eralon.tumblr @eralon - Tumblr Blog

Mislaid by Nell Zink My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well, that was different. Well-written with too cutesy a plot which was then countermanded by all the ew moments. I think I liked it? I'm going to need to sit with it. View all my reviews

I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is a little uneven but it has three basic ideas: 1) the relative size of souls from small mosquitoes all the way to the most compassionate, selfless humans, and 2) the ability to share one's soul closely in great detail or largely in a general way, 3) consciousness arises from conscience. Leaving aside the issue of animals for the purpose of this review I believe in the equal treatment and honor of all humans as the basis for good and my conception of goodness itself or God. On the flip side, sociopathic cruelty towards any human is evil and I am not open to relativism. In other words, I completely reject #1 and embrace #3. The book itself feels like it jumps from these three topics sometimes accompanied with logic puzzles or personal stories without actually persuasively tying these topics together. It wasn't a bad read though, it definitely gets your brain going and introduces some new things to think about. View all my reviews

Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran My rating: 3 of 5 stars Allegories and poems about philosophy and religion. They vary in quality and interest. Mostly I liked the misanthropic hermit at the beginning. He's like a jerky Buddhist. I also liked "John the Madman" about the difference between real Christianity and false Christianity. There's a story about saving Satan and mermaids judging mankind. A lot of the mostly Christian philosophy (but also Muslim and Buddhist philosophy) resonated with me, but I didn't feel like I gained any new insights. View all my reviews

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez My rating: 5 of 5 stars Every now and then I read a book that changes the way I see the world. This is one of those. Of course, I am aware of some of the things mentioned in the book because I am a woman. I am well aware of the relative danger I face while walking around at nighttime as opposed to a man, but there is so much more than those types of observations here. The author explores so much in the world of data that my entire perception of moving through the world has shifted. Absolutely everything seems different. I'm even looking at the headrest in my car with wonder and confusion. I'd give this book 10 stars if I could. View all my reviews

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney My rating: 5 of 5 stars I've read a few books about the 1918 flu this year, and this was an excellent overview ofthe history, science, and changing culture of the time. It was entertaining, well-written, and not overly dark considering the topic. View all my reviews

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book has my highest recommendation. Even with as much as I read about democracy and politics I still found this book to be highly educational and motivational. It should be required high school/college reading especially with our democracy in increasing danger. The two main topics are fair elections and the importance of a complete and accurate census. That sounds a bit dry, but Abrams makes the topics come alive with her passion and knowledge. View all my reviews “Voting is a constitutional right in the United States, a right that has been reiterated three separate times via constitutional amendment.” “Voter suppression works its might by first tripping and causing to stumble the unwanted voter, then by convincing those who see the obstacle course to forfeit the race without even starting to run.” ― Stacey Abrams

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke My rating: 3 of 5 stars I thought this had interesting concepts about an alien invasion and I even liked the inversion of time, memory, and religion, but I didn't think it was executed all that well. View all my reviews

The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was interested in this book mainly because of the title. I thought it would be a sociological exploration of the concept of childhood and how it's changed. The first half of this short book was mostly that but then it was mostly about television dumbing down the world. In part, due to its short length, it wasn't enough of an exploration of anything. It was an okay read though. View all my reviews

The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread--And Why They Stop by Adam Kucharski My rating: 3 of 5 stars Like a lot of people said, this both about viruses spreading and about information/misinformation/disinformation spreading. It's sort of the perfect book for our time in that both of those things are a danger right now. But the organization was really poor and there were only a few new things covered. View all my reviews “We received a new dataset each day. Because it took time for new cases to be reported, there were fewer recent cases in each of these datasets: if someone fell ill on a Monday, they generally wouldn’t show up in the data until Wednesday or Thursday. The epidemic was still going, but these delays made it look like it was almost over.” “R = Duration × Opportunities × Transmission probability × Susceptibility” “Epidemiology is, in fact, a mathematical subject,’ he wrote in 1911, ‘and fewer absurd mistakes would be made regarding it (for example, those regarding malaria) if more attention were given to the mathematical study of it.’" “Tackling harmful content will have a direct effect – preventing a person from seeing it – as well as an indirect effect, preventing them spreading it to others. This means well-designed measures may prove disproportionately effective. A small drop in the reproduction number can lead to a big reduction in the size of an outbreak.”

Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was getting ready to give this book 3 stars at the beginning but as I went on I realized that some of these math mental hurdles are driving the covid spread. For starters, many Governors, even 11 months in seem fundamentally unaware of how exponential growth works which is the underlying prediction threat of covid growth. Additionally, most people have very little familiarity with even the basics of how statistics work, useful in understanding all types of science research, for example in vaccine trials. Another example is the Swiss cheese engineering strategy which is also necessary to implement to avoid covid spread but many people and even state governments seem unaware of this. This book is interesting both for people that do not understand math and for those that do. Those that understand math are usually unaware of how deeply clueless others are but since they make systems for people who do not understand- or at a minimum are fallible humans- humans are likely to screw everything up, possibly with fatal results. It's also a pretty entertaining book as the author genuinely seems to enjoy math and resultant foibles. View all my reviews

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty My rating: 4 of 5 stars Empathy, charity, and math! I read this because it was on Nebraska's Golden Sower list for middle grades and my son selected it to read. This was a good book about a student with a very different perspective of the world making friends with other very unique characters. The kids are also trying to change the world for the better so there are a lot of positive things in the book. And I love books about a love for math though admittedly I have not read enough of these. I will rectify that soon. James's Review (age 9): Rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this book! I thought all the things that happened to lightning girl because of the strike were so cool and creative. I liked how each character had a completely different personality. I loved relationships and conflict to characters. Spoiler Alert! I thought it was a fun plot twist when she fell in love with a dog named "Pi" as the math term, while doing her cougars care project. View all my reviews

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is really good. Much like Stacey Abrams is a jack-of-all-trades this book cannot be fit into one neat category: it's part political memoir, of course, part self-help business book, part antiracism book, part you-should-just-read-it-okay? As I learned more and more about Abrams I was reminded of Benjamin Franklin. She's a renaissance woman! We're too often discouraged from this wide approach to knowledge and career to the detriment of current society, I think. View all my reviews

1,000 Comic Books You Must Read by Tony Isabella My rating: 3 of 5 stars Coffee table book with some old classics. Not really a book you can just read through to get an idea of best comics to prioritize. View all my reviews

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book would have been great if it had had serious editing. The first 13 chapters are background on a number of scientists who fail to capture the imagination -- probably because he simply covers too many of them. In chapter 14, Barry finally starts to write about the pandemic, and by the time you're halfway through the book, the information is basically over. The rest is just a rehash of what you've read. However, the second quarter of the book was very interesting. View all my reviews

White House, Inc.: How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business by Dan Alexander My rating: 3 of 5 stars The worst of this is mostly things I already knew from following the news and the rest is not that exciting. View all my reviews

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is more of a book about cleaning your own emotional house and doesn't really at all address structural inequality. It rejects the idea of persuasiveness and instead counts on readers who pick up this book being completely dedicated to the cause already, and so it might be effective for a pretty limited audience. I found some interesting new perspectives in it. View all my reviews

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid My rating: 4 of 5 stars Definitely an enjoyable read. Focuses on the different perspectives of members of a fictional 70's bad, and I love the subtle ways the members contradict each other while still definitely living in the same reality. Instead of actually actively contradicting each other you start to sense that all the characters are right in their own way. View all my reviews

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

eralon.tumblr