From time to time, I have found that it is useful to document some of the books that I have read. I almost always read non-fiction -- not because I dislike fiction, but because I guess that is what I am used to after so many years in academic settings.
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI by Dr. Fei-Fei Li. Dr. Li is famous for creating ImageNet, a huge collection of labeled pictures that, when combined with neural networks, jump-started much of the recent revolution in machine vision. The book is well-written, and reads a bit like a "rags to riches" (originally in academic, but now in real terms due to Dr. Li's successful AI startup) story, including anecdotes such as needing to share her dorm room with her parents. There is also some reflection on being a female scientist in a male-dominated field.
To Rise Above Principle: The Memoirs of an Unreconstructed Dean by Josef Martin and Henry Bauer. This was quite a fun read -- essentially a series of stories and interesting vignettes. It did become clear halfway through that, both due to the book being many years ago and the author(s) being a little more "conservative" in some of their thoughts, that not every story would be taken in the "hey, a funny thing happened to me yesterday" vein that it was intended by more "enlightened" readers.
Hype: Inside the Fyre Festival and the Golden Age of Grift by Gabrielle Bluestone. If you have every seen the Netflix documentary "Fyre: The Greatest Festival that Never Happened," this is a more in-depth look at how everything is becoming "fake it till you make it" proposition. People will pay crazy amounts of money to shady people (or organizations) with the hope that just maybe, they too will be able to live the lifestyle (at least temporarily) of the influencers and stars that they see on social media. An interesting read.
Optimal Illusions : The False Promise of Optimization by Coco Krumme. I remember this being an interesting book, but don't quite remember all of the details. It was kind of a memoir / roadtrip / essay rolled into one.
Everest, Inc. : The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell. If you have more than a passing interesting in Mount Everest, this book will likely be of interest. (I had watched a few seasons of a Netflix(?) show about folks trying to make the climb.) The books talks about the changes, both good and bad, that tourism has brought to the region, as well as about the guides and expedition companies that have been big players along the way. Many of the tours are now led by local rather than western guides, for example.
The Undertow : Scenes From a Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet. This book was a series of vignettes about different places and people, primarily in "Trump country" (for lack of a better word). It was quite a fascinating read, equal parts enlightening and frightening. From anecdotes about people who decode every tweet that President Trump makes (because nothing is random -- the misspellings and inconsistent use of capitalization are intentional, with meanings only known to those who understand the great existential battle taking place) to families who have firearms "at the ready" for what's to come, it makes for very unsettling reading.
Future of Denial : The Ideologies of Climate Change by Tad DeLay. If you were feeling a little despondent about our seeming inability to deal appropriately with climate change, reading this book will not make you feel any better. Taking a very clear-eyed approach, the author spells out what the energy consumption of the world is versus what steps have been (or could be) taken to meet that demand while also looking at the "climate budget" of how much more pollution we can spew before things really get ugly. The take home message is that things are going to get really ugly, even if we make some "better late than never" changes in the immediate future. A very sobering look at what's to come, and the final chapters which talk about the likelihood of the routine clashes between heavily militarized guards and climate refugees at the border reads like something out of a dystopian novel. The author's point is that (unfortunately) it is easier for us to envision the end of the human race than the end of the capitalist system which is pushing us to extinction.
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