Book Review: Save America by Donald J Trump

America First This is a lavish, full color photo book with hundreds of images from Trump’s 2016 presidency, and the 2024 campaign trail. The images have no textual descriptions, but they speak for themselves. This book illustrates the success of his 2016 presidency, and how his 2024 campaign faced enormous odds created by the fake news media, democrats, progressives, the Leftists, socialists, feminists, LGBTQ, Antifa, Black activists, and Muslims. The cover and multiple spreads feature the dramatic photo of Trump after surviving a July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, fist raised and bloodied nose projects the president with resilience. He recalls, “When I rose, at first the crowd was confused because they thought that I was dead. And there was a great sorrow on their faces and then I raised my right arm, looked at the crowd and started shouting FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT.” He asks his voters to “Never give up and never surrender” a value highly cherished in winning of the 2024 presidential campaign in a landslide. This book underscores 2016 Trump administration’s achievements: low unemployment, stock market highs, energy independence, trade deals, military strengthening, border control, and conservative judicial appointments. He emphasizes unprecedented engagements with world leaders reminding us of his foreign policy expertise. This is not a conventional memoir, but an opulent factual narrative of Trump's legacy while strengthening the stage for the 2024 campaign and proving himself as one of the best presidents of our times. This is an appealing book to the loyal Trump supporters and MAGA followers. This is a visual tribute to the “America First” presidency and its iconic moments.

Book Reviewed: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

The King Philip’s War in the early American history This book examines the history of Plymouth Colony. In the early 17th century, a group of Pilgrims fled Europe making the infamous ten-week voyage to the New World. Rather than arriving in the summer months as planned, they landed in November. The Chief Massasoit and his Wampanoag indigenous population at Cape Cod were understanding and helped them survive the harsh winter. Author Nathaniel Philbrick recounts the desperate circumstances of the settlers and the native people, and how the Wampanoags saved the colony from certain destruction. They hosted the first Thanksgiving to celebrate the success. For over fifty years they lived in peace, becoming increasingly interdependent. But in 1675, fifty-six years after the colonists landed in Cape Cod, a war broke out between the European settlers for over fourteen horrifying months, and claimed 5,000 lives, a significant population of the English settlers. The Native tribes, Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Nipmuc fought on one side, and the English colonists with Native allies, the Mohegan and Pequot communities on the other. This war was named after Metacom, a Wampanoag chief known to the English as King Philip. The second half of the book describes the conflict that shattered peace and redefined relationships between Native peoples and colonists. This is not a happy Thanksgiving story other books narrate but adds to the challenges of the new colony. At the end of the war, the resistance of indigenous population ended in New England but furthered the mistrust between colonists and Native peoples and set the stage for future colonial expansion without tribal consent. The English colonists captured thousands of Native Americans during this campaign, many were executed, and women and children were shipped to the Caribbean and sold into slavery. Metacom's (King Philip's) wife and 9-year-old son were captured after his death. His son was sold into slavery. Plymouth Colony ceased to exist as an independent colony in 1691, and merged with the Province of Massachusetts Bay under a new royal charter. This book is written in a well narrated prose, but the author could have focused on the personal reflections of tribal leaders during the war. I recommend this book to readers exploring early American history.

Book Reviewed: Seeking the First Farmers in Western Sjælland, Denmark: The Archaeology of the Transition to Agriculture in Northern Europe by T. Douglas Price

Archeology of ancient humans in Denmark This work is an archaeological study of the transition from foraging to agriculture in Denmark. The author provides a scientific and personal reflection of European prehistory as he explores broader archaeological themes in Denmark such as, the local hunter-gatherer population, the farmers migrating from Germany and Eastern Europe, impact on human genetics due to the introduction of agriculture, lifestyle changes, the population fusion, the spread of agriculture, seasonality, and sedentism. One of the most interesting facts about the human evolution in Europe is the Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) c. 12,500 – 4,000 BCE., had dark skin, blue or green eyes, and dark hair. Then came the migration of neolithic farmers (from c. 4,000 BCE onwards) from the Anatolian/Near Eastern region via the Balkans. They had lighter skin, dark hair, and brown eyes, and brought agriculture, pottery, and new burial practices. The later arrivals, the Indo-Europeans (from c. 2,800 BCE onwards) called the Yamnaya and related Steppe population (from Ukraine), brought Indo-European languages to Europe and Denmark. They gave new genetic addition, they had light skin, light eyes, and blond hair. The original genes of Danish were diluted through interbreeding and selection pressure. The genes for lighter skin (like SLC24A5 and SLC45A2) became advantageous in northern latitudes due to better vitamin D synthesis under low sunlight and they these genes spread through natural selection. Other factors like demographic replacement also played an important role, the farming communities had higher birth rates and more stable food supplies leading to a population boom. This gradually overwhelmed smaller hunter-gatherer populations. The cultural assimilation was also prevalent as the hunter-gatherers adopted farming and merged with agricultural communities eventually losing distinct identities. The author integrates archaeological research with anthropological questions. These studies indicate that while farming groups were present in northern Germany and central Poland by 4500 BCE, agriculture was not adopted in southern Scandinavia until around 3100 BCE., which is quite significant and interesting from the point of ancient history of humans. This book is a good resource for readers interested in the neolithic transition (an archaeological period c. 10000 BCE to c. 4500 BCE), European prehistory, and archaeological methodology. Understanding the complexities of the shift from foraging to farming in northern Europe is not only exciting but also challenging.

Book Reviewed: Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos by Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger

An exploration of life in the cosmos The book briefly discusses the methods astronomers use to detect exoplanets and describes briefly extrasolar planets that may support life. Her narratives are not so engaging with personal anecdotes, such as drinking coffee in a European city than discussing alien life. Her drifting into personal stories is not appealing. With respect to finding alien life, certain things have to be imperative for planet formation and evolution, such as low-mass exoplanets of less than ten-Earth masses, smaller than 2.5 Earth radii that are likely to be rocky. Large mass planets are generally gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn that are unlikely to have life. But rocky planets do not guarantee life, they need to have bio-signatures in their atmosphere that support life, like carbon, water and oxygen, the other essential elements, and molecules necessary for life to form, and its gradual evolution. Planets in the habitable zones around solar-like stars are helpful to investigate, and they must have Earth-like periods like Kepler-725 c that has a period of 207.5 days around its star that must have a stable orbit (Kepler-725 c doesn’t). Surface planetary habitability requires an orbit at the right distance from the host star for liquid surface water to be present, geophysical, and geodynamic aspects, atmospheric density, radiation type and intensity, and the host star's plasma environment. The magnetosphere, like we have here on Earth, will help an extrasolar planet for sustained life evolution over hundreds of millions of years. Some of the promising alien planets also have shortcomings in terms of finding life: for example. 1. The planet Proxima Centauri b is at a distance: 4.2 light-years (closest exoplanet to Earth), Star: Proxima Centauri (a red dwarf), Size: 1.1 times Earth's mass, Orbit: Habitable zone (may allow liquid water), Promise: Rocky planet, potentially Earth-like surface temperatures, and challenges: Its star emits strong solar flares, possibly harmful to the planetary atmosphere 2. TRAPPIST-1 System, distance: 39 light-years, Star: TRAPPIST-1 (ultra-cool red dwarf), number of planets: seven Earth-sized planets, at least three in the habitable zone (TRAPPIST-1e, -f, -g), promise: High potential for rocky surfaces and stable orbits likely have water, and challenges: close orbits may cause tidal locking (same side always faces star); stellar activity may strip atmospheres 3. Planet Kepler-442b, Distance: 1,200 light-years, Star: K-type (orange dwarf), Size: 1.3 times Earth's size, Orbit: In the habitable zone, Promise: High habitability score; stable sunlight from its star, and Challenges: Far away; no atmosphere confirmed yet (1,200 light years from Earth) Our technology allows detection of alien planets only in Milky Way galaxy, but the estimated number of galaxies in the observable universe is about 2 trillion, according to data from the Hubble Space Telescope and later studies. Readers interested in the search for extraterrestrial life, I recommend articles from well-known science magazines like Scientific American, Discover, National Geographic, Journal Nature, NASA Exoplanet Archives, and other science focused magazines some of which are available at your local public libraries.

Book Reviewed: The Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana, Part 1-2 by Śaṅkara translated by George Thibaut

Adi Shankaracharya’s interpretation of the Vedanta Sutras The Brahma Sūtras are terse and cryptic words. Each Sūtra requires detailed commentary (bhāṣya) to make them comprehensible. They generally do not specify the subject or the context explicitly, but they were interpreted based on one’s philosophical views and the knowledge of the Upanishads, one of the sacred texts of Hinduism. In summary, the Vedānta Sūtras are like mirrors, and each school of Vedānta expound its own reflection on the brevity and interpretive flexibility of the sutras. They elucidate differing views on the nature of physical reality, God, liberation, and close-knit relationship with them. Hence, commentators like Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Madhva, Vallabha, Nimbārka and others understood Brahma Sūtras through their metaphysical and theological views. The Vedanta Sutras (Brahma Sutras) of Badarayana are one of the foundational texts of Vedanta philosophy, a major school of Hindu philosophy focused on the nature of Brahman (the Ultimate Reality) and Atman (the self or soul or jiva). The Vedanta Sutras has four chapters (adhyāyas), and each chapter has four sections (pādas). The four pādas consists of 555 Sūtras (aphoristic statements). Adhyāya One, establishes that Brahman as the central theme of all Upanishads, and it harmonizes apparent contradictions in the scriptures, and lays the foundation for metaphysical discussion. Adhyāya Four, describes the liberation (moksha) that results from realizing Brahman and achieve freedom from the cycle of birth and death and union with the Infinite (Brahman). In this book, the author discusses the Advaita philosophy of Śaṅkara that proposes Brahman is the Ultimate, Formless, Changeless Reality for the creation of the Cosmos. Atman is Brahman, and the individual soul (Atman, jiva) is not separate from the absolute (Brahman). The Liberation (moksha) comes through knowledge and realization of this non-duality. The goal is jnana (knowledge) which leads to dissolution of ego, and to the unification with Brahman. This is one of the most informative books published by the early European scholars on Vedanta and the commentary of Śaṅkara. The author discusses a brief history of Vedānta and how it evolved during post-Vedic period: The Pūrva Mīmāṁsā and Uttara Mīmāṁsā (also known as Vedānta) are two major schools of Hindu philosophy that interpret the ancient Hindu scriptures of Vedas, the most ancient and sacred Hindu scriptures. They represent different focuses and methodologies in understanding the Vedic texts. Pūrva Mīmāṁsā emphasizes Karma Kāṇḍa and follow fire ritual practices (performing yajna, homa, and material offerings to the Vedic deities), and follow the principles of Dharma. The liberation from material life is not its main concern; rather, it's about attaining worldly results leading to heaven (Svarga). But the Uttara Mīmāṁsā (Vedānta) emphasizes Jñāna Kāṇḍa that seeks the Spiritual Knowledge and Mokṣa, true liberation from the cycle of birth and death. It is focused on self-inquiry and freedom through realization of Brahman. Both schools agree on the authority of the Vedas, but they interpret their purpose very differently. Pūrva Mīmāṁsā is action-oriented, and Uttara Mīmāṁsā is knowledge-oriented. According to Śaṅkara which is described in this book, the self (jiva) and Brahman are the same, it is the illusion (Maya) that creates physical reality we see and experience. They create ego and false impression that self has separate existence, but they are not different; jīva is Brahman. The nature of physical reality, as understood from classical and quantum physics, uphold the Advaita Philosophy’s interpretation of the material reality.