“Quantum Synapse” is the kind of book I love. It’s set in the future (figure it’s the 2040s, a century after computers were invented) but not in a dystopian future where the landscape is unrecognizable. Here, the action takes place largely on the West Coast, with familiar landmarks from California to Washington state, and the only thing that will really stands out from today are the super soldiers Veritas and his ally Milo. [Read more…] about ‘Quantum Synapse’ book review: Fast-paced thriller with a fun slice of sci-fi
book review
‘The Friend’ book review: A psychological thriller with a literary flair
Title: The Friend
Author: Teresa Driscoll
Pages: 293
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Release date: March 22, 2018
Thrillers come in all flavors: action thrillers, political thrillers, sci-fi thrillers, and on and on. A subgenre that relies more on intrigue and suspense than flash and bang, psychological thrillers are perhaps the hardest to pull off successfully. Yet Teresa Driscoll has crafted a suspense novel with just the right mix of external threats and internal conflict after an outsider arrives in a formerly sedate village in the British countryside and everything changes. [Read more…] about ‘The Friend’ book review: A psychological thriller with a literary flair
Book review: ‘Brilliance’ by Marcus Sakey
Title: Brilliance
Author: Marcus Sakey
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Release date: July 16, 2013 (Thomas & Mercer, an Amazon imprint) on Amazon
Athriller that’s long been on my reading list and that finally made its way onto my Kindle, “Brilliance” is a smart, fast-paced page-turner that opens the three-part Brilliance series by indie author Marcus Sakey. [Read more…] about Book review: ‘Brilliance’ by Marcus Sakey
Book review: ‘No Exit’ (thriller)
Title: No Exit
Author: Taylor Adams
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Release date: June 25, 2017 (Joffe Books) on Amazon
On my cruise to Central America last month, I loaded up my Kindle Paperwhite with a dozen suspense novels, nearly all of them by independent authors. The story that stays with me one month later is that of the protagonist in “No Exit.” [Read more…] about Book review: ‘No Exit’ (thriller)
Book review: ‘A Crack in Creation’
Title: “A Crack in Creation”
Authors: Jennifer A. Doudna & Samuel H. Sternberg
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release date: June 13, 2017 on Amazon
More often than not, it’s difficult to determine which new titles will have staying power 10, 20 or 50 years from now. But “A Crack in Creation” deserves to be on any short list of decidedly important nonfiction books of 2017.
The reason is not simply because of the authors’ pedigree — co-author Jennifer Doudna is credited as the chief pioneer behind CRISPR, the potentially world-changing gene-editing technique. The book’s impact is also buttressed by the authors’ scientific rigor, deeply felt passion, and understanding of the world-changing consequences of their research.
Doudna and Sternberg’s “A Crack in Creation” is two books in one. The first third is a short primer on genetic engineering and the scientists who’ve advanced the science over the years. While the attention to detail and footnote-rich documentation is commendable, the lay reader will be forgiven if she skips through some of the dry backstory to get to the good stuff in the remaining two-thirds of the book. Because few of us have yet to reckon with the significant issues raised by the recent breakthroughs in CRISPR research, which only came to light in 2012. [Read more…] about Book review: ‘A Crack in Creation’
Are you a self-actualized, empowered customer?
Review of ‘The Intention Economy’ by Doc Searls
Review by J.D. Lasica
Title: “The Intention Economy″
Author: Doc Searls
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Release date: May 1, 2012
In “The Intention Economy” (Harvard Business Review Press), Doc Searls picks up where he left off as co-author of “The Cluetrain Manifesto,” the seminal 2000 book that coined the phrase “conversations are markets” and ushered in a new understanding of how the Internet has changed the power relationship between institutions and individuals.
In his new book, Searls takes things a step further, painting a picture of what happens “when customers take charge” of this often dysfunctional relationship. Searls describes the tiny buds and sprouts of an emerging Intention Economy driven by customer demand and customer intent, an economy he believes has the potential to supplement and perhaps displace the present-day Attention Economy, where companies mine for personal data about us — sometimes with comic ineptitude — so that they can match us with products we don’t want and don’t need. [Read more…] about Are you a self-actualized, empowered customer?
