Grand unified books thread

[jimmy olsen]

Anyone read This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon? Every review I see is overflowing in praise.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/27/the-earthquake-that-brought-an-empire-to-its-knees.html

[Syt]

I've finally finished Star Wars - Aftermath. As mentioned earlier, the style will put off many. The story is an enjoyable enough yarn - after the battle of Endor, Imperial big wigs (a general, an admiral who also commands the last Super Star Destroyer, an adviser of Palpatine's, a Moff, a banker, and the local ruler) meet in the Outer Rim to discuss how to move on. They put the planet on lockdown. Unfortunately a few people wander in on them - a Zabrak bounty hunter who chased one of the attendants of the meeting, a washed out former Imperial Commissar Loyalty Officer, a young adult running a scrap shop (who is supposed to be Wexley, the big bearded pilot in Ep. VII) and his repurposed battle droid (now a mildly psychotic killer machine), and his Rebel pilot mother who took personal leave to try and mend the relationship with her son who she left behind when she joined the Alliance. Hijinks ensue leading to a small space battle and an uprising on the planet. On top of that, the book has "interludes," short scenes from around the galaxy - the aftermath of a battle, a family squabble over Empire and Republic over dinner, a protestor against the Republic complaining about how the Republic came in, kicked the Imps, broke a lot of stuff and then left, or what happened to war ophans from Coruscant who helped the underground fighters on the planet to name a few. It helps paint a picture of a galaxy at the crossroads.

It also sets up interesting story threads - the New Republic needs to find out what the remnant Imps are up to. The admiral, after getting rid of the other officials at the meeting returns to her commanding officer, another admiral who's left rather vague, but it's implied that he's a brilliant strategist, cultured, well mannered etc. Sounds like a Thrawn type character, though I'm placing my bets on it being General Hux' father.

The story is also noticeable for probably being the first to introduce openly homosexual characters in Star Wars canon. It's handled very incidental, though, and it's not a defining trait of their characters: one character's sister is married to another woman. And one character is outed about 3/4 into the book as gay (a female character comes on to him and he explains that he's not into women). I like when characters who are not straight white males are not reduced to their being different (colored, female, gay, alien ...) but rather are well rounded characters, where this is just one aspect of their personality. I think this chimes well with the universe of Episode VII (the Resistance easily wins the Diversity in the Workplace Award, and I wouldn't really be surprised if a character would turn out to be gay).

[Malthus]

Currently reading The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, all about the life, travels and discoveries of the German scientist. Very entertaining so far.

Odd footnote: Humboldt hung out with Goethe and, allegedly, influenced the latter's characterization of Faust. 

[The Brain]

I detect a strong gay current.

[Maladict]

Currently reading The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, all about the life, travels and discoveries of the German scientist. Very entertaining so far.

Odd footnote: Humboldt hung out with Goethe and, allegedly, influenced the latter's characterization of Faust. 

Thanks for the tip, I've always wanted to read up on him.

[Habbaku]

Christmas acquisitions, at least in part.

Already finished The Hedge Knight trade and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.  Off to Dan Jones' work, now.

[garbon]

That book of Dan Jones is a bit disappointing after his earlier work.

I got a book on wars between France and England - 1789 to 1815 as well as the Grace Jones biography.

[11B4V]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/anger-as-first-mein-kampf/2410910.html


MUNICH: New copies of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" hit bookstores in Germany Friday (Jan 8) for the first time since World War II, unsettling some Jewish community leaders, as the copyright of the anti-Semitic manifesto expires.

Bavaria was handed the copyright of the book in 1945, when the Allies gave it control of the main Nazi publishing house following Hitler's defeat. For 70 years, it refused to allow the inflammatory tract to be republished out of respect for victims of the Nazis and to prevent incitement of hatred.

It comes in audio book format too.

[Syt]

It comes as a limited edition, I think, and it's heavily annotated by historians. Price is EUR 59.-

Skinheads and neo-nazis who want the book probably bought bootleg copies of the book long ago.

[The Minsky Moment]

I've been reading some books by Emmanuel Todd lately (NOT the Charlie Hebdo one) - it's fun see to watch as he drops provocative lines as a casual aside to some other point.  For example, the following lines are contained in "Le rendez-vous des civilizations" in his discussion of endogamy in the Arab world:   

Endogamy softens the complex interpersonal connections entailed by an extended family system.  The daughter-in-law is no longer a stranger to be persecuted by her mother-in-law (as in all exogamous models) or raped by her father-in-law (Russian model).

[garbon]

Persecuted?

[Eddie Teach]

or raped by her father-in-law (Russian model).

What is Ivan Jr up to while Poppa's raping his wife? 

[The Minsky Moment]

That passage raised a whole bunch of questions that Todd just breezes by -- the book is about trends in the modern and contemporary Islamic world; it may be that he addresses it elsewhere in his substantial body of work, but it certainly raised my eyebrow.

[garbon]

Tricking a homo online into meeting him and his buddies in person so they can beat him up.

[Malthus]

Just read a very good, very odd graphic novel. No-one I know would possibly be interested in it except my mathematician brother, but maybe some of you nerds would be.

It's The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage--The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua.

It is about the ultimate Victorian odd couple - Lady Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know" Lord Byron, and Charles Babbage, genius inventor and eccentric (the author describes him as being a cross between Da Vinci and Mr. Toad ). Babbage invented, but did not build, a mechanical computer made of gears and powered by steam; his friend Lovelace (he described her as his "enchanted fairy of numbers") allegedly wrote the very first software for it.

Their story is odd and enchanting but ends sadly - shortly after writing her paper, Lovelace dies young of cancer; Babbage lives on, but never makes his machine, and dies a cantankerous and disappointed old man. The author goes on to imagine adventures for them in an alternate universe.

The author's method is what makes this so obsessively cool - she literally references everything. Pretty well each line of dialogue in their story is referenced to original sources, such as their correspondence. This continues into their purely imaginary adventures. The pair emerge as fully formed, very appealing characters. Why did Lovelace get into mathematics? Because her mom was terrified that her kid would inherit Lord Byron's "poetical" nature and insanity, and though that math was the antidote! (Later tutors in math grew concerned that Lovelace was growing too interested in math, and would 'overtax her female body'!).

As the author notes, "It's not easy being the daughter of a celebrity mad genius deviant sex god, and Ada was monitored by the entire country, it sometimes seemed, for signs of madness, genius, and deviant sex. She would gratify expectations on all of the above."

There is controversy over Ada's contributions to computing; the author makes a convincing case that these contributions are genuine. It's not often that one it treated to a rollicking read on the history of mathematics ...