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What are You Reading / Reviews - May 2016
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Mod
278 pages
★★★★
Before reading this book, if you had asked me something that bored me, it would be fish. But I saw a fellow book nerd read this book and I was intrigued. I won’t lie…that word “sex” in the title helped. And oh am I glad I read this one. Yes, it deals with intercourse between sea animals but it deals with so much more as well. The author talks about the ecosystem and how it is effected by the slightest changes – mostly thanks to humans. And if sea life isn’t having sex, reproduction doesn’t happen, certainly not a good thing to keep biodiversity going. So along with fascinating tales on how the underwater world gets it on, she explains ways we can attempt to fix the issues humans have often caused.
I really enjoyed this book. It left me interested and laughing. It’s well researched but the author doesn’t always take herself seriously when discussing sex. She reminded me of the author, Mary Roach, of the sea. It kept me up later than it should have most nights and I didn’t like putting it down. It was a quick read overall and definitely worth the time to look into, even if you think you aren’t interested in fish and the sea.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
3 stars
Read this for one of my book club discussions next month and it was interesting. A young African boy who cannot stay in school because the family cannot pay his tuition, spends his time studying books from the library. At first his intention was merely to keep up his studies until he could go back to school but, being interested in the sciences and learning how things work, he soon begins to get some ideas about building a windmill so that his family doesn't have to go to bed as soon as the sun goes down--they can have lights, stay up and enjoy their evenings. I did enjoy the various cultural beliefs and customs that were explained and I was truly impressed with just exactly how innovative this young man was but the actual electrical discussions regarding his reasons for putting the items together and getting them to work were tedious to me. Overall though, an inspiring book and quick read--if you have a few hours, you might enjoy it.
Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "
Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very exciting and entertaining, with some humor thr..."
It actually came out February of 2015 and here's my review: "I love this entire series--so far. This, I believe, is an intermediary book in the Lunar Chronicles series. I've read Cinder, Scarlet and Cress and was waiting for Winter to be published this year and all of a sudden, here was Fairest. This book does for Queen Levana what Wicked does for the wicked witch of the east. It tells her early story and how she became the horrible person that she is. An altogether entertaining tale and a great lead in to the final book in the series (Winter). This is another case of loving a series so much that you just wish it would never end!!"
It didn't make me like her any better but it did help me to understand her a bit more. I would suggest reading it but it sure isn't necessary.
Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very exciting and entertaining, with..."
Oh thanks for that review! Do you think I need to read it before "Winter"? I'm thinking it probably doesn't matter but since you've read them all.... ?
Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very exciting and en..."
No, you don't have to. :)
Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Terris wrote: "Cress by Marissa Meyer, 4****s
This is Book #3 (of 4) of the Lunar Chronicles series -- very ..."
Ok, good! Cause I really want to get to Winter!! ;)
I am reading:Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger
The Bachman Books Richard Bachman (anthology, 2 of 4 read)
Delicious Ruth Reichel audio in car and elsewhere
Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie
4 stars
Reviewed this for the Mock Caldecott Awards. I really enjoyed this story. The pictures, which are gorgeous, are actually inspired and created from an actual antique house in Xalapa, Mexico. The artist scanned the colors of the wood and brick of the building and then the colors and textures were used to digitally paint the illustrations. Thunder Boy Jr., who is named after his father, loves his dad but doesn't want to share a name with him and be called little Thunder or some other derivative. What he wants is a name of his own that reflects something he's done or accomplished. Finally, his father comes up with the perfect solution that not only gives his son his own name but shows that he and his father are really a team!
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
4 stars
A retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, a German fairy tale. I read this for one of my book discussion groups this month. I love fairy tales, retold ones as well, so this was a fun read for me. It was also an easy, quick read. A young man returns from the war. Both of his parents died during the war and so he looks for shelter with his relatives. His uncle helps him get a job as a gardener at the palace. He, of course, meets the eldest of the twelve daughters and falls in love. But all is not well in the palace--every morning the twelve princesses have worn out their dancing shoes and no one can figure out why. The princesses cannot tell them what is happening and no one ever sees them leaving their rooms. The king requests that princes from throughout the kingdom attempt to discover the secret and if they can, their reward will be a marriage to one of his daughters. Just a sweet, enjoyable read.
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
1 star
I only read this because it's on the 1001 list and was chosen as one of our books of the month so figured I may as well read it and get it out of the way. I had previously read Haunted by this author and it was horrible--just flat out grossening to the max. I'm just glad that this is the only book of his on the 1001 list. The premise of the book is that the main character's mother is in the hospital and he can't afford to pay all the bills so he goes to various restaurants and pretends to choke on his food. When someone saves him--as the old saying goes, once you save someone you become responsible for their life. From then on, he plays on their sympathies to get extra money for various reasons. However, to my way of thinking, there was really very little about that and mostly about his obsession sexual addiction. His catchphrase was "What would Jesus not do?". And believe me, it was worse than I could ever imagine. Not at all a book that appealed to me. The author read the audio book and he sounds like a nice guy and there were certainly a few places that I appreciated some interesting tidbits of information but they certainly didn't offset my dislike--but IMHO his mind is warped!
Mod
Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom – 3*** Grissom’s debut - The Kitchen House - became a best seller; this book follows one of the characters in the first book over several decades. There is a good story idea here, a runaway slave who passes for white and builds a successful life. There are a number of twists and turn in the plot and I was caught up in the story and wanted to know how the characters would fare. However, Grissom uses multiple narrators and the result is that there is less cohesion in the story-telling. In summary, it’s a good story and kept me turning pages, but the writing fell short.
Full Review HERE
Mod
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 3***s
A cute story about a young Swedish woman (Sara) and an older woman (Amy) f..."
Going to see this author at my local indie bookshop tonight!
Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 3***s
A cute story about a young Swedish woman (Sara) and an olde..."
Oh! How exciting!! I'm so jealous :)
May 19Leonard Susskind & Art Friedman, Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum [2014] 364 pages
The sequel to The Theoretical Minimum, which dealt with classical physics, this book explains the basics of quantum theory in a simple (but not oversimplified) way beginning with spin states and working through the Schrödinger equation, combinations of states, entanglement, and the uncertainty principle. The first half of the book introduces the mathematics of complex vector spaces in a very understandable way (I had never studied linear algebra at all, even with real vectors, and I had no trouble following the authors' explanations of eigenvectors, Hermitean operators, and so forth.) As with the first book, however, the second half seems much more rushed; the explanation of combining operators with tensor products and outer products wasn't nearly as clear and detailed as I needed to follow the argument (they rely a lot on the notation making things obvious, but this only works for HOW to do the calculations, not WHY the equations work), and they assume some things that they haven't explained at all, such as methods of solving certain differential equations. I suppose it is hard for physicists writing for a lay audience to remember that math that seems obvious to them hasn't actually been covered. In any case, they do better in this regard than Penrose. I was struck by how much more sense quantum theory makes with the equations than trying to visualize it with analogies.
Mod
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 3***s
A cute story about a young Swedish w..."
She was WONDERFUL! I think this was her last stop on the book tour ... she's headed back to Sweden this weekend.
Stars Above by Marissa Meyer
5 stars
I was thrilled when I realized that Ms. Meyer had collected all of these bridge stories into one volume. I had read several of these previously but 5 of these were totally new to me and it was great to revisit these wonderful characters and their interconnected stories. My favorite of them was "Something Old, Something New" just because the time frame is a couple of years after the end of "Winter" and just further sums up the relationships that we saw developing throughout the series. If you're a fan of The Lunar Chronicles, don't miss this...it's a treat. Included is a teaser for the new book Ms. Meyer will release in the fall of 2016...Heartless.
Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 3***s
A cute story about a ..."
I'm so glad you had a good time! One of the books that she talked about in this book was "84, Charing Cross Road" and I'm reading it now. I'm really liking it!! You should look it up :)
Beverly wrote: "Stars Above by Marissa Meyer
5 stars
I was thrilled when I realized that Ms. Meyer had collected all of these bridge stories into one volume. I had read several of..."
It is definitely on my list! Thanks for the review :)
Brian Greene,
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
[2011] 370 pagesThis book focuses on the description of various scientific and philosophical trains of argument which lead to "parallel universes" or a "multiverse". Like Brian Greene's earlier books, The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, it is full of interesting ideas; but I was not as impressed by this one. Where those books each followed out a single line of development wherever it seemed to lead (although for Greene it always seemed to lead to string theory), this book begins with a conclusion and then looks for all the many different possible arguments which might lead to it; and given the nature of the conclusion (the Multiverse) it has the feel of a "gosh-wow" book, concentrating on just those aspects of contemporary physics that seem counter-intuitive or astonishing and leaving out everything else -- I felt at times I was reading a book by Michio Kaku rather than Brian Greene.
The arguments were uneven and did not seem all that convincing. Perhaps it was just that having recently read the more mathematical books by Penrose and Susskind I am more critical or at least less accepting of the simple analogies; but I just didn't think they "worked" as well as in the earlier books. For instance, he argues in the first chapter that if the universe is infinite and there are finitely many possible patterns of particles, each and every pattern must repeat exactly infinitely many times -- infinitely many Earths and infinitely many Brian Greenes writing infinitely many books . . . He uses the example of Imelda's shoes and outfits. (The reader under fifty may not get the allusion.) Eventually, if the number of outfits is finite, in infinite time (or infinite space) Imelda has to repeat her outfits. But it may as well be that she keeps wearing the last outfit, or chooses her outfits among the ones that had the most impact the first time she wore them, and avoids the horrible combination she vowed never to wear again. (One could imagine physical equivalents.) So the analogy doesn't prove that any combination must repeat infinitely many times, or even once. (Whatever may be the case with the particles.) The second analogy, with decks of cards, is based on an example where the probabilities are all equal, which begs the question. There are just too many cases like this throughout the book, where he may be right but his analogies don't support the conclusion.
It may also be that while in the earlier books, he begins with accepted theories like quantum mechanics and general relativity and works up to the more speculative ideas like string theory, here he starts with speculative ideas from the beginning and ends up with more speculative metaphysics than physics. (Having majored in philosophy, I have no problem with a philosophical discussion of metaphysics, but physics and metaphysics are two different things, and if one wants to cross the boundaries, one needs to take into account the current technical arguments from both fields, not just combine modern advanced physics with Plato or a first year philosophy class.)
The biggest problem, though, was that there just didn't seem to be all that much new here, except for the chapter on how string theory might be related to the cosmological constant (and even then, the cosmological constant just seems to replace other constants from earlier arguments.) If you've read his earlier books, and a few other recent popular books (Susskind's The Black Hole War and The Cosmic Landscape or Carroll's From Eternity to Here for example) there's no real reason to read this one. On the other hand, if this is the first book you've read on the subject you probably wouldn't follow it.
[For this month's challenge -- weather word in title]N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain [1969] 89 pages
Momaday is a Kiowa author, perhaps best known for his novel House Made of Dawn, which is on my list to read. The present small book consists of 24 short chapters, sandwiched between opening poem and introduction, epilogue and concluding poem. Each chapter has a one page selection from Kiowa myth or legend, a paragraph or two of history, and a short reminiscence from the author's life, and most also have an illustration drawn by his father in the style of Kiowa art. Essentially, it is a series of meditations on Kiowa life as the author travels to his grandmother's grave on Rainy Mountain.
The book has the feel of a book of poetry, with a style relying on images to convey the rise, glorious period, and destruction of Kiowa culture from the 1740's when they migrated from the Northern mountains to the Southern Plains, where they were dominant in alliance with the Comanche, until the 1870's when their culture was essentially destroyed along with the buffalo herds it was based on.
Stanislaw Lem,
The Chain of Chance
[1975] 189 pagesAnother good novel by Stanislaw Lem; as with his earlier novel The Investigation this is more a mystery than science fiction, and basically set in the present although there has been an expedition to Mars (which plays no real role in the plot). A former astronaut-turned-detective investigates the mysterious deaths of a number of tourists at a spa in Naples -- murder or coincidence? Unlike many of his other novels, this one actually reveals the answer.
Alligator Candy
3 stars
In the suburbs of Florida the unthinkable happen, a young boy was murdered on his way home from the convenience store in 1973. Author David Kushner is the younger brother of Jon, the boy who was murdered. This heartbreaking story gives you the views of what happening in the mind of David, a then 4 year and what he found when he wanted answers and did some research. Not a easy read due to the subject. Writing is good but found it unengaging. It was like hearing a monotone voice while reading. Nothing about what happen to the two men who killed Jon other than the fact they were caught a few other details. This could have been done because the Author wanted to focus on the the people effected by the murder and not the murders, not sure of his motive. I would have liked to know more of what happen to them, would have given closer to the story.
Mod
I'm so glad you had a good time! One of the books that she talked about in this book was "84, Charing Cross Road" and I'm reading it now. I'm really ..."
She mentioned 84, Charing Cross Road in her talk. It's been on my tbr for ages ... since I saw the movie sometime in the late 1980s.
Mod
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark – 4**** Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher at conservative girls’ school in 1930s Edinburgh, Scotland. Rather than follow the school curriculum, Miss Brodie prefers to inspire “her girls” with stories of her trips abroad, favorable remarks about Mussolini, comments about sex, and field trips. She is, after all, “in her prime,” and she wants to instill in them passion, independence and ambition. I’ve had this on my tbr since the movie came out in 1969. I have to wonder what my reaction would have been had I read it back then. Nadia May does a fine job performing the audio version. She has good pacing and is able to differentiate the characters, though Spark’s non-linear style is more difficult in audio than on the page.
Full Review HERE
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 3***sThis book is very difficult to describe. It is written in 1962 about teenage boys who do brutal, cruel things to people and think nothing of it -- until they get caught. Alex, the narrator, is put into prison and stays for two years. At that point, he is offered the choice to go through treatments (brainwashing) to make him "good." He'll be out of prison within two weeks and never have to go back because he'll want to be "good." And, of course, he is willing to sign anything that says he'll get out of prison. But there is discussion, and questions by some of the characters: Is it right to take away a person's right to be good or bad? What if we all only had the choice of being "good" -- especially if the government is deciding what is "good" and "bad." I don't want to tell the ending so I'll quit there.
My Thoughts: I didn't know anything about this book when I started it. I only got a little way through it and thought I was going to hate it. It has some brutal violence (home break-ins, rape, etc.). But I think some of that is needed to show how bad the boys were, and to show why it would be so much better if "badness" like that didn't exist. In the end, it really made me think, and I'll have to say that I'm really glad I read it, even though I probably wouldn't actually recommend it -- it was a very interesting read!
I would almost have given it four stars, however, it is told with a very strange vocabulary -- there are different words for almost everything (see, hear, crazy, hands, face, etc.). You have to figure out what all the words mean, but you can still tell what's going on. It made it kind of confusing, though I found that it kind of protected me from the brutal violence in some of the scenes.
Terris wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 3***..."
84, Charing Cross Road is my all time favorite and the movie was great also
Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "I'm so glad you had a good time! One of the books that she talked about in this book was "84, Chari..."
I can get is through my library -- I'm ordering it now! :)
Linda C wrote: "Terris wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Terris wrote: "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katari..."
I can't wait to see it!
During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase
3 stars
Not at all what I thought I was going to read when this book was announced at my book club. This is a story about the women of a family told by the 4 young cousins who spend their summers with their grandmother, mothers and aunts on a farm in Ohio. Life has its ups and downs and the girls coast along with them; gossiping, playing, dreaming and watching their elders and observing how their role models handle things. This is not a page turner full of adventure but it is certainly a study of a close family of women, who are sometimes at odds with each other but always there for support, love and encouragement through thick and thin.
Mod
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson – 3***
The Hunt sisters couldn’t be more different. Olivia is a Hollywood producer; Maddies is happily married to her high-school sweetheart and still lives in the small town where they grew up. The novel is comprised of a series of letters, emails, faxes, and telegrams from Olivia to her sister, parents, brother, best friend, ex-boyfriend, and a variety of professionals. I was pretty irritated with Olivia through much of the first half of the novel, but over time I began to admire her spirit, her tireless efforts to rekindle her career, to try to set things right with her friends, parents, siblings, ex-boyfriend, colleagues, etc.
Full Review HERE
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4 stars
(Original review--really short and then my update):
I really enjoyed this short story although once I started reading it, I'm sure that I've read it before. But rereading has refreshed my memory and I'm glad that I did.
ADDENDUM:
This short read was selected for our Random Selection book read this month in 1001. It's such a short story but so complex that I decided to read it once again. It's amazing to me how little I remember of this horrifying tale of a woman who is slowly losing her grip on reality during a 3 week vacation. I really should try something else by this author.
Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
4 stars
I have had this book on my TBR list forever, but I am really glad that I waited till now to read it. Last month I read Richard III. Then I listened to the full cast audio and then went to see the production at one of our local collages. If all of that hadn't happened last month, I don't think I would have enjoyed this book nearly as much. The only problem is now I'm not sure that I think he was quite the monster that I was sure he was last month! I can't say that I fully understood all of the ins and outs of this particular historical time frame. With all the court intrigue, interrelated blood lines and what Alan Grant (who is a Scotland Yard investigator and the books protagonist) calls "Tonypandy" (which describes widely-believed historical myths), it is really difficult to keep everyone and every occasion straight--but I have to admit that I enjoyed the ride. The whole story begins when Grant is hospitalized with a broken leg. General boredom causes him to start thinking about Richard III's historical significance after a friend brings him a number of photos of people's faces and Richard's is among them. He enlists the help of a young research assistant to try and find out whether or Richard III was the horrible monster that history has made him out to be. A very enjoyable read.
Beverly wrote: "The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4 stars
(Original review--really short and then my update):
I really enjoyed this short story although onc..."
You might try "Herland." It's pretty interesting :)
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, 4***s
The true story of Helene Hanff, a New Yorker, writing letters to order books from Frank Doel in a London bookshop from 1949 to 1969. The letters express how Frank, his wife, and several of the shop employees become good friends with Helene but never meet. It is a sweet and humorous tale of people who, though separated by long distances and expanses of time, become so close. I really enjoyed it and am now reading the sequel The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street where Helene eventually gets to go to London in 1971 and meet a few of the people. But she and Frank never meet.
In the movie Helene is played by Anne Bancroft and Frank is played by Anthony Hopkins. I can't wait to see it!!
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, 4****s
This is a book of short stories written by an Indian author about Indian people and their experiences. Some are set in India and some are set in America and detail some of the situations these people are going through. This is the third book that I've read by this author, and I'll have to say that I'm impressed every time. Her writing style is so smooth and makes me feel so good, even if the stories aren't particularly happy. I'm definitely going to read more of her books.
Terris wrote: "Beverly wrote: "The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4 stars
(Original review--really short and then my update):
I really enjoyed this short st..."
Thanks Terri--I'll give that a try! :)
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helen Hanff, 4****s
This is the sequel to "84, Charing Cross Road" by the same author. It is the telling of Helene's trip to London after writing "84...", really a journal of the trip. Fun, interesting, and a nice conclusion to the whole story. I felt like I'd been to London with her!
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
4 stars
This was a very enjoyable read, in spite of some of the story line. The compelling story of a young Ojibwe boy who lives on a reservation in North Dakota. After his mother is viciously attacked, his family life becomes so different from what it was. As a young man who is so close to manhood, he seeks revenge for her and tries to understand why people do the things they do. Along the way, the reader is treated to American Indian folklore and culture. Part mystery, part coming of age, part family dynamics...it is definitely an intense read.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, 4****s
The story of a high school girl trying to overcome a tragedy that happened to her at the onset of her freshman year -- something that she didn't tell anyone about, not even her parents. This book encourages her and others (especially teenagers) not to suffer silently, but to "Speak" if something like this happens to them. A very good Young Adult novel that I would recommend to others.
That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
4 stars
This is my second read so here is my original review and the small addendum:
A lovely book that basically reflects country life in Ireland in the 1980's. There is very little plot but the characters are interesting. The story just gently rolls from season to season and from happening to happening. The general feeling toward the end of the book is that progress is coming and this simple life is in danger of disappearing. There is a lot going on within these pages: marriages, deaths of neighbors and of livestock, divorce, friends and neighbors but it is all entwined with some wonderful descriptions of the Irish countryside. I really enjoyed the details provided that talked about taking the sheep and cattle to the slaughterhouse--not that I like thinking about that but the process was interesting. Reading about preparing a body for a wake--when there are no morticians--was also something I found fascinating--and explained the title of the book.
ADDENDUM: I will stand by my original review but I enjoyed this read much more this time around.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) - C. S. Lewis (4 stars) 5/29/16
Finally got around to reading this classic. Fantasy tale of 4 children sent out of London during the Blitz of 1941 to the home of an old professor. While there first Lucy, then Lucy and Edmund and finally all four children go through the magic wardrobe into the land of Narnia. There they battle evil in the form of the White Witch with the aid of the forest creatures and the lion, Asland, to bring peace to the land. The story has lots of adventures and a happy ending leaving the way open for more adventures in future books. There are analogies to Asland as Jesus and the workings of Christianity, but the story can be enjoyed without analyzing its religious connotations.
Mod
Brown Bottle by Sheldon Lee Compton – 2.5** Compton writes a gritty, no-holds-barred tale of a man struggling to do what is right. Best known for his short stories, this is Compton’s first full-length novel. His ability with the short-story format shows. There are several vignettes that would make great short stories, but he fails to adequately weave them together.
Full Review HERE
Mod
Dead Wake by Eric Larson – 4**** The subtitle is all the synopsis you need: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Larson uses tidbits found in research materials from a variety of sources to flesh out a narrative tale of a great disaster. Larson shifts perspective from the Lusitania, to the German submarine U-20, to Room 40 (the British Intelligence headquarters). It’s a compelling story, which completely captured my interest despite my knowing how it would turn out. Scott Brick does a good job reading the audiobook. His delivery is rather dry, but this is fine for a work of nonfiction.
Full Review HERE
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff, 4****s
This is Tobias Wolff's memoir of his early years of life up through the end of high school. It is a very honest telling of a young boy growing up in a troubled family and trying to find himself during his teenage years. I enjoyed it very much.
I was sure I posted this one yesterday but I don't see it here --W. W. Rouse Ball, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics [repr. of 4th ed., 1908] 522 pages
I like to approach subjects from a historical viewpoint, and since I'm currently trying to improve my knowledge of mathematics, I decided to read some books on the history of mathematics. This was the first, and probably not a great choice. The Dover reprint of the 1908 edition (and with some footnotes obviously added later), it is as the author says in the preface essentially the same as the 2nd edition of 1893 except for some corrections of errors. This has a number of problems; first and most obviously it doesn't cover any recent developments, but the scope is even less than I expected. There is virtually no coverage of pre-Greek mathematics except for a mention of the Rhind papyrus (not much was known then, I suppose), there is no discussion of non-Western mathematics apart from the Hindu mathematicians (the author denies that any "race" other than the "Aryan" and "Semitic" has any real mathematics; other groups are called "tribes"; he says that the Hindus made progress in mathematics for a short time while they kept their "Aryan blood pure" but then "degenerated"), and the nineteenth century is basically represented by a list of names and what areas they worked on, with little or nothing about the actual developments. Even where the coverage of the later mathematics is a bit fuller, the choice of what to include and what to omit seems rather strange from a modern perspective, perhaps because the things I expected to see covered only became important in hindsight because they were used in twentieth century physics. There was also a problem with the terminology; it took me a while to catch on that "differential quotients" were just derivatives, and probably there were other things mentioned that I didn't recognize just because I know them by a more recent name. The book does give a fairly accurate and understandable account of European mathematics from Pythagoras to roughly Gauss, and the material on the Renaissance mathematicians was interesting and mainly new to me; but not a book I would recommend. I'll be looking at the books by Bell and Smith (also old, but at least twentieth century) and some on more specific topics, side by side with my reading in the actual math.
Stanislaw Lem,
Highcastle: A Reminiscence
[1966] 102 pagesA short memoir by Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, whose novels I have been reading recently. It was not what I expected, an autobiography about the period when he was writing his novels, but rather about his childhood, ending with his graduation from high school in 1939, on the eve of the German invasion. The memories are sometimes humorous, and very frank -- Lem as he represents himself was a spoiled and destructive child, or as he puts it "a monster". However, the book also has very insightful comments on memory, on schooling, and on the nature of art. Many of the themes of his novels appear in his childhood activities; in reading about his "authorities" I couldn't help but think of Memoirs found in a bathtub.
The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George (3 stars) 5/31/16
Jean Perdu owns a bookshop housed on a barge in Paris. He refers to himself as a 'literary apothecary', prescribing the perfect book for the hardships life has dealt out. When a grieving divorcee moves in across the hall from his apartment, he donates a table and chair and a book. She, Catherine, finds an unopened letter in the table and returns it to Jean. When he reads the letter from a woman who left him 21 years prior he determines to float down to where she went and spend the time adjusting to her loss for a one final time so as to get on with his life and explore his feelings for Catherine. A young man with a one novel success and writer's block determines to accompany him and along the way they meet up with a chef also looking for a lost love and joins them.
There is a side plot involving an anonymous book that Jean is trying to determine the writer of. During the trip we learn a lot about Jean's relationship with Manon the lost love. The premise was intriguing but I did not warm up to the characters, particularly the mysterious Manon.
The Ghosts of HeavenGhosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
4 stars
This was really an amazing read. The book consists of 4 interrelated stories that the author states you may read in any order. I chose to read the book straight through and so the time line was linear. In my opinion, this is the best way to experience the book. There is a story about a young girl from prehistoric times who is one of only a small number of her tribesmen who has learned to make symbolic drawings with a stick. Next we have another young woman whose mother was cunning. When her mother passes, she attempts to take up her healing craft but the cries of "witch" are soon heard. The third story deals with a doctor who takes a post at a hospital for the mentally ill but finds an incredibly intelligent patient whose real problem is confronting a spiral staircase. And finally, an astronaut, who along with 500 plus sleeping companions, is headed for a new home but discovers that his ship may be haunted. Throughout the entire book, spirals are everywhere. I really enjoyed the way the author was able to interconnect these radically different stories.
Paging All Bookworms!
Books mentioned in this topic
The Ghosts of Heaven (other topics)The Little Paris Bookshop (other topics)
This Boy's Life (other topics)
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (other topics)
Brown Bottle (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Muriel Spark (other topics)John Grisham (other topics)
Elisabeth Robinson (other topics)
Dorothy Gilman (other topics)
Dave Eggers (other topics)
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Edited: 3.5 stars due to my disappointment in the final chapters and the ending.