The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam
This long book brings the Korean War to life. The author writes a riveting account of the war that was fought on multiple different levels. Korea was a key location in the ideological battle between western capitalism and eastern Communism. The United States had little understanding of Korea and had reneged on previous promises. On the communist side, the conflicts conflicts between Russia and China created issues for support. On the battlefield, Korea was in the realm of Douglas MacArthur. However, he spent much of his time in Japan and had very little understanding of the Koreans or the conditions on the ground. The book portrays him as a cocky old man who thinks he is above the law. He had great victories in the past and won't listen to his subordinates. However, he will gladly take credit for their plans after they succeed. His arrogance is a big cause of the prolongation of the Korean war. The victory at Incheon probably helped delay his eventual firing. The other sycophants under him denied intelligence and resulted in significant loses. Only with better leadership did the western UN forces gain ground.
Mao's communist forces were able to take advantage of MacArthur's arrogance to achieve some early victories after they entered the war. However, he also fell to arrogance.
In the end, the long war left Korea back in the state it was where the allies divided it after the end of World War II. On the geopolitical front, the US and China ended up needlessly poisoning their relationship. Attempts to contain communism probably helped more to maintain it.
The author is very opinionated, with sources to back his opinions. The Korean War had plenty of heroes and villains. What did it accomplish?
I really thought I was getting into this Dune book. I was grokking the political intrigue and the environmental debates. Then I started to lose it and the novel ended. There are people that are in power. Others seem to know their position on life. The environment has changed in a way that seems to benefit most people. However, this change has also caused negative impacts that may lead to future destruction. There does seem to be a lot of potential in this book, but I couldn't quite absorb it.
What does it take to become a deity? What about a ruler? What would it be to live on forever? What would it be like to have a monopoly on water in a desert? In this Dune book, the leader has adopted a hybrid sandworm/human form and has ruled for thousands of years. The narrative structure relies on many "primary" sources and flashbacks. There is plenty of introspection in the book. Duncan Idaho comes in and tries to make changes. There is exploration of procreation and continuing on. Alas, success becomes pyrrhic.
I had gone through most of the original Ender's Game series pretty close together. I wasn't super engaged with the first book, but I really liked were things went with the end and into the other books in the series. The post-formic wars exploration of the universe made for great stories. I also enjoyed the Ender's Shadow. Recently, I've listened to the new Formic Wars novels. However, it has been a while since I've listened to the core series. These events were not very familiar to me. I had some trouble getting engaged with this novel.
The Big Sleep is a "mystery" book that is more concerned with the process than the conclusion. The detective is brought in to do some work for the "General". In the process of investigating some blackmail, he uncovers multiple murders and many other crime operations. He is the principled, loyal detective who is going to get the job done for his small fee. He has little faith in the police solving crimes. He also freely navigates the underbelly of society without actively being part of it. While he does uncover various crimes, those were not the subject of his investigation, so he feels he has not earned his commission. It is a true "smarter than life detective" and an interesting portrayal of old Los Angeles.
The Art of War is one of the oldest works that is still read today. Sun Tzu provides a number of warfare principles that are at times very specific to the day, but also very general. Different terrains (such as salt marshes) have different considerations. Sometimes the best way to defeat an enemy is by encouraging their overconfidence. Your army may fight better when they are far from home, and thus find it more difficult to desert. Spies are very important, yet they must be well vetted. It is also important to show everyone that the leaders follow rules also. (There is even an example of a leader that nearly beheaded himself.) While we don't engage in siege warfare today, most of the general principles are still applicable.
Food can be truly addicting. However, the nature of addiction has many different facets. Our food preferences also start when we are young. For many people in the US, the "native food" is the junk fast food that we have grown up with. He have had this food marketed to us from our infancy and continue to prefer it. Some people are much more susceptible to it than others. To some people, a simple ad for McDonalds can trigger the craving. Similar to many other addictions, it is the longing for food that drives it - a longing which can sometimes not be fully satisfied by consuming the food.
Atlas Shrugged is a really long book. Over 60 hours of audiobook. Luckily, you can listen at 3 times speed. Still, it is long.
Superman has been one of the most enduring superheroes. He was created by two Jewish boys in Cleveland. They lived in difficult circumstances and were somewhat socially outcast. They worked hard to get their comic published somewhere. Eventually it was published and went on to be extremely successful. Superman spawned radio shows, movies, TV shows and many other tie ins. Over the years, superman gained new talents. (The original Superman did not fly.) Superman was observant of current events, but stayed somewhat aloof from direct involvement. While other superheroes would fight Nazis, Superman tried to enlist put ended up failing due to an X-Ray vision issue. This allowed him to support the troops at home without being directly involved.
More is not necesarily better. Julian Comstock was an expansion of a previously written short story. It seems to blather on a lot, with perhaps too much early 21st century moved directly extrapolated to the 22nd century. The world ran into difficulties with climate change and oil. The United States has merged with some of Canada and is now in a battle with the "Dutch" over some of remaining parts. People have retreated to a more fundamentalist lifestyle, with a "dominion" forcing a religious orthodoxy. The heroes bump against the grain. They experience some of the forbidden arts and literature. They even produce a musical about Charles Darwin. One of them, Julian Comstock even managed to become leader. However, his leadership is short live as he dies of the "pox". There are are also forced enlistments in the military as well as "beauty" vaccinations. (Vaccines are trendy, and people get them without a strong medical need or even safety.) In the end, the characters escape to France where they no longer have to live in controlling American state. The internal "author" has a degree of naivety about him. He is from a small town and is shocked to see a typewriter. He chases after a singer, and eventually hooks of with her - after helping to battle her brothers. There are some interesting bits, but just not enough to make it a compelling book.
The Key to Creation brings the Terra Incognita series to a satisfying conclusion. The two warring groups have an experience that is closely modeled after the Arab/Israeli conflict. Or perhaps even the Suni/Shiite division. Each group is descended from a brother. Their relgious histories are similar, however, they bicker over the minor differences. Each side sees the other as heretics. They see similar areas as holy, yet they constantly fight against each other. The devout religious leaders are more concerned with their dogma than the truth. When a religious leader sees evidence that contradicts his religious understanding, he destroys it. 
Two groups of people descended from the same original group. However, they have adopted different customs and religions and absolutely hate each other. Hot heads on both sides continually lead to an escalation of tensions. One guy tries to make his royal fiance happy by massacring people in a religious site. This leads to the other side killing the Queen's brother. Needless to say, the queen is not happy, and leads another attack. This goes on and on. The people have so much animosity that they just can't get along. Religion is very important, but becomes a differentiator rather than a uniter. 
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a curious case of a short story that provided an interesting idea to "inspire" a movie. In the store, Benjamin Button is born an old man, and ages in reverse until he exits a young baby. In the story, his "physical" age matches his intellect and emotional age. He retains some memories and desires from his "past", but still behaves much as a 20 year old would when he looks to be 20. The movie adds a new twist, with his mind aging independently. Thus he looks to be an old man, but has the mind of a young child. This allows some interesting exploration that is not present in the original story. Both do present an interesting exploration of the impact of our "age" in our life and our choices. There are many expectations of people based on the age they look. People are also quick to judge and also quick to forget. The story is also, somewhat symptomatic of its time, highly male focussed. Though a mother does birth Benjamin, she is nowhere to be seen. His wife also is there just to be courted and then plays very little role (other than to be a person that is no longer attractive to him as he gets younger.)
Light in August tells the story of various people in the small town south. A preacher is disgraced by the bad behavior of his wife. However, he refuses to stop preaching until he is locked out of the church. He finally resigns, but refuses to leave town, even after he is attacked. Gradually, he is forgotten. Too guys make whiskey. They leave town after an incident where their land lord is murdered and house burned down. Later one of them comes back to try to collect a reward for the death of the lady. He claims his friend was having an affair. His credibility seems to go way down - until he brings out the trump card of his friend having negro blood. Now the town trusts him. (Were southerners really that racist?) He also had come to town to escape the pregnancy of a girl. Alas, she has followed him, and now has another guy chasing after her. The various stories are woven together with a timeline that flows back and forth to gradually provide backstory and action. The background helps explain the "scars" of the characters and why they behave the way they do. (Even though the civil war ended a few generations earlier, racism is still going strong.) While the primary characters get most of the print, there are other characters, such as a "wanna be military" gun nut. The storytelling also seamlessly switches between different styles, helping things to move along quickly. The novel was much better than I anticipated.
So Yesterday is a dated, fun book about corporate trend setters. Corporate brands are "alluded" too regularly, but rarely explicitly mentioned. Some of the allusions show the fragility of corporate hegemony. (That Finnish cell phone maker? Well, yeah, they were kind of bought by Microsoft, written off, and are trying to come back around.)
In its history, salt has been an expensive commodity that has been fought over and even used as a currency ('salary' comes from the word salt.) Pure salt was highly salt after and governments would often try to use the salt trade for their benefit. Today, however, salt is dirt cheap and often used to dump on roads. "Impure" salt is more highly valued for its additional color and taste. Salt domes are primarily valuable for the oil that may be contained underneath. (But could the history of salt be a foreboding for the future of oil?)
Salt + Sugar + Fat = delicious. After reading this book I found myself snacking on some salted butter and sugar. That really is the basis of great taste. I can easily see how companies would love to use this to manipulate customers. There is plenty of nastiness uncovered in this books. By using the cheapest possible sugars and fats, companies can create highly desirable foods for cheap prices. Nutrition takes a back seat in the production of the things that people crave. In many cases companies know the negative impacts of what they are doing, yet they let the market decide. Yes, the processed food that we get today is scary. Our best solution is to sacrifice convenience and cost for home-made meals. Big food knows this and has further infiltrated the kitchen, producing items such as the Betty Crocker cookbook (that subtly encourages using convenient food products like bisquick and margarine.
Asimov can get annoying. He spends too much time describing the science and the "people" and not enough time developing characters and story. However, he usually has an interesting premise and writes just well enough to keep things interesting.