Another year is almost over, so it's time for another YEAR IN REVIEW. I'm going through all my WAYR since Jan 1, and the results are below the fold.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes. A history of science in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, told through biographies of people like Joseph Banks, Humphrey Davy and William Herschel. Brilliant.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. An amazing book. Very hard to describe, I am not even sure it's a novel. But I reviewed it here.
The annotated Alan Turing by Charles Petzold. This is a brilliant idea. Petzold has taken Alan Turing's classic paper on computability and provided extensive, paragraph by paragraph commentary on it, making it comprehensible for a lot more people (like me). This sort of thing should be done more often.
Augustus: The life of Rome's first emperor by Anthony Everitt. I had trouble with this one and gave it up. Maybe it's because I don't know much about Rome.
The autobiography of Mark Twain. Twain's autobiography is unusually structured, there's a very long introduction. But, even once you get to the meat of the book - it's boring. I stopped reading.
Bloodsucking Fiends: A love story by Christopher Moore. One day Jody, a beautiful redhead (she thinks she needs to lose 5 pounds) wakes up as a vampire. Now she's a BLOODSUCKING FIEND. with superhuman strength, an allergy to sunlight, and a taste for blood. Worse, she'll never lose those 5 pounds. Needing a daytime helper, she recruits C. Thomas Flood, a wannabe writer from Incontinence, Indiana. Young love can be hard when one is the food source for the other! A vampire novel that only Moore could write.
Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass. The fourth in the Body Farm novels, which are about forensic anthropology being used to solve crimes. This time, a famous scientist is dead after swallowing a highly radioactive pellet, and the protagonist, Bill Brockton, must figure out whodunit. One of the authors (Jefferson Bass is a pseudonym for two people) is one of the world's leading experts in this field, so the details are right. Good read. Full review here
A Case of Exploding Mangoes A comic thriller set in Pakistan when Zia Al Haq was PM there, and Reagan was POTUS here. Funny stuff.
Company by Max Barry. This is a darkly satirical and very funny novel about corporate life in the modern world. Full review
Cows in the maze and other Mathematical Explorations by Ian Stewart, which I got an advance copy of. Lots of games and puzzles, from the Scientific American column. I wrote a full review here
Eat my Globe by Simon Majumdar. Around age 40, Simon Majumdar decides to spend a year eating and traveling. A yummy book. full review
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. A very good book that includes material from Einstein's letters. Full review
The Fellowship by John Gribbin. About the founding of the Royal Society and the scientific revolution. I am fascinated by this period, but found this rather slow going and eventually gave it up.
Finding our Tongues: Mothers, infants and the evolution of language by Dean Falk. Wonderfully written and engaging, this is scholarly writing at its best. Speech - and language generally - is the quintessential human activity. While there are arguments about whether other primates can really learn a language, or how much language some other species have, there's no doubt that no animal uses language to the extent that we do. How did this happen? Full review
Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution by Ray Jackendoff. All about language; a technical introduction to linguistics for the motivated layperson. Fascinating. And anyone who thought all the geeks were studying math, physics and computer science should have a look.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson. Great mystery novel with a couple of very brutal scenes. Lives up to the hype.
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larson. The third book in the series that started with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and continued with The Girl who Played with Fire - these should definitely be read first. This one is also very very good.
The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larson. The sequel to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. For me, this one started a little slower, but is gradually building in intensity. Excellent. But read Dragon Tattoo first.
Going postal by Terry Pratchett. Wonderful stuff. Full review
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. A father's day gift from my kids. A fantasy novel.
The gone away world by Nick Harkaway. A combination of a coming of age novel, an apocalyptic SF novel, an adventure novel and a martial arts novel, all mixed together, with lots of humor added. A lot of fun.
A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George. The first of the Inspector Lynley novels. I'm not sure why I've never read George before, but this was really good.
Heaven's Prisoners the second in James Lee Burke's Dave Robichaux novels. Like the others in the series, it is good, but dark in mood.
Hidden Harmonies: The Lives and Times of they Pythagorean Theorem by Robert and Ellen Kaplan. Just started. The publisher sent me a review copy because I've admired other work of the Kaplans, and this looks very good too. This is one for math amateurs - and, if a good song makes you want to sing along, a good math book makes you want to prove along. Reading this, I found myself thinking thoughts about the theorem. Full review
Ideas: A history of thought and invention from fire to Freud by Peter Watson. A fascinating and amazingly learned history of ideas. Watson thinks much more highly of fire than of Freud.
The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the dark ages by Chris Wickham. A really good history of Europe and western Asia, from 400 to 1000 AD.
Jingo by Terry Pratchett. More glorious Discworld fun. Years ago, Klatch and Ankh-Morpork fought over a small island of no particular significance. It sank. Now it's arisen again, and the war is on! Pratchett aims his satire at prejudice and the sort of blind patriotism that is pathetic.
Full review:
Lamb: The gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal by Christopher Moore. Very funny and very sacrilegious. Biff, Christ's childhood pal, has been brought back to life to fill in the missing parts of the biography of Jesus. This book, a series of long flashbacks, tells how Joshua (you know him as Jesus) and Biff (not mentioned much in the Bible) meet Mary Magdalene ("call me Maggie") and then venture to find the three wise men, so Josh can make sure he really is the Messiah (he is) and what he's supposed to do about it. full review
The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett. The incompetent wizard Rincewind is stranded in a strange land where there's no rain, lots of sheep, and everyone has odd ways of speaking English. This is the Discworld, so it can't really be Australia, can it? Still, there's lots of beer, so no worries.
The Mathematical Experience by Philip Davis and Reuben Hersh. What math is really all about. Excellent short essays. I wrote a full review here
A mathematician's lament: How school cheats us out of our most fascinating art form. A really great book about math education. Anyone involved with math or teaching should read it. Full review
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People who Cook by Anthony Bourdain. This is sort of a sequel to Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain is now older, much wealthier, more mature and probably happier. This is a good book, but what made Kitchen Confidential so remarkable was that ... well, the author was young, poor, immature and something of a a jerk. I'd much rather KNOW the current Bourdain. But I think I'd rather READ the earlier book. Still, there's some great stuff here, including a hysterical chapter on Alice Waters. Full review
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Leonard of Quirm has invented a gonne, and while no one wants this device that shoots things duplicated, no one is willing to destroy it. And Carrot Ironfounderson has been promoted to Corporal. and there's a move on to restore kings to Ankh Morpork, and evidence that the rightful king is named .... Carott. Wonderful, as Pratchett always is
The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks. More neurological case histories from the eminent Dr. Sacks, these all focus on vision, and how it can go wrong. What strikes me most about Sacks is his humanity. Full Review
Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris. All about cognitive dissonance and how we justify our own actions. Excellent book about how we all fool ourselves and how memory works (and doesn't). A lot of information on cognitive dissonance and other topics, very clearly presented.
Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Lights! Camera! Action! Holy wood is coming to Discworld!
Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express by Stuart Kaminsky. One of the Porfiry Rostnikov novels, and one of the better ones in this series, which takes place in contemporary Russia. But you should read them in order, if you can. If you want a great tool for finding books in series, I review one here. This is the 14th.
Neon Rain by James Lee Burke. The first in the Dave Robichaux series about crime in New Orleans. Noir and good. Reading this on my Kindle
The New Space Opera 2 ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. A collection of science fiction short stories in the "space opera" style. Mostly, I like them.
A Plague of Secrets. Another in the Dismas Hardy - Abe Glitzky series of courtroom thrillers, and just as good as the others. If you like this series, or courtroom dramas generally, you will probably like this book.
Poetic Form by David Caplan, since I've been playing with some poetry. It's pretty good.
The Pursuit of Glory: Five revolutions that made modern Europe: 1648 - 1815 by Tim Blanning. To quote the NY Times Book Review: "History writing at its glorious best". Blanning is a highly knowledgeable guide to this period, but, more than that, he has a talent for pointing out the odd fact and making it fit into a bigger picture. He makes observations that strike you as obvious - once you've read them - and draws you into the narrative. Anyone with interest in this period should read this book
The Professional by Robert Parker. This will be one of the last from Robert Parker, who died recently. I wish I could say great things about it, but I can't; I can, however, say good things about it. The usual Parker skills are here - there's good dialogue between Spenser and Susan Silverman and between Spenser and Hawk. The plot zips along with no big holes. There's the usual discussion of the meaning of love. But it lacks the zip that some of his earlier stories had, and Parker's musings on the ethics of the main villain are odd indeed.
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton. Far future science fiction of the space opera variety. Just started.
Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard. Typical zaniness from Leonard.
Ringworld by Larry Niven. SF set in the fairly distant future, in the Known Space universe. Humans named Louis Wu and Teela Brown and a kzin named Speaker to Animals set off for the Ringworld, led by a mad puppeteer named Nessus. The Ringworld is an artificial world shaped like a ribbon around a sun, and it's 9 million times the size of Earth. Wonderful
Full review
Rough Country by John Sandford. This is the third in the Virgil Flowers series of mysteries. Set in northern Minnesota, Flowers is called when a woman at an inn is murdered. Typical of Sandford, with tight plotting, spare dialogue and interesting characters.
Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman. The story of Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter and Robert Jackson, and how they worked with (and against) each other on the Supreme Court, which was once described as "Nine scorpions in a bottle". An absolutely wonderful book. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Supreme Court, the constitution, or this period of US history. Full review
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. In this one, Pratchett goes after fundamentalist religion. This is, I think, the first of the Discworld novels to show that Pratchett is more than a funny writer, but also a wise and brilliant one.
Full review:
Society without God by Phil Zuckerman. How life is lived in two of the least religious countries on Earth: Denmark and Sweden. Just started this book, but it demolishes the argument that societies without God would be hellish, crime-ridden or whatever
Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. The story of the battle for Stalingrad, and surrounding events. Brilliant, harrowing, informative. The eastern front gets much less attention than the Pacific or western fronts, but the scale of destruction and loss of life was huge. The only problem I have is who to root for. One has to root against Hitler, of course. But it's hard to root for Stalin in any real way, despite the fact that they were our allies at the time.
Stiff: The curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. This was recommended in last week's WAYR, and it's really interesting. But you probably don't want to read it over lunch.
Star Island by Carl Hiassen. Just what you'd expect from Hiassen - funny and criminal goings on in South Florida. Full review
Strange Curves, Counting Rabbits, and Other Mathematical Explorations by Keith Ball. An excellent popular math book, for an audience who has perhaps had a semester or two of calculus at some point (although it's not strictly necessary). full review
Tai Pan by James Clavell. I am rereading this. Like Shogun it's a big, sprawling book in which the hero (an Englishman) goes to the Asia (in this case, China and Hong Kong), does all sorts of great things, adopts some Asian ways (e.g. not dressing in long woolen clothes when it's 90 or 100 Fahrenheit), falls in love with a beautiful Asian woman ... etc. Fun stuff.
The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore. More hysterical satire from Moore. Full review:
Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett. At the behest of the auditors (who want to get rid of humans because they are messy) Jeremy Clockson is building the perfect clock. If he completes it, the universe will end. It's up to Lu Tze and his acolyte Lobsang Ludd to stop him. With some help from the history monks.
This is your brain on music by Daniel Levitin. Fascinating. One of the few traits shared by every human culture is music. Why? What does it do? How does it work? Mothers everywhere seem to sing to their babies. Levitin started as a musician and producer of music, then got interested in the science of sound and music perception. How do we recognize songs? Why do we like some music more than others?
Thomas Paine and the birth of Nations by Craig Nelson. A pretty good biography of the American writer and revolutionary. Paine was born poor, and was buried in an unmarked grave. In between, he became one of the most celebrated (and best selling) writers on two continents.
Thud! by Terry Pratchett, which was a birthday gift from my son. He figured out I liked Pratchett, but ... well, I had read it, but re-reading is good. Thud! is one of the better Discworld novels, which makes it very good indeed. Commander Vimes must stop a war between the trolls and dwarfs, solve a murder, and get home in time to read Where's My Cow? to his son.
Varieties of Scientific Experience: A personal view of the search for God by Carl Sagan. Sagan gave the Gifford Lectures which had also been given by William James. James' series was written up as Varieties of Religious Experience, and Sagan makes a play on that title. This is a look at the religious (or not) views of a man who was much more than a science popularizer. It's a little disappointing, especially the second half, which simply re-hashes some well known arguments re God's existence. Full review
Voodoo River by Robert Crais. The fourth Elvis Cole novel. In this one, he is hired to find the birth parents of a famous actress who was adopted at birth. It looks like a standard case. But, once Cole flies down to New Orleans, it turns out there's more than crawfish on his plate. People are getting killed. And he's falling in love (or a strong case of high-minded lust). Fun and easy reading.
The Wages of Genius by Gregory Mone. Einstein had a big head as a baby, and studied physics. Edward also has a big head and studies physics. Edward thinks he's the next Einstein. But he doesn't really get math well, so he switches tohistory of science, and he's not making much progress on his dissertation, but nothing will dull his sense that he is the equivalent of Einstein. Then he gets hired by a mysterious internet startup, where he has rather nebulous duties. Very funny.
Waiting for Aphrodite: Journeys into the Time before Bones by Sue Hubbell
A fascinating and wonderfully written look at invertebrate zoology. Small vital creatures.
William Blake: Collected Poems, I got this one for my Kindle and now I can't find the edition I got. But it's all the poems. I have to get this in print. Reading poetry on the Kindle just isn't the same.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Historical fiction about Henry VIII and that period, told from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell, with the villain being Thomas More. Wonderfully written, and, from what I read in other reviews, historically defensible.
Worth dying for by Lee Child. Another in the Reacher series. But it's going downhill. My review.
Year's Best Science Fiction by Gardner Dozois. In my opinion, the best of the annual anthologies. Full review
You Suck by Christopher Moore. I am only a few pages into this novel about two people who are young, in love, and .... oh yeah, dead.
Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold. I got this at the recommendation of several people last week, and it's really good. Miles, scion of a noble family on Barryar, has washed out of the military because of bad bones. But now he's going to have adventures. Fun stuff.