2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis USN
Publisher’s Description: “On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones , conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.”
2034 does not rise to the “thrill” level of a Tom Clancy novel. Instead 2034, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran with the former commander of NATO, is a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction.
Everything in 2034 is a possible extrapolation from present-day facts combined with the authors' years of experience working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. This may explain why it is not as “thrilling” as a Tom Clancy novel – the main characters are “ordinary”, just like the actual people who are working in national security now. 2034 vividly points out the human error factor. One small misstep can lead to many others that lead to a world war these authors have speculated about.
Non-fiction: Linguistics, Psychology, Sociology
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
The author, Amanda Montell is a linguist and writer. In Cultish Montell explores how cultish groups and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power. She explains the language and psychosocial influences that entice and reward people for joining groups. Breaking down the cultish language used by members of QAnon, Heaven’s Gate, The People’s Temple (Jonestown), - even Crossfit and *yoga studios, Montell explains how it is language that can best clue us in as to whether an organization we have joined is a cult or is at least engaging in cultlike behavior to extract resources out of its members. * As a former yoga teacher, I agree with her assessment of American yoga - some studios are cultish.*
Cultish groups “encourage” conditioned followers by creating an us versus them dichotomy. Essentially, the leader or group makes followers feel superior, like they have all the answers - “The rest of the world is not only foolish but inferior.” Initially followers think the leader is engaging in tell-it-like-it-is honesty which actually is just a lack of filter and rude behavior. Renaming people and institutions is key in creating the dichotomy – “Fake news” instead of media; “witch hunt” instead of investigation; or “Crooked Hillary” instead of former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. This language instills a sense of camaraderie among the followers while demonizing “them” – those not in the cultish group.
Cultish groups also cut off any followers’ questions by using thought terminating clichés. These are catchphrases aimed at stopping an argument from moving forward by discouraging critical thought. Also called semantic stop signs, these hastily dismiss dissent or rationalize flawed reasoning. Examples: “It is what it is.” “Boys will be boys.” “Everything happens for a reason.” “It’s out of our hands.” Again, a conditioned follower will not question a leader or the group’s ideas but if they do question, chances are they will be answered with a cliché which in turn squashes their independent thinking.
For example, if followers hear, like those in Jonestown heard, “It’s the media’s fault.” repeatedly, that cliché is “burned” (conditioned) into their brains. They they do not consider any other information that doesn’t come from the leader. Eventually followers stop questioning, they stop thinking critically.
👉"Jim Jones was able to attract and maintain loyalty. First thing he would do is convince his followers that he was the only one who could solve problems and create a better life. (conditioning with cultish language) Secondly, he'd indoctrinate his followers, so anyone not part of the group is the enemy. It was us [People's Temple members] against them. (us versus them dichotomy) The third thing he would do is drown out the voice of outsiders. His purpose was to alienate the followers from outsiders, family and the media.(thought terminating clichés) " - Jeff Guin
Fiction: Mystery
An English Murder by Cyril Hare
An unhappy family gathers at Warbeck Hall to celebrate Christmas. Summoned by the ailing Lord Warbeck, they come for what will be his last Christmas. Yet the death they encounter soon after their arrival is not his but that of his son, Robert. With a blizzard blowing outside and, as midnight strikes on Christmas Eve, Robert, a fascist with a secret he has kept hidden from his family, falls dead. There is no hope that the local police will make it to the Hall any time soon as the snowfall has cut the country house off from the outside world. So the case lands with the only available policeman, the personal bodyguard to Lord Warbeck's brother, Julius, who is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Whom among them is the murderer?
Written in 1951, An English Murder is more than just a country house mystery set during the holidays. It also captures Great Britain in transition, with the old social order under assault from a more egalitarian-minded public. The politics of this lies at the heart of the tensions between the characters, and politics also plays a role in the murder at the center of it. This makes for a different take on the classic country house mystery, one in which a policeman/detective is NOT the one to solve the case!
Credit for solving the mystery belongs to an unassuming Jewish historian, Dr. Wenceslaus Bottwink, a survivor of Auschwitz who has come to Warbeck Hall in order to catalog the Warbeck archive. Accustomed to historical "detective" work, Dr. Bottwink has an eye for detail and less-than-obvious connections. He discovers not only the culprit, but the unconventional – yet, very English - motive for the murder.
Fiction: Thriller, Horror
The Fog by James Herbert
*NOTE: Not to be confused with the John Carpenter film of the same name.
James Herbert has been called the British “Stephen King” and for good reason! Like King, this book has shocking, brutal violence committed by ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The Fog was published in 1975, and of course, reading it 40+ years later, the technology is somewhat antiquated, but that is of little consequence - this is a gruesome tale!
Following a rare earthquake in Wiltshire, a mysterious fog appears and wherever it goes it drives people insane. Normal people turn into raving lunatics with superior strength. They either kill others or commit suicide. The government is trying everything to stop the fog from floating into London but all their efforts are ineffective. Will John Holman, an environmental engineer, who survived the initial release of the fog, be able to stop this "deadly man-made disease"? As can be expected, he must first convince the Ministry of Defense that something escaped from the their laboratory and has mutated into a threat to all humanity.
“Despite all the technological advances of science, it seemed survival still depended on the action of a man. One man.”
Non-fiction: History, Science, Health
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
The Ghost Map is about a cholera outbreak in the summer of 1854. The devastating outbreak seizes London just as it is emerging as a modern city: more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated.
Dr. John Snow, whose ideas about contagion had been dismissed by the scientific community, is spurred to action when the people in his neighborhood begin dying from cholera. Dr. Snow is the first medical professional in England to disregard the "miasma" or “bad air” theory and look for real proof of contagion. With captivating suspense, Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts, as he risks his own life to prove how the epidemic is being spread.
By making a map of the "ghosts" (those who died from the disease), Snow begins to see the progression of the disease. Using his “ghost map”, Snow, with the help of Vicar Henry Whitehead, traces the pattern of outbreak back to its source. He didn't just solve the most pressing medical riddle of his time, Dr. Snow ultimately established a precedent for the way modern city planners, physicians, public health officials and government officials think about the spread of disease.
Johnson is interested not only in how groundbreaking theories are developed but also in how faulty ideas can persist. He shows how London officials were so convinced foul smells caused illness that they tried to purify the air by flushing waste out of cellars and into the Thames, which then poisoned the water supply and spread disease.
Ghost Map also contains a surprising historical nugget: Did you know, for instance, that citizens who drank alcohol rather than water were less likely to get sick? - "Most of the world's population today is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their tolerance for alcohol."
Written in 2006, years before the Covid-19 pandemic, Johnson notes that “Rogue viruses could once again turn urban areas into sites of mass death … It is incumbent on us to do, at the very least two things … first, embrace – as a matter of philosophy and public policy – the insights of science … second, commit ourselves anew to scientific public-health matters. If we listen to science and not superstition, we might actually have real answers.”
Science Fiction: Post-Apocalyptic
Greybeard by Brian W. Aldiss
Published in 1964, this post apocalyptic story falls into the “humanity is the victim of its own foolishness, a disaster of its own making” category. An accident occurs while the USA and Great Britain are testing nuclear weapons in space. The “Accident” has somehow raised the radiation level not only in the Van Allen Belts, but also on earth causing radiation sickness and sterilization. Once the sickness and radiation deaths decrease, the world is left with an aging population – an aging population that can't have children. Algy, known as Greybeard, and his wife, Martha, were just children during the Accident. Now, in their 50s, they are the youngsters in their community. Their leaders are increasingly old and paranoid, so they decide to take off, head down the Thames, and try and get to London, then hopefully to the coast beyond.
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| Stoat - He may look cute ... but watch out! |
Far from being a totally gloomy scenario, the theme of humankind’s sterile end provides a rich canvas for Aldiss's narrative: villages, forest, river, lakes and cities, swarming with life – flora and fauna. The book evokes a pastoral vision of England; an England reverting to a wild state.
With alternating chapters the narrative moves between present and past. The flashback sequences are less enjoyable: the breakdown of civilization, martial law, and famine and disease. While not exactly dull, these scenes are inevitably gloomy, and it's a relief when the flashback is over. This book has no dashing, youthful hero nor a young female beauty. But there is love: the love of Greybeard and Martha. The ending...the ending is hopeful.
Non-fiction: History, Crime, Politics
Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin
A major milestone in American terrorism unfolded in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The truck bomb attack killed 168 people (including 19 children) and injured 680. The perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, intentionally scheduled the explosion on the second anniversary of the end of the siege in Waco, Texas. Contrary to the title, this is not a comprehensive historical overview of "right-wing extremism." Rather it is an excellent true-crime overview in the "procedural" genre of true crime books: We know from the start "who did it."
Using nearly a million documents, tapes, photographs and detailed communications between McVeigh and his 35 public defender lawyers (yes, we paid for his defense even though he confessed) as well as interviews with Bill Clinton and Merrick Garland, Toobin reveals an in-depth history of the Oklahoma City bombing. Homegrown reveals McVeigh’s life story; his addiction to Rush Limbaugh, guns, Waco and The Turner Diaries; his bombing plan and the actual bombing; his arrest, imprisonment, execution and the scattering of his ashes in the Rocky Mountains. McVeigh never expressed any regret for his actions and referred to his bombing as his “patriotic duty.” This is a page-turning narration by an expert journalist.
Toobin quickly acknowledges some of the relevant right-wing history before the Oklahoma City attack and, at the end of his book, he briefly sketches more recent home-grown terrorist activity, including the January 6 insurrection in Washington D.C. and the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor. Toobin, a lawyer and longtime legal analyst for CNN, states that although these events took place more than 20 years apart, their roots are in the same right-wing extremism - however, today the political reaction in our nation is different.
Toobin is not a psychologist or sociologist and doesn't claim to be one. However, as a veteran journalist, he does offer some important observations about how the participants in this horrific crime deluded themselves into thinking they were doing something noble. Mike Fortier, McVeigh's friend, said about McVeigh,"His world was small." Indeed! Those four words speak volumes. McVeigh and his friends were able to believe what right-wing extremists were telling them because their own lives were closed by their absolute belief that they were right and everyone else was the enemy. Today with the internet, more and more people believe and feel they are “connecting” with the world when actually they are in a communications loop, hearing the same extreme message repeatedly – “The government is tyrannical and we must kill it and anyone who else who doesn’t agree with us – they are the enemy.”
Science Fiction: Fantasy
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
How would your life change if you knew when it would end? The Measure explores how eight different characters would answer that question.
In this imaginative novel, people aged 22 years or older, are waking up all over the world to discover a wooden box waiting for them on their doorstep. Each box is inscribed with the message, “The measure of your life lies within”, and inside is a coil of string indicating the length of the recipient’s life. The novel then follows several New Yorkers as they grapple with the lengths of their own strings and the larger social implications of this new knowledge. Not surprisingly, panic ensues!
For some who received a short string, it was a chance to talk about, and contemplate death with their loved ones, a chance to say their goodbyes. Other “short stringers” decide to just end it all. “Long Stringers” celebrate their good fortune while learning to deal with the “short stringers” in their lives. Then there are some people who simply chose NOT to open the box and are quite happy to get on with their lives without knowing the length of their string. There is even a presidential election in which (you guessed it!) a “short string” candidate versus a “long string” candidate. Finally, my favorite Doris Day song, "Que sera, sera" appears at opportune moments in the story.
The Measure is essentially a story about love and relationships, and how each character and their loved ones deal with this extraordinary event. At the beginning, The Measure’s unlikely underlying premise reminded me of Santa Claus’ Christmas Eve delivery feat but then it assumed a credible life of its own, propelling you forward to the conclusion and a personal contemplation of the measure of your own life.
Audiobook Fiction: Satire, Dystopia
Millennium People by J.G. Ballard
Millennium People tells the story of a psychologist, David Markham, as he searches for the truth behind a bomb that exploded on a Heathrow baggage carousel, killing his ex-wife. Infiltrating a shadowy protest group he believes is responsible for her death, David discovers they are middle class professionals living in a gated neighborhood called Chelsea Marina, aka the Millennium People. This group believes that they are increasingly being squeezed financially by the cost of living. They begin revolting against double yellow lines (that limit their right to park on the street in front of their homes), high mortgage payments, and prohibitive private school fees - by simply refusing to pay. This is no ideologically-based revolution on behalf of the oppressed working class. It's a self-interested protest against their own economic plight.
The Millennium People’s grievances makes them vulnerable to a maverick agitator, Dr. Richard Gould, and his revolutionary ideas.
“The people here are gripped by a powerful illusion, the whole middle class dream. It's all they live for – liberal education, civic responsibility, respect for the law. They may think they're free, but they're trapped and impoverished...They police themselves, not with guns and gulags, but with social codes.”
Their protests are witnessed by David and, initially under the guise of investigating the Heathrow bombing, he then becomes deeply involved in the movement. David finds himself succumbing to the charismatic charms of the group's leader, who hopes to foment a violent rebellion against the government by his fanatical adherents. This is a middle class revolt against what they perceive as oppressive living conditions.
I thought Millennium People was a satirical take on Karl Marx's revolutionary theory. Marx felt that the end of the political status quo would occur when the workers on the bottom of the economic pyramid called it quits, and turned to violence. However Ballard sees the impetus for revolt coming from the better-off middle class. The erosion of the middle class, the spike in income inequality, the inability of regular working people to live in places like London or New York City anymore—Ballard’s mapped it all out here with satire and dark humor.
“A vicious boredom ruled the world, for the first time in human history, interrupted by meaningless acts of violence.”
International Fiction: Book Club Selection
The Misfortunates by Dimitri Verhulst, Translated from Dutch by David Colmer
In this semi-autobiographical novel, Belgium author Verhulst describes a childhood spent in a family of uncles – his father Pierre's siblings – all of whom have left their wives and moved into their mother’s home, a more accommodating place. As they see it, they have been set free to follow their true vocation of unfettered self-destruction through drinking alcohol. They regard an early death (through cancer rather than cirrhosis – yet they smoke as much as they drink) as a fair price to pay.
Postman Pierre is the only one with a job, though that does little to inhibit his drinking. Drinking is regarded as a specialized skill, almost as a trade. It even finds a political justification, preventing the family from falling victim to consumerism. When Pierre finds he has some extra money at the end of the month he drinks his entire pay check to save his family from the "temptations of capitalism". Their drinking is both their punishment and their salvation – it exempts them from responsibility at the same time as loading them with new burdens. Pierre argues that possessions own you and that drinking frees the spirit, but ... at the same time it erodes both the mind and the body.
Dimitri grows up amid the stench of stale beer, and it seems he may be destined to follow the path of his father and uncles and have a career in inebriation. However, Dimitri realizes he is in charge of his own future. “I’m not one of them, but I’d like to be,” he says. “I wish I could show my loyalty or my love, whatever you want to call those feelings.”
When I started reading this book two words came to my mind: rude and crude. The men are rather disgusting: sweating, farting, urinating, scratching, cursing behemoths for whom beer and the over consumption of it is a religion. Critics have described this book as “a no-holds-barred slice of the European lowlife, with lots of drinking.” I definitely agree with them -I had a “liverache” while reading it!
The Misfortunates reads like a collection of linked short stories, self-contained chapters provide a sporadic narrative of Dimitri's development in and away from his family's drinking culture. This can be frustrating – some storylines break off and are never followed up and large tracts of time are unaccounted for. For example, Pierre goes into rehab, then comes home and disappears. Later, Dimitri describes his visit to Pierre’s grave. What happened? How did Pierre die? (I have a pretty good guess.) One could say this reflects the messy lives of the characters, but it is also a testament to how engaging these characters are that I should even feel this frustration. What is clear is Verhulst's ability to create unique characters that are thoroughly original in word and deed, likable even when urine-stained pants and unpleasant bodily functions define them without in any way diminishing their humanity. This is a somewhat entertaining read, written in a way that is uncompromisingly rude and crude yet, at times, humorous and tender.
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