The Grid

August 23, 2025

Rating: 4 of 5 – Type: Science

I grew up on a farm in the northern midwest. At that time power outages were not uncommon. After high school I moved to Chicago where during the great blizzard of 1967 when we were stranded in our apartments and finding bread at a local mom & pop’s corner store was major coup we still had power. Through the years residing and working in a number of areas from the Midwest, to Texas, to Australia we always had power. Now all three of our children work in the Power Industry I’ve become very interested in Power – how it’s produced, how it’s transmitted, and how it’s used.

Therefore I asked Google what are the best books on the Power Grid. The Grid: The Fraying Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke was on the top of the list. I bought the Kindle version and used the power from my Kindle’s battery to read it.

The lion’s share of the book narrates the Grid’s history from its humble beginnings starting at Edison’s Pearl Street Station in 1892 to the present day.

Then it transitions into a few of the famous power outages of the past 25 years, what caused the outages, and in some cases the steps taken by the affected customers to insulate themselves from the Grid’s brittleness.

Of course, the book covers Enron and the Grid’s transition to the free market in great detail

The book’s final sections detail the Grid’s current brittleness, the emerging technologies and the problems they cause, the financial crisis, the increasing demand for power the Grid can’t supply, and the trends for the future.

In summary, The Grid chronoicles America’s transition to the “Electrical Age” and the Grid that made it possible.

Notes:

  1. The planet is powered by electricity; the Grid is but the backbone to generate and deliver Electricity. I did not mention electricity once in the book! Amazing or bad writing?
  2. All of my blog posts are now book reviews. I used to write about travel, gardening, and other the like. However, I’m now homebound. My life is taking care of my wife, reading books, watching TV, and the Internet. I find nothing worth writing about on TV or the internet. Writing about politics , the environment, except Silent Spring, and climate change depresses me. Therefore I choose to write book reviews blog posts.
  3. According to Gemini the Grid’s biggest problems 10 years after the book’s publication have not changed:
    • Outdated equipment
    • Increased demand
    • Vulnerability to extreme weather
    • Integrating renewable energy
    • Cybersecurity and Digitalization (This item is new)
    • Lack of investment and modernization

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Posted by molson46

Silent Spring

August 13, 2025

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson ushered in the Environment Era when published in 1962.

Rating: 5 of 5 – Type: Science

In many ways it was the harbinger of the tumultuous 60s. Whereas the 50s were a quiet Leave it to Beaver era the 60s were civil rights, war protest, riots, and society disruption era typified by Four Dead in Ohio.

In the book Rachel describes mankind’s destruction of the natural order though the use of pesticides in the environment. It is equally a science book and a political call to action on the harm we are inflicting on Nature. The modern environmental movement is the direct result of the book. Many believe the political activism of the 60s started with the public outcry her book spawned.

Unlike many books promoting this cause or that cause Rachel’s analysis and conclusions are backed up by a tome of references. The book’s reference section is almost as large as the rest of the book.

On a personal note I turned 16 the year she published her work. I grew up on a Illinois farm. The day she published the book I probably sprayed DDT around our three milk cows to kill flies twice a day in the barn before I milked them. Thankfully my using caustic chemicals on the farm in my younger days did not cause me lasting harm as those same chemicals have done to many.

Summary – It’s a sobering book that everyone should read.

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Posted by molson46