The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

A guy returns to Chicago after World War I and has an identity crisis. He decides he would rather loaf. He talks things with a few friends. He visits Europe. He discovers eastern religion. He has friends that want money or other things and seek them out. Everyone seems to get what they want. The content was pretty blah. It was written as if the author was discussing writing about this person with us. I considered bumping it up a bit due to style, but then reconsidered.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah grew up in unique circumstances during a unique time in South Africa. His mom was black, but his dad was from Switzerland. They had to hide the relationships due to the Apartheid conditions. This book brings to life the conditions and some of the absurdities experienced by those that lived it. Japanese were considered white. Chinese were considered black. People could petition to have their race changed. There were multiple different African groups with many languages. There were also different white groups. Coloreds were mixed race, neither white nor black. In. Apartheid they would try to be white. Afterwards, being black was advantageous. Racial mixing was forbidden during apartheid, but then somewhat encouraged afterwards. 

The author didn't fit in, yet fit in everywhere. He spoke English as well as a few different African languages. In one case he heard some boys planning to mug the "white guy". He turned around and talked to him in their language to ask if he could help. In another case, he was with a friend stealing chocolates from the mall. The friend got caught, but would not rat. The police talked to the author and even showed surveillance footage. However, they all saw the thief as "white" and would not even consider the author.

The author engaged in a bit of music piracy and DJing. This allowed bringing up discussion of African names. Most people had an African language name and an "English" name. These names would be chosen more casually, usually for some name that people had heard. In one case, he had a dance buddy named Hitler. People had only a vague understanding of who Hitler was, and didn't see issues with the name. This was generally fine - until they were performing at a Jewish center. Needless to say, chants of "go Hitler" did not go over very well.

The author was quite the troublemaker. He often got in trouble. He later lived in the "hood" where he engaged in various petty crime. White people had "insurance" so it was not considered bad to steal. (Though he changed his mind after somebody tried to sell him a camera with family pictures.) One time he went to jail and observed the different types and hierarchies in jail. He could pass as "colored". Since these were the primary gang-bangers, he was able to do that to keep people out of his way. However, when he got to the prison groups awaiting bail or trial, there were real colored gang members, so he decided to associated with whites. He observed more serious crime up close when his step-dad shot his mom. Through some miracle, the shot in the head missed any sensitive areas, and she was able to go back to work in a week.

The book has many other humorous stories that do a great job of exploring the culture of South Africa and the interesting race relations there.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

I read this book a year and half ago and had almost no recollection of it. I guess it is fairly forgettable. A girl (Loo) lives with her father. She is fairly book smart, but his dad is not. He often is engaging in his own business ventures - most of which involve guns and criminal activities. He has a kind heart and does like to help others out. It seems they are in a new school in a different rural town every year Women seem to always be drawn to her dad and men are often fighting him. They end up in the town where his mom grew up. Her mother died when the girl was young - as part of an "adventure" gone bad. The principal of the school had a crush on the mother when they were both in school together, and has a desire to help them out.  There is also a boy that Loo has some sort of relationship with. He and his mom are collection signatures for a sanctuary. Signatures are lost and later forged.  I somehow got the tracks out of order when listening. With the way the book had flashbacks, it took a bit to realize that it happened.

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

A man wakes up without knowledge of who he is or what he is doing. His memories gradually filer back in bits. The story unravels with his current condition as well as flashback to the past. We realize that he is on a mission to outer space to save humanity. The others on his mission have died. He previously taught science to children and did research on mysterious "astrophages" on the side. This small organisms can suck enormous amounts of energy from the sun. This will lead to massive global cooling in short order. He is on a mission to space to attempt to find something to counteract this problem to allow humanity to survive. 

In space, he meets another alien whose society is in similar circumstances. The other alien has also had his crew wiped out. As the last member of the crew, they only survived because the astrophages being attended had served as a radiation shield. The two of them join together to try to find a solution. They discover a natural predator to astrophages and then attempt to breed it to properly inhabit the local conditions. There are a number of crisis, but eventually they send a message back to earth. The human is on the way back to earth when he encounters a issue. He realizes this will also endanger the alien, so he goes back to help the alien ship. He ends up helping him and going to the alien planet. There he lives a somewhat comfortable - the aliens are excited to have an extra-terrestrial and help him to adapt.

The book has a positive story of encounter with existential threats. The survival of humanity does depend on a single person making good decisions. The right decisions were made. Earth appeared to survive. He thinks that it was what he did that lead to the success. It was not quite clear to me why both lifeforms seemed to travel to the same area in space to look for a solution. How did they know? And did they think they could really get a message back before the earth totally turned on itself with warfare? It did seem to work, but there did seem to be many close calls.