Category Archives: Book Notes

David Brin, THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY

Posted on Saturday 28 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (Addison Wesley, April 1998, 378pp, including 42pp of notes, follow-up, acknowledgements, index, and about the author.) Here is a book that has sat my shelves for over a quarter … Continue reading →

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Bobby Azarian: THE ROMANCE OF REALITY

Posted on Tuesday 24 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: How the universe organizes itself to create life, consciousness, and cosmic complexity. (BenBella Books, June 2022, 306pp, including 26pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index) This is the third of three books I read this past January, all with vaguely … Continue reading →

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Ziya Tong; THE REALITY BUBBLE

Posted on Saturday 21 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World (Penguin Canada: Allen Lane, 2019, 366pp, including 15pp of acknowledgements and index.) This is a pleasant enough book by a Canadian journalist. Her broad point is that … Continue reading →

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Donald Hoffman: THE CASE AGAINST REALITY

Posted on Friday 20 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes (Norton, 2019, 250pp, plus color plates, including 45pp acknowledgements, notes, and index.) This is the first of three books I read in January, all with ostensibly similar themes, but actually quite … Continue reading →

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Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan: SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS

Posted on Monday 16 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Search for Who We Are (Random House, Oct 1992, xvi + 505pp, including 85pp of notes, permissions acknowledgements, and index.) This is perhaps Carl Sagan’s most substantial book, on the grounds that it’s through-written as a single composition; … Continue reading →

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Whiteson & Warner, DO ALIENS SPEAK PHYSICS?

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “And other questions about science and the nature of reality” (Norton, 2025, 254pp, including 12pp of bibliography and index) Here’s a book that’s remarkable in an unusual way: I didn’t hear about it from anywhere, not in a review, … Continue reading →

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Malcolm Gladwell, THE TIPPING POINT

Posted on Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” (Little, Brown, March 2000, 279pp, including 20pp endnotes, acknowledgements, and index) This was a popular and well-received book when published back in 2000, and launched Gladwell‘s book career. Most of his books … Continue reading →

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Johan Norberg, PROGRESS

Posted on Tuesday 3 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (UK: Oneworld, Oct 2016, 246pp, including 28pp notes, acknowledgements, and index) Rather as I did with Rutger Bregman a few days, here’s an author who has a new book out recently, … Continue reading →

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Rutger Bregman: HUMANKIND

Posted on Wednesday 25 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “A Hopeful History” (2019 Dutch; 2020 Little, Brown, xviii+461pp, including 64pp acknowledgements, notes, and index) Still catching up posting about big books I’ve read in recent years. This book came out in 2020 (in the US) and I blogged … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 6

Posted on Tuesday 23 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” (Viking, Feb. 2018, xix+556pp, including 102pp of notes, references, and index.) Posts about this book: Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4; Post 5; Post 6. The final chapter considers humanism as the … Continue reading →

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