Review: Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Basically it turns out that Out of Africa was a gross oversimplification. We came out, in various waves, some went back in, many died out after coming out, we came out at least twice and confronted Neanderthals. Then we spread around, the Denisovans were pretty big, but died out, but there's still some of their DNA going around. Same with Neanderthals. Plenty of ghost populations (populations we know must have existed due to DNA, but with no traces). Also within Africa there was a ton of movement, and plenty of people who were out of Africa returned to Africa, many times way back down to South Africa. The migration into America is no less complicated, with plenty of movement over many waves, including at least one major one back to Siberia. And all of these are quite recent discoveries, with much more analysis going on now in Asia, and plenty to come in Africa and elsewhere, so this will probably be hopelessly out of date by the time I finish writing this review. 

Re: the Denisovans, I'm wondering if they represent the first Indigenous Taiwanese, since these then spread throughout the Pacific in more or less the same regions we find Denisovan DNA. Although, again, it's all a hodgepodge.

The book ends with a caveat re: classifying people into races, but also NOT classifying them into races, which is well-rounded and probably needed. 

If you're interested in language families this book also has plenty of material. 

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Review: The Road to Sampo

The Road to Sampo by Hwang Sok-yong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very atmospheric short story, taking place during the early 70s, when farmers were being uprooted for factory/construction work, but the work itself was sporadic and seasonal. I liked all three characters, although the main protagonist (Yong-dal) was a bit of a mystery to me. 

And someone mentioned they made this into a movie? I'd love to see that. 

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Review: The Nine Cloud Dream

The Nine Cloud Dream by Kim Manjung
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with all classics, my advice is to read this book without reading any introductions, preambles, or reviews (including this one) and just read it as a story, the way the author intended. 

Of course, there will be plenty of symbolism and other things you won't get by yourself, especially if, like me, you know next to nothing about Korea during the time it was written (I wasn't even sure when it was written at first). But you can always go back to read about that later, and this book has an excellent introduction and some great appendices. 

I did read the end notes as I was reading the story, and appendix one had a list of names that helped, but that was it. 

(SPOILERS BELOW)

Regardless, this was a great story. The introduction said it was like the Korean Divine Comedy. I confess I didn't get that myself (at first it reminded me more of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, since it was basically a dream within the story). But reading about how subversive it was, I see the parallels. 

The emphasis on Buddhism seemed odd, since I know Buddhism was on the outs back then, so I guess that was part of the subversiveness. It also seemed odd that it took place entirely in China, rather than Korea, but I guess that was the standard as well? As always the Wade-Giles put me off (but the footnotes used Pinyin, which was weird). 

The main character and his many women seemed a bit much too. Apparently that had something to do with the I-ching and the 8 steps to enlightenment of Buddhism. Although frankly it seemed more like an excuse to have him find 8 girlfriends. 

Still, if you can get your hands on it, you should read it. 

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Review: There Will Come Soft Rains

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I must have read this in my youth at some point. The story was extremely familiar. Regardless, a good short story. And it helped me rediscover Sara Teasdale’s poem!

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Review: The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was actually pretty darn good as a book. 

The histories of 7-11 and Trader Joe's were fascinating to me, as was that of the early grocery store in general (and ice stands!). 

He then narrates his experience living with a truck driver, which was extremely interesting. I remember I had a great uncle who was a truck driver his whole life, and was extremely proud of all the places he'd been. I guess times have changed. 

He then got a job at Whole foods, which was informative to delve into. 

The final chapter on Thailand/Myanmar is the most depressing, but probably the most important. Through it all he is actually quite nuanced and goes out of his way not to generalize. 

Having said all that, this is very much "qualitative" rather than "quantitative", with mostly anectodal tidbits rather than data, and definitely more subjective than not. That isn't to say I disagree with what he says (and I'm in no position to do so, since he clearly did his homework), but I guess it would have been nice to have some quantitative studies or something to go along with this. 

PS:

I saw a reviewer saying this book was too "woke", which seems extremely odd. While I'm definitely not a fan of the "wokeness" surrounding me, I don't see how it applies to this book. I guess mentioning truck drivers not being able to earn a living and fishermen being exploited in Thailand is woke. What was it called when we talked about exploitation in the 1980s and 90s then? 

I'm thinking some reviews say more about the reviewer than the book. 

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Review: Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History

Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a fun book! And I'm a huge fan of the North Carolina Museum of Art, so I'm kind of annoyed I didn't find out about this (or her podcast) until after I left North Carolina. 

Regardless, quite a few fun tidbits, which in all gave me a much broader grasp of a number of artists, especially having to do with modern art (within the past 100 years or so). For example, it was a pretty good primer into Abstract art and Pop art. 

The full story of the Salvator Mundi was fascinating to me. Also the idea that Davinci painted more than one Mona Lisa (like the Isleworth Mona Lisa), and that the Louvre might have more than one, too. 

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Review: Unknown Number

Unknown Number by Azure
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I loved the premise. It seemed like sliding doors meets the multiverse theory, all via text chats and dealing with gender transition (and, along those lines, making or not making life-altering decisions). 

I feel like more could have been done with this, however. Someone mentioned that, since it's all in text message format, it had to be a short story. Then again, Train Man was over 400 pages long, and I came to the opposite conclusion there. The different format made it seem shorter than that. 

How about hearing more about the other timelines he contacted? How about a follow-up message at some point? I realize these are probably tangential to the point of the story, but they'd still be quite interesting to explore. 

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Review: Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years

Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years by Paul B. Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This probably only pertains to people who run a business with a team of at least, say, 10 people. At the end of the day most of the issues pertain to deals, mergers, rollups, and consensus building within the company. 

I did like the proposed solutions. Basically for pretty much every failure, there were likely people who saw it coming, but it's extremely difficult to have a legitimate open dialog, or method of getting honest feedback from people. Most people are worried about their job, or what the CEO thinks, and even so-called open forums are usually not serious. If the CEO says "I have a great idea, but let's see if anyone has a problem with it", then obviously the employees will keep quiet. Likewise, someone might bring up a good dissenting point, but then the CEO will say "Thank you for that" without any follow-up. 

So the difficulty lies in creating a real devil's advocate with real power. There are some good examples of this here. 

Also, if I set up a new business soon, it might be a consultancy that is paid to find reasons NOT to proceed with a new deal/project/merger/etc. Except, of course, no one would want to hire me. As it mentions in the book, by the time due diligence is called for, the CEOs and managers are just looking for reasons to proceed, not to stop. 

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Review: Danny

Danny by Yun I-Hyeong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I confess I wasn't really able to follow this story. Having said that, I really enjoyed it for various reasons. 

The commentary on grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren was poignant, very true, and as far as I know hasn't been tackled anywhere else (and I've frankly never seen it mentioned anywhere, despite witnessing it more than once). I'm really glad this book took that theme on. 

I also liked the idea of a cyborg helping out with taking care of children in the not too distant future, after a group of teachers snap. 

(SPOILER BELOW, PROBABLY):

I feel like I was missing something, however, since I never really understood why the cyborg was arrested. 

(END POSSIBLE SPOILER)

I saw some commenters had complained about the translation. I noticed some issues too (words missing here and there, or odd sentence structure), but actually I think it was more of an issue with the editor, whoever it was. I've read at least one other book translated by this same person, which had no issues. 

4 stars, mainly for discussing the grandmother child-rearing issue. 

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Review: Pilon's Pig

Pilon's Pig by Yi Mun-Yol
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everytime I read Yi Mun-Yol I'm reminded of why I like his books so much. This short story was excellent, discussing violence, and the moral dilemma of violence, both with the aggressor as well as with how the victims of aggression often are no better. 

It was interesting to read, in the afterword, how Yi Mun-yol is seen as too conservative in Korea. This story certainly didn't convey that at all (in fact, if anything it seemed quite the opposite), and frankly, knowing how his father defected from South Korea to North Korea, one can see how he might be a bit more right-leaning. 

Regardless, the book stands on its own and is a great short read. 

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Review: Made in Korea: Chung Ju Yung and the Rise of Hyundai

Made in Korea: Chung Ju Yung and the Rise of Hyundai by Richard Steers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This reads a bit more like a hagiography than an actual biography. The author seems to be very quick to praise, but tends to find fault elsewhere when issues arise. 

This actually didn't detract much from the book. Chung is an extraordinary person no matter how you look at it, and it was enlightening to read about his approach to pretty much anything (passion and persistence, as he puts it, pretty much exactly like Angela Duckworth)

Also incredible to read how he not only founded and built up Hyundai from nothing, but also built up Korea's highway system, basically made the 1988 Olympics in Seoul possible, orchestrated the first visits to North Korea, and plenty more. 

The book is a bit out of date at this point, and it would be interesting to see how the company did post Chung Ju Yung. However, all in all a good book about a very inspiring person. 

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Review: Bruno, Chief of Police

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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