What Are You Reading? July 20, 2011

Just finished
The Best Writing on Mathematics: 2010 http://www.powells.com/...] by Mircea Pitici. This is a collection of articles about mathematics: Mathematics education, philosophy of mathematics, the practice of mathematics, and so on. The articles are all good, your interest may vary.

A re-read of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. This huge novel (over 1000 pages) is really three novels in one, in two time periods. Two strands occur during WW II, one in the present day (1999). I think this is my favorite of Stephenson's novels. It reads faster than The Baroque Cycle, and it has lot of the digressions that I like in Stephenson's works. Plus, it's so geeky that it feels like science fiction, even though it is hard to say that it really IS science fiction. It's not alternate history (the parts that take place in WWII are either accurate or at least possible). There's computer stuff (both old and (relatively) new), cryptography, spying, romance, heroism, war.... and sidelines including a very funny cameo by a very young Ronald Reagan and a not-at-all-funny cameo with Herman Goerring. And a short essay on the right way to eat Captain Crunch.

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.

Just started

Memoirs of a Sardine Lover by Patric Juillet These are the memoirs of a teenage boy in France. It's a fun book, and it's easy to like the protagonist Fanfan.

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.