Murderland by Caroline Fraser

Does the environmental damage caused by heavy industry which emitted lead, arsenic and other poisonous chemicals, serial murderers have anything to do with the serial murders in the America of 70s and 80s?

The narrative goes in four broad directions, the environmental impact of heavy industries (particularly smelters), serial murders, faulty bridge and some lived experiences of the writer.

There are long researches about the impact of the smelters on the environment and it is also well recorded how far did these industries go to deny it. There was a whole list of specialists whose full time job was lying and not doing/examining the actual research. The people who denied all the credible evidences of the devastating affect of the pollutants on the health of the worker and civilians in and around these plants. And how they were allowed to keep doing it for a very long time until the profits dropped.

Same is with the criminals. There was a long list of missing girls but there was hardly any record of the law agencies taking note of it. The remains that were found after two - three years or even decades were all found because of accidents and not because of someone was looking for them.

And, of course, the bridge which was designed for accidents and never corrected even after regular loss of lives which shows the civil neglect of duties.

There is not a single life which couldn't have been saved but was not in the absence of greed, apathy and accountability.

Peace

A Little History of Everything by Tim Coulson

The problem with the words little and everything is that they never do the justice to the topic discussed when used together.

This is exactly the case here. The book has something of everything and tries to give a lot of information in a very small chapter. Technically, each chapter can be a book of its own but then it was never the idea for the author.

This book is only understandable when the reader has a good background in all the basic fields of science which means that you need to be well aware of all the fundamental principles and terms of physics, chemistry, maths, biology and evolution together. If you don't understand the terms like periodic table, particle physics, types of forces etc it may be difficult to comprehend.

Or you have the grit to learn and read the references in detail.

Love

This Is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee

This is not an autobiography of Tim Berners-Lee. It is more like a journal of how the web evolved to what we see today as internet.

CERN is a big place with a unique identity of its own, not because it has one of the biggest machines in the world which is exploring the biggest secrets of the universe but because it brings the most inquisitive brains together to do something which can be just imagined at the very first stage.

Web was one of the biggest invention which changed how the world interacts. It created an ecosystem which brought people closer. And while reading the book one can see that the potential of it was never recognised in the early days. Once it was set free and adopted by larger public, it showed what it can do.

Tim Berners-Lee did design the first rules of the web but eventually it was built by all the people who adopted it in their own creative sense. Making it productive, operational, and useful. Which is the point where you can see that if it was not set free and commercialized from the very first moment it would have never become what it is today.

The most beautiful thing about the book is all the mentions of people who contributed to the progress of web which gives the sense that it was built by a community which worked on an idea of common good, and some people with commercial interests. It made a lot of people very rich but that story of wealth needs a different book to record the honest collaborations and the commercial dishonesty.

From the very first page/protocol to the current AI products, technology has come a long way in a short time but nobody can say for sure how far it can go.

Peace

Namesake by N.S. Nuseibeh

How far you can go in the history to understand where you come from?

This book says very far. So far that the writer ends up connecting the lineage with a historical figure which may or may not be true. But that doesn't matter if you're sincere enough in your search. So, even if we don't know if Nusayba bint Ka’ab al Khazrajia was a real person or not, her mythical stories of fighting are true or not, her life mattered in the grand scheme of things or not, she was a figure which the writer eventually connected with.

Most of the information about Nusayba bint Ka’ab al Khazrajia are not established facts. In fact all of it is deduced from different passages. And the whole narrative in the book is imagined from different perspectives. But it doesn't dilutes the overall message of the essays.

Yes, its a collection of essays or a memoir in progress but has all the nuances of human experience from separation to migration to finding your own identity and relevance in the world around you.

And a lot of food!

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