Hedy’s Folly by Richard Rhodes ****

Hedy’s Folly by Richard Rhodes comes with the unwieldy and misleading subtitle of “The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr…” Her co-inventor was avant-garde composer George Antheil. The book is evenly split between the two inventors. However, following the 1941 story by the National Inventors Council story: “HEDY LAMARR INVENTOR, Actress devises “Red Hot” apparatus…,” Rhodes also ignores Antheil in his title.

Hedy is famous for saying, “Any girl can be glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” Lamarr’s biography demonstrates the conflict between brains and beauty. Her first husband was an Austrian arms manufacturer. Clearly, she was privy to many top-secret discussions and smart enough to understand the details. So, when it came to her invention, history is ambivalent as to whether she was an inventor or a spy.

This tendency to not give her credit was based on her beauty and success as an actor (what is the connection?), and ignored that she preferred to stay home with her drafting table rather than go to parties. She only gets credit because of her patent, which required good lawyers funded by the money she made in movies.

The Navy screened many inventions during World War II and less than 1% were considered. Hedy’s invention was selected, but then classified and shelved. Part of the problem was that her application to torpedo guidance was beyond the Navy’s capabilities. They had more basic problems with their torpedoes. “60 percent of U.S. torpedoes were duds. Japanese ships steamed into port with unexploded torpedoes stuck in their hulls like arrows.” An unjammable guidance system was beyond their concerns.

Antheil lived in Paris during the 1920s and knew many famous people such as James Joyce. One of his early compositions called for 16 synchronized player pianos and airplane propellers.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in the 1920s, women’s or technology history. Though it jumps around and lacks a specific focus, it is full of interesting details and observations.

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We Were Liars by E Lockhart *****

The Sinclairs come from old New England money. (They own an island off Cape Cod.) The family is scattered throughout the northeast, but they all get together on their island each summer (where each family has its own house). During summer fifteen, the oldest grandchild, Cadence Sinclair Eastman, has an accident, hits her head, and for the remainder of the book, she struggles to remember.

Summer sixteen she is sent off to Europe. Summer seventeen she returns to the island and after several surprising (to Cady and the reader) plot twists, the mystery is solved.

The patriarch Harris Sinclair had three daughters, who married and had three grandchildren close in age: Cadence, Johnny, and Mirren. All the fathers are gone. Johnny’s mother has a boyfriend; his son, Gatwick Matthew Patil, also joins the family each summer. Thus, Gat, Mirren, Johnny, and Cady are four fast friends who spend every summer together but are rarely in contact during the year.

After the summer fifteen accident, Cady has migraines and amnesia and misses enough school to be left back a year. For summer sixteen, her father takes her to Europe. She sends emails to her summer friends, but receives no responses. When she returns to the island for summer seventeen, she hopes to find our what really happened. She does, but not how she (or the reader) expects.

Do not be put off by the high-school protagonists, and middle-grade rating, We Were Liars by E Lockhart for all ages about self-deception, privilege, and humanity. Published in 2014, its relevance today (2018) has grown.  Recommended to anyone with children, money, or privilege (you know who you are).

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Lifeguard by James Patterson ****

Funny story. My book club’s topic for July was summer/vacation/beach. Lifeguard by James Patterson seemed perfect on the face of it. However, Ned Kelly, “like the Australian outlaw”, purported to be a lifeguard, but the only evidence of this was a single scene on the beach. I might be a bit of a cynic, but I’m guessing James Patterson had a different book in mind when he wrote the outline, and writer Andrew Gross got sidetracked when he put the book together.

The story is about an art heist which is staged as a cover for something else, after which the contracted thieves are murdered. Ned Kelly, poor boy gone good, and Ellie Shurtleff, art major turned FBI, band together to solve the mystery and capture the bad guy. Bodies keep piling up and all is wrapped up in the end.

I have one complaint that I have also noticed elsewhere. I think that murders have traditionally been portrayed as people with strong motives that drive them to this ultimate crime, but recently the balance has gone to psychopaths that need little motivation for murder. In this book, the antagonist chooses murder as his first option. The motivation for murder can be a flimsy as a vague paranoid concern that the victim might be a problem. Such psychopathic characters are less interesting and engaging.

Regardless, this is a typical James Paterson book: 120 short chapters. Two sex scenes and four murders in the first four chapters. Lots of action and few surprises. James Patterson fans should not be disappointed.

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Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet ***

Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet reminds me of another memoir by an autistic author: Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin. Tammet’s book is an uneven collection of essays on math, literature and personal reflection. Both books demonstrate the self-obsession of (autistic) authors.

The theme of the book is finding a connection to numbers within a wide range of topics. For example, Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Princess and the Pea” leads to an investigation of fractions. How small is the bump that keeps the princess awake? Another chapter discusses languages what have different numbers to count different objects such as sheep and fingers, and languages with a limited number of counting words, usually of the one, two, many types.

I found one of the most interesting to be a chapter on Shakespeare’s mathematics education using Robert Recorde’s 1543 book on Algebra. This chapter includes a selection of mathematically inspired lines such as, “Lear: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.” Another notable person connected to a famous math book is “a copy of [Euclid’s] Elements traveled in the carpetbag of a circuit lawyer from Illinois…Abraham Lincoln.”

Other chapters investigate Tolstoy, Einstein, Omar Khayyam, SETI, the Garden of Eden, and snowflakes. The chapters jump around, and the commonality of numbers is not enough to produce a cohesive whole. The idea that numbers are ubiquitous is well demonstrated, but the result is chaotic and unsatisfying.

If your goal is an insight into the autistic mind, Temple Grandin is the far better choice. She gets past her self-obsession, considers the experience of others, and makes general conclusions. Typical of Tammet is a chapter on his record-breaking recitation of Pi to 22,514 digits. However, this is only the European record, and he made a mistake at digit 2,965. The world record is 67,890, so this chapter is more self-congratulatory than factual or noteworthy. I recommend any book by Temple Grandin instead.

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Cat Sense by John Bradshaw ****

Cats are under more pressure to change than at any time since they decided to cast their fate with people and take up residence around granaries, homes, and ships in the role of rodent control. Until 50 years ago, scientists assumed cats were similar to dogs and people generally let them run free. Cat Sense by John Bradshaw reviews the new feline science and the sudden (in evolutionary time) pressure for cats to hunt less and join the domestic group more.

Cats are not Dogs

Wild cats are solitary hunters, while dogs are social. This means that cats view others with suspicion, as competitors or threats. They are sensitive to signs of aggression. On the other hand, dogs look for signs of cooperation. Dogs look to their trainers for direction and are rewarded by attention. Cats ignore their trainers and do not desire attention, which is often interpreted as a threat.

Cat diets are fundamentally different from dogs. Dogs are omnivores, while cats are obligate carnivores. Hunting is instinctual to a cat, as this is the only way for a wild cat to survive. Dogs can thrive on scraps, while cats must have meat. Only recently (50 years) have people been able to purchase cat food which did not require cats to supplement it with hunted prey.

Over the last 10,000 years, dogs have been domesticated to perform many useful tasks (herding, hunting, protection, …). Cat already hunted rodents, so the only domestication, mostly self-selected, was to tolerate people and other cats. As a result, cats are much closer to their wild state than dogs.

Pressure on Cats

As cats transition from pest control to pets (a very recent change), there is pressure to live indoors in the company of other pets and people, plus there is also pressure to stop catching birds and bunnies. Cats prefer their own territory and instinctually hunt. The cats most suited to this lifestyle change (pets) are often neutered and rarely breed. Feral cats, the least suited to these new roles, still breed. Without feral cats, current practices of neutering will see a decline of cat populations. With feral cats, these practices will tend toward more wild, less domesticated cats. Neither is in the interest of cats.

Cats are solitary hunters. Domestic cats made one small adjustment to their behavior: they tolerate people. Bradshaw wonders if there is any way for them to hunt less and tolerate other (pets and people) more. His conclusion is discouraging. The best pets are most often neutered, and the wildest cats continue to breed. The breeders are no help as they select for appearance, not behavior in contrast to dog breeders who select for both.

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