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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In Yuval Noah Harari’s previous book, Sapiens, he considered how humanity got to where we are today from a hunter-gatherer culture to a modern industrial farming systems that can support millions. In this latest volume, Home Deus, he contemplates the future; our future, and the events that will shape us in the twenty-first century.
We have reached the apex of our abilities with current technology. Going back only a hundred years our lives were frequently cut short by famine, war and illness. Today, in the Western world at least, we have mostly conquered disease and extended our lifespan, but now we are as likely to suffer from obesity or contemplate suicide, total different challenges for the coming decades. He suggests that these will be met as we embrace the modern age of data, pervasive networks and genetic modification. That is assuming that we have a place to live as our world too is under threat because of our relentless pursuit of extracting the maximum resources for the cheapest price.
So, what does the future hold for humanity?
Harari ponders the possibilities and pitfalls of our future self. He asks and goes some way to answer the questions that we will have to address in the coming years. He proposes that our obsession with information flow may almost become a religion, dataism. How will we deal with the dilemma of choosing between intelligence and consciousness and what is the possibility that we might become part of a wider algorithm or part of the internet of things. These are all interesting questions and whilst he goes some way to answering them, there is a fair amount that is pure speculation and conjecture, but that is what makes this actually quite an interesting book. 3.5 stars overall.
How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
AIDS was supposed to be the next pandemic, A disease that would take out 1 in 4 of the population. So far this virus has claimed around 40 million victims and it is thought that there are around 37 million still carrying the HIV or full blown AIDS virus at present. These are huge numbers. When it surfaced in the early 1980’s in America no one knew anything about it. It was passed from individual to individual through sexual contact and once it had entered into the gay community it spread rapidly. No one knew how to treat the symptoms or even if it was curable. Most people in America, in particular, those of a right wing persuasion could not be described as ‘sympathetic’ of the New York or any other gay community. This was even before men started to start to succumb to this unknown illness, initially thought to be some form of cancer, which was fast becoming an epidemic. It was a huge struggle for the gay community to even gain acceptance a lot of the time, this unknown virus was seen by some to be some sort of punishment. The problem was that this virus was decimating people.
David France brings us this insider’s view from the gay community on the characters that fought for recognition of their rights through the group ACT UP and for the fight that they had for resources for finding out just what this illness was and if it could be cured. This book is not the easiest to read, it is very dense, long and incredibly detailed. However, because of France’s perspective from within the community that suffered the most by reading this, you will gain an insider’s perspective on the devastation that was wreaked on the gay community in the early 1980s. He lost partners and many close friends and associates to the virus and this made him do what he could do best, write. He describes the pretty despicable action by the American team of scientists undertaking research after the French team at the Institut Pasteur discovered the HIV-1 virus, and how Burroughs Wellcome developed AZT; supposedly the drug that would help those suffering. Problem was, it didn’t work. They made a fortune and still, people died. In their thousands.
Thankfully modern drugs mean that the disease is manageable, but this book is a reminder of a time that should not be forgotten.
Monthy Muse
I know February is a shorter month, but that went past in a flash! This is what I had managed to read:
Four were outstanding; Good Omens, The Apple Orchard A Tale of Trees and The Rule of the Land. All very different books that show how rich and varied our publishing industry is. Pete Brown writes with such wit and aplomb about these little parcels of land that have such an autumn bounty. Garret Carr teases out the stories from a troubled border, and Good Omens is an insane romp at the possible end of the world. I really enjoyed Hidden Histories too; it is a guide on the lumps and bumps that appear in fields all-around the country, and how to interpret what they mean.
Wellcome Prize
This is a prize that focuses on a common theme centred on medicine or health issues. But rather than just a non-fiction remit, it encompasses a wide range of fiction genres too, including science fiction. This year’s longlist was:
How to Survive a Plague by David France
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal trans. Jessica Moore
The Golden Age by Joan London
Cure by Jo Marchant
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
I had agreed to read and review for nb Magazine the seven non-fiction books on the list; thankfully I had already read two of them and had others at home. The library came up trumps once again, and I managed to get hold of the three missing books very quickly. So far they have all been good. I am halfway through the penultimate one, but so far my favourite is I Contain Multitudes.
World From My Armchair Challenge
So far I have read eight books towards this, helped by some of the books from the Stanford Dolman shortlists. Countries ‘visited’ so far are Bhutan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Ireland, Peru and the USA and I have crossed the Pacific Ocean in the company of Sarah Outen. It is good to see another people’s perspective. I am currently reading the new book by Reza Pakravan, Kapp to Cape which will add another country in this month. On target to do my 45 or so this year.
I have been trying to catch up on the review copies that publishers have kindly sent me, and failing mostly. So I am aiming to make serious roads into my backlog in March. Oh, and I am off to the London Book Fair on the 16th. Looking forward to it; it is going to be good to meet some people that I have corresponded with over the past year.
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genetically you are unique.
However, there is nothing particularly special about being unique if everyone else is…
In your 23 base pairs of DNA there are around 20,000 human protein-coding genes. To put this in perspective, a banana has 36,000… The first complete draft of the sequence was published on February 12th 2001. Being able to read this code of T C G A’s is one thing; being able to understand it is another, and we are nowhere near being able to manipulate it yet either. This code is what makes you, you, but hidden deep within it are the countless secrets of our forefathers and mothers, the history of our species including the echoes of past events. There is even small amounts of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisovan genome intertwined within our homo sapiens DNA.
Rutherford takes us on this fascinating journey up and down our collective family trees via the spirals of our DNA. No subject is beyond his gaze, hair and eye colour, to the horrors of eugenics to finding out if a body under a carpark is a deceased monarch or why it seems to be those of European descent are the only ones who can drink milk. There are some amusing parts, such as when he lists just what journalists think that scientists have found the genes for and the genetic peril of being in the Royal family. Given how complicated this subject could have been, and it did occasionally go right over my head, it is written with a refreshing clarity. The anecdotes and stories that are in here add greatly to the book. Thankfully I could understand most of it, which is the principle aim of these books to bring science to the wider audience.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You may think that we are just made from muscles, blood cells, bones and a fair bit of DNA, but in between the gaps are microbes. Billions and billions of them. There are the odd rogue ones, but most of them are useful and make up an essential element of our being. Without them we could not live. They help us in countless ways, sculpting our organs, protecting us from disease and feeding and nourishing us; our gut contains a complete ecosystem that ensure that we extract all the energy we need.
Microbes work equal miracles in other animals too, providing the ethereal light that disguises a squid as they hunt, ensuring that koalas are able to digest the unpalatable eucalyptus leaves and the weevil that uses bacteria to make its shell before killing them. The modern worldview of eliminating all microbes is causing as much harm as it is good; people nowdays have a revulsion of all things bacterial, hence the raft of cleaning products that are designed to scour all surfaces and hands clean of these unwanted intruders. However, as Yong successfully argues in this book that not only we might be missing a trick, but our bacterial ecosystem is essential for our survival. A good example of this is in hospitals; the modern view is that all windows have to be locked shut to keep rogue microbes out, but the effect of this is that patients sit in their beds stewing in a lethal mix of micro-organisms. This hazardous situation can be simply solved by opening a window, this allows the dispersal and dilution of the potentially lethal ones. Simple, but very effective.
It is a fascinating account of the unseen creatures that live within and all around us. Yong takes us on this journey through the microscope to discover the most recent research from scientists all round the world and tell us of the secrets that are being discovered about microbes. Some of the treatments being developed have the potential to make people’s so lives much better; one example is RePOOpulate – as unappealing as it sounds! However, this treatment has worked miracles with a 94% success rate and no side effects, a success rate not seen in many other cures. Yong writes with an engaging and eloquent style and makes the science in here really accessible. Well worth reading. 4.5 stars.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Scarlett and her sister Tella have never left the tiny island that her father runs with an iron fist. Scarlett is betrothed to a Count, someone that her father knows, but she has never met him. But, before she gets married she wants to attend Caraval, a performance and game that takes place on another island. She has been writing to someone called Legend for a number of years begging to be invited, and not heard a single thing. Until now. An envelope appears with three invitations in, one for her, her sister and fiancée. She is desperate to go, but knows that her father will refuse. A set of events is set in motion, she finds Tella wrapped in the embrace of a strange man, an altercation with her father, and suddenly her and her sister are fleeing the place that they have known all their lives to play Caraval.
Almost immediately after arriving on the island, Tella is kidnapped by Legend, the mastermind of the game. Scarlett is alone and up against experienced players of the game as this year, the winner of the game will be the one who finds Tella first. Scarlett finds a set of clues to assist her in the desperate search for her sister and she has five night to solve them. The game is supposed to be an elaborate and theatrical performance, but what sounds like a piece of fun initially has suddenly become a lot more sinister, because if she doesn’t find her she may loose her forever…
This is Garber’s debut novel and for a first one, it is reasonable. I liked the way that the game was set on an island and way she manages to convey the atmospheric events that take place at night. It is not a bad plot, though there are the odd discrepancies. While there is tension as Scarlett seeks her sister, it has a more melodramatic and gothic feel to it. There really wasn’t a lot of character depth though; they all came across as slightly two dimensional. The magical elements felt like they were dusted on rather than integral to the world she has created and there was more romance than I normally read, but that is my preference rather than a fault with the book.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Neurosurgery is not for the faint hearted. It demands the highest training and skill for even a couple of millimetres difference can literally mean kill or cure. This profession is the one that Paul Kalanithi chose with the ambitious aim of having a virtuous and meaningful life. He never wanted to become a doctor, having had personal experience of growing up in a family of medical practitioners. But, he ended up choosing this career after studying English literature and human biology followed by a master’s in the history and philosophy of science. It was whilst training as a neurosurgeon that he learnt to talk to patients about their treatments, their hopes and sometimes the stark realities of their prognosis. To deal with the suffering of the patient and their families, he had to become mentally tough and remote, pressures that not all of his colleagues could cope with.
Then one day the tables were turned; he became the patient.
He had dismissed the back pain and the exhaustion as part of the job and never sought advice until it was too late. His diagnosis was metastatic lung cancer. As his hopes and dreams evaporated; he realised he may never become a qualified surgeon. He had spent his career treating dying people every day. When the tables were turned, he faced his own death with dignity. It did make him see how his chosen profession treated those coping with terminal illness.
We shall rise insensibly, and reach the tops of the everlasting hills, where the winds are cool and the sight is glorious
It is an eloquently written book and such a sad story. Towards the end of his life they decide to have a child, knowing that the wider family would support Lucy; the description of him being at the birth but barely able to rise from his bed is very moving. Finally, Lucy’s eulogy to Paul is equally heart breaking and full of love. It is a painfully honest account of a short, but intense life.
Spymaster: The Life of Britain’s Most Decorated Cold War Spy and Head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield by Martin Pearce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Martin Pearce has a distinct memory of asking his uncle what he did and hearing the reply ‘Oh it’s quite boring really, dear boy. I’m a kind of security guard at embassies’. It was an unusual choice of career for the son of a Derbyshire farmer, who normally would have followed his father on the farm. But the truth was much stranger than that, because Maurice Oldfield was Head of MI6.
He was educated at Lady Manners School and then went to Victoria University of Manchester after gaining a scholarship. He gained a First Class degree in Medieval history and was elected a fellow. Then World War 2 started and he went from a quiet university life to signing up; his potential was realised, and he was seconded into the Intelligence Corps. His war service meant that he was awarded an MBE, and promptly joined MI6, starting in Counter-Intelligence. So began his career in the shadowy world of the spies.
He spent a lot of time overseas, working from the embassies in Singapore and Washington and cultivated a vast network of informants, both friends and acquaintances who would provide snippets of information and reports to him. His great strength was his analytical mind and the way that he could draw all these pieces of information to give him the bigger picture. His other strength was playing the waiting game, letting a target have some free reign with the hope that he would then make the mistake so they could bring him in. He was in Washington during the Bay of Pigs events and it is thought that his counsel with Kennedy played a small part in averting a larger catastrophe. Returning to the UK he was promoted to director of counter-intelligence, and second in line to the head. He missed getting the top job when Sir John Rennie was appointed, but his time had not come. That happened in 1973 and he became the first head not to come from an establishment upper-class background nor attended Eton or Oxbridge. He held the position until he retired.
Peering into the smoke and mirrors that is the intelligence services in the UK, Pearce has uncovered and told us the true story of his uncle. It was a pretty blemish free career apart though it was tarnished at the end after an alleged event when he was the co-ordinator for security and intelligence in Northern Ireland. It was a minor blot on an exemplary career, but it was thought to have been a rogue element in MI5 that caused questions to be raised. It is a fairly balanced account as Pearce has sought to uncover the evidence and report accordingly. With all of these books on spies, it would be equally fascinating to find out the gaps in the account that Pearce was not able to discover. Would be right up your street if you like real life spies.
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