George R. Stewart: Earth Abides. Great science fiction novel about a man who survives a plague that kills off 99.999% of the population, and who leads a tribe of people to rebuild society. Great novel, very immersive. Single book, moderate length. Written in 1949, but I never guessed that until Eileen told me. Buy more by this author. 5 out of 5. (Dec 1, 2005)
George R. Stewart: Fire. This is a very good novel about a California forest fire that follows the fire from “birth” through “death”, telling the story of those who fight it. It’s very well written: George R. Stewart was a prominent professor of literature. It was written in 1948, and although the male and female roles are very typical for that time, it is otherwise a fairly timeless novel. It is also a great insight into the mindset of firefighting as the dominate approach to managing forests, and so it has an important historical perspective from that aspect. Read more by this author. Available from public library. 4 out of 5. (Dec 24, 2005)
Joan D. Vinge: Catspaw. Great science fiction novel about a man with telepathic abilities who is a pawn of space-spanning corporations, and who gets enmeshed into politics in the Federation. Buy more in this series: Psion (prequel) and Dreamfall (sequel). 4 out of 5. (Dec 5, 2005)
David Eddings: The Dreamers Series (Book 1: The Elder Gods). As much as I liked some of David Eddings other books (particularly his multi-trilogy Belgarion/Belgarath epic), this fantasy novel is terrible. There are no interesting characters, and little character development that I can see. It feels as though David Eddings ran out of ideas in his earlier series, and grasped from straws for a story concept, and ended up with one that has no interesting characters and is like a caricature of a real story. Don’t buy anything else in this series. 1 out of 5. (Dec 6, 2005)
Jean Liedloff: The Continuum Concept. This anthropological study of child rearing by the indigenous people of South America significantly changed my beliefs about raising children. Some key concepts: carrying your baby; involving children in adult activities rather than just playing with them; letting children raise each other in mixed age groups; children instinctively don’t endanger themselves but adults can install fear and cause accidents by putting the idea in their subconscious by saying things like “be careful”, “don’t touch those knives”. 5 of 5. (1997 and again Dec 2005)
Peter F. Hamilton: A Quantum Murder. Book two in a three part sci-fi series about a retired detective with psi abilities to read emotions in others. Take place in a post global warming world with many environmental qualities to the story. Pretty good, and looking forward to read others in the series. 3 out of 5. (Dec 10, 2005)
Peter F. Hamilton: The Nano Flower. Book three in a three part sci-fi series about a retired detective with psi abilities to read emotions in others. This book takes place about twenty years after the previous books, and so technology had advanced that much further. Humanity has now established a space colony and encounters alien technology. Pretty good, and looking forward to more. 4 out of 5. (Dec 20, 2005)
Peter F. Hamilton: Pandora’s Star. Great sci-fi novel set in
future mankind space exploration and settlement age using “wormholes” that
allow instantaneous travel between two places. The story encompasses an
encounter with a “Dyson’s Pair” of stars that are suddenly cut off from the
universe. Who did it, and why? The book ends with interstellar war between
mankind and the aliens, and leads into the sequel book “Judas Unchained”.
Definitely buy sequel. 4 out of 5. (January 13, 2006)
Russell Andrews: Gideon. A thriller about an unknown writer who gets offered a mysterious contract and in the process gets involved in intricate political maneuverings at the highest level, framed for murder, and on the run from assassins. 4 out of 5. (Dec 15, 2005) Buy more from this author.
Sheldrake, Rupert. The Sense of Being Stared At: And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind. This book combines both anecdotal and experimental evidence making the case for telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance. It does give some pretty compelling evidence, and in many cases, presents good summaries of the extensive research done into these areas. Some amazing stuff: dogs know when their owners at coming home at the moment that their owners have the intention of coming home, way before there could be any physical evidence of their arrival. This experiment was done by videotaping the dogs, and paging the owner to come home at a random time. A second amazing experiment: When subjects are trained to record their dreams immediately on awakening. While some dreams are fluff, many dreams refer to real-world events. About 50% refer to things that have happened in the past 48 hours, while about 50% refer to things that will happen in the NEXT 48 hours. Wow! From a literary perspective, the book is OK, but I found myself speeding past certain sections. 3 out of 5 for writing, 4 out of 5 for pure amazingness. (January 31, 2006)
McTaggart, Lynne. The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe. This book is a summary of various fields of research including quantum theory, consciousness, healing, qi, clairvoyance, and zero point fields. Referencing mostly experimental evidence and some anecdotal evidence, the book is very convincing. Here are a couple of highlights:
· Jacques Benveniste, a French scientist who started out studying the science behind homeopathic medicines, developed a method of measuring the frequencies given off by particular molecules, such as several medicines. (A similar method is used by astronomers to determine the atomic composition of stars by measuring the signature frequencies of various atoms, such as hydrogen.) He was able to digitally record these frequencies. He could then playback the digital recordings and embed the frequency signature in water. He could then administer the water and achieve the same therapeutic effect as the original medicine. This is not dissimilar to homeopathy, where the original active agent is diluted again several hundred times until no molecules are left of the active agent, and yet the homeopathic solution has a greater therapeutic effect than before the dilution. It was repeated successfully in thousands of trials. It sounds like pure craziness, but after reading the evidence for it, I want to figure out how to do it myself.
· Hundreds of studies have done on the effect of intention of healing, whether by prayer, ritual, remote healing, or manipulating qi, or just thinking about a person (or animal, or cells). The studies were double blind studies, and controlled for dozens of different factors. Over and over again the studies demonstrated that when some intention of healing was used, a significant improvement was experienced as compared to the control group in rate of recovery, in total function regained, in lessening of pain, relapsed and so forth. The studies found that the method and religion of the person holding the intention did not affect the results. The most important factors were that the person holding the intention had to believe it would work, and they were most effective when they believe that they were merely “channeling” the healing energy as opposed to the source of the healing energy. Several studies also found that people could block intentional healing or other remote effects simply by visualizing a shield around them or holding the intention to block. Not only can good intentions truly help, but when we have negative thoughts we not only suffer the direct effects of those negative thoughts, but we also negate the benefit of good thoughts from others.
Ranked 3 out of 5 for writing, 5 out of 5 for subject content. (February 13th, 2006)
Donohue, John. Deshi: A Martial Arts Thriller. Rich with the culture of martial arts in America from lineage Japanese teachers. This was a very exciting read, and I look forward to more. The book hit the cultural aspects spot on, but the climax didn’t build as well as it should, and the “detective story” aspect lacked the flowering/unfolding of a true detective novel. Sequel to Sensei. 3.5 out of 5. Buy more from this author. (February 14th, 2006).
Joan D. Vinge: Psion. Great science fiction novel about a teen/man with telepathic abilities who is a pawn of space-spanning corporations. In this first book about this character, he discovers his psionic ability after living in the slums for his entire life. Not quite as good as the second book in the series, Catspaw. The series is: Psion, Catspaw, Dreamfall. The books are standalone stories. 3 out of 5. (February 24th, 2005)
Donohue, John. Sensei: A Thriller. Rich with the culture of martial arts in America from true lineage Japanese teachers. This was a very exciting read, and I look forward to more. The book hit the cultural aspects spot on, and the climax was thrilling. The “detective story”/mystery aspect was a little bit lacking as compared to the flowering/unfolding of a true detective novel. 4 out of 5. Buy more from this author. (February 26th, 2006).
Butcher, Jim. Storm Front (Book One of the Dresden Files). A fun, light-hearted but well written romp with a modern wizard who sets up practice in Chicago as a detective of the supernatural. I enjoyed it, and it had excellent pacing; a real page turner. 3.5 out of 5. Buy more from this author. (February 26th, 2006).
Eisler, Barry. Rain Fall. The first in a series of stand-alone books involving the same central character, John Rain. Set in Japan, and rich in Japanese culture including jazz and whiskey bars. Excellently written, excellent plot, wonderful descriptions of Japan, great characters. A thrilling detective / martial arts novel. 4.5 out of 5. Buy more from this author. (March 4th, 2006).
Pilger, John. The New Rulers of the World. This book is a compilation of essays by John Pilger on four topics: (1) the return of imperialism and colonialism and its impact on third world nations wherein state power allows protects western markets while allowing western corporations to intervene where they like in the world; (2) the impact of the first Gulf war and resulting embargo forced on Iraq by the United States; (3) the story of how the 'global economy' in Asia was spawned in the bloodbath that brought General Suharto to power in Indonesia; and the story of the struggle of the Aborginal people in Australia. In particular, I read this book for the chapter on U.S. influence in Iraq and elsewhere. When U.S. policy and actions has directly caused the deaths of over a million Iraqi children and adults, as citizens I feel it is our duty to understand the history and actions behind this. When U.S. policy and actions has trained over 60,000 military troops (on American soil) that have subsequently gone to innumerable human rights violations and genocides, I again think that it is our duty to understand the history. This is not an enjoyable book to read because of the topics, but it is a good and necessary compilation of information in one place. There is more from this author on related topics. 4 out of 5. (March 6th, 2006).
Scalzi, John. Old Man's War. This sci-fi novel has a wonderful premise. At the age of 75, people are recruited to join the interstellar military to defend human space. What happens, and what sort of society results? Cory Doctorow wrote about this book: "Gripping and surpassingly original. It's Starship Troopers without the lectures. It's The Forever War with better sex.". I thought it was a very good read, if a bit heavy on the techy side. 4 out of 5. (March 8th, 2006).
Hagy, Fred. Landscaping with Fruits and Vegetables. I have to admit that I just glanced through the book. If you want to truly "landscape", i.e. have a formal garden complete with architectual style landscape drawings, and you want to do it with edible plants, then this is a good book. If you just want to do edible gardening on your city lot, and you aren't shooting for some grand design, then other books will better serve you. (March 10th, 2006).
Vinge, Vernor. Tatja Grimm's World. This book is based on three earlier short stories/novellas. The overall story is unique and exciting, although there are some rough edges correlating with the transitions between the original novellas. But I liked the description of life on a metal-poor planet. What does science and technology look like when even the richest people struggle for control of mere ounces of iron? 3 out of 5. (March 11th, 2006).