21. Steal Away The Sky by Nancy Kress. The best intro is to give you the blurb from the dust jacket:
"The ad had appeared on the internet: 'We are an alien race you may call the Atoners. Ten thousand years ago we wronged humanity profoundly. We cannot undo what has been done, but we wish humanity to understand it. Therefore we request twenty-one volunteers to visit seven planets to witness for us. We will convey each volunteer there and back in complete safety. Volunteers must speak English. Send requests for electronic applications to witness@atoners.com.'"
And what's it all about? Well, I don't want to give it away, but it was a pretty good read. The author shows not only what the Atoners are atoning for, but the human reaction to the deed that they are atoning for. Four stars (of five.)
22. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. Interesting discussion about how randomness, chance, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives. Probably the take home message is that we can't control randomness, but we can control how we react to it. And one method of defeating randomness is to persevere. After all, the more trials you make, the more likely you are to come closer to the mean! (The author actually said this in a much better and much more inspiring way that I did.) Three and a half stars.
23. First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher. The final (presumably) volume in the "Codex Alera" series. Butcher comes to a satisfying climax, ties up all the loose ends, and generally gives a darn good read. Four stars.
24. Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed by Jared Diamond. A well-researched, and chilling, tome about societies both historical and current, and how they "collapse" - that is, suffer a dramatic decrease in population and complexity. Historical examples given include the Norse in Greenland, Easter Island, the Anasazi and their neighbors in the southwestern USA. Current examples include Rwanda and its recent genocide, the difference between Haiti (mostly deforested) and the Dominican Republic (still has a lot of its forests), and the behemoth that is industrializing China - how pollution there affects the entire rest of the world.
The author paints a somber picture of how many societies commit "ecocide" - they destroy their resource base. And he points out the parallels to our situation today. Is there hope? Tough to say. It will depend on our own actions. Well worth reading. Five stars.
(P.S. Gee, can you tell I've been on vacation lately and have had loads of reading time?)
(P.P.S. Star ratings are entirely subjective and are based on how engrossed and intrigued I was when I read the book. Totally arbitrary. Your mileage may vary.)
