A Look at Mental Illness Today

 

Dr. Lucy Foulkes, the author, herself a sufferer with anxiety and depression, gives a clear description of many of the problems plaguing the identification and treatment of mental illness today. There are more effective treatments for mood disorders than there were in the past, but there is also much news about the subject. The main stream media is often more sensationalist than helpful in discussing treatment options.

Dr. Foulkes simplifies many of the concepts and deals with a wide variety of topics from social media in both good and bad aspects to the way we talk about mental health symptoms and how it can help people to be more accepting. However, it can create an environment where people not experiencing actual medical symptoms can get caught up in diagnosis and treatment whether they need it or not. While effective in severe cases, the treatments also come with side effects that can be devastating.

I found this a very readable book on a somewhat difficult and controversial subject. It provides good technical information. It also provides a perspective on both individual mental health problems and treatments and gives a perspective on the societal problems of mental health identification and treatment.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

A Look at the Potential for Civil War

 

The book is divided into two parts: the factors influencing the start of a civil war and how to prevent the civil war from occurring. I thought the first section was well done and interesting. The second section didn’t live up to the promise of the first.

Although WWII was supposed to end armed conflict, it clearly did not. The wars have become civil wars affecting individual countries. One of the main reasons for conflict described by the author is factionalism. In this concept political ideology is replaced by ethnic and religious identity. The identification with ones own group and the perceived injustice from other groups is a tinderbox for conflict. Clearly, some of these problems are identifiable in the US today as well as in other countries.

The second half of the book was more problematic. Here the author’s political views seem to intrude on the argument. She believes that gun control, more control by the federal government as opposed to the states, and limits of free speech on social media will ameliorate the situation. From my observation, the current administration is trying these ideas, but we seem to be veering toward more violence rather than less. This may be due to a lack of understanding of the real causes of the current dissatisfaction. The white middle class, justifiably in my view, feels marginalized. Whenever a group feels put down, there is a tendency to hate those in other groups that appear to be getting more perks. Therefore, while this book has an interesting premise, I believe it is basically a political rather than a scholarly document.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

Publication of Ulysses by a Paris Bookseller

 

Sylvia Beach was enchanted by Paris when she lived there as a child. As an adult her dream was to open an English language bookstore there. Her first taste of a bookshop in Paris came when she browsed in Adrienne Monnier’s bookstore. The attraction between the two was instantaneous and Adrienne became a major part of Sylvia’s life when she opened her own bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, in the1920s.

The book is historical fiction, but it’s well researched and revolves more around the famous authors, Hemingway, Stein, Pound, and others who frequented the shop and became Sylvia’s friends than a romance. The most important figure in Sylvia’s life as a bookseller was James Joyce. Theirs was a strong bond. When Ulysses was banned in the United States, Sylvia decided to publish the book under the auspices of Shakespeare and Company. Although she championed Joyce and published his novel, they eventually broke when he went to a New York publisher. I thought the author did an excellent job describing the sometimes difficult relationship between the two.

Sylvia’s life in the bohemian areas of Paris is fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the glimpse of the soon to be famous writers who frequented the shop. The book is heavy on the historical detail. The author’s final notes on how she chose dates and characters to portray to keep the story moving are well worth reading. If you enjoy English literature, this is a must read.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

A Secret Binds Two Women in a Southern Town

 

Architect, Kayla Carter, is almost ready to move into the dream home she and her husband designed, but the move has become painful, because her husband died in an accident in the house. However, she can’t bear to sell the house, a reminder of how they planned and worked together. She’s also concerned about malicious incidents that have plagued the construction and is worried about how to keep her three-year-old daughter safe.

Ellie Hockley is Kayla’s neighbor. She grew up on the street, but in 1965, defying her parents, she spent the summer as a volunteer registering black voters. The experience opened her eyes to the plight of marginalized people, and she decided to devote her life to it. She hasn’t been home since that summer, but now her mother and brother are ill and she’s back.

Both women have faced heartbreak and their stories draw you into the tragedy. The tension rises when Kayla is visited by a red-haired woman who warns her of tragedy if she moves in telling her the site is haunted. Ellie befriends, Kayla, and tries to help her through the transition. However, the events remind Ellie of all she lost the summer she left home for good.

The story toggles back and forth between 2010 and 1965. Both stories are poignant, but Ellie’s is the harder one to read. It focuses on terrible abuses that happened in the South during the Civil Rights Era. The characters are both strong women. They face their trials with courage and dignity. The book is well worth reading particularly since it highlights a tragic period in our history.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

The Men Behind Today’s Artificial Intelligence

 

Today artificial intelligence (AI) is behind much of our technology from self-driving cars to facial recognition. How we got to this point is an interesting story and one that was not always foreordained. The men behind the current technology had a fight on their hands before their ideas were accepted by mainstream science.

In the early days of the field there were two routes to AI one espoused by Marvin Minsky at MIT, the other neural networks worked on by Geoff Hinton a cognitive psychologist and computer scientist in British Columbia. Minsky believed that neural networks were a dead end and tried to discourage that path, but Hinton persevered and today his is the paradigm behind the present explosion in technology.

Our current internet companies, Google, Facebook, Amazon and others rely heavily on AI for searches and devices like Alexa. One of the most exciting chapters in the book tells the story of the bidding war for Hinton’s technology. A bidding war that made him and his two students fabulously wealthy.

The book is not particularly technical. Rather it tells the stories of the main actors in the technical developments that were often a race to see which group could produce usable technology first. The book is based on nearly four-hundred interviews conducted by the author over an extended period when he worked for Wired and later for the New York Times.

I enjoyed the book very much. However, it you’re looking for a technical description of today’s AI, this is not the book you’re looking for. It’s written for a general audience and is heavy on personality and personal stories rather than deep technical details.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

A Story of the Impact of Fathers on Their Sons

 

Winston Churchill was neglected by his parents. He desperately wanted a relationship with his father, but could never please him. The desire for paternal acceptance colored his life and underlay his treatment of his own son. Because of his strained relationship with his father, Winston indulged his son Randolph to the point of spoiling him.

The Churchill men were alike in having many outstanding qualities, but there were also dark sides to their personalities. Both men were charismatic and brilliant speakers. Both had terrible tempers and a fondness for alcohol that sometimes went too far.

Although the book doesn’t present new facts about the relationship between Winston and his son, it paints a portrait of the relationship over their whole lives as well as exploring Winston's relationship with his own father in the early chapters. I particularly enjoyed the scenes of Winston with his children, reading to them, taking an interesting in their school work, and explaining things to them. It was also interesting that the author showed to some extent how Winston’s doting on Randolph impacted his daughters and Clementine.

The book is well written and easy to become immersed in. I enjoyed the book because it took a balanced look at the Churchill men pointing out both their great gifts and their equally great flaws. If you’re a fan of Churchill and the WWII era, this is a book you’ll enjoy.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

The Intriguing Question: What is Life?

 

I think most of us believe we know what life is until we think about it hard. After all, we’re alive, but so are many things that don’t share the characteristics of ourselves or even other vertebrates. A fascinating question in this time of Covid19 is whether viruses are alive. Many researchers don’t think so. Then there are slime molds that can move toward food and tardigrades who apparently die from losing all their water, but come back to life when water is restored. This is only a sampling of the many life forms discussed in this book.

The book is basically the story of the author’s odyssey searching for various life forms to see if the question has an answer. From looking at living animals to discussions with scientists who are trying to create life, this is a fascinating journey. The book started slowly for me with stories of life forms that are familiar. However, the further he progressed on his journey, the more unusual the life forms were. I found it hard to put down.

The book is well written and easy to understand even if you aren’t normally into science. I was particularly interested in the techniques that relate to medicine which include using skin cells to grow neurons to study diseases. This book is well worth reading if you’re interested in what life is even if there are no solid answers. I highly recommend it.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.