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"Social networks in fact and fiction"
The Endeavour :: John Cook :: Social networks in fact and fiction In a nutshell, the authors hope to get some insight into whether a myth is based on fact by seeing whether the social network of...
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"Ragnarok: The End of the Gods," A.S. Byatt
This is part of the Canongate Myth Series, which has contemporary authors re-telling ancient myths. I soaked up all the Greco-Roman mythology I could get as a kid. My parents cleverly gave me a...
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"Traffic," Tom Vanderbilt
This is a good compendium. Nothing too ground-breaking here, but Vanderbilt does cover a lot of ground. I especially liked that Vanderbilt addressed self-driving cars. Traffic was published in 2009; I...
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Some recent, brief book reviews
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, Philip Pullman "Fairy Takes from the Brothers Grimm," Pullman I knew these were darker than Disney (and everyone else in the 20th C.) would have children believe,...
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Some Long Overdue Book Reviews
"More Money Than God," Mallaby More Money Than God, Sebastian Mallaby Excellent. Far too many general audience finance books are written at what I think of as a newspaper reading level. (Defining even...
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Marketing to Algorithms?
Toby Gunton :: Computer says no – why brands might end up marketing to algorithms I know plenty about algorithms, and enough about marketing. 1 And despite that, I'm not sure what this headline...
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Garbage in, garbage out. Or rather more felicitously, the tree of nonsense is watered with error, and from its branches swing the pumpkins of disaster. — Nick Harkaway, “The Gone Away World," p.145 The...
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What I've Been Reading
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, Dan Koeppel Not bad. I'm a sucker for this type of history of a single commodity or common household object. It did make we want to try to get my...
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Some brief book reviews to close 2017
A Wild Swan, Michael Cunningham I would think we've saturated the "modern re-tellings of fairytales, but for adults" genre, but this was supremely good. They reminded me of Garrison Keillor in the way...
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Book List: 2018Q1
Yes, I realize it is now most of the way through the 2nd quarter of the year. Whatever. Here are the books I read in the first three months. "Sourdough," Robin Sloan Sourdough, Robin Sloan I love...
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Book List: 2018Q2
Here are the books I read in April, May and June. Since it's already August, I'm going to forego commentary on some of these and just hit publish. "The Professor and the Madman," Simon Winchester The...
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Book List: 2018Q3
We Are Legion (We Are Bob), Dennis Taylor For We Are Many, Dennis Taylor All These Worlds, Dennis Taylor A sci-fi series about a cryogenically frozen software engineer thawed out several centuries in...
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Book List: 2018Q4
Colin Tudge, "The Tree" The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter, Colin Tudge Exactly what it says on the cover: all about trees. This was exceptionally well...
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Book List: 2019Q1
I think I did less reading this quarter than at any point since I beat dyslexia. Certainly less than any point since I started keeping track in 2011, and that includes the period when I finished my...
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Book List: 2019Q2
I'll call this the Wizards & Cryptarchs, Frauds & Revolutions Edition —or— "What I've been reading when I'm not prepping for lectures and wrestling with toddlers." Life in Code, Ellen Ullman...
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