Booknotes 3.26 — Blog

Another one! (I’ve been very behind.)

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Time at Lockheed, by Ben R. Rich & Leo Janos, published 1994. The morality of war and military contracting aside, I liked this a lot as a book about building things. Lots of fascinating stories about the development of stealth tech, the U-2, and the Blackbird. (And whew, that story about Carmen Vito’s cyanide pill!)
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, by Steven Johnson, published 2014. I read this for book group and enjoyed it (which I expected, given that I love books about innovations and also really liked Johnson’s The Ghost Map and Extra Life). It’s about the hummingbird effect, where a discovery or invention leads to other unexpected results — for example, the invention of glass unexpectedly led to biological discoveries because of the invention of the microscope. (Also, I didn’t know the word “lens” comes from the Latin word for lentil seed. Ha.) Particularly enjoyed the part about engineering the Chicago sewer (mindblowing, really) and the part about time being different everywhere (on the level of minutes) before the introduction of time zones.

Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper, published 1965, fantasy. First in the series The Dark Is Rising. I last read this twenty years ago this month and wanted to see how it held up now that I’m quite a bit older. Oh, it very much does. Loved it even more this time through. The seaside Cornish village atmosphere is great, and there was more mystery and danger than I remembered. Looking forward to rereading The Dark Is Rising itself, which has long been my favorite in the series.
The Other Valley, by Scott Alexander Howard, published 2024, science fiction. I picked this up after reading tarvolon’s review. Quite liked the idea (always down for stories about time travel in any form), and other than some earthy parts I think I liked the execution, too. And the ending. And the French names.