In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom" by Yeonmi Park

 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Copyright: 2015

ISBN: 978159-206795

For the second or third time I have broken my rule about reading autobiographies and commenting on them, but in this instance it was well worth the read as Ms. Park's story is utterly amazing.

I first heard about Yeonmi Park when I stumbled across one of her videos on YouTube. At first I found it quite difficult to believe what she was talking about in her videos as I knew very little about North Korea. However after doing a little research and watching more of her Videos I've been convinced (not that it was difficult) that the Kims (Kim Jong-un is the third generation of this dictatorial family) will do virtually anything to hold onto their power, regardless of what outsiders think of them.

Unfortunately, the majority of the world seems to have turned a blind eye towards the disgraceful, and inhuman treatment of the population of North Korea by this family. The sanctions imposed on North Korea for the most part seem only to be hurting the civilians, and do not seem to be affecting the Kim regime at all.

But why is this?

Granted, as I write this the Russian invasion of Ukraine is taking centre stage in the world news, but this war is only a few months old. The brutality and essentially concentration camp style of rule in North Korea has been going on for over 60 years. Once again why has this been allowed to happen?

"In Order To Live" is an excellent story, that I would recommend everyone read.

"Two Faces of Tomorrow" by James P. Hogan (1941-2010)

 

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Copyright: 1979

ISBN: 0345296605

This novel portrays a future in which civilization itself is now so complex that a worldwide computer net work is essential, and in which a partial system is currently in operation. As a premise, most people today can probably see this as something that will be coming in their lifetime after all many people nowadays use computers extensively. However today's computers, are unlikely to be able to handle a worldwide civilization.

This then brings up the topic of artificial intelligence, adaptive learning, and a whole host of other speculations with regard to computers. It is determined both by trial and error that what is needed is a universal self-aware, and self programming computer system. One that could make decisions without consulting humans for every routine operation.

Enter Raymond Dyer and his computer team who are experimenting with very rudimentary self-aware computer systems. They are essentially drafted into designing a computer system capable of running the earth, and testing it out in a controlled environment.

This book has some very good characters, that are well developed. I believe the world building however is the more important part of the novel itself as we see what happened to cause this new idea to come to pass as well as logically what might need to be done to test such a program if it were ever to happen.

Once again Mr. Hogan gives us an extremely interesting and thought-provoking book.

"Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds" by Nicholas J. Karolides

 

Publisher: Facts of File
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9780816082315

Like the first two titles in this series (Social Grounds & Sexual Grounds), both of which I already reviewed, this one was also very interesting book. When you consider that the United States is supposed to be this beacon of democracy, it seems rather odd that they would suppress political viewpoints. With all the different worldviews in existence today it would seem more logical (at least to me) that these books shouldn't be suppressed, but should be readily available and this material should be critically analysed.

A total of 118 books are examined in this book. A short summary of the contents of each book is given, and then the censorship history is examined. Some of the objections came from parents who were offended when their children were assigned books to read, and school boards as well. A rather odd occurrence through was publishers themselves who refused to publish books due to their own political viewpoints.

There is one final book in this series that deals with religious censorship and I am looking forward to reading those as well. They were all written in 2011, and I believe it is time to update them with new editions.

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by John Le Carré (1931-2020)

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright: 1974

ISBN: 0394492196

This novel is considered by many to be the gold standard for espionage novels, and I feel this honour is well deserved.

Some may find the novel hard to get into, but this is primarily the way that Mr.  Le Carré wrote as his goal (at least in my opinion) is to make the reader think about what they're reading. This is a typical writing standard for mysteries, and to a certain point some other genres as well, but compared to these genres doing so in an espionage novels is much rarer, and therefore many people are not used to this form of writing. Mr. Le Carré however excelled at this.

The story for those of you who do not know it revolves around the investigation of a mole that has been planted in British Secret Service by the Russians. The mole has been in place for sometime, and his existence just came to light. The person in charge of what I assume is actually MI-6 but it's called "The Circus" has discovered the existence of the mole but does not know who it is. This leads him to dispatch an agent to acquire this information, however the information he was to require was a plant itself. The plot develops from this premise but I don't want to give anymore away.

The characterization in this novel is excellent, as are the settings. This book is not the first to feature the character of George Smiley, but it is definitely one of the most well known ones.

There have been two movie adaptions made of this book the first from 1979 which starred Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley, and it is by far the best of the two, as it is the closest to the book and is actually a 5 hour miniseries. The second (from 2011) starred Gary Oldman as Smiley is only two hours long and while it has the same general gist as the book they had to leave out a lot of detail. Also, as is typical for Hollywood today they added bits that we're not really necessary to the story.

An excellent read, highly recommended.

Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds by Dawn B. Sofa

 

Publisher: Facts of File
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9780816082292

Like the first title in this series (Social Grounds), which I already reviewed, this one was also very interesting book. With the rather cloistered outlook that a large portion of the United States has towards sex it is sort of understandable that these books would be challenged. However, it also gives the reader/researcher a rather disturbing insight into what people can be offended by (remember this was written 11 years ago too). Once again I found most of the objections quite narrow-minded and in some cases just plain silly.

A total of 128 books are examined in this book. A short summary of the contents of each book is given, and then the censorship history is examined. Many of the objections seemed to come from parents who were offended when their children were assigned books to read, and a large portion from religious leaders, and school boards as well.

There are two more books in this series that deal with Political, and religious censorship and I am looking forward to reading those as well. They were all written in 2011, and I believe it is time to update them with new editions.

"Captain Nemo: the fantastic history of a dark genius" by Kevin J. Anderson

 

Publisher: pocket books

Copyright: 2002

ISBN: 07434440 6X

This novel is rather unique in its method of telling the story as well as the way it is constructed (for lack of a better term).

The story follows the life of Andrei Nemo who will eventually become captain Nemo of the Nautilis. In the beginning we see him and Jules Verne as young boys who have grown up together. Verne's father is a lawyer, and Verne being the eldest child is expected to take up that profession even though he would much rather write. On the other hand Nemo's father is a shipwright who intrigues and influences both Nemo and Verne with his stories.

Throughout the story we are meet numerous people who will eventually be represented in name at least by characters in Verne's novels. Some of these are Phileas Fogg, Arne Saknussemm, Ned Land, Cedric Harding, Conceil, and many others.

In both of Jules Verne's (1828-1905) stories where we actually meet Captain Nemo ("20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island") we aren't given a whole lot background information about his past life, so Kevin Anderson had a lot of leeway in how he constructed the history of Captain Nemo, and I believe he did an excellent job as it is quite believable within the world Verne has created for his characters. In addition the way he wove the real life of Jules Verne into the story was extremely well done.

Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds by Dawn B. Sova

 

Publisher: Facts of File

Copyright: 2011

ISBN: 9780816082285

This was a very interesting book, that gives the reader/researcher a rather disturbing insight into what people (primarily in the United States) are offended by. I'm not going to pretend to say I understand the rather silly objections that led to some of these bans (most luckily were temporary), but in some cases it was rather humorous to say the least.

A total of 125 books are examined in this book. A short summary of the contents of each book is given, and then the censorship history is examined. Most of the objections seemed to come from parents who were offended when their children were assigned books to read, but a few stemmed from other sources as well.

There are three other books in this series that deal with Political, religious, and sexual censorship and I am looking forward to reading those as well. They were all written in 2011, and I believe it is time to update them with new editions.

The First Team by John Ball (1911-1988)

 

Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.

Copyright: 1971

ISBN: ?

I first read this book many years ago, and since this time have read it a few more times, as I find the characterization and plot to be very well structured. The author did a fair bit of research into the workings of various parts of the United States government, as well as the US Navy.

The story deals with the essentially bloodless takeover and occupation of the United States by Russian forces. While this may seem somewhat impossible to many people the events depicted in the story leading up to the successful takeover are quite plausible, although today somewhat dated as it has been 51 years since this book was first published.

When you consider recent political events in the United States I find it quite likely that something like this could've happened. In the book and outgoing president foresees the future and the dangers coming towards the country when the president-elect takes power and creates an underground to forestall any problems. An intelligent act like this seems to me something that President Obama would've done. When you take into account the idiot who succeeded him, and who is portrayed in the book as a totally ineffectual president then this becomes even more realistic.

At the time I'm writing this review Russian forces are still in the Ukraine after having invaded six months ago. There are massive casualties on both sides, due primarily (in my humble opinion) to the egotistical stupidity of Vladimir Putin, and his attempt to make a name for himself. Unfortunately it's quite likely this name will be warmonger, or something possibly even worse.

While the premise might seem a little unlikely, the novel is well written and for those fans of intrigue and espionage novels is a must read.