non-fiction

Book review: A Long Way Home

A Long Way HomeA Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a sweet story of how a child of five managed to survive lost in the city of Calcutta for weeks before being taken in by police, put up for adoption, then moved to Australia before, improbably, finding his birth mother still living near his childhood home 25 years later, using Google Earth, of all things.

The first third of the story depicts life in the Indian village of Ganesh Talai, where the poverty-stricken family struggles to find enough to eat. Eventually Saroo’s older brothers start begging and working around the railroads farther away from the village and one time the eldest, Guddu, offers to take the then-five year old Saroo with him for the day. Exhausted by the long train ride, Saroo waits on a platform at the station after his brother promises to return later that day–but never does.

After growing impatient, Saroo tries to find his way back home by boarding another train but ends up on a journey that takes him 1500 km away, ending with him in the giant rail terminus of Howrah, in the city of Kolkata (then Calcutta). Surviving on a combination of wits, fast legs, a general distrust and begging, Saroo spends weeks in Kolkata before finally being taken by a teen to the police and reported as lost.

Fairly swiftly he is adopted by an Australian couple and moves to a new home in Hobart, Tasmania. There, 25 years later, he uses Google Earth and then Facebook to begin an improbable quest to find his hometown and birth family.

But he never finds them. The book is only 20 pages long.

Kidding! While later admitting his search methodology could have been more efficient, Saroo does eventually find his home village and the reunion with his mother is touching, yet bittersweet, given the lost years and the fate of his older brother, killed by a train (hence why he never returned to fetch his younger brother).

While his memories as a five year old are sometimes inaccurate–he will never remember the exact train route he took that managed to land him in Kolkata) he retained enough detail about his home town to positively identify local landmarks on a satellite map, an amazing achievement, more so given the lengthy passage of time.

Even now, writing this review, I am still struck at how Saroo’s dedicated effort yielded the proverbial needle in the haystack. This is a remarkable story and well worth checking out. The photos (at the end of the ebook version) are especially sweet, showing the reunited family with smiles all around.

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Book review: The Eerie Silence

The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien IntelligenceThe Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Paul Davies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paul Davies, the chair of SETI’s Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup, wrote The Eerie Silence in 2010, a short time after the Kepler space telescope launched. Back then a handful of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) had been discovered. Since then Kepler alone has confirmed over 2,300 exoplanets and estimates for the observable universe go as high as 5.3 trillion.

That’s a lot of planets.

And yet seven years later, the eerie silence Davies wrote about persists. You might think that over 50 years of observation by SETI failing to yield any tangible results would be disheartening and indeed, Davies does admit it can be a little depressing when you focus solely on the lack of any clear signal that we are not alone in the universe. But he remains hopeful that life here is not a one-time fluke among the billions of star systems. That hope is tempered by his adherence to the scientific method, of observation and testing, with minimal speculation.

It is that speculation, though, that forms the heart of the book. Davies presents comprehensive scenarios on how other planets might support life, what that life might be like, how alien races might communicate with us–or if they would even bother. He takes a dim view on fictional portrayals of aliens as malevolent beings looking to wipe us out and constantly warns against falling into the trap of anthropocentric thought. H notes that we might not even recognize aliens because they could exist in a state we can’t comprehend.

Davies also spends time covering how SETI and others would handle the world-changing confirmation of other intelligent life (he doesn’t put much stock in politicians or government handling it well).

In all, this is a wonderfully detailed and engaging look into the possibility of life beyond Earth. Davies keeps coming up with unique angles on how to approach looking for signs of communication–whether intentional or incidental, on how other intelligent beings might act and evolve, and why he is still passionate about continuing the search for other intelligent species beyond the confines of our solar system.

Highly recommended.

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Book review: Steal Like an Artist

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being CreativeSteal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a quick little inspirational tome designed to help spur creativity, supplemented by Kleon’s quirky choice of photographs and his own hand-drawn art and notes.

His advice, backed up by quotes from notable creative types, is sensible while some of the particulars reflect what works well for him but may not work so well for everyone else. He cheerfully recommends jettisoning anything you don’t think will work for you.

Some of his ideas are interesting–having both a digital and analog desk, keeping a simple logbook (not to be confused with a diary or journal) and having a praise file for days when you are feeling down or uninspired. Others, like a giant year-long calendar you can X off each day as you complete tasks, I am less sold on.

The enthusiasm and spirit with which he presents his advice are bound to get you motivated to try something, though. And his drawing style is weirdly cute. Recommended.

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Book review: Brandwashed

BrandwashedBrandwashed by Martin Lindstrom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Martin Lindstrom’s Brandwashed is in many ways not surprising to those who are familiar with the lengths that companies will go to in order to market their products. What still surprised me, though, was how improved technology has allowed these companies to propel their efforts to new, absurd and downright creepy heights.

Whether it’s carefully-arranged store displays presenting illusions designed to elicit specific emotions or memories, efforts to market not just to adults, teens and children, but even to babies, or the use of sophisticated data-mining to target individuals with a disturbing level of precision, Brandwashed paints a picture of a world in which we are constantly bombarded with messages–usually subliminal–to buy certain products and services.

Lindstrom’s perspective is that of an insider, and he cites not only numerous case studies and marketing campaigns, but some he has orchestrated directly himself. He comes across a bit apologetic at times and even tries to reveal some of the good in these insidious techniques, like attempts to woo consumers toward more green products, but he also rightfully raises concerns over privacy and reach.

The book focuses on a different aspect of marketing in each chapter and the style and tone remain light, even as Lindstrom reminds us of how the flat where George Orwell wrote 1984 now has 32 closed-circuit cameras mounted within 200 yards of it.

While the thrust of the book remains as potent in 2017 as when it was originally published in 2011, some of the observations are bound to raise a few eyebrows just six years later (likely in dismay):

On the male side, there are colognes attached to the famous names Justin Timberlake, David Beckham, Usher, Tim McGraw, Andre Agassi, and even Donald Trump. “We are confident that men of all ages want to experience some part of Mr. Trump’s passion and taste for luxury,” said Aramis president Fabrice Weber.25 Actually, it appears they don’t. In one of the few cases where putting a celebrity name on a product didn’t work, a few years after it hit the shelves, according to one gimlet-eyed blogger, Donald Trump for Men could be found on clearance at T. J. Maxx for $8, down from $48.

Brandwashed is an easy recommendation for anyone wondering just how far companies will go to get us to buy their stuff (which is a lot further than most probably imagine).

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Book review: How to Grow a Novel

How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome ThemHow to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them by Sol Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m a sucker for “how to write a novel” books and when How to Grow a Novel was on sale, I picked it up as I was interested in Stein’s perspective not just as a writer but also as an editor and publisher.

There’s some good stuff here and the advice is practical and precise, if sometimes contradictory. Stein both advises writers to read their own work aloud–and to not do so (because novels are read, not heard). He offers some genuinely interesting glimpses into how the book publishing business works (or at least worked, as the book was originally published in 1999, predating the rise of self-publishing through e-books).

I enjoyed the use of specific excerpts to underline the points being made but was less enthused with the self-promotion. The book Stein recommends the most is his own. At times he makes Stein On Writing sound better than this book, perhaps hoping to net a few more sales.

By the end, I found How to Grow a Novel more interesting as a reflection on the book publishing industry and less on the actual writing of a novel. A beginning writer could do worse (the stories of six-figure advances may be depressing in a way Stein didn’t anticipate) but could also do better, especially if looking for help that more readily mixes nuts and bolts advice with inspiration.

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