Super Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner

Super Freakonomics:  Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a sequal to Freakonomics which I just loved!

Started:  9/15/2014
Completed:  9/25/2014
Recommendation:  Highly Recommended
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

This does not have the shocking pleasure that Freakonomics had simply because it is a sequel and, thereby, is less likely to surprise.  It was, however, quite refreshing and pleasurable in itself.  I really enjoy hearing about how things that don't seem to be related really are.  Of particular interest to me was the "garden hose" solution to Global Warming.  This is an  eclectic mix of topics usually that helps us understand why something happens as opposed to figuring out how to prevent something bad from happening.  So much for altruism (OK, so it is an inside joke from the book, but it is a good joke and hopefully you will laugh after you have read it).

Tutankamen, Joyce Tyldesley

Tutankhamen:  The Search for an Egyptian King by Joyce Tyldesley is a history of a king who has fascinated me since I saw his grave goods displayed in the 1970s.

Started:  9/3/2014

Completed: 9/15/2014

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

As a child, I did not really think about the grave goods I saw being looted from a tomb.  Sure, I knew that these came from a dead king, but I didn't really think about how his family must have felt laying him to rest and how all of these things were placed in his tomb so that he could realize his belief that he would become a demi-god.  I knew that intellectually, but I was more interested in the pursuit.  How had Carter done it?  What was the order of discovery?  What did all these items mean?

This book answers all those questions, but also brings home the concept of a crypt defiled.  The author is herself an archaeologist and she doesn't talk about archaeology or the exploration of the tomb as a defilement.   She even provides some of the reverence which one should have for a human corpse.  The book brought home to me, through the details and the politics and the outright thefts, how it was a defilement.  While it may be extremely valuable for history and I certainly applaud the value of that, I understand far better now how such a tomb should be treated.

The story itself of the discovery and extraction of the grave goods is rather well known to me, but it was developed into an integrated whole in this work and I fully appreciated the effort to which Tyldesley went to bring us into the excavation work at the turn of the century.  She also does an excellent job of showing how initial concepts (like a box that was thought to contain a library) yield to modern understanding (it was actually loincloths).  In so doing, however, she manages to bring the story of the king to life and to explain in rather good detail how difficult even this well documented individual is to understand.  Discerning propaganda (even in the king's own time) from truth is challenging and even the lineage of the king is only a matter of speculation.

I enjoyed the book and read it quickly despite the dry material.  I'm not sure, however, if others would enjoy it.  It removes so much of the myth that many find pleasurable from the story it might actually be frustrating to many.  For myself, I enjoy finding the truth where I can and didn't give much credence to issues Ms Tyldesley clarified such as the non-existence of a curse (it was, however, interesting to me to hear why such a curse didn't make much sense even in ancient times),

The Healing Mind, Paul Martin

The Healing Mind:  The Startling Link Between Our Brain, Our Behavior, and Our Immune System by Dr. Paul Martin is a book that my wife came across and thought might be worth reading.

Started: 8/15/2014
Completed: (gave up)  9/4/2014 after 80 or so pages
Recommendation: Not recommnended
Recommended By: my wife

Definitions I needed:

frisson -- A sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill.

Review:

I quote:  "In this chapter we shall look at what the immune system can do to the mind and, conversely, what the mind can do to the immune system.  We shall see that changes in a person's mental state can affect their immune function and vice versa[sic]."  I HATE this kind of needless repetition and the book is rife with it.  The abuse of similes reinforce the repetition.  In the space I read, I hated the experience.  This book is old for a medical book (1997) and I just can not force myself to read the same sentence over and over for what seems to be a sparse amount of information.  Please, consider another source if you really need this information.

Instances of the Number 3, Salley Vickers

Instances of the Number 3 by Salley Vickers is a novel set in London in current times.  I don't know exactly how I came to be in possession of this book, but I think it must have been at a library book sale.  The book is in excellent condition and I seem to remember picking it up to find out the artist of the picture on the cover (Botticelli).  I vaguely recognized this image as a classic painting and couldn't even begin to figure out who the artist was, but I was curious.  From there, I'm quite certain I must have read the opening line, "After Peter Hansome died, people were surprised that his widow seemed to be spending so much time with his mistress."  What a great opening line!  I'm fairly certain that reading that line and seeing the "Graces" depicted by Botticelli got me wondering where this book was going to go.  I know that this book was reviewed favorably by Michael Dirda (whom I respect immensely), but I'm certain I never read the review he wrote before writing this post--had I done so, Salley Vickers would have been tattooed on my mind.

Started:  8/28/2014

Completed: 9/1/2014

Recommendation: Highly recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Words for which I sought a definition:

Amanuensis -- A literary or artistic assistant.  In particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts.

Even Homer nods -- This phrase means that even someone who is superlative in their abilities occasionally makes a mistake (nods, in this case, refers to putting your head down, like nodding off to sleep)

Fractious -- (typically of children) irritable and quarrelsome.

Mendicant -- A beggar

Review:

This book is remarkably well written.  The images and turns of phrase are simply excellent.  There is a bit of a mystery to the book that I figured out shortly after it appeared, so I don't think it is intended to be a particularly difficult mystery.  There are a lot of references to Shakespeare which can be informative to those who do not know the plays by heart (like me) or, I think, droll to those who feel the Bard is not the be all and end all of English literature.  The characters in this book, for the most part, seem well educated or at least knowledgeable.  They are few characters who seem to feel the need for money.  Thus we see them flitting off to France or purchasing a country house on a whim.  These characters have a base hunger for both love and acceptance and I think that is a theme well reviewed in this novel.  Having said that, I would not read this novel for the story nor for the characters.  I would encourage you to read this novel for the joy of how words can be combined into such a pleasurable reading experience.  Salley Vickers is now tattooed on my mind and I will gladly sit down and read anything she writes that I happen across.  Or, er, put it in the seemingly endless piles of unread books cluttering my basement!