I read this book as a part of a book study led by McRay (the author himself). These stories, mostly from Israel-Palestine but also from Northern Ireland and South Africa, chronicle the difficulties we humans have in securing peace among each other. They tell of how each side of really difficult conflicts can come to live peacefully and non-violently with the other. McRay is not the subject here. Rather, he is the interviewer. He has…
As an IT professional, I do not reside in the intended audience of this book. It is geared towards business leaders, not software developers. It provides a high-level and non-technical overview of the field of cybersecurity. Through several authors, it makes the case that cybersecurity cannot be overlooked by all C-suite executives, even in non-technology-based companies. That case is underscored by the direct impact cybersecurity has on a business’ bottom line. Having in-depth technical experience…
The author, an award-winning Dutch journalist with professional expertise on Russia, writes his family history that is well-grounded in the European experience. This family of riches and complexities has ties to Latvia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Like most memoirs, this work can be seen as the author making sense of his own complex life here. Münginghoff died in April of 2020, shortly before this translation was published. Overall, this is a tragic story, not…
Set in the 1950s, this story resides in the literary area of fictionalized memoir (though written about a family member’s experiences) or historical fiction. Erdrich writes about the struggle of a Native American tribe (the Chippewas) to retain the land on their reservation. This land was deeded to them in perpetuity by the United States government. However, U.S. Congress sought to disregard (discard?) these treaties and to take over autonomous land. The fight to overcome…
This month, I’m going to highlight a few of the books that I’ve been specifically asked to review. I get these books ahead of release or with a request to promote. So I download them, read them, and review them. This process is a lot easier now that we have the Internet. One does not have to physically mail a book in order to send it to a reviewer. Thus, procuring a book review is…
The American mental health system is one without much hope, without much money, and without much publicity. In this academic exploration, Myers seeks to bring a clear lens of careful observation to the situation. Often, exposure to the system makes observers disillusioned and hopeless. To that narrative, she provides a counter-narrative based on first-hand experience and research. All in all, she succeeds in her attempt. She spends an extended period of time investigating mental health…
Confession: I work in the field of biomedical computing as a software developer. After journeying through a BS in computer science and medical school, I desire to devote much of my life towards advancing this field along with other bookish pursuits. So this book, by its title, caught my interest. November does an excellent job of chronicling the advance of applying computing towards biomedical pursuits. Much of the early advances in computing came at the…
Stone’s protagonist is super-smart student Justyce in his senior year at a high school in Atlanta. Thing is, he’s black. As such, he was falsely arrested at the beginning of the novel. He and his best friend were shot after an incident of presumed racial profiling. His best friend died, and Justyce has to testify in the case against the shooter. Justyce also must deal with reverse racist issues. He falls in love with a…
In Charleston, South Carolina, history is everything. The city welcomes travelers from all over the world and sells its sometimes beautiful, sometimes tragic history to everyone. This is one of the oldest cities in the “New World.” It was the site of Revolutionary and Civil War battles. Indeed, Fort Sumter, guarding its harbor, was the starting point of the Civil War. My wife’s family arrived in Charleston in the 1600s. One of her ancestors signed…
This book attempts to provide basic and practical measures that can guide an IT professional into more security expertise. It claims that it can teach the reader methods on how to detect vulnerabilities. It succeeds in surveying the technologies relevant to the task, but it falls short in the execution of writing. Lewis, no doubt, is a good security professional. However, he does not explain a topic thoroughly. He is too terse and concise. He…