How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson *****

 How We Got to Now: by Steven Johnson a history of technology and innovations The author’s twist on this well-trodden topic is to identify unexpected connections. For example, the Gutenberg printing press led to Galileo’s telescope. How? The printing press increased the interest in glass lenses because the newly literate Europeans discovered they were farsighted. The improved lens technology cleared the way for telescopes and microscopes. The author’s topics are glass, cold, sound, clean, time, and light. A well-written history of inventions and inventors.

Some of the people sketched:

The glassmakers of Murano, Venice, Italy.

Gutenberg and the printing press.

Galileo twice. The telescope and the pendulum for timekeeping.

Fredric Tudor and the international ice trade.

Carrier and air conditioning.

Semmelweis and hand washing.

John Snow and epidemiology.

John L. Leal and chlorinated water.

Aaron Dennison and the mass-market pocket watch.

William F. Allen and time zones.

Edison.

Ada Lovelace and computers.

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Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff ****

 The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff is set in a 17^th-century English colony where everyone is dying from famine. Girl is a young servant who chooses the wilds beyond the palisades instead of starving with her minister’s family. The remainder of the book is about her brutal struggle to survive--against weather, terrain, humans, animals, and disease. The book asks hard questions about the individual and the future American nation. Don’t read this looking for a “happily ever after” ending.

The colony is not explicitly identified as Jamestown, but the mentions of the River James, the starving time, and the Powhatan clearly suggest Jamestown.

This book is not for people of gentle dispositions. In her quest to survive, Girl roasts baby squirrels, steals their nesting material, and what nuts were stored for the winter. She raids the nest of a pair of ducks, stealing the eggs and wringing the mother’s neck. However, she isn’t just an aggressor. She spends days and nights wet, cold, and starving, infested with insects, wounded, and suffering from Smallpox. This is accompanied by graphic descriptions of her excretions. Not for those with weak stomachs.

Once Girl escapes Jamestown, she only speaks with spirits—God, nature, and her memories. Given how much she gives up by leaving the colony and how much she suffers, the reader might wonder why she left and whether it was a good decision. Her history is doled out in flashbacks, but it is not until the end of the book that the reader learns the awful truth.

This book is a testimony to Girl’s endurance and ingenuity. While celebrating human strengths, it also condemns hubris and ambition.

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Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo *****

Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo starts in 1848 when Ellen and William Craft self-emancipate themselves from Macon, Georgia. To escape from Macon, Ellen disguises herself as a “sick, rich, White young man—a most respectable-looking gentleman,” and William accompanies her as her slave. In Boston, they run into northern racism and the Fugitive Slave Act. “This work is not fictionalized.” “The absence of a happy ending may partly explain why the Crafts are not better known.” Why no happy ending? The book opens with the Fugitive Slave Act and closes with Jim Crow.

In between the Fugitive Slave Act and Jim Crow the Crafts overcame many obstacles and had many happy successes. Their story is the opposite of the story of the American South. While the Civil War and Reconstruction represented a high point for the Crafts and other enslaved people, the white supremacists and racists recovered their pre-Civil War power before the death of the Crafts.

The Crafts needed to escape three times. First, disguised as master and slave, they traveled from Macon, Georgia to Philadelphia. Once in Philadelphia, they learned they were not home-free and continued to Boston. They were okay in Boston until the Compromise of 1850 and the new Fugitive Slave Act. They tried to stay in Boston protected by many powerful friends, but they finally gave up and moved on the England.

Their time in England might have been their best years. They gave lectures, visited The Great Exhibition of 1851 with its Crystal Palace, and received an education and literacy.

This is an enlightening view the 19^th-century America. Highly recommended.“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang ****

 In Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, best-selling author Athena Liu dies and author Juniper Song Hayward steals the notes for Athena’s next novel. Midlist author June Hayward reinvents herself as Juniper Song, and, using those purloined notes writes “her own” best seller, The Last Front. The Last Front is about the Chinese Labour Corps in WWI. Juniper Song is white. Athena Liu is Asian. Juniper Song stirs up controversy like The Help and American Dirt (actual books about people of color written by white authors). Yellowface explores appropriation, plagiarism, and publishing in general.

While Yellowface explores the appropriation issues raised by The Help and American Dirt, these issues are complicated because Juniper Song stole the idea and notes for The Last Front from Anthena Liu. Junie uses the appropriation arguments to deflect her detractors from her plagiarism. In addition to plagiarism and appropriation, Junie accuses Athena of stealing because she includes real incidents with real people in her writing, raising the general question of where writers get their inspiration.

The book includes so many details about the world of publishing, including advances, royalties, editors, book tours, publicity, contracts, agents, blogs, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, signed copies, Kirkus, New York Times, and a range of different reviewers. I wonder what non-writers think about all this.

While the issues of appropriation, plagiarism, and inspiration are important, Junie complicates them with her self-serving rationalization and increasing mental instability. In the end, I felt the book was an exciting roller coaster ride, but like a roller coaster, it didn’t go anywhere.

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Zero Days by Ruth Ware *****

 In Zero Days by Ruth Ware, Jacintha (Jack) Cross is a penetration tester. She and her husband, Gabriel (Gabe) Medway, conduct physical and digital penetration tests of corporate security systems. She is the on-site physical tester and Gabe provides “hacker” digital testing. On Saturday, February 4, Minus Eight Day, she is apprehended and taken to the police station. This is the least of her problems because Gabe is soon discovered with his throat slit and Jack is the prime suspect. She goes on the run. Can she discover Gabe’s murderer before the police arrest her? Ware maintains the tension as Jack struggles to dodge the police long enough to find Gabe’s killer.

Jack’s problems immediately escalate when one of the cops interrogating her is Jeff Leadbetter, her abusive and vindictive ex-boyfriend. In addition, when she sneaks home to retrieve her go-bag, she injures her side, and this wound continues to get worse throughout the book.

Throughout her adventures, she is befriended by good Samaritans from a food vendor who gives her a free veggie burger to a couple of truck drivers who go out of their way to see that she gets where she needs to go.

The book includes a lot of tech, including cloning cell phones and monitoring cell phone activity. Jack also uses her “pen tester” skills (social engineering and lock picking).

Despite all Jack's difficulties, the tension is never high as it is always clear that the good guys will prevail. The world of Zero Days is a benign place populated by good people.

This 2023 book was easier to follow than the 2016 The Woman in Cabin 10 and I liked it better.

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