Recently Reading

Behave (Robert Sapolsky)-An academic book by a primatologist/neuroendocrinologist about the causes and explanations of human aggression. Thoroughly researched, cleverly explained, and tying into lots of other social research (Haidt, Pinker) that I've recently read and enjoyed.

Orchard and Vineyard (Victoria Sackville-West) Downloaded via Gutenberg because of a note I'd made years ago about C.S. Lewis enjoying the poetry. Apparently she was Virginia Woolf's first lover? Lush language, lots of damp leaves and fragrant soil.

Notes From a Small Island (Bill Bryson) A very funny travel journal of an American preparing to leave Britain after living there for twenty years. Lots of great anecdotes about British quirks, slang, and culture. Occasionally crass, but would probably be very entertaining for people (Mom and Martha) who have been there.

A Column of Fire (Ken Follett) Last book in the Kingsbridge series, and not as strong as the other two. A bit soapy, and somehow turning into a spy novel (with the Gunpowder Plot) at the end?

Breakfast of Champions (Kurt Vonnegut) Caustic and funny, and probably even better if you'd recently read and liked Slaughterhouse-Five. (One of the central characters is Kilgore Trout)

World Without End (Ken Follett) Second book in the Kingsbridge Series, centered around a nun during the Black Plague and an innovative architect. Long, but a good yarn with a couple of good villains.

Player Piano (Kurt Vonnegut) His first book, a satirical complaint against an automatized dystopia. Meh. Not as funny as Cat's Cradle, and the whole secondary plot was bizarre.

Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) A lush (overrich?) love story or tongue in cheek parody of a love story that takes place over decades and spins out masterfully slowly.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston) The marriages and travails of an African American woman in the early 20th century, ending with a catastrophic hurricane. (I read this during a week I was playing Porgy and Bess somewhere or another, and the parallels are striking.)

Blood in the Water (Heather Ann Thompson) A disturbing (Pulitzer Prize winning) account of the Attica Prison Riot and its ridiculously long aftermath. A subject that I apparently knew nothing about, despite it taking place in our backyard.

Hidden Figures (Margot Lee Shetterly) The story of black female mathematicians in the early days of NASA which became a movie that lots of people have recommended but I've never gotten around to watching.

The Martian (Andy Weir) Originally published serially on the internet (?), I did watch the movie version of this book, and loved it. Book is even better.

Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut) The book with Bokonism, Felix Hoenikker (what a great name), and ice-nine. Immediately after finishing this book I ordered some of James' school books on Amazon, and one of the sellers was a bookshop named Cat's Cradle that stamped their package with a Cat's Cradle design and a quote from the book. So it goes.

The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) The ascent out of poverty and life of a Chinese man in the 19th century. There are several sequels, not sure if/when I'll get to them.

The Seven Storey Mountain (Thomas Merton) Merton's autobiography up to the time he entered the monastery. Moving, poetic, worth the re-read.

The Billion Dollar Spy- The story of Adolf Tolkachev, a soviet scientist who passed information to the CIA for years in the late 70s/early 80s and was eventually discovered and killed for his work.

The Man in the High Castle- (Philip K. Dick) Trippy alternate history tale where the Nazis and Japanese won WWII and everyone on the West Coast consults a horoscope book to make decisions.

Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs. Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.