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Very complete examination of twentieth century classical music, including the effects from and on people, politics, and other forms of music - from jazz and musicals to punk and hip-hop. The effects of World War II (many composers were Jewish, gay, or both) is strongly felt, but the impact of other politics is also shown.

This is very much an examination of western music, and while influences from Africa color many earlier compositions, Asian countries don't come into play until the end. But this doesn't hit every composer either - the focus is on those who step outside the norm in many ways, including obscure harmonies and outright oddities. These are well represented by author Alex Ross, who deftly describes the tones, textures and timbres of various pieces.

It is not a short book or a breezy read, and apparently the individual chapters (which mostly stand alone) have been released as smaller books. It definitely could be a textbook for a music appreciation or theory course, while remaining accessible to the rest of us. The end of the book provides a list of recommended recordings, and the author gives an even more comprehensive list on his website. When reading the description of a piece like Metastasis by Iannis Xenakis, hearing it is beyond valuable. With much or all of this freely available in one form or another, there's no excuse not to.

I have been a musician for most of my life, at various times singing Schoenberg or playing Shostakovich, playing Bartok or singing Britten. That said, I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended!

The 18th in a long line of Pocket Books Star Trek novels. It is a bit slow through the first 2/3, finishing with an action packed 1/3 that includes treachery, discovery, and surprise maneuvers.

This isn't the authors first novel, or even her first Star Trek novel. She writes a solid story, with our heroes definitely the good guys. With several distinct characters, this Enterprise crew isn't just earth based. There is also a good description of other starship crews, including one native to Deneb, as Kirk is put in charge of a patrol with four ships.

This is also an excellent description of the Romulans in general and this commander in particular - Ael is a strong female character. She and her ship have fallen afoul of the government and are tasked with a provocative suicide mission. I wonder how much of Duane's Romulans are incorporated into TNG, especially Tasha Yar's daughter.

Definitely one of the better Star Trek novels, standing out in a field of roughly 125 competitors. Read this when first released, not sure if I read the sequel, and definitely didn't finish the series - the third and fourth books were published in 2000, and a fifth in 2006. I plan to finish the series this time. 4 out of 5 stars.

Excellent, if sobering, history of trade, recreation and ecosystems on the Great Lakes. Also covers related changes in the rest of the country, including the Mississippi basin and Lake Mead. Very readable and interesting!

Dan Egan is reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, focused specifically on the Great Lakes. This book focuses primarily on the ecosystem, from pristine (famed lake trout) to heavily invaded (the ale wife and later quagga mussels) to some form of recovery (white fish evolving for a new food source). He also focuses on the history of canal projects to open up the lakes for commerce, or clean up Chicago sewage.

While primarily an American story, the Canadian angle is also mentioned. The politics of multiple states and provinces trying to deal with ecological problems is daunting. Comparing the nuisance cost of porting goods or cleaning boats to the billions spent repairing the damage is shocking. Fresh water is a focus towards the end of the book, including water grabs by Atlanta, California and others. An excellent quote from the book, showing the scale of what we are talking about here:

“Roughly 97 percent of the globe’s water is saltwater. Of the 3 percent or so that is freshwater, most is locked up in the polar ice caps or trapped so far underground it is inaccessible. And of the sliver left over that exists as surface freshwater readily available for human use, about 20 percent of that—one out of every five gallons available on the planet—can be found in the Great Lakes.”

This novel uses an alternate history to explore female astronauts, climate change, and international cooperation. At times a little heavy handed, it is still a well researched and interesting story - and the first part of a duology.

In this timeline, a meteorite wipes out Washington DC and a chunk of the east coast. This near extinction level event also kick starts a race to establish a human presence off planet - culminating in a trip to the moon much earlier than it happened in our history. This alteration naturally changes other things, and it is interesting to see which change and which stay the same (unfortunately, abuse of race and privilege). Told only from the perspective of the main character, news reports at the top of each chapter give the reader glimpses into the wider world, and some events also make into the narrative.

The author really knows this world, and has written short stories set here also. The main character is strong, well written, and also female. The anxiety, while humanizing, seems a bit overdone. The relationship with her husband is also well written, with double-entendre's hinting at more behind closed doors. The male lead astronaut, her main foil, is a caricature for much of the book, but not all. I would have appreciated more science, more knowledge of this world - and I wonder that there isn't a bigger drive to repair what went wrong. That impetus was well evident in the 50s and 60s, looking only at the end goal, and could have worked here - but it isn't in the scope of the main character's world I guess.

After thinking about this for a few days, I think the overall rating is 4 stars (out of 5), and I plan to read the sequel soon. The audio book versions are narrated by the author.

Primarily a biography of Wilson's second term in office, with events leading up to and coming after. At times, this reads like a series of articles, with some information repeated. When on point, I found this an interesting read.

While battles are mentioned, this is no military history. The first roughly 100 pages lead up to American entry into the war, the next 100 the war itself, and the last 150 the peace treaty process. Surrounding these are events in the US, primarily politics and prohibition. Censorship during the war is covered, followed by the restoration of liberties afterwards. In short, the US was effective during the war, and less so in the aftermath.

The author is a Wilson scholar, but focuses specifically on the war here - no tariffs or trust busting. Segregation is within that spotlight, specifically military, and the contrast with France is striking. A good portion of the post-war discusses the clash between a now well-trained group and their oppressors back home. The early 20s has parallels with the 50s - race riots and the red scare. Multiple discussions of the cabinet, congress, and Wilson's opponents are why I would classify this more biography than history.

Spotted on the libraries "new" shelf, this was more a spontaneous read than a plan. Overall, glad I checked it out. 3 out of 5 stars.

Dramatization of Sega of America's uphill battle against Nintendo, the market, and ultimately Sega of Japan. Goes into a lot of detail about all involved and/or related to this time period, the early 90s.

First off, the "war", or at least battle. Much like Operation Market Garden, the stunning initial success was unsupported, and ultimately the battle was lost. This was a fascinating subject, even if told mostly from one side - that of Sega, the underdog. Between price fixing, shorting retailers and limiting 3rd parties, Nintendo is often made out to be the villain, at least early on. The book finishes as Sega starts to tumble, knocked down by a gorilla (Donkey Kong country) and treachery (the PSX, then Playstation). A bit more history, including a "where are they now" or at least "where did they go next" would have been great.

That said, this book felt long, and dramatization of nearly every event was the cause. Presumably made-up dialog (and some of it really awful) turns paragraphs into pages, and I felt was quite unnecessary to tell this story. If any of the quotes were real, they weren't distinguished in any way. Though overly long, it was at least easy to read, and I often found myself turning to wikipedia to find out more about a given hardware or software design.

Optioned early on for a movie (documentary? docu-drama?), it is now apparently headed for a short-run series. If the facts stay and much of the made-up dialog vanishes (most of the principals are still alive and available for interviews), it should be pretty interesting. If done very well, it could continue beyond the book (Playstation, N64 and beyond).

A publisher's blurb describes this as a cross between True Grit and The Road, and this makes a lot more sense now that I've read True Grit. The bad-ass female main character has a strong voice that pervades the book, despite her relatively young age. The plot line confronts the dark of her life, the evil that stains her soul.

From The Road comes the setting (post apocalyptic), but that isn't the main focus. It could be a standard western, if the powerful thunder storm described is actually a tornado of sorts that could happen in the mountains and forests of British Columbia. Sometimes it is easier to use the unknown effects of nuclear war as a writer's shortcut. I don't mean to quibble, here, and it really isn't the main focus of the plot - just the uprooting cause of events. A re-read may show nature to be an additional character in the novel.

In summary, I liked this book a lot, and all the more for it being the author's first novel. I look forward to reading her sophomore effort, [b:Bitter Sun|36161292|Bitter Sun|Beth Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520250670s/36161292.jpg|57771031], published just last year.

This book comes at the idea of multiple parallel universes from two angles - physics and math - without requiring a degree in either. Well written with humor, the content is easily read, but the arguments are not always so clear cut. An interesting perspective that I'm not sure I agree with.

In the first portion of the book, "Mad" Max (as he is known among physicists) lays out much of what we know about the universe, making the case actual parallel universes (as opposed to theoretical). The first chapter even contains a quick chart showing which chapters should be read by the science curious, the hard-core reader of popular science, and physicists.

In parts 2 & 3, he dives into the math, coming around to idea that math doesn't just represent the universe, but that it is the universe (a 1:1 mapping, if you will). I don't think all physical processes can be represented by math at present, but it is an interesting thought. The math that doesn't seem to fit our universe? That's for parallel universes. How many of them have life like us? Probably a very small quantity, because the physics of our universe is especially suited to our life (aka anthropomorphic). Unfortunately, the argument for this particular thought stops at this point - perhaps it was too much math for a popular book? - and this point is short of proving the assumption.

As would be appropriate in a book about life, the universe, and everything, Douglas Adams is quoted on nine different occasions. This fact comes from the solid index, which follows the extensive bibliography (sectioned by topic). Only the lack of proof of his point (and the remaining arguments built on that assumption) draws the rating down a smidge.

I added this book to my "to be read" pile roughly a year ago, and was spurred to read it by goodreads "TBR twins" program, where they pair up two people who want to read the same book. I look forward to reading Harsha's review of this same book and comparing notes.

This book wanders far from its title, sampling politics, Kant, compulsive gambling, and pipe organ restoration. It is written to a college reading level, when the average adult american is closer to a 9th grader - and this hides what few good points the author does have. An excellent review of this book referred to it as "argument salad". Not recommended.

The introduction and much of the first part connect to the topic of attention, and there are some interesting observations. The desire for an "attentional commons", or rather the right to not be bombarded by advertising, is a good one, but not novel. He also notices the economic differences here - the quiet airport lounge for the high spending traveler, compared to the noisy (and ad-filled) common lounge. At one time, people worried that billboards would fill America and block out the view; now they are vanishing daily - because other forms of advertising are more effective.

The discussion of how a line cook can focus without distraction is also pretty good, but here is where the author drags in politics (left-wing dismantling of cultural jigs?), virtue, and economics, and eventually ends up in college-level philosophy (primarily Kant). The wandering (and the occasional conspiracy theory) continues through the rest of the book.

I heard good things about his first book, [b:Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work|6261332|Shop Class as Soulcraft An Inquiry Into the Value of Work|Matthew B. Crawford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442839731l/6261332.SY75.jpg|6444549], but this just feels like a pessimistic collection of rants and miscellany. A generous 1¼ stars (out of five).

This character study looks at four neighbors who are having visions of alternate realities. The premise is interesting and it is a quick read, but the story feels very episodic. The rapid conclusion leads to interpretation, but also feels incomplete.

The title comes back to choices, and some of the alternate realities seem to connect to that. One of the characters was writing a dissertation in the philosophy of multiverses before taking time off for a baby. There are other themes worth discussing, and this could be a book club selection. A volcano and seismic events also make up a large part of the plot - but is the volcano the cause or the symptom of the visions?

In an interview, Kate Hope Day stated that the novel came from having her first child, and thinking about the person you were before and after. Some of these scenes made it into the book also, which was written during nap times. Day is also an associate producer at HBO. Whether or not it was her original intention, the story has been picked up for TV, and should be interesting to watch. I just hope they keep it in muddy, foggy Oregon.

In summary, this is an interesting first novel, but felt a little rough around the edges. 2½ stars.