Where Do We Go Now?: A Review of Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No event in recent history has been as disruptive to the world as the COVID-19 pandemic that, as of this writing, is still ongoing. Millions have died and millions more have been infected by this disease. In the United States, the number of deaths from COVID are comparable to the number of combat deaths during the Civil War. And the recession caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns is on a par with the 2008 financial crises that we had only just recovered from. Much has been laid bare by this once in a century catastrophe, but fortunately Mr. Zakaria has written a fabulously book to guide us through this pandemic and look forward beyond our current crisis to see what the world may look like afterwards.

Best known for his book The Post-American World and his Sunday international news show on CNN, Mr. Zakaria is the right man to take a global perspective on this pandemic.  But, rather than disprove the central theses of globalization and relative American decline, Mr. Zakaria argues in this book that the pandemic proves both the necessity of globalization and America’s continued to decline.  He even goes beyond that to reveal how important quality government is to daily living, the need for two-way dialogue between experts and average citizens, and the overwhelming necessity for global cooperation.  All of these “lessons” are very well backed up by statistics and figures from an incredibly wide variety of authoritative sources.  And yet, despite all the overwhelming citations, Mr. Zakaria’s writing style is both engaging and easy-to-follow.  Both experts and laymen should be able to pick up this book and learn something.

The only drawback of this book is how outdated some of the information is.  Published in October 2020, some events have accelerated since then.  The COVID vaccine was still in development, though close to completion, when this book went to press and, of course, the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol had not  happened yet either.  Though this book in hindsight is quite prescient, I do hope Mr. Zakaria does update this book when it comes out in paperback.

Overall, though only slightly out of date, this is one of the best books to examine these current times and try to project into the future.  Though the pandemic has scarred nearly all of us, this book can help us make sense of this current crisis and what is necessary to build back better in the future.  I highly recommend this book to both policy wonks and laymen alike.

View all my reviews

The American Sphinx Speaks: A Review of Thomas Jefferson's Writings from the Library of America

Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters by Thomas Jefferson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia, is one of the more elusive Founding Father’s to pin down. Like Benjamin Franklin, he was a polymath with a deep interest in the many scientific undertakings of his age and was a consummate, though reluctant (at least according to himself), politician. At times he could be seemingly all over the place. What this book of Jefferson’s public papers and letters does is let readers peer more deeply into his mind and soul than the many biographies written of him since his death, but at the cost of creating one extremely long volume.

This book is divided into several parts including: an autobiography he wrote for his children and grandchildren; his “Summary View of the Rights of British America”, which was a prototype of the Declaration of Independence; his famous “Notes on the State of Virginia”; his public papers, letters, addresses and replies; and finally the private letters he wrote throughout his life.  By examining all of these together, one can really get the sense of Jefferson was as a person and where he stood on the key issues of the day.  Though some historians have painted Jefferson as a bit of a political opportunist and an enigma, by allowing Jefferson’s writings to speak for themselves one can see that he was a man of principle and resolve with a keen interest in advancing the sciences.  Not everything Jefferson wrote down or said will jive well with a modern audience, particularly his views on African-Americans and African colonization.  Still, for better or worse, much of America’s identity as a democratic nation comes from Jefferson’s writings and politics.

Though this volume does a great job of letting Jefferson speak for himself, it is WAY too long.  At 1600 pages, this is one of the longest books in the Library of America’s collection and is equal in size to a standard copy of the Bible.  Though I had planned on finishing this in a month, it took me over six weeks to read this book from cover to cover.  There is an opportunity though for Library of America to rectify this by splitting Jefferson’s writings into two volumes, as they have done with other presidents such as John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt.  About half of the book is made up of Jefferson’s autobiography and public addresses and papers.  The other half are Jefferson’s private letters.  Library of America could split this into two volumes between his public and private papers and may even make more room for more of Jefferson’s private letters, which were some of the most interesting and accessible reads.  As it stands right now though, this volume is better used as a reference for lay readers rather than something to be read from cover to cover.

Like other Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson left behind a legacy of liberty, but also of contradictions.  As America continues to strive to live up to its founding ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, looking back on how the founding generation both succeeded and failed at the same endeavor will be immensely educational and hopeful.  Though some may struggle to make it through this volume, there is real value in reading and understanding the thoughts and actions of Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers.  I recommend this book to people interested in learning about Jefferson first hand and are willing to devote time and effort to do so.

View all my reviews

Beautifully Living Between Faith and Science: A Review of Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Contemporary literary fiction is not typically my thing as I find it hard to relate to the plot, characters, and storylines. It also doesn’t help that I have found few very satisfying endings in recent contemporary literary fiction. That said, I was absolutely floored by this book. Ms. Gyasi has written an incredible book about faith, addiction, and grief about an African immigrant family living in the United States.

Set in the present, but also flashing back to the past, this book is told from the first-person perspective of Gifty, a young Ghanaian immigrant to the United States, and her family which includes her mother, father (known as the Chin Chin Man), and her older brother Nana. In the present, Gifty is a neuroscience researcher in California studying addiction in rats, but her story frequently flashes back to her childhood growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, and the evangelical church she and her family grew up in as well as her college days where she first experiences people who do not share her childhood beliefs. If this sounds like another version of the movie “God’s Not Dead,” don’t be afraid. Ms. Gyasi handles Gifty’s struggles over faith and science in an amazing way that doesn’t go for easy answers in favor of one side or the other. As Gifty and her family try to process an unbearable grief, Ms. Gyasi imbues her characters with a great deal of depth, humanity, and compassion. Even the ending, which often gets reduced into head-scratching or saccharine ways in other contemporary literary fiction works I have read, felt perfect for this story. It’s soft, but again does not end in an easy, black-and-white kind of way.

I honestly have nothing against the writing in this book. The characters are great, the story and inner struggles are amazing, and the ending is perfectly soft. Whether you are a fan of contemporary literary fiction or not, I highly recommend this book to you.

View all my reviews

Everything is Better: A Review of Factfulness

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The news seems to always be filled with bad news. Even without the threat of COVID-19, the news is littered with stories of violence, illness, and death. While this may be a more dramatic story, it unfortunately hides the major story of the last 50+ years: that on nearly every indicator (health, education, the economy, etc.) the world has made an extraordinary amount of progress. Enter Hans Rosling and this wonderful book to correct the misperceptions of the affluent "West".

This book could've easily fallen into a trap of pure humanistic triumphalism, but Mr. Rosling has done more than just list a series of good news items that are routinely missed. He also challenges our preconceived notions about why things are terrible in the world and addresses why we think that way too. At the same time, each chapter is filled with strategies about how one can reorient their mind and try to think of the world both positively and rightly.

This is a wonderful book filled with great charts and figures. A few of them have to be walked through by the author, but once you see where the data is pointing after the first few chapters, it is easier to predict where the other sets of data are pointing. What is most invaluable is how Mr. Rosling tries to make his reader drop the typical "West vs. the Rest" or "Us vs. Them" mentality and instead think of the world as on four different economic levels. This allows one to see the incredible progress the world has made in closing so many gaps on so many levels. Today, most people in the world do not live in extreme poverty, though it still exists. And that brings up another great point about this book, which is Mr. Rosling's use of maxims to illustrate his points. One of his most memorable is to think of the state of the world as "bad, but getting better." It's a little more complicated than that though, but I do not want to spoil anything for you.

One thing I will say about this book is that at times he seems to bash on the media a bit too much. Granted, Mr. Rosling does humbly admit that he is probably too harsh on the media, but it still stands out. Also, this is not a book that I would read alone. This is a book that demands to be read and discussed with other people so that you don't just tuck all these facts away into your brain and carry on. The good news about that though is that this is a very accessible book. Both experts and lay readers should have no problem sifting through the data presented in this book.

Whether you are looking for a respite from all of the doom-and-gloom news about COVID-19 or not, this is a book that you should read to better understand just how much better things are in the world today. I highly recommend this book to all readers, not just those interested in current affairs.

View all my reviews

Disaster!: A Review of Midnight at Chernobyl

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the history of man-made disasters, none stick out so much in the popular imagination as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, especially after the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries. This book, critically acclaimed in its own right, may be the definitive account one can read about the disaster today.

After more than a decade of research and interviews, Mr. Higginbotham expands the story beyond just the disaster itself. Instead, he starts with the building of Chernobyl back in the 1970s. Starting from this point, one sees the shoddy construction and corruption that went into the building of the reactor that made it the ticking time bomb that it was. He also presents a much more sympathetic picture of those at the heart of the disaster, particularly Dyatlov, Fomin, and Brukhanov. And he even includes as much of the Soviet scientific community as possible that worked tirelessly to contain the disaster. For fans of the HBO miniseries, some of the most memorable events are in this book, though some parts are not given as much attention. What was truly shocking to read though was just how many actions may have done absolutely nothing to contain the disaster.

What is a through line throughout this book as well as other major natural disaster books I have read is just how hard it can be for human beings to fully grasp what is going on when disaster strikes. Whether you're talking about The Johnstown Flood or The Great Mortality (i.e. the Black Death), it seems as though humans were not always built to fully understand the natural forces that can be unleashed abasing them. It took a while for many leaders in the Soviet Union to fully accept just how big of a disaster Chernobyl was, and Mr. Higginbotham does a good job of capturing that. While I would say that some parts can get technical and overwhelming, this is a shocking and enjoyable account of this pivotal moment in world history. As world leaders once again begin to ponder nuclear power's place in the world's energy market, books like this will be key to understanding just what the stakes are.

View all my reviews

Plague!: A Review of The Great Mortality

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John     Kelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Compelling Melding of Science & History, with Lessons for Today

As I sit writing this review, the world is once again ravaged by disease (COVID-19) that is killing thousands around the globe and forcing millions of others to shelter in their homes and pray that this illness would pass over them. So, to say that reading this book about the Black Death, the plague that ravaged Europe
in the middle of the fourteenth century, is timely would be an understatement. The past can be both teacher and guide in times like these.

One of the great things about this book is how it is not just a recounting of death, though there is plenty of that to be had in these pages. The first few chapters and the afterword are devoted to understanding just what kind of a disease the Plague was. So, on top of reading a thorough history about how the Plague decimated the Eurasian continent, you will have better scientific understanding of the disease itself, where it originated from, and how it spread and killed.

Of course, Mr. Kelly uses the majority of his narrative to describe the when and where the Plague struck Europe and how it left a wake of human destruction in its path. Through the use of the best statistical information available as well as the numerous contemporary accounts that were written at the time, Mr. Kelly’s history is both incredibly thorough and accessible. There is something for both the hardcore historian and the layman to like in this book. At times, it even seems a little excessive. Mr. Kelly devotes two chapters to the Plague’s rampage through England when probably one chapter would have done.

Mr. Kelly does not restrict his history to the disease’s destruction. Mr. Kelly also points out how the Black Death affected society in several negative ways. One of the most horrendous and heartbreaking portions of this book is about the number of pogroms committed against Europe’s Jewish populations that would presage the Holocaust in a number of horrifying ways. Just as COVID-19 is unleashing a wave of anti-Asian American bigotry right now, so too did the Plague unleash a wave of virulent and violent anti-semitism, though the currently bigotry against Asian-Americans is nowhere near as violent as the Plague pogroms were.

By the time the Plague dissipated, the tinder of overpopulation, resource strain, climate change and religious & intellectual stagnation that defined Europe in the years prior to its arrival would all be burned away, paving the way for the Renaissance, the Reformation, and modern Europe. By chronicling this critical period in world history, Mr. Kelly has given us a wonder picture of both the medieval era and the calamitous disease that signaled the beginning of its end. It also holds up a mirror to our own time and warns us that virulent disease, if left unchecked, can easily devastate human civilization. Whether you are living in a time of disease yourself or not, you owe it to yourself to read this book about one of the greatest natural disasters to befall humanity.

View all my reviews

Social Media is a Battlefield: Review of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When it first launched, Facebook and other social media was seen as a cool, if benign, piece of technology that the internet had made possible. After the the 2016 election, the public was made aware of how social media could be used as a tool to manipulate an election, a very unsettling development. However, as the authors of this jaw-dropping book make clear, social media is not just some tool to keep in touch with friends any more. Social media is a new battlefront in both cyber warfare and traditional warfare. What happens online cannot only sway elections, it can also get people killed.

Starting with an introduction noting the different and unique ways social media has been used in recent years, such as ISIS's use of it as they were invading Mosul and Donald Trump's use of Twitter before and during his presidency, the authors show how social media has become a new battlefield. And what happens online can have deadly consequences in real life. One of the more shocking stories they relate is how gangs in America have been "cyber tagging" people's online profiles and then killing those people in real life. Online beefs are leading to bodies in the street in America and elsewhere. There are many more stories they relate about the dangers of this new battlefield, but I do not want to spoil this book any more than I have.

The book is not all bleak though. The authors note how cyber activists and the military have been using social media to combat terrorism and gather intelligence. One uplifting story is about how cyber activists combed social media to determine that it was Russian forces that shot down MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. So, for the old internet enthusiasts, there is hope that the internet can still be used for more than nefarious purposes.

But the authors never want the readers to forget that the internet and social media have left their adolescence and it is up to us and our elected leaders to determine what the internet will be moving forward. Will it continue to be the free-wheeling wild west sphere it has been, or will regulation become necessary? That's what the debate is at this point. For anyone who is concerned about the power of social media and its misuse by bad actors and authoritarian regimes, this is the first book you should read.

View all my reviews

"What a Wonderful World This Could Be": A Review of Red Mars

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mars has had a particular hold on the imagination for centuries, almost as long as the Moon. This book takes our imaginings of Mars to a new level as Mr. Robinson examines what it would be like for the first colonists on Mars, how would their efforts affect Mars, and how Mars would affect the people and Earth too.

Starting with the journey of the first 100 colonists to Mars, this book devotes different parts to different key players in the story in a revolving limited third-person perspective. Because you follow a character's perspective for quite awhile, you are able to gain an appreciation for all of the characters from different angles. Characters you may have liked during the beginning become multi-layered as you see them from another's perspective.

But the really great thing about this book is how Mr. Robinson explores to just how terraforming the planet Mars could work, but how the process of terraforming Mars would change the people involved, even change the planet Earth and its politics ban home. It is an incredibly multi-layered examination of space exploration and colonization that is not found in other books out there.

This is not a perfect book though. For example, it takes Mr. Robinson a long time to really build up some momentum. The first third of the book or so takes a while to set up what will ultimately become the main conflict of the book. But once the stage is set, everything comes together very well. Another problem with this book is some of Mr. Robinson's characterizations of female protagonists, particularly the character Maya. Though she is one of the first hundred, her main function in the story appears to be to bounce between relationships with two of the key male protagonists, John Boone and Frank Chalmers. When she is with one, she wants to be with the other and vice versa. And, aside from acting as some kind of leader in the latter part of the book, her main function appears to be mostly in her sex appeal, not as full character in her own right.

Despite these problems, this book is a great sci-fi novel that paved the way for other similar sci-fi novels to look beyond just simple exploration of the stars and imagine colonizing them as well. Though it takes a long time to build momentum and Mr. Robinson's characterization of his female protagonists is a bit problematic, this is a classic of modern sci-fi that I would recommend to anyone who is interested.

View all my reviews

A Renaissance Man: A Review of Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the great geniuses of the human race. A polymath, Da Vinci's skill with the brush was beyond dispute, but he also was vastly curious about a number of different areas beyond art. Indeed, his examinations of different areas of scientific inquiry would prefigure the scientific method of Bacon and Galileo and some of his personal scientific discoveries would not be discovered by the wider world for centuries later. So, what made Da Vinci tick? Mr. Isaacson, biographer of other geniuses such as Einstein, Ben Franklin, and Steve Jobs, sets out to do just that and draw lessons for the reader in this biography.

Mr. Isaacson starts and ends this book with an appreciation of Da Vinci's wide ranging curiosities, which were vast. Some of them, as Mr. Isaacson points out, has almost nothing to do with art or... anything of practical use. Da Vinci investigated many of them to satiate his own curiosity. It's one of Da Vinci's qualities that make him both admirable and frustrating. Mr. Isaacson catalogues nearly all of Da Vinci's known works in both art and his personal notebooks. He notes that Da Vinci could easily be driven to distraction, so much so that many of his artworks were left unfinished. Not only that, but all of his personal discoveries that prefigured their later discoveries were never published. Thus, I often put down this book thinking about just how frustrating Da Vinci must have been as a person in real life.

However, if you're looking for a traditional biography that records as many details of Da Vinci's day-to-day life as possible, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. Oftentimes, Mr. Isaacson forgoes details about Da Vinci's life in favor of an appraisal of Da Vinci's art and inner mind as expressed in his personal notebooks. Indeed, the book follows a pattern of "Check out cool thing A Da Vinci did... Checkout cool thing B Da Vinci did... but they were never finished." Thus, compared to his Steve Jobs biography, this book is far less critical of Da Vinci the man. Walking away from this book, I appreciate Da Vinci's art and mind more, but don't feel like I know more about the man himself.

I also felt like Mr. Isaacson was less than objective in his appraisals. As I said before, Mr. Isaacson spends a lot of time analyzing and appreciating Da Vinci's art and he has almost nothing but praise for it. Indeed, he seems to appreciate Da Vinci's art so much that he gives little love to other contemporary Renaissance artists. This is especially true of Michelangelo, whom Mr. Isaacson compares to Da Vinci a couple of times and even writes a good chapter of the only known time the two worked on an artwork together, or rather against each other. Mr. Isaacson doesn't give much love to Michelangelo and some of his appraisals of him border on hostile. I doubt anyone who has seen both these masters' works would say one was better than the other, but Mr. Isaacson does. As someone who appreciates Michelangelo's art just as much as Leonardo's, Mr. Isaacson's disdain for him and other Renaissance artists is a little jarring.

Da Vinci was just as brilliant as he was frustrating, and Mr. Isaacson has done a commendable job bringing him and his art to life. The lessons that Mr. Isaacson draws from Da Vinci's life in the conclusion are also wise and prudent. You may not come away from this book knowing about Da Vinci's life in detail, but you will gain a better appreciation of his work and astounding mind. Don't be surprised if you find yourself trying to imitate some of Da Vinci's habits in your life after reading this book.


View all my reviews

The Physics Declare: The Reflections on Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Yesterday I went on a hike on a local trail with my girlfriend and her cousin.  One of the things I have always liked about hiking is seeing the beauties of nature.  There is a beauty in the trees, the rivers, and the sky above you that is difficult to appreciate at any other time.  Perhaps, it is easier for me to appreciate natural beauty when it is right in front of me than when I just hear about it.

However, there is a beauty in nature that is impossible to see with the naked eye.  There just some things in our world that can only be seen or explained by the equations of science.  Gravity can only be explained through Albert Einstein's general and special theories of relativity.  Atoms and quarks can only be made out with the most sensitive scientific instruments.  But can there be found the same beauty in these equations as there are in looking at a beautiful sunset or a wild forest?

Carlo Rovelli seems to think so in this very short book, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.  Throughout his seven little lessons, Prof. Rovelli doesn't put forward too many equations for our current understanding of the universe.  Rather, he explains it in beautiful prose.  Indeed, though the science in this book went over my head, Prof. Rovelli's passion is evident throughout.  Not only does he see the universe as beautiful, but he sees the science and mathematics behind our understanding of the universe as beautiful too.

Therefore, I take away from reading this book that science and mathematics itself can be an art as much as any painting or work of literature.  The universe is beautiful, whether we see a beautiful picture of a rainforest, photographs of the cosmos from the Hubble telescope, or in the equations written on dry-erase boards by scientists.

Thanks for reading today's short reflections.  Next Monday, I will be reflecting on SPQR by Mary Beard.  Until next week, happy reading!

Tell All Your Friends, but for God's Sake, Don't Freak Them Out!: The Lessons of Derek Thompson's "Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction"

There is a common complaint that most if not all of us have made after seeing a movie, watching a TV show, or listening to a piece of music: "How did this become popular?"  I know I have that feeling every time I come across something having to do with Pokémon. Even as a kid I did not understand its appeal.  Nor do I understand how its appeal can spawn one of the most recent and most hyped fads in recent memory, the Pokémon Go! mobile app that swept through the country last year.  But could there be something to popularity?  Is there a secret recipe for making a hit in art & media today?  

Enter Derek Thompson's book, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction published by Penguin Press in 2017.   According to the biography on this book's jacket flap, Mr. Thompson "is a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine, where he writes about economics and the media."  He's also been named on Inc. magazine's and Forbes's 30 under 30 lists, so clearly this author is someone to watch in the future.  This book is built upon several articles Mr. Thompson wrote for The Atlantic in 2013, 2014, and 2016.  Mr. Thompson's premise is what was just described above: how does a hit become a hit?  What is the secret sauce?

I would recommend you read this book for yourself to find out, but here are some of the key insights I took away from reading this book this past week.