David G. Cookson's Blog, page 7

Imposter Syndrome

Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Julia Lerner is the wealthy and highly successful CEO of a Silicon Valley social media company called Tangerine, which is a Facebook-like organization which allows people to connect and share their stories (and data) with millions of people.

Julia Lerner is also a spy, recruited by the Russian Intelligence to insinuate herself into American life and report back to her superiors in Russia via a handler named Leo. They ask her to do things for them, to funnel intelligence back home, to live her life as an American. She picks a compliant husband, has a child to complete the cover, and to all appearances she is living the American dream.

Then there is Alice Lu, a first-generation Chinese American who has suffered a downgrade in her professional life. She stumbles across Julia’s secret during a routine server check, which traps her down the rabbit hole of doing what is right for her country and the more practical thought of keeping food on her table in an expensive part of the country. Also, Julia Lerner is doing so well: a woman in a man’s world who is making her way and making it work—she is almost admirable. Who is to say that what she is doing is wrong?

What ensues is a cat and mouse game that offers sly social commentary and thoughts on the ethics of social media and gender politics without ever being heavy-handed. This book is so much fun and it moves along at a great clip, alternating perspectives and driving to a surprising resolution. I thoroughly enjoyed this.




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Middle England

Middle England by Jonathan Coe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A sprawling tale from Jonathan Coe which follows the various members of a family living in England in the years 2010 to 2018. There is Benjamin, who has been working on his own sprawling book and dealing with the ultimate failure of a romantic dream unfulfilled. There is his father, Colin, whose dying wish is to vote "LEAVE" in the Brexit referendum. There are Sophie and Ian, who find themselves at odds politically, and there's Ben's Friend Doug, a political commentator who lives in comfort with a daughter who has been radicalized while not actually suffering much at all.
All of this story is set amongst the backdrop of the Brexit referendum, which would seem to mirror the political divide here in the US. In fact, the novel comes together around real events in the news and shows how everyday British people have been challenged, scars in society exposed, showing how many of the problems in the US have a corollary in other countries.

This book is in fact a sequel to two other books I haven't read, but that didn't hurt my enjoyment of this. Middle England is terrific, and probably the most vivid picture I have ever had of what all these things in the news across the pond really meant to the people of "Middle England."

Excellent, highly recommend.



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Peril

Peril by Bob Woodward

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Peril is another book about the Trump administration which focuses on the contentious 2020 election and the violent aftermath and then leads thru the first six months of the Biden administration. It opens with a chilling revelation that a US General, fearing his unbalanced leader could snap and start a war with China, actually contacted Chinese leadership via back channels to reassure them that this was not going to happen. This is General Milley, who is a prominent figure in Peril.

Outside of a few bombshell revelations, Peril is largely Woodward doing Woodward. It goes through all of the happenings of the 2020 election, Election Day, the period between the election and the announcement of the winner; then the accusations, the lawsuits, then the January 6 Insurrection during which an angry mob stormed the Capitol and disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Then the Inauguration, and the first 6 months of the Biden Presidency…

In 20 or 30 years down the road, as someone tries to make sense of how we made it through these times, this might be a good place to start. Also, not to spoil anything (ha-ha) but it ends on an Empire Strikes Back note…for the evil you thought you’d conquered may only be resting, and waiting for his moment to strike---if only he can get out of his own way.

Former President Donald Trump’s worst enemy, for all his grievances against a vast multitude of individuals, is always going to be himself. But he has lain the template for tapping into a significant sector of the electorate. Any outside enemy would be wise to take note of this.

Peril joins Rage and Fear to paint a day-to-day portrait of the four years of the Trump administration and beyond.




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The War for Late Night

The War For Late Night by Bill Carter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In what amounts to a follow-up to The Late Shift (a brilliant history of the battle for Johnny Carson’s seat on the tonight show) comes The War For Late Night. It is sixteen years later and many of the same players are involved. Jay Leno, having won the coveted Tonight Show gig, beating out David Letterman, has been told to keep the seat warm for his successor, Conan O’Brien: in five years. Cut to 2009 and…Jay Leno is still there. And spoiler: he doesn’t go away.

Conan takes the Tonight Show but NBC cooks up a way to keep both stars around by inventing a ten o’clock show for Jay Leno.
What ensues is nothing short of a complete disaster.

Conan was a victim of the broad, bland, boring appeal that made Jay Leno so popular. Jay Leno offered a safe product, but he was never cutting edge or even particularly original. But like that bland food at the buffet, the old folks don’t care.

The machinations behind the scene are riveting and also extraordinarily sad to realize the irrelevance that talent has on the bottom line. In what may have been a precursor to the division we see in this country today, lines were drawn between the Leno crowd and the Coco supporters. But Bill Carter does an excellent job representing the many sides to the issues between them. It is a little shocking to realize how much hinged upon start times and people not wanting to give up time in their show.

I might be slightly more inclined to favor this book over The Late Shift simply because I remember the events better. I even went to see Conan on his road show when he wasn’t allowed to be on TV. I remember it. It was extremely personal. Many of us watched this Baby Boomer refuse to make way for a younger generation and felt Conan’s pain. Yes, he was making a lot more money to not work…but he was still being pushed around.

This is a terrific book with some great background on all the major late-night performers in a snapshot of a world that was changing right before our eyes.







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The Late Shift

The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno & the Network Battle for the Night by Bill Carter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is a relic from a time when late night television was still a major deal: a factor in lives that did not yet have the internet or hundreds or even thousands of other viewing options. Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show. He was once the undisputed King of Late Night in a uniquely American invented television format. When he announced his retirement in 1993, it sent a shockwave through the industry. The race was on to determine who would succeed him. In one corner, was the clear front runner: Jay Leno, a comic’s comic, a company man, a unique talent. Leno was nothing if not solid, on-time, hardworking, broad and obvious and palatable to middle class America. In the other corner was off-beat and mildly cantankerous host of a late-night show that came on well after most normal people are asleep. David Letterman was regarded as a once in a generation talent…if only he could get out of his own way.

The story of the behind-the-scenes machinations reads like the 90’s version of a Shakespeare play. The prize is the big chair at the most-watched late night show, a prize that held two men in its grasp. And the lengths to which each would go (Jay Leno hid in a closet to get the dirt on what his NBC colleagues were saying about him) is at times fascinating.

This is about show business, and people doing business things for the people for whom they work. It is a time capsule and a historical document. I already have the next chapter of this lined up to read. Very enjoyable.




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The Three Hour Nap Clause. A book I wrote.

Hi,


I usually only use this blog for book reviews, but I’d like to offer any regular readers. The Three-Hour Nap Clause.


I am a small-time author who self-publishes homemade books which I print on a home printer. (It is basically a long ‘zine, if you are familiar with the format) I have stapled and assembled these to sell in select locations and on my site. But since we’re here and you are reading, I was hoping I could convince a few of you to read my book.


The Three Hour Nap Clause is about a man who must nap every three hours…or else face certain death.


It is a funny, fast paced-story that I really just want people to read, maybe even review it on Goodreads. I ask you because you are already on Goodreads and maybe that means we are halfway there.



https://davecookson.tripod.com/ThreeHourNapClause.html

Thanks!

---Dave G.

The Genius Plague

The Genius Plague by David Walton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked this one up off the shelf at the library with no fore-knowledge of the story or author, and with no recommendations or preconceptions. It was a completely random pick off the shelf. I picked it up because it looked cool and it happened to catch my eye.

All of which I only mention because it made it so satisfying to discover what a gem I’d discovered.
The Genius Plague begins with Neil Johns, who has just started a dream job as a codebreaker with the NSA. His brother Paul studies fungus and goes missing in the Amazon after his expedition is attacked by terrorists. He comes down with a fungal infection that almost kills him. He disappears, with no memory of how he got away. He comes back to the US with enhanced abilities (for one, he is able to beat his older brother at Scrabble for the first time ever with multi-syllabic and obscure point-heavy words). He is changed by his ability to use his brain in a clearer and more effective way. Their father is suffering from Alzheimer’s, which all of a sudden goes into remission after Paul arranges a radical treatment for him with the same fungal infection that nearly killed him. Soon, this infection begins to appear all over the world. And while millions of people wind up with increased brain function, it leads to some bizarre consequences and unusual allegiances among traditional adversaries. It is up to Neil, in his new role as an agent of the NSA, to help discover the secret of this infection that threatens national security, if not the safety of the whole world. Neil finds some disturbing facts about this fungal adversary which comes from an implacable foe that can survive in the dark even if mankind cannot.

What is their ultimate goal? And what will be the price to humanity? As the book rolls on, it builds to some unexpected results.

The Genius Plague is a wild book. It’s entertaining and fun: a total pleasure to read. I’m so glad I found this. Highly recommended.




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Whisper Down the Lane

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Whisper down the lane” is an old-timey name for what we used to call “Telephone,” the game where a person whispers something to one person and then that person whispers to the next person and so on until the message is garbled and nothing like the original.

Set against the background of the “Satanic Panic” of the early 80’s (in which children were led into false confessions of imaginary evil-doing by teachers and authority figures, which led to quite a few wrongful imprisonments and false charges), Whisper Down the Lane flips between the past and the present. Back in the 80’s, A boy named Sean instigates a panic in his community in which a popular teacher is accused of being a Satanist.

In the present day, a man feels echoes of this event when a school’s pet rabbit is gutted and displayed in a ritualistic fashion. Later, the man’s stepson’s cat is also displayed in such a fashion.
Reality and paranoid fantasy crisscross as the man realizes that his pas may have finally caught up with him.

Whisper Down the Lane is entertaining all the way through, and for the most part, it holds up. It's not too Scooby Doo and other than that, I won't give anything away.




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The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut

Malachi Constant is a disgustingly rich son of privilege who winds up on a physical journey which will lead to the answers to the Big Questions.

Published in 1959, Vonnegut hit upon many of the themes and issues that would reappear in his later works. The concept of viewing history in an unconnected, out-of-order manner where time is fluid and everything happens the way it has always happened is one of the main devices in Slaughterhouse Five, and it is used here. Theres is a history of Mars in which there was a war between the planets that does not go quite as one would have expected.

The style is fluid, full of the digression that made Vonnegut one of my favorites. There are repeated choruses and themes… “Rented a tent, a tent, a tent….”

But my favorite section:

"We are disgusted by Malachi Constant," said Winston Niles Rumfoord up in his treetop, "because he used the fantastic fruits of his fantastic good luck to finance an unending demonstration that man is a pig. He wallowed in sycophants. He wallowed in worthless women. He wallowed in lascivious entertainments and alcohol and drugs. He wallowed in every known form of voluptuous turpitude.” (page 256).

This was Kurt Vonnegut’s second novel and it is the second one of my meandering quest to read or re-read all of his novels.

American Kompromat

American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery by Craig Unger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


(How the KGB cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power and Treachery.)

It’s right there in the subtitle. This is the first thing I thought about when considering how to review this. Because it does stray from the initial topic quite a bit and may cause the casual reader to wonder “what does this have to do with THAT?” But the scope of the book is broad and paints a picture that we all recognize at this point. But the wrinkle of Trump being recruited as an asset back in the 80’s (one of many) by the KGB and then unwittingly parroting back the whole Soviet/Russian worldview as a platform for a major political party is the kind of thing that was supposed to be exposed by the Mueller Report. As explained in the text, it was all skillfully buried by AG William Barr. Barr gets a lot of time and airplay in this. It does offer a relatively damning summary of Trump’s time in public life, how one can trace back 40 years to see how the former Soviet Union saw promise in this brash young real estate tycoon on the rise, and how his ascent to the top office in the United States would have gone beyond any KGB recruiters’ wildest dreams.
But like a lot of books from the era of Trump, it will convince the initiated and be dismissed by his supporters who may or may not bother to read books. By the very nature of the subject, it can only be hearsay. And the book makes a point about how all the best intelligence operations are done with very few laws broken.
The last chapter sums up the last year of the Trump administration and the attempt to overturn the election. Somewhere Vladimir Putin is smiling.





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