books – If we had a Marriage, These Would be its Thoughts

Books March 2024

March 31, 2024 7:41 pm

Books I finished reading in March 2024.

With prepping Corinne's birthday adventure and being sick I didn't get nearly as much reading done in March as I did in February.

The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker

I bought this way back in 2016, but only just got around to reading it.

It describes the 14 principles that embody the "Toyota Way" of doing manufacturing--much of which has come to be known, in part, as "lean."

I think perhaps the most distinct aspect from traditional American approaches is the requirement that systems be viewed holistically. Demanding that each individual process get faster/cheaper/better may get you worse results than are otherwise possible.

Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Griffin

I'm not really sure how this ended up on my list as its description didn't pique my interest, but it was and it was on sale for $2 so I grabbed it. It's kind of a modern adaptation of the Frankenstein theme.

Some interesting ideas, probably could have used another 100 pages to give it more depth.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner

This was my most recent pick for the tech-books book group I meet with at work.

Bell Labs was a ridiculously influential organization of the 20th century: the transistor, undersea telephone cables, microwave data relays, satellite telecommunications, cell phones, fiber optics, Unix, the C programming language--just to name a few. All that, so much more, and the foundation of Information Theory.

It's kind of crazy how much of the modern world was influenced by that organization.

Books Feb 2024

February 29, 2024 7:01 am

Books I finished reading in February 2024.

The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov, translated by Yisrael Markov

What if The Lord of the Rings were just the revisionist history of the warmongering men and elves of Middle Earth? In this retelling of the events of the War of the Ring we see Mordor as a civilization on the cusp of industrial revolution. Gandalf convinces the men and elves that if Mordor's technological progress isn't stopped immediately then the magic- and tradition-based societies of the rest of Middle Earth are doomed.

Armada by Ernest Cline

Aliens are coming to invade the Earth. But video games are being used to secretly train a defense force of drone operators.

It's campy--and like Cline's other works full of pop-culture references. But the prose flows smoothly and it's a fun read.

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

This is the non-fiction story of Deogratias, born in Burundi (I hesitate to say "true" because, as Kidder acknowledges, it's impossible to corroborate many of the events). Deo was a third-year medical student working an internship in a rural medical clinic when Burundi erupted into another wave of sectarian violence.

After surviving a horrifying journey filled with abject brutality he finds himself with a chance at safety in the guise of a series of plane tickets to NYC and a falsely obtained business visa to enter the country.

He speaks French and Kirundi, but not a word of English. In a few years, through the persevering kindness of strangers and his own grit, he graduates from Columbia University, restarts medical school at Dartmouth, and eventually returns to Burundi to open the medical clinic he'd been working for since childhood.

Permutation City by Greg Egan

The human mind can be copied and then simulated on computer systems. These copies definitely feel conscious and sentient to themselves and others. But if the processing of the simulations can be cut up and distributed across space and time, what does that mean for our understanding of consciousness?

Books Jan 2024

January 31, 2024 6:59 pm

Books I finished reading in January 2024.

My second book in French has been an ongoing project for several months now and I finally finished it this month. Geist: Les héritiers de Nikola Tesla is an alternate-history murder mystery. The language it uses is significantly more complex than La Planète des singes and contains many words made up by the author for the story. So it took me a while to get through it. I'm quite certain I missed a lot of nuance, but I got the general story.

Set in Paris, it tells the story of an investigator on a murder case in a world of psychic powers and wireless electricity--set in motion by Tesla.

The Phantom of the Earth Omnibus has been in my ebook library for 7 years, but the ~1000 pages had been dissuading me from diving in. But I finally got around to it.

Humanity has retreated into the depths of the earth to escape a rapidly-mutating bio-warfare agent that has spread across the surface of the planet and kills in seconds.

But that's all somewhat ancillary to the story, which is about a dystopian dictatorship and the motley crew of rebels trying to overthrow it.

Doors of Sleep is the book the girls picked out for me for Christmas.

Zax has a problem. When he falls asleep he is transported/teleported/jumped to an alternate universe. When he finds somewhere safe and comfortable he stays awake as long as he can. When he lands somewhere dangerous he drugs himself into a quick escape.

Life is pretty bleak--and then it gets worse--but also better.

Blackout and All Clear are a single story told as a duology.

Connie Willis draws us into a universe where time travel exists, but can't be used to change history or get rich and so its use gets relegated to historians at Oxford.

She has other stories in this universe as well, including the short story I read in a science fiction anthology, Fire Watch, which introduced me to her work many years ago.

One thing Willis does better than any other author I've read is developing a scene of chaos / hecticness. You can feel the frazzled nerves, the frustration of being interrupted, and sense the time slipping away toward disaster.

In this story, a group of historians is studying World War II when everything goes wrong and they find themselves gaining a much deeper understanding of the history they're studying than they intended.

Book Reviews 2015

August 11, 2015 4:03 pm

I haven't taken the time recently to provide reviews on the books I've been reading. So here's a quick update.

During the past year I had been in the national security classes so I didn't have much time for leisure reading. I did get some done during the Christmas break between semesters and once my last class ended, and after a recuperative period, I started in on some fiction. The classes pretty much burned me out on non-fiction for a little while.

The Martian - Andy Weir

The Martian is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. It's smart, it's witty, and it's just fun. Weir went through a lot of effort to get the science right which, for me, really makes the experience stand out. I'm certainly no expert, but I do know a little chemistry, physics, biology, orbital mechanics, etc. So when I'm reading a book where those topics are important to the story line I really appreciate them being correct.

I really enjoyed that the story is driven by the intelligence of the characters and not their ability to shoot things or punch things. I am extremely excited for the movie coming out in October. The previews suggest they captured the spirit of the novel. Next month Weir will be visiting the Lab so I'll have a chance to get a signed copy of the book.

The Synchronicity War - Dietmar Wehr

The Synchronicity War is a four-part series set during the time period shortly after humanity's first foray into interstellar space travel and colonization. I enjoyed it. It was light, fast-paced reading. The story involves some time-travel (well done, in my opinion), alien encounters, space combat, and the development of sentient artificial intelligence. I thought the story was cohesive though bordering being over the top at times. If you can look past the occasional blatant deus ex machina it's a fun read if you're into sci-fi, action-adventure stuff.

Dune - Frank Herbert

Dune is widely considered to be one of science-fiction's foundational works. At just shy of 900 pages it's a commitment to read. Honestly, it's a slow starter. I think it's 150 pages before the story line starts to pick up. There's a lot of foundation laid and I felt like it could have been cut down without much loss. However, once the story picks up it keeps moving rather steadily. It's well written and the story is well put together with good interlocking details. I did enjoy it overall. One oddity for me though was that it felt more like fantasy than science fiction. Sure there are space ships and advanced technology, but the themes and surrounding narrative felt a lot like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is another quick, fun, read. No, it's not serious writing about serious subjects. It's not trying to be Dune. It's just trying to be entertaining. And it is. The story is cyberpunk obsessed with 1980's nerd/geek computer/game culture. I'm not exactly a 80's fanatic or big into MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer, Online, Role-Playing Games), but I know enough about them to enjoy the book. If you know nothing about those topics the story may be rather unimpressive to you. I think Ready Player One's following and popularity is fueled by a very successful appeal to nostalgic charm and that's fine. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hugh Howey Short Stories

Peace in Amber

This story is a bit of an oddity. My understanding is that Howey was asked to write some kind of a mixin with Kurt Vonnegut's writing and this is what he came up with. If you're unfamiliar with Vonnegut's writing half the story might seem really bizarre, but I don't think it matters much. The interesting aspect of this story is Howey tells his experience of being in New York City on September 11, 2001. He was working on someone's yacht at the time and was in the harbor. He spent hours using that yacht to ferry people out of Manhattan.

The Box

The Box was alright. Not one of Howey's stronger works. But somewhat interesting still. Definitely still carrying his strong theme of the right to self-determination.

Glitch

Glitch was a bit predictable, but not every story has to be full of twists and turns. Well written and enjoyable and, again, heavy on the self-determination theme.

Second Suicide

This one was unique. I really enjoyed it. There's not much I can say that wouldn't simply spoil the story. Definitely worth a read.

The Plagiarist

The Plagiarist highlights Howey's ability to take something that looks predictable and turn it on its head. I think the way he does this in many of his stories causes things like Glitch and The Box to feel like lesser works as I think they're missing this element. Also definitely worth a read.

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon is another deemed classic of science fiction writing. Perhaps I had read too much hype about it before actually reading it, but it didn't live up to expectations. Incredibly well written and executed. The unique story telling style would be difficult to pull off but Keyes manages it. An unarguably interesting story.

Dunes Over Danvar - Michael Bunker

Bunker is an indie author with a growing number of good stories. I'll be keeping my eye on his future work. Dunes Over Danvar is set in Howey's Sand universe (I believe Howey is working on a sequel!). It's an enjoyable adventure story set during the same time period as the events of Sand, but with unique characters. This story caused me to pick up another of Bunker's stories, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania - Michael Bunker

Pennsylvania certainly presents a unique universe. The only way to categorize it is "Amish Sci-Fi." I know, how could such a category exist? Well, you can read this and find out. Bunker wrote the story in several pieces, but you can buy an omnibus at this point. While the universe has some compelling features and story line was enjoyable, I felt like Bunker didn't really know where he was going with it overall. It feels a bit strung along. And the ending does not really wrap anything up. Presumably he's working on a sequel. But even so, unless he has a master plan that he's working towards I think it will continue to feel strung along and lacking depth. It really begins to feel like back story, details, and explanation aren't being provided not because they need to be for the story to unfold a certain way, but because he can't decide what they should be and doesn't want to start fixing elements in place.

A Day with Hugh Howey

September 12, 2014 9:11 pm

One of the employee morale groups (for lack of a better description) runs a series where they invite authors to come and speak about their work and meet with employees and then get a tour around the Lab. Back in April or May they asked if anyone had suggestions for authors to invite out. I suggested we invite Hugh Howey out. He's a science fiction author which is always a good match with the Lab population and he has great knowledge of the self-publishing process which would be of interest to aspiring authors lurking about the property.

We were very pleased when he accepted our offer and we arranged for a visit on September 11 while he was already going to be in the Bay Area.

He took a tour of the supercomputer facility in the morning and then gave a presentation and we had a group lunch. I spent the morning working, but was able introduce him at the talk and have lunch and then tour the National Ignition Facility and the High Explosive Application Facility with him during the afternoon.

It was a lot of fun. He's a geek at heart which made seeing all the incredible science great fun. I really enjoy getting to tour other parts of the Lab. It's easy to stay cooped up in my office and not hear about all the other amazing work being done.

After our tours a small group went down to the Concannon Winery for dinner. It was a blast to ask him about his work and his experiences in life and hear how those experiences have influenced his writing. He's an incredibly personable guy and has remained quite humble despite his great success.

I think he enjoyed visiting the Lab as much as we all enjoyed having him. I highly recommend sitting down with him for a chat if you ever get the chance. In the meantime, we will all just have to settle for reading his stories. I can't wait to see what bits and pieces from his visit work their way into his writing.