magpie 64/ too many books not enough time
Okay, let’s get into it. First off, some articles:
Trauma and addiction – two things you already knew were connected, but now there’s research backing it up, so, cool I guess? The emerging science on anhedonia? Terrifying, but inevitable. The article has a million links that are perfect for your next late-night internet rabbit hole.
Also, did you know thousands of shipping containers are just chilling at the bottom of the ocean? It’s capitalism versus nature, and nature is losing. This is great reporting from Christina Larson, who I’m lucky enough to know from her days as a reporter-at-large in Beijing.
Now, book recommendations, fiction first. Creation Lake: Imagine a hipster noir detective – yeah, it’s pretentious but with great characters. Same with the “Detective O” series – North Korea’s not exactly a beacon of clarity, so why would fiction set there be any different? Unsatisfying endings galore. But maybe that’s the whole point. Last for fiction, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a social critique woven into a mystery novel.
Nonfiction? A few months ago I picked up a book of Chinese Myths for the kids. In there is the story of Yu the Great, who gets the credit for harnessing the Huangpu river and making modern China (and other things). That led me to Water Kingdom, a short but enthralling history of China’s long and sordid history taming (and failing to tame) the rivers of China. I was sharing my appreciation of Water Kingdom with a friend, who said ‘dude you HAVE to read Empires of the Indus, where the author starts in Karachi and heads up the Indus. Both books are about rivers and history, but wildly different reads.
Colonial warfare, Mutiny, Cannibalism and some wild, wild stuff in the third act I can’t reveal: The Wager is brutal, bleak, but hold on for the end. Same with “Lost City of the Monkey God” – just when you think the adventure is wrapping up, things get weird.
After I read American Prometheus, I ended up opening The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which includes the deep details and experiences of Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and all the other crucial characters American Prometheus didn’t cover in detail. With so many characters to explore, it wasn’t nearly as laborious of a read as Prometheus (they’re about the same length)
I liked Richard Rhodes’ writing style and attention to detail, which brought me to Scientist, an epic biography of E.O. Wilson, entomologist & polymath. While his trials and tribulations can’t compare to nuclear war, he’s a figure of astonishing intellect and epic productivity.