Paper is patient

Paper: An Elegy by Ian Sansom
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Elegy for paper - very difficult task.
I respect the author for taking the challenge and all hard work. Unfortunately, at least in my case, he lost.
Already at the start of the first chapter I raised brows - idyllic description how paper was produced from the bark of mulberry tree... in Japan.
It puzzled me, I always thought that paper was a Chinese invention. Two pages later my thoughts were confirmed. Yes - China was a correct answer. So why Japan in the opening paragraph?
Another big and unexpected surprise - I was used to the idea, that paper is made from trees. The opening phrases about mulberry tree confirmed my view, and then a shock - at the beginning of XIX century there were problems with paper production because of shortage of rags.
Rags? There is no mention in the book since when and why rags were used for paper production.
Someone may say I that I am picking on the author.
Well, the problem is, that the book contains hundreds of associations of various events and writings. Majority of them unknown (and irrelevant) to me. I read them with some reserve - what for are they in the book? In many cases I got impression, that only to demonstrate author's knowledge and writing skills.
And again to the facts. Author mentions book burning in Nazi Germany in May 1933. He mentions some authors whose books were burnt.
Among them - Thomas Mann.
WRONG! These were books of his brother Heinrich.
Another point - author devoted few pages to the 1937 Munich agreement signed by Chamberlain and Hitler. Why just this, and only this, document has been treated in such detail?
Similarly, there is quite elaborate story about building of Natural History Museum in London. It ends with a conclusion - paper made it possible. Same conclusion as in the previous case.

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Kiwi

Kiwi: The Australian brand that brought a shine to the world by Keith Dunstan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

History of one of the most popular Australian brands.
Great history of Scottish migrants who brought to Australia new concepts and energy.
The story of Kiwi Polish storming world's market was quite fascinating for me.
As negatives I will mention some difficulty in keeping synchronized the story of Kiwi polish conquering the markets and Ramsay family history.
Last chapters was for me a bit too much of the politics of a large multinational corporation.
Note: I read a hardback edition, could not find it on Goodreads.

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And deliver us from... Baldacci

Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The book is based on well designed scenario.
Start with a commonly known event. In this case it is Holocaust. Follow with a widely unknown historical event. In this case it is Holodomor - a Soviet designed famine in Ukraine. The aim of such a mixture is to make impression, firstly that the author sticks to historical events, secondly that there were terrible crimes committed in obscure places and circumstances which we never will be able to fully comprehend.
On such prepared ground we can plant a story of another, not-so-authentic, genocide, this time organised by post-soviet KGB (of source there is a mention, that the current leader of Russia has KGB past).
The book is about a hunt for a perpetrator of this crime.
The second arm of the story is detailed description of cruelty. Once I read an interesting observation. The author looked on the bookshelf in the library. He noticed that in one of the books there was a small section apparently read more frequently as the pages were more worn out. He looked there - these were descriptions of tortures.
It seems the observations were right, some readers are excited reading about cruelties. My impression is, that this topic was one of driving powers of Stieg Larsson's Millenium series.
Writing about cruelties has an additional strength. The reader feels a strong desire to punish the perpetrators. It opens a field for a further fantasies about cruelty - this time for a good cause.
I understand, that 'And deliver us from Evil' is a part of a series of books. It is about some mysterious organisation(s) whose aim is to punish mass murderer's. They collect enormous material on crimes committed, but do not pass it to any justice system rightly considering them as not efficient enough . So they will bring the devil to justice themselves. It seems that there are numerous occasions to kill the the beast, but a special scenario must be observed. The perpetrator must be presented a documentation of atrocities committed and then executed. It is not easy and here we have substance to fill 400+ pages of the book. This way to justice leads to few dozens of accidental casualties.
I managed to read almost 300 pages of this book and I have to admit there were written well. I mean the plot, language, characters presentation, description of localities. In this book there were not so many graphic descriptions of cruelties so only a dozen or two pages to skip.
The author describes frequently technologically advanced methods and equipment. In my opinion does it very well... with one exception. Hunted criminals are protected by very advanced security systems, still in 2 cases just a few seconds power failure creates opportunity to break them. Well, for $80 I bought a very simple home security system and guess what? It is not affected by a power failure.

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Nicola Tesla - for beginners

Tesla For Beginners by Robert Sutherland-Cohen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Simplified story about life and inventions of Nicola Tesla. I suppose the name of the inventor has been recently popularized by Elon Musk, thus quite a number books published.
Having read few other books on this topic I can say it gives a good look into a fascinating life of a fascinating person.
Negative point for me is demonizing Tesla opponents or competitors, specifically Edison and Marconi.

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Nicola Tesla - My Inventions

My Inventions and Other Writings by Nikola Tesla
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Exciting and confusing book at the same time.
Insight into a terribly restless mind.
I used term "terribly" because while reading this book I felt sadness. Sadness for this lonely and in many aspects wasted life.
Exciting part - of course description of his many, many brilliant ideas.
Confusing. Firstly, I could not reconcile some of his ideas with my knowledge of physics. Secondly, in few cases his ideas reached beyond science and led to very bizarre conclusions. E.g. he imagined that producing a super weapon will bring an everlasting peace as nobody will dare to oppose a country having such a weapon. That's crazy.
In few Tesla articles included in this book, there are very specific references to drawings, which are not included into the book - this is very sloppy editing.

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Nicola Tesla - Electrical Wizard

Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World by Elizabeth Rusch
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am not sure what is a target age group for this book.
Judging by the format and contents - large print, lots of pictures and simple style - it is for children.
In my opinion Nicola Tesla was such a mentally disturbed personality, that it is impossible to write a good book about him, specifically for children.
The book is loaded with pictures of a magician and quite confusing text.
As for text - it is excessively sensational - wizard, magician - there not much about science, education, hard work - just spectacular demonstrations,
Two drawings I found quite disturbing - Tesla wizard keeping an electric wire in one hand and a glowing bulb in the other.
Excellent example for children.
Scientific Notes are printed at the end of the book, they include a warning: electricity kills!
Sorry authors, but all diligent readers are already dead.

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