Wednesday, March 12, 2014

2014: The beginning: 1-6.

1: Einstein Simplified: Cartoons on Science, Sidney Harris
Cartoons by Harris. Classic.
2: True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall, Mark Salzman
An autobiographical account of Mark's year tutoring kids in a high-security juvenile hall. The usual tear-jerking is there, but Marks's a good writer, so I enjoyed it. It does bother me that he writes from memory (no tapes, no notes at the time), yet gives full conversations in dialogue format. His first autobiographical book, "Iron & Silk", about martial arts in China is funnier and more interesting.
3: Laughing without an Accent, Firoozeh Dumas
A collection of (mostly humorous) stories about family, and about growing up Iranian in the U.S. in the 1980's. Firoozeh's first book (Funny in Farsi) was funnier—I feel like she used up the better stories, and there's some filler here (including some terribly moralistic closing chapters). I don't recommend it, but I do recommend the first one.
4: Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine, Douglas Botting
Scott recommended this. A history of Zeppelin flight that focuses on Hugo Eckener's work and influence. (He was director of the Zeppelin company for many years, and one of the first airship captains.) It's an excellent story. I'm obsessed with Zeppelins, though, so take that bias into account.

Reading this made me order a bunch more books on Zeppelins.
5: Feed, M. T. Anderson
Yes! Brilliant YA fiction! Amy recommended this, and I've been calling her Unette ever since. This was meg brag.
6: Delta of Venus, Anaïs Nin
I'm not charmed. Some of it was good, some of it I found boring. I prefer Little Birds.

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