THE VIKING WARRIOR
DECEMBER 23, 2017
Ben Hubbard, The Viking Warrior, The Raiders, Pillagers, and explorers who terrorized Medieval Europe (London: Amber Books, 2017). A picture book of Viking history.
HEART OF DARKNESS
DECEMBER 23, 2017
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003). Fiction but based on the experiences of the author into Belgian Congo. Paints a grim picture of imperialism in Africa.
THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
DECEMBER 23, 2017
Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo (New York: Fall River Press, 2012). A coffee table style edition of the Yule Cordier translation of the works of Marco Polo.
THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM
DECEMBER 9, 2017
Hanna Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt, 1951). I was assigned this book as a freshman in college and read the first 50 pages. Saw it in the bookstore and gave it another try. Rather long, deep and slow-reading ( I often read a passage twice). Very insightful and thoughtful analysis of the form of government of Hitler and Stalin.
STALIN, NEW BIOGRAPHY OF A DICTATOR
DECEMBER 9, 2017
Oleg V. Khlevniuk, translated by Nora Seligman Favorov, Stalin, New Biography of a Dictator (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015). An interesting medium length biography. As it is a translation it at times was like reading the news, but was generally very readable and informative.
THE ODYSSEY
APRIL 17, 2017
Robert Fagles, The Odyssey by Homer (New York: Penguin Books, 1996). This book is shown on a web site called The Greatest Books as the fourth on the list and the third on the list is supposed to be based on it.
MARCO POLO, THE JOURNEY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
APRIL 17, 2017
John Man, Marco Polo, The Journey that Changed the World (New York: Harper Collins, 2009).
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY
APRIL 16, 2017
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (New York: Henry Holt, 2014). A discussion of past extinction events in earth’s geological past and the idea that humans are currently being the cause of a new extinction event.
UNDERSTANDING COMPRESSION
APRIL 16, 2017
Colt McAnlis & Aleks Haecky, Understanding Compression (Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly, 2016). A discussion of some algorithms used by computers to compress data.
1776
APRIL 16, 2017
David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005). An historical account of the first year of the American Revolution.
THE TROJAN WAR, A NEW HISTORY
APRIL 16, 2017
Barry Strauss, The Trojan War, A New History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006). An historical account of the Trojan War of the Iliad.
GENGHIS KHAN AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
APRIL 16, 2017
Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (New York: Broadway Books, 2004). I visited a Genghis Khan exhibit at the Discovery Place museum in Charlotte, and bought this book in the bookstore on the way out.
THE ANCESTOR’S TALE, A PILGRIMAGE TO THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION
JULY 25, 2016
Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor’s Tale, A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution (New York: Mariner, 2004). A rather long book. It starts with humans and goes back in time to ancestors we shared with other things that are living today. A chapter for each common ancestor as you go back in time to common ancestor of fish, plants, fungi, bacteria, etc. At each chapter he uses it to illustrate some points about evolution.
MAGICAL MUSHROOMS, MISCHEVIOUS MOLDS
JULY 25, 2016
George Hudler, Magical Mushrooms, Mischevious Molds (Princeton, 1998). Book I read as an introduction to fungi because I work in a lab that does research on fungi.
THE SELFISH GENE
APRIL 2, 2016
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford, 1989). Probably Dawkins’ most popular and important work. Attempts to explain behaviour by what is most likely to transmit a gene.
THE AENEID
APRIL 2, 2016
Robert Fagles (translator) The Aeneid by Virgil (New York: Penguin, 2006). Classic work, one of the most famous books ever written. Decided to read it after seeing it mentioned several times in the book by Mary Beard about Rome.
YOUR INNER FISH
APRIL 2, 2016
Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish A Journey into the 3.5-billion-year History of the Human Body (New York: Vintage, 2008). The writer describes his discovery of the fossil record of the missing link between fish and land animals. He also describes the anatomical similarity of fishes and other animals in development of an embryo.
NEANDERTHAL MAN IN SEARCH OF LOST GENOMES
APRIL 2, 2016
Svante Paabo, Neanderthal Man In search of Lost Genomes (New York: Basic Books, 2014). Author writes about his lab’s research to extract dna from Neanderthal remains.
THE RED QUEEN: SEX AND THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN NATURE
APRIL 2, 2016
Matt Ridley, The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (New York: Harper). The book starts at a genetic level giving theories for the evolution of sex and genetic recombination. Then it looks at sexual activity of animals and how it can be explained by its effect on transmission of genes. Lastly, he develops some theories explaining sexual preferences and habits of humans.
INFINITESIMAL: HOW A DANGEROUS MATHEMATICAL THEORY SHAPED THE MODERN WORLD
APRIL 2, 2016
Amir Alexander, Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World (New York: MacMillan). This book is a history of the use of infinitesimal in math. It starts in Italy with conflict of Galileo and the Jesuit Catholics over the use of infinitesimals in math. The second part of the book covers the same debate in England between Thomas Hobbes and the English promoters of the use of infinitesimals.