Just rereading The Hydrogen Sonata by Ian M Banks and have come across the word 'fuckwit'. Its the only place I've seen it outside this forum. I wonder if chairman bill knows.......

I just finished reading a book about Jack the Ripper. It's Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth, which pushes the boyfriend of one of the victims as 'Jack'. It's actually pretty good as far as explaining the facts and the conditions of the area at the time, even though he's way off on the suspect. And then I started re-reading Patricia Cornwell's JtR book. I'm ashamed of myself for reading this type of stuff, so . . .

to punish myself I'm reading another Henry James book. This time it's The Golden Bowl. The dialog in this book is soooooo tedious. I don't hate it as much as Wings of a Dove, though because the plot is actually a little naughty.

I've spent most of this year digging into Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, and Prose Poetry. I recently ran across David Shumate and his prose poetry. Finishing up his first book today....read the other two more recent ones a couple of times in the last few weeks.


A good number of his poems are on the Writer's Almanac: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/a ... th_id=1837

Amazon: Kimonos in the Closet (his most recent collection) - http://www.amazon.com/Kimonos-Closet-Po ... 033&sr=1-2

I got a copy of "The Readable Darwin: The Origin of Species as Edited for Modern Readers" by Jan A. Pechenik in the post a couple of days ago, in exchange for allowing my colourised photo of Darwin to be used on the cover.
I probably wouldn't have bought it if it had had a different cover and I'd seen it in the shop, but it's a lot better than I expected. There have been only minor adjustments to the text, such as splitting long sentences into shorter ones. It's the layout that makes the difference, with the colour photos and web addresses for further study.
It's just the first 8 chapters, so there will be another volume. I'll be buying that one, unless the publisher uses another of my pictures.
http://www.sinauer.com/the-readable-dar ... s-632.html

Excellent on the Cover Dave! Congrats!

"George and the Big Bang" by Lucy and Stephen Hawking.

Just picked up E.O. Wilson's new one: The Meaning of Human Existence

Finally an Answer!

Nick Lane's: Life Ascending: The ten great inventions of Evolution.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Ascending-Great-Inventions-Evolution/dp/0393338665

I think I can say this is probably the best book I've read on the workings of life, particularly the first chapter on the origin of life was simply amazingly well written. The previous book I read on a similar subject was Into the Cool: Energy flows, thermodynamics and life. I though that was a good book.

It's not a book about how evolution works (and as such is not a book about the evidence for evolution, so it's not a book for your fundamentalist creationist friend), it's a book about how living cells function, how they extract their energy from their surroundings, when they learned to do it - and what evolution has produced of marvelous processes inside them, including the origin of life itself. Which, incidentally, is also the theory on life's origin I happen to find most plausible and Nick Lane goes through all the reasons why.

kennyc wrote:Just picked up E.O. Wilson's new one: The Meaning of Human Existence

Finally an Answer!

and now that I've finished it....I was somewhat disappointed. Certainly no answer to the title question and really quite like a bait and switch....the book seemed more of an attempt at pushing his somewhat off-mainstream ideas about cultural evolution and not one mention of memes in that regard. Could it possible be because Dawkins wrote a scathing review of his last book, The Social Conquest of Earth (which expressed his/Wilson's ideas on cultural evolution)?

Well written, easy to read, but really didn't address the title at all in my view.

Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler.

After getting fed up with my friends whining that I know so much about Judean/Christian history and feck all of my own (Irish that is) history I went out looking for a book which details the history of Ireland in what they call a 'grand sweep' and found this.



It is a history of both Britain and Ireland and Davies argues, successfully I think, that you can't learn the history of either one without including the history of the other. Lots of really good stuff in here from our ancient history (I'm always more drawn to more ancient history for some reason). I think after this book I shall seek one on the Celts.

Any recommendations?

I just finished re-reading Patricia Cornwell's Jack the Ripper book and noticed a Kindle Single available by her where she answers some critics' questions and discusses an update to the book that will be coming out soon. She apparently had some of the crime scene photographs enhanced and there may be some clues in them that were missed before. She still believes it was the artist, Walter Richard Sickert, and I still think she makes a compelling case. I'm looking forward to the new release.

The Imitation Game....the book the "must see" movie is sourced from .

About to start The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Just finished Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler- a terrific book. Reminiscent of Orwell.

Koestler is terrific - try Act of Creation if you can find it.

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What an unexpected gem - I hardly know where to begin...

Oh man I got a whole plethoria of great reading material for christmas from my kids...

Poetry:
Splitting an Order - Ted Koozer
Alvin Turner as Farmer - William Kloefkorn
Why They Grow Wings - Nin Andrews
Denmark Kangaroo Orange - Kevin Griffith

Science Fiction:
The Real and the Unreal Vol. 1 - Ursula K Le Guin
The Real and the Unreal Vol. 2 - Ursula K Le Guin

NonFiction:
A Field Guide to Getting Lost - Rebecca Solnit
Islands, The Universe, Home - Gretel Ehrlich
Daily Rituals (of creative people) - Mason Currey
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember - Annalee Newitz
Superintelligence - Nick Bostrom


I almost don't know where to start.....and all these on top of my already huge TBR list.

I just finished reading Unbroken, the book that the current movie is based on. I felt it my duty to warn anyone who may be interested not to bother. Or at least stop before you get to the last two chapters or so. I'll give you three guesses (and the first two don't count) about what the author credits for his recovery from his wartime trauma.

It's all about belief, and the reader's willing suspension of disbelief.....

.
"The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" by Simon Singh

Very very engaging....fills in some history and what a fucking incredible story....

well written too..



pretty damn close to a nuclear holocaust over an area of millions of square miles in the US and Canada...the descriptions are heart rending.....the tale of the foresters heartwarming and Teddy Roosevelt goes way way up in my estimation....John Muir always a hero - if you know little about Muir and care about the outdoors - you deserve to know more about this legendary character.