What I've been reading

[sarahmichigan]

"The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi. In this future, agricultural megacorps have loosed gene-hacked plants and bugs on the world, causing famine and wrecking the global economy. Thailand seems to be an oasis where existing strains are thriving and old once-thought-dead plants are being brought back to life. Scientists have also created a race of lab-grown humans called "New People" or windups. One of those windups, Emiko, was treasured in Japan but, abandoned in Thailand, is scorned for being a non-natural organism. I enjoyed this book but found it somewhat flawed, including being short on likeable characters. I also wasn't crazy about the way Emiko's sexual degredation is handled and believe a woman author would have treated it differently. On the plus side, it's chock full of interesting ideas, playing out the potential consequences of gene-hacking that's being done today, and I felt like I learned something about Thai culture. Overall, though, I liked this well enough that I'd be interested in reading more by the author.

and

"The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage" by Sydney Padua, a graphic novel (part fiction, part nonfiction). Padua starts with the real story behind two of the earliest parents of computer science, Charles Babbage and Ada, Countess of Lovelace (and daughter of Lord Byron), and then imagines what they might have done if they'd lived long enough to actually build Babbage's "Analytical Engine." It also contains a wealth of anecdotes about other scientists and eccentrics of the time. I loved, loved, loved this and recommend it highly. See a sample on the author's web page.

My full comments on both books here.