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.