Review: The Prophet

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The other day, a student told me he was a poetry fan. Since you don't hear that often from a mathematics student, I asked for more details and learned Kahlil Gibran was at the top of this list. So, I decided to take in the threescore pages of poetic fable myself.

The 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer draw from Maronite Christian, Islam, and Sufi mysticism. Apparently, his knowledge of Lebanon's bloody history, with its destructive factional struggles, strengthened his belief in the fundamental unity of religions, which his parents exemplified by welcoming people of various religions in their home. This polyglot spirituality resulted in a text that like all good religious texts is a moving and enlightening read that can mean anything to anyone.

I can feel a measured support for Epicureanism

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

and even a Stoicism and the careful, defensive tend-your-own-garden warning from Candide:

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of
the bee to gather honey of the flower

and calming assurance for those in an existential crisis:

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

Heck, a blame-the-victim law & order extremist will find refuge in:

The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,
And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.

Indeed, there is a recurrent theme of personal responsibility:

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever
springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?
...
Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Why not dream interpretation

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

and reincarnation

‘A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear
me.’

Something for everyone!

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Review: Meditations

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe you keep "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" or something in your workplace, but I get consolation and wisdom through pulling out passages like this when I need a perception tune-up: "Imagine everything who is grieved at anything or discontented to be like a pig which is sacrificed and kicks and screams." Now, that is fatalism on fire.

It is truly moving the humility and questioning and truth-seeking of this man of power and authority.

“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

“This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material? And what its causal nature (or form)? And what is it doing in the world? And how long does it subsist?”

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Review: A Treasury of Witchcraft

A Treasury of Witchcraft by Harry E. Wedeck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first obtained this book, I initially added it to the to-sell pile based on the tweet-length entries and my quick assessment of it as a dated, shallow and probably uninteresting pop occult encyclopedia. Then, I decided to look a little closer and it was drawn in from the initial epigram from "Song: Go and catch a falling star" by John Donne. Then, what I thought was an unsorted collection of entries came to be seen as topically related quotes and facts drawns from varied cultures and times, if all goetic. (There is a rich lexicon of witchy words here.) Also, there are many interesting, full-page B&W illustrations; woodcuts, Goya, etc. One thing that really spoke to me is the translations of ancient tablets from Assyria, Egypt, etc. where average people called out for magical assistance. Indeed, isn't magic a desperate attempt to actualize human will in a misunderstood and cruel world? Witches chants and incantations of nonsense alliteration and recipes for love philtres, etc. This can be dipped into anywhere and is a fascinating collection of arcane curiosa. Despite great breadth, the focus is on 14th - 16th Century Europe and magick varieties through the lens of Christianity.

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Review: College Algebra

College Algebra by Julie Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like most algebra texts of this level, I feel this lacks a proper set theory focus, particularly in defining and formatting solution _sets_ Other than that, it seems fine and adequate for a first year in college algebra.

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Review: Dune

Dune by Frank Herbert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

None other than Arthur C. Clarke says only The Lord of the Rings surpasses this and I have had other firsthand accounts of its superlative quality. Also people tell me “It's oh so better than the movie.” For all these reasons, I decided to take the plunge and see what I would think. well, I am not so impressed. I'm sure it is very innovative and pioneering for the fantasy genre, but I think the mock desert exoticism and imagined royalty isn't particularly visionary. I appreciate very much the glossary and other appendices; read them first. There is so much explicit narrative of internal monologues here -- which feels like a crutch -- that I can see how that would not transfer to the screen. much of this I did like, but not enough to think I will read Herbert again. The path of Paul (boring name) recalls to me the classic magic-messianic arc explored by Butler in The Myth of the Magus.

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Review: A Transition to Proof: An Introduction to Advanced Mathematics

A Transition to Proof: An Introduction to Advanced Mathematics by Neil R. Nicholson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Generally, I find works promising to guide the reader in constructing proofs and approaching advanced mathematics reside at either end of a spectrum. At one end, at least an advanced undergraduate is the target, at the other the material is too lacking in rigor for serious merit. Here, easily two thirds of the material on symbolic logic and writing proofs has value to the high school student planning to major in mathematics as well as correct any bad habits in the aforementioned advanced undergraduate..."

[Look for my entire review at MAA Reviews]

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Review: Total Recall Murders

Total Recall Murders by Mike Stowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"SON IMPLICATES PAIR IN '75 KILLING OF DAD
NOW 20, HE HAS 'TOTAL RECALL,' POLICE SAY"

New murder charges have been filed in a 15-year-old slaying based on the
recollections of the victim's son, who was 5 years old at the time.;
Authorities said the boy's mother and a former neighbor with whom police said
she was romantically linked were implicated by the "total recall" of John Mudd
Jr., who remembered the night of the killing in a conversation with an uncle
five months ago.

Allegheny County police issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Steven G.
Slutzker, the former neighbor who initially was charged in the shooting death
but who was not tried because of lack of evidence.; Arlene Mudd, the
child's mother, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of criminal homicide and
criminal conspiracy and held in the Allegheny County Jail.; At the time of
the shooting, family members would not allow police to question the child, now
20, about what he remembered seeing Dec. 28, 1975, the night his father was
found dead in the basement of the family's suburban Pittsburgh home here.;
The new evidence came to light in November when they received a call from
James Mudd, the victim's brother and the younger Mudd's uncle, police said.;
James Mudd told police his nephew began to relate to him all that he
remembered about the night his father, John Mudd Sr., then 28, was found dead
with six gunshot wounds to the head and chest.; The younger Mudd recalled
hearing seven "loud noises" and saw a man he identified as Slutzker walk from
the kitchen and into the living room, according to an affidavit.; Mudd
recognized Slutzker as "the man who he had seen trying to kiss his mother not
too long before his father was killed," the affidavit stated.; The younger
Mudd recalled looking down the cellar steps at his father's body and his
description of the victim's body matched a police photo of the murder scene.;
Arlene Mudd, 39, had blamed the slaying on a burglar.
-- Associated Press, Wednesday April 10, 1991

The book tells the story of the two decades case development and court action that led to Slutzker's conviction. The reporting and title suggest a complete, photographic recall. However, the realities are more vague, incomplete and hallucinatory becoming a considered rumination on recovered memory: a memory of a traumatic event (such as sexual abuse) experienced typically during childhood that is forgotten and then recalled many years later that is sometimes held to be an invalid or false remembrance generated by outside influence.

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Review: The Man Who Murdered My Mother: A Daughter's Journey of Seeking Justice

The Man Who Murdered My Mother: A Daughter's Journey of Seeking Justice by Tina Ann Healey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a moving and courageous telling of one woman's fight against a defensive and uncaring bureaucracy to find out the disposition of her mother's murderer. This is a quick, easy read done very personally - like she is relating it to a friend. Most of the content is the actual trial transcripts she ultimately succeeded in obtaining.

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Review: Challengers Crosswords Series Three #10

Challengers Crosswords Series Three #10 by Ned Webster
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A dated collection of too many antique topics, two-letter entries, foreign words, etc.

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Review: The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon

The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon by John Joseph
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon ably narrated by John Joseph would seem from the cover to be the inside story of NYC hardcore band The Cro-Mags. That band is not really core to the content until Chapter 12 and I would be surprised if it rises to 20% of content. Certainly tours, shows and recording is not the point here. This autobiography, by John "Bloodclot" Joseph recounts his hard times and spiritual redemption from a traumatic childhood in foster care, hard knocks in the gritty city and a music career under rapacious management.

Joseph, after rastafarianism from The Bad Brains, came across the works of Swami Prabhupāda and he writes,

If you ever read any of Srila Prabhupada’s books you’ll find out that what’s contained in their pages is revolutionary, because the real revolution is all bout throwing up the middle finger to this fucked up way of life and getting back to our original, blissful spiritual nature...

Not really preachy on the krishna-core front, Joseph's life AWOL from the Navy for several
years and living as a junky, bike messenger, and Bad Brains roady makes for a fascinating and engaging read.

The one "quarrel" I have with this audio edition is the frequent line repeats apparently not edited correctly when Joseph re-recorded a line.

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Review: The Louis Wain Kitten Book

The Louis Wain Kitten Book by Louis Wain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In Nick Cave's The Red Hand Files #54 Aug. 2019, he said, "When I first came to London, David [Tibet] gave me an education in Christian mysticism, as we bonded over Spanish wine and our love of the artist Louis Wain." So, I needed to read some Wain. Apparently, much of his stuff is whacky and surreal, even darkly so. This is a short, nursery rhyme like Eugene Field ("Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" ) or something and not that interesting, to me. Just cute, that's all. Wain's books are rather rare and this was the only one I can get, at the moment.

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Review: The Louis Wain Kitten Book

The Louis Wain Kitten Book by Louis Wain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In Nick Cave's The Red Hand Files #54 Aug. 2019, he said, "When I first came to London, David [Tibet] gave me an education in Christian mysticism, as we bonded over Spanish wine and our love of the artist Louis Wain." So, I needed to read some Wain. Apparently, much of his stuff is whacky and surreal, even darkly so. This is a short, nursery rhyme like Eugene Field or something and not that interesting, to me. Just cute, that's all. Wain's books are rather rare and this was the only one I can get, at the moment.

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Review: I Didn't Know That or Why We Say the Things We Say

I Didn't Know That or Why We Say the Things We Say by Karlen Evins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This sequel is listed incorrectly here. It is not an editions of this book: "I Didn't Know That" Or, Why We Say the Things We Say (ISBN 0963547402). It has its own ISBN: 0963547410 (also its ASIN) and is volume II with completely different content from Vol. 1. That being said, the approach is the same and wore thin after reading the earlier volume: The research feel more thin and I think some would not hold up. It is more cutesy than I want my etymology to be. This edition is apparently different from the one advertisted in the author's store as some of the content listed there is not here.

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Review: The F-Word

The F-Word by Jesse Sheidlower
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This rather serious study of THE four-letter word is in two parts: an overview of the word's history and acceptance in dictionaries and print and then a dictionary of the word, including variants and phrases. There are many, many sources for the entries and I applaud the author for bringing this level of scholarship and research to such a singular word.

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Review: Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods

Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods by Danna Staaf
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting overview of the pre-dinosaur beginnings of squids and related animals and their varieties, behavior and mysteries today. Much is rather dry and textbook-like and much is discussed about specific anatomical details. While these unique features are interesting, they make for better reading with images (as may accompany the dead trees version) than is in this audiobook edition.

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Review: Not That You Asked...

Not That You Asked... by Andy Rooney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second Rooney collection and find them largely whimsical, nostalgic yearning for a Norman Rockwell world. Curmudgeon that he might be, it is not exactly like reading the rantings of Archie Bunker. When he bemoans the urine-stained Grand Central Station overrun with homeless, he reflects on the difficulty of the situation and lacking in severe judgment hopes for a solution with homes for the homeless and GCS back to travellers of his ilk. Then, sometimes he makes me cringe. From his column "Some Don't Like It Hot", published in The Eunice News from Eunice, Tuesday, May 27, 1986 and elsewhere:

There is no question that the whole human race gets less done where the temperature is regularly above 80 degrees. Look at the world and see where most good things have been accomplished. In Pago Pago? In Tahiti? In Calcutta or the Philippines? They may be nice places to visit but for the men and women who have advanced our civilization, look toward countries with temperate climates. Heat saps ambition.

Seems rather dismissive of everything from the rapa nui of Easter Island to Polynesians populating the vast South Pacific with outrigger canoes...

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Review: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Taibbi does a very good job of maybe at least somewhat understandable the intricate details of financial shenanigans that led to the United States subprime mortgage crisis and other disasters of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. For me, this has three acts in this book:

I) The poor guidance of Alan Greenspan
II) Greed of international finance houses operating in unregulated markets, sometimes tracked to individual traders.
III) The fallout and bailouts.

The "military–industrial complex" was a warning from ‎Eisenhower's farewell address. Taibbi warns:

I’m going to say something radical about the Tea Partiers. They’re not all crazy. They’re not even always wrong. What they are, and they don’t realize it, is an anachronism. They’re fighting a 1960s battle in a world run by twenty-first-century crooks. They’ve been encouraged to launch costly new offensives in already-lost cultural wars, and against a big-government hegemony of a kind that in reality hasn’t existed—or perhaps better to say, hasn’t really mattered—for decades. In the meantime an advanced new symbiosis of government and private bubble-economy interests goes undetected as it grows to exponential size and robs them blind.

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Review: I Didn't Know That" Or, Why We Say the Things We Say

I Didn't Know That" Or, Why We Say the Things We Say by Karlen Evins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun and easy read of the etymology of interesting words and phrases. Arranged alphabetically, each history fits on a single page of this compact volume.

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Review: The People's Almanac Presents the Book of Lists

The People's Almanac Presents the Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very readable book. There is much variety of the lists, as some were prepared especially for this book such as legal minds considering the most significant trials or travel writers on best and worst destinations. I especially like some of the lists tied to specific years, like the ones of most despised or adored people.

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Review: Sex French Edition

Sex French Edition by Madonna
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Madonna takes on the alter ego of Dita, involved in a lovers' quadrangle with a man named Johnny and their female partner Ingrid and Ben. I don't read French, so I couldn't follow those pages, but the epistolary telling loosely aligned with the imagery is in English. While this gives a literary theme, this is mostly an oversized book of mostly B&W nudes, S&M documentary, candid shots some aligning with or perhaps posed for the letters arc. Over 136 pages even the flesh becomes redundant and the spiral binding and aluminum covers make perusal inconvenient as is the embedded comic.

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Review: Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Against Me! is an American punk rock band formed in 1997 in Gainesville, Florida, by singer and guitarist Laura Jane Grace. Laura was born Tom and this is the author-narrated autobiography of the life that led to that transition. Laura had to navigate a musical career that required her to respond to a purist punk fandom that wanted her to remain in a musico-political box as confined as the gender one demanded by society.

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