Ministry for the Future

The Ministry for the Future: A Novel by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is a modern version of the classic utopian novel. The author zeroes in on one area they want to change. They propose drastic changes to enter their utopia. They assume everything else will proceed as planned and other areas will only improve for the good. It is comical how many parts were just missed or projected wrongly in old books.

This book starts with a massive heat wave in Indian. It is more than people can handle. People are dying. Indian is decides to act on its own and use geo-engineering to cool the earth. The rest of the world has agreed to reduce carbon, but they are slow to do it. The Ministry for the Future is an organization that is supposed to help drive the earth towards the future. However, eco-terrorist groups seem to have a bigger impact. They assassinate business and political leaders they don't like. They use weapons to take out military bases and polluters. They magically manage to stop before they get too carried away. (They must have some amazing will-power that other revolutionaries have not.) The world then creates a new carbon currency to help reduce emissions. This also encourages massive geoengineering efforts that in the end lead to actual reductions in emissions. The human population becomes increasingly equitable and hardly anyone has kids, with the human population declining significantly.

This Utopia is easy to pick apart right now. The terrorists group would either get out of control or get squashed. It is almost impossible for a terrorist-led revolution to stop at just the right place. The same goes with geo-engineering. Things could quickly get out of hand and lead to an accelerating ice age. Focussing on carbon alone may also miss many other areas of global impact that are much harder to manage. Even human population declines due to external events (like wars and disasters) often result in post-event baby booms equalizing the population. Good thing that this is a book rather than government policy.

Malone Dies

Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett

I wanted to like this book, but could not understand what was going on. Malone was dying. He was also going crazy. It was hard to follow with the accented reader.

Kin: A Novel

Kin: A Novel by Tayari Jones

Two "orphaned" black girls grow up in Jim Crow south. One was abandoned by her mother. The other's father murdered her mother. They are friends in their youth, but their paths diverge. Vernice attends Spelman college and marries into a wealthy family. Annie has a more blue-collar life and works in a club and attempts to find her mother. She is first told her mother died, but later found she was still alive - with a child that shared her name. Her fiancé dumps and she gives into her boss's moves. Things don't go well and she loses her job and gets pregnant. She goes to Vernice to get help. She gets an illegal abortion, but dies from internal bleeding. The book fades away at the end with Vernice and her reckoning with her past. These people had rough lives, but they tried to make the best of their situation.

Unsong

Unsong by Scott Alexander (audio version)

Scott Alexander has a cult-like following on his blog (Slate Star Codex and later Astral Codex Ten). He writes a lot and elicits a huge number of comments. This book was originally serialized over the span of a couple years on the blog. It has the feel of a work full of inside jokes. 

The book is an alternative history starting from the 1960s. The mission to the moon broke an important crystal surrounding the earth and started messing up the magic. Things started going wrong in various ways. Angels, demons and other religious figures are real and heavily involved in earth. Words have great power. Saying the right word can have real actions. (In one scene, the President burns up because somebody hacked a teleprompter to get him to say "light myself on fire" word.) Companies have set up ways to find words - and then copyrighted the words. This has caused problems as others are not permitted to use them - even if they would help a lot.

The book goes through many digressions at it explores possible kabbalistic interpretations of people, places and things. San Francisco is similar to Jerusalem, with many areas having words that match Jewish names. In one scene, a character goes through a deep theological analysis of the song "American Pie". He is only stopped by someone taking this discussion in other ways.

The book is very long and has a "blog feel". There is something of a plot with the rise of a fallen angel and the conflict with the world. However, that is of minor importance compared to the string of short episodes. Good angels are busy trying to "debug" the functionality of earth. Hell comes out in the open and partners with countries in earth. Historic episodes take place in this weird world, though often with more obvious manipulation. It would not be hard to read some sections out of order.

The audiobook was prepared as a podcast. The narration is pretty well done, but the volume can be variable.

Children of the Alley: A Novel

Children of the Alley: A Novel by Naguib Mahfouz translated by Peter Theroux 

Also known as Children of Gebelawi. The novel uses a Cairo slum to provide an allegory of the history of humanity, with stand ins for various religious figures (Adam, Moses, Jesus, Mohamad) and science. I missed the whole allegory part and just saw it as a good story. People are tied to the alley, but struggle to grow out of it. They often see being a gangster as a good outcome. Some people do rise out of it, but it is tough for them to return. There is also a distant overseer that manages the inheritance. The people struggle to grow, but have a tendency to return to the base behavior they are used to.

How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History

How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History by Josephine Quinn

What were the influences of modern western civilization. It is common to trace it through the Greeks, Romans and Hebrews. However, many other groups influenced our modern culture. This book explores many of these sources. Alas, the author has a big axe to grind with the term "culture" and spends too much time attacking some definition of culture and common understandings of the growth of culture.

Football

Football by Chuck Klosterman

Football is the most popular sport in the United States. It dominates the TV ratings. The USA vs. Belgium world cup soccer game was the top rated non-NFL sports broadcast, and didn't come close to NFL playoff ratings. It was even behind two Thanksgiving day broadcasts. The Super bowl is always the most popular TV broadcast. Even Canadians are more likely to watch the super bowl than the Canadian Football Grey Cup Championship. The "defects" of football work to its advantage. There is intense action and then a lot of time to figure out what happened. The full game cannot be played casually. The "casual" versions like flag football are fundamentally different.

Football's great popularity is sowing the seeds of its downfall. College football is professionalizing, reducing the strong attachments that students would have to their team. At the lower levels, the dangers are driving parents away from letting their kids play. Outside the south, high school football has become less important. Football is dominating casual fans, but not producing new die hards. It is a conservative bastion in a liberalizing world. People will eventually lose interest and move on to something else. Horse racing was once an extremely popular spectator sport. Today, it is shadow of itself with a few niche events remaining. In the past horses were part of everyone's regular life. Not so anymore. Other dangers could impact football. A death on the field remains a possibility. Sports gambling is helping to increase interest now, but could also create issues. Professional football only surpassed baseball in the 1960s as the most popular American sport. Today, soccer is closing the gap among youth. How much longer will football dominate?

Hamlet: A BBC Radio Production

Hamlet: A BBC Radio Production by William Shakespeare

This production of Hamlet tries to hard to be different. Key soliloquies like "To be or not to be" or intentionally understated. I think I got the most from the opening commentary. The story deals with madness and revenge. Were the feigning madness or actually mad? It can be hard to tell. People accidentally die before the main combatants die. It is ridiculously famous, but hard to understand.

Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church

Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church by Philip Shenon

This at the Popes that have served since World War II through the context of progressive politics. The author expects Popes to liberalize the church, condemn pedophile priests and denounce Nazis and the holocaust. Anything that goes against progressive ideals is viewed as negative. Alas, life is not so black and white. The church advocates forgiveness must balance that against the many groups involved.   This creates problems when society demands blood for some activities while expect to tolerate others. Celibacy is hard in the hypersexual world. Are there enough that can keep this ideal? Should priests be allowed to marry? The author shows a favoritism towards social Popes like Francis while is upset that Benedict went from a maverick to a conservative. Conservative groups are painted in a negative. Should the Catholic try to fit in with modern culture? Or should it support the traditionalists? How can one leader make all sides happy?

Molloy

Molloy by Samuel Beckett

Beckett wrote Molloy originally in French, then later translated to English. The audiobook is narrated in English which makes it somewhat hard to grasp. Molloy is an old guy meandering around town. At times he is sucking on stones and determining how to count them. Later somebody is sent to track down Molloy. He ends up losing his abilities in the process. This may be better read so as not to be distracted by the accent.

The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Rather than a novel, this reads like a long notebook of anecdotes lumped together. There are different parts of the author's life that are explored. She is communist during the time of the red scare. That provides a big part of her identity. However, she is losing faith in it. The bad actions of people like Stalin as well as some of the drivel that gets published have caused issues. She also explores her sex life. There seems to be many cases of having affairs with sexually frustrated married men. What is the place of women in the world and. how can she live an appropriately fulfilling life? The life of a novelist ties much of this together. Her novel explores areas that are verboten. Her status as a communist also makes it challenging. The book goes on and on and seems to repeat the same things told from a somewhat different angle.

The Radleys: A Novel

The Radleys: A Novel by Matt Haig

The Radleys are the typical suburban family. They happen to be vampires, but not even the kids know that until their instincts take over. The daughter is at a party where a drunk boy comes on to her and won't take no for an answer. When he refuses to stop she ends up biting him. After tasting blood, she can't stop. Then the parents tell them they are "vegetarian vampires". They also invite over his brother, a not vegetarian vampire who can help fix things (or make things worse.) The novel covers dark material in a light-hearted manner. There are a few people that know about vampires (like certain police group). There are some interesting conflicts with vampires and humans that are appropriately managed, as well as some interesting vampire transitions. I liked the light tone for the vampire work.

Carthage: A New History

Carthage: A New History by Eve MacDonald

Carthage was one of the leaders of the ancient world. Then it lost a war to Rome and was destroyed. It's history is often told through the lense of it's vanquisher. That makes it somewhat difficult to piece together a history. This book explores some of the history including significant figures that were not named Hannibal. It straddles the line between academic and narrative history, in part because detailed sources for a narrative are lacking. It mentions the apparent child sacrifice remains, but does not see them as bad as others. Things end with Rome defeating them and saving only a science book.

The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It

The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It by Arindrajit Dube

I kept thinking "yes, but..." in response to the arguments in this book. He argues the minimum wage should be risen in part because many people spend a long time in minimum wage jobs. However, he focuses too much on looking at the wages and not at the jobs. Why are people stuck in these jobs? He dances around a few concerns, but misses some of the biggies. We require people to have health insurance, yet policies available publically are horrible compared to those you can get from companies. Work flexibility also comes into play.

The arguments with unions are also similar. With more heavily unionized and regulated job markets, employees that have jobs are better off, but it is harder for new employees to find jobs. It also limits new job creation. Longshoreman make huge amounts of money as blue collar workers. However, getting a job is extremely difficult for those not in the family. Tech jobs are high paying and much more open, but also more volatile. Big companies tend to be more lucrative, better places to work.  However, all these big companies started out small. It is extremely difficult to compete in the industry with big companies. New companies must typically start somewhere else. Tech companies opened their new markets and went from small to big. Tesla is still seen as a tech company, even as it competes with automakers. Unions typically succeed in companies that have grown and become fossilized. They help provide greater stability and predictability at the expense of dynamism. They also introduce friction and costs. 

The author complains about companies "subcontracting" out workers. Alas, that is driven by some of the same policies advocated. Companies have core competencies and labor relations. Hiring others to do non-core items is the wise choice. Especially with regulations, it can be difficult to keep track of everything in their own field, let alone many others.

There are many things wrong with the labor market. When people work as true independent contractors, they are free to set what they charge and find somebody willing to pay. Alas, the regulatory market forces people into "for-hire" schemes of employee and employer. People a century ago would cringe at this. Why are we making policies to further force people into this situation?

The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth

The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth by Nicolas Niarchos

There always seems to be a catch with technological solutions to environmental problems. Batteries help us use cleanly produced electrical power. However, modern batteries require rare earth metals which are primarily found in the Congo. A corrupt political regime is keen to extract bribes and kickbacks. Poor miners work in unsafe conditions and are willing to ransack te environment for a few more elements. The government has almost no money and provides little public service. Chinese companies are heavily involved and working to extract value. The few western companies are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they play by all the western rules, the Chinese will corner the market for the elements. If they play by the unwritten Congo rules, they run afoul of the west. There is even an Israeli businessman who is often involved. The whole situation somewhat reminds me of how early America did what it wanted to achieve technological dominance over Great Britain. Now it is China's turn, with the Africans failing to reap the rewards, even as their leaders become rich. 

Sentimental Education

Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert translated by Robert Baldick

This felt like a lite version of Les Miserables. There are some people with intertwined lives. There is a another revolution going on in France. The people are revolting, but having a hard time deciding what they really want to do. Those remaining are interested in affairs and the like. The central character is attracted to a woman. It was tough to the characters. The audiobook didn't mention the translator at all. Hopefully AI got it right. 

The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

In this near-future world, cloning is fairly common. Famous figures are cloned to help protect them. The clones are specifically made inferior and cannot reproduce. The lead character, Dr. Evelyn Caldwell is a cloning researcher who has broken up with her husband Nathan. Her ex had wanted a child and the perfect wife. He had been creating clones of Evelyn with the characteristics he desired. After a dozen failures, he had created Martine who seemed to be the perfect wife. She was able to become pregnant with his child. However, they got into a big fight and Martine killed Nathan. Evelyn and Martine used their knowledge to dispose of the original body and create a Nathan clone. Martine later became unhinged when she found the remains of the other failed clones. They decide the best thing to do would to fake Martine's suicide (using another clone) and then have Martine escape to live with Evelyn, unbeknownst to Nathan. Evelyn offers to take care of Martine's baby (by secretly bringing it to its mom). How do ethics work in the world of cloning? Is a cloned being human or a biological product? 

Sweetpea

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

The lead character works a tedious journalism job by day. She survived a horrendous crime in her youth and had some training for survival by her father. She makes a regular "hit list" of people that have wronged her or others in various ways (from pedophiles to people taking too long in the checkout line.) She becomes the casual serial killer. Easly in the book she castrates a drunk that was coming onto her and pushes him to the river, only to return back as if nothing happens. She gets involved in other crimes. She later frames someone else for the crimes. The book has light, vulgar tone with plenty of dark humor. 

Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller

Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller by Steve Weinberg

The title is a bit misleading. This is primarily a biography of Ida Tarbell interleaved with a biography of Rockefeller. The "battle" is a muckraking exposé that happens near the end. Though not much of a battle, it did turn public sentiment away from Rockefeller. I'm not sure if he cared. He was heavily involved in running his company. However, for his philanthropy he did things quietly with little involvement. His strong Christian background may have contributed to this "doing good in secret". He helped found Rockefeller University and University of Chicago - two institutions that have produced a huge number of Nobel Prize winners. He also funded significant public health research and education. His philanthropic legacy is among the most important, yet least publicized.

Rockefeller first had to accumulate his fortune. He did that in the oil industry. He initially focussed on refining. Gradually he got into all aspects of oil. His companies grew and used economies of scale to their benefit. They got sweetheart deals from railroads to transport oil and were able to benefit from uses and innovation. Government tried to crack down on Standard Oil's power. However, they were often able to maneuver around these regulations to their benefit.

Ida Tarbell was from the original "oil country" in Pennsylvania. She was a dedicated career woman who loved to write. She had decided that she would not marry or date. (The author does bring up the possibility of lesbianism, but the evidence points to celibacy.) She had a falling out with a boss that may have been due to a romantic come on. She did not follow the feminist doctrine and advocate for woman to stay at home with their families. She settled into writing for a magazine and would heavily research her topics. She did big, heavily researched stories on Napoleon and Lincoln. Then her story finally intersected with Rockefeller as she did her story on Standard Oil. It brought her fame and sold well. It damaged Rockefeller. Both of their legacies relied on each other, even though they never met. 

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath, edited by Karen V. Kukil

I wonder how she feels about having her journals published completely. Perhaps she expected it all along, as they do seem very polished. Many of the thoughts from these journals went into her novel Bell Jar. In the start, she is very concerned with boys and sex. There are conflicting thoughts on a desire for a writing career and for raising a family. These thoughts continue on through later entries. There are also thoughts on suicide which provide prelude to her eventual death. The editors add a few comments, with the most valuable indicating gaps. She comes across as a social arts type.

Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems

Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems by Rita Dove

I had my firephone read this book to me. It may have been better to read the poems in print. There were some that dealt with watergate and slave politics. Also other bits of random poems. They went in one ear and out the other.

A Doll House

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen

This play was a lot better than I remember it in high school. Nora is a ditzy materialistic housewife. She seems very excited about the promotion to bank manager her husband Torvald is about to receive. He chastises her for plotting to spend it before he has started to receive it. She has three kids, but likes to have the hired-help take care of them. She likes to buy presents for others, but just presents for herself. An old friend comes to town. She has been divorced and needs a job. Nora pulls some strings with her husband to secure a job at the bank. However, this ends up causing things to unwind for her. To give a job to her friend, her husband is letting Krogstad go. Nora had received a loan from Krogstad with a forged signature from her dying father. Krogstad holds this against her. (Nora had taken out the loan to help her husband convalesce in the south.) Nora doesn't want her husband to find out. However, he reads the letter from Krogstad and flips out. He is more concerned for himself than for Nora. Then when he receives the paid off note, he is happy again. It is Nora's turn to flip out and decide she will leave them to be independent.

Nora is quite unreliable and is prone to take things to extreme. I wasn't sure that she had really taken out the loan. Was she just exaggerating to feel better with her friends? When it appeared she did take out hte loan, she went to extremes to hide it from her husband and prevent it Krogstad from doing negative things. There was a lot of toeing around issues to try to get what was needed. Then when it came to that she did it, she flipped out and decided to drop her life and not live in a "Doll House". They both seem to delight in controlling each other. There seemed to be some love in the relationship, but also some mutual manipulation. They both were most interested in caring for themselves. Nora also came from a family with some not-so-good characters. Is the rash behavior and familial abandonment just another case of this behavior? The L.A. Theater Works production was well done with some great actors. This helps the play come alive.

The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett

The early part of the book was heavy on religious discussion. The end was a murder trial. In between it was quite slow moving. The early writing was good, but it went on for too long. The trial was fast paced and tied in some of the moral discussions of the early part.

Boring Asian Female

Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu

This reminded me of Best Offer Wins. In both cases, an Asian American lead is driven to succeed in the way she understands the American Dream, but goes off the rails. 

In this book, Elizabeth Zhang is in her last year at Columbia, getting ready to go to law school. She grew up in South Dakota with hard-working immigrant parents. She was the only Asian at her high school and never quite fit in. She went to Columbia because that was were the snobby elite in a TV show went. She had her mind set on attending Harvard Law school to achieve the life of wealth and prosperity that other classmates seemed to have. Then she learns she didn't get into Harvard Law, or any law school other than Georgetown. She also hears that another Asian female, got into Columbia. When Elizabeth talks with the pre-law advisor, the. feedback is that she has a good application, but that she is a "boring" Asian female. Then she seadil goes off the deep end.

She is convinced that Laura stole the spot at Harvard Law. She starts stalking Laura. She impersonates a high schooler to learn more about Laura. She even asks to be called Laura when making love. Then things get worse. She hatches a plan to get Laura's admission rescinded. She publishes an anonymous far-right blog in a way that would be identified as Laura. However, people eventually trace it to the male student whose login she used to publish it. He ends up dropping out of school, only to later become a right wing commentator. Elizabeth finds out she is pregnant. After getting money from the guy for an abortion, she decides instead to have the kid, so she can be less boring. She later sneaks into Laura's dorm, but Laura comes home (with limited mental functionality due to substance use.) After Laura finally realizes everything Elizabeth has done, Elizabeth sprayed her with pepper spray and got away. Laura dies from the spray. (she had a heart condition). Elizabeth showed no remorse, and was fine when another girl was charged with the manslaughter death. Elizabeth has a miscarriage. She later impersonates Laura in the Harvard law admit group. She has a big breakdown when the group calls her out as not being a real future student. After recovering, she gets a call from Harvard, letting her know there was an error with her score reporting and that she was now being offered a spot. 

Previously, Harvard said the decision was final and there was no way to validate the data. If only they hadn't Elizabeth would not have gone wacko. However, she showed clearly that she would do anything to have her desired success. Is this really the type of person you would want? The steps seemed logical, but the results were horrid. Is this an indictment of an over-driven Asian culture? The narrative was compelling and the characters. were interesting,  though I really wanted to see her charged rather than end up with her dream.

Beloved

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The story is a slave story. Or perhaps a "trying to be free story". The main character struggles with life and death of a child and interaction with other whites and free blacks. I had trouble piecing together a narrative, though parts of it did jump out.