Review: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Fascinating revealing guy who apparently was quite a jerk. I admire him for his innovations, ideals and accomplishement and letting excellent biographer Isaacson tell, apparently, the unvarnished truth. Along with new ways to be assinine, this book covers the growth of Apple and Pixar, two major, non-open source, American innovations that were highly profitable, praiseworthy and pure Jobs.



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Review: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



"...all mass movements strive to impose a fact proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. And, that that faith becomes the things the fanatic declines to see. He avers how startling it is to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible, and that faith manifests itself not in moving mountains, but in not seeing mountains move."
- Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

I am also reminded in reading some of George Washington's speeches today how much our Founding Fathers recoiled against the groupthink of party politics.



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Review: A History Of The English Speaking Peoples in 4 Volumes

A History Of The English Speaking Peoples in 4 Volumes by Winston S. Churchill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Although I inadvertanyl started with Vol. 4 in the summer, I finally finished reading the entire set today. This is something I have been wanting to do since I picked up the set for a sawbuck about a decade ago. Churchill's knowledge and passion for history makes this both a compelling and enlightening read.



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Review: The Age of Revolution

The Age of Revolution by Winston S. Churchill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Subtitled "The Age of Revolution" this 3rd volume in Churchill's "A History of the English Speaking Peoples" breathlessly covers with Winston's enthusiasm, erudition and insight a world at war from the rise of William of Orange (William III of England) to the decline of Napoleon and his final exile to remote St. Helena. In all this striving, war, and revolution, the American Revolution is merely a significant episode.




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Review: Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion by Janet Reitman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A fascinating inside look of the Church of Sceintology and it's history. I really recommend [b:Bare-Faced Messiah|1171794|Bare-Faced Messiah|Russel Miller|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|1159548] (my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/281212354), but this one is much more up to date and current, behind a religio-corporate history of the financial empire and not merely an L. Ron Hubbard biography. This book covers the broken families, psychotic breakdowns, deprivations of freedom and transformation from cult to real estate empire (didn't the Moonies make a similar apotheosis) in the post-Hubbard reign of king Thetan and narcissistic megalomaniac, David Miscavige.

Quite an amazing story of how this half-baked concretion of sci-fi, hypnotism, and Freud was sold world-wide by failed author Hubbard and persists today.

Reitman's book is based on a lot of Church records and ex- and current Scientologics interviews which also adds Scientological lifestories of the current and the disenchanted.

It also really explains the appeal to actors and artists.






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Review: Bare-Faced Messiah

Bare-Faced Messiah by Russel Miller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed this Scientology expose' that exposed L. Ron Hubbard as liar with more charisma and kindness who became a self-indulgent narcissitic commodore of his private fleet and one who bilked millions (billions) from the masses.

Perhaps you have to admire his chutzpah and the gullability of the lost souls, but [a:Janet Reitman|4550200|Janet Reitman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1308245552p2/4550200.jpg], author of [b:Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion] calls this classic unauthorized bio "rigorously researched" and such hers is even more so, I consider that high praise.



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Review: The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson: Library Edition

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson: Library Edition by Mark Twain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is a really great way to take in this manifold tale: a full cast presenting it like a play; as lively theater. Of course, if you are one of the ones that find the n-word in Huckleberry Finn marking it as worthy of banning, you really won't like this wide-eyed look at passing octoroons and a switched at birth slave/master pair. The exploration of character motivation, comedy capers and interweaving plots make this Tragedy the 19th Century equivalent of a Tarantino screenplay. The end is a delightful afterword by Twain explaining his original story idea and how it transmogrified. The fingerprint forensics theme is, I think, very forward-looking.



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Review: Bogart and Bacall

Bogart and Bacall by Joe Hyams

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a good picture of Bogart's rise and his life with Bacall by a journalist who knew the both fairly well. The book is in three parts: an interleaved story of both principals' youth and rise, their marriage and collaboration, Bacall's life after Bogie. It was most interesting to me how Bogie's success was despite his own anti-social behavior throwing away opportunity and chances while living his adult life as a functional alcoholic.



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Review: In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir

In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir by Dick Cheney

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The narrarator Edward Herrmann is very good and always sounds like John Lithgow, to me.

Anyway, love him or hate him, Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney was part of national government during several pivotal times: from post-Cold War tensions with North Korea, etc., the first Gulf War to 9/11 and its aftermath. Cheney admits to witnessing and being involved in the occasional government misstep, but there is really no serious self-evaluation here. I was surprised at the negative comments on Powell, Rice and even "W", though. (Cheney feels strongly that Bush should havae pardoned Scooter Libby, and I can see his point.)



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Review: Cats, Dogs & Other Rabbits: The Extraordinary World of Harry Whittier Frees

Cats, Dogs & Other Rabbits: The Extraordinary World of Harry Whittier Frees by Harry Whittier Frees

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This beautiful, small book is not actually a work by Harry Whittier Frees, but rather the British publication of an English translation of a French work celebrating the work of the obscure American animal photographer. Frees' postcards were very popular and comprised "Cats, Dogs & Other Rabbits" posed in scenese. It's really quite amazing and unforgettable. Accompanying the pictures is a few pages of biographical text.



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Review: A Course in Set Theory

A Course in Set Theory by Ernest Schimmerling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is an excellent, self-contained outline suitable for a one-semester introductory course. Backed up by lecture, I can see this succeeding very well. I am more concerned for the independent reader looking for a self-paced introduction and even having suitable mathematical background. The exercises have no solutions, but there are strategic hints and they tie so well to the relevant text that I see no problem there. Rather, I would have two small improvements. First a more thorough, lengthy index and secondly the foundational ZFC should be numbered definitions as an aid to when they are referred to later in the text.

[Look for my complete review at MAA Reviews: http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/19/]



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Review: Richard III

Richard III by William Shakespeare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Just read this edition of the R3 tonite while Al Pacino guided me through its mysteries through his star-studded doc "Looking for Richard"

A nice Kindle edition, currently free on Amazon, of this apex Shakespear tragedy featuring his murderour, deformed and hopeless villain Richard, Duke of Gloucester.



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Review: The Bondswoman's Narrative

The Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This audiobook is framed by a forward from and then interview with editor and discoverer Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of what he purports to be an unprecedented historical and literary event, possibly the first novel by a black woman anywhere, maybe even a female former African-American slave. The story itself is part Gothic ghost tale, melodramatic adventure novel and in other ways very period although parts come across as modern and innovative to me.

Personally, I felt the book was more likely written by an educated white novelist with abolitionist leanings and slavery primary sources, but he research and argument of the added interview makes a compelling case for Gates' view.



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