Review: Differential Equations of My Young Years

Differential Equations of My Young Years by V.G. Maz'ya

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The achievements of Russian-Jewish mathematician Vladimir Maz’ya in analysis and the theory of partial differential equations including work on Sobolev spaces and counterexamples related to Hilbert's 19th and 20th Problems can be found documented in Wikipedia, his own published output, and more... A rich trove of photographs liven the text and also make this a brisk read. Maz’ya mentions and recommends many works of literature and art. Unfortunately, the translation of many is a near miss, as in “The Cat and the Owl” for Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussycat”.

Maz’ya’s recollections map a personal landscape of hopes realized and sorrows endured for a vivid picture of these times and this largely closed country. This memoir should be of interest to those looking for insight into daily life in Soviet Russia, especially life for Jewish families, as much if not more so than the author’s career as a mathematician.

(See my full review at MAA Reviews.)



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Review: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, Volume 1

Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, Volume 1 by Stephen Sorrell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Drawing on first hand interaction with imprisoned criminals, this fascinating work documents, details, and explains the ink of Russian professional criminal and underworld denizens. Stretching back to the 40s, this includes insignia marking "legitimate thieves" (think Thieve's guild members), criminal elite ruling class, POWs, and more including tattoos forcibly placed on prisoners to mark them for insubordination, stealing from other thieves (the rat-fink tat), or losing at cards (winner picks art and loser pays). Tattoos to mark sexual enslavement and redemption are here. Most fascinating to me was the recurrent theme ones (Misha, the bear with the squeeze box, etc.) and German POW tattoos (very Heil Hitler), anti-Communist/anti-Marxist ones, and the rich taxonomy of indica for a criminal's area of expertise or placement in the underworld hierarchy.

There is mostly art here, which unfortunately is all B&W. About a third or less is photographs, generally of torsor or whole individuals. The rest is pen renditions. Only the pen drawings have detailed, explanatory text.



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Review: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, Volume 1

Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, Volume 1 by Stephen Sorrell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Drawing on first hand interaction with imprisoned criminals, this fascinating work documents, details, and explains the ink of Russian professional criminal and underworld denizens. Stretching back to the 40s, this includes insignia marking "legitimate thieves" (think Thieve's guild members), criminal elite ruling class, POWs, and more including tattoos forcibly placed on prisoners to mark them for insubordination, stealing from other thieves (the rat-fink tat), or losing at cards (winner picks art and loser pays). Tattoos to mark sexual enslavement and redemption are here. Most fascinating to me was the recurrent theme ones (Misha, the bear with the squeeze box, etc.) and German POW tattoos (very Heil Hitler), anti-Communist/anti-Marxist ones, and the rich taxonomy of indica for a criminal's area of expertise or placement in the underworld hierarchy.



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Review: Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon

Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon by Garrison Keillor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Keillor impresses the hell out of with this creative, original word play and droll humour that seems to spring effortlessly, naturally, and eternally as resident historian and reported of Lake Woebegone. Parts of this reminds me of what I like most of [a:Tom Robbins|197|Tom Robbins|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1351102884p2/197.jpg]. Keillor, however, so constantly and continually spins ou tthe witticisms that at times it threatens to be tiring - I just have to set the book down for a bit and savor before I forget the impressions...



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Review: Folk Devils and Moral Panics

Folk Devils and Moral Panics by Stanley Cohen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This was a very disappointing read, as it is a Phd thesis bloated out to book length by lengthy preface material and other commentary and notations. Still, as to the '64-'66 Brighton Beach, etc. Mods vs. Rockers bank holiday riots, it appears the research was Much Ado About Nothing. There never was such riots. Incidental hooliganism was originally hyped in over reporting and probably had nothing to do with Mods or Rockers, just ennui and juvenile delinquency. The reporting drove Mods, Rockers, and spectators with spectators apparently being the most numerous out to the venues and anything that did happen after that was hardly a riot and just the unintended consequences of yellow journalism and a gullible public with nothing to do on holidays.



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Review: Columbine

Columbine by Dave Cullen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It is hard to imagine a book more definitive on the tragedy than this one, so I had to give it four starts. It has the timeline and details of the killer's attack (with all the ineffectual timed bombs and effective pipe bombs I didn't recall), the ineffectual and glacial police response (and cover up of pre-attack investigations) and the later life arcs of key survivors and participants. The attack is played out early on and something about this audiobook (maybe that it was spoke to me and not read by me) seemed almost excited, dare I say gleeful, about it. That was rather unsettling.

One thing the book makes clear is out these teens surprised law enforcement with their arsenal and the their level of weaponry. The point is made is that this contributed to a trend in police taking an active response to an active shooter. Now, in Ferguson, MO we see the pendulum has swung to far in the direction of militarization of the police.

While it was a minor point, I found this intriguing as part of the books aftermath coverage: parents paid out to victim families. In one case through insurance, in another not so much.



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Review: Playing President: My Close Ecounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton--and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush

Playing President: My Close Ecounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton--and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush by Robert Scheer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a collection of Scheer's interviews with and columns about presidents from Playboy and Los Angeles Times. Nixon & Reagan come across to me as wise and manipulative in the latter and gentler and more manipulated in the latter. More of a surprise to me as I recall a Reagan myth of goofy cowboy actor and drawing a straight line to senile befuddlement. Apparently, a shrewd operator acted betwixt. Nixon comes across more as Dubya to Kissinger's Karl Rove ... and who do we still have? Well, it is all thought-provoking these early, in-depth interviews with candidates campaigning for office. Carter squirming in his Playboy interview comes across as authentic and brave while Schneer commonly comes across as persnickety and needling. Clinton seems gracious to fawning and trying to get close to this left-wing scribe who seems coy and awed, both Bushes have the least revealing material and especially columns criticizing Bush (rightly in retrospect) for ignoring The Taliban, etc. seems to add nothing and only be here to move books.



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Review: Set Theory: With an Introduction to Real Point Sets

Set Theory: With an Introduction to Real Point Sets by Abhijit Dasgupta

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



...The concluding section of paradoxes and special axioms is cogent and enlightening standalone reading. At first glance, this would seem odd to have material that contributes to developing theory and staking the limits of its applicability segregated off in a near appendix. However, this fits the informal approach where the author develops ideas often untethered by any specific axiom system. The result is a pace that moves briskly to connect ideas typically chapters apart and allows at times a hint of enthusiasm to emerge, as in “…strangely enough, a one-to-one correspondence between the whole and the strictly smaller part is established by n ↔ n2, showing that the size of the part is equal to the size of the whole, not smaller!” Such use of adverbs and exclamations rarely ornament set theoretic texts. This work is a good introduction for two semesters of upper undergraduate study and is also a concise companion to any assigned text and indeed one I wish I had available to myself...

[See my entire review at MAA Reviews.]



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Review: Bulger On Trial: Boston's Most Notorious Gangster And The Pursuit Of Justice

Bulger On Trial: Boston's Most Notorious Gangster And The Pursuit Of Justice by David Boeri

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Boeri complies here his reporting from inside the courtroom of the trial that finally brought Bulger down. This is bookended with Whitey's criminal biography and the dramatis personae and list of victims as well as a time line.

it strikes me that the psychopath killer living and killing next door to his brother who rules politically all while corrupting the FBI's Connolly, etc. Well, someone should produce an opera on this!

I found it particularly chilling how Bulger was descriped as leaping, spider-link onto the victims he killed personally and them becomes relaxed, calm, and passive after.



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