Book Review: miracles & fate on 78

 

Miracles and Fate on 78 is a book written by Ari Schonbrun around the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The author worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the upper floors of the north tower of the World Trade Center. Had he been at his desk, he would have been trapped above the impassable impact zone, but due to a couple of delays, he was on the 78th floor below the impact zone and was one of a few Cantor employees who were in the building when the plane hit that survived, and the only one of those few who was not injured. 

The hardcover version of the book is short, coming in at 180 pages. Schonbrun discusses his day on 9/11, from helping his son fill out a form for school, which delayed him getting to work, to his choice of elevators when he got to the building, which made him take a longer route once he got up to the 78th floor, helping an injured co-worker who was severely burned down the stairs and to the hospital, to how he ended up getting home. Then, he talks about how his life has changed in the aftermath. He does discuss his faith and how it impacted him both before and after 9/11. While that may turn some people off, I do not feel that he gets overly preachy about it. Even though the book is short, it does pack an emotional punch and is absolutely worth reading.

Book Review: Oath and Honor

 

Oath and Honor is a book written by Liz Cheney, the former conference chair of the Republican party in the House of Representatives and daughter of the former Vice President (and former Secretary of Defense), Dick Cheney. She was one of only a handful who ended up splitting with the orange genital wart after the 2020 election, as he lied about the election being stolen and, at the very least, encouraged the attack on the capital on January 6th, 2021. And, of course, she was one of only two Republicans on the January 6th committee. 

This is a book that, regardless of whether you agree with Cheney's politics, is a must-read. The book is partly a memoir in which Cheney discusses how she got interested in, and then into, politics. The focus of the book, however, is the aftermath of the 2020 election, her work on the January 6th committee, and the threat that t***p poses. She explains that she was trying to find out what the orange dipshit and his lackeys were up to after the election and how she tried to circumvent the fake electors/objections plot once she figured out that part of it. She also warns that the Republican party is essentially gone and has to be defeated until t***p and his anti-democracy ideology are gone. 

The hardcover version of the book is just over 350 pages. There are no endnotes or bibliography, but there is a web address at the end of the book that allows you to view the notes if you want to. I disagree with almost all of Cheney's politics and would normally never purchase one of her books. I think she had a large role in the political division and the stoking of anger in the country that allowed t***p to take over the Republican party. That said, I respect the fact that she stood up to t***p and her party even though she knew she would lose her seat in Congress and likely end her political career. This is a book that everyone should read  

Book Review: Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy From the Next t***p

 

Blowback is a book by Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security staffer, published in 2023. As many are likely aware, Taylor also wrote the very controversial op-ed piece in the New York Times published under the pseudonym Anonymous. In the book, Taylor describes his time in the former administration and gives a first-hand account of the orange genital wart becoming more and more unhinged as time went on and detailing all of the crazy shit that agent orange wanted to do at the southern border (which he became more and more obsessed over the course of time). Taylor makes it clear that he always despised t***p and that he, like many in the administration, thought t***p was dangerous and stupid (and dangerously stupid). Taylor also makes it clear that he only agreed to join the DHS because he respected John Kelly and knew that there had to be "adults" in the administration to keep little donny diapers in check. And, the only reason Taylor stayed as long as he did was because anyone who replaced him would be a MAGA asshat who would be slovenly loyal to t***p and completely unqualified for the job. 

The hardcover version of the book is just over 300 pages, not including the index. Taylor discusses the span of his political career first as a Congressional page, his work at the DHS, his decision to write the initial Anonymous op-ed and the follow-up book, his decision to speak out against the administration under his own name, and ultimately reveal that he was Anonymous. Taylor also discusses how his life started to spiral out of control during that time and what life has been like since then.

The overall subject matter of the book is clear from the title. It is basically a warning that the Republican party of old is dead and gone, that t***p will not go away easily, and that t***pism will be around long after he finally does. And Taylor makes clear that, if given power again, the next t***p will succeed where the orange dipshit failed the first time because they will get around (or ignore) all of the guardrails, and there will be no adults in the room this time. Taylor also discusses that most of those who were said adults in the first administration are not exactly profiles in courage and will not speak out because of fear of political retribution (and physical harm by the MAGAT cult members). The book is absolutely a must-read.

Book Review: Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad

 

Manhunt is a book published in 2012 and written by Peter Bergen about the effort to find and eventually kill Osama Bin Laden. Bergen is one of the few Western journalists to interview Bin Laden back in the 1990s and was in the process of writing a book about Bin Laden when the September 11th terrorist attacks occurred. This book mostly focuses on the time after 9/11 and tracks (to the best extent possible) where Bin Laden went after fleeing the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan to the raid on the compound in Abbottabad where he was holed up. Bergen does detail a little bit of his history prior to 9/11, but the focus of the book was the time period from September 2001 to May 2011.

The hardcover version of the book is about 360 total pages (260 of which are substantive text, and the last 100 pages include a bibliography, end notes, and an index). The notes mainly cite sources but occasionally flesh out the material in the text. Along with highlighting Bin Laden's movements, the book provides a lot of detail on how the US government ultimately tracked him down. Bergen interviewed multiple government sources, including sources from the CIA (some of whom were referred to using pseudonyms). Bergen also had several in-the-room sources who discussed what was happening as President Obama and the national security team were watching the feed of the raid and military sources who discussed how the raid team got in and out of Pakistan. The book is very compelling, and while most of the details in the book have been declassified and available to the public for years, it is still worth the time to read. 

Book Review: Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald t***p, and the Battle for American Democracy

 

Network of Lies is the 2023 follow-up to author, and former CNN host, Brian Stelter's 2020 book, Hoax. This book is mostly a continuation of that book, focusing on events that occurred after (and a bit during) the 2020 election through late 2023. 

The hardcover version of the book has just under 330 pages of substantive text. The last 40 pages are divided between source notes and the index. The book is basically a continued excoriation of Fox "news", with a huge focus on the rise, and subsequent fall of fucker Carlson, with Stelter (who has a ton of sources inside Fox) detailing what was going on behind the scenes when Carlson was dumped after the settlement of the defamation case brought by Dominion voting systems against Fox and several of its personalities because of the lies the network allowed to be spread after the 2020 election. 

Stelter definitely is not writing this book in an objective journalist mode. He does not hide his feelings about the network, the people who run it, and the personalities on it. The crux of Stelter's analysis is that Fox shot itself in the foot by allowing the "news" division, however small it was to be aced out by the entertainment division, which caused people like Chris Wallace and Shep Smith to leave and because of all of the lying by the people in the entertainment division and the failure of those left in the news division to push back hard against the bullshit being spewed by the orange genital wart and his clown-car of inbreds, on the few occasions the network did tell the truth, it caused Fox's viewers (who they spent years radicalizing and lying to) to jump ship for the even crazier batshittery of OAN and Newsmax. 

While Stelter is clearly not an unbiased objective observer (he clearly hates Fox and many of its on-air personalities) he brings receipts for all of the assertions he makes in the book (without outing his sources). The book is yet another warning about just how dangerous Fox has become as a network and how it is unlikely to change anytime soon, despite one almost billion-dollar settlement and a second defamation suit that is in progress that may cause the network to lose even more money. It is absolutely worth the time to read.

Book Review: Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11

 

Watching the World Change is a book that is about the images and videos taken during and after the 9/11 attacks. The book was written by David Friend and published in 2006. The book focuses strictly on the images out of New York. In the foreword, the author says that was because he is based in New York and that is where most of the images from the day came from. The book is not an image by image analysis. In the middle of the book the author does include several pages of images that he does discuss throughout the book. But, the book really talks about the impact of the images and videos from that day and how those impacted the response of the nation to the attacks, changed media coverage, and the like.

The hardcover version of the book has just under 350 pages of substantive text and then about 60 pages of endnotes that refer to various sources, and an index. The best part of the book is when the author is telling the human stories about the people involved, including people who were killed, people who survived, and people who were left behind. The chapters in the book correspond to the dates from 9/11 through 9/17 but the author does not limit what he discusses in the chapter to what was happening on the particular date. For example, in the 9/16 chapter he starts out talking about that day and then discusses the wars that occurred months and years later. While I do think that the book would have been a little better if it included more images, included the images in the chapter text, and told the story behind a specific image right after it was shown, the book is still very good and worth the time to read.

Book Review: My Story

 

My Story is the closest thing that the world ever got to an autobiography or memoir from Marilyn Monroe. The original version of the book was published about 12 years after her death and was created from a manuscript she submitted to Milton Green (who was a photographer who took many pictures of Marilyn throughout her career) and was essentially finished by journalist, Ben Hecht. This illustrated version of the book, published in 2007, adds many pictures of Marilyn selected by Milton Green's son, Joshua, who also wrote the foreword.  In the book, Monroe broadly details her early life, her rise to stardom, and her romance with Joe Dimaggio. The book ends with a discussion of her trip to Korea to entertain the troops during her honeymoon with Dimaggio.

The hardcover version of the book is relatively short, coming in at a little under 200 pages. In it, Monroe covers her life in broad strokes up through 1954. She does not go into a ton of detail about everything in her life but does discuss being molested as a girl, the infamous nude calendar photoshoot (which turned into the first Playboy pictorial), and her struggle to get acting jobs (and what was expected by the studio heads and producers). She does not go into detail about whether and how much she participated in the whole "casting couch" phenomenon, or really discuss her sex life (aside from saying she was not very interested in sex during her first marriage. She also talks about how Za Za Gabor hated her because Gabor's husband flirted with her at a party. The big thing I took away from the book is that she was not an overnight sensation or star and she was not instantly rich. Even when she was not an established star she pushed back against some of the parts she was offered and was looking to be taken more seriously. There is an eerily prophetic line in the book that she was the type of person who would be found dead in a hallway with a bottle of sleeping pills next to her. In all, the book shows her as a complicated figure whose life was not at all as glamorous as it seemed. It is absolutely worth the time to read.

Book Review: On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of Loss & Renewal

 

On Top of the World, published in 2003, is the story about Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond trading company that occupied floors 101-105 in the North Tower of the World Trade Center and lost nearly all of its New York-based workforce in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

The book is partly a biography of Cantor CEO Howard Litnick, who was much reviled after 9/11 as he tried to balance holding the company together with trying to help the families of the people who died. Interwoven, are harrowing accounts (as much as can be put together) of the people who were trapped in the building after Flight 11 hit as they discovered they were stuck with nowhere to go. A handful of Cantor employees were in or around the building but not yet up to the Cantor floors when the plane hit and were able to get out. All of the employees who actually made it all the way up to the Cantor floors, however, were stuck with nowhere to go. Lutnick was on his way to the Trade Center when the plane hit (saved only because he took his son to his first day of kindergarten) and managed to get to the base of the towers. He recounted to the author his horror when he realized that the plane hit near the floors Cantor occupied (where all of his employees, including his brother were) and that it was people who worked at Cantor who were some of those that were jumping. 

What may be the most harrowing account in the book of the actual day is when the author gives vague details about how the people who worked in Cantor's Los Angeles and London officers could hear what was happening on the trading floor of the New York office through an in-house communication system. The employees listening on the conference system were imploring their colleagues to get out of the building and essentially listening to them die. The author does discuss some of the communications that the trapped employees were able to make to people on the outside, but he is very respectful and does not go into any gruesome detail. The author also discusses how the lives of the surviving loved ones of the employees who died changed after the attacks.

The hardcover version of the book is just under 300 pages. Most of the book is focused on the people who worked at Cantor and the effort to rebuild the company after 9/11. The book does go into the backlash against Lutnick and the attacks against him in the media. As I mentioned above, Barbash does discuss some of what happened on 9/11 itself, but the focus of the book was on the people who were lost and the people who helped keep the company going. The book is tough to read but is absolutely worth reading.

Book Review: To Infinity and Beyond

 

To Infinity and Beyond is (as of its 2023 publication and this writing) the newest book written by the popular astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The book was co-authored by Lindsey Nyx Walker. The book discusses the history of human exploration, both of the Earth and the Cosmos. In it, Tyson distills the various scientific concepts, which range from Newton's Law of Gravitation and Keppler's Laws of planetary motion to what would be required to actually travel to another solar system and the physics behind the concept of time travel (which Tyson does throw a bit of cold water onto since it is far more complicated than just picking a day and year to travel to), into their basic components. 

The hardcover version of the book has 300 pages of substantive text, and then a few pages of other reading material and an index. It is divided into different topics in which Tyson discusses discoveries made on Earth, the exploration of our solar system, and what exploration of other solar systems would entail (especially what it would take to send a ship with people to even the closest solar system).  The only thing that I did not like about the book is that throughout the text there are pages with side topics inserted that break up the main text. So, you either have to read the side-topic material and stop reading the main text, or you have to jump a couple of pages ahead, finish the main text, and then go back to read the side-topic pages. If that happened only once or twice in the book it would not be a big deal, but it happens a lot and gets a bit irritating after a while. That is what knocks the book down a star for me. Otherwise, the substance of the book is great.

The book has a similar tone and feel to the other books that Tyson has authored, especially in the past few years. Tyson, like Carl Sagan before him, has a gift for explaining the science behind various topics in such a way that you can understand the concepts without ever taking a math or physics class, yet not come off as talking down to anyone. The book has a lot of great information in it and wonderful pictures (both real astrophotography and illustrations). It is absolutely worth the time to read.

Book Review: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

 

American Prometheus is a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, who was the lead scientist on the Manhattan Project and was, after World War II, called the "Father of the Atomic Bomb." This was the book that served as much of the source material for the 2023 movie by Christopher Nolan.

This book is best described as a slog to get through. It is very, very long. The softcover version of the book is about 600 pages of actual, substantive text, then there are about 100 pages of notes, a bibliography, and an index that pushes it well over 700 pages. And, the font used for the type was very small. Had a larger font that was easier to read been used when the book was printed, it would have been well over 1000 pages. 

The book details Oppenheimer's life from his time as a child to his death in 1967. Sometimes it goes into too much detail, a lot of which probably could have been cut out. The book portrays Oppenheimer as someone who was brilliant, but kind of crazy. In some ways, he was a walking contradiction. He was great at physics, but not at math. He was socially awkward but could charm pretty much anyone (and apparently was quite the swordsman with the ladies). He felt the atomic bomb was needed but regretted his role in its creation when he saw the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union take off. 

The book is split into several parts, each covering a period of time in Oppenheimer's life, including his childhood, his time as a student and then a teacher, as the leader of the Manhattan Project, being swept up in McCarthyism and the Red Scare, the fallout from having his security clearance taken away, and then the end of his life.  I think it will take most people longer to read this book than it would take them to get through a book of equivalent size. I am a very fast reader and most of the time I can get through a 500-600 page book in 6-7 days (sometimes less depending on the book), and this one took me 15 days to finish. So, it is not an easy or quick read. It can be very dry in parts and like I said above, could easily omit some details. But, it is very interesting and worth the time to read or listen to.

Book Review: The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and T***p

 

The Threat is a book written by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe after he was fired in 2018. The book is partly a memoir of his time in the FBI, focusing on the significant cases that he investigated such as the Boston Marathon bombing, and partly a reflection on the lead-up to the 2016 election and his time working in the 2017 to 2021 administration, up to the point he was fired.

The hardcover version of the book, which was published in 2019, is just under 300 pages. It can be a bit dry in parts, which makes it a bit of a slower read than say a 300-page fiction novel. But, McCabe provides a lot of insight into the various investigations that he was involved in, as well as giving an assessment of the shit-show that was the t***p administration. He calls out the lies that the orange genital wart was spewing after he fired James Comey, specifically, that the FBI rank-and-file were not, in fact celebrating that Comey was fired. McCabe also gives a pretty brutal assessment of t***p himself, basically calling him nothing more than a bullshit artist and that McCabe did not trust much of anything he said. 

While it is not the most exciting book ever written and the amount of detail that McCabe could go into about the 2016 election and the Russia investigation was limited, as the Mueller investigation was ongoing at the time the book was written and published, it is still very much worth reading. And, since Agent Orange made sure he got fired 26 hours before he would receive his pension, I don't mind supporting him.

Book Review: Assignment Oswald

 

Assignment Oswald is mostly a first-hand telling of the events surrounding the assassination as the author, James Hosty experienced them. It is written in an almost journal-like tone with him referencing time and dates for everything. The major points/themes in the book are:

1. The note that so many have made so much of (especially Oliver Stone in JFK) amounted to Oswald being mad that Hosty had interviewed Marina when they ended up in Dallas. Oswald basically told Hosty to leave them alone and if he did not Oswald would take action against the FBI. After Kennedy was killed and Oswald was arrested Hosty's boss told him to get rid of the note (for fear of incurring Hoover's wrath) and Hosty stupidly (which he admits) destroyed it. Of course, it eventually was uncovered, Hoover did find out about it, and Hosty was pretty much hung out to dry by the FBI.

2. Hosty was very critical of Hoover, the FBI in general, the Secret Service, Dallas Police, the Warren Commission, and the House Committee on Assassinations (who he felt were wasting their time trying to find a mob connection to the Assassination) and the CIA. At various points in the book, he skewers every one of them.

3. Hosty believed that Oswald acted alone in the assassination but believes that the Cubans and/or Russians either knew and possibly tacitly approved of Oswald's intention to kill Kennedy. This is mainly centered around the fact that when Oswald, after being given the run around in Mexico City while trying to get a travel visa to Cuba to get back into Russia, yelled that he was going to kill Kennedy, and only then got to meet with a KGB agent who was a part of the KGB group that took part in assassinations. Hosty then speculates based on circumstantial evidence that there may have been an agreement along the lines of an "if you can kill Kennedy and get back to Mexico City we will let you back into Russia" between the Soviets and Oswald. He further claims that the CIA knew this, never informed the FBI (claiming he did not know when he was investigating the Oswalds before the Assassination and never learned of it until the late 60s or early 70s), and that the Warren Commission knew of the evidence but did not pursue it and/or whitewashed (on the Orders of the White House) it in order to avoid a war that could have ended up in nuclear Armageddon.

The book is definitely an interesting read, although somewhat dry in parts and it is not likely to change anyone's mind about what happened and whether Oswald acted alone. For his part, Hosty lays out the evidence for why he believed Oswald was the lone assassin and provides some evidence for the Cuba/Russia link. Given that it is almost impossible to follow up on that thread after all these years, they will likely remain forever unverifiable unless Castro decides to fess up or there is something in the records that have yet to be unsealed which admits that connection was covered up. He staunchly defends himself against any accusation that he knew of Oswald's plan, assisted him in any way, or had any prior information that Oswald was capable of carrying out the assassination. No matter what side of the conspiracy fence you sit on, I think the book is worth reading.

Book Review: Physics Without the Boring Bits

 

This is not a physics textbook. There are no equations (except for force equals mass times acceleration), no math, and no homework problems. Instead, it is a book that explains how physics affects the world and universe we live in. Many times in physics classes you get so wrapped up in the math that you use perspective on what any of it is good for. This book uses humor and anecdotes to explain how things from simple motion to quantum physics actually work. 

It will not help you pass a test or a quiz, but if you are a physics student it will give you an idea of why all those equations do what they do, and if you are taking a non-STEM major physics class (like physics for poets or something like that), it can help you understand the basic concepts. Otherwise, if you are just interested in science and are looking for a fun, quick and easy read this will be that as well.

Book Review: Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11

 

Why America Slept is a book by Gerald Posner, probably best known for his book about the JFK assassination, Case Closed. The book was published in 2003 and details the lead-up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and what was known and missed by various entities, both in the US and overseas. 

Posner, in the author's note at the beginning of the book, states that he began investigating the attacks relatively shortly after they occurred. Of course, twenty years later a lot more is publicly known than was known in 2001-2003 when he was investigating and writing this book. That said, Posner was able to uncover a lot, including material about what might have been known by the German government (where three of the pilot hijackers had been studying before they were recruited into the plot that would become 9/11) and what members of the Saudi government and/or royal family may have known. Posner also details much of the pissing contest that was going on between the CIA and the FBI not only at the time but throughout the two agencies' history, which led them to either not share information or ignore information that came from the other agency. Posner also excoriates the Clinton administration for being more concerned with public relations and looking tough than they were about actually going after Osama Bin Laden, even when they knew he was a threat, and the Bush administration for basically sitting on its hands for too long when it came to going after al-Queada. The chapter about the Saudis is particularly enlightening as it sheds some light on at least some of what is probably in the redacted portion of the 9/11 Commission Report, which many feel was redacted to protect the Saudis and our access to their oil. In the end, 

Posner argues that if the various agencies like the CIA, FBI, and INS would have worked together and not ignored red flags, if the Clinton and Bush administrations had done a better job going after al-Queada, and if local law enforcement in NY would have done a better job investigating what was essentially an al-Queada cell (although loosely affiliated) that pulled off the 1993 WTC bombing and the murder of the head of the Jewish Defense League a few years before that, 9/11 may have been prevented.

The book is relatively short, about 240 pages overall. Most fast readers can probably finish the book in a day or two (at most). The substantive portion of the book is just under 200 pages, then there are several pages of notes, a bibliography, and an index. The main text includes some footnotes that flesh out the material in the text, then there are a bunch of endnotes that mainly cite specific sources, but a few of the endnotes also provide some additional context to the main text. It is absolutely a book that I consider to be a must-read, even if you are someone who has read many of the other books and/or watched evens some of the many documentaries about 9/11.

Book Review: Letters from an Astrophysicist

 

Letters from an Astrophysicist is a book by Neil deGrasse Tyson (who hosts Star Talk and the recent Cosmos reboots, as well as appearing on docuseries like The Universe) in which he prints responses to letters (or emails) he has received, social media interactions, and letters (or social media posts) that he has written directly. In some instances, he also prints the text of the letters he received and then his response, and other times he just summarizes what the person wrote to him and then prints his response.

The topics of the letters in the book vary to anything from the origin of the universe to the possibility of alien life, to the great science versus religion debate. Tyson shows responses to letters that thank and congratulate him and "hate mail" that he has received. His responses definitely give you an interesting look into his view of science, technology, the universe, politics, and a whole host of other topics. The book is relatively short, just under 300 pages, and fast readers can easily get through it in a day or two. 

Book Review: Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe

 

Legend is a biography of Marilyn Monroe written by Fred Lawrence Guiles and published in 1984. It is actually a follow-up to his 1969 bio of Marilyn entitled Norma Jean. In this book, the author adds more details that he was keeping secret when the first book was published. Specifically, Guiles adds details about the fact that Bobby Kennedy was having an affair with Marilyn and the extent of their relationship, which he either left out or obscured in the prior book (which the author discusses in the prologue).  

I would say that the book focuses on the highlights (not necessarily the high points, but the key events) of Marilyn Monroe's life. Basically, the details that are very well known or for which he could get corroboration through interviews (such as with Authur Miller). The discussion of her death is mostly confined to the second to last chapter of the book. Guiles early in the book dismisses the notion that she was killed, and at the end of the book details the number of pills she was able to get ahold of up to the day she committed suicide and argues that she was essentially reaching out to people who, if they would have gotten her help in time, could have saved her. The author also notes that Marilyn had two other nearly identical suicide attempts that were thwarted by Miller, who, of course, was not there when she died which supports the argument that her act was intentional and not accidental.   

The book is right around 500 pages. The substantive bio portion is about 445 pages, then the rest of the book includes a filmography and an index. The filmography is interesting in that it not only lists Marilyn's films from 1948 to 1961 but shows the credits and adds one or two critic reviews so you can see when she starts getting credited when she starts to get higher (and eventually top billing) and when the reviewers start to focus on her performance. The book is not hard to read, but it does have a lot of detail that (for me at least) made it a little slower to read than I normally can get through a book of that length. Most of what is in the book is now pretty well-known, a lot of what the author talks about is known in even more detail than he gets into in the book. Even so, it is still an interesting read and worth checking out.

Book Review: The January 6 Report

 

This is the official Congressional report of the January 6th domestic terror attack on the US Capitol during the certification of electors for the 2020 Presidential election. If you watched the televised hearings, the report basically follows the same format as the hearings. There is an executive summary at the beginning, spanning a little over 100 pages, that summarizes the information in the rest of the report and lays out the overall findings. Then, each chapter is devoted to different aspects or topics, from planning the gathering to the execution of the attack, and a final chapter with the Committee's recommendation. The second to the last chapter involves what the orange genital wart was and was not doing from the time it spoke at its rally, firing up the already angry crowd until it begrudgingly put out a video telling people to go home hours later. 

Each chapter of the report is anywhere from 50 to 100 pages in length (the entire thing is about 750 pages) and devoted to a specific topic. After each chapter, there are several pages of endnotes (hundreds per chapter). Some of the notes just point to a specific source, and some of them flesh out the sentence or paragraph it is noting. 

At the beginning of the book, there are three forwards. The first will vary, depending on what version of the report you get. The one I have includes a forward by Ari Melber, one of the MSNBC evening anchors. In it, he basically gives a high-level overview of what happened on January 6th, and what crimes could potentially be charged. Then, there is a short forward by Nancy Pelosi, one by Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, and one by Vice Chair, Liz Cheney.

The text of the report does include a lot of detail, specifically about the planning leading up to January 6th that was not in the televised hearings. The one area that I think the report is lacking is more detail about how much advanced warning various law enforcement and intelligence agencies had leading up to the attack and what they did or did not do with that information. Some of that information is spread throughout the various chapters, but I think a chapter devoted to that topic was warranted, as well as specific recommendations based on the findings. Overall, however, I think it is something that everyone concerned about preserving our Republic should read.

Book Review: Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew

 

Bringing Columbia Home is the story of the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in which the shuttle broke up during reentry. It was written by a former NASA employee who was the launch director when the disaster occurred and published in 2018.

The beginning of the book goes through what was happening on the ground as the shuttle lost contact with the ground and how frantic people were becoming as the shuttle was not where it was supposed to be and then missed the landing (which is calculated to the second). Then the author goes through the mission from the beginning, detailing how much was known about the foam strike that occurred during the launch of the shuttle, and the debate that went on about whether the shuttle was actually in danger. The author goes into a lot of detail about the recovery effort, and how the focus at first was recovering the remains of the shuttle crew, and then after the remains of all seven astronauts were found, detailing the major effort made to find as much of the shuttle as they could.

The book is very harrowing. The author does a great job detailing what happened, while still being respectful to the people who were lost and their families. He also goes into a lot of detail about how the people in rural Texas (which is where most of the debris was landed) helped searchers locate the remains of the shuttle and the crew. The author does give readers a general idea of where the remains of the crew members were found, but did not go into specifics (to protect the privacy of the property owners) and did not detail the condition of the bodies (to respect the dead and their families). But, you can definitely read between the lines to know that only some remains of each crew member were found.

The substantive portion of the book is 300 pages long, then there are a couple of appendices that give the names of people who were key to the recovery efforts and a glossary of the NASA terms used. Then there are several pages of endnotes. Most of the notes just point to sources, but some of the notes are explanatory. If you are a nerd about reading the notes, it is kind of a pain to go back and see what text it was created from, so I think they would have been better as footnotes. The book is very emotional, even now 20-plus years after the disaster. While the cause of the accident was not as infuriating as the Challenger disaster, as there was really no practical rescue that could have been made either before the shuttle reentered the atmosphere or during, it was still hard to read how some people were just dismissing the fact that there was any danger to the shuttle. It is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020

 

This is a book by Jonathan Lemire, a reporter for the Associated Press, and one of the morning show hosts/contributors on MSNBC. The subject matter of the book is fairly clear from the title. It is focused on the 2017-2021 presidential administration. The book is about 300 pages (of substantive material) and then there is a bibliography at the end that accounts for the rest. About half of the book is about the lead-up to the 2020 election, and the other half focuses on the election and the aftermath, including January 6th, the second impeachment, and the fight after the election to get a new voting rights act through Congress.

Lemire basically excoriates the orange genital wart and does not come at it from a detached journalist. Lemire calls agent orange a liar, documents how he lied all his adult life before he was president and documents the biggest lies he told as president. Lemire argues that t***p's brazenness in lying opened the door for Republicans to lie their ass off to the point that the batshit crazy portion of the party that, heretofore, had been relegated to the fringes and tolerated as long as they voted for tax cuts for the rich, to take over the party. 

Not much of the information in the book is new, especially if you have followed the (reputable sources of) news for the past few years. But, Lemire crystallized just how t***p, and the Republican party's cult-like devotion to him, transformed politics and how it presents a danger going forward. It is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: Undaunted: Leadership Amid Growth and Adversity

 

Undaunted is a book that was written in the lead-up to the 20th Anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. It tells the story of a company called Baseline Financial, which had offices on the 77th and 78th floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center (floor 78 was the lowest floor in the impact zone when Flight 175 hit the building). Some of the employees of the company were featured in the History Channel documentary, Escape from the Towers, which was also put out around the 20th Anniversary, so if you watched that documentary, you are already aware of some of what the book covers.

The book is written by the former head of sales for Baseline, Ed Zier, who was not actually in the building on 9/11. He was on his way to work when the first plane hit the North Tower and could not get to the buildings, so he watched most of what played out from a Taxi going back to New Jersey. The book partly lays out the history of the company, from its beginnings as a start-up that made no money, to being a powerhouse that was making millions of dollars when the 9/11 attacks occurred. He shifts back and forth between the story of the company with the events of 9/11, with the most detail about the people who made it down (including one worker who was 7 months pregnant and walked down 77 flights of stairs without stopping or resting because she was worried about the health of her baby), including what they faced at the moment of impact, trying to find a way out, and what happened when they got out of the building, including as it collapsed. After that, Zein details the four members of the company who died in the attacks (who were all on the 78th floor exactly where the plane hit) and what happened to the company after 9/11 as it tried to rebuild.

The substantive portion of the book is about 245 pages, and then there are several pages of notes and an index. The parts of the book about the experience of the people in the building (who are counted among the 18 people at or above the point of impact who made it out of the building, although technically they were all just below the impact floors) are harrowing. Those chapters detail how many employees seeing people jump from the North Tower wanted to get out (despite the announcement saying the building was secure and they could stay at their desks), and were debating about whether to take the stairs or try the elevators. A few of the employees had been on the 78th floor a couple of minutes before the plane hit the building, and only survived because of a decision to go back down to the 77th floor. Another employee was going back to her desk (which was on the side of the building where the plane hit) to get her shoes, and saw the plane coming as she was walking that way, convinced that if she had been at her desk she would have been killed. Then the author goes into the rush to find a way out, with the employees eventually risking going down the risky A stairwell (which was filled with smoke) after determining that the B and C stairwells were inaccessible or completely destroyed).  

Toward the end of the book, the author details the efforts to rebuild the company, which was complicated not only by the loss of their offices in the trade center, but that it had recently been acquired by what is now Thomson Reuters, and how a decision by one of the employees to grab his laptop (and the fact that he and it survived the aftermath of the towers collapsing) basically saved the company's data and allowed the employees to keep it running. At the very end of the book, there are good eulogies written about the four employees who were killed in the attacks.

Overall, the book is very good and very interesting. I think most people will be interested in the chapters devoted to the day of 9/11, but the chapters devoted to the history of the company and what happened to it in the years after 9/11 are also very interesting, even if you are not all that familiar with, or into finance. It is definitely worth reading.