The Blue Age by Gregg Easterbrook (2021)

Tuesday Morning Quarterback (TMQ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuesday_Morning_Quarterbackwas my favorite weekly column from 2000 until it ended in 2017.  Along with millions of other fans, I was sorely disappointed when Easterbrook stopped writing the column.  Longing for his wit, insights, and aphorisms,  I read two of Easterbrook's books, Sonic Boom and The Here and Now. I disliked both books.  Blue Age is much better!  I recommend this one.  4/5 Stars.

The Design of Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann (2017)

Since this book was published, a large number of people have spoken to me about it, the topics covered, how great the book is, and why we should all read and discuss how it applies to our work. Someone had me help her organize a book club to discuss only this one book and how it applies to our projects.  I am very embarrassed that I did not read it until this year, The book really is as fantastic as everyone said.   Now I understand all those commit messages and code comments such as "DDIA page 132." I cannot recommend this book enough.  5/5 Stars. The book exceeded my high expectations. 5/5 Stars. 

Death Trap by Craig Alanson (2019)

Taking a break from deep, dense fact books that are popping up in my stack, I took a break with some light reading and went back to read the last two Craig Alanson books in his "Expeditionary Force" universe.  I think one should read them in publication order because the last two books in the main "Expeditionary Force" series have some spoilers and assume you have read these two "Mavericks" books.  But this one was still fun; the characters and dialogue are in many ways funnier than the main series. 4/5 Stars. Entertaining.

Where the Ships Die by William C Dietz (2014)

I was looking for the 1996 book and got this one.  This 2014 book is terrible. 1/5 Stars.

Noise: A flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass Sunstein (2021)

Noise for the purpose of this book is defined as "undesirable variability in judgments of the same problem."  Kahneman and team focus on the statistics of the phenomenon and are careful to separate this concept of "noise" from cognitive bias. The book covers many motivating institutions in human resources, government, and businesses such as insurance underwriting. Kahneman's  Thinking Fast & Slow is one of my top five life-changing books so I had high expectations when I started reading.  The book covers similar themes to Taleb's Fooled by Randomness, but with much more rigor, precision, and depth. I really loved how the authors brought in all of the opposing points of view and criticisms, explained why some of them have merit and must be considered, and why others should yield to their approach of rigorous statistics and measured outcomes. The book is a little bit long but extremely worthwhile, 5/5 Stars.  Highly recommended.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2010)

I don't remember how I met Corey; I think it was in the late 1980s.  I think I cited him in my PhD thesis. Now that I have entered the anti-malware industry, I picked this book up at the library and flew through the story quickly.  As others have commented, the plot is intentionally melodramatic and exaggerated.  The characters are not as believable or richly textured as I would have liked, but it was still fun, 3/5 Stars.

Stones of Significance by David Brin (1998)

My former-neighbor, the physicist and science fiction author David Brin has published a lot of prescient fiction and futurism essays that have eerily anticipated geopolitics, society, and scientific discoveries.  In this short story, that I first read in 1998 in Analog magazine, the author looks at layers of post-singularity human + AI hybrid entities and their approaches to the metaphysics of their own existence. I revisited the story because, as the author points out, it is very relevant to our discussions of AI regulation.  The story is short and a lot of fun, 5/5 Stars.

Call for the Dead by John Le Carré (1961)

I thought I had read all of Le Carré's books, including the posthumously published Silverview. I could not remember this one when I saw it in the library and sure enough, I had missed it.  The author and his main character are both younger, more passionate and energetic in this book than the later, cerebral novels.  It's a fun1950's cold war spy thriller, 4/5 Stars.

Angriff auf die Freiheit von Juli Zeh und Ilija Trojanow (2009)

Ich lese alle älteren Bücher von Juli Zeh, während ich in der Bibliothek auf der Warteliste auf die neueren Bücher warte, bis ich an der Reihe bin. Diese Schimpftirade gegen die Zerstörung der Privatsphäre und anderer Menschenrechte aus dem Jahr 2009 ist heute relevanter als zu der Zeit, als sie geschrieben wurde. Die Argumente sind gut formuliert und gut präsentiert. Fast jeder von uns kann mehr tun, um seine Privatsphäre und die Menschenrechte zu schützen. 4/5 Sterne, empfehlenswert.

Gauntlet Wars by Aer-ki Jyr (2022)

Terrible, 1/5 Stars. Stay away.

Gateways edited by Elizabeth Hull (2011)

I enjoyed all of the tributes from the golden age authors as well as a significant number of stories from this collection.  About half of the stories were good; the other half fell flat. Still worth the time; 3/5 Stars.