Quick Review - Book #17 - "The Parasitic Mind" - by Gad Saad

 Gad Saad, PhD, BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science, and an MBA (both from McGill in Toronto,) and a PhD from Cornell.

    His main body of research is on cognitive psychology and behavioral decision making. 

    The main concept of his book is that irrational thinking and ideas (the "parasite") have infiltrated the minds of 'the West,' and are killing common sense. 

    As a professor at McGill, he has witnessed first-hand what is really happening in progressive safe zones, what the trends in those areas are, how they have an effect on thinking, and how we need to stop the spread of 'dangerous thinking,' which is unreasonable thinking, or illogical thinking. 

    What he sees as the forces at work at corrupt thought patterns, illogical belief systems and attitudes that are rooted in irrational thought, how this leads to political correctness, and how that political correctness stifles freedom of thought.

    An interesting read, on a par with Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules." I think part of the problem is his natural sarcasm and wit do not translate well into quick tweets, and that has given him a reputation for being cruel with his humor. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

Next up!! "Princess, More Tears To Cry"  by Jean Sasson

Quick Review - Book #16 - "When Breath Becomes Air" - by Paul Kalanithi

 "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi, was published posthumously after his death from cancer. 

    Dr. Kalanithi was a neurosurgeon who had originally studied literature, took his original degrees as a B.A and M.A of Arts in Literature, before he followed what was obviously the family path into medicine, and after a decade of training as a neurosurgeon, and accepted into a program to study and attain his PhD in neuroscience, that he found out that he had advanced cancer.

    This book is really divided into two paths... part 1 is Pre-Cancer with flashforwards, and part 2 is Post-Diagnosis, with flashbacks. The afterword was written by his widowed wife. 

    The forward was written by his friend and advisor from Stanford, and it is a dedication to Paul. You know going in that there is no silver lining to the clouds that form immediately in the author's life and writing. 

    The book spent many weeks at the top of the bestseller list, and the author succumbed to his cancer while writing the book. This gives his work a very incomplete feel. I could tell that he was really trying to get all his ideas out onto a page; before his diagnosis he knew he had a few decades of life to get in what he wanted to do, only to be cut short before he turned 40.

    The work feels incomplete. Obviously, it is, but there is a dissonance that you don't normally find there. It is similar to The Last Lecture in that regard, but Randy Pausch had more time to complete his work.

    For certain-- a book that makes you evaluate what you think you know about how you will handle the end of your days, written by the man looking at both sides of the coin at the same time-- healing and life as a surgeon, and then patient and cancer patient.

___________________________________________________________________________

Next up! - The Parasitic Mind - by Gad Saad.

Quick Review - Book #15 - "In The Woods" - by Tana French

 In The Woods, by Tana French, is a mystery/suspense novel that takes place in two times at the same location... in Dublin, in the mid 1980s,vusing flashback, and modern day with the lead/protagonist having the flashbacks to an unsolved murder mystery that he is a figure in.

    I really loved the first quarter of this book.... I really did. The characters were rich, complex, and entertaining, the dialogue was snappy and far more realistic than usual... 

    And then.... {audible sigh}... it just.... gets frustrating. 

    [spoiler alerts!!]

    The lead character gets bogged down in his own world, and that drags down the murder investigation that he is leading. He starts as a wildly sympathetic character, and then as the book continues past the half-way point, he just becomes irritating. Needlessly. That was tremendously frustrating, as the book opens so well, drives forward, and then gets lost in a parking lot.

    On top of that, the murder that the book opens with... which it leads you along, giving details as the narrator remembers from his mental lockbox.... is never resolved!! (Btw, that is a huge spoiler.) I was ready to throw my iPad across the room when I finished and couldn't find the next 80 pages that had the resolution to the original story of the book.

    If you love a frustrating ending, this is a great book. Really, read the first third, and then put it down. The book really fires off all the fireworks by then, and the rest will just drag you down.

-__________________________________________________________________________

Next up, "When Breath Becomes Air" - by Paul Kalanithi

Quick Review - Book #14 - "A Tale of Two Cities" - by Charles Dickens

 "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,..."

    With one of the most famous opening sentences in literary history, Charles Dickens' story of love, madness, betrayal, redemption, and sacrifice... and the madness of crowds begins. Set against the backdrop of the tail end of the US war for independence, and the French revolution, A Tale of Two Cities is a story of London and Paris, the immediate impact in London on American independence, and the effects and insanity in Paris just a short while later.

    Dickens started planning and writing his novel in 1859, and his friend Thomas Carlyle was who he turned to. Carlyle is the author of the 1837 book, The French Revolution, an extraordinary history book, although not like a modern style one. Taken from the Afterword from Tale, 

"Written in a hectic and wholly idiosyncratic style, it [The French Revolution] introduces its English readers to such phrases as were to enter their language when considering France and her revolutionary turmoils: "a whiff of grapeshot," "seagreen incorruptible,"...Carlyle... saw the Revolution as an object lesson in Retribution. "Dance on, ye foolish ones," he apostrophized the French aristocracy in an early chapter of his book. "Ye sought not wisdom; neither have ye found it. Ye and your fathers have sown the wind, ye shall reap the whirlwind. Was it not, from of old, written: "The wages of sin is death?" "

    I read Tale in junior year of high school; I can't remember if it was assigned reading or I read it on my own. I know my English teacher that year gave out many long assignments. I do not remember if I enjoyed reading it or not! I do remember that I thought it was a lot of work.

    This time around, it was a fast read. Part of the theme is how brutal human beings can be to each other. There is a situation early on where a Marquis is in his coach, and his men basically trample part of a village, resulting in the death of a baby. The Marquis tosses the father a gold coin, figuring that should be the end of that... because the human wretches and dogs are a lesser human type. What comes along next, during the reign of their new Goddess, "Le Guillotine, Sainte Guillotine, Madame Guillotine" are some of the titles that they bestow on.. what becomes for all practical purposes... the lead figure towards the final third of the novel. What comes along next is the retribution of the downtrodden on the aristocracy, and how low and debased they become, seeking more and more to slake their thirst.

    The last words of the novel form part of a another well known quotation"

   "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done;..."

    A Tale of Two Cities is really a must read as a book fan. 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Next up!!!--- In The Woods by Tana French!! 

Quick Review - Book #13 - "Flatland" - by Edwin Abbott

 Flatland is the story of A. Square. 

    First published in 1880, It was immediately greeted for its...weirdness. 

    The story of a world in 2 dimensions. A. Square has an epiphany; He manages to see the world of a single dimension in a dream. How does he explain a world that has length and breadth? (Or, in this case, North, South, East, and West?)

    He is then visited by a strange being from a 3rd dimension. How does a 3rd dimension creature... in this case, a sphere, describe how a 3rd dimension functions?

    This is an odd book. It is for sure a "love it or hate it" book. Given the 1880s, part of his description of women (narrow, dumb, and violent.. and dangerous,) as also being not worth education, and not having any upper reason faculties... it sometimes makes for difficult reading. There is a good chance that this was also a commentary on society, and how society would see women, and the problems inherent in that view. Social commentary.

    As generations move forward, a side is added, but only if the progenitors are geometrically perfect. So a triangle would have a square offspring, and the square would have a pentagram, etc... as long as the sides were mathematically perfect. If there was an odd side, then the issue would be destroyed. 

    Interesting commentary on elitism, as their "priests" are so many sided that they may as well be perfectly round. 

    How does a society like this function? How do the beings in it recognize each other, and how does life move along?

    Interesting mental exercises.

__________________________________________________________________________

Next up!!

    Reaching back into classical territory; Charles Dickens - A Tale Of Two Cities.

    It was the best of times; it was the worst of times!