Books Set in the United States: California: Silicon Valley

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou (2018)

In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes, a college dropout, founded Theranos, a biotech company that was revolutionize the way blood tests would be analyzed.  Elizabeth had a phobia of needles, thus devised a novel idea for blood testing using only a drop or two of blood ~ a finger prick instead of a venous draw.

Elizabeth Holmes came from a wealthy and connected family.  While still a student at Stanford, she took a class on controlled drug-delivery devices from Channing Robertson, a leader in the chemical engineering department at the school.  She convinced him that she had a new idea for a method testing blood.  She further convinced him, and many other prominent people, to serve on the Board of Trustees of a new company she would create. Over the years, her board would include such dignitaries as former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger.

Using her connections, Elizabeth was quickly able to raise more than $700M from investors for her start-up company.  She also convinced Walgreens drugstore and the Safeway grocery chain to invest, with the promise that they would have exclusive rights to utilize her device as a part of their wellness programs.  Unfortunately, a few drops of blood were not sufficient to run the range of routine blood diagnostics.  Blood tests using her devices routinely gave false results, seriously putting peoples lives in danger.

Elizabeth hired Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, to be her number one executive at the company. He was a hot tempered manager.  Together, the two created a very toxic work environment. Elizabeth and Sunny demanded complete loyalty.  Anyone questioning methodology would be either marginalized or fired.

Elizabeth was obsessed with Steve Jobs, and soon began to dress all in black, in imitation of Jobs.  She lured away several of Apple employees to work at Theranos.  While initially excited about working in a biotech company, the former Apple employees soon became disillusioned and left.

The book describes how Elizabeth and Sunny deceived potential investors as to the efficacy of the technology.

In 2015, the author, an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, got a tip about the goings-on at Theranos. He quickly began asking questions. When he seemed to get too close to the truth, Elizabeth turned her legal team on him and his paper.  She was able to hire one of the most prestigious lawfirm that threatened to destroy both the author and the paper.  This tactic had worked on employees deemed to be disloyal. The paper, however, refused to back down.

Tyler Schultz, grandson of George Schultz, briefly worked at Theranos.  When he became disillusioned by the company, he was threatened by the company's legal team.  They tried to strong-arm him into signing various disclosures after he left the company's employment.  They even used his famous grandfather as leverage.  Unfortunately, this caused a riff between George and Tyler that appears not to have been repaired.

Theranos was exposed, and as of the publication of the book, Elizabeth and Sunny have been indicted on criminal charges.  In addition, both have been involved in civil suits.

This book reads like a crime story.

Read: January 30, 2019

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Idaho

Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (2018)

The author, Tara Westover, comes from a very dysfunctional family, whose father is a fundamentalist who distrusts the government, public schools and the medical establishment.  He had built a bunker stocked with provisions, including fuel, so he will be ready when the End of Days arrives.

Tara is the youngest of seven children born into an extreme Mormon fundamentalist family.  Most of the Westovers were born at home so as to avoid the hospitals.  Her mother was forced into becoming a midwife, albeit unlicensed.  She also cooks herbs and essential oils as home remedies to treat any and all ailments, including life-threatening burns.

Tara’s father is clearly the head of the house.  What he says it the absolute law.  Tara’s mother meekly defers to her husband.  The father runs a junkyard and expects all his children to join in the family business.  A couple of the older sons “escaped” to the outside world, but with the exception of one brother, did not pursue a formal education.

Her childhood is fraught with traumas, from life-threatening car accidents, to serious burns and an abusive older brother.  How she survived her childhood is a miracle.

Tara learned to read from poring over the Book of Mormon and writings of the Mormon forefathers.  After she decided she wanted to go to college, she had to study on her own to learn enough mathematics to score well on the ACT exam.

At age 17, she first finds herself at BYU in an environment entirely foreign to her.  Everything she sees goes against what she learned in her family’s world.  She has such limited worldly experience, that she didn’t ever realize that she was supposed to read and study her art text book.  College life is all the more difficult because Tara fails to tell her professors and roommate that she never attended school.  When asked about her high school, Tara evades the question.  It would take years before Tara is comfortable enough in her own skin to acknowledged her upbringing.

I found this to be a riveting book.

Read:  January 22, 2019

Books Set in Europe: England

The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory (2009)

The White Queen is a historical novel about Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed commoner who married the Yorkish King Edward IV.  The novel recounts the period in England near the end of the War of the Roses, the fight for the crown between the Lancasters and the Yorks.  The symbol for the Lancasters was the red rose; and that of the Yorks a white rose, hence the moniker of the struggle between the two families.

Elizabeth’s first husband, John Grey, was killed in battle fighting for the Lancasters. She was left with two young sons, so she set her sights on the young Edward, the victorious York king.  The married in secret (a fact), and it appears to have been a true love match.  They would ultimately go on to have 10 children together, including two Princes of the Tower.

After their marriage is made public, Elizabeth is made Edward’s Queen consort. She immediately begins to place her family members (formerly supporters of the Lancasters) into positions of power, much to the dismay of Edward’s extended family and supporters.

The novel is told through the eyes of Elizabeth.  The fight between the two families is not over during Edward’s reign. Battles continue.  Elizabeth is constantly worried about the fate of her growing family as her husband, the King, is off fighting to keep his crown.

After Edward’s death, the crown should pass to the eldest son ~ the 12 year-old Edward V.  He is placed under the protection of his Uncle Richard in the Tower.  As history tells us, the circumstances of the young prince remains shrouded in mystery.  Was he killed on orders of his uncle, who later became Richard III?

In the author’s notes following the novel, the author provides a brief summary of what is known about the life and times of Elizabeth Woodville and her sons, the Princes of the Tower.

I enjoyed the first part of this novel, but got dragged down somewhere in the middle. It doesn’t help that there were so many essential characters named Elizabeth, Edward and George involved with the royal court during this period of history.

Read: January 7, 2019

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York City

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker (2013)

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, is a debut novel, and what a debut it is!  As implied by the title, it is about a Golem, a creature in Jewish folklore, and a Jinni, a mythical creature in the Arab world.  The most famous golem was created by Rabbi Loew of Prague in the 1500s to protect the Jews of the city from attacks by their neighbors.  In Jewish folklore, a golem is made of clay, becomes animated and has supreme strength.

This novel is set at the beginning of the 1900s and is mostly set in New York City.  Otto Rotfeld is a failed Polish businessman who wishes to seek his fortune in the New World.  He approaches a man he believes to be a mystic and asks him to create an obedient, but curious wife to accompany him in New York.  The mystic complies, but warns Otto not to utter the words to awaken the woman until after he arrives in the New World.  Otto, of course, cannot wait that long and utters the word to bring his golem-wife to life while about the ship crossing the Atlantic.  Otto then promptly dies, leaving the Golem to fend for herself in New York.

The Golem has the ability to hear the thoughts of the people around her.  Shortly after arriving in New York, she encounters a rabbi who recognizes her for what she is.  He takes her under his wing in an attempt to protect her.

Around the same time, a tinsmith working in New York is repairing a flask, when suddenly the Jinni, who had been trapped in the flask for centuries is suddenly freed.

Eventually the two meet.  Both appear to be human, but have powers beyond human capability.  The golem is made of clay and is cold.  The jinni is of a spark of fire and knows that water can destroy him.  Both have to constantly remind themselves to behave as humans ~ the golem must remember to appear to breathe; the jinni must remember that he can cause burns with his touch.

The two lead separate, but intwined, lives.  Each interact with the people of New York.  The jinni meets the beautiful and rich Sarah Winston and sneaks into her house at night.  The golem gets restless at night and wanders the streets, even though for a mortal woman, such wanderings would be dangerous.  The jinni is sly with little moral guidance; the golem must obey her nature, although she has no master.

We meet the real people who encounter the Golem and the Jinni.  All these characters truly come to life.

This is one of my all time favorite books.  It held up upon a second reading several years after the first time I read it.

5 Stars

Read: December 27, 2018; June 8, 2013

Books Set in a Global Environment: United States and USSR

Bridge of Spies: A True Story of the Cold War, by Giles Whittell (2010)

This book of non-fiction delves into the events leading up to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Berlin Wall.  In the 1950s, Willie Fisher, also known as Rudolf Abel, was in the United States as an undercover agent for the USSR.  Through a comedy of errors, he was captured by the FBI, tried and sent to Federal Prison.

Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot hired by the CIA to fly reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union to look for Soviet missile sites.  He piloted a U-2, which could fly at unimaginable heights.  It was believed that the plane was shot down, survival of the pilot was not possible.  All that changed on May 1, 1960, when the U-2 Powers was flying was, indeed, shot down over the USSR and Powers survived the crash.  He was immediately captured, tried as a spy and imprisoned.

Around the same time, wanderlust Frederic Pryor, was studying communist economics at the Free University in West Berlin.  Until the Berlin Wall was constructed, he freely crossed between East and West Berlin.  A fact not unnoticed by the East German police.  He was arrested on suspicion of spying and imprisoned.  He had no connections with the US Government, but his parents were wealthy and were acquainted with some powerful men in Washington.

Bridge of Spies sets the foundation of the nuclear missile discussions, or lack thereof, between the two superpowers.  Shortly before Powers was shot down, US President Eisenhower and Soviet leader Khrushechv were poised to meet in Paris to discuss a nuclear test ban treaty.  The U-2 incident derailed the meeting with a growing distrust evident between the US and the Soviet Union.  The author details the tensions and misunderstandings of both leaders.

Two years later, however, tempers had cooled somewhat, and each country recognized the benefits of holding a prisoner exchange.  The details of the exchange were carefully planned.  Abel had an inkling that an exchange might be possible, but Powers and Pryor were completely unprepared.

This is a very readable history of the events leading up to, and surrounding the U-2 incident and its impact on relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Read: December 19, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in North America: New England

True Crime Addict, by James Renner (2016)

In the evening of February 9, 2004, U Mass student Maura Murray simply disappeared after a minor car crash on Route 112 in Woodsville, New Hampshire.  A passing motorist (who lived within sight of the accident) stopped to offer assistance.  Maura declined his help.  The motorist then went home and called the police to report the accident. By the time police arrived, the car was still at the scene, but Maura was gone.

Enter the author, James Renner.  Renner is an investigative journalist, with a special interest in crime.  After having been fired from his job at a newspaper (for unspecified reasons), he became obsessed with Maura Murray’s disappearance. He decided to investigate the disappearance.

On the surface, Maura seemed to live a charmed life.  She had been a Cadet at West Point, until she decided to change universities and enroll as a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts. She was engaged to be married to Billy, who was the All-American boy.  Sadly, behind the façade, thing couldn’t be more different.

Shortly before Maura left the University on February 9, she told her colleagues that she needed to attend a family emergency.  This proved to be false.  There was no family emergency, nor was there any perceivable reason for her to be in New Hampshire on that evening.

Renner follows the threads of Maura’s life.  Because this is still an “open investigation”, law enforcement officials could give Renner very little information.  Still, Renner dogged Maura’s friends and family in hopes of uncovering the truth of her disappearance.  Interestingly, Maura’s family virtually shut down all communication channels and her closest friends were also unwilling to open up to the author.

In the process, Renner describes his own life in a remarkable candid fashion to explain his obsession with crime and criminal investigations.  He also is very candid about his own use of drugs, some prescribed and other not, his history with his family’s skeletons, and his trouble child, and his self-destructive behavior.

Renner pursued this case for years, even setting up a blog inviting others to provide him with clues as to Maura’s whereabouts.  This book, part crime story, part memoir, recounts Renners research efforts and he offers a possible solution to the disappearance of Maura Murray.

The author has a skill with words.  This book was very readable and enjoyable despite the sad subject of a possible abduction of a young woman with a full life ahead of her.

Read: December 2, 2018

4.5 Stars 

Books Set in North America; New York City, New York

Death Dance, by Linda Fairstein (2006)

I have been distracted this month, thus I found it difficult to get interested and through this mystery.  It is the eight novel in which Alexandra Cooper, the Assistant District Attorney, is involved in a mystery.

The novel begins with the mysterious disappearance and death of ballet prima donna Natalya Galivova during a performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.  Alex Cooper meets up with Police Detective Mike Chapman as they attempt to solve the murder.

I couldn’t get into the mystery itself, but I did find the description of the intricacies of the backstage working of putting on a major theater production fascinating.  While watching a live show in a theater, who thinks of all the staff needed to ensure that scenery, music, etc., all falls into place.  Hundreds of people work behind the scenes for a show to run seamlessly.

I was also intrigued to learn that the New York City Center was formerly known as the Mecca Temple and was originally designed for the Shriners.

I am not going to rate this book, because I know that my distractions wouldn’t be fair to the author.  I have read and enjoyed other Alex Cooper novels by Linda Fairstein.

Read:  November 27, 2017