Code Girls

Liza Mundy

The Code Girls are the thousands of women who were recruited in WWII to work for the Army or Navy intelligence services on breaking codes and ciphers of Germans and Japanese. It is a well researched book and relies heavily on personal statements by the participants. We hear not only the story of the development of codebreaking skills, but also of life for women in the service during the war, the friendships that developed, and the massive & unifying effort that the war was. No-one in the US was not a participant or affected somehow. A fabulous telling of history for the next generations. The downside is the lack of a narrative thread. There are so many people involved (which is part of how astounding everything is) that there are too many to keep track of, and the resulting story is a meander through time and space that isn't always linear enough to be a story.

3 stars (out of 4)

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

Stacy Schiff

The story of Sam Adams and his role as provocateur in the lead up to the American Revolution from England. He was nearly universally regarded as the prime voice developing the push for American rights in Massachusetts and organizing a collective voice for the colonies. He was very the twitter-bot of his time, publishing in newspapers under over 15 different pseudonyms, and really not very concerned with the veracity of the facts that he published. He had a point of view and was going to promote that regardless of the truth (which is reminiscent of the fake news / conspiracy trends of the past decade). As presented in this telling, it was also very clear that the colonists were in the right in every way, so even this telling had a point of view. The blinders showed especially in letters Adams wrote to Native Americans asking for their support, suggesting that the crown would continue to abuse them, but colonialists would treat them with respect and honor their sovereignty. Maybe he really believed this, but in hindsight it is so ridiculous that is seems self serving at best. Overall, a fascinating biography. 

3 stars (out of 4)

Civilizations

Laurent Binet

I had heard about this awhile back and had been looking forward to it. The basic premise -- if the "new world" civilizations had come across the Atlantic to colonize the "old world". And I love alternate histories, so it is right up my alley. The specifics: Two Inca brothers are ruling the empire and a civil war results from their disagreements. When one brother is on the brink of decimation, he utilizes some of the ships from the Columbus expedition to escape and seek out new land to rule. He and his 200 or so followers end up in Portugal, where a land devastated by plague and internal conflict is easily conquered. We then see play out the development of how a new power integrates to the French/English/Spanish/Rome/etc. machinations. 

Observations that I enjoyed: Machiavelli becomes a sort of strategist for this new ruler, the Inca are ultimately interested in egalitarian society (farming, freedom of religion, shared resources) and not a power acquisition society, Luther/Rome don't come of looking so good (which is probably true to history), the colonial desires of European countries is not erased.

Unfortunately, the novel didn't end strong. I could have done with a more detailed vision about how things worked well, or went of the rails, or ended up the same anyway. But instead, Binet ended without a real vision, opting instead for a vignette of life for one particular character involved in all the plot lines from the periphery. But overall, fun to imagine...

3 stars (out of 4)

When we cease to understand the world

Benjamin Labatut

A historical fiction offering that provides a storytelling version of some historically significant discoveries and findings. Labatut gives us insight to the people, including all of their angst, like Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Haber and Grothendieck. I hadn't heard of the latter two, but their work is both beautiful (development of the color Prussian Blue) and tragic (gas chamber gas). It is not a "fun" read, but definitely recommend as insight to the process of development and unintended impact that every scientist/engineer should at least have on their mind.

4 stars (out of 4)

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Linda Brent

This is an autobiography written in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs under the Brent pseudonym. It is the story of Jacobs life from about the age of 10 through 25 or so. The story tells of her years as a slave and travel to the north after escape. I won't summarize the story here, but please read this. It is a fascinating primary source telling of slavery by a particularly unique woman in so many ways. Through the telling her life story, Jacobs illuminates so many misconceptions about slavery that exist even today. She powerfully captures many of the root emotions associated with slavery, and the generational impacts of slavery on both black and white, north and south. This is not a book about slavery, but an exposure of humanity, the corruption of power, persistence, and self worth. Read!

5 stars (out of 4)

Everfair

Nisi Shawl

A self described steam-punk alternate history, and it is exactly that. The history involved is that of the colonization of the Belgian Congo in the 1900's. The alternate part of the history consists of Shawl envisioning Belgian King Leopold selling most of the land of the Congo to a collection of nationalists (local tribal leaders, African-American slave repatriationists, and missionaries) who work with various levels of cooperation to create an African nation. Of course, each of these groups has its own idea of what said African nation should consist of and how it should be governed. Throw in the fact that the scientists of this nation are global leaders in automation technology (developing and perfecting dirigible transportation, steam/nuclear powered bicycles, and knife throwing guns) and we get the steam-punk flavor. This is in some ways a fascinating vision and imaginative story telling. But somehow it also left me yearning for more, ultimately being too mired in the reality of colonization, race, and nation building. While providing insights about these realities along the way, I feel like a truly good alternate history will at least hint at an alternate future that is more optimistic. Here, Shawl simply provides a history that leads to a present that is different, but in many ways just as deficient in hope.
3 stars (out of 4)

The Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead

Exactly what you expect from the title, and yet different. Whitehead follows Cora, a 3rd generation slave in Georgia as she runs away and is ferried from state to state along the railroad. The conceit here is that the railroad is an actual railroad, in secret underground tunnels. But while that little surprise adds flavor to the story, setting it clearly in historical fiction, the mastery of this fiction is in its ability to hold to the truth. Yes, I understand that slavery was bad, and intellectually I know that the atrocities were outrageous. But in this telling, Whitehead provides a sampling of what these atrocities were, and how they affected lives and people. And we both see and feel the evil of 'humans as property' from all perspectives (slave, benevolent owner, harsh owner, abolitionist, freeman, slave hunter, etc.). Not a single person or role is exempt from the destruction begat by the system. And not a single person or role is oblivious to the fact that this country, especially in its infancy, was built with the lives and blood of the human capital of native and slave populations. Amidst this reality, we follow Cora through 5 or 6 states along her journey and get a distinct perspective from each, noting the individuality and "state sovereignty" presumed by each. In the end, I suppose I am not sure whether this tale is ultimately a tragedy or hopeful telling of the history of this country.
4 stars (out of 4)

The Last Season

Eric Blehm

This is the true story of the disappearance of Randy Morgenson. Morgenson was a super experienced, seasonal employee of the National Park Service who worked every summer as a back country ranger in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Forest. These national forests contain the most rugged terrain of any land in the country, with only 1% of the area actually accessible to the public by trail. As a back country ranger, Morgenson was responsible to patrol, both the 1% and the 99%. But in the summer of 1996, he disappeared leaving only a "Ranger on patrol for 3-4 days" note. This book tells the story of Morgenson, before and after the disappearance, giving the reader a pretty good understanding of the person, and of the type of person who is a back country ranger. It also tells the story of Kings Canyon and Sequoia, fully characters in their own right, which would have been exactly what Morgenson would have insisted on. A fascinating read, made more so if you have been to any part of the national forest in California and have an image of the landscape to follow you around the telling.

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Underground Airlines

Ben H. Winters

Set in current time, but as an alternate history. President Lincoln was assassinated before the emancipation, and the civil war resulted in a compromise. This compromise allowed slavery to be a state decision and permanently disallowed federal oversight. In the current year, only 4 states remain as slave states, but as a result, the U.S. is on the outs with the global community, effectively under economic sanctions. Some of the subtle beauty of this novel is in how this reality filters through to language. For example, a passing vehicle is a SA truck - referencing its manufacturing origin of South Africa. Or a Pakistani Wagon. Just dropped clues about the impact of remaining a slave state. The protagonist is Victor, a 'semi-free' black man working for the U.S. Marshalls, charged with tracking down runaway slaves and returning them to their owners. On this particular case, he is working to infiltrate the 'airline' to track a particular man and there are a few things that strike him as odd. While he continues his tracking, he also encounters increasing memories and emotional resistance. Not only is this a fascinating take on an alternate history, it is also a well told story of the internal struggles that one develops when pursuing a profession that is inconsistent with your values.

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The Sympathizer

Viet Thanh Nguyen

This is a fabulous investigation of identity. The time setting is the end of the Vietnam war and our protagonist is a North Vietnamese man who has been embedded with a South Vietnamese general as a spy. After the fall of Saigon, they escape to the US and continue (as southerners in exile) to work toward the defeat of the communist north. This work involves raising money and keeping the U.S. political interest in an anti-communist southeast Asia alive. As a spy, it involved regular reporting back to his superiors and even working as a consultant on a hollywood movie. At one point, in discussing the merits of working on this movie we find Mao's discussion about the role of art and literature as tools for both revolution and domination. At the end of the discussion about the value of the movie

...emotions [about the movie] were irrelevant. What mattered was that the audience member, having paid for the ticket, was willing to let American ideas and values seep into the vulnerable tissue of his brain and the absorbent soil of his heart.

This is the essential argument about consumerism and marketing. We can all claim that what we watch and/or read is just entertainment and does not need to reflect our values. But somehow, by spending our money (placing value on) this entertainment, we are opening our mind and spirit to the message. It seeps... and has over time ability to change our identity. Maybe the question becomes, does awareness prevent, or slow, that identity change? Does self-reflection allow us to maintain our role as audience member, or is isolation the only way to maintain a value system? Many religious sects have chosen the later...

This is but one example of the thinking about identity and culture that is prompted. I can't recommend this novel highly enough.

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The Invention of Air

Steven Johnson

Nominally, this is a biography of Joseph Priestley, the late 18th century English natural philosopher (scientist), theologian, politician. More accurately, it is the story of how science worked 250 years ago, using Priestley as a protagonist to walk us through the process. And more importantly, Johnson intersperses commentary throughout to highlight how "doing science" has changed, both for better and worse. So while this is a biography and presentation of the historical record, it is also an opinion piece and a persuasive essay. Mixing this all together is ambitious, but Johnson is up to the task and, at least from the point of view of this scientist, hits a home run.

The foundation for the story is the scientific life of Priestley and his experimental investigation of air. He, along with Ben Franklin and a group of intellectuals that refer to themselves as "The Honest Whigs", over the course of 10 years in the 1770's are discovering the physical properties of air. Before this time, air was invisible nothing, and therefore there was nothing to discover. But new equipment (accurate scales, air pump, etc.) make investigation possible. Priestley is credited with "discovering" oxygen, and recognizing that plants and animals affect "common air" differently.

What I love about this book is what Johnson refers to as "the long zoom view". The fact that plants and animals affect air differently could be just a scientific fact. But these intellectuals are not just scientists. They are theologians, politicians, industrialists, etc. as well, which allows them to see "fact" differently. In this case, Franklin takes the 'affect air differently' fact and posits a systems view of life on earth. That is, he suggests for the first time ever the idea of an ecosystem and the possibility of a necessary global homeostasis. This is astounding insight. But it is not just his. Johnson suggests that most of the discoveries and scientific epiphanies that occur during this time are really the result of two social artifacts:

1. the communal nature of science. The Honest Whigs did not have a proprietary sense of knowledge. Instead, they were acting proponents of open source knowledge, sharing everything with each other and even with their scientific and industrial rivals. So Franklin on his own never makes this ecosystem observation, and
2. the long term "leisure" life of the scientists. That is, Priestley had 20-30 years of a hunch about the scientific fact of air being different that the common understanding of air. During this time, the idea was percolating and bouncing around as he investigated other things, as he shared ideas with others, as he delved into theology. Were Priestley to be working on a government funded grant that demanded results in a few years, perhaps he never makes the discoveries and history changes (the oxygen idea leads to better gunpowder production by the French, which is sold to American revolutionaries, giving them a military advantage over the British). 

Today's scientific research has neither of these factors. However, you can see elements of them when looking at hot new scientific fields. Big change is happening where open source knowledge prevails, and we the interface between traditional specialties (fields of biophysics, biochemistry, materials science (chemistry + physics), medical physics, etc.) all revealing ground breaking discoveries.

The book is a super fast read, and a great combination of scientific biography and meta-scientific sociology.

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The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution

Mariano Azuela

A translation of the novel from Spanish, which was first published as a newspaper serial in around 1915. A good scholarly introduction to this edition tells us that first, the title is not right. The underdogs suggests disadvantaged sports team overcoming all odds to win something. And while this is one possible reading, the translation is probably better as "the people beneath". In fact, it is a story of survival, of poverty fighting against political power and then not knowing how to "win" or to stop fighting, how war is an intoxicating/addictive drug. Demetrio is a guerrilla revolutionary who has some military success based on his fearlessness, leadership, and ferocity. This is  his story, about the transition from a two ox farmer to a general, his own recognition of his changing identity, and his inability (disinterest?) in stopping the change. And somehow, even in victory, the people beneath are still beneath...
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Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

I didn't have any expectations for this book, didn't even read the dust cover for a synopsis. My only expectation was from the initial chapters, that it would be the story of struggle and development of gender identity of a hermaphrodite. And it was... sort of. But Eugenides takes a broad view of this identity discussion, utilizing 2/3 of the book to tell the history of protagonist Cal back 3 generations to his Greek ancestors and their life and emigration from Turkey to the suburbs of Detroit. Cal isn't even born for most of the book and tells this history from an omniscient 3rd person version of his 1st person memoir. In hindsight, I find this historical identity formation to be fascinating, telling the story of immigration and assimilation, highlighting life in Detroit during the depression, prohibition, and civil rights. In process of reading, I found this frustrating since I was waiting for "the real story" to begin, to the point that my enjoyment of the history was diminished in my impatience. Aside from this, it really is a fascinating collection of cultural Americana descriptions that Eugenides captures. For example, the diagnosis sequence where Cal is spending time with Dr. Luce and the sociological/scientific debates of Nature v Nurture are front and center. It is so matter of fact, and yet such a pivotal national discussion as genetic research begins to enter the collective consciousness of the general public. I think I will like this book more with time as its themes continue to crop up.
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The Vagrants

Yiyun Li

I would classify this as interesting, but not fascinating. Or maybe fascinating, but not engaging. It is the story of life in Muddy River, a northern Chinese town in late 1970's. The four or five main characters are introduced in the context of their lives and roles in Muddy River. Only over time are the connections between them revealed. And while this is nominally a story of a few individuals in a particular town, it is ostensibly about China and the effects of the Cultural Revolution on individuals. The main plot circles around the planned execution of a counter-revolutionary who was a former revolutionary. In both of these lives, she was fully engaged, which led her to extreme interactions with individuals in both of her political lives. Fascinating is the daily life routine of a majority of the Muddy River citizens, the daily interaction with the communist government. The pervasive presence of the central government simultaneous with the irrelevance of the central government. The individual attitudes of parents, kids, city outcasts are all very much about "here is what I need to do today", leaving the societal big picture to the government. I think in the west we have a view that our role in the big picture is more pronounced and important, but I am not sure that we have a realistic view about the impact of our egocentrism. Being drawn into thinking about and comparing cultural roles and norms from east to west is ultimately, for me, the payoff of this novel.
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The Berlin Stories

Christopher Isherwood

Some parts fiction, some parts autobiographical, this is a description of life in Berlin in the early 30's as the Nazi party is gaining strength. Isherwood is living in Berlin, doing some writing and living the artists life (meeting people, going on vacation with them, getting involved in lives). What I find most fascinating about these stories is the political development. Isherwood is not writing as a political writer, but since the political scene is so dominant, it infiltrates every aspect of life. And, from this perspective, in the early 30's in democratic Germany, there was a legitimate struggle between the Nazi and Communist parties for control of the elections, and at least in Isherwood's circles, no one thought the Nazi's would come to power. So while these are stories of people, an actress, a business man, a professional sponge, they are also stories of time and events. And together these stories offer another insight to how we can get so far down a road that it is hard to come back.
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All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Set in World War II, the story follows two main characters who are both teenagers: a blind French girl and a scientifically gifted German orphan boy. We bounce back and forth (rather quickly) between these two stories until they eventually intersect about 2/3 of the way through. In some ways, this is a fascinating view into regular life in occupied France, and into life as a boy conscripted into the German military machine.  However, it felt flat and wrote. Somehow the entire story felt defeatist, without inspiring hope in the characters, or the characters providing hope for the reader. Maybe that was the intent, to immerse yourself in this hopeless world of WWII, but in a fictional novel I want a bit more escapism. Or I want emotional arc (give me hope and then dash it) so I have something to react to.
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J

Howard Jacobson

I usually enjoy novels that have won a prize. This was a Man Booker finalist, so I had hopes. While the details are never spelled out, it is essentially the story of life in a rural European town some years after World War II. The result of the war is unclear, but the effect is the suppression of Jews and Jewishness along with the Balkanization of all ethnic groups. So every little small town is an isolationist, homogenous group. Add to this mix a Jewish protagonist, and a mysterious Jewish underground working to insure the continuation of the Jewish line without upsetting the repressive/precarious balance of the status quo.  I can see how this is potentially interesting, but I was not engaged by the writing. The story was too cliche and did not provide any new insight to a post war mentality in Europe. I expect that by creating this alternate history fictional word, Jacobson will be presenting me with an intellectually stimulating point of view or new way of thinking about the specific Jewish trauma in the post war environment or the general cultural/sociological trends that lead to isolation and eventually genocide for any minority. I got neither.
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Code Name Verity

Elizabeth Wein

This is the first book I have read by Wein. This is part of her "Young Pilots" series, and from what I can tell, she is developing a series of books that normalize heroic women in roles that we normally only see for men. In this case, young women in Great Britain during WWII becoming pilots and spies. This story is told in two parts, the first about Verity (the spy) and the second about Kittyhawk (the pilot). About half of each is told in flashback to develop the characters and introduce their relationship. This is not a cartoonish, hero story. Instead, it is a plausible historical fiction about life in WWII England and Nazi occupied France. I suppose it is more on par with the historical portions of Blackout by Connie Willis and The Imitation Game than it is with most of the young adult feminist empowerment reading that I have seen lately. Maybe the realism is what made me appreciate it even more.
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The Age of Radiance

The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era

Craig Nelson

Nelson presents the historical story of radiation, from discovery to the present. While it is a mostly known story, it is still fascinating and Nelson finds ways of putting the history together to tell a particular story. We are introduced to all the players in Europe and the US pre-WWII, and follow their contributions as scientists transition out of discovery and into application. Perhaps the most thought provoking part of the entire book is the discussion about the necessity of nuclear weapons for war. Nelson paints a picture suggesting that the only actual unique feature of nuclear weapons was the fear that they induced. He suggests that the purely military value was overstated, with equal devastation possible with conventional weapons. The impact of the fear throughout the cold war has lead to a general fear and misunderstanding of radiation. While he does not argue for/against current peaceful uses, Nelson does lay out much of the psychology and sociology that is helpful is thinking about why we are were we are today. This is one of those books that is both excellent as a resource for facts and information, and that sticks with you and makes you think.

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Naked in Baghdad: the Iraq War as Seen by NPR's correspondent

Anne Garrels

Basically a behind the scene memoir by Garrels of her time in and out of Iraq leading up to and during the 2003 war in Iraq. It is an interesting revelation about how reporters and foreign governments interact, how much graft and corruption there was in Iraq, how competitive and scoop oriented the media is (more scoop oriented than story or people oriented), and how beholden we are to this media for information. Garrels made efforts to find Iraqis and interview them, to really find the people of the country and not just report the government information. But this story is really about what it is like to be a journalist, not about the Iraq War. It is a decent companion to Baghdad Diaries, which is the Iraqi point of view on that war. But neither is really complete, as probably no single book can be.
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