Books that are just good - literature in general
worldsfair | July 31, 2008This is great.
And this is also an image that seems appropriate when choosing to speak about water as a resource generally - it might, for instance, be a good prelude to discussions like this.
Anyway, I'm generally pretty enamored with Satoshi Kitamura's work and I've spoken about him before.
This particular image comes from a great little book called Captain Toby, where a little boy in his house gets caught in a wind storm and then with the house swaying, starts to dream about his house being a boat, being caught in the ocean, and even at one point, duking it out with a giant squid.…
bcohen | April 29, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Richard Powers, in his debut novel Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, constructs a story about the identity of the three farmers in August Sander's 1914 photograph of that name. The novel takes on not just the three farmers, but three storylines too. The many characters in his three-thread narrative each, in some way, contribute to the larger story about technology, photography, philosophy, and knowledge. I've touched on as much in earlier parts to this…
bcohen | February 6, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6
Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
As an understatement, I can say this: I've been overwhelmed of late. All of these questions Morris raises about Fenton and the cannonballs of Sebastopol and I'm not even halfway through discussing them. And to think that my interest in Morris really got going when it coincided with the discussion brought up by Daston and Galison in their Objectivity. In the meantime, and as briefly alluded to in Part 3, I picked up Richard Powers's first novel again, Three…
The 100-Mile Diet. Could you eat only food grown and produced within a 100 mile radius of your home?
worldsfair | October 29, 2007
It looks like a lot, but really it's not (hey, that rhymes)
Clearly, food is a hot topic these days. You see it constantly in the cultural dominance of things like the Food Channel, Martha Stewart, or The Iron Chef. But more fittingly, thankfully even, you also see a boon of discussions that look closely (we're talking maybe even academically) at our relationship to the food we eat. And a lot of this dialogue has been spurred on by the existence of well written and engaging books by respected writers such as Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) and Barbara Kingsolver (Animal,…
bcohen | August 9, 2006Ode to "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" (1950).
The "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" was Vonnegut's first published story, appearing in Collier's. That was while he was working at GE in public relations, and after he was a chemistry major, an anthropology grad, a Dresden fire-bombing survivor, and a Cat's Cradle writer (though not publisher, yet).
Now, about the Barnhouse story. I first read it in the very best short story collection I've ever had, First Fiction, which is an "anthology of the first published stories by famous writers." (Apparently you can get it for a dollar at ABE.…
bcohen | August 7, 2006How great is this book? It's that great, that's how much.
But beyond superficial (and meaningless) qualifiers like "great," this book does a remarkable job of fascinating me, interesting students, and standing alone as entertaining fiction. I use it in my class on Science, Technology, and Progress, and since I just re-ordered it for the new semester it reminded to make a point of asking how to characterize a book that you can read a dozen times and still enjoy.
I was looking up some quotes and old reviews, and realized that The Vonnegut Web is an extraordinary site, collecting, collating…
worldsfair | July 14, 2006
This book is a lovely piece of prose with geat artwork that looks at the power of how certain experiences, and more specifically certain teachers can provide the inspiration that ultimately makes a person who they are.
Although the book presents this theme in the context of a musical experience, I found it generally a good colourful parable on the simple power of educational opportunities, or experiences. For me, it's like the blue whale - if you're lucky, there are certain things that can really excite you, set your course, open your mind, you know - just let you be you. One of these days…
worldsfair | July 12, 2006This book makes the cut, not necessarily because I find it particularly endearing (although it is a lovely story, and ever so British in a Paddington Bear sort of way), but because this is the book responsible for my kids, 2 and a half and almost 5 in age, stomping around the house like dinosaurs, roaring and of course, very loudly.
And even more impressive is that my kids are actually uttering words like Triceratops, Iguanodon, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus, and the like, which gives me no end of pleasure.
The book is also set in London's Natural History Museum, a place which…
worldsfair | July 11, 2006
In Norway, you say "buse."
As a geneticist, I am a lot more familiar with the concept of snot than one might suspect. And although this may appear to be a sort of an odd soundbite, it can be quickly explained by the simple fact that pure genomic DNA, isolated from any and all variety of nature's participants, will actually take on the appearance of the stuff you might see dripping out of an infant's nose. I even call it "boogery," which delights me to no end as an educator who is privilege enough to impart such wisdom to audiences ranging from scientific Heads of Departments to priests to…
worldsfair | July 10, 2006
I thought I would start with this great picture story book, although in truth I could have easily started with another by the same author (the always irrepressible, but sadly missed away Shel Silverstein). The other, of course, is The Giving Tree, but I'll assume most of you have actually heard of that one - if not, it's one of those no brainers, and worth the purchase, worth a look at the very least. Both, however, neatly fit into the "These are so awesome, that I've bought like dozens of copies, to give to my friends, to give to folks who are even necessarily friends, because I'd like…
worldsfair | July 10, 2006As alluded to earlier, I'm attending a Children's Book Workshop this week. So to stay in theme (hence also the post about the Von Trapp Children), I thought I would try to provide a children's book review for each of the days in this week. Not going to be easy though, since my intent is to choose books with a science angle, subtle though that may be.
And I say this is going to be difficult (and subtle), because I'm purposely not going to pick books that are driven primarily by the presentation of facts (of which there are many many excellent examples out there). Instead, I'm going to try…