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  • Walking to Vermont: From Times Square into the Green Mountains–A Homeward Adventure

    Christopher S. Wren. Engaging, quick read about a retired NY Times foreign correspondent walking into retirement.

  • The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

    Brian Greene. A brilliant, understandable attempt to describe current physical theories on the nature of reality. Not easy going, but all the same it’s meant for lay readers, not physicists. Literally thrilling–especially the initial description of relativity. I felt like Greene was giving me a peek into a conceptual framework that felt like I was getting a glimpse of God. I mean it; thrilling.

  • Just a test

    I’m trying to play with new designs for the blog, and this is just a little piece of that effort.

  • Critique of US journalism

    The Revealer has a great post “Who Was Yassin?” about reporting on the assassination of the Hamas leader.

    We have to turn to the foreign press to learn anything substantial about the religious views of the “spiritual leader” whose worldly terror has been a constant factor in U.S. foreign policy. . . . [W]hy has our press ignored the “spiritual” dimensions of this “spiritual leader”? Two possibilities. One is that the journalists assigned to cover the Middle East are political reporters. They approach religion as simply a veneer for political motives, and rarely bother to learn its intricacies.

    The other, deeper problem, is with the narratives available for religion stories even when a reporter tries to pay attention. Most religion writing is divided between innocuous spirituality and dangerous fanaticism, with subcategories for “corruption,” “traditionalism,” and wacky. . . .

    So what does our press do? Nothing. A major enemy of peace in the Middle East has just been killed, and yet we learn almost nothing about what made him fight or why he is mourned. Opponents and supporters of the Palestinians remain in the dark, uninformed by a press incapable of breaking the narrative to investigate — and perhaps help eradicate — the roots of terrorism. It’s easier to stick to the “he-said/she-said”-with-guns version of events that reduces it all to retaliation, to hopeless spirals of violence and ancient ethnic hatreds, to enmity without reason.

  • The Well of Lost Plots

    Jasper Fforde. Another Thursday Next novel, and just as much fun as the first two. This one is bundled with special features at the website. (You do need to have read the book to know the password.) And here’s a great passage from page 301:

    “Welcome to The Judgment of Solomon ®. It’s arbitration, mainly, a bit of licensing...”
    “You’re King Solomon?”
    The old man laughed. “Me? You must be joking! There aren’t enough minutes in the day for one Solomon–as soon as he did that ‘divide the baby in two’ thing, everyone and his uncle wanted him to arbitrate–from corporate takeovers to playground disputes. So he did what any right-thinking businessman would do: he franchised. How else to you think he could afford the temple and the chariots and the navy and whatnot? The land he sold to Hiram of Tyre? Give me a break! My real name’s Kenneth.”
    I looked a little doubtful.
    “I know what you’re thinkng. ‘The Judgment of Kenneth’ does sound a bit daft–that’s why we are licensed to give judgments under his name. All aboveboard, I assure you. You have to purchase the cloak and grow a beard and go on the training course, but it works out very well....”

  • Altered Carbon

    Richard K. Morgan. This is a real page-turner. Two genres I don’t read much, cyperpunk and detective story, by a first-time author, and I couldn’t wait to find out how it turned out. I hope there will be more books featuring the protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs.

  • 20 Songs

    I’ve fallen prey to yet another tawdry weblog meme. (I caught it from Bakerina.) Here are twenty tracks played at random by my iTunes selection at work:

    “Yome, Yome” Mandy Patinkin Mamaloshen
    “A ‘Wassail’ Suite” The Waverly Consort A Waverly Consort Christmas — Christmas From East Anglia To Appalachia
    “Obvious Child” Paul Simon Rhythm Of The Saints
    “I Will Survive (1993 Phil Kelsey Classic 12” Mix)” Gloria Gaynor The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
    “Alone (Adapted From Yeomen Of The Guard)” Soundtrack Topsy-Turvy
    “Santa Lucia” Garrison Keillor Now It Is Christmas Again
    “Farwell My Good 1 Forever” Kronos Quartet Early Music (Lachrimae Antiquae)
    “Den BlÃ¥ SlÃ¥tten / OrmslÃ¥ (The Blue Tune / The Legless Lizard)” Den Fule Nordic Roots: A NorthSide Collection
    “E” Drunken Munkey Dance Factory Level 2
    “Why do the nations so furiously rage together” Messiah
    “Et Barn Er Fodt I Bethlehem” Garrison Keillor Now It Is Christmas Again
    “Stormyren (The Big Bog)” Olov Johansson Storsvarten (The Big Black One)
    “Vals Efter Erlandsson” Olov Johansson Storsvarten (The Big Black One)
    “Paragon Rag” Various Artists & James Levine Scott Joplin: Greatest Hits
    “Eric Bohlins Brudpolska” Olov Johansson Storsvarten (The Big Black One)
    “All I Want Is You” U2 The Best Of 1980–1990
    “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” Nat King Cole An Eclectic Collection Of Christmas Classics
    “I Know What I Know” Paul Simon Graceland
    “Rachell’s Weepinge” Kronos Quartet Early Music (Lachrimae Antiquae)
    “Höglorfen” Hedningarna 1989–2003
    “Heavenly Union” Tudor Choir The Shapenote Album

  • The Dim Sum of All Things

    Kim Wong Keltner. Chinese American chick-lit. I laughed out loud several times (often, I must admit, at potty humor).

  • H.M.S. Surprise

    Patrick O’Brian. Inching closer to marriage and to naval stability, with torture, espionage, a trip to India, and encouters with Diana Villiers. And a fabulous place name: Swiving Monachorum (it’s where the Reverend Mr Hinksey, whom Mrs Williams hopes will marry Sophie, is the new rector).

  • The Game of Thrones

    George R.R. Martin. First book in a fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, for which I’ve seen raves on several websites. A good, engrossing book, although not a smooth-flowing narrative. It leaves you in the lurch concerning several characters, but that just makes me want the next one. There’s lots of blood and suffering. Very ambiguous and textured characters, flawed good characters, multi-dimensional evil characters (or are they?); lots of blood and violence; the hint of magic and ancient powers. As I say, looking forward to the next volume.