This is How You Lose the Time War

 This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 

A friend told me I would either love or hate this book, but that either way, I should absolutely read it. I borrowed her library copy and two days later I'm trying to put into words the effect it had on me. First I'll try to tell you what it's about.

In a future world, or maybe it's a world apart from time altogther, two soldiers on opposite sides of an ongoing war, battle each other in various times and places. Red fights for The Agency, which I think is a race (?) of advanced robot/AI...people (?). Blue fights for Garden, which is a sort of biological force/entity whose people (?) are all connected by the same root. Red and Blue travel up and down the time line - which in this imagined world is a braid of ropes... or strings...or something -  following orders to intervene in any situation their commanders believe will mess with the timeline or otherwise interfere with their side's plans. 

Red and Blue are sworn enemies, leaving each other taunting letters written in and on the weirdest, most brilliantly inventive places you could imagine, or not imagine. In these letters they come to know one another and begin to develop feelings they shouldn't have for an enemy soldier. The Agency and Garden follow their every move and even seem to know what they're thinking most of the time, so Red and Blue are risking their lives just communicating with one another, let alone being in a relationship.

That isn't a terribly clear picture but I'm still trying to figure out what it all means myself. It's strange and wonderful and way out there and one of the most moving stories I've read lately. 

The writing is lovely. There's a wistful - almost ethereal at times - tone to it even as Red and Blue carryout out their rather brutal assignments. One particular thought has stuck with me -  

 "Adventure works in any strand - 

  it calls to those who care more for living

than for their lives."

I don't think I'm in that brave group any longer but reading this book certainly was an adventure. The unique ways the author developed the relationship between Red and Blue and sent them travelling through the timeline made it quite exciting. I got completely invested in these two and their strange lives, without ever knowing for sure what they are. 

I've been thinking about the love/hate prediction. I absolutely didn't hate it but did I love it? It's not the sort of story I'm usually drawn to, but I was so moved by it I know it's one I'll never forget. 

So, yes, I think my friend was right. I loved it.   

The Joy of X

 The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math From One to Infinityby Steven Strogatz

This was a lot of fun. I got a bit lost at times but forged ahead and came out of each chapter knowing something I didn't before. 

There are 30 chapters, with titles that hint at the author's playful approach to math:

1. Fish to Infinity - an introduction to numbers 

3. The Enemy of My Enemy - the disturbing concept of subtraction

5. Division and Its Discontents

8. Finding Your Roots - complex numbers

10. Working Your Quads - the quadraic formula

11. Power Tools - the function of functions

16. Take It To The Limit - the power of the infinite (calculus)

20. Loves Me, Loves Me Not - differential equations

23. Chances Are - the improbable thrills of probablility theory

25. The Loneliest Numbers - prime numbers

27. Twist and Shout - playing with mobius strips and music boxes

Some of that sounded pretty intimidating to me, and it was, but even if I didn't grasp all the finer points, just getting the broader concepts into my head was invigorating. 

I don't know if I'll ever use what I learned, but it doesn't matter. I had fun trying to figure it out, it was entertaining reading, and it was good mental exercise. I'll keep it on my shelf and am sure I'll be referring to it again. 

The Sound of Fire

 The Sound of Fire by Renee Belliveau

In 1941, a fire broke out in the men's residence at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, Canada. That's about 45 mins from where I live - not sure of the distance in kms, we tend to measure distance in driving time up here - and though I'm familiar with the university and have known a number of people who received their education there, I had never heard this part of its history.

The author, Renee Belliveau, an archivist who discovered this story searching through University records, has written a heart-breaking novel based on a true and tragic story in which four students lost their lives when the raging fire burned the residence to the ground.  

Each chapter tells the story from a different viewpoint - students, a journalist, the University President, and the fire itself. As each one woke to someone pounding on their door, or the smell of smoke, or the alarm bell ringing, they fought their way through thickening smoke to whatever exit they could find. Some reached the fire escape, an iron ladder on the outside of the residence, and some were left with no choice but to jump from 3rd and 4th floor windows. Four students found no way of escape.

It was a little choppy in the beginning. In the middle of intense action it would stall to tell us about someone's background or family. Frustrating, but I forgot about it as I got lost in the gripping stories of what each one experienced in those terrifying moments. Their worry and fear were palpable, as were the grief and trauma later. The author did a good job of getting emotion across without resorting to sentimentality or melodrama.

I liked this one not only for its local history but for the story itself, a well-told one I think anyone could get into.

Still in Love / Olivetti

 Still in Love by Michael Downing

An audio book I enjoyed a great deal but suspect may not be for everyone. Several unsympathetic reviews dismiss it as being too narrow in its subject matter, but I like this particular subject matter and have to disagree. 

The title put me off at first - romances aren't my favourite genre - but it's more about the romance of writing than it is about a human relationship, although that is part of it, too.  

Set in the university classroom of a writing workshop, it strays only far enough from that to round out the story a little. The class is given various writing assignments, with the resulting stories discussed and evaluated by the group. Between classes and one-on-one meetings with students during office hours, the (asst.) professor is struggling to write a book of his own. His personal life comes into it, but never as much more than background to his teaching/writing life. 

If writing doesn't interest you I don't know that you'd find much to like in this. There is little action, but a lot of  thinking and discussing. I liked the characters and particularly enjoyed the professor analyzing the student's stories and offering suggestions for improvement. I hope to buy a hard copy to keep and read again.

 Olivetti by Allie Millington

I've come across a number of books lately where the narrator is an inanimate object rather than a human being. When I saw this story was told by a typewriter it was simply too bookish to pass up. 

The other narrator is a 12 year old boy, whose mother has been sick for some time and is now missing. The typewriter, Olivetti, remembers everything Beverly (the mother) ever typed on it and so may be able to provide clues as to where she has gone. The narrators alternate chapters.

The story - at times funny, at times sad - keeps you anticipating what comes next and is perfectly suited to the recommended reading age of 8 to 14 yrs. It touches on topics of cancer, difficult family situations, theft, anger, and being afraid, so may or may not be suitable for readers younger than that.

A uniquely interesting story. 

More or Less Maddy

 More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova

Another gripping story by an author who shows us what it's like to live with debilitating neurological disorders. This time it's Maddie, a young girl with bi-polar disease whose dream is to become a stand-up comedian. 

As Lisa Genova's stories always are, it was emminently readable, but I found this one a little harder to get through on an emotional level. Maddie's up times were truly frightening, with the increasing recklessness of her actions seeming to cross lines there could be no coming back from, and the lows were even worse. It was so convincingly written that her self-destructive actions start to make sense and seem reasonable in her circumstances. I wonder if that could make it risky reading for vulnerable people. 

It is a good story and important in shedding light on this awful illness, but I'd be hesitant to give it to anyone I knew to be in the throes of a serious depression. On the other hand, I might be way off and it could be the very thing someone needs to hear. It would take a wiser person than I to say.  

Genova's books have done much to show us the human side of these diseases and hopefully make us all more aware and more compassionate. And besides all that, they are darn good stories.

Careless People

 Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook from 2011 to 2017, working up to the position of Global Public Policy Director. This is her personal account of the work she did there and the people she worked with. It begins slowly but the latter half of the book gets more intense as she describes her disappointment and frustration with things she saw and heard. 

I went into this already doubting Facebook's - now Meta's - good intentions, and what I read did not encourage me to change my mind. Not that any of it was startling news, it simply confirms what we all suspect, that Facebook, like other large corporations, makes decisions based on profit rather than what's best for the people they claim to serve. No surprise there, still it may be a bit surprising to read about the careless way Meta is said to treat its employees. It's always interesting to get an inside perspective and see how powerful people conduct themselves and function in the world. 

Of course (and this is only from info I've found online) Meta has retaliated, calling the book "false and defamatory". They sued the author for violating a "non-disparagement clause in her severance agreement" and the last I read, she has been legally prohibited from promoting the book. 

It's a case of she says/they say, with lots of people on both sides claiming the other side is wrong. We can't know because we weren't there, but I don't believe she made all of it up. It's true that in the latter half of the book she seems a little less controlled and a lot more angry, but she still comes off sounding more credible than Meta does. 

This is a story about a company that seems dissatisfied with simply being profitable. It appears they want to be more, and more, profitable, and more powerful. It's the power they already have and the reported carelessness with people that gives one pause. But that's just my opinion. Read the book and come back and tell me yours. 

It's controversial, disheartening, and a little alarming, but it's a story that speaks to the times we're living in and so is worth reading.