Monthly Archives: February 2016

Thoughts on Jo Walton’s WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT

Jo Walton’s WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT is a wonderful book, and I wish there were more like them. It’s not a book of reviews, so much as a book of reviews about *re*-reading books, and why she does … Continue reading

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Gilovich, 2, part 2

The second half of Thomas Gilovich’s and Lee Ross’ new book THE WISEST ONE IN THE ROOM: How You Can Benefit From Social Psychology’s Most Powerful Insights is four chapters under the heading “Wisdom Applied.” Chapter 6, “The Happiest One … Continue reading

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Gilovich, 2, part 1

The new book by Thomas Gilovich (author of the 1991 volume HOW WE KNOW WHAT ISN’T SO: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, just discussed here) and coauthor Lee Ross is THE WISEST ONE IN THE ROOM: How … Continue reading

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Gilovich, 1

I just finished a new book co-written by Thomas Gilovich, author of the 1991 volume HOW WE KNOW WHAT ISN’T SO: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, the earliest volume in my library on the theme of that … Continue reading

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Review: Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight

I’m a bit under the weather this week, with a cold or flu that began Sunday, or Saturday night — I took DayQuil to get through our Sunday adventures in the city, with a walking tour of Nob Hill, drinks … Continue reading

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NYRoB on PKD’s The Man in the High Castle

I haven’t picked up an issue of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS in many years. On the one hand, it has been characterized in my reading life by the Harlan Ellison story, “The New York Review of Bird”, which … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Susan Jacoby; Erasure; Boars and the Sixth Extinction; Jerry Brown and Jean-Pierre Dupuy

From last Sunday’s papers, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. » NYT: Susan Jacoby: Sick and Tired of ‘God Bless America’ Well, of course; this is someone daring to point out the obvious, mostly unmentioned privilege that … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Living in the Real World

Salon: College students were asked simple questions about politics and history and their answers are a dramatic wake up call about the state of our education system. (The same video has been posted elsewhere.) Street interviews with college students asked … Continue reading

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Item’s from Sunday’s New York Times: Pace of Change; Criticism; Religion in Politics; Creative Children

Most interesting, a review, by Paul Krugman, of a book by Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, whose thesis is that the extraordinary growth and change brought about by technology over the past century has pretty … Continue reading

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