A pretty clear history of the Freemasons, without any conspiratorial paranoia, or needless detail, and with clear exposition involved in laying out th...moreA pretty clear history of the Freemasons, without any conspiratorial paranoia, or needless detail, and with clear exposition involved in laying out the historical background in compact digressions. Freemasons have been all over, and have adopted varying ideologies, primarily of their current culture, unless that culture has been repressive. The only political constant appears to be a certain tendency to toleration of different religions.(less)
In some ways a Texas Panhandle version of "Local Hero", an outsider representing the forces of Extinction of a Way of Life comes into a clos...moreIn some ways a Texas Panhandle version of "Local Hero", an outsider representing the forces of Extinction of a Way of Life comes into a closed community of offbeat characters, and goes native. Generally an enjoyable read, but not as good as The Shipping News.(less)
This is an extraordinary biography, frank and compassionate, of a brilliant and idiosyncratic man, who in many ways made a mess of his life, and yet h...moreThis is an extraordinary biography, frank and compassionate, of a brilliant and idiosyncratic man, who in many ways made a mess of his life, and yet had such an infectious and childlike eagerness, sense of play, and to an extraordinary degree a kind of deeply wise rascality. Although I have not read Watts' autobiography, this appears to cover much of the material that was left out of it (either because it was too painful, too scandalous, or would hurt his (then living father).(less)
This book has been labeled cynical, and I suppose it is in a way. The characters are flawed, and rather hopeless and helpless in the face of their dr...moreThis book has been labeled cynical, and I suppose it is in a way. The characters are flawed, and rather hopeless and helpless in the face of their drives and rationalizations. But I think it is what I might call compassionate cynicism, in that we see portions of ourselves in the characters, and we see how they suffer, and how confused they are, puppets of their urges and upbringings. And their sufferings are (unless you are an unrelenting Calvinist) so terrible in comparison to the banality of their transgressions.
The book opens with a lyric passage. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, once basketball hero in high school, grown adult, on the way home suited from work pauses to play basketball with kids on a court. And we are cut adrift with him, as life happens, and he is appalled by its crumminess as he runs from his life (kitchen appliance demonstrator), his wife (pregnant, alcoholic) and himself. Not without humor and irony, and flashes of beautiful observation and poetic grace, the book takes a sour and tragic turn.(less)
Darrow is a gargantuan figure, every bit as amazing as his reputation, and this is a wonderfilled biography. Darrow is skeptical, generous and venal,...moreDarrow is a gargantuan figure, every bit as amazing as his reputation, and this is a wonderfilled biography. Darrow is skeptical, generous and venal, idealistic and cynical, shrewd and reckless, oversexed and loving, progressive and corrupt: a plethora of personality traits tumbling out upon an amazing event-filled life. But if that just seems like a grab bag of random characteristics, Farrell writes with a deft precision, and a fine attention to detail, as well as allowing ample space for Darrow to unleash his intellect in pure torrents of speech, recreating rich as life the events surrounding his most famous legal cases. Somehow, it all comes together, and all these disparate parts seem to justly form the measure of the man. And despite his near nihilism, the one characteristic that seems to explain him best is a horror of death, which informed him with a terrible pity and compassion for his fellow creatures, a hatred of executions and persecution, greed and prejudice, all of which seem hopelessly vindictive in the shadow of the grave.(less)
This is touching and astonishing story of the declining fall from the top of the world to invalidism of the President of the United States and of a lo...moreThis is touching and astonishing story of the declining fall from the top of the world to invalidism of the President of the United States and of a loving wife's audacious decision to protect her husband--and incidentally run the country, slightly marred by a slight reaching for sentimental effect.
The author does have a marvelous photographic eye for telling detail, one could actually do the art direction sourced almost entirely by the precise descriptions of locations, clothes and events.
This is on a Listopia list as one of the books most cried over, and I have to admit I started tearing up in one part!(less)
This is a perhaps brilliant, but quirky and somewhat opaque book, an uneven surface of dense ropy coils of thought, one might say. At times the text ...moreThis is a perhaps brilliant, but quirky and somewhat opaque book, an uneven surface of dense ropy coils of thought, one might say. At times the text veers into the land of art speak self parody, and suddenly flashes with either illumination, or an unusual insight. I am not sure that this book "explains" modern art to the general reader, its style is too much that of a kind of layering of metaphors that invites close reading, and demands active participation, and the patience to tolerate a style marked by nonsequiturs and meandering narrative. I am not sure I always agree with the author, but he has certainly given me a lot of food for thought. I will probably reread it again to gain a clearer understanding. I oscillated between irritation and enjoyment, so I thought it unfair to rank it as either 2 or 5 stars and settled on 3.(less)
Quirky, charming graphic journal. Artist-author portrays a vague and oddball malaise and the redemptive quality of the graceful non-sequitur. And li...moreQuirky, charming graphic journal. Artist-author portrays a vague and oddball malaise and the redemptive quality of the graceful non-sequitur. And likes fabulous hats.Illustrations are often funny, or semi-tragic, with a relaxed style reminding one a bit of Matisse's Nice period.(less)
This is not a biography as such, but one of the reasons for reading an art book is the pictures.
This work is the product of a major Degas ex...moreThis is not a biography as such, but one of the reasons for reading an art book is the pictures.
This work is the product of a major Degas exhibit, with about 400 excellent illustrations (almost all in color), and accompanied by copious background information.
The text, although rather dry, gives a great idea of his achievements and breadth.
It is sectioned off into small segments accompanying each plate, and also accompanying each phase of his career. So I found myself, skimming somewhat, always looking at all the plates, and sometimes giving close scrutiny parts of particular interest to me.(less)
Very beautiful. Although the illustrations were often in black and white, I was thrilled and astonished by the energy and aliveness of the forms. My...moreVery beautiful. Although the illustrations were often in black and white, I was thrilled and astonished by the energy and aliveness of the forms. My favorites were the carvings from the Ivory Coast.(less)
The range of art is marvelous. I would have rather had more color illustrations than supplied, but you can still see the forms in the black and white...moreThe range of art is marvelous. I would have rather had more color illustrations than supplied, but you can still see the forms in the black and white illustrations. Unobtrusive and somewhat helpful text.(less)
Many books on the brain spend a lot of time on brain physiology which gets really esoteric for the layperson, and many fundam...moreVery readable.
Many books on the brain spend a lot of time on brain physiology which gets really esoteric for the layperson, and many fundamentals get lost. However Dean Buonomano discusses basics for how our thinking is composed, associatively, of neural networks and synapses.
On the basis of Hebb's law (popularly described as "wired together fire together") and a few other considerations, such as that brain architecture is evolutionarily based, he is able to describe the foundations of a whole panoply of common cognitive errors and illusions. The associative nature means that the presence of other thoughts can taint our logic. The evolutionary aspect means that certain instinctual beliefs or biases were either adaptive to primitive conditions or invisible in them; the rapid ascent of technics and civilization has made many of them maladaptive. Of course this review is no substitute for actually reading the book. I think that it will change the way you think about your own thinking.(less)
For those who are unfamiliar with this story: Teams of MIT students with mathematical aptitude were recruited by a profe...moreStrange but true, apparently.
For those who are unfamiliar with this story: Teams of MIT students with mathematical aptitude were recruited by a professor to play blackjack at casinos. Now blackjack is the only casino game that has a memory of previous play, because it uses a number of decks shuffled together straight through. Therefore, the percentage of cards favorable to the player can be estimated based on tracking the type of cards that have been in play since the last shuffle. A simple form of card counting can give a player a 2% advantage over the house. By employing spotters making small bets to surreptitiously signal to another player--who will make the really large bets--when the deck is highly favorable this advantage can be significantly higher. The syndicate had an approximately 40% ROI. Yes, they had significant amounts of cash to work with, so that they could wait out temporary bad luck and fall back on the long term results of probability. But hell, that's not what really interests you, does it?--since the story naturally has plenty of sleeze, high living, conflict, sex, greed, money, and a wee bit of violence, making this natural best seller material. And indeed this is a bestseller.
And yes, there is hubris. If you are making money at an astounding rate, when do you get out? Clearly the large gambling operations do not want you to count cards, even though it is legal, and will go to great lengths to prevent it.
You may have seen the movie with Kevin Spacey playing the Mephistophelian math prof, which had some very interesting moments, and some extensive liberties with the events in the book, but with a flabby and erratic script that was uncertain of how to end things.
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For those who are unfamiliar with this story: Teams of MIT students with mathematical aptitude were recru...moreStrange but true, apparently.
For those who are unfamiliar with this story: Teams of MIT students with mathematical aptitude were recruited by a professor to play blackjack at casinos. Now blackjack is the only casino game that has a memory of previous play, because it uses a number of decks shuffled together straight through. Therefore, the percentage of cards favorable to the player can be estimated based on tracking the type of cards that have been in play since the last shuffle. A simple form of card counting can give a player a 2% advantage over the house. By employing spotters making small bets to surreptitiously signal to another player--who will make the really large bets--when the deck is highly favorable this advantage can be significantly higher. The syndicate had an approximately 40% ROI. Yes, they had significant amounts of cash to work with, so that they could wait out temporary bad luck and fall back on the long term results of probability. But hell, that's not what really interests you, does it?--since the story naturally has plenty of sleeze, high living, conflict, sex, greed, money, and a wee bit of violence, making this natural best seller material. And indeed this is a bestseller.
And yes, there is hubris. If you are making money at an astounding rate, when do you get out? Clearly the large gambling operations do not want you to count cards, even though it is legal, and will go to great lengths to prevent it.
You may have seen the movie with Kevin Spacey playing the Mephistophelian math prof, which had some very interesting moments, and some extensive liberties with the events in the book, but with a flabby and erratic script that was uncertain of how to end things. (less)
This is a classic in the teacher coping with difficult ghetto schools educational genre. I'd always wanted to read it. The author discovers that eve...moreThis is a classic in the teacher coping with difficult ghetto schools educational genre. I'd always wanted to read it. The author discovers that everything he is supposed to do doesn't work, and he decides to throw it all out and try something, anything. It is told with considerable humility, compassion and humor.(less)
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