I’m taking some flak in the comments to yesterday’s book recommendation request post, so let me illustrate what I meant with an example. Lots of people recommended the Andrew Lang Fairy books, which are freely available online. I looked at the first story in the first book, which is plenty entertaining, but also has this… Continue reading Against Pointless Racism in Children’s Stories
Category: Books
Fairy Tale Book Recommendations?
One of the books in SteelyKid’s regular rotation of books to read at naptime and bedtime is this book about a girl visiting characters from fairy tales to ask them what makes somebody happy ever after. It’s not the greatest, but she enjoys it. It occurs to me, though, that while the book references a… Continue reading Fairy Tale Book Recommendations?
Heavy Heavy Water
I make an effort to say nice things about pop-science books that I read, whether for book research or blog reviews. Every now and then, though, I hit a book that has enough problems that I have a hard time taking anything positive from it. I got David Bodanis’s E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s… Continue reading Heavy Heavy Water
Jo Walton, Among Others [Library of Babel]
This is a difficult book to review, which is probably fitting, because it’s a very personal book. My reaction to it is largely personal as well, and may or may not be of any use to anyone else. Given the surprising number of people who had Opinions regarding my recollections of telecommunications, I almost think… Continue reading Jo Walton, Among Others [Library of Babel]
It’s About Time by David Mermin
Subtitled “Understanding Einstein’s Relativity,” David Mermin’s It’s About Time is another book (like An Illustrated Guide to Relativity) that grew out of a non-majors course on physics that Mermin offers at Cornell. It’s also an almost-forty-years-later update of an earlier book he wrote on the same subject. And it’s been a really good resource for… Continue reading It’s About Time by David Mermin
The Past Is Another Country, and Vice Versa
I’m about halfway through Jo Walton’s Among Others, a fantasy novel set in Britain in 1979, featuring an unhappy teenage girl who finds relief in reading science fiction and fantasy, and becoming involved with SF fandom. It’s getting rave reviews from a lot of the usual sources, and the concept sounded interesting, so I grabbed… Continue reading The Past Is Another Country, and Vice Versa
Con or Bust Auction Signal Boost
Last year, Kate was one of the people who helped organize a fundraising auction to send a few people to Wiscon. It’s that time again, and she’s seeking donations for the auction: Last year, Con or Bust raised $6,183.89 and helped thirteen people of color attend WisCon. We weren’t able to meet all the requests… Continue reading Con or Bust Auction Signal Boost
Massive by Ian Sample
The physics book generating the most bloggy buzz in the latter part of 2010 would have to be Ian Sample’s Massive: The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science, about the as yet undetected particle known as the Higgs boson. Detecting the Hiigs is the most immediate goal of the Large Hadron Collider,… Continue reading Massive by Ian Sample
An Illustrated Guide to Relativity by Tatsu Takeuchi
I’m always a little hesitant to post reviews of books that I’m using as reference sources when I’m writing something, because it feels a little like recommending that you skip past my book and go to my sources instead. This is, of course, completely irrational, because however much I my use a given book as… Continue reading An Illustrated Guide to Relativity by Tatsu Takeuchi
This One Goes to 11
A reader from the UK, James Cownie, was kind enough to send this picture of the “New and Bestselling” shelf at a WH Smiths ” at one of the service stations on the M20.” You might not recognize the cover immediately, but in the #11 spot on that list is occupied by How to Teach… Continue reading This One Goes to 11