The Aliens Have Landed! and They Need an Agent! Review of "Agent to the Stars" by John Scalzi, and Other Books

Just finished

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi, which was recommended here at WAYR. Tom Stein is a young Hollywood agent on the rise. He represents one big star, a few young possible stars, and some others.... Then his boss calls him to a meeting. A secret assignment, he can turn it down if he wants. But he accepts.

He's going to represent the Yherlajk. Aliens who look like translucent jello, communicate by smell, and have powers far beyond those of humans. Yes, aliens have landed. And they need an agent!

This is really funny stuff, but it also makes a few interesting points and has some nice stuff to say about things like prejudice and the Holocaust - nothing Earth shaking, but enough to make it more interesting.

Now reading

Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases ed. by Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky. A collection of now classic works on how people reason under uncertainty.

Washington: A life which I am reading on my new Kindle 2 (my old Kindle broke). So far, it's living up to the hugely favorable reviews, although the beginning was a bit repetitive about some aspects of Washington's personality. I've now been reading this again, and am impressed. It's still a bit repetitive (how many times do we need to read how big, tall, erect and strong Washington was?) but good. Chernow doesn't skip over the negative stuff, in particular how Washington dealt with slavery.

Charming Proofs. A book of beautiful (or charming) proofs in mathematics, nearly all of which require no advanced math.

Daybreak Zero by John Barnes. It's 2025. About 9 months ago, there was an apocalyptic event, involving both nanowar and electomagnetic pulse, wiping out pretty much everything that had been invented in the 20th century. The country formerly known as the United States is struggling to recover. Very well written; the worst of the apocalypse is over, so we don't read of horrors but recovery. But recovery is slow.

The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst and the rush to empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas.

Very well written history covering the end of the 19th century in America and the Spanish-American war, which has parallels with the Iraq invasion (based on lies, led to torture, jingoistic .....). This is biography-history. It portrays three proponents of war: Theodore Roosevelt, William Randolph Hearst and Henry Cabot Lodge, and two opponents of the war: House Speaker Tom Reed and philosopher/psychologist William James. I love this way of writing history through biography, and Thomas has five excellent subject for biography. I knew next to nothing about Reed.

Just started
Blood, bones and butter: The inadvertent education of a reluctant chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. So far I haven't gotten too far into this one, but it tells of Hamilton's childhood and her early fascination with food and its preparation, including butchery.