Laddertop 3

Laddertop 3: The Laddertop Series, Book 3 by Emily Janice Card and Orson Scott Card

Laddertop concludes with us discovering that there are "noble colonists" come to inhabit the earth. They are sending a giant colonizing mission that will involve wiping out humans and making earth fit for themselves. A few of the aliens have sympathy for the humans and hatch a plan to preserve them. They planted the laddertops and gave them the technology. The plan was to send a small group of humans off to another planet so that they could continue their society there. This would involve the destruction of the rest of humanity. However, this is better than complete annihilation. Nevertheless, humans are not fond of that. They discover a way to work together and use the technology to wipe out the colonization ship. They also communicate with some of the kind aliens and decide to work together It seems like an interesting parallel to colonial endeavors. What if a few Europeans had helped the Native Americans to use gunpowder to destroy European ships and then worked together to share technology? Well, disease would have still wiped out most of the native population. Fiction has the ability to ignore those messy details.

Laddertop 2

Laddertop 2: The Laddertop Series, Book 2 by Emily Janice Card and Orson Scott Card

The second Laddertop book ramps up the drama. There are "rebels" that are concerned about the unknowns of laddertop. They recruit a few kids and other scientists for their space mission. There is also some more information found about the special symbol. A space object is approaching the earth. Is it benevolent? Or is it bent on destruction? The book ends on a cliffhanger... That was not resolved for a decade. While these were first released as graphic novels, they have recently been moved to audiobooks, with the final book only as audiobook. There was a big cast for this, so some needed to be left off to get under the label limit.

The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better

The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better by Tyler Cowen

America has experienced a couple centuries of great economic growth. This was enabled by picking the "low hanging fruit" of land, immigrants and technology. However, this has slowed significantly in the past few decades. Politicians try to boost the economy via tax cuts or spending increases. With either approach, the party enjoys touting the benefits, but is reluctant to actually pick up the tab. 

Today, the government spending as a portion of the economy is much higher than it has been in the past. The government does provide more. However, government expenditures tend to decrease in value. (The expenditures with a greatest value are quickly adopted. Additional expenditures tend to be decrease in efficiency and economic value.) The decreasing marginal value of government results in less overall economic benefit.

The private sector is not necessarily better. Much of the "growth" in the economy has been in finance. While there is some financial activity the provides general economic benefit, much of the modern innovation has just served to enrich the practitioners. Complex financial products were behind the great recession of the early 2000s.

What should we do? The author proposes attaching greater value to scientists. They provide much of the research that helps fuel the economy. They have a respectable place in society, but are not deemed as one of the top professions. They need to have a more important role to help economy regain its mojo. 

The Wondering Jew: Israel and the Search for Jewish Identity

The Wondering Jew: Israel and the Search for Jewish Identity

This book is an interesting take on religiosity, secularism and the longing for a Jewish identity. The book provides background on Jewish history with the various thinkers. Zionism started as a primarily secular movement to bring together Jewish people. However, they needed buy-in from the Orthodox. This resulted in the orthodox group getting significant influence and control of modern Israel. Today there remain various conflicts between the secular and religious identity. 

Judaism has managed to endure as a significant people and religion for much longer than any of its counterparts. Part of this is due to the study and evolution of the religious teachings. Different interpretations were layered on top of initial writings. These helped the religion adapt to the times. Recently, the orthodox movement has focussed more on keeping to teachings without evolution. The author sees secularism as an attempt to "evolve" Judaism. However, secularists suffer from being too focussed on secularism. They are afraid to look at the past teachings for fear of becoming "religious." There is plenty that both sides can learn from each other. The religion can succeed by adapting to modernity while keeping true to itself. Secularists can be happier by adopting appropriate religion to their life. (The religious tend to be happier.) 

One example that is given is the response to technology. The internet is not mentioned in any Jewish teachings. However, it has a significant impact in our lives. Adopting a "digital sabbath" where people avoid being connected for a day is something that believers and non-believers can adopt.

Jewish identity is different in Israel than in diaspora. In Israel, one is exposed to Judaism all the time. In the diaspora, one needs to work to maintain the Jewish identity. There are different challenges and benefits to each.

Gregor the Overlander: Underland Chronicles, Book 1

Gregor the Overlander: Underland Chronicles, Book 1 by Suzanne Collins

Gregor misses his dad who disappeared a few years ago. One day while watching his little sister, he stumbles into the underland. There are people that live down there. Other animals exist there in different form. The Rats are powerful and are enemies of people. Bats are friendly. His sister ends up being some sort of semi-deity to some animals. He is part of a prophecy. They eventually find his father and are able to bring him home. It is not quite as dark as Hunger games, but there are some harrowing moments. Why are some animals "friendly" but others not?

The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories

From the title alone, it is clear on what side of the Israel Palestine debate the author falls. Israel is seen as violating international law and committing war crimes as the Palestinians are "imprisoned" . The prison sometimes switches between maximum security and minimum security but remains a prison. Israel wants to control the land. However, they want to ensure that they have a Jewish majority. Leaving the Palestinian lands in this occupied status helps them keep their means. They have moved on from the "ethnic cleansing" to imprisonment. 

The story of Israel can be seen as a reminder of what can happen when giving the oppressed control. Israel was the historical homeland of the Jews. However, it had been controlled and inhabited by Arabs for centuries. After the atrocities of the holocaust, the European powers thought it appropriate to let them have the land as a homeland. (The Zionists had already been working towards this for an extended time.) The Jewish residents wanted to make sure they maintained control and were extremely paranoid about losing this control. They have exercised various means to keep this control, leaving the second-class Palestinians. It has shown the impossibility of writing a past wrong without creating many new wrongs.

The Silver Mask (Magisterium #4): Book Four of Magisterium

The Silver Mask goes of the fantasy deep end. A previously killed protagonist gets raised from the dead. An army of zombies sets out to fight on the side of evil. There is a jailbreak and a recapture, along with plenty of violence. Meanwhile, the romance starts tipping up, with some kissing and breaking up. Though that all quickly comes to an end when the violence hits. The books does pretty well wrap up the story. But the afterward hints at something more coming on.

The Copper Gauntlet: Magisterium, Book 2

Lying to keep a secret never ends up well. In the second book in the series, conflict ramps up. It begins with the time between the first and second years of Mage school. Call's "dog" (a wolf) is missing. He is upset about this. However, he ends up finding the dog chained up in his dad's secret office, along with a place for him and instructions for some special magic. He does not like the look of it, and runs off to his rich friend's house in another town. He stays there until school starts.

They get to the school and more conflict breaks out. Eventually, Call tells his friends some of the experience with his dad. However, he does not tell the full story, and that makes things even worse. They end up on a big adventure. In the end, they find out more about who he and his father are and they decide not to keep secrets from each other.

What Technology Wants

The author of What Technology Wants comes across as a techno-phobic technophile. While he loves technology, he also sees issues with the uncontrolled adoption of new technology. 

He cites the example of the Amish with their measured approach. They don't shun all technology. In fact, they are willing to allow people to adopt new technologies. However, the adoption comes with the stipulation that the elders may decide that the technology is not appropriate and the right to use it may be rescinded. Those living in the Amish community have agreed to these stipulations. (Amish youth are given a chance to live in the outside world and then chose if they would like to commit to the Amish way of life or live outside it.) They pick and chose the technologies that they want. There is also some degree of autonomy in each community. They may chose to allow machines, websites and smart phones, but not the electric grid. They choose ways to allow the technology to help them without hurting the community.

As the title would imply, the book spends time discussing technology as a "living being". Just as trees have a mechanism for seeking water, technology has developed mechanisms for seeking its own growth and propagation. It is important for us to understand what it is doing. We have some ability to control it. However, there is a lot that will just happen. Our lives will be changed significantly as technology advances. Some of the change will be good, some will be bad. Much of it is interconnected. What technology wants is both scary and exciting.

The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice

A boy is the illegitimate son of roaylty. He has a close bond with animals (this is some magical talent, but it is bad.) He also likes to hang out with the street urchins. This got him in trouble. Then he goes to some sort of training thing and the book goes on for a long while before it ends. There is a special skill that he is not supposed to learn, but he is learning. The story is set in some kingdom that is a unification of other lands. They have politics and different mechinations. Did I mention the book was long?

The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Book 6

The Enchantress wraps up the Nicholas Flamel series. This book is packed with action and doesn't get too bogged down with the theory. And that is probably good. I had trouble keeping track of why people were doing the things they were doing. The "sides" that people joined also became confused. People that seemed to be bad guys before were now good guys. However, there were plenty of new "bad guys" that came out to fight them. The author continues to pull more and more historical and mythological figures out of his hat to add to the story. They often seem to be living relatively peaceably in modern society despite being immortal. (Though their battles are often the story behind natural disasters.) The twins also learn about their true history and family, which was different from anything I was expecting. The primary narrative consists of a few different story arcs taking place thousand of years apart in different "shadow realms", but all related to the final goal. The ending wraps things up nicely. However, since things float freely between time and place, is there ever really an end? I found this book a satisfying conclusion and a positive step above the previous book.

The Necromancer: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Book 4

In this book, Josh and Sophie finally make it home to San Francisco. However, they soon encounter even more adventures. They discover that their vampire Celtic warrior friend has a twin sister. (Twins seem to be common in this series.) There is additional mahem and battles. Historical figures team up with each other (though there are not many new ones that appear in this book.) The twins have more confusion about which side is the "right" side. Josh ends up siding with John Dee, who promises him the ability to wake the dead. However, the others are trying to prevent him from awakening the dark creature that will potentially cause great harm. This is a middle book that really depends on the other books in the series to make sense.

The Sorceress: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Book 3

William Shakespeare and Billy the Kid show up as new Immortals in the third Nicholas Flamel book. The stakes have now gone greater. The dark elders want to unleash demons stored in Alcatraz and take over the world. The twins are still struggling to determine who the good guys and bad guys are. Josh is becoming ever more linked to his sword. They are also gradually being awakened, learning the power of water. John Dee and Machiavelli are chasing them down, but do not manage to catch them.