"The Simple Living Handbook: Discover the Joy of a De-cluttered Life" by Lorilee Lippincott

 

Publisher:  Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright:  2013

ISBN:  9781620876299

This was an interesting book to read, however it wasn't what I expected. This title itself is somewhat misleading, as the subtitle is more accurately describes what the book is about. I was under the impression that it was a book on living simply, but it turned out to essentially a book on how to get rid of stuff you no longer want to keep.

While the information is valuable especially to those people in the world who have a lot of stuff, I think for the most part the information presented is what I would consider common-sense. For course if you are one of those people with a lot of stuff that you don't want to get rid of etc., then this is quite likely the book you need, but I don't fit into that category.

Still even with this drawback it was well written, and I'm sure will be quite helpful to many people out there.

"Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke

 

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9781635575637

This was a rather different book than I typically read. It is classified as "fantasy" however it is not like any other fantasy novel I've read, so I believe it would have been more accurate to list it as something like a psychological mystery, but that is my opinion.

"Piranesi" is the name given to a young man, who is the protagonist of the story, by the only other human he knows of, and whom he refers to as "The Other". 

Piranesi lives in what turns out to be a labyrinth, and with the exceptions of the semi-regular visits by "The Other" is by himself. He is surrounded in the hundreds of rooms that make up the labyrinth by thousands of statues of various sizes and themes that all represent at least to him scenes from the world he lives in.

Piranesi has lived in this labyrinth for many years, And has documented his life in a series of journals. The book is formatted as if you're reading his journals, and this makes it a rather unique read.

It was definitely an interesting story, but not one that I would normally have read. I cannot remember how I heard about the story, but I'm quite glad I read it.

I hope you enjoy it.

"End Times: A Brief Guide t the End of the World" by Bryan Walsh

 

Publisher: Hachete Books

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9780316449601

This books was an extremely interesting read, that covered a lot of territory and gives the reader a lot to think about. The author is a former correspondents, reporter and editor for Time Magazine. He reported on from over 20 countries on science and environmentally focused stories such as SARS, global warming, extinction and other topics.

The book itself takes a look at eight different scenarios that could end the world, or at least the world as we know it. The first is an asteroid collision such as what wiped out the dinosaurs, and which will happen again eventually. The second is the supereruption of a volcano such as the explosion of what is now the island of Sumatra when the mountain called Toba exploded some 74 thousand years ago and essentially turned day into night for many parts of the world. The ash of Toba was found in areas such as the Indian Ocean, China Sea, Arabian Sea, Lake Malawi in Africa.

The third potential disaster is from nuclear armaments and how some rather unstable world leaders could easily be poised to commit horrendous acts. (Looking at you Putin!) Climate change is the next topic discussed, and even though a significant number of people in the world turn a blind-eye towards the facts, it seems pretty obvious to most that it is. Disease is the next topic, and discusses world-wide epidemics. It seems rather ominous that when this book predicts an epidemic of some kind in the near future when it was written, and that the world is now recovering from one. This topic merges quite well into the next one which is biotechnology, and discusses the possibility that a disease could actually be engineered.

Chapter five deals with Artificial Intelligence and what we could experience in the future if we keep increasing our computer capacity etc. at its current rates. It speculates on what would need to happen, and what the consequences might be, even though it likely won't be anything like "The Terminator" franchise. Personally I believe a better comparison would be the 1970 movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project".

Chapter six deals with Aliens, and while it doesn't deal too much with what might happen if they were to show up, it does go into a fair amount of detail with regard to our searching for them, including the history of SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) and it's off-shoot METI (Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). 

The final chapter deals with the aftermath of a potential catastrophe and how we might recover. It too goes into a fair bit of detail with regard to how people believe things will unfold and the measures they take to prepare for them. I (and most others) have heard about the survivalist movement, but I wasn't aware there was such a thing as "Doomsday Preppers" who actively plan their lives around the end of the world.

This book, while it was somewhat depressing a couple of times, is a definite eye-opener to how fragile the existence of humans, and all other life on Earth actually is. The fact that asteroids have collided with this planet, super eruptions have occurred, that we have been close to a possible nuclear confrontation in the past and might be again if certain world leaders don't wake up. That we are going through climate change right now, and are hopefully coming close to the end of a world-wide epidemic doesn't bode too well for the survival of our species. After all this only leaves AI and Aliens, which is kind of worrisome.

This is the type of book we need to see more of. Highly recommended.

"Dracula" by Bram Stoker (1847-1912)

 

Publisher: Nelson DoubledayBook reviews
Copyright: 1982
ISBN: 9780307593856

It has been a long time since I read this novel,so I figured that it would be a good idea to read it once again. What urged me to do this was that I recently watched "Bram Storker's Dracula" by Francis Ford Coppola and wanted to see how close he got to the actual story. Surprisingly he was fairly close, but as is typical in Hollywood he made a few rather strange changes such as making Renfield a coworker of Johathan Harker, and making Mina Harker want to become a vampire, (neither of which were in the book). Mind you he didn't make anywhere near as many changes as some other directors (such as making Renfield the servant/butler to Dracula), which I commend him for. I also just found out that there was another movie made in 2021 directed by Jonny Campbell, so I'm anxious to see what he did / didn't do. While I am on the subject of movies there are three excellent versions "Love, At First Bite" starring George Hamilton & Susan St. James, "Dracula, Dead & Loving It" starring Leslie Neilson & Mel Brooks, and "Nightlife" starring Ben Cross & Maryam d'Abo. Both "Love, At First Bite" & "Nightlife" are modern retellings of the story, while "Dracula, Dead and Loving It" is a comedy in the classic Mel Brooke's style. "Love, At First Bite" is also a comedy.

I'm relatively sure that most people know the general tale of Dracula, either from the various movies, or other media so I won't review it here, but for those of you who haven't read the actual story, please do so before you watch any of the movies (if you can), so you can get the uncorrupted version of Mr. Stoker's famous novel. It is well worth the read. If you haven't read it then the format may be somewhat different from what you expect as it is written in the form of a series of diary entries from the various characters. This in no way detracts from the story, and in fact enhances it as you are brought right into the narration.

A delight to read, highly recommended.

"Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour" by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott

 

Publisher:  Princeton University Press

Copyright:  2016

ISBN: 9780691157245

This was an amazing book that gives the reader an in depth look into the science of astrophysics. The three authors have written their sections in a clear and concise way that explain the concepts very well, and easily gets the message across.

In the first part  Dr. Tyson takes the reader on a study of the stars, planets and life in ten chapters that deal with a number of important concepts including explanations of the size and scale of the universe, Newton's Laws,  The lives and deaths of star, the classification of solar objects (e.g., Pluto) and the search for life.  Dr. Strauss then takes over and takes about galaxies in six chapters which include the Milky Way itself, our place in the universe, quasars, black holes, etc. Then Dr. Gott adds eight chapters in the third section that talk about both the general and special theories of relativity, black holes, string theory, the big bang, etc.

This was an extremely interesting  book to read, and even though it is a few years old at this time the information is still very relevant and should be of great value to anybody interested in astronomy or astrophysics. In addition, it is easily readable, and I believe would be a great addition to all school libraries, and would also make an excellent introductory text for first year university students.

"The Guns of Navarone" by Alistair MacLean (1922-1987)

 

Publisher: Collins

Copyright: 1957

ISBN: None

This is a novel that I have had in my collection for many years but for some reason haven't read for a long time. I decided to do so however after watching the 1961 movie with Gregory Peck, David Niven, Gia Scala, Anthony Quinn. I was pleased to note that they stayed quite close to the book. They of course made a few changes such as casting two women as the Greek contacts on the island of Navarone, but aside from this Hollywood was quite faithful to the story.

For those who are interested the island of Navarone is fictional, but the overall storyline is based on the history of the war in the Ægean Islands of Greece. 

The story itself revolves around a top secret commando raid, that is essentially a last ditch effort to silence the two guns on the island of Navarone, and thereby allow the Allied forces to rescue some 1200 soldiers stranded on a nearby island. The detail in this story is fantastic and it is obvious that Alastair MacLean knew his subject well and his skill at writing easily takes the reader right into the heart of the story.

An excellent read.

"The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything" by Michio Kaku

 

Publisher: double day, New York

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9780385542746

This is an extremely interesting book, that would make a fantastic introduction to high school or first year university students into the history of physics. In reading this book I have learned a lot that I probably should've learned many years ago when I took physics. Mind you that was a long time ago, and since then the strides that have been made in the field have been huge.

Dr. Kaku takes us on a journey through the history of physics by explaining the idea of unification, Einstein's search for unification, the rise of the quantum theory, a possible theory for almost everything, dark matter and dark energy, and finally string theory.

Throughout the book he explains the concepts extremely well and in plain language that virtually everybody will understand.

I haven't read any of his books previous to this but will definitely be on the lookout for the other nine he has written in the last few years.

"Phoenix without Ashes" by Edward Bryant (1945-2017) & Harlan Ellison (1934-2018)

 

Publisher: Fawcett

Copyright: 1975

ISBN: None listed

Some readers may remember a short-lived television program in the early 70s called "The Starlost". Many people including Mr. Ellison would truly like to forget this program ever existed, as Mr. Ellison's original ideas, and concept for the TV program and story were essentially stolen, and completely corrupted by Hollywood and the television industry.

The first chapter of this book is written by Mr . Ellison and outlines the story of what happened, and how the TV program was made, up until the time that he got so disgusted with it that he left the show, and forced the network to remove his name from the series and replace it with the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. He was soon to be followed by Ben Bova who was the science advisor to the series.

The remainder of this book is written by Mr. Bryant is the actual novelization form of Mr. Ellison's outline prior to various unscrupulous agents, managers, and others who got hold of it.

The story itself revolves around a time in the distant future (2785), after the earth has been destroyed and the inhabitants from selected places have been placed aboard an ark in controlled biospheres that mimic their cultures and lifestyles, and set on course for Alpha Centauri. Devon is a young man who lives in a very strict society (seeming patterned after the Amish), but who questions the authority of the elders and his cast out. Further violations of their extremely strict doctrine forces him to flee, and while a posse pursues him he stumbles across a hatch that leads into the actual Ark itself. He discovers that the crew is dead, and the ship is on a collision course with a star which it will hit in approximately five years.

I can remember watching "The Starlost" when I was young, and at the time I thought it was fairly well done but in my own defence this was before I started reading a whole bunch of science fiction and other types of writing as well. Now I can see how the story arc has been corrupted and this reinforces my previously expounded upon thoughts that Hollywood should never be allowed to get hold of a writer's work. Mind you considering that we are now facing another Batman movie, another Spiderman, and who knows how many other remakes we likely don't have to worry too much about this as the whole movie industry seems to be geared toward mediocrity.

If you remember the TV show this book is well worth the read to see what was intended, mind you if you do remember the show then this book only covers the first episode.

Worth reading, but hard to find.