Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
P.D. James on European Legal Philosophy
I found this exchange in P.D. Jame's The Lighthouse (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2005) amusing as well as a useful summary of European legal philosophy. Miss Holcombe is about to be questioned by the police at her cottage. She and her butler, Roughtwood, are just finishing their Saturday-morning Scrabble game. She has a surfeit […]
In: All, Books, The Art of Conversation
Worried to Death
A few nights ago I finished reading the book Buried Alive*, which I found fascinating and informative and generally easy to read. One should note that it is, in addition, a comprehensive and credible work concerning the topic. Anyway, some things continue to puzzle me after closing the book on the last page. These are […]
Banned Books
Today I learned that this is the week in which the American Library Association promotes "Banned Book Week"; at their website they conveniently provide a Suggested Activities and Action Guide, chock full of ideas. The same person# also pointed out the article "The American banned list reveals a society with seious hang-ups", by Ben MacIntyre […]
Gleick's Newton
Yesterday I finished reading Isaac Newton, by James Gleick (Pantheon Books, New York, 2003), and I was quite impressed by it. Gleick managed to write in what I think of as a "high" tone, a slightly lofty rhetorical style, on the poetic side, and sustain it throughout the book. It's a difficult voice to maintain, […]
Atoms are not Watermelons
A few days back I finished reading How to Write: Advice and Relfections, by Richard Rhodes. Although I'm frequently drawn to read them, books about writing are rarely satisfying, interesting, or useful. Rhodes' book managed all three, and I can recommend it. Here are three passages I made note of as I read that I […]
Making the Bomb — Excerpts
A big chunk of my month of June was spent reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1986) an historically precise and yet dramatic telling of the story of the people and events that came together to unlease the power of nuclear fission at the end of […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Fascinating Footnotes
Just yesterday I finished reading Sharan Newman's The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code (Berkley Books, New York, 2005). We know and enjoy Newman's writing from her outstanding series of historical mystery novels, set in medieval France, staring the fascinating Catherine LeVendeur; Newman happens to be mentioned in my own "Top Twenty Mystery Authors: […]
Behold the Beech
We visited with friends last night, the sorts of friends with whom one has challenging factual discussion that often require the use of reference books, either to settle some contention or to illustrate some interesting if arcane bit of knowledge. Our discussion turned at one point to trees, and they produced a fascinating volume: The […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book