Hunt for the Bamboo Rat

Zenji was born in Hawaii from Japanese parents. He was a teen during WWII. His ROTC instructor recommended him for an intelligence position in the military. He was sent overseas in Manilla. He was essentially a spy. He was to gather information about the Japanese.

Eventually the Japanese overtook the area he was in. He was afforded an air ride out for safety. But he gave up his spot to another American who wanted to return to his family. Eventually Zenji was captured by the Japanese.

Zenji's cover story was that he was a civilian hired by the Army to translate for them. Unfortunately, the Japanese seemed to think he was a spy. They tortured him to confess. He never did. He was turned over to work for a general. He did translation, office work, and house work.

Eventually the Americans were taking back the area where Zenji was imprisoned and working. He used this opportunity to escape. He fled into the bush. He had trouble finding water and food. He was taken in by some primitive tribe. He left them after a month or so.

Zenji tried to start up a fire at night. He was bombed and got injured. He eventually pulled out the shrapnel and walked with a limp. He came upon US troops searching for stragglers. He walked into a camp, and after his story was verified, was sent home.

The title came from his code name - The Bamboo Rat.

Lift Me Up

Tam works at a grocery store company. Her boss is in charge and screws things up bad. Then he up and quits. Tam is put in charge as the acting boss. She hopes the board recognizes her skill and makes the change permanent. Instead, they bring in Jack the axe man.

Jack's comments one evening makes Tam think she is on the chopping block early. He invites her to a big meeting. Tam thinks this is the end. The ride the elevator up to the meeting. It gets stuck. She is terrified. During their wait, she figures she might as well speak her mind and do some good before she is sacked. She shares her vision on who needs to be promoted, and who needs to go.

At Jack's meeting, he address the board of directors. He praises Tam as being excellent. He reinstates her old division, putting her on top. He recommends most of the changes Tam had independently determined. Then Jack asks Tam to meet the new head of PR in a lunch. Turns out it is Anna, Tam's old college best friend who ran off, got married and lost touch with Tam.

Tam is engaged to Harris. He is a good looking man. But he has quietly been taking the color out of Tam. Tam has a troubling family. Sister and brother, along with dad, all look down on Tam. Brother's girlfriend seems to be the only one Tam likes. Said girlfriend said she is leaving Tam's brother, and encourages Tam to never lose her color.

On wedding day, her old friend Anna is in the back. The family would not make a place for Anna at the reception. Harris scold Tam for being late, and wearing the dress she picked out. He also shares his displeasure with her makeup. Tam takes one look at he brother's girlfriend who is about to leave, then she walks out of the ceremony before it starts.

Tam has a think for her new boss Jack. They had quite a moment in the elevator. Jack jokes that he will turn the whole company to Tam when he leaves. He is only joking about leaving. We are not told, but we can assume that they will get together now that Harris is out of the picture. The company has record profits this quarter, and they are coming up behind the mega-grocery stores that have ruled forever. 

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years

 

The first 3/4s of the book were mid. Some guy is an operator for a time travel company. It costs a lot for customers to make the jump. They are able to return back to the present after 3 days, 9 month, 27 years, or never. We hear about a bunch of customers. We also learn about company policies.

One such policy is that employees, after working at the company for a while, are entitled to one time travel adventure of their own. Our main character has been working there for 25 years. His trip is longer overdue. Once he schedules his trip, he informs us that this is not his first jump. He is actually not from this time.

In the main guy's original time, the people working at the company have an untimely end. He comes back in time to warn the company. He wants to prevent the disaster. He is success in delaying the event. But he cannot prevent it. Thus, he decides to make another jump to prevent the same disaster occurring in the time he jumped to. Where he ends up, nobody knows.  

The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold

Alice's mom comes from wealth. Her dad has become the father of AI. She interns at his company. But she realizes the harm his company will do to the world. Her dad fires her. She is still in college. She decides to relocate from school dorm to an off campus apartment in the ghetto.

Alice's mom comes to strong arm Alice into moving to a safer neighborhood. When mom leaves, she gets a note that Alice has been kidnapped. Mom rushes back to the apartment to find her daughter missing. The family works with the FBI to try to locate Alice and the kidnappers. They initially do not receive any ransom demands. Instead they get cryptic messages.

Alice describes an initial kidnapper as a buff woman with a gun and a disguise. Alice tries an escape from the getaway car. But she is recaptured. Another man joins the female kidnapper at some sort of compound. Alice figures out how to poison the male kidnapper. She escapes the compound, runs down the road, and slips through the fence.

Eventually Alice confesses that the kidnap story is not real. Her boyfriend is in on the ruse. So is her best friend Monica, plus Monica's girlfriend. Alice's dad figure it out and produces a fake ransom note. He also uses deep fake AI to produce a video fro Alice. Alice's boyfriend talks her to leaves the camp site they are hiding in, and they flee to his remote plane hangar.

They want to meet Alice's dad to broker a deal. The dad shoots the boyfriend. Then he forcibly takes Alice to control the narrative and muzzle her. Alice's mom questions Monica about a lie she told, and is able to piece together clues about the whole ruse. Mom goes to the boyfriend's hangar and rescues him. She also blocks Alice's dad from leaving with Alice.

Alice pleads to lessor punishment. Her boyfriend is framed as a kidnapper. Her dad has a story about him saving his daughter from the kidnapper. Alice and her mom reconcile as she serves a minimal prison sentence and returns to school. 

Eyes of the Emperor

Eddy lives near Pearl Harbor during World War II. His family is Japanese. As soon as Pearl Harbor is bombed, many white people are leery about the "Japs. His father had been working on constructing an expensive boat for a client. It was a long project with heavy material costs. When the boat is completed, and before his dad can turn over the boat, it is burned. Everyone suspects arson.

Eddy and his friends decided to enlist in the army to do their patriotic duty. This would be the first time Eddy leaves the island. They take a ship ride to the mainland. Everyone gets seasick. They take a train ride up North to attend boot camp. Then they are flown out to their destination.

They all are part of a secret program. They live on some island. A civilian picks them up in a boat and takes them to their work daily. The program is to train dogs to be part of the army fight against the Japanese. Eddy and pals are going to be the bait. They are forced to beat the dogs to make them adversaries. Then they participate in hiding and have the dogs search them out and attack them.

The government comes to witness the ability of the dogs and the worthiness of the program. Three white guys and and Eddy go out and hide. The idea is that the dogs would be able to seek out the Jap. Turns out they went straight for a white guy. The program gets cancelled. Eddy and the boys are reassigned to front line battle.

User Interface Design for Programmers

 

Normally I document books of fiction I have read. However, I also read a bunch of tech books. Here is one example by Joel Spolsky. He is a guy who became famous for his web site on software development. I recently read that he wrote this book on UI for programmers. Just finished it.

I was surprised that Joel starts out with general usability. Not computer programs or even using computers. He educates us on general principles of usability. Then he applies those principles to computer programs or web pages that we interact with.

He is big on usability tests. But he cautions that having a lot of people participate does not give you gains. You can do almost as well with informal queries in the hall. He has a lot of other detailed ideas. It would be hard to communicate those here.

Biggest Fake in the Universe

Mo is a nerd in middle school. When hanging out with friends, he spies a girl he likes. She is a great skateboarder. He comes up with a plan to learn how to skate in order to get close to the girl. One day, when everybody is skating down some parking garage, he lands a gnarly grind. It is caught on video. All of a sudden, he becomes a celebrity.

Unfortunately, some TV show arranges to do a story on him. They have a huge skate ramp constructed. And Mo is not ready to drop in from it. He is not able to cancel the episode. He climbs up the ramp. But he is able to drop in. He is afraid he is going to die. He has to climb back down and explain to skate girl that he is a fraud.

He talks the TV show into filming his excellent baking skills. He makes a pizza. While it is cooking, he allows his sister to show off her new juggling skills. The skate girl ends up going on the huge ramp, dropping in, and catching some air. She might be Mo's new girlfriend.