Protect and Defend by Vince Flynn

Ruthless incredibly patriotic American saves the nation by breaking every rule and using back door access to the Oval Office and above. Haven't I read this before about ten times by fifteen different authors?

September 2008

Supercrunchers by Ian Ayres

At the risk of oversimplifying, this book is about data mining, unless that is just taken as being retrospective. Prospective randomization is "data mining" made possible by automating with computers.

There are multitudes of applications and we are already subjects of scrutiny. Some of this is for our good and some exploits us. We are being watched as surely as a video camera but behind the scenes, computers watching every transaction.

September 2008

Dropsy, Dialysis, Transplant: A Short History of Failing Kidneys by Steven J. Peitzman

The author of this excellent book has done a wonderful, difficult thing. He has written about a complicated subject in a way that interests the amateur physiologist yet doesn't disappoint the professional. As one who treats kidney disease on a daily basis I found this book deep and insightful. My father, who has been a kidney patient, enjoyed the book as well.

The historical review of kidney disease is the thread that holds the story together. Dr. Bright is a towering presence even today. Transplants and dialysis when kidney function fails. There is still much to learn, like what is uremia?

September 2008

Unspeakable: Facing up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror by Os Guinness

Not an enjoyable book, but an important topic nonetheless. Much good history and philosophy and a lot of honesty. Fair to all points of view, to the point of some mistaken moral equivalences. Abu Ghraib might be symbolic of American evil, but abortion would be a far more serious example. I found the book poorly written; a good editor could have made it enormously better, I am sad to say. The Christian view of evil and our response to it and our living with it is portrayed well, without really an answer. The answer of course is what we are waiting for, what I would simply call the Glorious Appearing. No other answer will do. None other will be needed.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

This is a wonderful story of finding a need and having a unique ability to address it. It is a timely tale of compassion, a story of real women's liberation and of the importance of education. Overall this is a great book and hopeful. There are two troubling things. One is the madrasa movement that is massive and heavily financed and all male, making Mortenson's efforts tiny in comparison. Second, there is an ambivalence about what the U.S. as a nation is doing in the area. This aspect of the book is inconsistent, awkward, and morally naive.

The Undiscovered Mind by John Horgan

This book sheds light on the "explanatory gap" between neuroscience and cognition and consciousness, a gap that deeper inquiry causes to widen all the more. SSRI, placebos, psychotherapy, evolutionary psychology - all fall alarmingly short in this book.

The Devil's Delusion by David Berlinski

Berlinski exposes the weak arguments of "scientific" militant atheism. His eloquent preface sets the tone. The rest of the book delivers the blow. Writing with his usual wit, he yet deals with deep philosophical arguments and exposes the shallow presumptions of some scientists. Those who are buffeted by prevailing "scientific" contempt can find shelter and ammunition here.

The Appeal by John Grisham

Fairly good but not really one of his best. Seems fairly clear that Grisham opposes limits on damage awards, though overall the book is fairly balanced.

5/2008

Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone

A book about gambling and probability and investing. It features Claude Shannon, a mathematical genius, and a host of other mathematicians, economists, investors, and criminals. The "Kelly Criterion" is a theme running through the whole book. It is a theory about risk and how much of your bankroll to hazard on a bet or investment. The efficient market theory and random walk theory are featured as well.

The big question is whether one can beat the market. My impression is that there are perhaps some small areas of "inefficiency" in the market that a very smart mathematician can exploit, but that in practice most (but not all) of these plans fail due to hubris or lack of discipline or (and this is well shown in the book) someone cheating or changing the rules.

The takeaway message to me is diversify and don't try to time or predict the market (see Solin above).

5/2008

Blind Eye by James B. Stewart

"A terrifying story of a doctor who got away with murder" (Front cover). Michael Swango went to med school at SIU, where I did my residency. He killed patients wherever he went but kept ahead of the authorities, even going to mission hospitals in Africa, where he continued his murderous ways.

4/2008

Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud

This was much more readable and interesting than I expected. Freud writes in an almost conversational style. True to his analytic roots, his approach is self-conscious but almost pleasingly so. The preface is in two parts reflecting the cataclysms of the time, the rising cloud of Nazism and the fall of Austria, Freud's home.

Moses, he posits, was an Egyptian noble and imposed a monotheistic religion espoused by a short-lived pharaoh. And during a period of anarchy in Egypt, he led the Hebrews into the wilderness. He was overthrown in a rebellion and a Midianite sheepherder took over. These legends were fused.

While I'm unconvinced by his thesis, it nonetheless is clear that to an outside onlooker Moses imposed a religion on a people, survived several attempts on his life and position, and responded ruthlessly. Moses is also shown as impulsive and rash yet described as the meekest of men.

Of course my own explanation is that the answer is in the action of a powerful God using a fallible human and making of him a great man. Thus imposition becomes advocacy, ruthlessness becomes zeal for God, and meekness is God's work in an impulsive and impatient man.

My opinion of Freud is much greater with more exposure. In this book he is analogizing neurosis to historical religious development. this is difficult and full of hazards, many of which he boldly addresses. It is an attempt of a genius.

He also discusses antisemitism, its causes and persistence, and does so in a touching way, given his own suffering. The psycho-historical search for the historical Moses identifies the important factors of a "one God" with no images allowed.

12/2007

How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, M.D.

This doctor understands, of course, but he can communicate his understanding to those who aren't doctors. It is not that doctors don't recognize errors. Groopman shows the errors and the pain doctors suffer. For us ordinary doctors Groopman finds world-class doctors, the best of the best, who have made errors. Groopman gives examples of errors he suffered as a patient.

I find his discussion of medical errors far more useful, far more human, far more TRUE than the systems approach and protocol-driven solutions of the Institutes of Medicine and other groups. Groopman wants high standards and good communication. There are those who think they can measure quality. I remain unconvinced. I am not saying it is impossible. I am not saying they will fail. I am saying they can't do it now.

Crisis by Robin Cook

Somewhat engaging. About "boutique medicine" and malpractice and a murder mystery.

Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larsen

This Pulitzer Prize winner in history is about the Scopes trial. It is extremely well done. It is interesting, even-handed, very well-documented, and unfailingly fair. It is scholarly but captures the reader's interest and attention. It lays to rest the myths about the trial. I think this is a prototype of what a book about a historical event should be. Unfortunately, perception can be its own reality, and the play and movie have changed the "reality" of the Scopes trial beyond repair. I think the truth can be found in this book.

The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin

After hearing Solin speak to Google I had to buy the book and was not disappointed. He promises to tell you exactly how to invest and why, and then delivers. The book is simple, clear, and persuasive. Confused, tired of conflicting advice, unsure what to do? This book is for you.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

This is a purportedly true story of a business man/economist who is influenced and molded and handled by a shadowy world of international finance and quasi-governmental operatives. It is a confession, but a weak, incomplete one. His descriptions of world events are interesting. His analysis of world debt and manipulation of small countries is surely true. But the shadowy world influencing him behind the scenes, encouraging, threatening, bribing ... is it real or his imagination? I think the real sins are left unconfessed and he is left mostly confessing the sins of others. Large corporations, Bush - easy marks all.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is the immigrant experience told with honesty and pathos. The good and the bad of two cultures mixed and rendered inseparable. You leave your parents' land and tongue but you are your parents and their land and tongue, and you are your children and their new land and tongue. It is a mystery, a joy and a deep sorrow, all achingly expressed in this good book.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is the immigrant experience told with honesty and pathos. The good and the bad of two cultures mixed and rendered inseparable. You leave your parents' land and tongue but you are your parents and their land and tongue, and you are your children and their new land and tongue. It is a myster, a joy and a deep sorrow, all achingly expressed in this good book.

Science, Faith, and Society by Michael Polanyi

This is a careful and authoritative discussion of how science works and its scope. He speaks against a naive view of self-correcting science and premise-free science. He gives historical examples of validated experiments that proved to be mistaken, and theory eventually found true despite contradictory experimental evidence. He wants science to be free and not limited by tradition, dogma, or seniority. Belief in truth, love of truth, pursuit of truth. He considers radical empiricists as inevitably moving to complete metaphysical nihilism. He denies truth is demonstrable but holds that truth is knowable. Knowledge of reality will lead us to God.

Science, Faith, and Society by Michael Polanyi

This is a careful and authoritative discussion of how science works and its scope. He speaks against a naive view of self-correcting science and premise-free science. He gives historical examples of validated experiments that proved to be mistaken. And theory eventually found true despite contradictory experimental evidence. He wants science to be free and not limited by tradition, dogma, or seniority. Belief in truth, love of truth, pursuit of truth. He considers radical empiricists as inevitably moving to complete metaphysical nihilism. He denies truth is demomnstrable but holds that truth is knowable. Knowledge of reality will lead us to God.

Dark Hero of the Information Age by Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman

A book about Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics. Cybernetics is Greek and the Latin is Gubernator, hence governor, which controls the speed of an engine by negative feedback. Cybernetics is system control.

Wiener was a polyglot genius, a child wonder, possibly the smartest boy in the world at the time. He went on to scientific greatness despite the persistent bipolar disorder which plagued him and an obsessive controlling wife who caused serious family troubles and alienated Wiener from his most talented collaborators, causing serious problems discussed in agonizing and voluminous detail in the book, almost ruining it.

Weiner, however, was a true genius and a legend at MIT. He invented cybernetics (unless you give proper credit to On Governors by my favorite scientist, James Clerk Maxwell). He was at Aberdeen Ballistic proving grounds, the 'Los Alamos' of WWI. He used statistical methods to extend Einstein's explanation of Brownian motion. He developed mathematical methods of measuring communication that were popularized by Shannon, who got all the credit. Decades too soon he recommended using vacuum tubes for a digital computer in the 1920s, but was rejected by Vannevar Bush. He had an idea for optical computing decades before it became feasible. And he recommended continued use and research on analog computing, which only now has recaptured interest.

His cybernetics research led to 'circular causality' and machines behaving 'with purpose,' an affront to reductionist philosophers. He formed a teleology society and studied brain nerve networks. He proposed that entropy and information are negatives of one another, information measuring order and entropy measuring disorder. He wrote a novel called The Tempter, a retelling of Faust in the technological age. He predicted that nucleic acids would be used in machines. He predicted 3-D electronic circuits.

The Limits of Science by P. G. Medawar

A classic discussion by a scientist with impeccable credentials. Debunks the myth of the "scientific method" as the way science is done.

He makes a case for the limits of science and that at times true inferences have come from false premises.

Science cannot answer questions about origins and meaning of existence.

A good book to go back to from time to time.

The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel

This is a popular-level, well-written story of investigation of evolution and science. Its main value is accessibility and exposure to seminal thinkers who understand the limits of science and the weaknesses of neo-Darwinism. It is full of revealing quotes on both sides. It makes clear that to say that science is the only "begettor of truth" (Richard Lewontin) is self-contradictory since this thesis itself is not testable by the scientific method. William Lane Craig, Robin Collins, Jay Wesley Richards, Stephen C. Meyer, Alvin Platinga are all featured and interviewed or quoted. Good endnotes and bibliography. Would make a good enjoyable class book.

Evolution as a Religion by Mary Midgley

This book by a prominent professor of philosophy in England is tremendously insightful. Her refreshing perspective on religion as a historical and universal phenomenon and her common sense view of how people think and create a world-picture ring true.

But the best parts of the book deal with science. Science narrowly defined cannot speak to values and morals and systems of thought, but scientists like Dawkins do speak this way while denying that they do. She carefully and effectively quotes them, heaping the most scorn on the "selfish gene."

She defends science that is defined broadly and admits its metaphysical underpinnings. She is not a Christian, though raised in a Christian family, but she thinks religion is a part of human nature. She cares deeply about animals and the environment. She writes that Darwin himself avoided the dangers of his followers and had a better view of science than some who invoke his name. She demolishes Spencer and his ilk. Her feud with Dawkins is decades long and her attacks so vigorous she once had to apologize to him. For my part I find her criticisms of science making religious statements intriguing and her rejection of some scientists' denials that they have metaphysical presuppositions utterly convincing. Scientists who hold this view have a mountain of disconnected "facts" and nothing more.

A Way of Life by Sir William Osler

This is a collection of essays by Osler, considered by many to be the finest physician ever. He was a lover of books and a student of the classics. His lectures are brimming with erudition.

He has wonderful quotes from the sages of old and adds his own, such as "It is astonishing with how little reading a doctor can practise medicine, but it is not astonishing how badly he may do it."

Or, "But when one considers the unending making of books, who doesn't sigh for the happy days of that thrice happy Sir William Browne, whose pocket library sufficed for his life's needs, drawing from a Greek testament his divinity, from the aphorisms of Hippocrates his medicine, and from an Elzivir Horace his good sense and vivacity."

His favorite book of thousands was Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne, about which and whom he was a world authority. Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton was another favorite. The essay on Servetus is very interesting, and unsettling as our revered Calvin sentenced him to death.

The essay A Way of Life is revealing and instructive and evokes a past era of medicine and family life but has much to commend it, particularly living in the present moment, not the past or future.

A brief essay on the bookworm (insect) is a propos and clever.

The Equation that Couldn't be Solved by Mario Livio

This book is about symmetry, a concept purported to be as basic as anything in mathematics and perhaps in physics and biology as well. This concept is approached and understood through the mathematical concept of groups. What might be dry and convoluted is made compelling and arresting by the story of the centuries of search for the solution of higher-order polynomial equations finally solved by using symmetry. The discovery of groups is described in the bizarre life and tragic death of Galois. Except for a diversion into musical symmetry and quantum mechanics and string theory, which rarely interest me, the book is delightful and even surprising. Livio has a gift for explanations that don't seem simplistic though I am sure he is having to restrain himself throughout the book not to launch into an aria of equations. To make group theory interesting is no small achievement. A book I might like to own.

Six Degrees by Duncan J. Watts

This is an interesting, accessible discussion of networks (graphs). I had started Watts's Small Worlds and found it much too hard, and thankfully happened on Six Degrees, which covers many of the same ideas in a clear engaging way. This is a connected age, he says, and we need a science of networks. He covers random networks, small-world networks, scale free networks. He discusses small world searches, epidemics, computer viruses, social cascades.

The book is about the meeting of the theoretical and the practical. It is about a mathematics rooted in relationships, which as such is interesting, essential, and intractable.

The Question of God by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.

Nicholi teaches a course at Harvard Medical School about Freud and Lewis. This book is an outgrowth of years of presenting this course.

Though approaching the great questions of life from opposite directions, these two great men show interesting similarities.

We found the parts about Freud even more interesting since we knew less about him and though we agreed more with Lewis's views found Freud a surprisingly sympathetic figure.

Though Freud espoused sexual liberty, he himself lived a very conventional monogamous life. Freud suffered prejudice and racism. He lost many of his loved ones, including children, and he had a painful mouth cancer that tormented him for years, eventually causing his terminal illness. He died from physician-assisted suicide.

Lewis had suffered the early death of his mother. His father never recovered from her death. Lewis had extremely terrifying war experiences in the trenches of World War I.

May 2007

The Book Nobody Read by Owen Gingerich

Subtitled "Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus." Gingerich writes about his quest to find every first and second edition of De revolutionibus by Copernicus. The book covers astronomy, cosmology, printing, and the tracing and collecting of rare books. Gingerich has learned everything imaginable about each remaining copy of Copernicus's book by traveling throughout the world, examining, measureing and photographing every known copy. The book is filled with interesting stories of books lost and found, stolen and recovered, and special emphasis is on annotations by readers who proved the title of this book false.

The Language of Life by Debra Neihoff

This book held promise of an exploration of "language" in communication among bacteria and organisms, and among cells in an organism. Here and there in the book there are glimpses of this. However, all in all the entire book is just a use of the metaphor of language to explain or describe in a quite engaging way how living things work. The author uses this metaphor and her considerable rhetorical skills to keep our interest through the maze of complexity.

This book caused me to hope for a far better, much more difficult feat: to tease out what is really communication and to explore lexicon, syntax, and meaning. Do bacteria "speak" to each other? Are there messages that are more than a key in a lock or a concentration gradient?

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

Mitzi and I read this doing dishes. Our first exposure to Wendell Berry, it was a treat. A story of returning to one's roots and having a relation to land and local life that is healthy and nurturing and a view of the toxicity of much of what people aspire to. There is a worship of creation that is based in wonder and awe and is not a worship of creatures. There is an opening here for God but not for a toxic religion. Jayber has a humility of life that is warm and winsome. He is a barber in a small town, in love with a married woman in town who is unaware of his love. Over many years he remains faithful to this love, never even telling her.

Next by Michael Crichton

Enjoyable read which brings up a lot of credible questions. Also a critique of science and ethics. A bit "over the top" but to a good effect. I think he raises consciousness in a direction that might be missed otherwise. There may be an unholy alliance between the "Left" and Biotech!

The Jasons by Ann Finkbeiner

This is an interesting group of scientists and writing about them must have been difficult. The men themselves are somewhat elusive and their projects secret and many still classified. That said, the emphasis of the book is the theme of moral equivocation, of turning a blind eye to the evil science can do or being seduced by the lure of scientific inquiry. While interesting and important, it should just be a part of the book instead of most of it.

Ever Since Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould

A series of essays, useful because Gould, who seemingly has impeccable evolutionary credentials, seems to see a myriad of problems with standard evolutionary models. He seems to be looking for a way out without leaving the "reservation." His defense of evolution is spirited but unconvincing. His criticism of parts of standard theory is surprisingly pointed. While disagreeing with other non-evolutionary views he is patient and respectful. His view of the scientific enterprise and its own dogma is disarmingly frank and trenchant. I am sure many in the evolutionary camp are not mourning his passing. Myself, after reading this, will miss him.

Bleachers by John Grisham

Fun story, evocative about small-town life, football, looking back, and about the inscrutability of paths not taken.

Bleachers by John Grisham

Fun story, evocative about small-town life, football, looking back, and about the inscrutability of paths not taken.

The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey

Using a thief and his story of stealing maps and weaving a web of themes, this book is a pleasant surprise. The world of map collecting leads to the history of maps, world exploration, and mapping technology. As the search deepens and the thief who refused to be interviewed for the book is evaluated, it becomes more and more psychological but the author even makes this somewhat interesting. In summary, while not a masterpiece, the writing is good, the subject interesting, and the interweaving stories are delightful.

The Silicon Eye by George Gilder

The story of an idea slightly head of its time and a clever technology surpassed by a lesser brute force solution. It is interesting that the brain's solution to sight is better but the more digital solution is easier and, given less constraints, cheaper. Very reminiscent of Soul of a New Machine, which chronicles very smart people succeeding but failing as well.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Simply delightful! With rich fun language, wonderful characters. Masterful use of words and a spinning of stories. Very clever use of idiomatic speech. Fantasy with truth and nobility mixed with happy silliness. There are deeper truths here and a childlike view of life's dark places.

Small Things Considered by Henry Petroski

Design is a characteristic of all "things." According to Petroski, there is no "perfect" design. Interestingly written with wonderful examples of grocery bags, stairs, potato peelers. And a sad paragraph about the Museum of Science and Industry's new basement entrance. Toothbrushes, pizza box supports, light switches, ease or complicate our lives.

Defining the Wind by Scott Huber

Beaufort was a seaman and nautical chart hydrologist. Among his many accomplishments was the development by borrowing and enhancing and the later adjustments by others of an observational scale of wind velocity. The author highlights the importance of observation in a world of meters and gauges. The scale is also useful, practical. The descriptions are perfect in economy and evoke helpful images. They are science and poetry at their best.

Godless by Ann Coulter

Taking no prisoners, Coulter skewers the left with wit, precision and force. All the chapters are interesting but the treatment of Darwinism (Darwiniacs) is really good. She sketches out the issues well and dissects their rhetoric and lack of argument. She ends with a moral flourish that ties the argument of the book together. The first paragraph summarizes the argument, the last shows what is at stake.

10-26-2006 Mediterranean cruise

The Mystery of Capital - Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando DeSoto

DeSoto claims that easy access of everyone, rich and poor, to the national system of legal property ownership makes the adding of value and business formation and accumulation of assets possible. He says in Peru, Haiti, and other places he has investigated, it is virtually impossible to acquire legal status for property and businesses unless you are in the "bell jar" (elite). Those in the bell jar can't see the dilemma of those outside and don't want to make it easy for them. Most developing and former communist countries want to impose legal ownership from top down. DeSoto has analyzed the rather recent success of Western countries who recognized local "non-legal" titles and agreements and went bottom-up. This is the only way to succeed, he says. "Protestant ethic" explanations are spurious.

The Man who Changed Everything by Basil Mahon

A book about James Clerk Maxwell, one of the most brilliant physicists of all time. Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism and mathematically proved the electromagnetic spectrum, making radio and broadcasting possible and predicting radiation of all types. He applied field equations, was an early topologist, proved that light was an electromagnetic phenomenon. Quantitatively measured colors. Measured the color vision of the eye. Took the first color picture. Started the Cavendish lab. His equations were the basis for relativity and quantum mechanics. He introduced statistical methods to physics. He was a devout Christian and a kind and humor-loving man. Married, he had no children.

Cover her Face by P.D. James

An interesting murder mystery we read to each other during dishes. Interesting English setting and the usual misdirection and surprises. The detective is very good but enjoyably lacks any super powers.

Darwin (a Norton Critical Edition) edited by Philip Appleman

This is a good collection of primary sources of Darwin himself, his contemporaries, his critics and defenders, and more recent critical encounters. It is interesting and instructive that many current criticisms of Darwinism are unchanged from his early critics and many were anticipated by Darwin himself. The discussion of Darwinism requires an idea about what science is and how it works. Teilhard is interesting and introduces "complexification." His evolution is directional it seems. The book includes essays on evolutionary philosophy, psychology, theology. Spencer applied Darwinism to society and this is fraught with danger. Ethics in a Darwinian world is trapped in the hypothalamic-limbic system, which once invoked seems to make the pen and paper irrelevant. And when the talk turns to Darwinian anthropology and man modifying selection pressures it seems the pace of geological time is forgotten and our short span is overvalued. But if they were consistent and gave the trilobite its just evolutionary weight according to its lifespan as a species, we could stop writing about evolution present and future since we are too close and short-lived to have anything to say.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

This is a very thought-provoking book about Paul Farmer and his vision of health for the poor of Haiti and the world. Farmer, who I can't help both admiring and disliking, is a leftist who refuses to accept a different standard for care of the poor. Working in perhaps the most fatalistic settings on earth he refuses to give in to such forces. Stirring up a cloud of guilt wherever he goes, he scolds, goads, charms, even steals to promote his vision for his patients. And who are his patients? Like the question "who is my neighbor," everyone who presents to him is his patient. The world has much to learn from Farmer (not that his ideas are new). I have much to learn or at least think about because of him. I would say that he is selective in his objects of scorn. Surely he is blind to the evils of Aristide; in fact, he is willing to dance with the devil for the sake of his patients. Like Haitian voodoo, he borrows just enough of religion to serve as a veneer.

Infinite Ascent by David Berlinski

This is a fresh, concise and interesting trip through mathematics. What is particularly wonderful about the book is the logical progression from one area to the next, a historical and logical progression that is even aesthetically pleasing. The topics are all seminal, presented with admiration and delight. As always, Berlinski writes with wit and whimsy!

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

A thoroughly delightful and wise book about a female detective "PI" in Botswana. Full of culture and love of Africa. It is a lot of fun and emotionally fulfilling. Highly recommended.

Out of My Life and Thought by Albert Schweitzer

This is a short autobiography that is also a brief review of his major ideas. It is interesting about his view of Jesus as a mistaken figure who thought he would be the Messiah and was mistaken. He sees Christianity as an ethical system and later espouses "reverence for life" as a unifying principle linking the great faiths. His upbringing, his obvious brilliance, his desire to follow Jesus and renounce his fame made him more famous. It is interesting how his rejection of the Gospel of John to me seems to have determined his intellectual "fate." He was a man of astonishing intellect, great stamina and courage. His briefly-mentioned encounters with orthodox believers are described with warmth but condescension. After deconstructing the Gospels and being their arbiter, there was no turning back!

The Know-It-All by A. J. Jacobs

This is a fun book about a journalist who read the Encyclopedia Britannica cover to cover. It is surprisingly interesting and quite funny. Many interesting facts and trivia.

Embryo Factory by Rev. Richard A. Humphrey and Dr. Loren J. Humphrey

An interesting story by my former pastor. Colorful southern dialect but the orthography can mislead as the dialect can be engaging but if read wrong can be jarring. The ethical issues are brought forward, I enjoyed the prolife stand but perhaps another reader would see it differently. A good tale with good characters but some better editing would have helped.

Kepler's Conjecture by George Szpiro

This book explores in depth the packing problem of spheres, which appears so simple and yet has only recently been solved. Because it begins with an easily-understood problem and with good writing progresses from there, it can go deep and yet keep interest. It is historical, witty, and has fairly difficult math kept to the appendix.

The Gutenberg Revolution by John Man

A nice little book in an old font about the birth of printing, its personalities, and its history and effects. It makes many interesting points. The religious atmosphere is interesting. Islam didn't adopt printing, Greek was first printed in Italy. Printing made Luther's ascendancy possible; he was the first massive best-seller. The Gutenberg Bible is still a model of beauty and perfection. Gutenberg was supplanted at his moment (or rather just before) of greatest triumph.

The Secrets of the Vaulted Sky by David Berlinski

An engaging history of astrology and its relation to astronomy and science. Berlinski applies his eloquence and erudition. Taking no rhetorical prisoners, he shows how ideas change how mathematics rules and how little progress we have made in understanding causation and action at a distance. He forces us to face the possibility that our view of reality may to future scientists look like astrology or at least like Ptolemy.

Mercator by Nicholas Crane

The fascinating story of one of the great mapmakers of his or any time. Working carefully with limited data the world began to appear. Carefully separating error and fact and conjecture and gathering some data of his own, he beautifully brought a world together. This was done over many years in a hostile divided world of intrigue and shifting alliances. Imprisoned for his unspoken beliefs, he ran the gauntlet of his age surviving only with the help of Erasmus. It seems he was a quiet protestant who kept his thoughts to himself to do his work but left clues of his true feelings hidden in his work.

Information: The New Language of Science by Hans Christian von Baeyer

An attempt to make information the basic building block of science, even of matter, in the form of the qubit. The author tries to go past Shannon to include meaning of messages. In my opinion his explanation of Shannon is incomplete and his approach to message content is very vague. His discussion of Bayes is interesting and intriguing and may in fact be a mathematical path towards meaning in messages.

Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps by Peter Galison

A very good book about Poincaré who anticipated relativity but wouldn't give up "ether." This book makes a very good case that far from languishing bored in a patent office, Einstein took to the job, applied himself and perhaps even was stimulated in his thinking of time by patents for methods of coordinating distant clocks. Time is the subject of this book and simultaneity is the entrance to relativity. Well done.

State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Surprisingly interesting popular novel that is really an argument about global warming, science, and the politics of fear. Fun plot, long discussions which make thinking about the topic easy. Final notes about the author's own beliefs are interesting. Bibliography is probably very good.

Driver: Six Weeks in an Eighteen Wheeler by Phillip Wilson

Wilson graduates from driving school after being laid off from an engineering job and rides and drives for six weeks with "Trainer" all over the U.S. Everything you wanted to know about long-haul trucking. A good book - read this and you don't need to do it!

3:16 by Donald E. Knuth

This is a gem. A "stratified sampling" of the Bible done with great care, reverence and beauty. A concentration of intellect, care, attention and a virtuosity of thought, true piety. A feast of calligraphy and typography, but the real beauty is in the text. It is a spiritual journey through the Bible sampling but surprisingly comprehensive in depth and scope.

Electric Universe by David Bodanis

Good little book, well-written and rehash of much I have read before. Interested me about Faraday. Joseph Henry seems an interesting character, quite selfless it seems. The section on radar was most interesting. A good survey, but largely a review of other things I've read. Maxwell seems to lurk quietly and as a great but not well-imaged presence.

The Way of the Cell by Franklin M. Harold

Evolutionary cell biology. Definitely an orthodox evolutionary approach but very holistic and critical of reductionist approaches, especially molecular biology that ignores the organism. Discusses energetics and order and organization, thinks that evolution has a "direction." Very honest about disagreements among evolutionists and very strong on how far from explaining life we are. Completely rejects intelligent design but his arguments are very weak, almost empty gestures, by contrast his appeals to holism, direction, and organization skirt excitingly close to design, which he rejects out of hand with an "of course this doesn't mean ..." This book was so good that we bought it.

Predator by Patricia Cornwell

Not her best but not as bad as the reviews said. Characters don't seem to be growing or even changing.

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton

Another good enjoyable read, interesting characters, believable, a little bit of a contrived ending but vintage Grafton.

What Remains to be Discovered by John Maddox

This review of where science is and where it might be headed is valuable because the writer has had a view of science broad in scope like few other people. He is good at explaining things. His parting thoughts about realism, reductionism and what he considers thoroughly discredited idealism - makes one wonder what is an -ism if not an organizing principle or idea!

The Nature and Origins of Scientism by John Wellmuth, S.J.

Written in 1944 by the chairman of the Department of Philosophy of Loyola University, it is timely today. Is there a reliable knowledge apart from science? Does science free us from metaphysics?

To Be a Slave by Julius Lester

A Newbery honor book, written for children but not noticeably so to this reader. Mostly in slaves' own words, it is moving and heart-breaking. Not much more to say. Something everyone should read.

The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams

Evocative descriptions of patients and families with observation detail and psychological undertones. Much is occurring below the surface. The doctor treats, is the treatment, is treated, and succeeds, fails, and goes on changing and remaining the same, noble and human, caring and detached. A part of the drama, but looking on as well.

The Linguist and the Emperor by Daniel Myerson

An enjoyable account of the deciphering of hieroglyphics. Interesting insight into the personality of Napoleon, the persistence and brilliance of Champollion with interesting "subplots" such as the invasion of Egypt and war in Europe and the exile of Napoleon. Fascinating asides concerning Dr. Thomas Young, a brilliant physician physicist, Fourier of mathematical fame, and of course Denon.

The Prism and the Pendulum by Robert P. Crease

The ten most beautiful science experiments ever. Well-written, the ten best experiments are vividly explained and are very interesting. The interludes are less true to my mind but do show the ideas necessary to form a philosophy of science. It seems scientists can do science but don't really know how or why or what.

The Physician by Noah Gordon

Historical novel set in the middle ages with Arab medicine.

Honeymoon by James Patterson

Pure pulp.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

read 10/2005

This is a funny, well-written, quirky novel with the greatest characters and a serpentine but interesting plot. A Pulitzer prize winner and for good reason. A classic of a rare and unusual sort.

Krakatoa by Simon Winchester

read 9/2005

A very interesting book of history, geology, and science. the range and amount of information and the clues found around the world to calculate and quantify from a distance. Plate tectonics discovered only in the 60's and the rebirth of Anak Krakatoa are described, harbor wave records and natural gas tank pressure readings carefully preserved and newly interpreted. Matching times of observations when there was no standard time. A very fascinating book.

Above the Cry of Battle by Chuck Holsinger

read 6/2005

Basically about his pilgrimage as a soldier and missionary in the Philippines who was wonderfully delivered in war and then from bitterness towards the Japanese, and how God used this to help Filipinos.