Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker

Not the first one to seek an answer which defines life.

Its a century old question but as our knowledge grows the answer gets farther and more complicated. Imagine it taking it to a cosmological level.

We're never sure if the basic laws of physics and chemistry will apply to an eco system which is different from ours. How can we be sure that the way define the life on earth is not going to follow it. Are bacterias or cells the basic component of life like we've sub-atomic or even sub-nuclear particles the basic component of matter? Consciousness has been the biggest qualifier to call for the life but with AI being more and more independent, is that the case any more?

This small speck called Earth has been the only place which has any sign of an intelligent or otherwise life. It sounds very common to define life which mirrors the life as we see it around which is why all the aliens are always a mirror image of humans at least in nature if not in feature.

We don't need to agree to a frame work for defining life but think about the people who stay awake for this question.

Love

Probably the Best Book on Statistics Ever Written: How to Beat the Odds and Make Better Decisions by Haim Shapira

Nobody is going to beat any odds or getting better at making decisions because there is a higher probability that we never learn :) 

Maybe not the best book but if you don't remember the basic maths from high school its going to sound a lot of gibberish.

But this book puts a lot of guesstimates in the perspective, and most of the time these will prove wrong. Probability came out of the curiosity in casinos but it did a great service to expand the imagination and brought the statistics into the calculation of chances. But data will say anything that we want it to say. You just need to slice it from the most favorable dimension.

The chances are your chances are awfully good - Johnny Mathis

Love

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Of course for the Nobel prize in literature.

The most remarkable past of this novel is how people internalize the trauma for a lifetime.

One of the common statements we here are that some people are more sensitive than others. Like sensitivity can be measured. This a coping statement, and doesn't really help the people who are going through it. Every single specie on this planet has faced trauma but it is the curse of cognition that humans internalize it the most. The response to it may differ among a larger group but the list of causes is not very big.

The story is told from three different perspectives but a reader can see that how disjoint they are. Mostly by design but if you keep adding more to it, it will become complicated to reach a conclusion. But fictional work are never looking for a conclusions. It is left for the users to find it for themselves.

The one statement which stays with you for long is “Why, is it such a bad thing to die?” and shows how people reach to such situations that death doesn't seem so bad. We can philosophize this or just let it be with inaction.

Love

Patriot by Alexei Navalny

Being in opposition is not easy. Specially, when the other side doesn't feel any moral compunction of their actions. This is not the first case of a suspected death but there has never been an approval or denials of any involvement. Which brings the things in grey area.

The book has a record of chronic health issues, and being in the toughest prison brings the works out of these issues. We'll never know if the prison broke the person first or the life force but this is just another name in the list of people who are not approved by power. But the power is never absolute, and there will be a day when the power will shift. Of course, it is the biggest fear of the powerful but it happens.

The second half of the book sounds like a prison diary (it is expected to be repetitive when the writer didn't survive the prison to tell the whole story). People had a right to hear the whole story but then the right is not everything in such a nation state.

You did not leave a legacy but you left a story memorable or otherwise.

Peace

Red Memory by Tania Branigan

Denial is the first of the coping mechanism. Not because it helps to forget but choosing not to remember it makes it tolerable. And once the denial has been long enough, it hardens the nonchalance.

The wrongs of the authoritarian is not in one person but in the collectivity. The book is full of instances where the people who were on the wrong side know this in the retrospective but don't want to do much about it. Even accepting it can change the lives forever. And the lives of the people who lived to not tell the story. The ones which are lost are never coming back.

Another important point is that it takes a lot of efforts to hide the things but the machinery always choose to put efforts in hiding the things rather then accepting and working on it. But working was never an option which is why they end up teaching everyone to live in denial. Even to the people who lost their loved ones.

But how long one can hide the truth? The truth survives the lives of everyone. The truth is just waiting in one person, one record, or even one memory, and when it is out it is not going to change the world but it will be the symbol of what happened.

Peace