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I noted a couple of typos in the first few chapters, and after five chapters of nothing happening, I gave up on this one.

I noted a couple of typos in the first few chapters, and after five chapters of nothing happening, I gave up on this one.

One of my majors in college was math, and I took a lot of extra math courses on top of what was required for the degree, so this book is right up my alley. If you're not into math, you might not find this book as interesting. Although the authors do a good job of keeping the descriptions at a level where a lay person can at least follow along, if not completely understand the concepts at hand. It's kind of a history of mathematics over the last 100 years or so, as told by physicists. And the accounts of Einstein struggling with the math were fascinating - especially if you have always assumed that he was a genius at everything. (Spoiler alert: he wasn't.)

This book represents another of author and scholar Elaine Pagels' brilliant deep dives into a fairly niche area of study, and one that most lay readers would not be familiar with. As such, it is fascinating and enlightening. The controversy surrounding the Book of Revelation is perhaps well-known, but the gritty history of how it won its position in the Biblical canon is something that all Christians should take an interest in. Highly recommend this one.

If you are a fan of the movie Airplane!, you absolutely must read this one. If you've ever watched the DVD with director's commentary, you may have heard some of these tales before, but there is still a wealth of behind-the-scenes stories and other trivia in here. It's a great account of the Kentucky Fried Theater in L.A., and the influence it had on a certain Lorne Michaels (which I had never heard before). The book is a quick read, but very funny in places, and poignant in others. Check it out!

This is long-form journalism meets poetry, and it's great. It's an honest and heart-breaking look at where we are as a society today when it comes to acknowledging and dealing with the legacy of slavery. Clint Smith's humble but no-nonsense approach to teaching history (make sure you watch his Crash Course series on Black History on YouTube!) comes through strongly in his personal accounts of the places he visited and how they impacted him. The chapter on New York City is eye-opening on several levels, and his interviews with his own grandparents in the Epilogue anchor the entire narrative in time and force the reader to accept that the practice of slavery in America is not ancient history. It is as recent as the California Gold Rush, or the invention of the telephone, and yet we hardly ever talk about it. This book could change that.

First, this is a scholarly work and the writing is dense, so if you're going to tackle this one, be prepared to take notes (also, there are 35 pages of Bibliography and end notes, which may lead you to other books). Second, it was really interesting to find the source of so many common anarchist ideas of today in this book from 1974. As an anarchist myself for the last 25 years, I never really understood where some of these ideas came from. Lastly, it's a shame that Robert Nozick is no longer with us, because I bet he was a great guy to sit down and have a beer with.

I have not read The Martian, but I enjoyed the movie very much and so I thought I'd give this book a shot. It's very good. Heavy on the science, of course, but also emotional in some unexpected ways. I would not have guessed that by the end of the book I would care about Rocky's fate that much, but Weir does an admirable job of creating sympathy for the most unlikely of characters.

Although the story did veer into "preachy" territory a time or two, it was still very good and one that I became invested in. So good job Mr. Weir in walking that line.

This book is a religious tract disguised as a memoir - not that this is a bad thing. It is still a very interesting (and heartbreaking) read. The author's resiliency is nothing short of amazing, and the fact that she gives all of the credit to God is inspiring. It certainly makes one wonder if people of the current generation were forced to face similar adversity, would they handle it with the same courage and poise?

The sequel clearly shares much of the first book's DNA, but somehow didn't satisfy me the way the first one did. The nostalgic 80s references in RP1 seemed a bit more subtle, and fit the story better. What made RP1 so unique is exactly why it can't be duplicated, I guess. The quest in the first one was a game that I (as a child of the 80s) would definitely want to play myself. The second one, not so much. For example, I'm a huge Prince fan, but I couldn't see myself really enjoying a visit to the Afterworld.

If you're the kind of person who likes spending time watching Twitch streamers, you'll probably love this book, because it's essentially a transcription of someone's live stream.

I watched the Fox/NatGeo series first before reading this book, but the series follows the book very closely (although the chapters/episodes are in a slightly different order). Anyone who is a fan of the original Cosmos series or of Carl Sagan should read this. Not only is it a love letter to Carl, but also a challenge to the anti-intellectual movement that has gathered so much steam in recent years. Science and technology can either save us or destroy us - it is up to We The People to decide our fate.

The ending disappointed me. The fact that the old man had this great accomplishment in his life, but received no credit for it, while realistic, is truly tragic.