Upgrade - Blake Crouch

 

In the future, a scientist has found how to alter our DNA to enhance our capabilities - physical, mental and emotional.  The belief is that humans will behave better if they are better.  

This dystopian novel was fascinating to me because it realistically wove DNA facts into a story, an addition I've seen coming out in more and more current fiction writing.  The story explores the consequences of genetic engineering. That's the practice of altering DNA to eliminate undesirable outcomes.  Like all human efforts to control their fate there are unintended consequences. The hero, Logan Ramsey, having been "upgraded", races to prevent the release of the changes throughout the population.  It's a fast-paced read with a modern twist.

Quotes:

"It is a  supremely cruel thing to have your mind conjure a desire which it is functionally unable to realize.  No one teaches you how to handle the death of a dream."

"Never before had I seen Homo sapiens so clearly--a species, at its most fundamental level, of storytellers.  Creatures who overlay story on everything, but especially their own lives, and in so doing, can imbue a cold random, sometimes brutal existence, with fabricated meaning."

" We were a bunch of primates who had gotten together and, against all odds, built a wondrous civilization.  But paradoxically--tragically--our creation's complexity had now far outstripped our brains' ability to manage it."

"We don't have an intelligence problem.  We have a compassion problem.  That, more than any other single factor, is what's  driving us toward extinction."

Published: 2022 Read: March 2025  Genre: Fiction

The Hummingbird - Stephen Kiernan

Finally, a wonderful read!  It's been a slow year without much sure-fire reads.  This book was very satisfying.

This is the story of a hospice nurse who goes to care for an elderly history professor who is dying of cancer.  Her caring spirit is tested by his sarcastic, negative banter.  When she returns home after work, she must deal with a husband suffering from PTSD after having served in Iraq multiple tours.
She breaks down the barriers built by the professor by reading his unpublished manuscript that describes the bombing of the Oregon coast by a Japanese pilot during WWII and the subsequent relationship of the town and the pilot in the post war aftermath.

Her compassion is absolutely inspiring.  The author lets us know how she feels yet contrasts it with how she reacts, both to the professor and her husband.  There are lessons to be learned here.  Highly recommended read, my pick for best so far this year.

Published: 2015  Read: May 2016  Genre: Fiction