The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr

This is a technology/business book so if you read my blog purely for fun, you may want to skip this.  However, if you have even a small inkling of interest around technology, read on.

This book is about "the cloud."  The first half of the book skillfully compares the move to centralized generation and distribution of electricity to the move to centralized computing resources.  The analogy is fascinatingly accurate.  The second half of the book talks about what that means for the future of the IT industry and of our interactions with technology.  Carr uses great examples like Savvis, Google, and Microsoft to illustrate "cloud" technology.

What I really liked about this book is that Carr used examples that I think would be relevant if you didn't work in technology, but that were familiar to me as a technologist.  I also liked how accurately he described what was happening to technology as it moved into the cloud.  It definitely made me think about what my job would be twenty or even ten years from now.

What was most remarkable about reading this book is that it was published in 2009 and some of the predictions and novel concepts already seemed like second nature to me.  That made me respect Carr for his prescience but also regret my letting this languish on my "to read" list for so long.  Score one for not waiting for The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You to come out in paperback.

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

I went into Barnes and Noble to buy a guide book for a long weekend in Toronto, and this book caught my eye.  This year I've gotten to read several books that were nearly perfectly constructed/composed and this is another one.

The story takes place during the Vietnam War.  It's about a female photographer who falls in love with another American photographer, and it's also about her relationship with that photographer's Vietnamese assistant.  Through telling what is ostensibly a love story, Soli also paints a vivid picture of the war.  The book covers several years' worth of time, as well as ranging from locations in Saigon to remote villages in the countryside.  On numerous occasions the photographers are embedded with army squads and there are detailed accounts of their activities. 

I really liked so many things about this book.  The characters were really well-developed and I was rooting for them throughout the book.  The description of Vietnam was a great education for someone like me, just slightly too young to understand the impact on the US firsthand.  And the plot was incredibly engrossing.  Nancy Pearl from NPR said of this book, "“Devastatingly awesome…It's one of those books that I didn't want to put down — I resented everything else that I needed to do in my life, because I didn't want to stop reading it.”  I definitely had the same experience.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I had been excited about reading this book for a while  While it sat unread in my bookcase I caught a Law and Order episode based on the same idea. 

Henrietta Lacks is a black woman who lived in Maryland in the 1940's and '50s.  She had a very aggressive form of cervical cancer and after her death her cells were harvested without her family's knowledge.  Those cells have been a cornerstone of scientific research for the past several decades, while Lacks' family members have had marginal and oftentimes troubled lives.

Skloot's book reads like a novel in some places, a memoir in others, and an interesting article for the balance.  Never is it a dry scientific text, although it does cover the science behind cells and gene therapy.  I don't think you have to be technical to enjoy the book.  Other sections focus on Henrietta's childhood and illness.  Most memorable to me was the latter part of the book where Skloot forms a close relationship with Henrietta's daughter Deborah, now in her 60's, and the two of them work together to find more additional information about Henrietta. 

This was a good read, although more personal than I expected.  Skloot's a great writer.

A Thousand Cuts by Simon Lelic

My bookclub chose this as our May book and when it didn't arrive in time for a trip to San Fran, I bought a second copy at the bookstore in the ferry building.  Good thing I liked it.

The story starts with a brutal shooting in a school.  One of the detectives assigned to the case, Lucy, senses that there is more to the story than what it seems and embarks on an investigation that is belittled by her male colleagues.  Meanwhile, what she finds is a systemic problem in the school that led to this tragedy.  Lucy is determined to figure out what is going on and resolve it, against several systems that don't want her to.  I enjoyed watching how Lelic played with the same themes in different settings.

The most interesting thing about this book, though, was not the plot.  The way Lelic told the story was to alternate narrative chapters with chapters that were a transcript of each of the witnesses' stories.  His creation of so many credible voices was really fun to read.  There were clear villains and heroes but also people stuck in untenable situations. 

I really enjoyed reading this book and would look for more by Lelic in the future.