Category Archives: Book Notes

Links and Comments: Tyson v. Douthat

Posted on Wednesday 24 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

I started writing up a few notes about the new (small) Neil deGrasse Tyson book, ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY, and got sidetracked by a passage that reminded me of a Ross Douthat column from a few weeks ago. … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Tyson v. Douthat

I Can Do Anything: Mark Haddon’s THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

Posted on Monday 24 April 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Last week I posted a look back at 20 Years of Locus Online and, having asked my lead contributors over the years for their best or exceptional posts, revisited an 11-year-old essay by film reviewer Gary Westfahl, Homo aspergerus: Evolution … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Personal history | Comments Off on I Can Do Anything: Mark Haddon’s THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

Harari on THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION

Posted on Sunday 23 April 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

In today’s NYT Book Review, Yuval Noah Harari reviews THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION: Why We Never Think Alone, by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach. The review’s opening echoes Harari’s own work, e.g. What gave Homo sapiens an edge over all other … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd | Comments Off on Harari on THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION

Lawrence M. Krauss: THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD — SO FAR

Posted on Thursday 13 April 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Lawrence M. Krauss’ new book is a book by a theoretical physicist, and so the greatest story turns out to be — a history of physics, especially of the last few decades. He begins by emphasizing how this is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Physics | Comments Off on Lawrence M. Krauss: THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD — SO FAR

Rereading LORD OF THE FLIES

Posted on Friday 17 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Even before the reaction to Tr*mp’s election brought renewed attention to the famous dystopian classics like Nineteen Eight-Four [that’s the proper, bibliographic, title; ‘1984’ is a sort of nickname] and Brave New World, I had contemplated returning to some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Species Reset | Comments Off on Rereading LORD OF THE FLIES

Anne Fadiman: EX LIBRIS

Posted on Thursday 16 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a pleasant, ‘occasional’ book of short essays about reading and books — a book about books. The author is the daughter of the famed Clifton Fadiman, an editor for Encyclopedia Britannica, an editor for Book-of-the-Month Club back in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes | Comments Off on Anne Fadiman: EX LIBRIS

Philip Roth, INDIGNATION

Posted on Wednesday 17 August 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

I saw the film Indignation a couple weeks ago, and here’s what I posted about it on Facebook: — We saw the film Indignation today, based on a short Philip Roth novel that I’ve not read. It’s about a Jewish … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes | Comments Off on Philip Roth, INDIGNATION

Thomas Paine, THE AGE OF REASON (1796)

Posted on Friday 24 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Thomas Paine was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, author of Common Sense in 1776, which inspired the American revolution, and Rights of Man in 1791, which defended the French Revolution. He’s one of those Founding Fathers … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Book Notes | Comments Off on Thomas Paine, THE AGE OF REASON (1796)

Carl Sagan, THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE (2006): History is a battle of inadequate myths

Posted on Tuesday 7 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book I had forgotten I had, relatively speaking; I obviously bought it back in 2006 or so, but I didn’t read it right away and so it sat on my shelves among many other books (by Sagan and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Culture, Evolution, Human Progress, Provisional Conclusions, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Carl Sagan, THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE (2006): History is a battle of inadequate myths

Paul Kalanithi, WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

Posted on Wednesday 6 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

This is an almost unbearably sad, yet poignant and moving and thoughtful, memoir by a young Stanford neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36. His life changes from being the physician to being … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Meaning, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Paul Kalanithi, WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR