Books I've Read This Week

All Clear by Connie Willis is the second part of this time travelling World War II drama that started in Blackout. I really, really enjoyed this two book series by Willis. The time travel from 2060 is interwoven into the narrative extremely well. The crux of the tension comes down to "can the historians observing WWII actually change history?" The books have some really engaging characters and if you don't fall in love with the kids Alph and Vinnie then apparently you don't like smart mouth artful dodger types.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett is one of the few books I missed by Pratchett when it originally came out much to my detriment. Again Pratchett is at this satirical best. Obstinately he is taking on the subject of women in the military but also the ridiculousness of many wars.  As always Pratchett makes you laugh and laugh a lot but it also makes you think.

High Performance JavaScript by Nicholas Zakas was a good book for me. I learned a number of tips and tricks in reading this book that can be implemented in my code. This is one that I can say I recommend to others. Mind you don't blindly implement all the changes before you profile your code as you may find a performance fix actually turns out to be a detriment. So remember to measure your code before and after any change.

See you next Friday.