tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211860452012-02-11T13:19:02.205-05:00Reviews of books as I read them. This is basically a (web)log of books I've read.Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.comBlogger2671100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-11506095341842235892012-02-11T13:17:00.000-05:002012-02-11T13:17:06.070-05:00

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History is a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman detailing his mother's and father's experiences as Jews in Poland during World War II. The story is told to him by his father during Art's visits to his father's and stepmother's house. The conversation between Art and his father Vladek is more than a framing narrative. Art wants to learn his father's history

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-88962569087756743412012-01-15T17:11:00.000-05:002012-01-15T17:11:32.054-05:00

I've had a copy of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on my shelf for years waiting for me to read it. With the release of the movie version I decided that I should read the book before going to see the movie. The story was published in 1974 and is a classic Cold War spy novel. But it is not like a 007 novel (I haven't read any Ian Fleming but I'm very familiar with the movies).

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-74902005289702549502012-01-14T16:04:00.002-05:002012-01-14T16:04:52.786-05:00

42 books. That's how many I read in 2011, including audiobooks and lecture series. A pretty good year. I was reading during my lunch break for a while during the year but my schedule changed so I usually went swimming instead. I found myself reading less as the year went on and I got occupied doing different things. My favorite books of the year: The Skinner; C; Freedom; The Thousand

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-54699050483284537892012-01-10T22:48:00.000-05:002012-01-10T22:48:08.925-05:00

Christopher Hitchens passed away on December 15, 2011, leaving behind a large set of writings. He published books such as God is Not Great and Why Orwell Matters. He wrote for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Slate. His journalism took him to dozens of countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Cyprus, and Lebanon. In 2008 he went so far as to allow himself to be waterboarded so he could write an

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-42823615475164261792012-01-03T21:19:00.001-05:002012-01-03T21:19:47.526-05:00

The Best American Comics 2011 is a compendium of comics from the previous year, edited by Alison Bechdel. There's a variety of content and genres here, from philosophical to fantasy to memoir to meta. Some pieces are complete sections and some are as short as a page. The really short ones are hard to digest, and I couldn't get a good sense from just one or two pages. The best piece is "Nov. 3

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-12693314148913973272011-12-15T23:15:00.003-05:002011-12-15T23:50:54.564-05:00

The Alchemist is a novella by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. The story is a parable about a shepherd boy in Spain who encounters an old man claiming to be a king. The old man gives him two magic stones and encourages him to pursue his dream: to find great treasure near the pyramids in Egypt. The important message the boy receives is, "when you want something, all the universe conspires in

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-59791586780879828662011-12-05T21:47:00.001-05:002011-12-05T22:50:30.399-05:00

Dancing with Bears is a crazy fun novel by Michael Swanwick featuring his roguish characters Darger and Surplus. Darger is an English gentleman, and Surplus is an American dog genetically modified to talk and behave like a human. Together they hatch improbable schemes that have a habit of going very awry. In this story, the two are traveling with the Byzantine ambassador to Muscovy in a

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-55197895517846448962011-12-04T23:30:00.000-05:002011-12-04T23:34:32.672-05:00

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a multi-layered novel mixing philosophy and a good story. At the core is the story of a man and a woman as they fall in love, get married, and go through life's troubles. Kundera moves easily from the specific to the general, expanding the characters' situations to the human condition. The central story is about Tomas, a doctor in Prague,

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com1Lawrenceville, GA 30044, USA33.9327331 -84.069596133.8800356 -84.1485601 33.9854306 -83.9906321tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-47992987387473210522011-11-25T12:11:00.001-05:002011-11-25T15:18:55.195-05:00

Stone of Tears is the sequel to Wizard's First Rule. It is the second book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The book begins where the first book ends. Richard Rahl, the wizard Zedd, and Kahlan are in the People's Palace, having defeated Darken Rahl. Yet they are not able to rest because they are soon attacked by an evil creature called a skrin, a powerful creature from the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-63003461961088772912011-11-21T21:33:00.001-05:002011-11-25T12:10:23.983-05:00

Michael Lewis's latest book is called Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. Here he discusses his travels to Europe to understand the aftermath of the financial meltdowns in several countries. Each country had a different path to downfall and thus provides a different window into modern financial pitfalls. He starts with Iceland, the scene of a spectacular economic collapse in 2008.

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-88986888560113626322011-11-12T18:57:00.001-05:002011-11-20T22:01:17.914-05:00

I finally got around to listening to the audiobook of Ian McEwan's Atonement. The story begins in 1935 England, at the Tallis estate. Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old girl who is imaginative and outgoing, though a bit naive. Her sister Cecilia is five years older and has been away at Cambridge for the year. Their friend Robbie Turner is the son of their servant, and their father has supported

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-55743708055282379392011-10-23T16:41:00.000-04:002011-10-23T16:41:40.513-04:00

Home Fires is the latest science fiction novel by Gene Wolfe. It is the story of Skip and Chelle, a couple who have been separated while Chelle was deployed to a distant war. The months that Chelle as been away has been years for Skip, so he is an middle aged man while she is still a young woman. He has been working hard to build a law practice; she has been fighting and comes back changed,

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-80103270853580886532011-10-02T23:05:00.002-04:002011-10-02T23:06:06.609-04:00

Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story is a romance set in a dystopian near future. Lenny Abramov is a nearly forty year old salesman for life extension services, which promises immortality to to High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI's). Yet he has little luck in Italy, except that he meets Eunice Park, a second generation Korean American in her mid twenties. She finds him endearing, despite

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-17240392531107723992011-09-24T20:38:00.000-04:002011-09-24T20:38:06.779-04:00

Soldier of Sidon is the third novel by Gene Wolfe about Latro, an ancient warrior who loses his memory when he sleeps. Latro writes in his scrolls every day and reads when he wakes so that he can learn about his history. He is from Sidon, but is with a friend in Egypt searching for a way to regain his memory. This narrative technique provides for a curious sort of irony, where the reader's

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-67762217032926256622011-09-12T19:00:00.000-04:002011-09-12T19:00:02.569-04:00

21 is the final, unfinished novel in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin naval series. The book itself is only a few chapters long and deals with Captain Aubrey's arrival at the east coast of South America to assume command of his flotilla. The story ends abruptly while Aubrey is reuniting with his family. There's no good sense of where the story was heading, so I will comment on the series as a

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-6567832055848549472011-09-10T18:15:00.003-04:002011-09-11T15:40:11.325-04:00

Iain M. Banks has created an advanced galactic society in his Culture novels. The latest in the series is Surface Detail, and it deals with a fascinating concept as well as exciting action. In the Culture, death is merely an inconvenience. There is technology to transfer one's consciousness into machinery where one can interact in any conceivable virtual world. Consciousness can even be

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-72065968113746487862011-08-30T21:56:00.003-04:002011-08-30T22:37:59.961-04:00

I have been a fan of the works of David Sedaris for a while so I looked forward to getting the audiobook of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. However, I was disappointed. The stories are not up to his usual quality. To say that the tone is dark does not grasp the full quality. Some of the stories amount to little more than extended puns, a build up to a corny joke. Most of the characters, though they

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-3610412453381675782011-08-20T21:51:00.001-04:002011-08-21T22:07:24.294-04:00

The Time Traveler's Wife is a fantasy novel by Audrey Niffenegger in which the main character has a genetic condition that forces him to randomly pop back and forth in time. Only his body travels, leaving Henry De Tamble at the mercy of the elements and other people. But the time traveling is just a device to provide conflict in the relationship between Heny and his wife Clare, and suggest a

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-22890134919526570622011-08-14T17:38:00.002-04:002011-08-14T18:32:07.377-04:00

Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl is set in a dystopian future where genetic engineers are constantly fighting to create foods resistant to diseases that have contaminated the food supply. The Thai refer to the Western peddlars of the latest gene-spliced disease-resistant products as the calorie men, a reference to what is the critical resource in civilization. It is a post-carbon world, where

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-14789958441974496272011-07-30T15:29:00.003-04:002011-07-30T17:08:16.741-04:00

In The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks creates an imaginative future where the galaxy's civilizations are connected via wormholes. The society of the galaxy is billions of years old, having had several iterations of government and cycles of growth and stagnation. As the story starts, a small section of the galaxy consisting of several hundred worlds has been cut off from the rest of civilization for

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-49276771204084953312011-07-23T12:25:00.003-04:002011-07-23T12:40:25.646-04:00

Holidays on Ice is a short collection of humor by David Sedaris, focusing on funny things about the holidays. The first piece is "The Santa Land Diaries", an account of his season working as a department store elf. The antics of his fellow elves are only exceeded by the Santas and the parents. This was a pretty funny essay that turns the holidays upside down.The rest of the stories are mixed.

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-45560593716171927602011-07-10T21:51:00.002-04:002011-07-10T22:47:45.767-04:00

Anglo-Saxon World is a Modern Scholar lecture course by Professor Drout. He discusses the history of early England, the many events of the tumultuous centuries after the fall of Rome, and the literature produced during this time. I enjoyed learning about the history of the Anglo-Saxons alongside the literature.The history basically starts with the invasion of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes of

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-45651028028179485112011-07-10T14:33:00.002-04:002011-07-10T15:15:03.578-04:00

Eternal Chalice: The Grail in Literature and Legend is a Modern Scholar course on the Holy Grail. Given my history as an English student, including a course on Arthurian literature, I was interested to learn more about the Grail. Professor Potkay discusses the treatments of the Grail from the Middle Ages through the Twentieth Century.Professor Potkay starts with Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval,

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-9353569840546130422011-07-07T21:44:00.004-04:002011-07-07T23:15:31.200-04:00

Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule is the first book of a high fantasy epic. The lands of D'Hara and the Midlands are ruled by Darken Rahl, a ruthless wizard bent on controlling the entire population. Rahl's goal is to open one of the three magic boxes that will give him ultimate power, but if he chooses wrong, either he will die or all humanity will die.Richard Cypher is a woods guide in

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-26179296929747459932011-06-30T22:51:00.002-04:002011-07-04T16:24:16.303-04:00

The word "foreign" has lost of its meaning in this time when you can cross half the world in a day and teleconference with people all over the planet. In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell creates the world of Japan in 1799, a society that is closed and far removed from Western life. Jacob de Zoet is a young clark starting a five year assignment in Dejima, the Dutch trading

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-80112830710294569522011-05-30T18:54:00.002-04:002011-05-30T20:03:23.593-04:00

China Mieville's The City & The City is a novel about two cities that occupy the same space. Beszel and Ul Qoma have evolved into an uneasy coexistence. Their customs and language are different. They have a history of conflict. Their architecture and economy are recognizably different. Yet the citizens of each city must not have any direct contact with those of the other. In order to

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-65379747152103004822011-05-28T16:26:00.003-04:002011-05-28T17:43:46.002-04:00

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a novel by Jennifer Egan written in a format of several linked stories. The stories span several decades from the early 1980's to the 2020's and include many different characters in a sort of chain. The overarching theme is that of progression, transition, or the slow metamorphosis of life.The first story is about Sasha, a kleptomaniac who works for a music

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-26211072108694134672011-05-10T21:19:00.000-04:002011-05-10T23:10:46.773-04:00

Jonathan Franzen's Freedom was on a lot of 2010 best books lists. It is a complex novel about a simple story. The story at the core is a love triangle. The center of the triangle is Patty, a woman who is strongly attracted to the musician and womanizer Richard Katz. Richard doesn't feel much for Patty but he has strong admiration and affection for his roommate Walter Berglund. Walter has

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-48102773537327979712011-05-04T20:53:00.002-04:002011-05-04T22:36:05.487-04:00

Blue at the Mizzen is the twentieth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, and the last he completed. The story starts after Waterloo, and the Surprise is off the coast of Africa. Captain Aubrey must resupply, repair, and crew his ship. Though he is still part of the Royal Navy, hoping for a promotion to admiral, he is assigned detached duty taking the Surprise to South America to

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-14495255164604297052011-04-19T21:28:00.002-04:002011-04-19T23:07:22.762-04:00

Steampunk is a collection of short stories in the steampunk subgenre of science fiction. Steampunk mixes Victorian elements with technology from the era that is extrapolated to futuristic powers.An excellent example of the genre is the story "The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: a Dime Novel" by Joe R. Lansdale. It features four men piloting a giant metal man into the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-79172255298913716862011-04-09T16:59:00.002-04:002011-04-09T21:41:38.723-04:00

Final installments of a series can be tricky. The author has to wrap up the storyline for multiple books and also provide a story enjoyable in its own right. Ship of Destiny is the third book in the Liveship Traders trilogy. Robin Hobb does a great job with this final book. The threads of the previous two books come together in delightfully unexpected ways.At the start of the book, there are

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-30325592291596740452011-03-29T20:17:00.003-04:002011-03-29T21:34:13.522-04:00

The Amber Spyglass is the third book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The story is fun and provides a satisfying conclusion to the series. As the book opens, Lyra is being held by her mother in a cave. Mrs. Coulter keeps her asleep, and we learn that she has become attached to Lyra and wants to protect her, in her own way. Will is devastated at the death of his father, but two

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-5722960186337122472011-03-19T11:04:00.003-04:002011-03-19T11:37:33.210-04:00

I always knew that lack of sleep could affect children's academic performance, but I hadn't realized that an hour of lost sleep effectively lowered IQ by 7 points. And I used to think that young children would lie more than older ones, but it turns out that children lie more as they get older. In NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman discuss current research

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-61095720859737043382011-03-06T15:40:00.002-05:002011-03-06T17:15:25.075-05:00

The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The novel is set in 1855 and is an example of steampunk: there is advanced technology based on steam power and Charles Babbage's difference engine. In this version of 1855, Babbage's invention led to an information revolution and upheaval in society. In addition to a strengthened British Empire, the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-13117361987421252192011-02-28T21:55:00.003-05:002011-02-28T22:56:23.868-05:00

Hull Zero Three is a hard science fiction novel by Greg Bear. The story brings to life a classic science fiction concept: a large ship with slow acceleration moving toward a distant star. The ship in this case is composed of three hulls connected to a huge comet that provides fuel. The ship contains biological systems advanced enough to generate a vast assortment of creatures from its genetic

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-16880566401451153632011-02-27T22:03:00.004-05:002011-02-27T22:43:35.189-05:00

Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future is an analysis by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum of the communication problem between scientists and the general public in the U.S. today. The authors trace the rise of science during the mid Twentieth Century in the aftermath of the Second World War, and especially after Sputnik. For decades scientific research had

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-45942607456240868312011-02-21T19:50:00.003-05:002011-02-21T21:29:45.546-05:00

Michael Swanwick is always an exciting author to read. His stories are exciting and different and he is not afraid to shake things up, even half way through a novel. In The Dragons of Babel, Swanwick takes a fantastic short story and expands the central character into a more interesting protagonist as he explores the wider world.The main character is Will le Fey, and the opening story is about

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-17566389767617600992011-02-16T16:57:00.002-05:002011-02-16T17:47:22.150-05:00

The Engineer Reconditioned is a collection of short fiction by Neal Asher, the author of The Skinner. Most of the stories are set in his Polity universe, with several set on the world of the Owner. One story takes place in the universe of his book Cowl. The collection is a fun visit to these other stories.The centerpiece is the novella called "The Engineer". In it, the crew of the science

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-22223855636845484952011-02-08T23:00:00.000-05:002011-02-08T23:01:20.117-05:00

Tom McCarthy's novel C concerns the life of Serge Carrefax, from his birth at the end of the nineteenth century, growing up surrounded by new technologies, and surviving World War I as an observer on a plane. Serge is surrounded by signals, starting with wireless signals even as he is born. His father runs an amateur radio station from his English estate. The estate's main business is the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-78467276990560201452011-02-04T20:09:00.005-05:002011-02-04T23:22:49.952-05:00

Philosphy of Mind is a Modern Scholar lecture course by Professor Andrew Pessin. Professor Pessin gives a deep look at the ideas of the mind and how we think about thinking. He starts with the basic conundrum of mind and body. He describes how the mental is fundamentally different from the physical, including qualitative sensations (qualia) and intentionality (thoughts). Part of philosophy of

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-30943528456378038732011-01-31T23:35:00.001-05:002011-01-31T23:36:22.184-05:00

Year's Best Fantasy 9 was published in 2009, with David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer as the editors. This edition contains some nice fantasy stories.Marc Laidlaw's "Childrun" is a fantastic tale of a bard finding his way to a strange town. The town gates are closed but the schoolmarm lets him in. All the children have mysteriously disappeared from the town, except for one large infant that

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-2212674655258865602011-01-27T18:48:00.002-05:002011-01-27T19:09:00.113-05:00

Tales From the Perilous Realm is a collection of stories by J. R. R. Tolkien. I recently listened to an audiobook production by the BBC which included four stories: "Farmer Giles of Ham", "Leaf by Niggle", "Smith of Wootten Major", and "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil". The stories are well written and fanciful. The performances are very entertaining."Farmer Giles of Ham" tells the story of a

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-3123290745369799372011-01-12T17:05:00.004-05:002011-01-12T18:11:41.958-05:00

The Skinner is one of those books that is so different from anything else that it blows you away. Neal Asher is also the author of Cowl, which I read back in 2008. The style and action are similar in The Skinner, though the story and characters are totally different.The novel's setting is the distant future on the ocean planet Spatterjay. Arriving on the planet is Sable Keech, a dead monitor (

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-4352221432713762232011-01-08T14:48:00.002-05:002011-01-08T22:13:36.527-05:00

The Grand Design is the latest book by Stephen Hawking, with the help of Lawrence Mlodinow. It is an explanation of the fundamental laws of the universe and how they have been determined. They start with the basics of gravity and electromagnetism, moving quickly to relativity and quantum mechanics. They describe the experiments behind quantum theory.One of the most interesting parts is the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-60269472464571036932011-01-07T20:06:00.003-05:002011-01-07T21:18:48.874-05:00

The Devotion of Suspect X is a Japanese crime novel by Keigo Higashino. The crime in question is the murder of a man named Togashi by his ex-wife Yasuko. Yasuko's neighbor Ishigami hears the struggle and knocks on the door to her apartment, announcing that he can protect Yasuko and her daughter Misato if they will do exactly as he says. Ishigami proceeds to cover up the true nature of the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-62728729737171266502011-01-04T22:06:00.002-05:002011-01-04T22:42:21.587-05:00

2010 was a good year for books and for my reading. I managed to read 46 books, including one graphic novel and several audiobooks. That doesn't include the many chidlren's books I've read with my kids. December was a banner month with 8 books finished.The most memorable books I read this year were The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Hellhound on his Trail, The Drunkard's Walk, The Blank Slate, and

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-75070957414728405232010-12-29T20:00:00.003-05:002010-12-29T20:00:02.521-05:00

Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry is a novel about a pair of twins who move to London after their aunt dies and leaves them her flat. Julia and Valentina turn twenty-one and move into the flat to fulfill the terms of Elspeth's will that they must reside in the flat for one year before they can assume full ownership. Elspeth was the twin sister of their mother Edie, but the two hadn't

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-80375936834417051702010-12-28T20:00:00.001-05:002010-12-28T20:00:01.987-05:00

The Sorcerer's House is a fantasy novel by Gene Wolfe that was released in early 2010. It features many elements familiar to Wolfe's readers: a first person narrator who is somewhat unreliable; mysterious forces that the characters must come to understand; partially human creatures; the faerie world; and at least one temptress.The novel is a series of letters written by and to Baxter Dunn, or

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-32051544962093115692010-12-26T20:00:00.001-05:002010-12-26T20:00:01.728-05:00

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a short memoir by Elisabeth Tova Bailey of her long convalescence and her constant companion--the snail that a friend brings by in a flower pot. The book is actually part memoir and part science paper; in fact I am reminded of Moby Dick on a small scale.While Bailey is confined to her bed, she begins to take a keen interest in the snail at her bedside,

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-76837808988987592262010-12-25T22:00:00.002-05:002010-12-25T22:02:16.527-05:00

Herzog is a psychological novel by Saul Bellow published in 1964. Most of the action and dialogue occurs inside the protagonist's mind. Moses Herzog is an academic who feels he may be going crazy--he writes letters to people, both living and dead, some from his own life and others from history or philosophy. With these letters he gets a kind of therapy.Moses' main concern is his suffering.

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-54834091286288489922010-12-11T14:26:00.003-05:002010-12-11T15:16:09.430-05:00

Like his book Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks' latest book The Mind's Eye is a collection of case studies concerning the brain. In this case Sacks discusses the brain's perception of visual data and how it relates to the rest of the brain.One of the most striking phenomena is when the visual cortex is deprived of all input from the eyes in cases of blindness. The brain is flexible enough that the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-4711318137175720192010-12-07T20:45:00.003-05:002010-12-07T22:25:10.443-05:00

Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior is a book by Jonathan Weiner about the origins of molecular and the search for the genetic roots of behavior. Weiner starts with an overview of the discovery of genes and the structure of DNA. In the early 1900's the biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan began studying fruit flies, Drosophila. Drosophila was easy to study

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-32412748839210689022010-12-06T20:43:00.000-05:002010-12-06T20:54:00.902-05:00

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is a gripping account by Michael Lewis of the Wall Street players who made big bets against the sub-prime mortgage market and helped to bring down entire investment banks. While most of the Wall Street banks and investment firms were finding ways to pour more and more money into mortgage backed securities, a few people saw how crazy the system was and

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-4044237668883468092010-12-04T19:03:00.003-05:002010-12-06T20:05:44.494-05:00

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Autumn of the Patriarch is a poetic novel of the last days of a fading dictator's reign. The story is set in a strange yet familiar Latin American country, and is full of the fantastic elements that reader's of his work will recognize.There is no real plot or conflict to the story; instead it is made up of several sections that reveal facts of the nameless

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-17785492015702100482010-11-17T19:00:00.000-05:002010-11-17T19:00:05.093-05:00

The Subtle Knife is the sequel to The Golden Compass, part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. In this book, Lyra finds a boy named Will Parry in a world that exists between the worlds they are from. Will shows her how he found a window from his world to the world of Ci'gazze, where Specters attack adults and leave them catatonic while leaving the children to fend for themselves.

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-45009850727007188672010-11-16T19:00:00.001-05:002010-11-16T19:00:05.958-05:00

The God Engines is a science fiction novella by John Scalzi. The main character is Ean Tephe, captain of a starship with a god as its source of power. The society is ruled by a theocracy and uses the captured enemy gods of its Lord to power its technology. Tephe's counterpart is the religious leader on board his ship, Priest Andso. Tephe and Andso are occasionally at odds as they vie for

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-31040163999730550092010-11-13T14:24:00.005-05:002010-11-13T15:27:07.691-05:00

Mad Ship is the second book in Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy. In this sequel, the Vestrit family's liveship Vivacia comes under the sway of Kennit, the pirate who captured her at the end of the first book. Instead of becoming resentful, Vivacia embraces her new captain. While Kennit and Vivacia come to admire each other, their emotions and memories entwined through the magic of the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-31549848130191329232010-11-01T20:20:00.003-04:002010-11-01T21:59:02.808-04:00

Philip K. Dick had a wonderful talent for taking a great philosophical idea and turning it into a fun story. Most of his stories that I've read deal with a single protagonist struggling against a powerful force. Nearly all have the protagonist making a discovery that makes him question the nature of reality. Along with this is a healthy dose of paranoia.In "The Minority Report" the main

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-13885094795526998622010-10-29T21:24:00.006-04:002010-10-30T22:01:50.695-04:00

John Updike's Rabbit, Run was published in 1960. It describes a kind of aborted domestic life: Harry Angstrom (known as Rabbit from his high school basketball career) gets fed up with his pregnant wife and young son and abruptly leaves them. The first scene is symbolic of his extended or renewed adolescence when he joins some children in a street basketball game. The children look at him

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-74607161314840273622010-10-18T21:02:00.004-04:002010-10-18T22:00:44.297-04:00

Rides a Dread Legion is the first book by Raymond E. Feist I've read. It is the first book in the Demonwar Saga, however I discovered while reading it that it draws heavily on Feist's previous series. There are constant references to characters long dead and battles decades old. While this gives the novel some depth, some of the references feel superfluous and irrelevant.The Clan of the Seven

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-40179317383662480192010-10-09T21:02:00.003-04:002010-10-09T23:21:42.885-04:00

Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for his Assassin is a detailed historical account of King's last days and James Earl Ray's life in the months leading up to his assassination of King. Hampton Sides researched many accounts of King, and pulled together the available facts about Ray's travels. The result is a chilling account of a racist

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-3015604423607694782010-09-26T19:50:00.004-04:002010-09-26T21:43:03.055-04:00

When reading a book that has had a lot of hype, there is always the question of whether the book lives up to all the hype. A book must be on the bestseller list for a reason, right? I've heard a lot about Stieg Larsson and his novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so I was excited to finally read it.The book has two main characters. Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist who has just been

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-6044169408212841932010-09-23T18:44:00.005-04:002010-09-23T21:07:28.389-04:00

Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis, was first published in 1922. It describes the life of George Babbitt, a moderately wealthy real estate broker in the prosperous city of Zenith. He has a wife, Myra, and three children. Babbitt is the iconic businessman, always ready to make a deal. He sees life through the lens of business and money, and through money the status it brings.Babbitt is not above using

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-16806804175710274682010-09-08T20:45:00.005-04:002010-09-08T22:05:43.085-04:00

Farewell to Lankhmar is the last installment of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories. The two heroes Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser have settled down on Rime Isle with their sweethearts Afreyt and Cif. There is a bit of nostalgia throughout the book as previous adventures and lovers are revisited, and the two heroes become reflective.The first two stories bring mysterious and supernatural forces against

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-20315566149956683552010-08-30T20:20:00.006-04:002010-08-30T22:20:13.884-04:00

Childhood's End is a short science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke and published in 1953. Reading this book is an experience in history as well as fiction. The story is a snapshot of ideas of what the future would look like from the fifties. Adding to the experience is that realization about a third of the way through that I had read it before.In the first part of the story aliens

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-70461064332601286822010-08-24T19:00:00.004-04:002010-08-24T21:11:28.764-04:00

I don't usually read a book with "God" in the title unless it is along the lines of God is not Great or The God Delusion. But I had heard of Jim Wallis before so I thought that he might have something different to say about religion and politics. While reading God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It I was struck by what he says and how different his message is

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-22696555483009985222010-08-18T21:25:00.003-04:002010-08-18T21:28:32.278-04:00

1776 is an historical look at the year that was the turning point in the birth of our country. Written by David G. McCullough, it details the military maneuvers of George Washington and the British commander General William Howe. He details the struggles of the troops, as well as Washington's struggle to keep his army together.The year starts with Washington and the Continental Army outside

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-35912811159426468612010-08-16T20:05:00.004-04:002010-08-16T21:20:19.252-04:00

Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection is a graphic novel compilation of Native American trickster stories edited by Matt Dembicki. It delivers several stories based on American Indian trickster stories, each written and drawn by a different writer and artist. The art styles are varied, visually appealing, and quite colorful.The first story is "Coyote and the Pebbles", a great

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-45279433779931655442010-08-11T19:01:00.002-04:002010-08-11T20:39:26.534-04:00

Return to Lankhmar is Fritz Leiber's third installment in the Lankhmar series. It consists of two previously published books: The Swords of Lankhmar, a short novel, and Swords and Ice Magic, a collection of short stories.It was refreshing to read a novel-length adventure of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Leiber excels in the short format, and I was a little unsure whether he could pull off a

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-43715594186555799152010-07-28T19:54:00.004-04:002010-07-28T20:57:06.923-04:00

I recently listened to the Modern Scholar lecture course Basics of Genetics on our long trip back from Colorado. It is an entry level course on genes with a good bit of history.Professor Betsey Dexter Dyer starts with the history of genetics as practices by humans for thousands of years. She then describes how Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants and discovered basic principles of

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-3673062460770267362010-07-22T21:26:00.002-04:002010-07-22T23:02:01.612-04:00

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales is an anthology of short stories published in 2003. The stories are somewhat thrilling but of mixed quality. They have elements of alternative history, science fiction, and westerns.One of the highlights is Elmore Leonard's "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman". The story follows the title character in

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-45921027181802472192010-07-19T22:18:00.004-04:002010-07-19T23:06:44.072-04:00

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, written by Leonard Mlodinow, is one of those books that makes an arcane subject understandable. Mlodinow explains statistics and probability in very clear language, with many examples and counter examples.He tracks the history of probability theory from when gamblers started analyzing the games they played in an effort to improve their chances

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-62541531680324569532010-07-08T21:00:00.002-04:002010-07-08T21:00:00.736-04:00

The Odyssey has been one of my favorite stories for a long time. I've always enjoyed the fantastic tales, then I appreciated the mythic structure and rich background. Lately I've come to an appreciation of the poem's later stages as Odysseus spends years with Calypso and returns home as a beggar to scope out the situation at home. The whole story has such rich layers from fascinating material.

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-11781677895068105802010-07-06T22:56:00.002-04:002010-07-07T00:13:47.189-04:00

I have been interested in the brain for a while and have recently gotten interested in neurology. Oliver Sacks is a noted neurologist and author on brain science, yet I hadn't read any of his books until I picked up Musicophilia. The book is a compilation of cases of people who have particular capabilities or impairments of enjoying music after suffering neural damage or a brain disease or in

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-36988876287216124652010-07-04T12:43:00.003-04:002010-07-04T13:24:20.915-04:00

The Hundred Days is the nineteenth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. Jack Aubrey is a commodore in the English navy and is assigned to the Mediterranean when Napoleon escapes from Elba. All of Europe is an an uproar as Napoleon quickly rebuilds his armies and tries to dominate the continent again. Captain Aubrey is commanded to monitor the ports in the Adriatic Sea, find ships

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-1316139595152187942010-06-25T20:20:00.005-04:002010-06-26T23:31:20.315-04:00

Robin Hobb's Ship of Magic is a family drama set in a fantasy world where ships made of wizardwood quicken after three generations and gain sentience. The magic ships can sense their crew and cargo and the winds and the current; they can communicate with their "family" and sail better than an ordinary vessel. The novel is about the liveship Vivacia and the Vestrit family that sails her.Althea

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-75457525977323835672010-06-11T21:21:00.004-04:002010-06-12T22:56:15.068-04:00

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies was published in 1997, years before Collapse. Diamond covers what he calls "history's broadest pattern," how the peoples of Eurasia were able to increase food production over the past 13,000 years and proceed to acquire technology that enabled the West to conquer most of the rest of the world. Diamond opens with a pivotal

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-85365168396987244782010-05-28T20:40:00.003-04:002010-05-28T21:20:10.440-04:00

Lean Times in Lankhmar is the second in Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series. Fafhrd, the lean Northerner, and the Gray Mouser, the nimble Lankhmar native, have several more adventures in and around the city. They also take a magical trip to the ancient Mediterranean.The second story is called "Lean Times in Lankhmar", and the two adventurers have settled on other pursuits while waiting for more

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-6154062604655961312010-05-22T21:31:00.003-04:002010-05-22T22:49:23.198-04:00

It is rare that I reread a book. I think mostly there are so many good books that I want to read out there that I generally don't make time to read something that I've read before. I suppose there are few books that are so great that they stick in my mind and are interesting enough to warrant a second look. One exception is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I read twice as a teenager and

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-42992582289203054512010-05-14T21:42:00.002-04:002010-05-15T00:20:14.750-04:00

I had heard good things about Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass so I finally picked up an audiobook version at the library. The audiobook is narrated by the author and a cast of voice actors who create an entertaining performance.The story takes place in a fantastic alternate reality that is a sort of steampunk setting. Every human in this world has a talking animal as a daemon, a sort of

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-47310080037610840032010-05-02T22:00:00.002-04:002010-05-02T22:42:13.624-04:00

The Dragonbone Chair is a fantasy novel written by Tad Williams. It has largely a standard structure for high fantasy novels. The protagonist is a young man with an unknown parentage. He becomes apprentice to a wise older man, seeking wisdom and possibly secrets of magic. A disaster thrusts him out on his own, where he must take his hidden knowledge and learn the ways of the world. He is

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-20377520566061309112010-04-28T21:34:00.002-04:002010-04-28T22:30:03.260-04:00

Yet again Richard Dawkins has impressed me with his latest book The Greatest Show on Earth. This book goes beyond the interesting facets of evolution and shows the mountains of evidence for evolution. Throughout the book Dawkins addresses the critiques made by the deniers of evolution.Dawkins spends a good amount of text covering the basics, the fundamentals that are the building blocks for

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-71092891737322694842010-04-17T22:38:00.003-04:002010-04-17T23:55:58.753-04:00

Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a fascinating review of evolutionary psychology and the backlash against it both in academia and popular culture. Pinker illustrates a broad range of scientific studies and evidence in support of evolutionary psychology. He then shows the reaction against it and provides counterarguments.Evolutionary psychology is the study

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-83140088315305469812010-03-12T21:56:00.002-05:002010-03-12T22:34:35.864-05:00

The Escapement is the final volume in K. J. Parker's Engineer Trilogy. The events take place a few months a few months after the end of the second book, and the war of the Eremians, Valdani and Aram Chantat against the Mezentine Empire is gearing up. Engineers Ziani Vaatzes and Gace Daurenja have formed an uneasy truce in their rivalry. As they work on creating siege engines they manipulate

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-32343074602154445732010-02-27T21:01:00.004-05:002010-02-27T22:31:21.121-05:00

Evil for Evil is K. J. Parker's sequel to Devices and Desires. Duke Orsea, who has lost his duchy, is living with his wife under the refuge of his rival Duke Valens. The duchess, Veatriz, maintains an uneasy relationship with him and Valens, with whom she exchanged letters for years. Veatriz and Valens waver between acknowledging their attraction and pushing each other away.Valens has to

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-58394373817418026042010-02-19T23:10:00.000-05:002010-02-19T23:16:35.108-05:00

Gregory Maguire's Son of a Witch is the sequel to his novel Wicked. This novel has a different tone than the first, mostly because Liir, the son of Elphaba, has a very different personality than the witch. Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, was very headstrong and knew precisely who she was and what she wanted. Liir is not even sure that Elphaba was his mother, and he has no family.The

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-52636712548700390332010-02-13T16:14:00.003-05:002010-02-14T00:33:08.629-05:00

I received Russell Shorto's Descartes' Bones for Christmas. The full title is Descartes' Bones: A skeletal history of the conflict between faith and reason. And it is just that. Shorto uses the famous philosopher's bones to trace the history not only of the mortal remains but philosophy in general and the impact that the use of reason has had on science and faith.Descartes died and was buried

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-59427896517459104152010-02-04T20:02:00.003-05:002010-02-04T22:49:51.635-05:00

K. J. Parker's Devices and Desires is the first novel of a fantasy trilogy. The Eternal Republic is a city-state of Mezentines who have a regimented society built around solid principles of engineering. Any deviation from Specification is an extreme crime punishable by death. Ziani Vaatzes is the foreman of a factory that makes scorpions, military war engines that fire spears. When he is

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-66971864788805138962010-01-29T10:07:00.004-05:002010-01-29T11:35:27.481-05:00

The Varieties of Scientific Experience is a compilation of Carl Sagan's Gifford Lectures in 1985. In the lectures he presents a scientific view of the universe as well as a logical approach to the idea of God. The first lecture starts with images and descriptions of our solar system and the neighboring space around us. Sagan shows a great sense of awe at the vastness and variety of the

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-20454341527917965142010-01-19T22:01:00.003-05:002010-01-19T23:03:59.568-05:00

China Mieville's Un Lun Dun is a light fantasy novel in stark contrast to his fabulous but dark Perdido Street Station. Two young girls find a way into an alternate version of London called UnLondon, where one, Zanna, is declared to be the chosen one who will save the city from the Smog. Zanna and her friend Deeba encounter all sorts of fabulous people and things, such as a boy who is

Dylan Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05560478352299456127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21186045.post-10063416767731988522010-01-17T20:17:00.002-05:002010-01-17T22:51:07.062-05:00

Yann Martels' novel Life of Pi starts in India where the narrator grows up working at his family's zoo. Pi learns about animals but he also finds an interest in God. He becomes a Christian, a Muslim, and a Hindu, to the consternation of his family and the frustration of the local religious leaders. Pi insists on the unity of God amid the many forms of worship, which sets him up as a sort of

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I had never read any of Octavia E. Butler's works before so I picked up Parable of the Sower at the library recently. I found it to be hard and gritty. It is a cold and brutal look at the near future, not so much post-apocalyptic but apocalyptic of the slow sort where the world crumbles due to ignored environmental and economic problems.The center of the story is Lauren Olamina, a black

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2009 was quite a year in many respects. I read a wide variety of books: nonfiction, fiction, fantasy, science fiction, short books, long books, audio books, lecture courses. A total of 42 books, including 2 lecture courses.I think the most memorable book I read this year was Perdido Street Station. It was a wild, surprising and emotional ride. Other memorable books were Anathem, The Amazing

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Sarah Zettel's A Sorcerer's Treason is in that class of fantasy novels where a lonely individual discovers a path to a faraway world of magic. Moreover, in that other world she is someone important, or at least has a crucial role to play in a royal melodrama.Bridget Lederle is a lighthouse keeper in Wisconsin who has visions. One night she pulls a strange man out of the water. Kalami is a

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The Best of Gene Wolfe is a retrospective of Wolfe's short stories going back to 1970. Wolfe is a great writer of science fiction and fantasy, and can create fascinating short stories as well as novels.The collection starts with "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories," a whimsical story about a boy and his mother and his fantasies coming to life. A follow up is "The Death of Dr. Island",

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Drood is an historical novel by Dan Simmons that builds on the last few years of the life of Charles Dickens and a terrible accident he survived in 1865 in a train wreck. Dickens part of The Mystery of Edwin Drood before he died, and Simmons draws from the same elements of opium, dark underworlds and mesmerism.The narrator is Wilkie Collins, a writer and sometimes collaborator with Dickens who

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K. J. Parker's Purple and Black is an epistolary novella detailing letters between Emperor Nicephorus V and his friend Phormio, the new governor of a distant province. The title comes from the color of the text of the letters, purple being the privileged ink for imperial correspondence.As the two men write, we learn of the new emperor's troubles with the bureaucracy and the governor's troubles

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Iain M. Banks' Matter is a novel set in an advanced civilization called the Culture, part of a tradition of science fiction about people with technology so advanced that human labor is not required. The Culture has a peer society called the Morthanveld who has equiv-tech (equivalent technology) but not as advanced to have AI minds with great power.Djan Serijy is a woman who was recruited from

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In The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, Reif Larsen has created a novel with a unique blended form. The text is augmented with the drawings and comments of the narrator, a twelve-year-old boy named Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, or T. S. The boy is a mapmaker whose interests go beyond geology and geography: he maps his whole life out as a way to organize his life and create order. With all the

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Douglas Hofstadter's I am a Strange Loop is a sort of follow up to his Godel, Escher, Bach. In this volume he focuses his ideas on human consciousness: his thesis is that the patterns of symbols formed by our neural processes form the illusion of a central "I".Hofstadter is fond of analogies, and he uses many of them to great effect. One central analogy is his experience of reaching into a box

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