10 posts tagged “book review”
Those
of you familiar with Orson Scott Card's long-running Ender series know
that he has an unusual interest in history and how it shapes political
events. In his latest novel, Empire, the assassination
of the US president and vice-president lead to a civil war between the
extreme right wing and the extreme left wing. The scenario he presents
challenges our tendency to assume that such an event could never occur.
The near-realism of the story is both chilling and thought-provoking. This is not a feel-good book, but while it is disturbing, it also provides a strong argument in favor of a return to a politics of moderation, in contrast to the increasing polarization of the current political landscape. In the tradition of great science fiction and great storytelling in general, Card uses his characters to communicate an important message.
No matter what your political beliefs you will find characters in the story that you can respect and root for. The book comes to a conclusion that is both satisfying and open-ended.
The narration by Stefan Rudniki is excellent though you might find yourself wishing for the print version so that you can re-read some of the more complicated arguments. I recommend this to all OSC fans and to anyone who enjoys speculative, political fiction.
I have posted a special episode of my Books and Ideas podcast devoted to Harry Potter.
Even if you haven't finished reading Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling you can enjoy this podcast, which features guest co-host Patrick Pricken, from Germany. Patrick's blog, which features movie and book reviews can be found at http://www.p-pricken.de/. (The blog is in German, but translation to English is available from Google.)
We talked about what why JK Rowling's work has international appeal, even among adult readers. We explore our favorite characters and talk about whether Book 7 lived up to our expectations.
The episode is spoiler-free up to the 17 minute mark. The last 15 minutes does contain specific material from the last book, so if you haven't read it yet you will want to stop listening at 17:00, until you finish the book.
If you would like to talk about the podcast or share your favorite Harry Potter memories, please join us in the the special section with in the Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum.
The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, And Intelligence Evolved from Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans, by Stanley I Greenspan, MD and Stuart G Shanker, D. PHIL. (2004) is a very ambitious book.
I wanted to talk about emotion, but I generally base the Brain Science Podcast on my current reading, which is why I chose this rather difficult book that touches on psychology, child development, evolution, and theories about the emergence of language and intelligence.
The basic premise, which is discussed in the podcast is that emotional signaling is the basis for the emergence of language and intellligence. Evidence supporting this hypothesis is discussed as is how the theory challenges long-standing theories about language and intelligence.
The Brain Science Podcast feed is available here.
Subscribe to Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell by Email
The narrator, Jacob, is “ninety or ninety-three” and lives in a nursing home. The arrival of the circus next store leads him to reflect on his experiences working on a circus during the depression. I have never been to the circus but Gruen makes the days when the circus was still a big event come to life.
Several things make this story stand out. First, instead of the usual format where the elderly person only appears to introduce a flashback, in Water For Elephants, the story alternates between Jacob’s present life in the nursing home and his life as a young man in the circus. In the audio version, there are separate narrators for the younger Jacob and the older Jacob. This makes it easy to tell where you are and adds to the realism.
At first I found myself wanting to get out of the nursing home and back to the circus, but by the end I cared as much about what was going to happen to the elderly Jacob and I did about learning the secret of his past. Even so, I thought the writing about the circus was especially powerful. Gruen’s ability to evoke the world of the depression-era circus reminded me of Ann Rice’s ability to make me feel that I am in New Orleans. She puts you in the menagerie with the animals, and Rosie, the elephant, is a character you won’t soon forget.
Finally, there is a surprise at the end, which leaves you feeling happier than you expected.
This is a relatively short book that I think anyone who loves animals will enjoy.
In order to maintain the high quality of both podcasts I am going to cut Books and Ideas back to twice a month, and publish it on the weeks that I do not put out a Brain Science Podcast.
The next episode of Books and Ideas will be out around February 1st. It is about the book Genereation: The Seventeenth-century Scientists who Unraveled the Secrets of Sex, Life, and Growth by Matthew Cobb.
In the meantime, I will be posting a short review of Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen at http://booksandideas.com.
I have posted the latest episode of my Brain Science Podcast. It is a discussion of memory based on the autobiography of pioneering neuroscientist, Eric R Kandel. Even if you don't listen to podcasts I recommend this book as a great introduction to the principles and history of neuroscience.
The Brain Science Podcast feed is available here.
Meanwhile, yesterday I had some time with my MacBook™ and no internet access so I worked on my homepage in iWeb™. If you haven't been there I hope you will visit it. The only problem with iWeb™ is the pages tend to load slowly. Even so I have lots of great pictures there especially of beloved pets from the last 20 years.
In addition, although I usually do my blogging here, I did post a brief review of Daniel Dennett's classic, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, which I recommend if you have any interest in evolution.
My homepage is at http:gingercampbell.com.
Minicast #6 of The Sci Phi Show podcast by Jason Rennie is a book review of On Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins by yours truly. It has just been posted so I hope you will listen to it and give me lots of feedback.
I want to thank Jason for giving me the opportunity to dip my toe into podcasting since I have been wanting to try it for about a year. Probably six months ago (whenever Garage Band™ added podcast support) I tried doing some recording and realized it is much harder than it sounds when Leo Laporte does it. Actually, my hero is Mur Lafferty of Geek Fu Action Grip because she isn't an experienced radio voice, just a regular aspiring writing, just like me.
Having struggled through making my first recording I am beginning to dream (again) of my own podcast. I think I finally have an idea that is interesting and original enough to keep me going. Hopefully, I will be able to get to work on it when I get back from Spain.
If you don't already subscribe to the podcastyou can listen to my book review by clicking on Minicast #6 at The Sci Phi Show.
Here is an interesting link: http://www.onintelligence.org/
I just finished reading Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers, by David Edmonds and John Edinow (2001). It is the story of an infamous confrontation in 1946 between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper. Clearly this is not the sort of book you are likely to pick up unless you are interested in the history of modern philosophy. The book attracted my eye because I had recently read Popper's autobiography, The Unended Quest.
As a fan of Popper, I might be inclined to share his view that Wittgenstein was one of the enemies of philosophy. However, this is a very balanced account of how these two Vienese natives came to have such opposing views. Basically, Popper argued that not only were philosophical problems still important, but that they were what made it worth doing. In contrast, as one of the giants of linguistic analysis, Wittgenstein argued that there were no valid philosophical problems, only puzzles of lanquage.
Many non-professional phiosophers would share Popper's opinion that this is exactly were philosophy went astray and became non-relevent to the real world.
Even if you know nothing about philosophy this is a highly readable account of an unusual event and an excellent introduction to how both made important contributions to modern thought.
