My Nerdy Friend

Book 16: The Emperor of All Maladies

The Emperor of all Maladies is, quite simply, a fantastic book. Titled as a “Biography of Cancer”, I can think of no better description. The book describes the path of cancer knowledge from the earliest presumed documented case of breast cancer in 2500 BC to 2010, the year of publication. It is a story that is fascinating, scary, hopeful and sometimes disturbing (I’m looking at you, radical mastectomy). It definitely clarifies the field of cancer diseases and helps to answer some of my questions about why some are so responsive to treatments while others are not. I also have a much better understanding of the genetics involved, and what people mean when they talk about “markers”. Don’t be fooled, I’m still no biochemist!

A little known secret about me is that in Grade 11 Biology, I did a science fair project where I gave cancer to earthworms by painting them with distilled water in which I soaked the filters of smoked cigarettes. I was lucky enough to be allowed to prepare and observe slices of my worm-tumors under the electron microscope at Peterborough’s Trent University. What 16 year old dreams of anything less?? This project instilled in my a passing but (so far) life-long interest in cancer – enough to read the headlines but not enough to change the trajectory of my career. This book has filled in decades worth of gaps in my knowledge and re-inspired that interest.

Rating: Buy it!

Book 15: Thing Explainer

First, I have to state up front that I am a very big fan of Randall Munroe. I first became acquainted with him through his internet comic strip xkcd, through which he has revealed himself to be brilliant and funny at math, science, computers, programming, and romance (it turns out he’s a rocket scientist for real, so there you go). I never miss a new comic post, and I devour anything and everything he writes. I say this because I think it’s important to know how much I WANT to love everything he does.

Thing Explainer is an interesting concept in which Randall attempts to explain 50 some-odd complicated things using only the most commonly used 1,000 words in the english language (ten hundred words, if you abide by his rule, where the word “thousand” doesn’t make the cut). I believe this book was inspired by an xkcd comic in which he explains the Saturn V rocket in this way (the comic is here, if you are interested.  – I highly recommend reading it!)

While I enjoyed parts of Thing Explainer almost as much as the Saturn V comic, I did have a few problems with it. First, some things explained in this way were actually harder to understand, for example the internal organs of the human body. In this case, the actual words for things were generally easier to understand than the simple words versions (such as “brain” instead of “thinking bag” and “stomach” instead of “food bag”), and this become something of a distraction.  Second, the novelty wore off long before I got to the end of the 50 or so things explained in this way. Third, and most irritating, the diagrams were fascinatingly complex, with lots of simple words to explain them, which meant the print was extremely tiny, so much so that I was forced to break out my Sherlock Holmes style magnifying glass in order to read them. The most frustrating page was the Colors Of Light where a significant portion of the text was printed on a graduated grey background that was difficult to see even with my Holmesian magnifier. Way to make me feel extra old, Randall!

On the other hand, there were some things explained that I thought were genius. I particularly enjoyed the Pieces Everything is Made Of (periodic table), Tall Roads (bridges) and Sky Boat with Turning Wings (helicopter). If I had to do it over, I would probably savour this book a couple of pages at a time over several weeks. During the day, in bright light, and perhaps in e-book format to enable zooming in.

Rating: Buy it if you love Randall like I do. Otherwise, read the Saturn V comic. If you liked it, buy the book. If you wondered what the point was, skip it.

Book 14 – Transgression

My son picked this book out for me as a Christmas gift because it “sounded interesting”. And it really was. It is two stories in one; a story of forbidden love between a French girl and a German soldier in 1941 and mystery involving a washed-out cop living in Paris, Ontario (yes, there really is such a place) who comes across a severed finger in a field and must race the OPP to find the body that goes with it and solve a murder.

The writing is interesting. At first it seems kind of child-like, with short, simple sentences and lots of detail left out, but then it starts to feel like the style of writing is done purposefully, to put you in mind of the staccato kind of way that life unfolded during the war – every day is hardship, any moment can bring news of the death of loved ones, each minute tick by while you wait for news that someone missing has been found.

I found this book to have many parallels to “All the Light We Cannot See” and in many ways I like this one better. I think the characters were richer, and the element of the mystery worked as a hook to keep the story interesting and moving forward with purpose. For me, it was more entertaining and satisfying than All the Light, but less prosaic, perhaps.

I have noticed that I am about a week ahead on my book-a -week timeline, with another one that I will finish in a day or two, but this is actually very good because my next book after that is a weighty tome about the history of cancer. Gotta keep mixing it up with the science books!

Rating: Borrow it. Or buy it and lend it out.

Book 13 – The Dispossessed

I selected this book for the BBCE, and it is a re-read, although I read it quite a while ago and as it happens I did misremember significant plot points…possible an age thing.

The blog post for this book has already had several false starts. There is so much going on and so much to reflect on, that I would virtually have to retell the entire story to get any of it across. Instead, a short list of the many things that make up the book include; a presentation of a carefully designed anarchy (or non-authoritarian communism, as it is described in the book) which is facing the very beginnings of the appearance of hierarchical control and power; a flawed capitalist society that is trying to find a balance between complete capitalism and appropriate management of resources; a brilliant scientist who thinks he can bring anarchy and, from that, freedom to all of the Nine Known Worlds by giving them his Grand Unified Theory of Simultaneity, a very interesting parallel of Relativity that shows a decent knowledge of physics on the part of the author. As well, there are the settings; Annares, the dusty, harsh planet, subject to extensive droughts and sandstorms and Urras, the lush, tree-covered planet with an abundance of most things except for some rare minerals that were used up before resource management was put in place.

Ursula has much to say about the two cultures, and a large part of the book is dedicated to philosophical discussions between various characters on the advantages and weaknesses of the anarchistic way of life. She paints an extremely compelling case for the Annares way of life. It’s communism the way communism is supposed to be, and she makes it sound achievable and sustainable, and, in many ways, preferable.

I was struck by how prophetic the book seemed for having been written in 1974. Annares could easily be representative of Earth post-climate-change, and Urras might represent the world we might become if we foresee early enough the impact on our future of our pillage of limited natural resources.

All in all, a wonderfully complex book.

Rating: Buy it, if you are a scifi fan. Borrow it otherwise.

Book 12 – Go Set A Watchman

It is no wonder Harper Lee never meant for this to be published, and it is a testament to both her and her editor that the marvellous To Kill A Mockingbird evolved from what can barely be considered an early draft. Only two or three verbatim paragraphs and a familiar Finch family dynamic give any hint of what would become an award-winning novel.

What starts out as a coming-home story eventually devolves into a philosophical meander through the conflicting principles of the tenth amendment, which guarantees individual states the right to rule themselves on any issues not delegated to the federal government, and the NAACP, who’s goal is to secure nationally-assured legal rights for black people.

It is not difficult to see why the book is being criticized for its startling racism. Atticus, who seems to speak for all Southerners, possibly including the author herself, believes that responsibility (to vote) and access (to education) should only be given to groups of people (races) who have proven themselves “worthy” and that black people are too backward to be given full civil rights. There are far too many chapters dedicated to the debate between Atticus and Jean Louise, as he tries to win her over while she protests with passionate but weak arguments in favour of the civil rights movement. To be honest, it reads more like Harper Lee’s internal struggle to come to terms with changing times and their impact on her world and her home town. Additionally, there is a very strange chapter describing a town council meeting which seems like an excuse just to spew a creatively large assortment of racial epitaphs. It is unclear if she is trying to engender sympathy for black people through the use of shocking, run-on sentences of racial hatred or if she is trying to shore up feelings of support for misunderstood southerners. Very weird.

All that said, if you try hard enough to see past the racist narrative, you might find a way to gain some insight into southern philosophy and principles. They would rather be left alone to figure things out for themselves, regardless of how wrong they might be to start, than to be dictated to by a national body that pretends to understand this desire but tries to force them to the right answers regardless. Much the way Atticus allows Jean Louise to break free from his influence and find her own identify and path. Hmm. Perhaps Harper Lee’s draft deserves more credit than I first thought.

Rating: Skip it. Honestly, it really was just a draft of what became a much, much better book.

Book 11 – To Kill a Mockingbird

I re-read this book for the simple reason that I am due to read Go Set A Watchman for my book club and I wanted to re-familiarize myself with the characters first. I have since discovered that there is some controversy over the publication of Go Set A Watchman, as it is actually just a first draft of Mockingbird, and there is no confirmation that the elderly Harper Lee wanted it published at all. More on that in the next post, I suppose.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a lovely coming-of-age story about two children growing up in small-town Alabama in the 1930’s, who come face-to-face with the town’s racism and prejudice during a trial in which a black man is (seemingly) falsely accused of raping a young white woman. The town is ignorant of its racism, ironically revealed as the adults discuss the gross injustice of Hitler’s actions in rounding up the Jews just because they are Jewish while they ostracise one of their own because he had the audacity to marry and bear children with a black woman. Meanwhile, they are fully aware and proud of their prejudices, cheerfully dividing townspeople into people who are “trash” who live in the woods, “trash” who live at the dump, ordinary folks and people with background.

The moral compass of the story is provided by Atticus Finch, the lawyer hired to represent the accused black man and father of the two children, Scout and Jem. He seems to be the only one in town, apart from a neighbour, who understands the town’s biases and quietly works to change them.

Published in 1962, it is most unnerving and a little sad to consider that in small-town southern USA, things are probably not that much different today.

Rating: Buy it. This book should be in your collection.

Book 10: What the Body Remembers

What a book! I loved it! This is a book club book, the first of the 2016 BBCE (“Best Book Club Ever”) collection. It tells the story of Sardarji Singh and his wives Satya and Roop and their lives in India during the country’s struggles for independence from Britain. Sardarji marries Roop to bear him sons when it is found that Sayta has been unable to have children.

The book starts out slowly, a little heavy on what seems to be an education of Indian culture and terminology. However, as the story unfolds, it starts to feel more natural and provides some amount of understanding to a culture that values women only as wives that can give birth to boy babies, where honour demands that women die before being dishonoured by the touch of an unrelated man. As much as Roop and Satya are subservient to their husband Sardarji, Sardarji is indentured to the British who control India, never rising higher than his position of engineer because he is Indian. And as Sikhs, they are threatened with the loss of all land, possessions and power as the impending division of India by the British leaves land only for the Muslims and the Hindus.

Part of me wants to be offended by the treatment of women in the cultures of India, and part of me wants to be offended by the extremist religious views that would lead a country to slaughter its fellow citizens merely for differences of belief. But Baldwin manages to draw out empathy and understanding for the characters, and for a country that was abandoned to its fate.

Rating: Buy it! Even if you never read it again, it should be on your shelf.

Book 9 – Pride and Prejudice

Oh, Mr. Darcy, why do we love you so much? Is it because, despite being full of, well, pride and prejudice, you fell in love with an unsuitable woman because you discovered her to be witty, intelligent and diverting and, upon discovering her well-reasoned dislike of you, changed the outward presentation of your character in order to win her over? Is it because you are just that romantic?

This is perhaps my tenth or twelfth reading of Pride, arguably Jane Austen’s best, and it is still magical. I adore Darcy and Elizabeth just as much as I did the first time. I love Elizabeth because she is a woman who maintains a sense of joy and compassion while refusing to conform to the expectations of her time and her station, and accepts that this may limit her chances of finding love. And yet, find love she does, in spite of,or perhaps because of, her character. And I love Darcy because, well, he’s Darcy!

I’m cautious about extending my Pride and Prejudice experience, for fear of ruining the book, but I have enjoyed these connections:

1. 6-part TV mini-series, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. This is as true to the book as it gets, and Colin Firth will always be Mr. Darcy to me now!
2. Bridget Jones’ Diary. Very lose references to the book, but the most significant is Colin Firth playing the character of Mark Darcy. Need I say more?
3. Longbourn, by Jo Baker. The story of the Longbourn household staff over the time during which Pride and Prejudice takes place. I was very worried about this one, but in the end it actually added a Downton Abbey level of interest to the original story.
Coming soon: The stage play. Fingers crossed!

Rating: Buy it! Go out and buy it right now.

Book 8 – A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

This book started off a little rough around the edges. Bowen is not a very skilful writer, and much of the initial story felt forced. Bowen is living in ‘vulnerable housing’ and is in a drug rehab program when he finds a homeless cat, whom he names ‘Bob’, in the street near his home. In the early part of the story, as he develops a relationship with his new companion, he has a tendency to rely heavily on a diary-style narrative, listing their activities in chronological order; “we did this, then we did that”.

However, as the story develops, Bowen starts to include some details about his past life to add some relevance and emotion to events that are happening with him and Bob in the present, and it is these parts of the book that are my favourite. He seems to relax with his writing and starts story-telling rather than enumerating. Over the course of the book timeline, he works on the streets with Bob keeping him company, first as a busker and then selling a local daily-issue magazine. A cat as a contented companion to a street-worker attracts a lot of attention, and in this day and age, attention eventually becomes viral, which is how Bowen and Bob first achieved a degree of infamy, and which I assume is what lead to the writing of this book.

Ultimately, this is a simple, heart-warming story of how Bowen finds purpose in his life, and rises above his drug addiction and lack of employment so that he is able to care responsibly for the cat that he loves. People who have never owned or liked cats may find it overly sentimental, but for cat-lovers, the stories of Bob’s cleverness and intuition will be all too real. Because … cats.

Rating: Borrow it.

Book 7: Leviathan Wakes

This hefty book appeared mysteriously on my desk at work, my assumption being that it was left there by my boss who is regularly referring me to science fiction books and authors. The back cover, which described it as a bit of a science fiction mystery, hooked me right away. A mystery! In space!!

The story takes place in the future, when humans from Earth have colonized Mars as well as several of the solar system moons, and have established mining stations in the asteroid belt. Humanity has divided itself into factions of Earthers, Martians and Belters, who barely tolerate each other, existing in a cold-war state that threatens to collapse at any moment. The portrayal of life in the Belt, in particular, is beautifully handled, with insightful references to what existence would be like in rotation-generated low-gravity for people who are born and raised there. I loved the way the secondary story of life in the Belt is told, with beautifully in-laid references to everything from hot-bunking, advanced medical treatments, skeletal adaptations, high-g drug therapy and life support management.

The main narrative itself alternates between the story of Jim Holden, a spacecraft captain who makes a grisly and puzzling discovery in the outer reaches of the Belt, and Miller, a washed-up middle-aged detective who is assigned to locate a missing girl for a wealthy inner planets family. The two story lines eventually weave their way together until Holden and Miller find themselves on the same side of an unexpected fight against a common enemy. There is great character development, even of the lesser players, which frankly I would expect from a book of this size that doesn’t introduce a George R. R. Martin-sized cast. (The point is ironic, in the sense that “James S. A. Covey is actually a pseudonym for co-authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and Franck is, in fact, an assistant to Martin).

Leviathan Wakes is the first book of The Expanse, a 5-book series, however it can stand on it’s own quite well. I will eventually read the remaining books, but I’m grateful there is no cliff-hanger that demands that I do so immediately. The book, or possibly the set of books, has also been made into a TV series which I will be keen to watch, now that I have read the book.

Rating: Buy it. If you are super-keen, you may want to re-read it as you tackle the remaining books in the set.