You probably don’t believe it’s his real name, so check out the first chapter of Randy Rainbow’s memoir, Playing with Myself. He even includes a photo of his birth certificate (but Republicans will probably claim that it’s a fake—just like… Read More ›
Books
Re-read a whodunit (even though you already know who done it because you’ve read it before)!
Why, you ask, should I re-read a whodunit when I already know who done it because I’ve read it before!? The quick answer, which I mentioned in an answer to a completely different question in a completely different context two… Read More ›
Math helps you flourish—but not in the obvious way!
My good friend and colleague Leah Gordon often likes the same books that I do. From time to time we make recommendations to each other. One of these is Francis Su’s Mathematics for Human Flourishing, which I have just finished… Read More ›
Are we really living in the real world?
That question may now seem like a tired old trope. That’s because it all started with Philip K. Dick’s classic 1959 work, Time Out of Joint. For some reason I had never read this dystopian novel before, even though it… Read More ›
The golden age and more
Those who read enough science fiction, particularly those who read enough about science fiction, hear a lot about the so-called golden age. The golden age of what? Well, the golden age of science fiction, of course. When was that? Well,… Read More ›
More chaos! More CatNet!
The second novel in a series is always worse than the first. Of course that’s not true—unless you replace “always” with “often” or perhaps even “usually.” Or perhaps the wishy-washy “sometimes.” All generalizations are false, as they say. Including this… Read More ›
The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything* (*abridged)
Everyone needs to read this engaging, delightful, and informative book! Read it even if you’re not a math-and-science geek. Or maybe I should say especially if you’re not a math-and-science geek. Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry are well… Read More ›
This is one movie that is better than the book, right? Wrong.
Nope, not this one. The Bone Collector is a good book by Jeffrey Deaver—not his best by a long shot, but pretty good—and it’s a disappointing movie even though it stars Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, and Queen Latifah. I read… Read More ›
CatNet
Yes, I occasionally read YA novels. Maybe one or two a year. Perhaps it’s because I’m a teacher of young adults; there are certain Young Adult novels that give the reader insight into these fascinating creatures, just as there are… Read More ›
What would you do if you could predict the future?
First, you would read this book! You can’t predict the future, but you’ve got to read the book. Maybe once every two or three years I read a novel that I can’t put down—except that in those cases I usually… Read More ›
What lies on the other side of the River Styx?
Who knows? You’ll have to read the engaging novel Across the River Styx to find out. You might have a rough voyage, but the reading won’t be rough. Looking at the cover image below, you’ll see what this novel is:… Read More ›
The source material for… (Episode II of these episodic posts: The Queen’s Gambit)
Should you read the book or see the movie? If you do both, what’s the right order? And does a mini-series count as a movie? I promised a couple of months ago that I would re-read The Queen’s Gambit—the original… Read More ›
Murder Under her Skin
Read this book! About six months ago I reviewed Fortune Favors the Dead, the first Pentecost and Parker novel by Stephen Spotswood. Now I’ve read the second book in the series: Murder Under her Skin. It’s even better than its… Read More ›
The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China
What an eye-opener! I learned so much from The Last Kings of Shanghai, a truly informative and engaging book by Jonathan Kaufman. So what’s with the headline of this blog post? Well, that’s not my phrase; it’s the subtitle of… Read More ›
The Source Material for… (Episode I of these episodic posts: The Bicentennial Man)
About five weeks ago I reviewed the movie The Bicentennial Man. I pointed out that it was based on two sources: on Isaac Asimov’s novelette of the same name and on the later adaptation of that novelette into a full-length… Read More ›
Being human in the age of algorithms
That’s not the title. It’s actually the subtitle. The book’s title is Hello World. OK, so now that you know the title, you want to know who the author is—right? Well, the author is applied mathematician Hannah Fry, whom I… Read More ›
Another treat from Richard Osman
A couple of months ago I reviewed the first novel in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. Now I turn to the second, which I have just finished reading. This mystery, The Man Who Died Twice, is at least as… Read More ›
The Bicentennial Man
“One has mixed feelings about the movie” would be my comment if I’m going to speak in Andrew’s style. As usual, I recommend seeing the movie before reading the book. In this case the first version was a long short… Read More ›
A classic mystery—written in 2021!
Agatha Christie was, I believe, the originator of the locked-room mystery. If not the originator, she was at least an early and very successful practitioner. But this post is not about Agatha Christie. It’s about Anthony Horowitz and his latest… Read More ›
The Queen’s Gambit: what’s it all about?
Is it about chess? You may be tempted to say yes. It seems to be about chess. In high school English—a hundred years ago or so—I learned to distinguish plot from theme. If we’re talking plot, then The Queen’s Gambit… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 