Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews: November 2020

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

New Book Alert: The Future of Finance After Covid: Technology and Trends Disrupting The Post-Pandemic Financial World; A Fascinating and Eye-Opening Look At Life and Money After Covid

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

It's no secret that the Coronavirus Pandemic will change life as we know it in many ways, how we gather, how we treat illness, how students are educated, and many other ways. Another way will be how finances are transferred and how technology will be used in future competitive markets and to adapt to the population that it serves.

Jason Schenker, President of Prestige Economics and Chairman of the Futurist Institute, presents a fascinating and eye opening hypothesis in his book, The Future of Finance After Covid: Technology and Trends Disrupting The Post-Pandemic Financial World.

As with most books that predict the future, Schenker's view is not necessarily 100%. It's based on the current research and statistics to deliver a probable future based on current trajectory. Unforeseen circumstances happen and things change,but it is an approximate look on how things could be.

"The future of of finance will be exciting and disruptive," Schenker said. "The most interesting part of of the changes coming in the decad ahead have already started….the future of finance after the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be about market adoption, penetrating of emerging technologies, and complete saturation of certain critical technologies."

Schenker divides his book into four main sections: Market

Trends, trends before and during the Pandemic, Technology Trends, the strongest technologies that will see increased appeal during and after the pandemic and subsequent recession, Long-term Risks, including modern theories and the issues that could arise in adapting principles like universal basic income to help stabilize the economy, and Global Trends, how the economy could benefit from various technologies and evaluating the roles of the U.S. and China in a potential second Cold War.

Schenker wrote how financial technology, called FinTech, is predicted to change in three major levels: reducing costs, improving user experience, and provide access which can't be reached by traditional means. Many of the trends that he writes about include block chain, quantum computing, cryptocurrency, and Big Data. The advantages and disadvantages to these trends are explored as well as their effectiveness in financial transactions.

Among the big issues that are referred to in the book is cyber security. For example using blockchain and quantum computing to increase security of encryption and transparent records could increase company's attack surface making them more vulnerable against hackers and cybercriminals. Because of the rivalries between China and U.S. over these issues could lead to technological warfare between the two vying over their use of quauntum computing.

Schenker's book also discusses the concerns about the future such as AI over reliance. Schenker reminds his Readers of the important project management and creating limitations on the AI's for what they can and cannot do. Central banks may become a thing of the past as financial transactions will be mostly online.

Uncertainty towards the future is also a huge concern, such as increased debt and that many are uncertain about how much debt that will take to get out of the recession. Another concern is the possibility of giving a universal basic income. Schenker dismisses this proposition by saying that countries cannot afford it and that it will increase inflation and taxes.

There are also positive impacts such as mobile payments offering more inclusion particularly previously unbanked households. Another positive impact is that companies are decreasing their carbon footprints and increasing their sustainability with people traveling lessnd using less resources.

The Future of Finance After Covid is an interesting outlook of the future, both the good and the bad.

Monday, November 16, 2020

Weekly Reader: Luz Book I: Comings and Goings (Troubled Times) by Luis Gonzalez; Haunting, Beautiful, At Times Satiric Magical Realism About God's Only Begotten Daughter

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Okay, so I reviewed a trip to Heaven with Melia in Foreverland by Thomas Milhorat. I reviewed a trip through Purgatory and Hell with Rotary Pug by Michael Honig. Why not review a rewrite of the Gospels with God fathering an Only Begotten Daughter almost 2,000 years after begetting his Only Begotten Son?

Luis Gonzalez's Luz is a haunting and beautiful magical realism novel in the tradition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Paulo Coelho. It is also at times a dark comic satire that mocks Christianity but ends up being a sincere faith driven novel.

Clara, the protagonist, lives in 1994 Cuba, a country consumed by the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Clara and her husband, Rigo are fed up with the shortages, surveillance, jobs that go nowhere, and Castro's totalitarianism. When friends of theirs suggest that they get on one of the boats to America, Rigo is reluctant but Clara is adamant. After some convincing, Rigo agrees but under two conditions: they move to San Francisco (Rigo is an architect and that city hosts some of the most beautiful buildings. He wants to work on them.) and there is no turning back. Once decided, they do not change their minds.

Things work out well, until Clara receives a vision from an erudite and somewhat snooty angel, Gabriel. Gabriel has a message, similar to his original one to the Virgin Mary. God has found favor with her and she will give birth to a daughter. Oh yeah, and she must not leave Cuba.

There are some beautiful moments that depict the rage of the people against the brutality of Castro's regime. One of those is the attack on the Hotel Deauville in Havana. Most of the buildings in Castro's time are plain, dull, and suffer from sameness. The Deauville stands as a symbol of the artifice and falseness of Castro's reign trying to put on a friendly face to the world, particularly the United States, while the people are starving and terrified.

It comes as no surprise that someone shatters the windows of the Deauville resulting in praise from Insurrectionists, like Clara. Afterwards, 32 emigres are murdered right off the Cuban coast perhaps in retaliation for the protest at the Deauville. This passage shows the dangers inherent in both leaving and staying in a violent regime and reflects the courage those have to stand against it: those who brave certain death to leave or imprisonment and violence if they stay.

Besides opening a violent period in Cuban history, Gonzalez cleverly rewrites the story of Jesus'conception. A chapter pulls the Reader from the modern realistic story of a couple leaving Castro's oppression to a strangely supernatural satire. This involves an extended conversation between God and his First Born. Jesus is written as a somewhat entitled brat who has only child syndrome,but still suffers the pain of his sacrifice and wonders what his father is planning.

God seems distant like a chess player who is only playing against himself. He claims that he is fathering another child simply to enjoy being a parent, since he was so distant with Jesus' upbringing, but Jesus suspects ulterior motives. Otherwise why would he want Clara and her future daughter, Luz (meaning "Light") to remain in such a dangerous country like Cuba?

Clara is also a very strong willed feisty character. She stands alongside the Insurrectionists against Castro. She is willing to fight against everyone, even members of her own family, to leave Cuba. When Gabriel delivers the Good News to her, she is much more argumentative than Mary. At first, she is confused being a lukewarm Catholic who is more agnostic about the possibility of an angel being next to her in the first place. Then she lists several reasons why she could not possibly be a mother, let alone God's first (or rather second after Mary) choice. Gabriel's answer why not her and why not in Cuba are not enough.

What turns Clara around is not Gabriel's pronouncement, but her own anger at what the Castro regime is doing. She believes that she could fight better from the inside and also raise Luz to be a light against the fear. That light gives her the confidence to face what she knows will be dark days ahead.

Luz is a very moving, beautiful, and spiritual novel which will make the Reader laugh at the strangeness but also stand alongside people like Clara who fight against tyranny even if, especially when, they have to do it from the inside.

Weekly Reader: Rotary Pug by Michael Honig; A Hell of a Journey Into Life After Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It's ironic that Rotary Pug by Michael Honig is being reviewed the same year as Thomas Milhorat's Melia in Foreverland. If the two books are put together, they make a 21st century version of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Melia covers the journey into Heaven or Paradise and Rotary Pug takes care of the rest of the journey through Hell and Purgatory. Oddly enough, the two books are similar in their unique look at the Final Destinations and involve protagonists who are confused and questioning about the nature of good, evil, life, and death. That's where the similarities end. While Melia is a beautiful lyrical journey that is aware of the existence of evil remains hopeful and appeals to one's better nature, Rotary Pug is a nightmarish horrifying nihilistic trip that squashes hope in favor of dread.

The book centers on John Castlemaine. In life, he tried to rescue a child from a burning apartment. Unfortunately, the girl died. A grief and guilt stricken Castlemaine commits suicide via gunshot during a final trip to the Catskills. This is the type of book that takes a moment to describe the beautiful nature scene and the lovely sunset to give the Reader a false sense of peace before it slaps them in the face with the death of the protagonist.

When Castlemaine wakes up, he finds himself surrounded by a dense fog and a carousel with several colorful pug dogs moving in a circle. A particularly creepy moment occurs when Castlemaine observes that the pugs change expression with each rotation. One has an angry expression then an expression of sadness, and an originally sad pug carries an expression of indifference and so on. This passage reveals the kind of book that is before us, one that has a black comic but sinister vibe. Honig's description is effctive because of this double sided mix of humor and darkness making this Afterlife journey incredibly unique.

There are many chilling passages that makes the Reader feel as though they stumbled into the scariest haunted house ever and any minute, something creepy will emerge from the shadows. Castlemaine finds himself in a long hallway with several portraits of figures that literally follow him. One features a jester who changes position as Castlemaine looks at him. To Castlemaine's bemusement and horror, he finds the jester's portrait empty and the goblinesque multi-colored subject standing right in front of him.

The Jester is a terrifying tour guide for Castlemaine. He mocks the newcomer's confusion and denial of his situation that he is dead (which admittedly takes a ridiculously long time for Castlemaine to absorb this fact.). At first he appears harmless, maybe a brusque trickster with an off color sense of humor. But then as the book continues, his real sadistic nature is revealed as he delights in torturing and destroying the souls that are unfortunate enough to be caught near him. The Jester makes Pennywise look like Ronald McDonald.

One of the best moments occurs when Castlemaine appears in what he at first thinks is a masquerade ball. He sees people dressed in various period costumes: Spartan warriors, Roman senators, Elizabethan prostitutes, Hindu priestesses, 1960's hippies, etc. They talk and fight each other, but they also carry expressions of morbid despair and resignation. Many of them carry grudges, hatred, and guilt from their lives. For example a Puritan, Jeddediah, is trapped by his narrow view of Christianity and abuses others around him such as a French prostitutes, Maisell. They have nothing to do but carry on those feelings for eternity, trapped in their cycles of hatred. Their evil is exposed and they have to live with it for eternity.

These souls are watched over by a large viking Jormundgand, who serves as a bartender for the deceased. He and a disfigured Welshman, Tarpwych answer many of Castlemaine's questions about the nature of evil, free will, whether God and Satan exist and where they are. These questions run deep throughout the book as characters accept the nothingness around them. They feel that they are following a script written by God and Satan in which they are placed in their positions and forced to act according to their design. It is an incredibly bleak theme that carries out, particularly when characters disappear at random as if to fulfill someone else's purpose. They no longer have any will of their own. Castlemaine must come to terms with this morbid destiny in one final confrontation that opens up his own guilt and self-loathing.

Rotary Pug is not a book for the faint of heart. It is terrifying, savage, bleak, and completely memorable. It is certainly one Hell of a book.

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Weekly Reader: Eye For Eye (Talion Series Book One) by J.K. Franko; Gripping and Twist Turning Psychological Revenge Thriller

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Eye for Eye by J.K. Franko is the start of a four part series about revenge and the lives that are lost in the pursuit, by the course of the revenge and the crime that preceded it. The series may be a slow burning action into the complexities of vengeance and the mindset of the people before and after the act as well as the moral, ethical, and legal quandaries. However, Eye for Eye is not that. Instead, it is a gripping fast paced novel with several intriguing and fascinating plot twists and psychological mind games that characters inflict on one another. That is great for a stand alone novel, but one has to wonder how this pace would be kept up for an entire series (three interconnected books and a prequel). It could do well, but it could also get repetitive especially when the central crime and revenge act are in the first book.

However, if you ignore Franko's long term plans, Eye For Eye is a very good and suspenseful read because you don't know what the characters are going to do and who to empathize with, if anyone.

The plot focuses on affluent Floridians, Susie Font and Roy Cruise whose daughter, Camilla, was killed by Liam Bareto, who was texting and driving when the accident occurred.

On vacation, the married couple watch Game of Thrones and observe Arya Stark taking revenge on Walder Frey for the deaths of her mother, Catelyn and older brother, Robb. This passage becomes a bit meta as they talk about a fictional character seeking revenge and how people approve of things in fiction that they wouldn't in real life, even though, you know, they are fictional characters seeking revenge and eventually do things that people would never approve of in real life.

Anyway, their conversation is coincidentally, later proven to be not so coincidentally, overheard by Deb and Tom Wise, another couple that also suffered a personal loss. Their daughter, Kristy was sexually assaulted by Joe Harlan Jr., a Senator's son whose contacts and family wealth allowed him to be acquitted. The Wises have a proposition for Susie and Roy: since they are all in the same boat with a child that had been killed or assaulted by someone who got away with it, if the Wises take care of Bareto, could Susie and Roy kill Harlan for them?

The offer is intriguing and with Susie and Roy's marriage on the decline, the two have very little to rely on. Both Susie and Roy have been severely affected by Camilla's death and Franko reveals the strain that the loss has in their marriage rather well. Susie has become an advocate against texting and driving, but her activism cannot hide the enraged emotions that she feels. Roy keeps most of his emotions internal and spends time making his business, Cruise Control, a success. The two are falling apart emotionally. When people are like that, they are willing to do anything to bring themselves back together, including murder. They explode their anger onto someone else, so they don't implode on themselves.

The way that Roy and Susie plan Harlan's death is so cold and analytical, almost worthy of a villain in a James Patterson or Dennis Lehane novel. They have the advantage since Harlan lives in Texas and they have no prior connection to him. They plan the items that they need and the steps as methodically and nonchalantly as though they were making a shopping list.

Roy and Susie are written as a couple who suffer a deep loss and most of our sympathies lie with them. In fact Harlan is so reprehensible and amoral that we can't help, but root against him. However, while Roy and Susie make their plans to murder him and entrap him, our allegiances don't really shift but we question Roy and Susie's motives and actions. They become so cold, that they are almost inhuman. It becomes less of good guys vs. bad guys and more bad guys vs. slightly worse guys.

What also shifts allegiances are many of the revelations that we learn about Roy, Susie, and The Wises. We learn that the two seemingly random couples go back farther than was initially believed and that things were planned long before the events in which we read. A few of these twists are expertly written and fold neatly into the novel. They make the four characters more multilayered and untrustworthy than before. Some are somewhat implausible in the odds that these characters who knew each other once would be involved in each other's lives once again, but it ties into the book's overall themes of revenge for crimes long unresolved and secrets that are no longer buried.

One anticlimactic bit so far is the revelation of the first person narrator. There are hints that the character is important to the storyline, but their identity is later revealed to be a mere observer introduced late into the story who bears no major part to the action preceding. Now judging by the preview of the next book, Tooth for Tooth, this character may become more involved as the series goes on. For now, they are just the teller of other people's stories and none of their own.

Despite its flaws in narration and plot convenience, Eye for Eye is a brilliant psychological novel of crime and revenge. It's a ride through a roller coaster/haunted house designed to surprise and sometimes scare you, but then gives satisfaction that it's over.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

New Book Alert: The Psychic's Memoirs by Ryan Hyatt; I Foresee A Great Mix of Mystery, Psychological Thriller, and Science Fiction

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Ryan Hyatt's The Psychic's Memoirs is one of those books that tries to cross several genres. Some books succeed and others fail, and this is a good example of a success, mostly.

Hyatt combines the heart stopping, yet cerebral action of a psychological thriller with the questions and suspense of a mystery and the sense of wonder and destructive possibilities of science fiction. That's a tall order, but Hyatt manages.

The book takes place in 2026 Los Angeles after The Greatest Depression (an economic downturn that lasted from the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 to the present) and The Great Cataclysm (The Big One earthquake, long predicted, that finally ran through California). Automation has taken over which has rendered many jobs obsolete. People can buy AI Bobbleheads that secure homes and resemble celebrities, such as one that looks and sounds like '80's icon, Mr. T (dubbed Mr. Y). Large machines called Liberators oversee security and you do not want to be caught by one. Schools and Halfway Houses are created that cater to young people with unusual abilities, such as clairvoyancy and telekinesis (Sort of a cross between Professor X's School in X Men and Boys and Girl's Town). The Internet is now called the Telenet and many recognizable social media platforms have merged and created new names to replace the ones that we know. California has so many socioeconomic problems, with residents threatening total independence from the federal government, that it plans to secede from the United States.

It's a pretty dour situation. It's written in a way that with the exception of the kids with special abilities, this could happen. With drones used for deliveries and security, Alexa and Siri monitoring houses, a pandemic spiraling the world into an economic depression, and stronger more unstable weather patterns thanks to climate change, Hyatt's future is beyond a strong possibility. Of course this book gives another reason that speeds up the technological windfall but socioeconomic downturn which is less plausible in reality but raises the science fiction portion of the book exponentially.

In this depressing environment, LAPD's Ted Kaza and Lydia Jackson are among those who have the thankless task of upholding the law which has increased with political activism, gang membership, and homelessness on the rise and where even members of a once professional class have to resort to criminal means to make ends meet.

They are recruited to look for Alice Walker (not the writer of The Color Purple and other novels), a high school girl with psychic abilities that have an almost 100% accuracy. She predicted the Great Cataclysm and ensured that most of her classmates and the faculty are safe. She wrote in a notebook which frightens those who read it with its beyond accurate predictions. Now, she's gone and she may produce a bigger threat missing than present with her predictions.

Jackson and Kaza are the typical detectives that are dedicated to their jobs, but have troubled personal lives. Jackson is married to CeCe, a woman who is ready to settle down and have a baby but worries about her wife's violent career. This family drama isn't as well written as the one in A Knife's Edge, which also dealt with a police officer in a same sex relationship and a growing family. Jackson's subplot is more of a distraction, but serves as a counterpoint that Jackson takes a maternal interest in Alice as though to test and fill the void that is lacking in her own life.

Kaza meanwhile has very little personal life. He has no living family but memories of his gardener father who used to give him solid advice but was disappointed with his son's lifestyle. He has no personal relationships, except caring for his dog, Cujo and no interests, except playing guitar. (In fact he once had dreams of being in a band). Oh and he also has some weird psychic connection in which he shares dreams or memories with his next door neighbor. This connection isn't explored very well, one of the few bad spots in the book. The book could have worked just as well without it except it gives Kaza something to do outside of his job.

By far the most interesting character is Alice, the eponymous character. She is particularly mysterious in her encounters with others because of how much she knows and reveals about them. Oddly enough we know very little about her, except she was a foster kid and has a "soul sister." While we get into her thoughts, particularly when she enters the school for children with supernatural abilities, she is mostly defined by her interactions with others. Alice stands out, particularly in her exchanges with the detectives, fellow students, and important figures like Commander James Elroy, a military leader who wants to use Alice for his own needs and political activist, Steven Taylor "Che Tay" Wichmanowski, who is aware that Alice's visions mirror his own plans for California's separation and independence. Psychologically speaking, she is one step ahead of her enemies and those who are looking for her.

It makes sense that Alice is revealed through her relationships with others and not herself. She reveals their destinies and shows their fate and not her own. She herself is something of a blank cypher resigned to her precognitive abilities and how they affect others around her. She doesn't whine about wanting to be normal like other teen protagonists in such novels, movies, and shows. She isn't normal and accepts it and her own fate to the end.

I have a prediction. I predict that anyone who opens The Psychic's Memoirs will be in for a fascinating read of cross genres.