Book Reviews

Redshirts

GoodReads: 3 stars I was grinning like an idiot as Scalzi skewered classic sci-fi tropes with irreverent panache in "Redshirts". The book's best feature is its outrageously sarcastic and witty dialogue. The first half was genuinely hilarious and I was prepared to give the book a 4 star...

3-stars

Blood Meridian

GoodReads: 3 stars Lots of people love this book, but I just couldn't get into Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian". I get that it's supposed to be a book about senseless violence. I get that it's not supposed to have any moral development. I get that it's written in...

2-stars

Dark Matter

GoodReads: 2 stars Crouch's "Dark Matter" is a mediocre execution of a great sci-fi idea. Like most sci-fi authors, Crouch seems more interested in exploring the core idea than in building believable characters. I stayed along for this action/thriller ride until the end, but I was constantly...

5-stars

Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought

GoodReads: 5 stars Jonathan Rauch forcefully defends freedom of speech and liberal science in his short and crisp "Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought". Originally published in 1993, the book is even more relevant today than it was back then, resulting in an expanded edition in...

3-stars

Something Wicked This Way Comes

GoodReads: 3 stars Ray Bradbury is best known for his sci-fi, but when I stumbled across his ominously titled "Something Wicked This Way Comes", I had to give it a try. Macabre and brimming with baroque language, Bradbury's novel seems to be too dark and difficult for its...

3-stars

The Doors of Perception

GoodReads: 3 stars Best known for his "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley also made his stamp on the counter-culture with his notorious mescalin book, "The Doors of Perception". In it, he brings us along on one of his mescalin trips and takes frequent detours into the...

5-stars

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

GoodReads: 5 stars Finnegan's "Barbarian Days" is a cool, easy read. The author himself narrates the audiobook and his unhurried, honest style makes it seem like you're shooting the breeze with him while sitting on a board waiting for the next set to roll in. In his autobiography,...

3-stars

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

GoodReads: 3 stars When I picked up Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", I wasn't expecting such a thorough treatment of alien abduction claims! This book is Sagan's plea for our society to adopt a more scientific perspective as we confront both...

3-stars

Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes

GoodReads: 3 stars "Warnings" asks the most important question of our time: "when it comes to predicting disasters, who should we trust?" Unfortunately, Clarke and Eddy's answer is vague and untenable. One of their four key recommendations is to build a system to "sift the...

5-stars

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

GoodReads: 5 stars Shackleton's stoic struggle against the ravages of the Antarctic is one of the greatest stories I've ever heard. In "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage", Lansing reconstructs the perilous existence of Shackleton and his crew of 27 scrappy shipwrecked adventurers as they scraped out an existence on...

4-stars

Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts

GoodReads: 4 stars In my 2013 personal annual review, I wrote that I wanted to build something that would last 100 years. I have made no progress over the last four years. It is such a large and intimidating goal that it seems impossible to begin. Where to start? What...

4-stars

Death Comes For The Archbishop

GoodReads: 4 stars Published in 1927, "Death Comes For The Archbishop" feels like a much more recent novel. Writing in a beautiful, timeless style, Cather crafts a southwestern legend that reaches across time to touch our souls. The breadth and depth of emotion in this barely 200 page...

4-stars

Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science

GoodReads: 4 stars This is the hardest I've laughed for any book in my 2017 reading theme. "Higher Superstition" is a wickedly perceptive takedown of the absurdities of the "academic postmodern left" and their "perspectivist" critique of science. Gross and Levitt defend the epistemological...

3-stars

Science: The Endless Frontier

GoodReads: 3 stars "Science: The Endless Frontier" is a landmark in the history of American science because it launched the National Science Foundation. At FDR's request, Vannevar Bush wrote this report to lay out how science would be funded in the US after WWII. Bush's career - entrepreneur,...

5-stars

The Satanic Verses

GoodReads: 5 stars Surreally cynical, flamingly controversial, and surprisingly touching, Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is a work of art. Structuring a frame narrative around the intersecting paths of two Indian actors as they flit between London and Bombay, Rushdie made me laugh, frown, ponder, and reflect as he...