(Drivebycuriosity) - I enjoy reading, there is so much to learn, books are often entertaining and they offer an escape from the daily treadmill. Last year I enjoyed some interesting books - covering history, exotic, alternate futures, economics & more - which I want to share with you (but without spoilers):
Fiction:
My book of the year was "
Hunters in the Dark" by
Lawrence Osborne. The novel takes the reader onto a journey into the dark sides of South
East Asia. The plot follows Robert, a young Englishman and gambler "who
had the aura of poverty about him". He visits Cambodia, described as a
"tough Paradise", an exotic & dangerous country with a still fresh
sinister history. Robert is a somewhat naive and innocent guy and
driven by curiosity & by chance - a character which reminds me
faintly of the German fairy tale "Hans im Glück (Hans in Luck)". His
purity & carelessness lead him onto quicksand. It`s partly a travel novel, a crime story, a romance and
maybe a fairy tale. Osborne combines the sharp psychological & analytical skills of
Vladimir Nabokov with Joseph Conrad`s intense descriptions of tropical
adventures. The author is a great stylist and immerses the reader deep
into the steamy & lush environment of Cambodia. I indulged into sentences like
"the long puddles brightened for a moment then grew dim, and the
electricity which rippled through the air drew the eye upward to the
slow motion mushroom cloud and its impending crisis, which would not
arrive for hours, maybe not even till the next day". I almost could
sense what the characters saw, felt, & tasted. Osborne also
describes in an amusing way how an undiscerning Westerner flounders with
an unknown culture & the Cambodian way of thinking.
"
The Lady Matador`s Hotel" by
Christina Garcia is a short novel (228 pages ) set in an unnamed Central American capital. The author interwove six separate story lines about very different people who all stay in the same hotel: A Japanese-Mexican-American matadora (female bullfighter); an ex-guerrilla now working as a waitress in the hotel coffee shop; a Korean manufacturer with an underage mistress; an international adoption lawyer ; a colonel who committed atrocities during his country’s long civil war; and an ex-Cuban poet who had arrived with his American wife to adopt a local infant. Garcia invented funny & hilarious scenes but also tragic & violent episodes. I indulged into Garcia´s elegant but sarcastic style & enjoyed her sharp & humorous observations. The author combines sharp analytical skills like Vladimir Nabokov with sensual descriptions à la Anaïs Nin.
"Wolf on a String" by
Benjamin Black is set in wintry cold Prague around the year 1600. The city was the capital of Bohemia and the seat of the court of Rudolf II, the emperor of Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the center of the Western world. The story is told in first person by a young intellectual, who had just arrived from Würzburg (Germany). The protagonist gets drawn into a vortex of murder and intrigues at the imperial court. The novel combines history with a whodunit story. Black puts the reader on a trip back in time and immerses him into a bleak, cold & precarious world. Life was very fragile & hazardous then and the protagonist´s fate depends on the arbitrariness of the more powerful. The novel would be the perfect dystopian novel if it wouldn´t be set in the past, our real history. I indulged into Black`s style, his amusing descriptions of the Emperor, who was a troubled leader, the various persons at his court and his portrait of Prague. The author´s sharp psychological & analytical insights and his sarcastic remarks about sex, architecture, politics & more remind me of Vladimir Nabokov.
"The Year`s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection“ edited by
Gardner Dozois. These compilations have been the market leader for 3 decades and offer a kaleidoscope of plots, ideas and styles. Dozois caters to a lot of different tastes and shows the state of art in science fiction. This edition harvests the science fiction year 2016 ( 704 pages). As usual Dozois started with a lengthy summation of important events, trends and publications in the world of science of fiction in 2016. For each story the author wrote an introduction where he outlines the background and most important works of the presented author. The collection of 39 stories by different authors has something for almost everyone. A lot stories deal with AIs, for me the most important science fiction topic today. My favorite is "Mika Model" by Paolo Bacigalupi. A female sex robot turns herself in. She had murdered her owner, how should the cops deal with that? I also enjoyed "They Have All One Breath" by Karl Bunker. The world is more and more managed by benevolent AIs who seem to have best intention. They use nano technology and other technologies to make everything better, or don´t they? Derek Künsken`s "Flight From the Ages" is a weird & psychedelic story about AIs, spaceship wormholes & more - post cyber-punk? The rest of the stories
may cater different tastes.
"Best of Gregory Benford", edited by the late David Hartford (amazon). Gregory Benford belongs to my favorite authors. He writes hard science fiction in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke and mingles fascinating tales with sciences like physics, logic, evolution, biology, chemistry & information technology. The logical, analytical and scientific style of his novels & short stories shows that the author also has a career as astrophysicist on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine The anthology again proves Benford´s outstanding talents as a story teller & science interpreter. The content - 38 stories - is sorted in a chronological order. So you also can observe the evolution of a remarkable science fiction writer. The collection covers a spectrum of sub-genres like space opera, first alien contact, time travel, wormholes, genetic engineering, bio-terrorism, artificial intelligence (AI) and many more. Benford created strange & exotic worlds based on logic and evolution:"thought experiments beyond the real and into the possible". But he not only writes as a scientist, he also has a taste for language and literary ambitions. A visit of India starts with "the ripe, fleshy aroma of a continent enfolded him, swarming up his nostrils and soaking his lungs with sullen spice". Contrary to the usually prudish genre - often written for young adults - his stories also have some well expressed erotic parts. There are a lot stories I plan to reread sometimes, especially the novella "Matters End" (1989), set in a near future India and combines quantum physics with philosophy; "A Desperate Calculus" (1995) a near future thriller set in the tropics about environmentalists; "A Dance to strange Music" (1998) scientists are exploring a strange planet, lots of plausible physics, chemistry & evolution science. T
"
Anomaly" by
Peter Cawdron is set in contemporary New York which is confronted with a strange phenomena - the anomaly. The novel is speculative but based on logic and on physics, chemistry, biology, evolution & other sciences. In the beginning it reads like a young adult novel because the plot focuses on an elementary school teacher who is explaining the observed phenomena to scientists & the media. But this idea gives the author the tools to describe what´s happening in an almost scientific way - and he does really a good job with that. Even though many strange things are happening the plot stays very plausible. I enjoyed Cawdron`s clear style, the dramatic & thrilling events and a developing romance.
"Grain of Truth" by
the Polish author
Zygmunt Miloszewski is set in Poland and describes a murder investigations conducted by the
prosecutor "Szacki". The author follows the tradition of Scandinavian
thrillers which combine political & social issues with thrilling
plots, often very sinister, but Miloszewski has an unique approach. It
is a who-dunnit-story with an elaborate & pivoting plot
which reminded me of the British classics. The novel is spiced with psychological insights & sarcastic remarks about
society, sex, history, architecture, politics & more - entertaining, intelligent &
intellectual satisfying.
I reread
"Dr. No". This novel was used for the first of the James Bond movies sand established the
brand. The plot is set on Jamaica, where Fleming owned a mansion, and on a
nearby island. "Dr. No" is a tropical adventure story and an exotic
thriller with a grain of erotics. Ian Fleming is an underrated writer. He was an
analytical observer of
the world and spiced his stories with humor and intelligent &
analytical musings. The novel reminds a bit of Joseph
Conrad´s tropical adventures. Fleming immerses the reader into a lush
Caribbean setting which is alluring but also dangerous. I enjoyed his
style and the descriptions of the environment & scenery. The action scenes are
intense and meticulously developed and he spiced the novel with
geographic knowledge, a bit economics &
biology.
Nonfiction:
My nonfiction book of the year was the autobiography "
Margaret Thatcher: Downing Street Years" (832 pages). The book contains almost no personal information (except some mentions about teeth pain) instead she presents her insights about the political & economical developments during her a decade long reign. Europe´s many crises - and the exit of UK (Brexit) - show that she was right in many points. The Thatcher revolution, the overhaul of the U.K. economy, is still a role model. I enjoyed her precise, clear and economical style. The former UK prime
minister possessed a strong analytical mind and an impressive
understanding about economics. Her remarks focus on two main topics: The British economy & the
European Community. When she took Britain`s steering wheel she was
confronted with a lot of economic challenges. UK`s economy was in a
mess: Inflation was speeding up, unemployment was climbing, public
sector pay was "out of control", public spending was rising as revenues
fell, and the domestic problems were aggravated by rising oil prices
which drove the world into a recession. Thatcher implemented a series of
reforms to brake the vicious spiral and implemented tax cuts &
deregulation. But she also had to curb the power of the trade unions
which had a tradition to coerce economy & politics by many strikes.
A large part of the books describes her struggle against the European
centralism. Over her whole regency she fought against a "standardized
Europe"and insisted "that the institutions of the European Community are
managed so that they increase the liberty of the individuals throughout
the continent". She criticized the tendency in the community to be
"interventionist, protectionist, and ultimately federalist" and she
condemned the protectionist policy to impede imports with high taxes
and regulations.
What did I learn from the biography
"Churchill: A Life" by Martin Gilbert (1077 pages)? Winston Churchill was not only an outstanding statesman - he also was a writer (who received the Nobel Price in Literature in 1953), painter, adventurer, innovator, warrior and much more. Churchill was certainly privileged as the son of a Lord who was a high
ranking politician and member of an aristocratic family with plenty of
money and connections to the highest places. But he could have wasted it
all, as many other privileged did. Instead he dealt well with his birth
advantages and made even much more of his assets, as this biography
shows. Churchill had a lot contemporary admirers, but enemies, enviers &
skeptics as well. One of his political colleagues - and skeptics -, UK
Prime minister Stanley Baldwin, said "that when Winston was born lots of
fairies
swooped down on his cradle with gifts - imagination, eloquence,
industry, ability - and then came a fairy who said ´No one person has a
right to so many gifts`, picked him up and gave him such a shake and
twist that with all these gifts he was denied judgement and wisdom. And
that is why while we delight to listen to him in this House we do not
take his advice". Churchill himself said once: "We are all worms, but I
do believe I am a glow-worm". Churchill was a dare devil and took high risks in war & in peace
times. He
started a career in the Conservative Party (Tories) following the
traditions of his family and class but he criticized the party leaders
for the brutality of the British army in the war against the South
African opponents (Buers) and their negligence of the the extreme
poverty in the country. He was also a proponent for social reforms
including unemployment insurance and State-aided pensions for widows and
orphans.
Churchill "defended the economic merits of Free Trade and open
competition in the commercial markets of the world". Churchill said, "I would look to improvements in scientific and technical
education, to light taxation, to pacific policy and to a stable and
orderly state of society as the best means of stimulating the commercial
prosperity of our country".
I gained also from another biography "
The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough who tells painstakingly why the brothers did succeed while others had failed. He draws a portrait of scientific explorers who had stubbornly strong beliefs into themselves and who benefited from a solid intellectual education. He describes the various challenges they met, how they had to struggle with nature, technical issues and an ignorant & skeptical social environment. The books portraits a milestone of history and it helps to understand how the US evolved into the largest economy of the world.
"
The Path Between the Seas - The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914", again by David McCullogh reports painstakingly over more than 600 pages how this feat was done . The author also characterized the people who participated and described their fate. He tried “to present the problems they faced as they saw them, to perceive what they did not know as well as what they did know at given time”. Surprisingly the project wasn´t started by the Americans, who benefit
most from the canal, but by the French. French citizens initiated,
planned, organized & financed the canal and they tried to build it,
with the help of hired foreigners, mostly blacks from the Caribbean. It is very impressive how optimistic the canal organizers and investors
had been. They showed a strong believe into the future, many were
apparently influenced by the science fiction pioneer Jules Verne, who
created positive visions. The canal investors took high risks and put
their money onto a project which didn`t promise any profit for the near
term, quite opposite to the behavior these days, when hedge funds and
others demand instant gratification. McCullogh describes also the technical details and the accomplishments in engineering necessary for constructing the canal and the locks. He summarizes that the expenditures since 1904 totaled $352 million (including $10 million paid to Panama and the $40 million paid to the French company) this was more than four times what the Suez canal had cost. Taken together, the French and American expenditures came to about $639 million. According to hospital record, the canal also cost 5,609 lives from disease and accidents since 1904. He concludes “If the deaths incurred during the French era are included, the total price in human life may have been as high as twenty-five thousand, or five hundred lives for every mile of the canal” .
P.S. For illustration I chose an image of Trinity College Library, Dublin, build 1732
