An informed scientist effectively argues for diplomacy in nuclear armament talks with North Korea.
The former head of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who visited North Korean nuclear sites over seven consecutive years, reflects on the series of missed opportunities by U.S. policymakers to thwart the nation’s nuclear buildup.
How did North Korea go from “zero nuclear weapons in 2001 to an arsenal” of nearly 50 just 20 years later? Hecker’s first invitation to observe the country’s budding nuclear program came in 2004, after the Clinton-era Agreed Framework deal, which halted nuclear proliferation, had broken down under the hawkish George W. Bush administration. This, the author laments, was one of America’s greatest foreign policy errors, because the Agreed Framework allowed North Korea to ply the diplomacy track rather than the nuclear. With neoconservative hard-liners like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld constantly questioning North Korea’s sincerity, tensions ratcheted up between the countries and the diplomatic door closed. As a scientist, Hecker, now at Stanford, observed how North Korea had indeed shut down the main Yongbyon reactor until renewed enmity prompted a restart and acceleration of the nuclear weapons program, proudly vaunted by North Korean officials. Above all, Pyongyang sought normalization of relations and the lifting of sanctions for their economy. However, when it was discovered that North Korea abetted the creation of a reactor in Syria (subsequently bombed by Israel), U.S. officials balked. Later, Donald Trump’s much-hyped summit in Singapore, ostensibly focused on the “denuclearization” of the entire Korean Peninsula, was not backed by any real substance. Furthermore, despite the subsequent “love letters” between Trump and Kim Jong Un, national security adviser John Bolton effectively stymied any accord before the Hanoi summit in 2019—another lost diplomatic opportunity, writes Hecker. Though the text may be overly technical for general readers, it’s a valuable look at a shadowy regime.
An informed scientist effectively argues for diplomacy in nuclear armament talks with North Korea.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781503634459
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Stanford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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