Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Category Archives: Book Notes
Dr. Christopher Evans, CULTS OF UNREASON
No subtitle (they didn’t do them so often fifty years ago). (UK, 1973; US: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974, 258pp, including 5pp index.) Like Nicholas Humphrey’s LEAPS OF FAITH, discussed a couple weeks ago, this is a book I read … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science, science fiction, Supernatural
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Nicholas Humphrey, LEAPS OF FAITH
Subtitle: “Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation” (Basic Books, Jan. 1996, 244pp, including 20pp notes and index) (Chatto & Windus, 1995, as Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief) Here’s a book I read when it came out, … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Isaac Asimov, MInd, Religion
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John Scalzi, WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE
(Tor, March 2025, 323pp) John Scalzi is one of the most popular of current science fiction writers, even as he’s not regarded, I think, as a *serious* sf writer by the critics or even readers. He’s entertaining, often humorous or … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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Tim Urban, WHAT’S OUR PROBLEM?, post 1
(Wait But Why, 2024, 584pp, including 112pp of characters, acknowledgements, notes, bibliography, and bio) I wrote about this book back in December, before deciding to buy it. Which I did despite some cautionary signs: it’s apparently self-published, it’s enormous, it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, conservatives, Culture, Human Nature, Human Progress
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J. Bronowksi: THE ASCENT OF MAN
(Little, Brown, 1973, 448pp, including 9pp (in tiny print) of bibliography and index) This is a substantial book that was popular in its time but is probably not really recommendable now, simply because it’s 50 years out of date in … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, History, Human Nature, Human Progress, Science
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Timothy Ferris, COMING OF AGE IN THE MILKY WAY
(Morrow, 1988, 495pp, including 107pp of appendices (a glossary and a timeline history of the universe), notes, bibliography, and index) This is the first big substantial nonfiction book I’ve read in a while, especially one specifically about science. Ferris is … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Book Notes, Cosmology, Science
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Edward O. Wilson: LETTERS TO A YOUNG SCIENTIST
(Liveright, 2013, 244pp, including 4pp of acknowledgements and photo credits) This is one of Wilson’s later, perhaps lesser books, compared to his earlier tomes like ON HUMAN NATURE and CONSILIENCE. It’s more like THE ORIGINS OF CREATIVITY and GENESIS (both … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science
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Chris Mooney, THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON SCIENCE
(Basic Books, 2005, 342pp, including 86pp of interview credits, other credits, notes, and index.) This is journalist Mooney’s first book, from 20 years ago, and it’s especially apropos to look back at now given the hostility to and/or misunderstanding of … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, conservatives, Science
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Dan Ariely, MISBELIEF
Subtitled “What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things” (Harper, September 2023, 311pp, including 21pp of acknowledgements, references, and index.) Here’s the latest book by Dan Ariely, author of one of the earliest books I read about psychological biases and human … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Psychology
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Tyson & Walker, TO INFINITY AND BEYOND
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Lindsey Nyx Walker Subtitled “A Journey of Cosmic Discovery” (National Geographic, Sep. 2023, 319pp, including 16pp acknowledgements, further reading, illustrations credits, and index.) This is literally a heavier-than-usual book that is nevertheless a light-weight read (even … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Book Notes, Cosmology, Science, Skiffy Flix
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