Book Review: Geniuses at War: Bletchley Park, Colossus, and the Dawn of the Digital Age (2021). David A. Price.

A historical side-note to the history of Bletchley Park and World War II code breaking by the British, this book focuses on the small group of scientists, engineers and mathematicians who invented the first modern electronic computers, in order to speed up the secret code-breaking operations.

This is another of the recent releases revealing archival details that had been suppressed for many decades under the Official Secrets Act, where the principals who were there at the time weren't allowed to talk about or take credit for their achievements until long after the age of computers had begun.  Recommended.

Movie Review: Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Theatrical release.

By now, most people know that the long-awaited sequel to the mega-hit Top Gun from 1986, Top Gun: Maverick, was just released to theaters this past weekend.  The new movie, which was ready for release in 2020, was shelved for two years until it could be seen by audiences in theaters on big screens.

Tom Cruise, the movie’s star and one of the executive producers, was insistent that this film would not be released to streaming platforms until it could be seen in theaters first, and so it wasn’t throughout the first two years of the pandemic.  But it’s finally here, and it was well worth the wait, especially for fans of the original movie (who are legion).

It’s worth noting at the outset that the plot contains a large number of elements that are absurd, and just not believable from a rational standpoint.  But of course, we can always decide to suspend disbelieve, just as we would for a blockbuster science fiction film, in which case, strap in for an incredible and entertaining ride!

The absurd parts: a legendary fighter pilot now in advanced middle age is still in the Navy, stuck by his own individualistic misbehavior at the rank of captain in the role of a test pilot, but yet somehow not forced out of the service for failure to advance.  An unnamed hostile country possesses fighter planes that are way better than the F-18s (or for that matter, F-22s or F-35s) the U.S. military actually flies.  A 3-week “emergency” is created, where an elite team of pilots needs to train for and perform an impossible and unprovoked attack on the unnamed country’s new uranium processing plant.  And so on.

Of course, the original Top Gun film had a lot of the same sort of contrived and unrealistic plot devices to set up its story, and none of us who have watched and enjoyed it over the years have ever really cared about that, because the believable characters, the portrayal of the human relationships under stress within an elite world of competitive warriors, the humor, and the incredible aerial combat scenes more than made up for any trivial lack of story plausibility.

The new movie is absolutely faithful to those aspects of the original, while continuing the story of several of those personalities and relationships as they have aged and matured through time, and at the same time showcasing even more spectacularly realistic aerial footage than the original, as a new Top Gun team of "best of the best" fighter pilots trains for and then launches the seemingly impossible attack.

Much has been made of the extent to which this is a Tom Cruise showpiece, and it certainly is.  As a producer, he brought a long career’s worth of knowledge and experience about how to create outstanding action-packed cinematic entertainment, along with his expertise as a highly trained pilot (in real life), and his strong connections to the Navy from the original film, due to its decades-long value as a major recruiting tool for naval aviation.

But as an actor, he also brings authenticity to his portrayal of an older, sadder but wiser Maverick.  He’s still the dominant fighter pilot among the “best of the best”, and he still won’t follow orders if it doesn’t suit him, but he also knows how to act his age and life experience – struggling over whether he can teach his students what they need to survive, self-aware about the impact of pilots’ deaths on their families, and loving and compassionate toward his ailing friend and former Top Gun competitor Iceman (Val Kilmer), now the admiral who’s been providing “top cover” for Maverick’s checkered naval career over the years.

As is typical of Cruise, he also insisted on doing his own stunts to the extent possible, to make them look more realistic, although apparently (and not surprisingly) he did not actually pilot the Navy’s F-18s used in the movie.  He does briefly fly his own personally-owned World War II era P-51 Mustang fighter, which in the movie is one of Maverick’s fast-moving boy's toys, along with his iconic Kawasaki motorcycle.

If you’re ready to venture back into a movie theater, and you’re able to enjoy a film that is loud, visually overwhelming, blatantly militaristic and fantastical, but also epic entertainment with an uplifting story and likeable characters, Top Gun: Maverick should be at the top of your list for the summer.  It seems to be playing almost everywhere, so finding a theater near you that’s showing it shouldn’t be a problem, and in the near future, we can expect it to show up on one of the streaming services (although it won't be as grand or overpowering on the small screen).  Highly recommended.

Book Review: Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone (2021). Book 9 of the Outlander Series. Diana Gabaldon.

After a very long wait for legions of dedicated fans around the world, the latest installment in the epic Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon (now also a major hit TV show from the Starz channel), arrived in November of 2021.  It’s the usual 900 pages or so of small, dense type (in the hardback version) – in other words, a very long read, but worth every minute of it, and the seven long years of waiting since Book 8 (Written in My Own Heart’s Blood) was released.

As the book begins, it’s 1779, and Jamie and Claire and their family are back together again at their frontier home on Fraser’s Ridge in rural North Carolina.  They’re safe for the moment, but the American revolution is moving south, and they know from their pre-knowledge of history that navigating the next two years of war, with all the fratricidal terror to come between Loyalists and Rebels, will be fraught with danger and hard choices.

As always, Gabaldon brings the characters and scenes totally alive, with fascinating attention to period detail, contrasted social and cultural mores and conditions between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, dramatic historical events described, and moving portrayals of many of the more timeless experiences of life, love and war.  No matter how long these books take to read, I never want them to end each time I start reading one of them.

When I started reading this series (some years ago now), I thought it might be a cheesy historical romance and bodice-ripper with some science fiction time-travel thrown in, but I soon realized it was serious literature and addictive historical fiction (with lovely occasional touches of the cosmically mysterious and fantastic) of the very best sort.  If you’ve read all the other books (and yes, they need to be read in order, at least the first time through), you’re definitely going to want to keep going, and read this one. 

Gabaldon has promised to write one final volume to end the series, and to reach the end of the American Revolution, but at one book every 5-7 years, it’s going to be a long wait for Book 10 (2028, maybe?).  In the meantime, if you haven't read this series, you'll have lots of time to catch up before the final volume arrives.  And if you have, you can always go back and re-read the previous nine books while you’re waiting!  Very highly recommended.

Book Review: Unsheltered (2019). Barbara Kingsolver.

Unsheltered is a beautifully woven tale of parallel lives in a small rust belt town, one thread in the late nineteenth century and the other in modern times. 

Certain themes tie the two stories together across time: the physical location and the two different slowly disintegrating houses that stand on it, the family lives and their struggles with financial survival despite educations, intelligence and good will, and the small-mindedness and irrationality of some of their neighbors in each time and place.

Kingsolver is wonderful at capturing the internal monologues and feelings of characters, and the ebbs and flows of events and emotions within individuals and communities.   I definitely will go explore some of her other novels.  Recommended.

Book Review: Educated (2018). Tara Westover.

This autobiography is a gut-wrenching personal account by a young woman of growing up in a rural, extremist Mormon family in Idaho, dominated by a patriarchal father who believes in anti-government conspiracies, the end of the world, and his own personal brand of religious fanaticism.

Despite endless years of serious accidents and injuries from dangerous work and family car trips, physical and psychological abuse from a crazy brother and her father, a total lack of modern healthcare, social isolation and no schooling as a child, she ultimately got out, slowly separated herself from her family, and learned about the outside world and objective modern reality by becoming an educated person.

This autobiography is beautifully written and inspirational, and provides a stark picture of the extremes of opinion and behavior on the outer margins of American society. There may be a movie adaptation of this book coming out, but I haven't been able to find details of it online.  Highly recommended. 

TV Review: Bodyguard (2018). Netflix.

This 6-part mini-series from the BBC was a nice surprise when I finally decided to give it a try, after Netflix repeatedly displayed it prominently on my “you should see this” list.  Only one season was made, but a February 2022 online story suggests that the producers may be gearing up to make a new season 2.   In any event, the first season stands on its own as a complete story, solidly rooted in the geopolitical traumas and anxieties of our time. 

The main protagonist, Sgt. David Budd (played by Richard Madden) is a veteran of 10 years of war with the British military in Afghanistan and Iraq, who now works as a personal protection officer (a bodyguard) for the Scotland Yard division that protects important British government officials.

In an early scene, while riding with his two young children on a train, he recognizes a terrorist plot unfolding, and intervenes to stop a suicide bombing before it happens, thereby saving both the train’s passengers and the woman bomber, and in the process becoming an instant hero in the press.

In a very believable story of “no good deed goes unpunished”, David is quickly rewarded for his heroism with a new assignment as the personal bodyguard for Julia, the Home Secretary and top Conservative woman MP in the government (Keeley Hawes), who is campaigning to undermine and replace the current Prime Minister.

To her new Police Sergeant protector, the Home Secretary represents all the worst judgment, bad policies, jingoism and hypocrisy that led to the disastrous wars he fought in, which have left him psychologically damaged, bitter and now alienated from his wife.  Nevertheless, his devotion to duty won’t allow him to do anything but guard her ferociously with his life, and try to anticipate the evolving threats which she seems to draw like a magnet.

Without revealing the full plot and spoiling it, I would say that this excellent series reminds me more than anything of the long-running HBO show Homeland.  In both shows, we see an exceptionally competent and dedicated agent, each with a heavy load of psychological damage from their respective war experiences, trying to stay one step ahead of complex terrorism plots, while also trying to deal with layers of bureaucratic intrigue in their own organizations, and their own disturbed personal lives, loves and families.  It makes for an absorbing and complex story in both cases.

Bodyguard also includes several of the most adrenaline-pumping action scenes of a character under threat of immediate death, trying to hold things together and get everyone safely through a moment of impending mayhem, that I have seen in recent years.  In an entertainment world full of spectacular CGI car crashes, gratuitous gunfire and colorful explosions, these scenes stand out for their close-up focus on the drama of characters trying to survive under the pressure of imminent catastrophe.

This is a fine example of the contemporary political thriller, with plausible scenarios and realistic threats unfolding in the uniquely British context of the post-Forever Wars world.  Highly recommended.

Book Review: Unrequited Infatuations (2021). Stevie Van Zandt.

This rock and roll autobiography is an unusual one, in part because it is told by someone who is not the “front man” for a band, or a major solo act himself.  This is a “sideman’s” story.  

For those who don’t know, Van Zandt, also known as “Little Stevie”, is a close friend and confidante of Bruce Springsteen.  He became a founding member, guitarist and backup singer of Springsteen’s E Street Band, and Springsteen’s right-hand man in the early years, only to quit in the 1980s, just as the band was reaching its peak years of popularity. 

As he recounts, he returned to the band many years later, but only after building his own separate life and identity as a musician, political activist, actor, script-writer and producer, as well as a celebrity gadfly, solo artist, band-leader, project organizer and friend to many other stars.  

His style of story-telling seemed to verge at times on the bombastic, self-admiring and grandiose, and might have been intolerable except for the fact that all the outrageous claims he makes and the crazy stories he tells are apparently true, and are often very funny.  It also helps make it more bearable that he openly shares his failures and insecurities too.  

But yes, he did play a huge part in organizing financial, political and celebrity support in the U.S. against South African apartheid, and in support of Nelson Mandela.  He did become an actor, and a major star in The Sopranos, one of the top TV series of all time.  He did star in and help produce another improbable but popular gangster-related Netflix show set in Norway, Lilyhammer.  And he does seem to know just about everyone in the celebrity world, and has wild stories and gossip to share about his interactions with many of them.  

If you’re looking for a fun read, and lots of tall tales from the life of a high-powered Forrest Gump of the entertainment world, this book might fill the bill.  Recommended.

Book Review: Born to Run (2016). Bruce Springsteen.

The Boss's long-awaited autobiography finally appeared in 2016.  It explores in the first person the same kind of personal and emotional territory as was covered in the Tom Petty biography Petty, which I previously reviewed.

In fact, Springsteen and Petty, the two most beloved and iconic American rock stars of our age,  have similar stories in so many respects:  growing up poor, surviving abusive and neglectful fathers, youths spent in 1960s garage rock bands, struggling with depression throughout their careers, and tending to the difficult process of building and managing extraordinarily tight-knit bands of gifted musical subordinates and collaborators over long periods of time. 

They both experienced the incredible highs of performing live in front of huge adoring audiences, writing hundreds of popular songs, creating great records in the studio, and working with many of the other luminaries of the rock music world over their respective 40+ year careers.

Yet at the same time, in both these books, we see them going through many of the same kinds of personal and family ups and downs that we all have in our own lives. 

Fortunately for the millions of fans worldwide of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, he's still here, and still making great music, as he demonstrated last year with the release of his first rock album and accompanying movie in seven years, Letter to You, also previously reviewed here.  Highly recommended.