C Gockel Writes

Book Reviews: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

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Book Reviews: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

$1.99 as of April 16, 2023 in United States
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(Also available in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom)

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Editor’s Note: This is one of my favorite books of all time. Sometimes darkly humorous, always heartfelt and engaging.

“A tour de force.”—The New York Times Book Review

Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin—barely of age herself—finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.

Book Review: Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey

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Book Review: Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey

Available at: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

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This is a book of alien contact that I found charming … and charmingly dated in some ways! In the book the human settlers and members of an alien village get along just fine. Their respective governments, not so much.

Although the setup envisions populations on Earth that will likely never happen, the ennui of “captive” urban populations is prescient. Also, the desire for resources, and the human (and alien!) need for freedom and meaning.

Book Review (with caveats): Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britains Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre

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Book Review (with caveats): Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britains Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre

Available at: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

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This book is greatly flawed with factual inaccuracies that make me want to give some people a stern talking too. It is also entertaining and informative if one reads between the lines.

I first became aware of Rogue Heroes through the BBC docuseries of the same name. It tells the adventures of the Brit’s guerrilla fighting force, the SAS, in the Sahara during WWII. The descriptions of the desert and the characters was very entertaining. However, watching it I was struck by something: the character of “Paddy” Maine the “mad Irishman” seemed to be not of a person, but of a stereotype of an Irish person. (In the U.S. the Irish are very accepted. Not so all over the world.)

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Book Reviews: Seeing Like a State – How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott

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This was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and yet I’ve hesitated to write a review. It’s a difficult book to the describe, it’s a book that goes beyond being anti-Communist or anti-Capitalist to something much deeper.

States, whether capitalist or communist, want things that are orderly and commodifiable. They want to be able to count things, take those numbers, plug them into an equation and compute worker productivity, GDP, tax rates, or how many grains of food stuff can be grown on one acre of land. They want to know how much each acre of land is worth, each house, each tree, each plot of land, and each person.

This book is a fascinating study of how countries, communist, capitalist, and in the middle try to make things more easily countable–and how that results in famines, environmental destruction, and emotional misery.

It isn’t boring. The book is told with anecdotes of grand failures that result when planners, far away from their planning in both consequence and space really Fuck Things Up–whilst thinking they’re being very smart and scientific. It’s entertaining and troubling. It’s also actionable and can help us build better cities, help our farmers, foresters, and natural habitats.

It’s not exactly hopeful to realize your state sees you as a widget in a giant machine.

But society isn’t a machine and we’re not a widgets. Society is much more like an ecosystem, constantly evolving in response to the environment, and we’re the organisms within it, flowing through the ecosystem based on our needs and wants, and we’re smarter together as a collective than any central planner.

If you know your state wants to widgefy you, you can work with that knowledge, and fight plans that attempt to cement you into widget status and make you poorer, less healthy, and miserable.

I highly recommend this book. It will help you identify the “widgetification” of you, animals, and natural resources. You cannot fight something if you don’t know it is happening.

Other essential readings include: The Intelligence Trap, Free Speech – A History from Socrates to Social Media, and The True Believer

Book Review: Captain of the Guard (The Second Son Book 1) by Ron C. Nieto

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99¢ in US & UK as of January 18, 2024
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This was the best fantasy I read in 2022. It’s a secondary world adventure. There is no magic in this world, but there is action and adventure—some of the best hand to hand combat scenes I’ve read—adventure, realistic romance, and characters who jump off the page and are feel real. If you buy the first one you’ll want to buy the second. It’s even better than the first.

To protect the kingdom, he must prove his worth . . .

Oren Trevaine has never shaken the feeling that he’s not good enough, but he’s determined to avoid the same fate for his men. Oren’s first task as Captain of the Guard is to transform his unruly, undisciplined soldiers into a formidable army—if only they would cooperate.

But Oren will need to act fast because the snow is melting with the budding of spring. Soon, the enemy will be able to traverse the main pass through the imposing Sansford Range and his men must be ready to patrol the mountain.

When Oren rescues Lady Joan and her traveling party from a band of Mirdoni raiders, his worst fears are realized. The enemy has utilized less accessible routes to infiltrate their territory, and an attack is imminent.

Now Oren must not only think like the enemy, but he will need to be one step ahead. With the kingdom relying on him and Lady Joan promising her favor if he returns alive, Oren will need to prove to her and his men that he truly is good enough. Or at the very least, die trying . . .

Book Review: Portrait of a Scotsman (A League of Extraordinary Women Book 3) by Evie Dunmore

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I like romance! But I’m horribly picky, and I toss aside more romances than I finish. I tend to like romances that are historical or sci-fi, with the history or the sci-fi elements integral to the story. Portrait of a Scotsman fits! It takes place in the U.K. during the Victorian era, as women’s rights activists are just starting to make gains.

What I really liked about this book is that it showed how much of the things striven for by the activists were so out of step with actual women. Upper class ladies wanted rights to their property and suffrage–but even poor women’s husbands didn’t have property or suffrage. Also, they were already working, many outside the home, and they often wanted more hours–while upper class women were sometimes actively working to restrict their hours.

I thought the hero and heroine were well-done, even when they did things I didn’t like. The heroine has a lot more sympathy for a mine owner who had been negligent than I liked. My grandfather, the first person who really encouraged me to write was a coal miner. I know about mining accidents, and the terror they cause for the people in coal towns. If the hero had pushed said negligent owner down a shaft I would have rooted for him.

But the mine owner is a member of the heroine’s class, and she really hates seeing him financially destroyed. I was annoyed with her. It was probably realistic though.

The final thing that sold this book for me was the format. It didn’t follow the traditional romance plot line, and the ending was different than most romances. However, romance fans, there is a HEA.

I picked this up at the library because it was on the Staff Picks shelf. It is traditionally published, and on the newish side, so it isn’t yet on Scribd, but your library may have it!