Book – Page 33 – A Four Score Graybeard

Missive #100 Published 23 July 2023

In the nineteenth century, a small group of American idealists managed to actually build Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine and use it to develop Cliology, mathematical models that could chart the likely course of the future. Soon they were working to alter history’s course as they thought best. By our own time, the Society has become the secret master of the world. But no secret can be kept forever, at least not without drastic measures. When her plans for some historic real estate lead developer and ex-reporter Sarah Beaumont to stumble across the Society’s existence, it’s just the first step into a baffling and deadly maze of conspiracies.

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Missive #98 Published 18 July 2023

Everyone wants to know where the society in which they live is going, but answers are elusive. Turchin, an academic working in the emerging field of complexity science, believes he has found a path forward with a discipline called cliodynamics, which melds statistical analysis, social trend data, and historical comparisons to create a sophisticated model. He has written several books using cliodynamics, including Ultrasociety and Ages of Discord, and here, he aims to understand the current situation in the U.S, which he sees as sliding toward social and political disintegration.

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Missive #96 Published 14 July 2023

This book is 1049 pages in its printed hardbound format. It would probably only be a third of that if all the quoted material were removed; there are over 3,380 footnotes to cite the sources. A massive amount of data but light on an explanation about what it all means. I'll probably read Volume 2, but not soon, and hope that it is not as data heavy.

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Missive #95 Published 12 July 2023

I think this was the best of the three books in the trilogy. Sad that it has concluded. Also sad that Cormac McCarthy died on 13 June 2023 so he will write no more. There are more of his books that he did write that I have yet to read so that is good.

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Missive #92 Published 2 July 2023

This is an interesting book but nothing like what Severin's earlier books were. His first adventure books were about him participating in recreating historical adventures. This book is about other adventurers with him playing no part.

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Missive #87 Published 16 June 2023

The book does not measure up to the promo. It is not a bad book but he doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said many times during the past few years. I don’t recommend it.

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Missive #86 Published 14 June 2023

I liked this book the better than the previous four in the series. Perhaps I'm just becoming used to Herbert's writing style. He didn't get bogged down in his philosophy and just told a good story.

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Missive #83 Published 7 June 2023

On Valentine’s Day, four members of the Coverdale family were murdered in the space of fifteen minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them one by one in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When the police arrest Miss Parchman two weeks later, they discover a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine’s Day massacre, a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life.

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Missive #82 Published 4 June 2023

This is the first book in a trilogy which I'll read. Then decide if I want to read any of the other works by this author. She is British so there is some British English that may be off putting to some readers but I've become accustom to the 'language'. It is a good read and I recommend it.

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Missive #80 Published 30 May 2023

It has taken 70 years for Vonnegut's dystopia to come to pass — almost. Today in the United States all those machines have been moved to some other country where they still require human labor but it is cheaper. For those jobs that can't be sent out of the country the plan seems to be to allow cheap labor to come into the country. A very good book, I'll be reading more of his novels.

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