Book Reviews


  •   -PD-USGOV, .

    PD-USGOV.

     

    Poetry

    Our Way Forward

    Amanda Gorman read her poem The Hill We Climb at the inauguration of President Biden, providing an aspirational glimpse of our way forward, together.
    "Even as we grieved, we grew, even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired, we tried, that we’ll forever be tied together victorious, not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division."
  • Book review, Title American Harvest, Author Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Rating 5.0,

    American Harvest

    Marie Mutsuki Mockett

    Book review

    Reviews

    Cross the Great Divide

    'Cross the Great Divide, side by side we'll ride,' a line from the Oregon Trail song, articulates this book's theme: Bridging differences in culture and place, particularly that of city and country.

  • Book review, Title The Double Helix: Norton Critical Edition, Author James D. Watson, Gunther Stent, Rating 5.0,

    The Double Helix: Norton Critical Edition

    James D. Watson, Gunther Stent

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    Honest Jim

    Watson's superb account of his and Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the rarest of books: a scientific page-turner, with suspense, strong personalities and a child-like narrator.

  • Book review, Title Darwin On Trial, Author Phillip E. Johnson, Rating 3.0,

    Darwin On Trial

    Phillip E. Johnson

    Book review

    Religion,  Reviews,  Science

    Wide of the Mark

    Johnson's book provides a perspective on creationist thinking and argumentation. It demonstrates that attorneys are trained to advocate, to argue, not to look hard for the best understanding.

  • Book review, Title Gravity, Author George Gamow, Rating 4.5,

    Gravity

    George Gamow

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    Gamow on Gravity

    Those genuinely curious about the intellectual story of gravity will find Gamow a superb teacher, one adept at explaining physics to the uninitiated,and to the newly initiated, high school and college students, most effectively to an audience comfortable with algebra and geometry.

  • Book review, Title Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, Author Brenda Maddox, Rating 4.5,

    Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA

    Brenda Maddox

    Book review

    History,  Reviews,  Science

    The Dark Lady of DNA

    Rosalind Franklin made critical contributions to the discovery of DNA's structure, yet was not awarded the Nobel. Why not? Rank villainy? Maddox's masterful recounting lays out the complex tale.

  • Book review, Title From Harvard to Hell And Back, Author Eric H. Sigward, Rating 3.0,

    From Harvard to Hell And Back

    Eric H. Sigward

    Book review

    Reviews

    Augustine redux

    The autobiography of a young phenom of the 60's and 70's who attended Horace Mann, Harvard, where he rowed on the crew and joined the Porcellian Club, then Cambridge, Stanford, and several divinity schools. It is book of hubris and wild youth, of drugs, sex, and the occult, and finally, Jesus.

  • Book review, Title A History of Germany, Author Bayard Taylor, Rating 4.0,

    A History of Germany

    Bayard Taylor

    Book review

    History,  Reviews

    fin de siècle German optimism

    This is the first history of Germany I have read since the mid-1970's. It is nearly a complete history, stopping in 1883, ten years after it's author died. (his wife extended the history 14 more years in a subsequent edition.) An American writer, Bayard Taylor was most well-known for his travel writing, but was also a poet and a historian. His history reads easily, as might be expected from a writer of popular travel accounts, and is reasonably complete.

  • Book review, Title A Brief History Of Time, Author Stephen W. Hawking, Rating 4.5,

    A Brief History Of Time

    Stephen W. Hawking

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    Short and sweet

    A Brief History of Time is the single best popularized science book I have read to date on the subject of modern physics. It has been held that kind of regard since it has been published in 1988, but I resisted reading it, because I had formed the opinion that modern physics, buried so deeply in mathematical models divorced from everyday experience, was simply too difficult to convey to the non-practitioner, that vast group including myself.

  • Book review, Title The Emerald Mile, Author Kevin Fedarko, Rating 4.0,

    The Emerald Mile

    Kevin Fedarko

    Book review

    Reviews

    Sprinting down the Colorado

    This is the epic story of the fastest boat ride in history (at the time) through the heart of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado river. With a gigantic release of water from the Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River was closed. So Kenton Grua evaded park rangers and launched his wooden dory, the Emerald Mile and barely completed his historical run. The story is very well told, and includes a solid history of the formation of the Grand Canyon, and the first efforts to navigate the river by John Wesley Powell.

  • Book review, Title Relativity: A Graphic Guide, Author Bruce Bassett, Rating 3.0,

    Relativity: A Graphic Guide

    Bruce Bassett

    Book review

    Reviews

    Visualizing Relativity

    This book summarizes Einstein's special and general theory of relativity using cartoon drawings to illustrate every concept. It does not shy away from physical formulae, neither does it provide in depth discussion of same.

  • Book review, Title The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction, Author Peter Atkins, Rating 3.0,

    The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction

    Peter Atkins

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    Entropy is so simple

    Peter Atkins, a bona fide chemistry professor, takes a shot at summarizing the Laws of Thermodynamics, particularly the 2nd Law, for the million. He claims that when he is done explaining, you will understand how all change of any kind occurs, why death itself must come, even how the unfolding of the very thoughts you are employing to read his book is a consequence of the 2nd Law. Alas his explanations fall short of such a lofty goal.

  •   -PD-US, .

    PD-US.

     

    Reviews,  Science

    Pandora has many boxes

    The ability to directly and much more easily modify the genome of any living organism, via somatic or germline modification, has become a reality via CRISPR-Cas9 techniques. Chinese scientist He Jiankui recently claimed to have opened yet another of Pandora's seemingly endless set of boxes: Germline gene editing. Jennifer Doudna's recent book A Crack in Creation, a must-read, warns about premature application of CRISPR-Cas9.

  • Book review, Title Inhabited, Author Charlie Quimby, Rating 4.0,

    Inhabited

    Charlie Quimby

    Book review

    Reviews

    Persistent kindness

    Inhabited, Charlie Quimby's follow-up novel to his excellent Monument Road, focuses on life as a homeless person in a small city in western Colorado. This story is both edifying and compelling because he draws sympathetic and realistic characters, not just of those who migrate uncertainly from one temporary abode to another, but of those inhabitants who try to help the homeless and those who oppose such help, which can even be the same person under differing circumstances.

  •   -PBS, .

    PBS.

     

    Reviews

    Celebrating reading

    Reading has been in my own life a regular feature, even an addiction. So much beyond the immediate and the local becomes accessible. Reading has been in some ways for me a trusted companion. Recently the PBS series The Great American Read came to my attention. My wife Cindy and I followed with it with great eagerness.
  • Book review, Title Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Author Joan Didion, Rating 3.0,

    Slouching Towards Bethlehem

    Joan Didion

    Book review

    Reviews

    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun

    Joan Didion's set of personal essays from the mid-60's, an exercise in the emerging New Journalism and most in the first person, are episodically brilliant, but just as often facile and self-indulgent.

  • Book review, Title The Beak Of The Finch, Author Jonathan Weiner, Rating 4.0,

    The Beak Of The Finch

    Jonathan Weiner

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    A Finch in Time

    The Beak of the Finch follows a husband and wife scientific team, Peter and Rosemary Grant, in their studies of Darwin's finches on Daphne Major island in the Galapagos archipelago, looking for evidence of natural selection. They have spent twenty years observing the finch population for direct evidence of natural selection. They concluded from these observations that natural selection is occurring daily.

  • Book review, Title Ordinary Geniuses, Author Gino Segrè, Rating 3.0,

    Ordinary Geniuses

    Gino Segrè

    Book review

    Reviews

    Ordinary Overuse of Genius

    This is a good but not great biography of two lesser-known 20th century scientists, George Gamow and Max Delbrück, both of whom show up in many historical accounts of the history of molecular biology, hence my interest. I was particularly interested in the author's depiction of Delbrück, a Nobel Prize winner late in his life for work done thirty years prior. Delbrück, who is routinely depicted as a great thought leader and a fiercely intelligent scientist, is elusive in other historical accounts, begging the question: What did he contribute, and why was his input so prized?

  • Book review, Title What Men Live By, Author Leo Tolstoy, Rating 4.0,

    What Men Live By

    Leo Tolstoy

    Book review

    Reviews

    The Heart of Tolstoy

    Tolstoy remains one of my favorite writers. His War and Peace and Anna Karenina were reading investments that still pay dividends. These four short stories, in particular What Men Live By, represent some aspects of Tolstoy's later turn to a simpler and more universal religious outlook, when he eschewed organized religion, and embraced a code based on Christ's teaching alone, centering on the Golden Rule and the Sermon on the Mount.

  • Book review, Title Mink River , Author Brian Doyle, Rating 4.5,

    Mink River

    Brian Doyle

    Book review

    Reviews

    The Department of Public Works

    The Department of Public Works in the coastal village of Neawanaka on the Mink River, besides performing the ordinary public works of cleaning streets and repairing sidewalks, slowly expands over time to 'preserve history, collect stories, repair marriages, prevent crime, augment economic status, promote chess, manage insect populations, run sports leagues, isn't that a bit much? We even give haircuts.' ( page 15) Worried Man and Cedar are its two aging employees, idealists who doggedly work to carry out their mission statement: 'Brains against Pains.' ( page 45)

  • Book review, Title The Hunters: A Novel, Author James Salter, Rating 4.0,

    The Hunters: A Novel

    James Salter

    Book review

    Reviews

    The lonely warrior

    Salter, a former fighter pilot, writes directly from experience in this novel of U.S. fighter pilots in the Korean War. He draws an internal picture of the psychology of the single combat warrior, and it feels genuine. His portrayal of heroism in the cloistered world of aerial combat does not always translate into obvious laudable accomplishment.

  • Book review, Title The English And Their History, Author Tombs Robert, Rating 4.0,

    The English And Their History

    Tombs Robert

    Book review

    Reviews

    Ever England

    My initial interest in this book was to read a good summary of the history of the English Civil War, from James I to William and Mary. I found Tombs' account to be brisk, clear and reasonably complete, which propelled me to continue reading. I particularly enjoyed his judicious mix of historiographical review while attempting to pick that elusive clean line in historical narrative. The book proved to be an reasonably short yet comprehensive account of England's history.

  • Book review, Title Monument Road, Author Charlie Quimby, Rating 4.5,

    Monument Road

    Charlie Quimby

    Book review

    Reviews

    Laconic Love

    It was a pleasure to soak in the deep water that is this novel. Charlie Quimby brought back alive a world I have had only episodic contact with in my life: small towns in the far country, where as a teenager, I spent successive summers, first in a small ranching and farming town in central Oregon, second in an oil and fishing town on the Kenai peninsula in Alaska. It was not as much the characters in this novel, but their sensibility, their rhythms of speech and actions that were recognizable from my past forays beyond the city. After the pleasure of remembrance past is the pleasure of a deceptively simple love story.

  • Book review, Title Perfect Rigor, Author Masha Gessen, Rating 3.5,

    Perfect Rigor

    Masha Gessen

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    Too simply pure

    The Poincaré conjecture, one of the great unsolved topological problems, was finally proven at the end of the 20th century by Grigoriy Perelman, a Russian mathematician of genius. Topology might be described as distilled geometry. The historian Masha Gessen, who grew up herself in the Russian mathematical culture, invites us into the Aspergian milieu of world-class geometers to tease out the tale.

  • Book review, Title A New History Of Early Christianity, Author Charles Freeman, Rating 3.5,

    A New History Of Early Christianity

    Charles Freeman

    Book review

    Reviews

    The gestation of Christianity

    This is a very readable historical treatment of the early gestation of Christianity. The approach is explicitly historical rather than theological, allowing the author to examine the early documents and archeology in light of the culture and politics of the early Christian writers. In particular the diverse perspectives and the many contradictions found in their writings can make more sense when considering wider historical influences, such as the region the writer came from, the language(s) they spoke and didn't speak, whether they were Jewish or Gentile, their position in society, and so on.

  • Book review, Title Why Evolution Is True, Author Jerry A. Coyne, Rating 3.5,

    Why Evolution Is True

    Jerry A. Coyne

    Book review

    Reviews

    Evolution and Truth

    This book has been hailed by some as a clear-eyed exposition of modern evolutionary biology. I found it strong on the science, and disappointingly weak on the intellectual discipline.

  • Book review, Title The Ministry of Special Cases, Author Nathan Englander, Rating 4.0,

    The Ministry of Special Cases

    Nathan Englander

    Book review

    Reviews

    Kafka comes to Argentina

    In The Ministry of Special Cases Nathan Englander tells a story of the Dirty War of Argentina as if in the guise of Isaac Bashevis Singer. The tale is steeped in irony, told through the eyes of a Jew, Kaddish Pozsnan, even outcast from the Jewish community of Buenos Aires.

  • Book review, Title Shut Up, Legs!, Author Jens Voigt, James D. Startt, Rating 3.0,

    Shut Up, Legs!

    Jens Voigt, James D. Startt

    Book review

    Reviews

    Shut Up, Legs!

    Jens Voigt was a wonderful cyclist to watch in the Tour de France. He was an aggressive rider, willing to attack in breakaways with few odds of success, friendly and available before and after a race. His motto, 'Shut Up, Legs!,' can be appreciated by anyone who rides bicycles long distance, or any endurance athlete for that matter: Muscular pain from exertion must be ignored in the pursuit of endurance feats.

  • Book review, Title The Laws of Medicine, Author Siddhartha Mukherjee, Rating 3.5,

    The Laws of Medicine

    Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Book review

    Reviews,  Science

    Are there Laws of Medicine?

    Modern medicine began embracing scientific methods during the last couple of centuries, and in the past one hundred years this has produced an explosion of medical technologies that have aided physicians in significantly controlling some diseases and in particular, extending lives. Today in developed countries, many tests are available for diagnosis and many drugs are available for possible treatment. So why can't physicians today just run a comprehensive battery of tests for every sick patient and spit out a clear diagnosis, and with that, a clear prognosis and plan for a cure? Siddhartha Mukherjee proffers an answer via his Laws of Medicine.

  • Book review, Title Along the Way, Author Britt Towery, Rating 4.0,

    Along the Way

    Britt Towery

    Book review

    Reviews

    Along the Way with Britt Towery

    Britt Towery is a very American thinker, who's opinion columns from a West Texas newspaper are collected here. I warmed quickly to his direct and sometimes folksy Texas style. He holds strong opinions on many subjects, but has a particular emphasis regarding the importance of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which safeguards our freedom of speech and religion.

  • Book review, Title The Naturalist, Author Andrew Mayne, Rating 2.0,

    The Naturalist

    Andrew Mayne

    Book review

    Reviews

    The Naturalist

    The concept of this book was intriguing to me: a scientist, a practicing field biologist, applies his knowledge of biology and physics, and uses his analytical training to solve crimes. This worked quite well in the clever application of some of the science, and the author showed some wit in his observations. However, the overall plot went from unlikely, the usual for a suspense story, to ludicrous. What a real disappointment.

  • Book review, Title The Martian, Author Andy Weir, Rating 4.0,

    The Martian

    Andy Weir

    Book review

    Reviews

    Marooned on Mars

    This 21st century Robinson Crusoe tale works because the lone marooned astronaut's effort at survival on Mars is framed around the question: how would a dogged, highly knowledgeable engineer solve the existential crises that cropped up and live yet another day?

  • Book review, Title Spandau: The Secret Diaries, Author Albert Speer, Rating 4.0,

    Spandau: The Secret Diaries

    Albert Speer

    Book review

    History,  Reviews

    The smartest Nazi

    Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect and Reich Armaments Minister, kept a diary while he was in Spandau prison following his conviction at the post-war Nuremburg trials. These diaries provide a fascinating, hooded glimpse of the 'smartest man' in the Nazi leadership. At least, smart enough to evade the death penalty at the Nuremberg Trials.

  • Book review, Title In the Woods, Author Tana French, Rating 3.5,

    In the Woods

    Tana French

    Book review

    Reviews

    Stuck at twelve

    Rather than mainly a rational whodunit, Tana French's In the Woods is a psychological drama, an intricate set of well-executed character studies embedded in the story of a police investigation into a child murder.

  •   -PD-US, Le Louvre.

    Attrib: Le Louvre, PD-US.

     

    History,  Reviews

    Napoleon

    Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts. My early view of Napoleon was as a cartoon figure: A megalomaniac who tried to take over the world. I recall looking down at Napoleon's tomb in Paris in the company of my brother Craig, the two of us mocking his immense sarcophagus and elaborate surroundings, wondering aloud why the French would semi-deify such a bloody tyrant. The typical American republican conceits aside, we were woefully uninformed about much of the life of Napoleon.