Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

November 20, 2015

Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts

Filed under: Science Fiction,Series — Randolph @ 10:39 am

Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts

This book started as a script for TV written by Douglas Adams. The script does not follow what we think of as Doctor Who cannon. Production did start on an episode (or movie?) but (apparently) not completed. Gareth Roberts took the script and expanded it into a book.

The book is an adventure story, it seems to be based on the Tom Baker version of The Doctor, but it isn’t explicitly stated. It does have a good feel of Doctor Who, the deviations are pretty obvious and appear early, and it is easy to get past them and enjoy the story. The flavor of Douglas Adams is obvious, especially toward the end of the book.

The characters are interesting, although the relationship between the two primary human characters felt contrived. The plot is interesting and has enough twists to keep the interest up.

October 21, 2015

X-Men and Philosophy by William Irwin & Rebecca Housel

Filed under: Fantasy,Philosophy — Randolph @ 5:13 pm

X-Men and Philosophy by William Irwin & Rebecca Housel

Another book in the Blackwell Philosophy and pop Culture Series focusing on the X-Men. This book uses the X-Men comics and movies to introduce several philosophical concepts. Different authors touch on topics such as the meaning of being a person or mutant and what we can know about mutants – an idea that easily extrapolates to classes or cultures. Others touch on morality, identity, women’s issues, synthetic biology, among others.

Authors will help you see Magneto’s point of view, and why Magneto and Xavier can maintain a strong friendship in spite of significant philosophical differences. What is the human role, and what is the meaning of race.

As usual, I’ve found all of these books easy to read and interesting. They each introduce philosophical concepts using icons of pop culture making them easy-to understand and to remember.

In general, I thought this book had better philosophy than others, I found it more interesting. A couple of authors seemed to talk more about the X-Men than of philosophy, but they were interesting to read as well.

October 3, 2015

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

Filed under: Mystery,Series — Randolph @ 8:19 pm

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

A woman, Lucky Strike, approaches Dr. Brennan with questions about a disappearance, a case that was closed years ago. The woman is a web sleuth, a hobbyist detective who spends a lot of her free time investigating closed cases and discussing them on the internet.

The woman comes across as a nut, but naturally provides Temperance enough to become curious, which leads into twisty passages of an investigation.

Ramsey, a sheriff she has to deal with, is a reluctant partner, and a comes across as a bit of a chauvinist. He contrast a bit with Andrew Ryan, who wants to get married. Then things get complicated with Lucky is killed.

The solution to this one surprised me, and the story was very good, I looked for those moments when I could read a few pages. This is better than some of the more recent books, a very good read.

September 8, 2015

Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay

Filed under: Fantasy,Series — Randolph @ 8:08 am

Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay

The book is set in a fantasy-world equivalent of Byzantium. The title refers to going to Sarantium in order to find opportunity or the cost of failure in not standing up to that opportunity.

The protagonist is a mosaicist who goes to Sarantium in place of his master to build a mosaic for the King. There is some courtly intrigue and it has interesting and well-developed characters.

I’m not sure why it’s set in a fantasy setting, as the fantastic elements seems of negligible importance and could have been achieved by other means. It could easily have been set in Rome or Byzantium, among other ancient cultures.

The book got off to a slow start, but became much more interesting when the protagonist reached Sarantium.

August 25, 2015

Brotherhood of the Revolution: How America’s Founders Forged a New Nation… by Joseph J. Ellis

Filed under: History — Randolph @ 7:26 am

Brotherhood of the Revolution: How America's Founders Forged a New Nation… by Joseph J. Ellis

Professor Joseph Ellis tells the story of the founding of the US through the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He details the political struggles and backstories of the events, explaining the turmoil and disagreements on many of the issues, including the issue of slavery.

This is a should-hear series of lectures for all adults in the US. It provides a good basis for understanding our constitution and the founding fathers.

July 6, 2015

Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Filed under: Humor — Randolph @ 8:48 pm

Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

This is a full novel, most Jeeves stories I’ve read were short stories. In this story, Bertie’s aunt is trying to get a donation from another gentleman. Bertie gets into his usual trouble, being accused of stealing from the same gentleman.

Bertie’s friend, Ginger is engaged to Bertie’s cousin Florence, who has encouraged him to run for the House of Commons. But Ginger later decides that he actually loves another, but he cannot walk out on a commitment.

Then Bertie is trying to help a young woman who has something in her eye. Her fiancé walks in and threatens Bertie, who in his usual fashion, doesn’t understand. The young girl falls for Bertie, who wants nothing to do with her.

In comes Jeeves and solve all problems in one single action full of unforeseeable consequences and humor. The book is funny, in the typical style of Wodehouse. A good and moderately fast read.

June 21, 2015

The Wave Watcher’s Companion by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Filed under: Science — Randolph @ 7:59 pm

The Wave Watcher's Companion by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Gavin Pretor-Pinney discusses waves of many variety from a scientific perspective. Unlike most science books, this one is very readable. His prose is almost poetic at times, I found myself rereading a few sections for the imagery, not the science. And there wasn’t one metaphor – unless I just missed it.

The book is completely devoid of math. Still, it discusses details in a number of fields that help you to understand different phenomena. He starts and ends with ocean waves. He covers what drives them from their birth, what sustains them, and what give them their differing appearances and sizes. Different chapters discuss sound waves, supersonic flight, shock waves, light waves and more. In giving examples of different effects, he finds interesting trivia to fill the book.

One of the first things I noticed was that there is some italic text next to some paragraphs, partially indented into the text block. It seems to be fairly random at times, yet makes sense with respect to the paragraphs after having read it. My guess is that it would provide a memory assist when trying to either recall portions of the book or looking for a passage.

Overall, the book is very enjoyable and a moderately fast read. You don’t have to be a science nerd to enjoy it. If you are a science nerd, the lack of equations won’t be missed.

May 25, 2015

Three Roads To Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin

Filed under: Science — Randolph @ 11:21 am

Three Roads To Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin

This book provides an introduction to quantum gravity aimed at the general public. It provides three different approaches to quantum gravity, doing a decent job of discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each. The author discusses black holes and multiple universes in the journey.

His approach to each subject is historical, tracing development of key idea and briefly mentioning the people involved.

Overall the book is interesting and a rather light read. Although it is aimed at the general public, it is probably a little light for the people who would be interested in reading it.

May 3, 2015

Reality Check by David Brin

Filed under: Science Fiction,Uncategorized — Randolph @ 8:32 pm

Reality Check by David Brin

A rather dull, short story. It didn’t have time to develop anything of interest.

May 2, 2015

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Filed under: Fantasy,Humor — Randolph @ 8:54 am

It’s the end of the world, and things aren’t quite going as planned. The antichrist has been born into the world, unfortunately there was this mixup at the hospital. He is raised as a middle-class human only becoming aware of his powers.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, you know, War, Death, Famine, and Pollution. Their horses have become motorcycles, and they arrive with the intent of starting a nuclear war.

Now, Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon, aren’t happy with the end of the world. After 6000 years, they’ve grown accustom to it. So they team up to try and change the outcome.

Pratchett and Gaiman have teamed up to bring an excellent and unlikely story of the end of time. There are a lot of interesting character that help carry the book in various directions.

A fan of either author will enjoy this book. It is funny, light, and a fairly quick read.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress