Roborant: rob"o*rant, n. A roborant drug; a restorative or tonic.

Category: Books

Books are where it's at for me. I've loved books since I was a child. I've read at least a book a week for my whole adult life. Fiction, non-fiction, history, biography, I love all of them.

Something New in Storytelling

Storytelling is an old art that is undergoing a startling transformation.

The Athenian Navy

The Athenian navy ruled the seas for 150 years, but sank to almost nothing practically overnight. What happened?

Kim

One of the best novels ever written, Kim deserves better treatment in modern times.

Einstein's Telescope

Cosmology has gone from speculation and wonder to cold, hard facts. How this came about is the subject of a very good book.

Hell On Ice

One of the least-told, but most heroic of all voyages of exploration.

The Outlawry of Chainstores

People always seem to have it in for anyone else who is successful.

The Presidency of John F. Kennedy

Giglio's book about the Kennedy presidency is well-written and easy to read, but there are some odd things about it.

FDR's Folly

FDR's New Deal policies were a disaster for most of the people they were trying to help. It was really FDR who put the "Great" in the Great Depression.

Sly Mongoose

Tobias Buckell's new book is pretty damned good.

Anathem

Neal Stephenson's novel is targeted precisely at an audience. So precisely, you probably won't want to bother with it unless you're a member of that audience.

H.L. Mencken, Super Genius

H.L. Mencken was about eighty years ahead of his time. Not many people can toss off a newspaper column that's so smart it predicts a scholarly shift eight decades later.

Profiles in Folly

Axelrod's book is more annoying than edifying.

A Conservative History of the American Left

Daniel Flynn's book takes us on a tour of the neglected parts of the history of the American Left. We meet lots of weird stuff along the way.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley certainly knew what she was doing back in 1817.

Was Woodrow Wilson Fascist?

Was Woodrow Wilson really a fascist President as Jonah Goldberg claims? Let's check some additional sources and find out.

The Pivot of Civilization

Margaret Sanger is considered a hero of feminism, but her own book shows that she was a racist, elitist, eugenicist who thought that three-fourths of humanity should never have been born.

Liberal Fascism

Goldberg's book is a startling look at the political history of the twentieth century.

Gusher of Lies

The idea that the US can achieve "energy independence" is both wrong and dangerous, according to Robert Bryce. I think he's right.

Norbert Wiener: why you never heard of him

Norbert Wiener is one of the heros of the Information Age, but you've never heard of him. That's mostly because of his own paranoia and a rather nutty wife.

Gibbon and The Decline and Fall

Gibbon's book is a classic and deservedly so. He clearly explains the decline and fall of the Roman empire and has fun doing it.

Darwin

Charles Darwin and his amazingly diverse mind.

The Heinlein Juveniles: Mission Accomplished

This is the final essays and a series that has spanned six months. I'm going to declare victory now, and wind it up.

Starship Troopers

This novel is, in its own way, the ultimate of the juveniles. It provides a sort of closure to the series.

Have Space Suit - Will Travel

Our next Heinlein juvenile is considered by many to be his best work.

Citizen of the Galaxy

This is one of Heinlein's best juveniles. The plot moves briskly along and the characters are memorable.

Time For The Stars

This isn't Heinlein's best effort. In fact, it's the weakest of the juveniles, in my opinion.

Tunnel in the Sky

This time around, Heinlein gives us a tale of pioneering and survival.

Star Beast

Star Beast is Heinlein's first attempt at a humor novel in the juvenile series. The whole novel leads up to a punch line that is actually pretty funny.

Starman Jones

This is another in the series about the Heinlein Juveniles. What do we get this time? This time we get a discussion about fairness and breaking rules.

The Rolling Stones

This Heinlein Juvenile tackles a whole new set of life lessons. It's also one of his most fun to read.

Between Planets

Heinlein actually wrote one juvenile novel that contains no lectures on science and a protagonist who isn't particularly smart or competent.

Farmer in the Sky

Farmer in the Sky is my favorite of the Heinlein Junveniles. It's also a perfect example of my thesis that Heinlein was intentionally crafting a generation of youngsters.

Red Planet

Red Planet is Heinlein's third juvenile novel and he shows us that he has already mastered the form.

Space Cadet

Heinlein sets a new standard for the juvenile novel. With complex themes and rich characters, he shows that kids aren't the idiots the publishing industry always thought they were.

Rocketship Galileo

This book is Heinlein's first juvenile novel. It fits in perfectly with the concept of a "boys book", except for one thing.

The Heinlein Juveniles

The Heinlein juvenile novels were the inspriation for generations of engineers. I think, however, that Heinlein had a big plan behind the whole thing.

Woman at the Edge of Time

Marge Piercy presents us with a feminist version of the utopian/dystopian novel. While it works pretty well as a novel, the utopia is somewhat hackneyed.

Island

Island is Huxley's second shot at the genre, but utopias are much harder to create than dystopias.

Teg's 1994

Teg lives in a nearly perfect future world where everyone has equal opportunity, equal material goods and equal happiness. Yeah, right.

Anthem

I don't find Anthem to be a very serious entry in the utopian/dystopian category. Not much of a novel, either.

Beyond This Horizon

Robert Heinlein's novel is much more complex than a simple utopia or dystopia. In fact, it's one of his most important novels.

This Perfect Day

This isn't the perfect dystopia, but it's pretty close.

We

We is one of kind and one of the few dystopian novels to directly inspire other dsytopian novels.

1984

1984 is a textbook explanation of the machinations of a totalitarian state. But it's also a love story, an exploration of the use of language in politics, an indictment of nationalism and, above all, a study in the breaking of the human spirit.

The Evolution of a State

Noah Smithwick lived a full and rich life during Texas' formative years. Somehow, he lived to write about it.

Utopia 14

This was Kurt Vonnegut's first book and he certainly showed his potential early on.

Brave New World

Huxley was a real writer. Unlike so many utopian/dystopian writers, Huxley knew his way around the novel. His chilling future contains a message that is still quite relevant today.

Looking Backward 2000-1887

Edward Bellamy's notion of Utopia is centered around the problems of the late 1800's. Problems that we have mostly managed to solve without drafting everyone in the country into the army.

Utopia

Utopia isn't all that it's cracked up to be. It never was.

The Left Hand of Darkness

This book is a part of the feminist canon, but I don't think it was written as a feminist book at all. It's a deeply human work that deserves closer analysis than simply slapping a label on it. It has its flaws, but I think I see what Ms LeGuin was trying to accomplish.

The Communist Manifesto

Let's actually read The Communist Manifesto and see what it says. Were Marx and Engeles really altrustic pioneers out to help the human race? Or just a new breed of tyrant?

War on Terror Reading List

A reading list for dealing with and understanding the War on Terror. Also, some notes about what you will learn as you study the big picture.

In the Blink of an Eye

In this book Andrew Parker attempts to explain a long-time mystery of science: what explains the mysterious blast of evolution known as the Cambrian Explosion? Parker thinks he knows and I wouldn't be surprised if he's right.

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

The ultimate Calvin and Hobbes compendium, comprised of every strip that was ever published. It doesn't get much better than this.

Auden, The Labyrinth and Carol Herschel

The world is becoming a tightly connected place. Not only is this a good thing, it's an essential thing.

Crystal Rain

Tobias Buckell's book is good. Really good. We can expect a lot more from this new science fiction author.

No god but God

Reza Aslan's book does more than explain the history of Islam. It explains a lot about the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East today.

Dorothy Parker, What Fresh Hell Is This?

Dorothy Parker lived a hard life, but she managed to leave behind some nice short stories.

Hobbes' Leviathan

Hobbes' attempt to put philosophy on scientific grounds and "prove" that the idea of monarchy is good for us isn't very convincing.

The Wind in the Willows

The book's reputation as a classic is well deserved.

Voltaire

Voltaire had it all: he was rational, successful and witty.

Steinbeck's the Man

Steinbeck was a terrific writer, even if you disagree with what he's saying.

The Blitzkrieg Myth

A look at Hitler's methods during WWII. Not surprisingly, a lot of the conventional wisdom is suspect.

Books

My answers to a book meme that is going around...

Rockets
The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere

Willy Ley is a hero of the "space race" and this book was one of his most influential.

Books Considered Harmful

The most dangerous books of the 19th and 20th century. Right.

Generation of Vipers

Wylie spits in America's eye, but then turns on a dime.

On Liberty, Part II

The second installment in our discussion of Mill.

On Liberty, Part I

John Stuart Mill's book is a milestone in democratic thought. Locke set up what government is supposed to do, Mill explains what it must not do.

Computer Lib / Dream Machines

Ted Nelson had the world wide web figured out in 1973.

Dangerous Visions

This anthology is from the 1960's and reading it shows us what a joke that decade was — even in science fiction.

The Zenith Angle

Mr Sterling's new work is a little underwhelming.

Second Treatise On Government

This is Locke's most important work, in my opinion. It is the blueprint for a democratic government made up of multiple branches, with checks and balances between them.

What Does it Mean to be Well Educated?

If Kohn's ideas are from the mainstream of pedagogical thought, it's no wonder the US can't seem to educate it's children.

First Treatise on Government

A screed against the monarchy that any modern blogger will recognize as a first-rate fisking.

Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville was an amazing man. In a mere nine months he traveled the length and breadth of the United States of the 1830's and came to understand it better than most citizens who live in the US their whole lives.

Mystery Solved

Finally a mystery about Somerset Maugham's books is solved!

Weapons Of Choice

John Birmingham's look at alternative history and future warfare is interesting, but a little uneven for my tastes.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Jonathan Foer's book about a young boy who lost his father in the World Trade Towers is stunning.

Caves of Steel

It's an oldie, but still a goodie.

Animals in Translation

Temple Grandin has some unique insights when it comes to animal behavior: she's autistic.

Nero Wolfe for a Chapter

Can you figure out who wrote a passage just by its style? Sometimes, yes you can.

Terror and Liberalism

Paul Berman's book takes a deep look at the origins of Islamist Extremism.

The Science Behind Good and Evil

Michael Shermer thinks he knows why people are good or evil. Amazingly, he has some science to back up his opinions.