Category Archives: Book Notes

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Carlo Rovelli, SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS

Posted on Wednesday 6 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Very slender book, drawn from a newspaper column and intended for readers who know nothing about science. I read it because it’s short and because a NYT review of the book, pointed out that its final chapter is about human … Continue reading →

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Reading Around the Bible, 3: Mark

Posted on Wednesday 23 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Some of these comments apply, of course, to Matthew as well. All maladies are due to spirits or demons. It’s been noted by critics that the Bible contains no knowledge that was not known to its writers; that is, though … Continue reading →

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Allen Steele, ARKWRIGHT

Posted on Monday 21 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve read three recent 2016 novels in the past couple weeks, and am reading them faster than I take the time to key in notes and post summaries on my blog. But I will! First up is the last one … Continue reading →

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Reading Around the Bible, 2: Matthew

Posted on Monday 21 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Having finished the Old Testament a couple weeks ago, and passing over the Apocrypha for now, I decided to proceed with the New Testament by not only reading *around* it via commentaries by others, but to in parallel read the … Continue reading →

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Reading Around the Bible, 1

Posted on Wednesday 9 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

I have never read any version of the Bible (or any other holy book), but over the years I’ve accumulated a couple versions of it, and several books about it. My parents were nominally Presbyterian, my mother sang in the … Continue reading →

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Rereading HOW TO READ A BOOK

Posted on Tuesday 1 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Is this book anywhere near as commonly known as, say, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE? I have the impression it was widely known at some point, and my 1972 revised edition is subtitled “the classic guide to intelligent reading” – the … Continue reading →

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