Reviewed by Kathy London
Bart D. Ehrman is a scholar of the New Testament and early Christianity, and the subtitle of his book is “The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth.”
He is up-front about his personal beliefs as an ex-Christian and agnostic. Whether Jesus really existed would not change his beliefs or make him happier or sadder. This book is a historical work, not religious. He just thinks “evidence matters.” Continue reading
Scott W. Heaberlin adds to the message in the title with the subtitle “…or why I think nuclear power is cool and why it is important that you think so too.” The book works hard to overcome negative feelings about nuclear energy. I was convinced, but admit that I was convinced before I read the book. I doubt any avid nuclear energy foes will have their minds changed. The book takes on a complicated technical subject in a both educational and conversational manner. The author sometimes succeeds, and sometimes falls into the “curse of knowledge” trap that leads knowledgeable people to want to explain everything in details much beyond what is necessary, or at least what I thought was necessary. Continue reading
Reviewed by Kathy London
This book by Matti Friedman is a fascinating and unexpected tale. Friedman says “I expected to write a heartening story about the rescue of this book… [instead] its story is a tragedy of human weakness.”
To read this book, it is important to understand why the Codex is important. Jews dispersed across the world have no central institution to maintain their religion. They have only their Bible. Reading the text with the utmost precision is imperative; even the tune to which the text is chanted is important. There may be knowledge in the Bible’s exact words not understood today, that will be understood in the future. But the Hebrew Bible was originally written without vowels or punctuation. Key knowledge on how to read the Bible had been handed down orally for centuries, but that teaching was lost in the Diaspora.
Ancient scholars set out to compile authoritative Bibles which included symbols for vowels, punctuation, and emphasis. As scholarly works, they were sewn together into books – called codices – rather than written on scrolls as required for ritual use. A thousand years ago, after centuries of effort, the final text of the Bible was accepted. All other Bibles were to be based on this one text, which became known as the Aleppo Codex or The Crown. Continue reading
This is the third book I’ve read by Erik Larson, and it is by far my least favorite. My wife, who is my primary literary advisor, bought the book and eventually announced she couldn’t finish it. She commented something to the effect that she “…would just have to wait for my review.” So, here it is.
The book attempts to weave the story of the efforts of Guglielmo Marconi to develop the wireless telegraph and the life story of Hawley Harvey Crippen, the man who was convicted of the North Cellar Murder, into a single novel. There is certainly an abundance of details about Marconi, wireless transmissions, and the people in his life. However, I came to dislike him the more I read about him. Crippen is portrayed as a meek and somewhat uninteresting man who is convicted of murdering and mutilating his wife. The wife was outgoing and interesting when with friends and was irritatingly and persistently obnoxious to Crippen when they were alone. Continue reading
The Expressions and Review weblog pages of RockyFlatsFacts.com have been experiencing technical problems that are forcing their migration to a different blogging platform. Access to the blog pages has been disrupted (for both you and me) several times over the past few weeks, and made it a challenge to meet my regular Wednesday schedule to post new reviews, expressions, and commentaries.
We are busy battling further service disruptions and transferring content from current weblog pages to our new platform, and intend to transition completely to the new platform as soon as practicable. Regular readers of this page will probably notice a few format and content improvements, which we hope you will appreciate. We are attempting a smooth transition and ask your indulgence for any temporary glitches over the next week or two.
I expect to get back into my regular posting routine as soon as transfer to the new platform is completed.
This is a book I’ve always remembered reading with fascination as a youngster. I recently obtained “Entities, the Selected Novels of Eric Frank Russell” on an interlibrary loan that included that novel. The book was written in 1957, the year I began my junior year in high school. A review on Amazon says it is probably Russell’s best known novel. It is the story of James Mowry who is asked to be an agent behind enemy lines in Earth’s war with the Sirian Combine. He is asked to be like the wasp in the car that stings the driver and causes the car to crash. The novel was nominated for the 1998 Prometheus Hall of Fame award.
Terry Pratchett said he couldn’t imagine “…a funnier terrorists’ handbook,” although I didn’t see that much humor in the book. The central theme is that an enemy can be greatly harmed by psychological and guerrilla warfare by a small, deadly protagonist. I think the book is pertinent because of the huge impact being made on the U.S. and the world by relatively small groups of terrorists dedicated and willing to die for a cause (which is why I’m breaking my usual habit of reviewing nonfiction books).
The introduction by Jack L. Chalker describes Russell as being a science fiction/fantasy writer preceding WWII. Russell worked in the British office of naval intelligence section call XX, or double cross. His group, which included the author of the future “James Bond” books, Ian Fleming, was to think of inexpensive ways to harm the Japanese and Germans and diminish their military capabilities. He put together the book as a blueprint for wartime terrorism. It is interesting that the Japanese secret police was called Temperikai and that the author named the secret police of the enemy planet Kaitemperi. Continue reading