| 1. The Tudor
Plot - Steve Berry - Starting off the new year
with a new Steve Berry novel. This was good short story
about Cotton Malone assisting the Queen of England in
fighting an attempt by members of her own family to take
control of the throne. It also has a running theme about
whether Author was a real or invented person but in the
end Malone found Author's tomb in a cave in Iceland.
There is a lot of history presented in this story but I
am not sure what part is real and what part is made up.
Anyway it was a good read and I finished it in one day.
|
| 2. The Atlas
Maneuver - Steve Berry - I enjoyed reading The
Tudor Plot above so I thought I would try another Berry
book. Bitcoins and block chains are a big part of this
story which takes place all over the world. In this
story St. John's Bank in Switzerland who hold both WWII
gold and a bunch of bitcoins is trying to convince
central and south American countries to utilize bitcoins
as their national currency. Of course these countries
don't have the full story that the bank, because of its
vast holdings, can manipulate the value of bitcoins to
their advantage. Cotton Malone gets pulled in to do some
simple surveillance for a friend in the CIA of a person
of importance who he later finds out he knows rather
intimately. Turns out this woman is the person who
invented bitcoins and that she is trying to stop the
bank for exploiting these 3rd world countries because it
is contrary to the bitcoin philosophy. Of course
this makes her wanted by all of the players world wide
and so she is captured in turn by the CIA, the Japanese
secret service, the Swiss police and others. In the end,
terrorists blow up the big meeting of the banks'
executives and county representatives seeking the use of
bitcoins. Malone's friend also dies in the attack but
has left a hidden computer program on the bank's
computers that if the bitcoin wallets of the bank are
accessed that the banks bitcoin inventory would be
distributed across all bitcoin owners across the world
which Malone see to. This was a rather long story but interesting enough to make me read it over a couple of days. I also learned some about block chain and bitcoins in the process as Berry always combines facts and fiction in his novels. |
| 3. I Heard
There Was A Secret Chord - Daniel J. Levitin - A
short read from an author that is both an accomplished
musician and a scientist. The emphasis of the book is
how the brain understands, processes and stores music.
He draws upon his experience with cases where people
have had various brain injuries and how that affected
their musical abilities both as listeners and
performers. People with these injuries help scientists
to understand how the various areas of the brain works
and how music is processed and stored. One bit of
information that resonated with me was how the brain has
some built in priorities for handling music allowing
people to recall songs from just bits and pieces of
melody or rhythm. He stresses that this ability is
far more pronounced than in many of the other brain
functions. He and other scientists are somewhat puzzled
by why this is so. He illustrates the concept he
presents with simple examples that I can totally
identify with. Being a musician made this interesting
reading for me. |
| 4. Origin -
Dan Brown - I hadn't read a Dan Brown
book in a while so I picked this up to read. Again I was
totally impressed with how he can tell a story that
keeps you engaged for the whole read. This is a story
about a genius futurist Edmond Kirsch who became a
billionaire by predicting major changes in the tech
field and capitalizing on them. He was also a devout
atheist who blames the Catholic church for his mothers
death. He is also a friend of Robert Langdon,
Brown's chief character in many of his books. Kirsch was
poised to present to the world his discoveries about the
basic question of the human race, "Where Did Came From"
and "Where We Are Going". Kirsch informed the world that
he was going to answer these age old questions and
scheduled an elaborate presentation to do so. As he
started his presentation, he was shot and killed by a
Spanish Navy Admiral who was brainwashed to believe that
what he was going to present would mean the end of
organized religion. Langdon then went on a mission to
fulfill Kirsch's mission to release his findings to the
world. In the process, Langdon was accused of kidnapping
the soon to be queen of Spain and almost killed numerous
times. In the end Langdon does release the findings to a
stunned world. Kirsch answered the first question by
using his AI supercomputer to simulate what would happen
if the chemicals on the ancient Earth came together in a
specific way and found out that over a vast period of
(simulated) time would produce DNA. So they answer was
we are a product of chemistry and physics with no God
being necessary. He answered the second question by
allowing the simulation to run into the future and found
that humans would be merging with technology to create a
new race of techno humans thus answering the question of
"Where We Are Going". All in all a very good read that will probably be made into a movie if it hasn't been already. |
| 5. The Medici
Return - Steve Berry - I had a hold on this
book at the library for a very long time so it was
obvious that many people have been waiting to read it.
Cotton Malone was again Berry's main character. The
story takes place in modern times when a priest running
for political office was told by his grand mother and
was trying to prove that he was descended from the royal
Medici family. This was important for two reasons.
First, the priest was trying to get endorsement from the
Catholic church for his political party and second,
because there was a document signed in the 1500 when the
Medici family loaned the Catholic church a huge sum of
money that had never been repaid. The loan was
guaranteed by a legal document signed by the Church and
therefore blessed by God stating that any successors of
the Medici family could call in the loan at any time.
Unfortunately, the Medici family went on hard times and
their reign in Italy came to an end so the loan was
forgotten and the money was never paid back. The priest
was trying to blackmail the Church for their support by
telling them the loan would be forgiven for giving their
backing. Of course the priest dies at the last minute so
all was for not. The hunt for this document was the main
theme of the story although corruption in the Catholic
church also played a staring role. This was not, in my personal opinion, one of his better story efforts although there was plenty of information about Italy and many of its, shall I say strange, festivals. It was obvious that Berry had traveled a lot in Italy for his research as most of the historical references and all of the locations discussed in the story were real. |
| 6. Angels and
Demons - Dan Brown - I read this novel years ago
but I guess I didn't write up a review. I got this from
the library after an 8 week delay as this story was hot
again because the current Pope had just died and
conclave was back in the news. This is an amazing story
about how a vial of anti-matter was stolen from CERN and
planted under the Vatican by a mad man who thought he
was being commanded by the "Illuminati" (an
ancient society of scientists in Galileo's time who
bucked the Catholic church with their science) in their
attempt to destroy the Catholic church once and for all.
Robert Langdon got called in because a scientist at CERN
had just been killed and was branded with the Earth
symbol of the Illuminati. The chief scientist at CERN
thought Langdon could help them find the killer. As the
conclave was about to begin the top 4 choices of bishops
to become Pope were kidnapped and each was killed
ritually and branded with Earth, Wind, Fire and Water
symbols. Langdon used his knowledge of the Illuminati to
follow the secret path to the Illuminati's secret
hideout and thereby try to catch the killer and find the
location of the anti-matter before it leveled the
Vatican. Unfortunately the Swiss Guard and Langdon and
Vittoria (the slain CERN scientist's daughter) were
always too late to save the bishops. The late Popes
young camerlengo rises to the challenge to hold the
conclave together under these conditions and admits to
the world the errors the Catholic church has made over
its history but also tells the world about the evils of
technology and the need for faith. When the news of the
dead bishops and the presences of the anti-matter bomb
hidden under the Vatican are made public the church
experiences a surge in people remembering their
religious roots and flooding churches world wide. The
Catholic church was once again relevant. In the end the camerlengo is found responsible for all the deaths in his attempt to make the Catholic church vital again. Langdon eventually finds the Illuminati's secret hideout and goes to rescue Vittoria who had been kidnapped by the mad man as a trophy for his service to the Illuminati. A struggle ensues and the mad man falls to his death. The focus now turns to the anti-matter bomb that is set to go off in a very short period of time. The camerlengo and Landgon find the bomb and go up in a helicopter to dispose of it. At the last minute they both jump from the helicopter and the anti-matter bomb explodes in mid air not causing damage or deaths. Once the camerlengo's responsibility for the tragedy becomes known, he lights himself on fire and burns to ashes saving the Catholic church the embarrassment of his guilt. Langdon on the other hand is taken to a hotel by Vittoria and made love to as they each had saved each other's lives on numerous occasions during their 2 day adventure. Langdon got the best end of this deal. |
| 7. The Coming
Wave - Mustafa Suleyman - Reading this book
scared the shit out of me. It describes the coming wave
of new technology including AI and Bio-Engineering that
will have a massive impact on the future of the human
race. And this guy should know because he as been
involved in starting 3 different AI companies and has
directly witnessed both the power for good and the power
for evil that unleashing AI and Bio-Engineering can
have. He points out that the continual reduction in
price of computer power means that amateurs now have the
power to wreak havoc like never before. For all previous
waves of new technology the cost of participating was so
high that it kept individuals out of the picture as only
huge corporations and governments could afford it. This
is now changed. For a few hundred dollars anyone could
use AI to launch a drone targeting people in government
or politics that they disagree with that carries a bio
weapon that another amateur developed with the low cost
bio-engineering tools now available. He points out that
the bad actors do not abide by rules and regulations put
in place to safe guard these new technologies. Suleyman now tries to organize people, organizations, researchers, state governments, the federal government and international organizations to try to contain these new technologies. He points out that researchers try and be transparent (and to enhance their careers) so they publicly publish all their findings which allows bad actors the bulk of new discoveries being made. He says that we are already way behind in thinking about containment and we need to convince organizations at all levels to step up immediately or else face the consequences. He does not paint a pretty picture of our future, including the future of the USA, if things are not changed and containment is not put in place. He says that one form of containment can be put in place by despotic rulers and without naming names he implies that that is the direction that many liberal democracies are now heading, including our own. I think this book is so important I am telling all of my friends about it and that they should pass the warnings described in this book along to as many others as possible. I hope we are not already to late. |
| 8.
Created - Janice Boekhoff - This is the 4th book of Boekhoff's
that I have read and they all combine geology, romance
and religion into the story lines. That is kind of her
plot template for a lack of a better word. She was an
actual geologist before becoming a writer and she must
be a serious romantic and a devote Christian which
figures directly into this story. Is the story of
creation in the Bible the real story or is evolution the
truth. The story has two parts that merge in the end.
One, a professor and a dean of a university plot to
create a creature from combining DNA from multiple
animals. Although this violates all genetic engineering
ethical rules that did it to prove that it could be done
and if so to have a man made creature that resembles a
dinosaur that they can say proves evolution and puts an
end to the Bible evolution controversy. The second part
of the story features a beautiful (of course) lonely
volcanologist woman who is taking measurements around
the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica to assess eruption
threats. The story lines come together when the crazy
professor decides his creation should live a free life
and takes his full grown creature to Costa Rica and lets
it go. Another professor from the same college
determines something suspicious is going on and travels
to Costa Rica to find the creature and take DNA samples
to see if it is a real dinosaur and therefore settles
his internal conflict about his scientific verses his
religious beliefs. Of course the creature creates quiet
a stir as it is feeding on livestock and other local
animals. Thrown into the story mix a set of poachers are
trying to capture the creature so they can sell it to
the highest bidder. The volcanologist and the professor
seeking DNA samples meet in the jungle and have
spontaneous attraction between them that they at first
try to submerge. In the end the professor who created
the creature get killed, the creature is shipped
off safely to the Washington DC zoo, all of the
characters resolve their evolution conflicts and the
professor seeking DNA and the volcanologist finally get
together for a happy ending which is also typical of
Boekhoff's other books. Even though religious beliefs played a major role in this story, I might even say too major of a role, it was still a good read and a credit to Boekhoff. |
| 9. The
Microdosing Guidebook - C. J. Spotswood (PMHNP) -
Because I had an interest in micro dosing psilocybin to
possibly enhance my creativity my cousin Chris lent me
this book to read. Information on micro dosing is hard
to come by but this book seems to have brought together
a lot of what is available. Spotswood made a deep dive
into the available literature to write this book and
present the information in an easily digestible way. I
admit I did not read this book from cover to cover
because a lot of it has to do with how micro dosing can
help people with specific mental problems which I do not
have. It also has sections about how to talk about micro
dosing with a persons primary care physician something I
don't plan on doing. Talking to your physician is
important if one is taking prescription drugs (which I
am not) as there maybe interactions that could be
dangerous. I want to micro dose only to enhance my creativity which has been lacking recently. The book did a good job of explaining how micro dosing with psilocybin and LSD affects brain chemistry and how these psychedelic chemicals have been used in the past in psychiatric practices (mainly before they were classed as schedule 1 drugs which made their use illegal) to help people with mental issues. The best information I got from this book (other than the general info described previously) is how to structure a micro dosing schedule. Turns out every 4th day is a typical dosing schedule with a 10 cycle duration. This is referred to as the Fadiman protocol. After the 10 cycle process is complete one should evaluate whether micro dosing is doing any good or doing any harm and modify the dosage and/or the schedule accordingly. The book goes into great detail about journaling through out this process to keep track of how micro dosing has affected ones self. I don't think I will do the journaling at this point but maybe in the future. I would recommend this book to anyone who is contemplating going down the micro dosing path just to help form a basis from which to start your journey. |
| 10. The Story
of B - Daniel Quinn - The first time I read
this book I was blown away by the philosophical and
physical implications. So I decided to read this book
again probably 20+ years later and I was not so
impressed maybe because the plight of this Earth is now
much more evident whereas I was naive previously. I
could write up a synopsis of this book but Wikipedia has
a great description available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_B. |
| 11. Death By
Astonishment - Andrew R. Gallimore - I
borrowed this book from my cousin Chris who is a current
explorer of the psychedelic realms. This book is about
the drug DMT which has almost a religious following
among its initiates. The history of DMT started in the
jungles of the Amazon with ancient (and current shamans)
using various plants and plant combinations to alter
their consciousnesses to allow communication with the Other,
the discarnate intelligences of unimaginable wisdom and
power who live in some ill defined realm. A realm that,
as shamans see it, has all of their ancestors, dead
people and visitors from other worlds who are available
to teach and help them. As scientists in the previous
century became interested in the use of psychedelics as
possible treatments for mental disorders the chemical
structure of ayahuasca (a popular psychedelic with
native Amazon cultures) was broken down into its
component parts with what became known as DMT being the
primary alkaloid responsible for the psychedelic
affects. Come to find
out DMT is produced by most plants and animals including
humans but its function in plants and in our bodies is
not yet understood. As the power of DMT as a psychedelic became evident there were many studies of its effects carried out at some of the premiere medical institutions around the world. For many of these studies, large number of volunteers were given DMT intravenously while their minds and bodies were monitored to try to determine the affect the drug was having on their physiology. Of possibly more interest were the reports these volunteers wrote after their experiences. In a lot of cases their trips were consistent in that they broke through a barrier into another realm populated by beings of great intelligence that were expecting them and that were trying to communicate important information to them to better their (and our) worlds. All the participants talked of a complete change in reality that had no correlation to their normal reality. They said it was like a switch was flipped and normal reality dissolved and a new one was formed out of things of which they had no knowledge or comprehension. It was like their minds were being fed by some external entity that had total control of what they were trying to show them. Gallimore spends a lot of time in this well researched book trying to bring together the various studies to try an form some conclusions about how DMT actually works. He goes into great detail about how the brain works in conjunction with the visual cortex in waking and dreaming states and how the mind uses models of what it has learned over time to identify things it has experienced in the past. DMT trips, however, provide visions of things and dimensions that no one has ever experienced before so where can the imagery come from? In the end he seems to be convinced that there is discarnate intelligences residing somewhere (another dimension maybe, in space maybe?) that indeed are driving the DMT experience. In this he agrees with Amazon shamans that have held this view for 1000's of years. A very interesting read that makes me want to experience the wonders of DMT. As a side note, it is possible to have a DMT trip in Colorado Springs at a religious institution that uses DMT as its sacrament. |