute any ranking officer whether they were black or white & he fought hard to keep KY parks integrated, besides helping keep KY together after Governor Goebel's assassination. He was part of the invasion of Puerto Rico & became military governor of the island. Yet all he's remembered for is being a Confederate in the Civil War. Ridiculous! He's exactly what we should all aspire to; outliving a bad decision made by our younger selves. He didn't let it define him, but moved on & accomplished good things.
Many should be remembered for their service & bravery even though I disagree with their thinking & cause. I have to admire & wonder at General Hood as he had himself tied into his saddle so he could lead his men into battle. He lost use of his left arm, but soldiered on & another wound caused him to have his right leg amputated. He still fought on! After the war, he went on to father a bunch of kids. Now that's an example for anyone pushing through adversity.
Anyway, this is a pretty quick read that shows the Civil War was made up of real people who made some tough decisions. I think some were wrong, but there are plenty of lessons to be learned. The politics of the time were just as partisan as they are today & that led to some really bad decisions.
Each bio is by a different author, so the tones vary from very dry to almost fun. It's laid out well to look up a particular person. Highly recommended! This book is free from the UK Press, but the time might be limited. Download it here: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_milita... I looked for a sister volume of 'Kentuckians in Blue' & couldn't find one. That's a shame & one reason I didn't give this 5 stars.
Overall, well narrated, but fell way short of what I expected & the stories average out to under 2.5 stars. None were terrible, but just didn't live uOverall, well narrated, but fell way short of what I expected & the stories average out to under 2.5 stars. None were terrible, but just didn't live up to their potential by a long shot. Great ideas & interesting themes that weren't developed or were diluted. Each story is preceded by a short introduction about where the idea came from & where the story was originally published plus miscellaneous observations. They're often as interesting as the story.
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth: I liked this more the last time I read it free online. 3 stars this time, but I gave it 4 stars in my original review. It does have a lot of heart, just doesn't bear rereading too often.
Anda's Game: a bit of "Ender's Game" & he explains how he likes to allude to a well known title, take the idea & change it. Not a bad idea. This is all on earth & it takes on the inequality of wealth plus a few other things. 3 stars
I, Robot: Using the same title as Asimov's book is just wrong & he could have made his point better by adding an 's' to the end of the title. I could really see Wil Smith playing the MC, so I guess the movie wasn't a complete waste - close, though. So was this story. He had a couple of good ideas threading through this, but never developed them. I prefer his shorter work where he has less time to dilute his themes. 2 stars
I, Row-Boat: Better title, but pretty much the same complaints from me. Good ideas that weren't well developed or diluted. There are also some huge holes that are just ignored with hand waving. 2 stars
After the Siege: Based on his grandmother's experience during the siege of St. Petersburg, this had a fantastic backdrop that was very well described, but he really screwed up the execution. Zombies were not needed & there's a huge hole that's just ignored. 3 stars...more
A lot of excellent info & a great overriding theme damaged by repetition, especially toward the end. Dunn asserts that our chemical cleanliness is a mA lot of excellent info & a great overriding theme damaged by repetition, especially toward the end. Dunn asserts that our chemical cleanliness is a mirage & exactly the wrong way to live. We can't get rid of all other life forms & don't want to. By a huge margin, most animal life is beneficial or neutral toward us, so we are killing far more of it & breeding those which are better at surviving our cleaning efforts - much of it is harmful.
He describes some experiments & findings that are fascinating both for the results & just how ignorant it shows us to be. It's truly amazing what we don't know that we don't know. Someone should, but they don't & he explains why. He covers some of his life & starts each chapter with some great quotes, often from Darwin.
Highly recommended despite the repetition because the message is great & the information wonderful. We need to work with nature, not against it as we have been. Some more details after each chapter listed below.
Table of Contents Prologue: Homo indoorus - Folks in the US spend 93% of their lives indoors! I didn't believe it, but thought about it & asked around. I think it's true, especially if you consider the car 'indoors' & he makes a good case for that. These semi-controlled environments still teem with life.
1 Wonder - introduces the microscopic world through Antonie van Leeuwenhoek a pioneer in the discovery of microscopic life. Dunn does a great job showing just how cool that world is & how it inspired him to be a scientist. He also made me grind my teeth in frustration when he twice mentions us using same magnification to see the same things & then never mentions what magnification that is. Apparently it's 275x-500x & mine only goes up to 200x. Sigh.
2 The Hot Spring in the Basement - showcases remarkable finds in hot water heaters. He traces the unexpected presence of one family of bacteria & uses it to educate on reading DNA. Very well done & in a perfect place since this is important throughout the book.
3 Seeing in the Dark - describes how his experiment to list all the life in a house came about & the experiment itself. Huge undertaking with incredible results. The diversity of species & where they naturally occur is well shown. I’ll return often in this book to the question of just what happens when we try to get rid of all of the biodiversity in our houses. Boy, does he ever. It's a good lesson, but terribly repetitious.
4 Absence as a Disease - He starts out describing the cholera epidemic in 1850s London (described in tedious detail in The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World) & how it eventually changed our reaction to bacteria - Kill them all! Bad idea & it may well be responsible for the increase in Crohn’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, allergies, and even multiple sclerosis today. We're not exposed to enough different bacteria (of any sort, not just pathogens) early enough so our immune systems over react. It's a good hypothesis, but tough to pin down experimentally.
5 Bathing in a Stream of Life - is also discussed in more detail in I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life, but Dunn does a good enough job in his limited space. He also made me aware of a possible personal issue - mycobacterim of the non-TB type that could be causing me issues.
6 The Problem with Abundance - black mold is a huge problem in houses. Where does it come from? He has a pretty good, if ugly, answer. Even the ISS isn't devoid of fungus & it can't be, but it is an ecosystem out of balance.
7 The Farsighted Ecologist - Ecologists are professionally far sighted; they see species in remote locales more clearly than those closer at hand. Farsightedness sounds like a good thing, but it isn’t when it means missing what is most immediate. In New York City, for example, scientists have taken many samples of animals in the forests surrounding the city, but far fewer in the city itself. Again, we're overlooking the obvious something covered in chapter 3, but with a slightly different angle of attack.
8 What Good Is a Camel Cricket? - I loved his reference to Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs. It's a great book & illustrates how even today citizen scientists can be important. Hubbell's pets have been studied a bit more, but the map was out of whack. Why were they in some basements & not others in that sort of distribution? Oh, they weren't. The crickets were actually a Japanese species we hadn't known were even in the US! Great lesson, but we also found that they have gut bacteria that might be great for cleaning up plastics.
9 The Problem with Cockroaches Is Us - Yes, he's serious & he uses them to illustrate the incredible resilience of life. If we don't kill it all (& we rarely do in the case of pests) we create resistant strains amazingly quickly. These strains usually don't compete well with others in their environmental niche, but we help them since they are good at surviving biocides.
11 Gardening the Bodies of Babies - Bad staph infections that were resistant to antibiotics were often cured by seeding good staph on babies first. This is the crux of his argument for biodiversity. Good staph was well established in the niche the bad staph wanted to inhabit. The bad couldn't get a grip since the good staph fought it off. We're going to have bugs, let's make sure it's good bugs & that was almost the course of medicine back in 1960 or so, but a death & some bad turns ruined it, so we stuck with the chemical nuclear option which hasn't worked out well & is becoming more precarious all the time. A big part of that is our incredible ignorance of what is good. We only seem to study the bad.
12 The Flavor of Biodiversity - When I was a kid, Mom often got 'starters' from various farm wives around. Some wouldn't give theirs up just like they took their recipes to the grave. Others were proud to pass theirs along. I knew they were all different & Dunn describes why through an experiment in sourdough bread. A serious, multinational experiment. Wow! Really interesting. If you read it, you'll likely make your own starter.
All in all, a great read & highly recommended....more
Parker in jail! That's a place he's avoided for a long time & it's great how he manages to make that seem like the most pedestrian problem in the bookParker in jail! That's a place he's avoided for a long time & it's great how he manages to make that seem like the most pedestrian problem in the book. There are plenty of more interesting ones. The writing isn't as tight as the original ones, but it's better than some of the others this far into the series. There's a bit more story here than there has to be, but it was fun. On to read the next....more
This anthology is edited by LaValle & John Joseph Adams. I've liked previous anthologies edited by the latter. There were few gems in this collection.This anthology is edited by LaValle & John Joseph Adams. I've liked previous anthologies edited by the latter. There were few gems in this collection. As usual, Howey didn't disappoint, I liked Wilson's offering, & there were a couple of authors new to me, so that made it worthwhile - barely. Well narrated, but NOT recommended. I'm going to avoid anything LaValle touches from now on.
Most of these had good ideas to start with, but buried them under race (whites bad & ignorant, all others good & wise) & sexism (straight men are ignorant pigs, women & other genders or sex orientations are wise). The issues were forced & too obviously tacked on simply to be 'inclusive' in most cases, so they forgot to develop the story! As an old white guy, they tended to distract or alienate me rather than suck me in. The irony of their hateful prejudice is apparently lost on them. It certainly doesn't make me want to accept other lifestyles more. It just pisses me off that they'd waste my time on their personal agenda.*
I really appreciate stories that let put myself into the story. A twist at the end is always good & if it makes me realize that we're very similar, that's even better. A great example is an old, 2 page Cold War story (by Clarke?) in which the President tells an orbiting strike force that they have lost &, instead of retribution, their job is to help rebuild the world. Being an American, my assumptions are flipped on their head when the closing says "President of Soviet Union". That's awesome. It points out my prejudice without alienating me. Few of these even tried that. Of the 25 stories, 4 got 4 stars, 3 got 3 stars, 10 got 2 stars, & 8 got 1 star. I DNF'd 4 of them. Not a great average.
*(If you're nice to me, I'm nice to you. I don't want to know about anyone's sexual practices save for my wife's. I've never found the amount of melanin in skin to be an indicator of anything save resistance to sunburn & wish I had more. If you have a religion, keep it to yourself or I will probably make fun of it. You have the right to believe in anything you want, but if you air it in public, I have every right to mock it in public, too. We're all weird in some ways & I have enough to do dealing with my own to worry about yours.)
Table of contents Introduction by Victor LaValle: This guy is obviously far left & very PC. Anyone who quotes Howard Zinn & Rush Limbaugh in their introduction is setting up a fight & it's obvious which side he's on. I'm really tired of partisan politics right now, especially since neither side can abide a moderate stance much less reason.
"The Bookstore at the End of America" by Charlie Jane Anders: didn't make much sense from a practical standpoint, although I liked the idea. Unfortunately, the story reminded me of the introduction. It tossed in every idiotic point of contention between the extremists, slathered with PC nonsense, & ended with a fizzle. 1.5 stars
"Our Aim Is Not to Die" by A. Merc Rustad: Think of the US as an updated Nazi state & deal with it as a nonbinary gendered person who is trying not to get 'adjusted' or shot. Bravery is doing the right thing no matter how scared you are & this person was terrified. Well shown. 4 stars
"The Wall" by Lizz Huerta: I quit when the author wrote how well the Spanish treated the indigenous population compared to the US. Besides being false, I'm tired of US bashing. Sure, we have issues & haven't always been perfect, but we started a wonderful idea that we only spread due to taking the entire continent & creating a bastion for it. DNF 1 star
"Read After Burning" by Maria Dahvana Headley: too silly. DNF 1 star
"Chapter 5: Disruption and Continuity [excerpted]" by Malka Older: Didn't read, must have skipped over it due to the last one. Glanced at it in the ebook & it didn't suck me in.
"It Was Saturday Night" I Guess That Makes It All Right" by Sam J. Miller: I got to 'stupid to fall in love with another straight boy' & pretty much quit. Having a crush or lusting after someone not interested in you happens, but "falling in love" is a different matter entirely. I'm not going to waste my time when an author doesn't know the difference. DNF 1 star
"Attachment Disorder" by Tananarive Due: Interesting, especially with the pandemic going on. Points off for mentioning skin colors since they didn't matter in this context, except the author wanted to bash white men. Otherwise, quite good. 3 stars.
"By His Bootstraps" by Ashok K. Banker: Overblown & ridiculous start. There's nothing wrong with a hamburger. While he might have looked at the Iroquois, TJ & the other founders spent far more time studying Greek & Roman republics. The rest didn't make any sense, either. Given the times, economies, the power of the European nations, & barely surviving founding feuds, I don't think inclusiveness would have helped at all. 1 star
"Riverbed" by Omar El Akkad: Shades of the Japanese Internment. The true history is far better & more moving reading. 2 stars
"What Maya Found There" by Daniel José Older: didn't really make sense, but the basic idea was chilling. Very poor framing, though. 2 stars, barely.
"The Referendum" by Lesley Nneka Arimah: Several practical issues didn't make sense nor does it seem likely & it ends where it should have begun. 2 stars
"Calendar Girls" by Justina Ireland: I liked the message since it is possible, but found the execution ridiculous & then clunky. I hate sudden back jumps that undermine the beginning. 2 stars
"The Synapse Will Free Us from Ourselves" by Violet Allen: Well done & interesting following Daniel down his rabbit hole. 3 stars
"O.1" by Gabby Rivera: made no sense at all. A lot of PC BS on top of a premise that came off as silly. It's a shame, because it could have been a good one. 1 star
"The Blindfold" by Tobias S. Buckell: Great premise & pretty well done. The Russian thing never made much sense to me, but I liked the way it was resolved. 4 stars
"No Algorithms in the World" by Hugh Howey: Great look at our work ethic. 4 stars
"Esperanto" by Jamie Ford: Good idea, but I didn't really get the execution. 2 stars
"ROME" by G. Willow Wilson: Good idea, but I didn't really get the execution. 2 stars
"Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death" by N. K. Jemisin: Silly. 1 star
"Good News Bad News" by Charles Yu: Excellent idea, but it shot itself in the foot by bashing people for no good reason. 2 stars
"What You Sow" by Kai Cheng Thom: had a really cool back story going on, but I never got enough to make sense of it. Again, ridiculously distracting moments like a chick with a dick which did nothing for the story. The words would have been better used explaining a bit more about the disease. I want to take points away for being obtuse since it was intriguing. 2 stars
"A History of Barbed Wire" by Daniel H. Wilson: Interesting take on the one drop rule & modern techniques set in a dystopian future. 4 stars
"The Sun in Exile" by Catherynne M. Valente: a modern myth that was obvious & rather ridiculous. 2 stars
"Harmony" by Seanan McGuire: Hippies rise again & triumph over HOAs. Nothing new, just some different genders painted on. 2 stars
"Now Wait for This Week" by Alice Sola Kim: was long, but it had to be. Definitely caught me in its web, but I didn't get the end. Sigh. 3 stars...more
This started out rather slow & repetitively for me, but it got a lot more interesting from chapter 4 on. I've read several other books that covered thThis started out rather slow & repetitively for me, but it got a lot more interesting from chapter 4 on. I've read several other books that covered the first 3 chapters in even more detail & Dartnell made his points several times, so it really dragged. I quit for a while, but picked it back up & am glad I did. His common theme, the title of the book, was extremely interesting & he had great examples. He traced why skyscrapers are built where they & even tied voting blocks to formations from millions or billions of years ago. It was impressive & captivating.
Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Making of Us 2 Continental Drifters 3 Our Biological Bounty 4 The Geography of the Seas 5 What We Build With 6 Our Metallic World 7 Silk Roads and Steppe Peoples 8 The Global Wind Machine and the Age of Discovery 9 Energy Coda...more
Although the introduction makes it clear that this was written for older kids (mid teens & up, I'd guess) & was fairly short, it was still pretty thorAlthough the introduction makes it clear that this was written for older kids (mid teens & up, I'd guess) & was fairly short, it was still pretty thorough. Whole books could & have been written about various aspects of his life, even single decisions, but this covers the entire man & does an excellent job of showing just how complex he was. It doesn't excuse his failures nor blow his achievements out of proportion, although the latter would be a chore. He did some incredibly great things that still influence our country.
I really liked the way Meacham points out Jefferson's fears of our country turning into a monarchy via the Federalists & how that caused such a schism with John Adams & Washington. (Meacham didn't give Washington nearly the credit he deserved for not taking the bait, though.) He mentioned Shay's Rebellion without naming it & brought up the Whiskey Rebellion, but supplied only meager details, not enough to really make his point, IMO.
Better yet, he made the point that Jefferson was given to sweeping statements & high philosophy that he couldn't or wouldn't live up to. This was shown in the coverage of his friendship with John Adams; their schism & reconciliation. Jefferson abhorred Adams' Alien & Sedition Acts, yet created the Embargo of 1807. He gave the Navy the authority to wage First Barbary War on the Tripoli pirates & made the Louisiana Purchase. He didn't have the authority to do the last two, yet they had to be done quickly, so he asked after he'd already done the deed. Inconsistent & underhanded? It certainly was according the values he espoused & his fears of the Federalists doing the same, but the last two were good decisions that needed to be made & Congress would have acted too slowly, if at all. The 1807 Embargo was a dismal failure that he passed along to Madison. At any rate, he increased the power of the presidency, a complete reversal of his philosophy to that point.
Meacham also delved into his personal finances & slave holding policies - both awful. We didn't get many details (such as his extensive wine cellar) but he did point out that Monticello had to be sold to pay off all his debts, some of which he'd inherited from his father. He made several attempts to free slaves publicly, but only freed his & Sally's children, the rest being sold with his estate after his death. We are told that while he thought blacks should be free, Jefferson did not believe that two races could live together in equality. How strange from such an intelligent man, but it seems to be one of those basic beliefs (As religion is in many.) that he just couldn't fathom properly. It was undoubtedly propped up by a large dose of selfishness.
There is a lot missing from this book, but it's a really good overview of the man that points out his complexities, public service, brilliance, & utter failures. Very well narrated. Highly recommended for everyone....more
Overall, an excellent anthology very well narrated. I'm not much of a fisherman any more, but did a lot of it in my younger days including fly fishingOverall, an excellent anthology very well narrated. I'm not much of a fisherman any more, but did a lot of it in my younger days including fly fishing in some of the areas mentioned. Apparently all the authors are well acquainted with the sport & it shows in the details, something I really appreciated. No matter how good the mystery, if the details of the world are jarring, it ruins the story for me. Definitely recommended. Quick reviews of each story below.
Table of Contents River tears by Ridley Pearson: was creepy, a couple going to China & there is cormorant fishing, so I found that interesting. I didn't really care for the story, though. 2 stars
Cutthroat by Mark T. Sullivan: was an excellent mystery. I liked the MC & how things wrapped up. Well done! 4 stars
Blue on black by Michael Connelly: I've read this one before as part of the Harry Bosch universe short stories where I numbered it 20.5 in my chronology. It's good, but just an investigation. 3 stars
Unsnaggable by John Lescroart: Good setup, although I could guess what was coming, the end was still masterfully done. I really liked the very end. 4 stars
Darmstadt by Andrew Winer: Creepy & mostly didn't make much sense to me. Set in Germany. 2 stars
Cherchez la femme by Dana Stabenow: Interesting for the Alaskan setting, but not much investigation or anything. Just a lot of telling. 3 stars
Sandy brook by Don Winslow: Excellent, even though we knew what was coming. Great setup & end. 4 stars
The nymph by Melodie Johnson Howe: was short & creepy. I guess there are women like that, but I don't like it & didn't like the story. That it made such an impression means it was well written, though. 4 stars
Tight lines by James W. Hall: Had a lot of potential & was set in Florida, but I didn't get or like the conflict, so the end made no real sense. 2 stars
Every day is a good day on the river by C. J. Box: was surprisingly good since I'm not a fan of Box's series. I don't think this connected to it in anyway, but the characters were great. 4 stars
Death by honey hole by Victoria Houston: An awesome bit of revenge with a lot of soul. 5 stars
The blood-dimmed tide by Will Beall: A lot of good setup, but the fight scene made absolutely no sense. 2 stars
Dead drift by Spring Warren: A well done mystery with old college professors as the investigators. 4 stars
Granite hat by Brian M. Wiprud: A great, but expensive lesson. Loved it! 5 stars
Mr. Brody's trout by William G. Tapply: Great story in most ways, but the author cheated. Sure, we know who, but by not describing the how it lost a lot. 2 stars, but could have been 5 stars. Yeah, it's that big a hole.
Luck by T. Jefferson Parker: a perfect way to end this excellent collection. Very well done by the editor....more
Ridley throws a lot of interesting hypotheses at the question of why there is sex & why/how we indulge without ever coming to a firm conclusion & admiRidley throws a lot of interesting hypotheses at the question of why there is sex & why/how we indulge without ever coming to a firm conclusion & admitting such. I liked that since I didn't find a lot of the studies or statistics he referenced too convincing. This is more a book with points to ponder rather than a definitive text. He writes this at the end of the book, Half the ideas in this book are probably wrong. The history of human science [in this regard] is not encouraging. But he goes on to quote Hume & mention how far we've progressed since his day. We're just not there yet & may never be since we're so good at deceiving ourselves.
It's well worth the time to read. There are some good insights into why we act the way we do & I really liked his opinions on the differences in children of different sexes. I've long been angered by the way the education system treats boys & girls the same. They're not & his point that nurture & nature shouldn't be seen as polar opposites, but as part of a process was very well made.
Table of Contents Preface ONE: Human Nature TWO: The Enigma THREE: The Power of Parasites FOUR: Genetic Mutiny and Gender FIVE: The Peacock’s Tale SIX: Polygamy and the Nature of Men SEVEN: Monogamy and the Nature of Women EIGHT: Sexing the Mind NINE: The Uses of Beauty TEN: The Intellectual Chess Game EPILOGUE: The Self-domesticated Ape...more
I remember liking the 1968 movie with Jack Lemmon (Felix) & Walter Mathau (Oscar) a lot & used to watch the 1970 TV show (Tony Randall as Felix, Jack I remember liking the 1968 movie with Jack Lemmon (Felix) & Walter Mathau (Oscar) a lot & used to watch the 1970 TV show (Tony Randall as Felix, Jack Klugman as Oscar) whenever I could. I liked it even better than the movie & it made me watch anything Jack Klugman did after that. When I saw this play by LA Theater Works, I was excited, but it was a bit of a let down. It was funny, but felt dated & overdone somehow. Still, it was easy to picture in my mind & follow the characters. Great point & only 1.5 hours long. Definitely worth listening to....more
This is way outside my normal reading on both the political & geographic fronts, so I learned a LOT. I can't do a lick about either & usually only notThis is way outside my normal reading on both the political & geographic fronts, so I learned a LOT. I can't do a lick about either & usually only notice geography in how it affects animals. Of course we are & the features have influenced our societies for years. I've just never given it any thought. About time, right?
It might be too elementary for those of you who keep up on foreign affairs, but then again it might provide some insight into the basis for many of the seemingly weird wars & struggles going on around the globe. It certainly did for me & it did so in a quick, flowing manner. Very well narrated, but I did have to look at maps (included in the book) preferably before & after each chapter to fully grasp what was going on. My geography isn't awful, but it's not as good as it could have been.
Table of Contents Introduction: The landscape imprisons their leaders, giving them fewer choices and less room to manoeuvre than you might think. This was true of the Athenian Empire, the Persians, the Babylonians and before; it was true of every leader seeking high ground from which to protect their tribe. sums up the basic premise well & Marshall then goes on to show how this still works even in modern times. Technology has not removed all geographical barriers, but in some cases heightened them. Societies are influenced by their past, too.
1 Russia: made a lot more sense about the tensions today & made me pay more attention to where some little countries were located. It's incredible that Putin is dealing with issues similar to those of the early tsars. Defense via offense & creating buffer states.
2 China: I had heard of the Han, but had no idea how their rise & defense strategy was so similar to Russia's. Makes a lot of sense of our investment around the Pacific & the current tensions. They make a lot of appearances around the world in current affairs.
3 USA: We are definitely in an enviable geographical position & again I see why we didn't allow 'the natives' to interfere with our quick expansion. The far reaching consequences of that shaped the entire world today.
4 Western Europe: I actually had some familiarity with how the rivers & mountains fostered or sequestered these nations; one of the few areas covered in high school world history. Very well done & it makes a lot more sense of the EU problems.
5 Africa: Can you say, "Screwed!"? They were/are by their geography & thus being out of sync with the rest of the world. Marshall does a great job making this clear.
6 The Middle East: Oy! Again, it's obvious why this region is in so much trouble. Lines on a map that ignore natural & social boundaries (as in Africa) plus fanatic religion. If we ever stop needing the oil, it's still a key to transportation.
7 India and Pakistan: Another mess of colonialism, tribalism, & religion exacerbated by geographical features & neighbors. That's just between them. Internally is even worse.
8 Korea and Japan: I knew a lot of this history, but hadn't realized fully just why anyone puts up with North Korea. Now I know. If this was a fiction book, I wouldn't have believed it.
9 Latin America: A lot of similarities to Africa all the way around, but quite a bit of time was spent on the Nicaraguan Canal which stalled. Still, it gives a lot to think about, especially in light of the NWP.
10 The Arctic: I knew the place was melting, but hadn't realized the Northwest Passage(NWP) was becoming commercially viable. I can see where it would create a lot of tension, but was shocked by the laws governing rights due to underwater features. Oh, this is a mess in the making.
Conclusion: He briefly mentions space & how we're taking our current politics out there. Hopefully we'll behave better. As he shows throughout the book, that's not a vain hope. Things are ugly, but we're managing some of the ugly situations a lot better than our forefathers did. Of course, if we don't, the results could be catastrophic for the entire planet. We really need to get some of our eggs out of this basket....more
Diamond packs a lot of interesting information into this book & it flows well, but it's old (1992) so a lot of his information is outdated. Worse, hisDiamond packs a lot of interesting information into this book & it flows well, but it's old (1992) so a lot of his information is outdated. Worse, his conclusions shouldn't be trusted. In several cases, I knew enough about the subject to catch him completely misunderstanding it & making his points based on cherry-picked data. That's bad science which he hides fairly well behind parts of conflicting views. Read this only for the interesting trivia (much of which is repetitive) but don't be swayed by his conclusions except perhaps in his actual fields which are geography & anthropology, I think.
Well narrated & interesting, but since I can't trust him, I can't give this a high mark. That's a shame. I'll put more comments after the various sections.
Table of Contents Prologue Diamond hit a sore spot with me almost immediately when he wrote "When Darwin intimated in 1859 that we had evolved from apes... I am so sick of reading & hearing that. Darwin never wrote or intimated any such thing! He wrote that we must have had a common ancestor. That's a huge difference & if someone doesn't understand it, everything that follows is drivel. Sigh. I know Diamond does, though. He gets on with the basic premise that we're actually just one of several hominid species & aren't as genetically distant from chimps as the white-eyed & red-eyed vireos are from each other. We share much with other mammals & what really makes us unique is our ability to communicate complex thoughts & our inventiveness.
Part 1 Just Another Species of Big Mammal 1 A Tale of Three Chimps 2 The Great Leap Forward
Diamond makes a great case for us just being another mammal from a biological perspective based on differences in DNA & early habits. He then shows how much we differ from other hominids including Neanderthals, but that also shows the age of this book. He sets an interesting lens to look through. He set my teeth on edge by using 'theory' rather than 'hypothesis'. If he's going to argue with science, he should be using the correct terms.
Part 2 An Animal with a Strange Life Cycle 3 The Evolution of Human Sexuality 4 The Science of Adultery 5 How We Pick Our Mates and Sex Partners 6 Sexual Selection, and the Origin of Human Races 7 Why Do We Grow Old and Die?
All really interesting, but I think he left out a lot to make his point. I'm not well enough informed to really pin down most of it. It just felt that way until I noticed that he was strictly arguing phenotypic evolution rather than the selfish gene theory. Again, lacking updated data like the genetic studies of Jews which was doing a wonderful job tracing their migrations until they cut off access when it was found that they, like the rest of us, have about a 15% adultery rate. Since they inherit through the paternal line, this was a big deal.
Part 3 Uniquely Human 8 Bridges to Human Language 9 Animal Origins of Art 10 Agriculture's Mixed Blessings 11 Why Do We Smoke, Drink, and Use Dangerous Drugs? 12 Alone in a Crowded Universe
Again, a lot of interesting stuff until the last chapter which was a train wreck. The only more idiotic treatment of the search for extraterrestrial life that I've ever heard has come from Young Earth Creationists & he barely cleared their low bar. For instance, he says we sent a message to another galaxy several decades ago & leaves the impression we should expect an answer. M13 is 21,000 light years away, so our message couldn't reach them until 23,000AD, but he never mentions that awkward fact. Instead, he tries to overwhelm the reality with a lot of other interesting facts, but all are very incomplete & twisted. The impression I've had that he's cherry-picking to make his points is confirmed. Yuck. He completely destroyed any remaining credibility he had.
Part 4 World Conquerors 13 The Last First Contacts 14 Accidental Conquerors 15 Horses, Hittites, and History 16 In Black and White
More about language than I would have expected, but I found it interesting. Much is a synopsis of his Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies which was great. He's quite pessimistic about us, even writing at one point something about 'modern nuclear warfare' leaving the impression we've dropped nuclear bombs fairly often while I'm shocked that only 2 have ever been deployed. That we made it through the Cold War & MAD days without one being being set off is incredibly hopeful, IMO.
The last chapter is primarily about genocide & he managed to bore me through sheer repetition of a handful of examples. There are plenty & he despairs of our race while not providing any actual numbers. We're changing fast & less people are dying from violence or most other causes but he's a pessimist. For instance, in 2012 (20 years after this book was published.) the total number of deaths worldwide were less than those in 1 battle of WWI.
Part 5 Reversing Our Progress Overnight 17 The Golden Age That Never Was 18 Blitzkrieg and Thanksgiving in the New World 19 The Second Cloud
He's right, we've never lived in harmony with nature when we had the power to take what we wanted. According to him, the first men on this continent wiped out almost all the large mammals & spread amazingly fast, but this book is 28 years old, so he's using 15,000-11,000 years ago for our invasion of the Americas. Lately I've read several articles that push that a lot earlier, probably at least twice as long ago which doesn't help his argument, although I haven't read a better one for the large mammal extermination. The same happened in Australia, too.
Epilogue: Nothing Learned, and Everything Forgotten? Very pessimistic & he doesn't pay enough direct attention to economics. He writes We do not need novel, still-to-be invented technologies to solve our problems. We just need more governments to do many more of the same obvious things that some governments are already doing in some cases.
Again, I don't entirely agree. Energy makes the world go round & that means economics, too. A LOT of problems would be solved if we had something that produced portable, high power as the internal combustion engine does. Alternative energies are fine, but they're clunky & intermittent, so a better battery (Think Heinlein's Sun Stones.) would also help a lot. He also doesn't mention GMO crops to minimize climate change, invasive & ever adapting pests. Of course, this book was written before they became a big deal.
All in all, not a terrible read, but it was repetitive, old, & lacking depth in many areas. Very well narrated. I wouldn't bother reading it as there are many other books out there, but it's not a complete waste of time. Just don't drink his Kool Aid....more
While there was a lot of very good information here, the book just jumped around way too much for my taste. She didn't stay on a theme or timeline oveWhile there was a lot of very good information here, the book just jumped around way too much for my taste. She didn't stay on a theme or timeline over the period, but jumped about from slavery to presidents then perhaps women's rights & over to railroads, pioneers, or the Gold Rush & back to slavery possibly at an earlier time. I never really got a sense of the time beyond chaos. It certainly was & she did a good job mentioning most things but I look to historians to put things into a sort of understandable order. She didn't. That's a let down.
There was an awful lot left out. While she mentioned Andrew Jackson & something about him kicking the Indians off their land the "Trail of Tears" & Jackson telling the Supreme Court, especially Marshall, to stop him if they could was never mentioned. I'm not that familiar with the period, but I consider that one of the more important tests of our country. She did spend time on the Dred Scot Decision & did a pretty comprehensive job otherwise.
So far this series got 5 star reviews for the first 3 books & the last one was a 4 star review. This one is only getting 3 stars. As usual, it was very well narrated & the afterword was fun. The chronology mentions several things not included in the text, too. I hope the next book is better....more
I don't know how closely this sticks to the original Grimm tales, but it was good. The narrator snark & asides were a bit much at times, though. ThereI don't know how closely this sticks to the original Grimm tales, but it was good. The narrator snark & asides were a bit much at times, though. There's a lot of death & destruction, some cutting off of heads & even a trip to Hell. Gretel is quite the gal! Well narrated & probably best in that format unless you can find an illustrated version. That would be awesome.
3 stars for me, but I think a kid of 10-14 might give it 5 stars. I would have at that age, so I'll give it 4....more
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