Review: Time: Poincare Seminar 2010

Time: Poincare Seminar 2010 by Bertrand Duplantier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The eleventh volume in proceedings from the Poincaré Seminars explores perspectives on time, specifically its directionality. The authors here explore the universe’s time-asymmetry through five articles. Contributing is Fields medalist Cédric Villani, theoretical physicists Thibault Damour and Christopher Jarzynski, experimentalist Christophe Salomon, and philosopher of science Huw Price. There is a concluding, one-page whimsical musing by Catherine de Mitry on a mythic Time in self-reflection...

[Look for my full review up at MAA Reviews]





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Review: The Way of Zen

The Way of Zen by David Scott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a largely supeficial overview of Zen buddhism. There is history on India, Buddha himself and the spread into China and then Japan. Such standard Buddhism the Eight-Fold Path and Noble Truths are present. The classic text of what I know as The Ten Bulls (here "The Ox-herding Pictures") is here with commentary. Practical overview of monastic life in Asia and the West rounds out the book.



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Review: Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I decided to re-read this book I recall enjoying as a youth in this audiobook edition. I find it now a rather shallow, adventure tale made for youthful reading, despite its huge footprint in English literature. Also, the tedious Christian moralizing is wearisome as is the "White man's burden" prejudice that of course Crusoe must have a better plan than a Moorish boy in his element, and a Caribbean native upon being met is best server with death or being made a servant.

I mostly liked the historical fiction aspect; real 17th Century seaman life as the basis for the tale. For instance, the whip and pickling punishment involving splashing whip wounds with brine.



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Review: Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I decided to re-read this book I recall enjoying as a youth in this audiobook edition. I find it now a rather shallow, adventure tale made for youthful reading, despite its huge footprint in English literature. Also, the tedious Christian moralizing is wearisome as is the "White man's burden" prejudice that of course Crusoe must have a better plan than a Moorish boy in his element, and a Caribbean native upon being met is best server with death or being made a servant.



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Review: My Father's Daughter: A Memoir

My Father's Daughter: A Memoir by Tina Sinatra

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Tina was previously the least known of the Sinatra offspring. Now that I read of the artistic (mini series biopic) and business trust The Chairman of the Board put into his youngest casts her in a new light. A harsh light is cast on Barbara Sinatra, Zeppo Marx's ex- and Frank's final wife. Apparently more of a parasite than a companion, she became a wedge between Frank and his family in his final years and emerged the successful gold digger with money and booty.



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Review: Fundamentals of Mathematical Analysis

Fundamentals of Mathematical Analysis by Paul J Sally

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This undergraduate textbook builds on Sally's "Tools of the Trade: Introduction to Advanced Mathematics" (AMS) and requires a complete calculus background with linear algebra. Two detailed appendices covering nearly thirty pages are references for the prerequisite number theory and linear algebra. This is a dense work, light on illustrations and with little in the way of flavoring asides. Exercises are sprinkled throughout the chapters, rather than gathered at the end. No solutions are provided, which is fine for a work that is not intending to be a self-sufficient resource for independent readers. This also makes it an efficient reference or adjunct work to any assigned text. I would have been glad to have had it myself when I first encountered this material.

(See my full review at MAA Reviews)



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Review: Hell's Angels

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



In the first act, I began to weary of the celebration of violence that seemed to exude from Hunter's paean to Hell's Angels. I either acclimated to the gonzo journalism or something, but I felt I was enjoying a perhaps inadvertant anthropological dimension as Hunter explored such phenonemenon like town takeovers and biker riots which seem as remote as lost Amazon tribes, now. Hell's Angel's seem like one of many criminal organization feature occasionally on Nat Geo Wild and it seems almost quaint to read about their fights and beer parties, insignia and even gang rapes which Hunter keeps returning to. The candid observations of Sonny Barger and disenchantment Hunter experiences until he is listerally stomped our of Hell's Angels companionship is a wild ride.



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