The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu and Ken Liu (4.5 stars)

In Part I: Silent Spring, the book begins in the Chinese Cultural Revolution from the perspective of Ye Wenjie, and gives us some insight into that time. There's a lot of little footnotes dotted through the text that explain some of the Chinese context when pure translation falls short.

Spoilers ahead.

Reading Silent Spring shakes the foundations of Ye Wenjie's life, and causes her to question almost everything and then betray humankind in a very surprising way:

If this was so, then how many other acts of humankind that had seemed normal or even righteous were, in reality, evil?

Wenjie extends a deliberate invitation to a powerful alien race to invade and cleanse Earth of humanity. This was unlike any other first contact story I've ever read. Wenjie's actions start a doomsday clock ticking that will expire in 450 years.

As a society how can you possibly plan a project that will a) determine whether your species continues to exist, and b) spans many many generations? It's a fascinating thought experiment that Liu explores from a number of angles, not least of which is the anticipated demoralization and fatalism that is expected to overcome future generations.

Many factions react differently to the news of a powerful alien race coming to take over the Earth. The "Saviors" develop a video game as a recruiting tool which is a fantastic and surreal exploration of the Trisolaran world that includes a player solving mathematical problems by developing an entire computer architecture based on humans moving around on a field:

“Your Imperial Majesty, this is the Qin 1.0 operating system we developed. The software for doing the calculations will run on top of it. That below”—Von Neumann pointed to the human-formation computer—“is the hardware. What’s on this paper is the software. The relationship between hardware and software is like that between the guqin zither and sheet music.”

Complete with progress bars made from people carrying coloured flags:

“Self-test complete! Begin boot sequence! Load operating system!”

Rehydrate! Dehydrate!

The next thought experiment is: how could you hold back all scientific innovation of a global society with the smallest amount of effort? The Trisolarans want to hamstring Earth science and defense to meet minimal resistance in 450 years. So with very limited resources they decide to disrupt fundamental physical particle research.

It's a really really odd book. It's not particularly easy reading and it's fairly slow to start. But it is fascinating.

4.5 stars.

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg (4 stars)

This is a great read, and I was surprised to find it is actually very scientific. Ansari and Klinenberg (who is a sociology professor) conducted a lot of research as well as literature review, and present the information in a engaging format with plenty of humour sprinkled throughout. Aziz reads like how he speaks, I think the audio book might be even better.

Some of my favourite quotes below.

It made me wonder whether our ability and desire to interact with strangers is another muscle that risks atrophy in the smartphone world.

On the amount of time to wait before texting back:

“There is this desire, for me at least, to have the upper hand. I have to have it. So if I text someone, and they wait ten minutes to text me back, I wait twenty.

The amazing things people write in their profiles:

“No fatties, no alcoholics,” proclaimed another. “I’m currently cleaning up toxic waste” is how one man described his professional life, while another described himself as “an executive by day, a wild man by night,” and a third proclaimed, “I’m interested in all aspects of data processing.”

On the fundamental problems with online dating:

But our research also convinced me that too many people spend way too much time doing the online part of online dating, not the dating part.

4 stars.

 

Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir by Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin (4 stars)

Clint Hill has written a very personal account of his time protecting first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. It casts Mrs. Kennedy in a positive light and doesn't raise any scandal, as you may expect from someone writing about their former employer and not interested in burning their bridges. It also gives the reader a good insight into the lives of the first family and what it's really like to be a Secret Service agent on protective detail. Protecting the first lady is considered a second-string detail compared to the president, but despite that, Clint Hill was amazingly steadfast in his devotion to the job and obviously had a strong personal relationship to the family.

Mr. Hill assumed great personal cost to do his job. He was rarely home, and Mrs. Kennedy's choices to travel constantly and evacuate DC at every opportunity essentially blocked him from being involved in his child's early years.

As a taxpayer I was fairly horrified by the immense costs incurred by Mrs. Kennedy's jet-setting lifestyle. Lavish vacations overseas and semi-official tours of India and Pakistan driven by personal interest were all huge logistical operations for the secret service that would have resulted in large costs borne by the taxpayer.

While it's tempting to see these visits as pure junkets, I somewhat agree with this statement that building personal capital via the first lady can be useful for the leader of the free world. Sadly he probably didn't get the chance to call in these favors:

You don’t even realize the impact you have, how much you are admired, how you just single-handedly created bonds between the United States and two strategic countries far better than any diplomats could have done.

For Mr. Hill the Secret Service job was everything from security and logistics to shopping for swimsuits and transporting horses gifted to Mrs. Kennedy back to the US:

Thus it was that I became a frequent shopper on Worth Avenue, buying swimwear for the president, toys for the children, and personal items for Mrs. Kennedy. This was not in the job description the Secret Service had for me, but it was just one more way to make life a lot easier and less confrontational for Mrs. Kennedy. She appreciated my efforts, and I considered it a good protective move to remove her from public exposure as much as possible.

...all I could think was how the hell are we going to get this damn horse back to Washington? 

It's an interesting read, even if it skips over the more scandalous events such as rumored affairs, and Hill's own deep personal struggles after JFK's death.

4 stars.