Review: Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard P. Feynman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The audio on this first of these half-dozen historical physicals lectures is almost, but not quite, too poor to listen to. Soldier on, the rest is quite good and marked by Feynman's exuberant elucidations on the failings of classical mechanics and the explanatory powers of quantum mechanics. Highlights include, all of which really need video to get the chalkboard activity, why perpetual motion cannot exist, Heisenberg uncertainty, and the double-slit experiment.



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Review: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is a tale of heroic resolve, ably narrated by the plucky and articulate author. Ever since hearing her tale, I have been impressed with her courageous blogging and hope in the powers of education and I learn from this book she is as hopeful of communication, wanting to speak with and not punish her Taliban oppressors. The biggest thing I learned from this book is that with Malala, the apple did not fall far from the tree. Her father is the inspiring, education activist that gave her the beliefs and hopes that both support her and have endangered here in Pakistan's Swat Valley.

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Review: The Boys' Crusade

The Boys' Crusade by Paul Fussell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was a quick and easy read about WWII in the ETO with focus on young infantry recruits. What made it special was occasional examples of eloquence.

Two quotes I particularly like:

[Hitler] radioed Kluge: "I command the attack be prosecuted daringly and recklessly to the sea — regardless of risk... Greatest daring, determination, imagination must give wings to all echelons of command. Each and every man must believe in victory." (Phrases like "1 command," "give wings to," and "must believe" are pure Hitler, power nuttiness wedded to Viennese sentimentality.)


There were actually plenty of intelligence reports of strengthened German activity behind their line: heavy tank noise was heard and noted; spotter planes saw and brought back news of odd armored- vehicle concentrations hiding in forests. So the problem was not really paucity of evidence and data. It was, as so often, complacency and the lust for intellectual comfort overriding the meaning of evidence. The Americans' Ardennes intelligence failure takes its place in a long line of similar, apparently inexplicable modern events, like the failure of radar to convey that immense groups of Japanese planes were approaching Pearl Harbor.



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Review: The Pickering manuscript

The Pickering manuscript by William Blake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It is all good, but Auguries of Innocence is transcendent genius; a page conjured up from the Book of The Human Condition as if in a vision.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour...

...Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night...

Indeed!



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Review: The Boys' Crusade

The Boys' Crusade by Paul Fussell

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



Two quotes I particularly like:

[Hitler] radioed Kluge: "I command the attack be prosecuted daringly and recklessly to the sea — regardless of risk... Greatest daring, determination, imagination must give wings to all echelons of command. Each and every man must believe in victory." (Phrases like "1 command," "give wings to," and "must believe" are pure Hitler, power nuttiness wedded to Viennese sentimentality.)


There were actually plenty of intelligence reports of strengthened German activity behind their line: heavy tank noise was heard and noted; spotter planes saw and brought back news of odd armored- vehicle concentrations hiding in forests. So the problem was not really paucity of evidence and data. It was, as so often, complacency and the lust for intellectual comfort overriding the meaning of evidence. The Americans' Ardennes intelligence failure takes its place in a long line of similar, apparently inexplicable modern events, like the failure of radar to convey that immense groups of Japanese planes were approaching Pearl Harbor.



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Review: Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk by Massimo Pigliucci

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is basically a history of and paean to the scientific method. I was intrigued by the references to the philosophy of [a:Karl Popper|6211|Karl Popper|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1209255861p2/6211.jpg] (I must read some of his works) and specifically a deeper exploration of falsibility and his object of the Demarcation Problem, finding where science ends and whatever else there is begins. Whatever is out there beyond science is, basically, nonsense to Pigliucci and he holds forth for extensive attach on Creationism and ID which goes a bit long, I think. His history of paranormal research and specifically the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program established at Princeton University is very interesting. I have long wanted to read a history of the eugenics movement, it seems such a fascinating example of crowd delusion, and this work contains an extensive section on this topic.



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Review: Fucked Up & Photocopied: Instant Art of the Punk Rock Movement

Fucked Up & Photocopied: Instant Art of the Punk Rock Movement by Christopher T. Miller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Beautiful, high-quality images of punk rock flyers make up the bulk of this large paperback. Hardcover would have been better. The heavy, glossy pages are already pulling apart the spine after my first read. Mostly from a West Coast point of view, bands like Dead Kennedys, The Avengers, Black Flag get their own well-deserved pages with remembrances from band members, scenesters like [a:Brendan Mullen|51295|Brendan Mullen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1215290502p2/51295.jpg], etc. The final quarter or so is other scenes: Boston, The Midwest, Canada, etc.



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Review: High Heels & 18 Wheels: Confessions of a Lady Trucker

High Heels & 18 Wheels: Confessions of a Lady Trucker by Bobbie Cecchini

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a pretty remarkable tale of a woman that overcomes adversity to become a spunky trucker and eventually face the trials of arachnoiditis and the Kafkaesque Worker's Compensation. At the start of here life, mom's a prostitute that brings work home and dad's a low-level Mafia thug. It only goes downhill from there with abusive husbands, but eventually Bobbie takes charge and perseveres.



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Review: Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All Around Us

Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All Around Us by Oscar E Fernandez

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



...Most of the observations herein are prose, with an average of around one equation per page. For more ardent math enthusiasts, there are more rigorous appendixes on calculus fundamentals. Fernandez invites the reader along on this work day and telegraphs an enthusiasm for seeing calculus, with hints of differential equations, presented to him. This excitement will telegraph to the math enthusiast becoming acquainted with calculus through the author’s style, which is both lively and confident.

[See my entire review at MAA Reviews]



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Review: The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-08

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-08 by Bob Woodward

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Woodward's 4th book on Bush the warrior adds further evidence of Bush's incompetence and carelessness on the war in Iraq and general, global War on Terrorism. I am glad this was an abridged audiobook as it is getting tiring reading the evidence of how clueless and careless "W" was as a Commander-in-Chief.



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Review: The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a 50 Year Search

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a 50 Year Search by Martin Sixsmith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I was inspired to read this by the movie, so it is natural to compare the two. There is a lot about how the Michael Hess conversations and private life details are groundless. The author says as much in his prologue. I think he got carried away and the level of in-the-room over heard dialogue would not even be credible coming from [a:Bob Woodward|15441|Bob Woodward|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1214425041p2/15441.jpg]. Take that away and, like the movie, Anthony Lee-Michael Hess is a ghost, sought by the grieving mother Philomena Lee. Based more on the author's first-hand experiencing, we are left with outside pair of three acts: The institutional basis of "fallen women" as indentured servants and baby factories for remunerative adoptions and then skipping over a middle act of Hess biography we have the concluding act of Philomena's resolution and reconnection with her son.

This audiobook version has an afterword from Judi Dench about the book and movie treatment, all very positive.



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Review: Fugitive Poetry

Fugitive Poetry by Nathaniel Parker Willis

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



Years ago there was a band local to me, called Fugitive Poetry. I have their vinyl LP The Colours of the Poet. I played two of the songs I like the most on my show.

I figured their name was inspired by this book, and I like to read works that have inspired band, album, and song names.

The poetry is long is lines and light on rhymes and rhythm. There are pastoral poems, odes to God and beautiful mortals. If anything, there is an aching, yearning fairly consistent throughout about better lives and a more beautiful world as if glimpsed from a prison, or hoped for in an afterlife.



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Review: Beyond Survival: Building on the Hard Times - a POW's Inspiring Story

Beyond Survival: Building on the Hard Times - a POW's Inspiring Story by Captain Gerald Coffee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



One of the longest serving Vietnam POWs wrote one of the most compelling tales of POW survival I have read. It is really quite literary at time and is often refreshing honest. The story of routines and structure and keep sanity and hope are interesting, while the most cruel moment comes not from the torture, but the guards. They are convinced stressed dogs make better eating and cruelly corner and beat to death their canine dinner, puppies that are one of the things to observe through concealed cracks by nearly hopeless men. Surprising, they get to raise a bird "Charlie" and also making a brief appearance is John McCain. The author claims he survived as a "show prisoner" due to his father's Navy position.

It is very interesting to read Coffee's feelings on the growing anti-War movement, Fonda, and Bertrand Russell who he communicates with through a mysterious envoy. Stern stuff from one who felt dignity and betrayal.



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Review: The Bridge at Andau

The Bridge at Andau by James A. Michener

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I started reading this around the time of Putin's annexation of the Crimea, so it has been interesting reading about a valiant if hopeless uprising against the Communist Soviet Union that gave birth to teh KGB, which spawned Putin. The heroism and triumph, if short-lived is gripping, if hard to believe. Were really so many tanks destroyed with gasoline filled Molotov cocktails? The hard-fighting and wily youths, the grim laborers of Csepel all make for a memorable tale. Michener personalizes these stories by following named individuals: a youth caught up in the fighting, a AVO man (part of the police state apparatus) and gives us their back story, too.



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Review: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I noticed one reviewer roped in the Eleanor Roosevelt quote: "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." I think that is a good brush with which to paint this work. It mostly goes into the Democratic primaries and the Hillary-Barak contest and their personalities. It makes the case that Edwards' vanity (and philandering) and Clinton's inability to treat Barak as an equal caused those campaigns to founder. McCain-Palin is, justly, a third act and not gone into as much detail. Still, McCain comes across as even more of a loose canon unfettered by reality and Palin even more clueless than came across to me through news reports and debates of the time. Well, to go back to the quote, this is how electioneering is done in American today; more like People magazine than [b:The Federalist Papers|110331|The Federalist Papers|Alexander Hamilton|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327865541s/110331.jpg|707252] and it should be told that way.



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Review: Winter of His Discontent: Jack Kerouac in Detroit

Winter of His Discontent: Jack Kerouac in Detroit by John Cohassey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



An interesting, if matter-of-fact, overview of Kerouac's life focusing on his time in and orbit around Detroit (Grosse Pointe) and his first wife, Edie. Mostly biographical, this work brings in quotes from the scroll version of [b:On the Road|70401|On the Road|Jack Kerouac|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1395353795s/70401.jpg|1701188] and more of [a:Jack Kerouac|1742|Jack Kerouac|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1287257192p2/1742.jpg]'s earliest novels.



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