Chris
It was okay for an easy bedtime read. The plot is suspenseful, yet also predictable. Hmm. But it's too sketchy, due to Patterson's typical style, which consists of a multitude of very short chapters that can't possibly fully develop the defining features of good literature. It goes down easy, but leaves nothing behind. At least you are able to finish a chapter before nodding off. Hey, it's Patterson, and I didn't expect anything more.
God-awful. I didn't care one bit about Irvine's personal issues. I expected to read about her experiences with the Mormon religion. Sure, there is some pretty damning content on that, but it all eventually is buried by her need to overshare her miserable life.
As the ORV's tear up more and more of the desert landscape, and her self-admitted hormonal (her word) problems worsen, by the end you find yourself deep down some dark depressing hole wondering what happened to the desert sunshine. What is the purpose of this book other than a selfish groping for her readers' sympathy?
For a leaner and more literary evocation of the same desert's beauty, and a stronger polemic against its destruction, read Abbey's Desert Solitaire instead. It's a permanent classic which will far outlive the inevitable end of the American desert wilderness. I suspect, in fact, Solitaire will be its final epitaph, despite all the later derivative works by authors who never experienced what Abbey did back in 1956-57. That's gone forever now.
This companion is an essential guide to understanding to endless references and allusions in Gravity's Rainbow. No matter how smart or well-read any reader is, there is no way anyone will understand every detail in that amazing book.
Weisenburger deals masterfully with the endless cultural, religious, psychological, mythological, Tarot, and other non-technical details in GR. However, with the scientific and engineering theories and methods, it is much less successful and there are many errors or misalignments with what Pynchon intended.
But with the mathematical content? Forget it. Almost all such references in this companion are at least misleading, and many are simply wrong. Weisenburger is often confused between parabolas and circles, thus embarrassingly misunderstands these two primary symbols in GR. Regarding the elementary calculus Pynchon includes, the companion is worthless, providing only a few words which will comfort, but mislead, the reader.
I used the companion during my second read of GR, the first was deliberately done cold turkey to see how I could manage it, and I certainly missed a great deal of understanding. With my second reading, I read the companion's entry prior to or immediately after each individual episode. That was usually followed by another reading of the GR episode itself. This was entirely effective, resolving almost all of the details, leaving only the larger interpretation to me, as befits my status as a cognitive human. (I really wish I could get the specter of AI out of my mind!)
Fortunately, even with the companion's errors, it is unlikely that a reader of GR will care: the wrongs will simply dissolve into the churning substance of its text.
Almost entirely obvious material and I didn't need any book to teach me this. The biggest, and unforgiveable, problem with this book is Jacobs's admiration of Megan Phelps-Roper, the infamous anti-gay hate monger of the Westboro Baptist Church. I'm not going to give her any time here; look it up if you don't know who she is, or the evil church which she represented. DNF after that.
This is a good overview of Greek and Roman bodies, as illuminated by sculpture and mythology, and characterized by surviving ancient texts. For such as those bodies in power, for whom most of the surviving art was created, it's not a huge challenge. She surveys these artifacts to give us an idea what the images meant in essentially anatomical terms, and how they related to the larger society in which they were created. Health, politics, sex, family, and illusion are all key topics which she covers.
But for hoi polloi or plebs, us ordinary bodies, it is a much greater challenge. She has little to say, other than extrapolating from the upper crust down to the rabble, as many other historians have already done. It's not her fault, of course, as little evidence of anything about the common people in Greece and Rome survives (even less in Egypt, not covered herein, but would have been welcome). I'm still waiting for that story, the undiscovered, transcendent treasure of history, one far more important than the toing and froing of armies, or of the scandalous habits of emperors. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that we'll ever know.
A beautifully produced book with coated paper, full-color illustrations conveniently in line with the text, and a heavyweight solid binding. It's nice to see quality books like this still being made.
Generally a disappointment and too casual in tone. While it does give some interesting context and fills in some gaps of what a Roman emperor did on the job, the rating was brought down by unwelcome biases and errors. Rather than list them here, please refer to an excellent Goodreads review here: socraticgadfly
This is a story of the destruction of democracy by right-wing fascists, one that needs to be told over and over again. Lynch's book follows directly in the tradition of the well-known dystopian novels [b: 1984 61439040 1984 George Orwell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1657781256l/61439040.SX50.jpg 153313] and [b: The Handmaid's Tale 38447 The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) Margaret Atwood https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578028274l/38447.SY75.jpg 1119185] as well as the lesser known and even more relevant [b: Christian Nation: A Novel 18012454 Christian Nation A Novel Frederic C. Rich https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1372108072l/18012454.SY75.jpg 22251277]. Lynch chooses to set his version during the rise of deadly nationalism in the present-day Republic of Ireland, and the resulting outbreak of civil war.Rather than focusing on the extreme right's rise to power, [b: Prophet Song 158875813 Prophet Song Paul Lynch https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689541792l/158875813.SY75.jpg 171510679] closely follows the destruction of one woman's family. Although this is a welcome addition to this dystopian genre, I would have liked more detail on how the democracy in Ireland was destroyed. It is these essentials that are precisely relevant to today's situation in the United States and several other countries being assaulted by nationalistic anti-democratic politics and forces.What we need now is a novel set in the contemporary U.S., picking up the divisive political situation as it exists now, and carrying it forward to its seemingly inevitable dark outcome. This new book would be of extreme relevance, and would serve, in a post-democratic U.S., as reminder that we knew where we were headed but could not stop it.
If you love mathematics and how it underpins geometry, logic, philosophy, game theory, computation, science, politics, society, and language, you'll enjoy this book. It assumes at least a general knowledge of math and takes interested readers on a more or less fascinating journey, depending on the reader's particular interests.
I particularly liked the chapters covering science and calculus, computation and language. But I bogged down in game theory, utility theory, and the social contract because I have never taken to those topics. I'll be happy if I never see another explanation of the Prisoner's Dilemma, and all the boring noise that it generates. Having appeared in countless books I've read over many years, it remains an impenetrable non-intuitive menace, despite its obvious mathematical truth.
Recently I was disappointed in Peter Sarris's new biography of Justinian because of a certain lack of objectivity. I picked up this one about Elagabalus curious to see if objectivity is possible with perhaps the most despised Roman emperor of all. And, yes, Martijn Icks is able to write what little is actually known about him, and then through careful textual analysis lays out how those few facts were twisted or adapted over the centuries to suit the morals or purposes of later writers.
Icks gives us, the readers, what we need to know to make our own judgments. This is how modern history writing should be done. Unlike Sarris, he is not afraid of his colleague's opinions because he doesn't expose his own.
Here is a complete and detailed biography of the controversial Roman emperor. Peter Sarris is an undisputed expert on Justinian and his Age, and a good writer. No quibble there.
But be aware: Sarris is a fanboy of the emperor in accepting his conservative crackdowns on non-Christians, non-believers, sexual “deviants”, and other so-called “sinners”. The human suffering caused by Justinian's beliefs and laws certainly is mentioned but receives a much shorter pro-forma treatment in order to be, or seem, objective.
Justinian has always been extremely polarizing along the religious divide. There is contention also on the value of his re-establishing the Roman empire at the cost of many thousands of lives, which was wastefully lost again only 100 years after his death.
More relevantly to us today, those religious issues and moral values regarding otherwise normal human behavior of which the emperor disapproved, were proscribed in his various legal codices, and became established permanently in European law to cause untold human suffering to this day.
Picking a side in certain hagiographies is expected, but it's unwelcome in modern histories which are usually more neutral. Sarris is certainly aware of this and issues a curious warning in the book's acknowledgements to other historians that they will not approve of the book: “Many of my colleagues will disagree with my analysis. But this book is not written for them. Rather, I present this study to the reading public...“
I admit to being insulted by this positioning. It's as if I, a member of the public, would not be critical of the book like an academic would, and would simply accept it as received wisdom. What's likely happening is that Sarris wants to paint Justinian as an inestimable boon to European civilization and religion but is wary of progressive criticism. Since modern academia rightly prefers a neutral stance, and one cutting through centuries of religious bias, they likely would object if this were a peer-reviewed work.
I would have rather had a book more respectful of the intelligent “reading public.”
A serviceable biography. I did like the blending of physics theory with Feynman's life. And at a surprisingly high level for a popular work. Still, if you are genuinely interested in Feynman, nothing can surpass his pseudo-biographical collection of anecdotes in the two books published just before and after his death in 1988: [b:Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! 35167685 “Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious Character Richard P. Feynman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504936953l/35167685.SX50.jpg 321174] and [b: What Do You Care What Other People Think? 35167718 “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” Further Adventures of a Curious Character Richard P. Feynman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1516068365l/35167718.SY75.jpg 54737] In these you will truly discover Feynman's genius, humor, uniqueness and humanity.
This book is one of the most banned books now around the country. The Republicans hate it, naturally, as they do anything that doesn't fit within their narrow, intolerant, hate-filled view of humanity. Of course, it's not at all controversial if you have an open mind not ruined by political and religious indoctrination/brainwashing.
I'm sure its banning will attract many more readers than it would have otherwise, as such a thing always does.
A straightforward and fascinating account of the artistic and technical history of the first studio recording of the complete Wagner's Ring. The project took a full seven years to complete, 1958-1965, due to record company reluctance and the tight schedules of the singers and orchestra.
No computers or any form of digital signal processing was involved at any stage of recording through pressing of the LPs. All steps were completely analog. It is astonishing that with a relatively simple slide mixer, a few high quality microphones, and two not very elaborate 1/4” (?) analog reel-to-reel tape recording/editing machines complete with mechanical tape cutter and splicer, Culshaw and his team created what many consider to be the greatest recording of the entire twentieth century judging by artistic merit and technical excellence. Whether or not you like Wagner or the Ring is not the point in that ranking.
There is much detail on interaction with the singers, record company management, Viennese and Austrian culture, and an unexpected very serious incident on the last recording day. Culshaw breaks out of his chronology in the final chapter with some startlingly true predictions for 1967, including large flat-panel TV's and streaming media accessed through computers.
On the other hand, he expected that classical music would maintain in its place at the center of American culture (along with other arts of course) and even increase in popularity due to better recordings, with the quality of his work pointing the way. Unfortunately, looking back now almost sixty years, his era was about the peak (1950's through the early 1970's) of classical music culture, for both performances and listeners, at least in America. Since then, it's been more about the dumbing-down of American culture and adapting to forced technological change, rather than the advancement of musical art.
That era also hosted the last crop of the truly great Wagnerian singers who could trace their technique back through teachers and conductors to the decades after Wagner and the early twentieth century. As another reviewer simply says, they were good then, not so good now.
Our culture has changed, probably irrevocably, but this music will survive to the end of time. Culshaw's landmark recording will remain ready for anyone who wants to step away from computer generated so-called music and frequent snippets of meaningless distraction, to listen to magnificent music in all its emotional depth and glorious length.
I should simply write “Good book. Read it.” But I'll add two comments.
First, I was annoyed by Price's frequent chatty advice of the form “I just wrote a lot of good stuff about the Vikings in this chapter, but since they did a lot of bad things too you shouldn't look to them as role models.” Well, yeah, but aren't historians/archaeologists trained not to apply current value judgements to other cultures, particularly ancient ones? Raping and pillaging likely seemed quite normal to the Vikings, as awful as it seems to us. I know that's a tough and controversial statement. Present the facts, don't advise us what to think, and let the readers draw their own conclusions.
Second, while I was encouraged by evidence on the ground that Price presents about queer identities among the Vikings, it's a bit overdone in a much too bright light. It's as if he's saying “Look at this! There were queers among the Vikings!” Well, yeah, no surprise. Just like every other human culture that has ever existed. Better to more calmly state the facts on the same level as all the heteronormative evidence. Present the queers the same way as everyone else, as normal.
Good book. Read it.
A beautiful, intelligent, and deeply emotional book. Hsu's language is welcome evidence that in these days of declining literacy, there still remain authors who are able to create a resonant text which stimulates a receptive mind, craving and desperate for some literary depth and beauty in a new world full of bland, meaningless, and demeaning media. Read this to learn how to love your friends, not your damn cell phones ... and also to experience the joy of creating and listening to mix tapes, thankfully coming back.
