Book Reviews

Takeaway: Even introductions can be difficult

I am fascinated by physics. I don’t understand physics, but I am fascinated by it.  So I tend to pick up at least one introduction to physics book a year and I tend to ultimately realize that I am not designed for high level physics.

Fear of Physics is a well reviewed introduction used in a number of college settings. I listened to the audiobook that I picked up on sale. I am not sure that audiobook was the best format for this book. There was nothing wrong with the narrator, but the content occasionally would have been better in print instead of audio.

The two chapters I enjoyed most (and I think I understood most) were about how physicists understand math differently than mathematicians and how physicists ‘creatively plagiarize’ previous work until it becomes something new. The math chapters basically help describe how physics has understood very large and very small numbers and used approximation as a tentative placeholder until better measurement technology becomes available. Some of the insights into math surprised me as basic math place value discussions that are now taught in early common core math. (This book was originally written in 1993 and updated in 2007).

Read more

Perhaps it depends on the topic and the artist depicting it, but I’ve become convinced that the graphic novel as a medium for narrating history–at a high level, at least–is a large well of untapped potential. Jonathan Hennessey’s contributions in this vein are simply fantastic, and although I give this third entry one fewer star than the others, it’s only because the first two (on the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address, respectively) are top-notch and hard to beat.
The Comic Book Story of Beer starts with pre-historic man and the fermented drinks they consumed, and then touches on the many ways beer has been a sidekick to most of world history. Long before science came along to articulate what was actually happening with the drying of grain, the fermenting process, the discovery of yeast, and more, people interacted with beer in ways varying from mysticism and superstition to economic exploitation. Along the way, as the book covers the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and European peoples, we get “profiles” of different styles of brew: Lambic, Trappist Dubbel, Bock, Porter, India Pale Ale, Pilsner, American L ager, American Pale Ale, and Belgian Wit. The reader will learn about international bitter units (IBUs) and other qualitative measurements of beer that have only been developed in the twentieth century.

Read more

Summary: Comedy about an alien race that contacts a Hollywood agent about introducing them to the planet earth.

This was a book I picked up on a whim. I was a bit burned out on my non-fiction books. And I needed to buy four audiobooks at once to get a $10 coupon from Audible. So Agent to the Stars ended up as one of the picks.

Reading the description (The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity’s first interstellar friendship. There’s just one problem: They’re hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish) reminded me of a Christopher Buckley novel. I love Christopher Buckley’s novels. They are funny, sharply political (against all sides) and almost always pull me out of reading funks. So I picked this up.

John Scalzi is just as funny as Buckley, but instead of the political subtext, this books uses a science fiction/entertainment subtext. You do not need to love science fiction to love this book, but it might help.

Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher of Star Trek fame and recently regular cameo on Big Bang Theory), does an excellent job narrating. After listening to Wheaton narrate Ready Player One, he is becoming one of my favorite audiobook narrators.

Read more

The Legend of Sam Miracle is an exciting and intense story. I read this to my 8 year old, and he loved it. I’m not sure he fully understood all of the concepts–the plot involves multiple deaths of the mean characters across many different timelines, including the ability of the main villain to slow down time and avoid injury during attacks–but it’s a non-stop thrill ride of excitement.

The creative storyline is fresh and imaginative: after getting shot up, Sam Miracle wakes up to find snakes grafted into his arms–the only way to save them from being amputated. One snake wants to kill everything it sees, so Sam must be wary on when he chooses to wield his pistol, while the snake in the other hand is sort of a goofball who will always hit what he’s aiming at but refuses to shoot to kill.

Read more

Summary: The American Revolutionary War won freedom from Britain. It took another six years to create 13 separate states into a single country.

Since I have been all things Alexander Hamilton lately, a friend suggested that I read The Quartet. Joseph Ellis has written well reviewed biographies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams and several other books about the revolutionary period.

The Quartet particularly focuses on the movement from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution. After winning freedom from Britain, there was little desire for another national government. The Articles of Confederation were an intentionally weak (and ultimately failed) attempt to partner together as states without really becoming a single country. As Ellis suggests several times, the initial understanding of the Confederation was more similar to the European Union than a single country.

Read more

No longer free – Sorry

Audible is giving away a free audio drama of The Oedipus Plays. This is a pre-order with a release date of June 14th. It may still be free after the release and/or this may be the free audiobook of the month from Audible.

Description:

The three Theban plays by Sophocles – Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone – are one of the great landmarks of Western theatre. They tell the story of Oedipus, King of Thebes, who was destined to suffer a terrible fate – to kill his father, marry his mother, and beget children of the incestuous union. He does this unknowingly but still has to suffer terrible consequences, which also tragically affect the next generation.

These three plays were written around 450 BC, with the playwright following the established convention of presenting the story through main characters but using a chorus – sometimes one voice, sometimes more – as an independent commentator that also occasionally participates in the drama. When the audiences of ancient Athens went to the amphitheatres to see the plays, they would have known the basic story of poor Oedipus.

Read more

Summary: Short profiles of 13 theologians from the 20th century.

Last year Fortress Press had a sale and I picked up several books. I started reading the Fortress Introduction to Contemporary Theologies almost immediately. But because it is a book that profiles different theologians and does not need to be read all together (or in order), I have spent more than 6 months dabbling in it. It was originally published in 1998, so it is not a new book, but I do not think it is a dated book either.

Read more

Summary: A missionary to aliens has marriage problems.

The concept of The Book of Strange New Things is so simple that it really did not catch my attention when I first heard about it. But it was recommended several times by different people and when it was on sale I decided to pick it up. (Vikki Huisman reviewed it for Bookwi.se when it first came out.)

The story is simple, Peter, pastor with a history of drug abuse and alcoholism prior to becoming a Christian is hired to go to the planet Oasis to minister to the aliens there. A lot has been made of this being a genre defying novel, but I did not think that it was widely outside of either Literary Fiction or Science Fiction and fans of both should consider it part of the genre they prefer most.

The main story of the book is really about the marriage of Peter on Oasis and his wife, Bea, back in England. They can communicate, but only via email like plain text. And then, only when he is at the main human complex and not when he is living with the aliens. The physical distance matters. But the experiential difference matters more. For Peter, he is absorbed in his work and the transition from the alien settlement to the human settlement is always a cultural shock. Add to that the increasing desperation of Bea, and Peter emotionally hides.

Read more

Takeaway: Sometimes the best thing we can do in the face of tragedy is continue to face life.

I picked up The Comedians when it was on sale at Audible because it was by Graham Greene and I really liked The End of the Affair. I started reading it because Shusaku Endo was frequently compared to Graham Greene (and Greene’s endorsement of Silence is one of the more famous endorsement lines–“Endo, to my mind, is one of the finest living novelists”).

It was really my desire to understand Endo, more than my enjoyment of the book that kept me listening to the audiobook. The reader was intentionally dry. That matched the content, but did not enhance the listening. The book started and ended well, but there was some meandering in the middle that makes sense in the larger context of the books but I got a bored for a good 100 pages.

It really was not until about 1/3 of the way through the book that Greene references the reason for the title. In a public conversation with a woman that Brown (the main character) is having an affair with, he suggests that they are all really comedians. He is using an older meaning of comedian, the idea that Greek actors held different masks. But also (not mentioned, but I think understood) that Greek Comedies were usually poking fun at the powerful of the age. It is not really satire. But there is some hint of that idea.

The book opens with Brown, Smith and Jones all on a boat headed toward Haiti. Brown owns a hotel in Haiti during the oppressive government of Papa Doc Duvalier. Jones is an unknown, but suspected from fairly early on of being a con man. Smith (and his wife) are from the United States. He was a very minor presidential candidate that is a proponent of vegetarianism as a way of life and a method toward world wide peace.

Read more