annie jacobsen

Annie Jacobsen’s Insights on Nuclear Annihilation

by Stefani

Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen

Published: March 26, 2024 by Dutton

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.

Rating:

Review:

After listening to an interview with Annie Jacobsen I knew that I needed to read this book. And apparently a lot of other people thought the same thing, because this one had a 6 month waitlist from my library. Even for the audiobook, which is insane because the audiobook normally has a shorter wait time. But I digress. I have long had feelings about nuclear weapons and the idea of deterrence and mutually assured destruction. That has been the stance of world on nuclear weapons. “Well, we both have them, and we know that if one of uses them then so will the other, and no one wants that.”

There’s just one problem with that theory, human nature. Eventually there will be a human who says, “Fuck the consequences, if I’m going down then so are they.” Human nature virtually guarantees this. And this is what Annie Jacobsen explores. She explores in depth the timeline of a nuclear war. Starting at the beginning when there is a satellite confirmation that a missile has been fired. She goes through the exact conversations that would be happening. Was it an accident? Is it just a missile or does it have a nuke on it? Where is it headed? Could this be a misfire? What exactly is going on and how do we respond? The timeline for making this decision is very short. In the best circumstance that timeline is about 6 minutes. Six minutes to try and figure out what happened and if the US will respond. And that is the best case scenario, if a missile was launched from a submarine then the timeframe could be a minute total.

The author also goes through the timeline of just how many times the United States has been on the brink of nuclear war and luckily it hasn’t happened. Did you that in 1983 the Soviet Union’s radar detection system alerted that the United States had launched give nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union. Stanislav Petrov was manning the radar. His procedures required that he report the radar results to Moscow. But he didn’t, because he thought it was strange. Later, he said that he asked himself “Why would the United States only launch 5 missiles? If they wanted a nuclear war, they would fire many more, wouldn’t they?” And he chose to believe it was a false alert. It was indeed a false alert. But think about what could have happened if he had followed procedure?

I spent a lot of time wondering what kind of scenario Annie Jacobsen had created in this book. Was this a best case scenario? Average scenario? Worst case scenario? But then I realized something. She talked about how the Defense Department runs war game simulations on how a nuclear war would proceed. Hundreds of them. Potentially thousands of them. They’ve been running them since the first nuclear bomb was invented. And according to the source Jacobsen spoke to, every single scenario they have run ends in global annihilation. That’s when I realized, it doesn’t matter what kind of scenario it is. They all end the same way. They all end with human beings annihilating themselves. The only solution is for no one to press the button, ever. But even that doesn’t account for accidents. For as long as nuclear weapons exist, this book posits that eventually, for one reason or another, nuclear war is how it ends.

My only complaint is that some of the imagined dialogue is very corny. And I found some of the posited hypothetical events to unnecessary to the situation and it doesn’t add much value.

So, this book was possibly the most frightening thing I’ve ever read. Also one of the most important. I am going to get myself a stiff drink and hope that if nuclear war happens, I’ll be close enough to the blast to be evaporated.

As Nikita Khrushchev said to JFK, in the event of nuclear war “The survivors would envy the dead.” That’s a grim thought, but one that we all need to pay attention to. Do you trust the people guarding that button? I don’t. Not a single one of them.

Progress Update Friday – October 25, 2024

by Stefani

The Prophecy of the Yubriy Tree by Ben Spencer

Progress: 59 of 379 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Every year, prophecy leaves fall from the Yubriy Tree. And every year, the Dayborn king sends his most trusted servants to collect the leaves and return them to the capital.

Only this year, one of the leaves drifted into the forest unseen.

Three lives will be forever changed by the undetected prophecy leaf.

The strong-willed daughter of a powerful family. The mysterious and reviled half brother of the king. And a talented but unlucky musician, desperate to write the song that will bring him good fortune.

Looming in the background are reports of the first dragon to appear in Ragar Or in over sixty-five years. And, as anyone familiar with Ragar Or’s history knows, when dragons appear, royalty dies.

How it’s going:

This is such an interesting idea. I was really pleased to get the ARC for it. So far the stories are interesting. I have read a chapter from 2 of the people mentioned in the synopsis and both were very intriguing. It’s off to a good start and I hope it continues.

Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen

Progress: 7:25 of 11 hours, 19 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.

How it’s going:

If the hold times on this through my library is any indication, this book has been gangbusters popular. The hold on the physical book stands at 75 people, the ebook stands at 7 months, and getting the audiobook took my 3 1/2 months. So far, I am depressed. And I need a stiff drink. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Honestly, I will probably finish this one today and then if I can manage a review this weekend that’s great, but I might need to digest it a little bit.

Review: Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen

by Stefani

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen

Published: May 17, 2011 by Little, Brown & Company

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / AbeBooks

Synopsis:

It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn’t exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada’s desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government-but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades.

Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing itself was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now.

Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to nineteen men who served the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged 75-92, and unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super-secret, supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror.

This is the first book based on interviews with eye witnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top-secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that facts are often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.

Rating:

Review:

Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you that I am fascinated by conspiracy theories. I love reading about them. I love investigating why people believe these things. I look investigating instances where sometimes the conspiracy theory was actually the true story. So this book caught my attention for that reason right away. The first big batch of declassified documents relating to Area 51 were released in 2010-2011 and a lot of the information in this book is based off of that release. In addition to the interviews she conducted with people who worked there, it provided a very comprehensive review of the base’s history.

There was a ton of really interesting facts in here. Things that I never expected to find. For example, did you know that eventually the CIA decided that the unknown craft that crashed in Roswell was built by the Soviet Union? The Soviet’s had gotten in touch with some scientists that had been working in Germany while Hitler was in power and asked if they could make a flying disc. Then they put two kids (estimated to be 13 years old or so) into the craft so that people would believe they were aliens. The children were badly disfigured, and the CIA determined it was likely the work of Josef Mengele, also of Nazi origin. The idea was that the Soviets wanted the disc to crash and they hoped that Americans would see the corpses of the children and believe it was an alien craft. They wanted to start a panic. The secondary goal was to let the American President know that the Soviets weren’t intimidated by him and that they could violate US airspace if they wished. Now, that’s the story that the CIA tells and at least one interviewee told. Is that the truth? Maybe. Will we ever know if it is the truth or not? Unlikely.

I loved that this book laid out all the reasons why Area 51 has provided the perfect opportunity for UFO conspiracy theories. All through the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s the US government was out there testing out advanced spy planes. They wanted something that flew faster than Soviet radar could detect and flew higher than their missles could reach. Naturally sometimes people saw these flights. And the citizens would see a plane flying faster and higher than any plane known to exist and naturally they found it extraterrestrial. The CIA tracked all of the UFO reports during these periods and found that most of the UFO sightings were of their spy plane flights. A smaller portion were conclusively identified as other things, weather balloons, other aircraft, natural phenomenon, etc. And a very small percentage of those reports couldn’t be identified. What were they? Well the US government say they don’t know. But all of these reports just further the hysteria and the conspiracy theories.

Before long, Area 51 because the best location for any nefarious government plot. From aliens to the moon landing, if there’s a conspiracy theory out there it probably gets tied to Area 51. But the real history is far more interesting. It’s a history of spy planes, nuclear bombs, testing of worst case scenarios, and place to hide government secrets. There’s a good reason that a large portion of Americans think there’s nefarious things going on at the base. The government has long used the base to do things that were not entirely ethical, not entirely moral, and sometimes not entirely legal either. All of it hidden in the shadows. Hidden from the people that the government says they’re protecting.

Overall, I found this book compelling and entrancing. I couldn’t put it down. Every single page was some new fascinating detail that had been hidden in the world of classified documents for half a century. My only complaint is that perhaps we waited too long for some of the interview details. I found myself wondering why that seemed like a side note, when it was perhaps the most eye opening part of the book. Despite this, the book was excellent and I have very few complaints.

Progress Updates Friday – June 14, 2024

by Stefani

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

Progress: 147 of 432 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

I think I have fallen in love with this book. This letter is told entirely in letters and occasional excerpts from books. It starts with anxious, introvert “E” writing to her favorite scholar about a creature that she saw in her front yard. To her surprise, he writes back. And the two of them start corresponding back and forth about their various interests and their families, and eventually they start to develop feelings for each other. The romance so far is very light. It appeals to me in a “talk nerdy to me” sort of way.

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen

Progress: Page 191 of 540

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

Now that this book has transitioned into the boom period of Area 51 I am making some excellent progress. I’ve been reading more about reckless nuclear bomb testing. Did you know that the US government nearly blew a hole in the ozone layer with a nuclear bomb? They wanted to see what would happen if one detonated in the upper atmosphere. And we’re also getting into the tense Cuban Missile Crisis, and the President is placing enormous pressure on Area 51 to get their new A-12 spy plane up and running immediately. They want it to more effectively spy on what the Russians were doing in Cuba. This morning I was also greeted to a news article that apparently Russians navy ships and submarines arrived in Cuba again today…ironic timing I’m sure you’ll agree. Ironic and disconcerting.

Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi

Progress: 20%

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

This is my current audiobook selection. So far it’s a fairly typical “group of people has to confront terrible thing they did as kids” kind of horror/mystery book. Andrew, the main protagonist, is rather dull so far. A bit of a boring fellow who works and worries about his pregnant wife. I am getting a good feel for the few characters we’ve introduced so far.

Progress Update Fridays – June 7, 2024

by Stefani

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen

Progress: 102 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

Just finished some very interesting history bits. They talk about a tragic airplane crash that occurred while carrying U-2 test pilots back to California from Area 51. Because the project was top secret, the military couldn’t acknowledge the crash or it’s connection to the base. So the families of the ones who died didn’t learn what happened to their loved ones. They were just given a generic story that they died in an accident, and fed the media a story about a routine supply flight that crashed. Sad, but these are the kinds of things that happen when you’re dealing with top secret projects.

The Delicate Beast by Roger Celestin

Progress: 45 of 424 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

So far, I am not quite sure what to make of this book. The author has a very interesting writing style. It’s compelling on one hand but quite confusing on the other hand. I find myself having to go back and reread things more than once because I got lost somewhere and don’t know what’s happening. I also am not sure what the first chapter has to do with….well anything. I am hoping we tie up that thread at some point, because it seemed totally irrelevant.

Progress Update Fridays – May 31, 2024

by Stefani

Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins

Progress: 184 of 320 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

I am cemented in my belief that Fern doesn’t know a single normal human being. Everyone she knows seems to be a complete psychopath who thrives on making her feel afraid. At this point Fern has become convinced that she is the girl that Astrid referred to as witnessing her kidnapping. She is attempting to track down clues to prove that fact, but also to try and unlock more memories of what happened. There have been some big revelations too, that I can’t really mention without spoiling the book. I have developed a theory about who is responsible for the kidnapping, I’ll be interested to see if I’m right. Hopefully this book has a better payoff at the end than the last one.

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen

Progress: 74 out of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going:

This one has been slow going. I went out of town this week for a long overdue vacation with my spouse and kids. It was fantastic but also meant I couldn’t read much, and I didn’t even bring this book with me. I didn’t really want to lug a 540 page book around to hotels. So far we’ve delved into the history of Area 51, it’s original use as a testing facility for spy planes. This led to some misidentifications as UFOs, which the Air Force was more than happy to play along with. UFO rumors provided cover to what they were actually testing after all. But we’ve now also covered how the UFO rumors started to become inconvenient for the CIA and Air Force, people were making too many assumptions that the government was covering things up. And so they changed tactics and admitted that they were researching UFOs, but that most of the time there was nothing unusual after investigation. I’m interested to see where we go next.

Progress Update Fridays – May 24, 2024

by Stefani

Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Progress: Page 62 of 540

How it’s going:

So far I am learning a lot of interesting things in this book. Last week we learned that the original entity in charge of Area 51 was the Atomic Energy Commission. This week we learned that the first official use of Area 51 (apart from nuclear tests at the Nevada Testing Site) was to engineer and test the U-52 spy plane that the government wanted to use to spy on the Soviet Union. Because the project was secret, many residents reported that the planes were UFOs because..planes weren’t supposed to fly that high. And that was the first connection with Area 51 and UFOs.

Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Progress: Page 87 of 320

Synopsis:

When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping—and equally famous return—twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory.

Back home in New Hampshire, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir—which may have provoked her original kidnapper to abduct her again—and as she reads through its chapters and visits the people and places within it, she discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. As Fern’s search becomes increasingly desperate, she hopes to remember her past so she can save Astrid in the present…before it’s too late.

How it’s going:

This story has a really good premise. And so far I have learned a lot abut Fern and a bit abut Astrid. Fern has had recurring nightmares about a girl with no face reaching for her. When she sees Astrid on the news she realizes that Astrid is the girl she’s been dreaming about. I have also learned that Fern was raised by complete psychopaths. And seemingly everyone she knows, except her husband, is completely twisted. I’m excited to see where this goes.

Progress Update Friday – May, 17, 2024

by Stefani

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

Published: January 30, 2024 by Redhook

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

A young woman descends into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge to break her family’s curse in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy debut.

For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.

Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break it first.

To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet whose knowledge of a world beyond her own is too valuable to avoid.

Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.

How it’s going:

I am listening to this one on audiobook. The narrator is lovely. She presents the material well and I find her voice very soothing. But this book is leaving me wishing that it was something more. There is precious little character building and even less world building. I have no idea who Violet is except that she looks very much like her mother. There is also a lot of narrative skipping but it’s not immediately clear which narrative I’m in, and with little world building I am often not sure who those people are, or why they’re relevant to the story. Hopefully it becomes more clear soon, I’m about halfway through.

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

Published: May 17, 2011 by Little, Brown & Company

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Progress: Page 20 of 540

Synopsis:

It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn’t exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada’s desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government-but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades.

Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing itself was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now.

Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to nineteen men who served the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged 75-92, and unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super-secret, supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror.

This is the first book based on interviews with eye witnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top-secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that facts are often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.

How it’s Going:

I am only just starting this book, but so far it’s very interesting. I have learned several interesting tidbits. Like that the original entity that claimed ownership of Area 51 was the Atomic Energy Commission. And there’s a lot of shady dealings and secrets surrounding them, including that they were the entity that covered up the true nature of the Manhattan Project. Which is quite an interesting correlation to say the least. I am very interested to see what else is in this book.