Lead The Way by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

The fantasy story continues with silly over-the-top Army Ranger stuff, 3/5 stars.

Critical Mass (expeditionary force book 10) by Craig Alanson

The series continues with the same tropes and evolving characters. Fun, mindless space opera as technology and politics become more sophisticated. 4/5 Stars.  I plan to finish out the series and go back to the other branch (Mavericks).

Corpus Delecti, Ein Prozess von Juli Zeh

Mein neuer Lieblingsautor präsentiert eine zum Nachdenken anregende Geschichte, die in einer dystopischen Zukunft spielt, in der der Staat die vollständige Kontrolle über die Gesundheit seiner Bürger hat. In dieser Welt gibt es kein Verbrechen, keine Armut und keinen Krieg. Aber es gibt auch keine Freiheit. Jeder Aspekt des Lebens wird vom Staat reguliert, von der Ernährung bis zur Fortpflanzung. Hier sind einige der zum Nachdenken anregenden Aphorismen:

Das Leben ist ein Angebot, das man auch ablehnen kann.

Was bleibt, wenn das Körperliche aufhört? Die Erinnerung an ein Gefühl, das wir mit einem Körper verknüpfen, aber nicht an den Körper selbst.

Die Freiheit, zu leben, wie man will, bedeutet auch die Freiheit, zu sterben, wie man will.

Wem gehört unser Körper? Wer hat das Recht, ihn zu verändern? Und wer hat das Recht, darüber zu entscheiden, wann er zu Ende ist?

Wer sich nicht anpasst, wird ausgegrenzt. Wer sich anpasst, wird unsichtbar.

Die Angst, zu sterben, ist in uns allen. Aber die meisten haben gelernt, sie zu verdrängen.

Es gibt keine objektive Wahrheit. Alles hängt davon ab, aus welchem Blickwinkel man die Dinge betrachtet.

Wer sich der Technologie hingibt, verliert die Kontrolle über sein Leben.

Je mehr wir versuchen, uns vor Schmerz und Tod zu schützen, desto mehr verlieren wir das Gefühl für das Leben selbst.

5/5 Sterne.

The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell

Another wonderfully entertaining book by a great story-teller.  I had seen the Fog of War documentary 20 years ago, and I remember Robert McNamara's comments about Curtis LeMay.  But I did not know about the effectiveness of the  Norden bombsight, or details of all the other characters in the story. Readers must remember that Gladwell is highly opinionated and uses loaded language with great story-telling to slant the facts.  So keep wikipedia handy. 4/5 Stars. The book is very entertaining.

Originator by Joel Shepherd

This book is fantastic!  The politics are great.  The operatic melodrama with great sci-fi awe-and-wonder interstellar struggles are wonderful.  I really enjoyed this one, 5/5 Stars.

All the Light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

It is very surprising that this book is so popular (10 million copies sold) and is critically acclaimed. I am disappointed at how bad the book is. Despite the mechanical craft of the writing, I was not immersed in the lives of the characters or the settings. Most importantly, there is no "there" there. The plot is very weak.  2/5 Stars. Avoid this one.

I hate the Ivy League by Malcolm Gladwell (Audiobook)

I listened to this podcast collection over the weekend; it is very entertaining, despite the vitriolic hate and melodramatic righteous indignation.  If you like Gladwell's style, you will love listening to this one, 4/5 Stars.

Disinformation, Misinformation, Propaganda, Distraction

In 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I started watching Perun's weekly in-depth analysis videos (on Sundays) because the information he presents is frequently intrinsically interesting and broadly applicable to understanding geopolitics from a macroeconomics perspective.  In Perun's 16-Apr-2023 video, Perun cites this paper and a few others that indicate at least 30 million American citizens (about 20% of the population of the USA who vote in elections) reposted the false information created and circulated by the Russian Internet Research Agency troll farm.  The problem with social media appears more complex than my (admittedly naive) understanding. The issue is not only with the troll farms and bots.  The issues are with the delivery, timing, and (Aristotelian) rhetorical quality of the information delivered, as well as the capability of social media consumers to think about the information itself.  We are not adequately educated or trained  in persuasion techniques, skepticism, critical thinking, the history of ideas, or enlightened approaches to understanding our world.  

I have therefore further tempered my (strong opinion) that we should always empower and trust people to make self-interested decisions based on access to all information and should never control access (freedom of the press).  Now I am convinced we need more responsibility for fact checking and journalistic integrity assigned to media and social media entities until we can repair some fundamental issues in our public education and society.  However, I don't think governments or regulation should be involved because all governments and the majority of regulations always make situations worse.  I don't know how to return journalism to its roots of chasing truth, sifting evidence, lack of evidence, and following evidence wherever it leads. And I have no idea how citizens can re-discover our civic duties in a republic.  Mandatory civics lessons in schools probably won't work.

Another problem I perceive is selective secrecy used to dis-inform and misinform. Whistleblowers like Snowden, and other revelations of secret information have changed the objective truth of  a few recent historical events.  There is also an alarming decrease in the release of data (e.g. Pfizer). 

Valkyrie & Critical Mass by Craig Alanson

There are two volumes and two titles, but the first book ends in a ridiculous cliffhanger where everyone (literally) is seconds away from death.  So the two volumes are really one book (with a beginning, a middle, and an end).  And the plot is fun but the reduction in awe-and-wonder mystery of space opera, along with the usual lazy writing deus est machina arbitrary changes to the magic system are grating.  However, like many readers of Alanson's books, I have become comfortable with all the characters and universe of the stories so I am willing to suspend disbelief.  I plan to finish reading all the others and go back to the other series by the author in this universe. 4/5 Stars.

Mitch is on nostr

Public Key:  6d02616805101764c9347c1ad08c46bca7d4f2b88b2705c3a4bd2dba4513c8a3

Interface by Neal Stephenson (1994)

Surprised I missed this one.  I really enjoyed it, 5/5 Stars.  The book is still very relevant today.

Breaking History by Jared Kushner

Tight, well-written political history from an outsider brought into the inner-circle of the whitehouse during the dark times of the "Trump" years.  Fun details of the drama, power struggles, and "leaks" that politicians use to attack each other. The author appears to be a bright person who read a lot of political books to take on his role. This insider's account of the creation of the Abrahamic Accords is worthwhile. 4/5 Stars.

Racing the Light by Robert Crais

Another "impulse borrow" from the library.  Fun read with unexpected plot twists and great characters. 5/5 Stars.