Book Review: What is real?

What is real? by Adam Becker is on the topic of quantum physics.  Becker is trying to answer the title question which has been debated very much in quantum physics due to the prevalence of the Copenhagen interpretation which was championed by Bohr.  In that interpretation, it was considered taboo to think that the solutions to the quantum wave equation represented actual particles, photons and objects since the world was divided between objects that obey the quantum laws and measuring devices which do not.  Becker is clearly infuriated by the Copenhagen interpretation, attacking it on numerous fronts including thinly veiled ad hominem arguments on the proponents of the theory.
In its place, he provides the outlines of several different theories including the many worlds interpretation, the pilot wave theory and the spontaneous collapse theory.  He admits that there are still problems to be resolved but stresses that not all is solved by the Copenhagen interpretation either.
Becker's answer is that there must be real objects that are described by the mathematics.  This is Scientific Realism.  I also agree that there must be something there even though we can only observe it in effects rather than directly.  Boltzmann created statistical mechanics to describe the motions of atoms as the basis for deriving thermodynamic properties of substances, but no one doubts that the atoms that are being described don't exist.  There is still some science to be done, but eventually, we will have a similar understanding even if the Schrodinger wave equation is only considered a similar statistic tool to predict behavior macroscopic properties or results rather than being able to actually be applied to individual objects like Newton's laws of motion.
The approach is heavily biographical.  A lot of details about people's lives are included.  Becker also makes the point that the way things turned out at times was heavily dependent on the people and circumstances and that in fact the orthodoxy of Bohr's position could have crumbled much earlier if things had happened just a little differently.  There is a quite a bit of discussion regarding logical positivism as well as Popper's theory of falsifiability.  This is very much a book that considers the topic from a philosophical point of view highlighting the metaphysical and epistemological questions that are raised from the counterintuitive results of the mathematics and experiments that have verified the predictions of the theory.  It is very clear, unless humans still don't understand quantum physics well enough, it is non-local at least some of the time which has huge consequences with regard to normal people's understanding of causality.  But, similar to when Einstein shows that two observers can differ on whether two events are simultaneous, non-locality must be limited such that it doesn't play a large role for macroscopic objects at non-relativistic speeds of the everyday world.
I borrowed the downloadable audit book from the local library and halfway through came to the realization that I had in fact read it some time ago as a physical book.  Not too disappointed, I enjoyed it again.