What Are You Reading? Aug 3, 2011
Another Wednesday, Another WAYR
Just finished
Nothing this week
Now reading
Charming Proofs. A book of beautiful (or charming) proofs in mathematics, nearly all of which require no advanced math.
Mr Speaker! The life and times of Thomas B. Reed, the man who broke the fillibuster by James Grant.
Reed was a Republican in the Gilded Age (back when Republicans were the good guys) from Maine, and rose to be speaker of the House. He was way ahead of his time, being a proponent of women's suffrage and equal rights for Blacks, among other things. As speaker, he broke the ability of the minority party to fillibuster in the House. House members used to be able to prevent a quorum by sitting in the House but not giving their names in roll calls. Reed started recognizing people himself. He also resigned from the House on a matter of principle - he opposed the USA starting and fighting in the Spanish American war.
God's Arbiters:Americans and the Phillippines: 1898-1902 by Susan K. Harris. I am only a few pages into this book, but it looks good. It is an advance copy sent to me by the publisher, with rather fortuitous timing since Cryptonomicon deals a lot with the Phillippines, and Mr. Speaker deals with the same time period, and I just finished The War Lovers, which is about the other part of the Spanish American war - the part that was fought in Cuba.
Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich. It's what the subtitle says. The good, ,the bad, and the ugly of the papacy. Norwich writes very well, and strikes a b nice balance.
Just started
Old Man's War by John Scalzi.
It's the distant future. Earth is teeming and vastly overcrowded. But we've moved into space as well. But all space travel and colonization is controlled by the Colonial Defense Forces. You can only join by enlisting, and you can only enlist when you are 75 years old. They give you a new body and a new life, but you can never go home again. And you have to enlist for 10 years. John Perry does.
Not bad. But not great. The humor and the darkness in this novel don't play well together
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Published by Peter Flom
I am a statistician, working with a wide variety of clients, mostly researchers in psychology, education, medicine, social sciences and other fields. I also have given talks and written articles on learning... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentFabulous! :-) I just finished "Escape From Bellevue" by Christopher Campion. Now reading Moby Dick. It is so good, I can't believe I have not read it before.
When I read your "What are you reading?" it reminds me that I am not reading enough these days! cheers :)