Cruel Is the Light by Sophie Clark
This book is like K-Pop Demon Hunters without the Kpop. There is a girl and guy that fill in love. The boy ends up being a demon, while the girl hunts them. They are part of some futuristic empire headquarted in the Vatican. It is fairly typical mediocre romantasy.
With his experience as an art critic, he pays special interest to how music and art will be remembered. The 78 era is defined by those who have collected these records. Their tastes are different than the general population that purchased records and thus tend to show a more quirky taste than the general public. Moby Dick was a commercial failure when written, but become well regarded later. At the turn of 19th to 20th century there were a large number of march composers. However, Sousa is pretty much the only one remembered today. Centuries from now, the "rock" era may be consolidated to a single person or group. Perhaps the Beatles or Bop Dylan will be remembered. Or perhaps some obscure artist that we don't think of much today will be used to signify the era. The past works that are acclaimed are often more a reflection of the current day than the time they were written. There is a great deal of subjectiveness in the matter.
There is also a "merging" of years from the past. Julius Caesar and Constantine are lumped together as "leaders of Rome". Yet they were much further apart than George Washington and Joe Biden. Roman history may be summarized as "Julias Caesar was assassinated, Augustus became emperor, Constantine became Christianity. How would our history be summarized?
Science and technology are also evolving. We scoff at "flat earth" beliefs of those of the part. It is difficult to see that some of our beliefs are just wrong. Yet, we have seen accepted scientific truths change before our eyes. Einstein ripped apart details of Newtonian physics. New work has lead to different understandings of basic physics. Our knowledge of biological science is constantly evolving. Germ theory seems second nature. Fields like epigenetics seem to take us back to understandings that were disregarded before. The slow evolution of science causes us to miss some of the big changes that have occurred. When we look back at a long view, they may become much more apparent.
I liked the premise of the book, but did feel it dragged on a bit. The pop-culture analysis seemed to be the author's forte. There were some great chapters, though there were also areas that seemed to ramble on without building up the central thesis. It is a great topic to explore, yet also a difficult one to get your brain around. It feels we are "stuck" in our current view, and our brains extrapolate forward from where we are today rather than expect turns and detours.
Sony was the leader in portable electronics, with products such as the walkman and discman. The company also owned a major record label. They seemed primed to dominated the market for portable digital music players. There was excitement when they announced their first player. Then they announced another incompatible player. Neither had access to Sony's music catalog. Three silos in the company each defended their turf, leaving the market open for Apple to dominate. Instead of silos, Apple had a singular mission, with a focus on fewer products.
There are also cases of siloization in other fields. During the 2009 financial crisis that had arms with bets in the opposite directions. Parts of the company had predicted a collapse of the home mortgage market. Meanwhile another part was buying up these same securities.
Some companies go to great extents to break down silos. Facebook trains everyone together and then lets them choose the group to work on. The company also encourages hackathons and switching groups. Part of this comes from a goal to increase collaboration as the company grew beyond 150 employees. The Cleveland Clinic rearranged practices from "speciality focussed" to "patient focussed" care to help reduce silos. In Chicago, data analytics helped focus police activity where it was needed, leading to a decline in violent crime. (The crime went back up after this was stopped and each precinct went back to the old ways of doing things.)
This is the fourth book in the Ember in the Ashes series. Two young people manage to overcome all sorts of supernatural challenges to finally express their love for each other. Everyone else is pretty much background.
I thought this was the final book in the Ember in the Ashes series. It did seem to wrap things up, however it did it in a very unsatisfying way. The evil ones always seem to be a step ahead of the good guys. The characters are primarily in hard-core "war" mode. There is little time for caring for others. Often time spent loving others causes more negative than good. The struggle of the boy that is the "Reaper in training" is especially prescient. He must learn to not love others in order to use his magic to "reap" the dead into the after life. His failure to let go of love to others led him to neglect his duties, and with that neglect he gave enemies a chance to hurt his friend. 
A Torch In the Night continues right where the first book leaves off with the two leads running away. There is plenty of violent activity. Many of the characters are conflicted between loyalty towards the imperial oaths and individuals. This book gets a little more "magical" than the first book. The connection between the current world and the afterlife is explored, with somebody gaining some power there. One girl learns to better control her ability to remain invisible. People sacrifice their family for the good of the empire, even though it is obvious that it is in poor leadership. There is plenty of romance on all levels. While some characters are fairly complex, others can be much more black and white in the "good and evil" department. The novel alternates the first person perspective among a number of these characters. Overall the book feels dark with flames burning. "A torch against the night" is an adequate description.
Ember in the Ashes follows the experiences of a few young adults in a world similar to the Roman Empire. One boy is the illegitimate son of the the commandant. The commandant had tried to abort her pregnancy, but ended up just abandoning him to local people, only to have him come back. He is an aspirant to the emperorship. The other main character (and eventual love interest) is a girl, part of the "scholars" who are involved in a rebellion. She sells herself into slavery in the commandant's house as a means of freeing her brother from prison. There is plenty of double-crossing going on. The two characters eventually fall in love. However, they both also have other good friends with romantic intentions. The "trials" to produce the next emperor force the characters to engage in horrible acts, including the killing of one's own friends. Eventually, the two characters manage to escape. The book ends with their escape, leaving the next book to pick up right there. There is some magic and fantastical elements. However, the book is primarily about psychology and family relations.
Similar to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, My Plain Jane takes the story of Jane Eyre and spins it on its head. Here, Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre both exist in the same world. A Victorian "ghostbuster" society is trying to rationalize its existence and recruite Jane Eyre to its membership. However, Jane likes her ghost friend and doesn't want to join. There are also the advances from Rochester as well as other shenanigans going on. With this and the Eyre Affair, I've now read two books in the Jane Eyre universe that have left me totally confused as to what the actual book is about. Maybe I should try to read the original. This one, however, is rollicking good fun. 
