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Kascadia
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PostThu Sep 12, 2019 1:47 pm 
lookout bob wrote:
Reading "The Overstory" by Richard Powers. One of the finest I've read in a while. The chapter called "Patricia Westerford" is one of the best I've read in many moons. Read it last night and been rejoicing in it all day today. cool.gif
I was just coming here to post about this book! So many moments of resonating genius - it's a marvel.

It is as though I had read a divine text, written into the world itself, not with letters but rather with essential objects, saying: Man, stretch thy reason hither, so thou mayest comprehend these things. Johannes Kepler
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MtnGoat
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PostThu Sep 12, 2019 2:58 pm 
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present Amazing reading, great author with wit, clarity, and very readable

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun Sep 22, 2019 9:34 pm 
Started a few that I gave up on fairly quick. I took a long break from The Expanse series, but just started book #4--"Cibola Burn." I'm now officially ahead of the television series based on the books.

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Toni
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PostTue Sep 24, 2019 2:56 pm 
"SHE SAID" Ha!

There is no Planet B
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lookout bob
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PostTue Sep 24, 2019 3:44 pm 
"All the Powers of Earth" by Sydney Blumenthal...about the political life of Abraham Lincoln. Good so far.... cool.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostThu Oct 10, 2019 12:59 pm 
Plowed thru the last book fairly quick, picked up #5 in the Expanse series "Nemesis Games" from the library. The last 2 books had 1 character I really, really disliked. Different character in each book. I just wanted them to die.

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neek
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PostWed Oct 16, 2019 9:56 am 
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It by Marty Makary, MD. I'm not quite finished but can already heartily recommend this book for a clear look at why healthcare is so expensive and what can be done about it. The reasons really are all the things you already know about--predatory billing, overcare, profit seeking, lack of education, etc., but even worse than you thought, and Marty quantifies it in a compelling and easy-to-read way. By analyzing and shining light on the numbers, his team has already made a difference over the past few years. While some of the writing is borderline trite (such and such company is the Tesla of healthcare!), it's bound to appeal to a wide audience and help people think about how their own behaviors might contribute to the problem.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostFri Oct 25, 2019 3:56 pm 
olderthanIusedtobe wrote:
picked up #5 in the Expanse series "Nemesis Games" from the library.
Dayum! Quite a cliff hanger ending. 5 books in, I wonder how long it will take to finally find out WTF is going on. You might not want to start playing w/ extremely advanced alien technology when you have no idea what it really does or how it does it. The fact that that extremely advanced civilization got wiped out by something else might give you some pause as well.

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zephyr
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PostFri Oct 25, 2019 4:43 pm 
neek wrote:
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It by Marty Makary, MD
Thanks for the recommendation. Looks timely and great. I just now put it on hold at the SPL. Meanwhile I am currently reading two books. One on genetics and DNA analysis, the other on the Enlightenment and the various scientists, philosophers, and thinkers who contributed to this important period of our (Western) cultural history. I'll report when finished. ~z

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Malachai Constant
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PostTue Nov 05, 2019 6:32 pm 
Finished Barkskiners by Annie Proulx an ambitious 750p+ story of the timber industry starting in New France. Barkskinners were Frenchmen brought over as indentured servants in the nascent logging industry in the 17th century. The story follows two families to the present day moving from New France (Quebec) to Maine, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, New Zealand, Brazil, and Columbia. a lot of research went into this and I learned a lot about the early history of the industry. The writing is at times beautiful. The story however was somewhat respective and reading became a bit of a chore. Probably too many characters and too many tragic ends. In the end it was worth the effort up.gif up.gif up.gif

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostWed Nov 06, 2019 4:20 pm 
Well this is a first for me. I've never read a graphic novel before. I've watched Alita: Battle Angel 4 times already since it came out (I guess I like it!), decided to check out the source material.

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neek
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PostThu Nov 07, 2019 9:29 am 
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan. I don't read a lot of fiction but couldn't resist a story where Alan Turing lives into old age and by demonstrating P=NP paves the way to artificial life. Full of whimsical philosophical ramblings on lightweight subjects such as the nature of consciousness, love, justice, poetry, and politics, I got a kick out of it, but with reservations. I didn't find the Turing character very likeable, the android bore too much resemblance to Data on STTNG (he is even fully functional, programmed in multiple techniques), the narrator was kind of a loser, and the British political humor was probably over my head. Even so, a quick and fun read.

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zephyr
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PostFri Nov 08, 2019 9:35 pm 
The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters by Anthony Pagden, Random House, New York, 2013. Quite a thoughtful read, but a bit of work to digest. At times I felt like I was in a small canoe in a deep, vast ocean of knowledge. Pagden is a distinguished professor of political science and history at the University of California, Los Angeles. He discusses many authors, philosophers, and influential thinkers during the late 17th and most of the 18th century in Europe including: Descartes, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Kant, David Hume, Adam Smith, and many more. Here’s a goodreads review, quote: Liberty and equality. Human rights. Freedom of thought and expression. Belief in reason and progress. The value of scientific inquiry. These are just some of the ideas that were conceived and developed during the Enlightenment, and which changed forever the intellectual landscape of the Western world. Spanning hundreds of years of history, Anthony Pagden traces the origins of this seminal movement, showing how Enlightenment concepts directly influenced modern culture, making possible a secular, tolerant, and, above all, cosmopolitan world. And the Kirkus Review is here. Available from the Seattle Public Library. ~z

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zephyr
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PostMon Nov 11, 2019 8:10 pm 
The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes, W.W. Norton & Co., 2001. The author is a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford. He was the first scientist to report on the recovery of ancient DNA from archaeological bone (Journal of Nature,1989). The book is quite readable and very interesting. I particularly enjoyed hearing about his research of the human setttling of the islands of the Pacific. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article: The Seven Daughters of Eve[1] is a 2001 book by Bryan Sykes that presents the science of human mitochondrial genetics to a general audience. Sykes explains the principles of genetics and human evolution, the particularities of mitochondrial DNA, and analyses of ancient DNA to genetically link modern humans to prehistoric ancestors. ... The title of the book comes from one of the principal achievements of mitochondrial genetics, which is the classification of all modern Europeans into seven groups, the mitochondrial haplogroups. Each haplogroup is defined by a set of characteristic mutations on the mitochondrial genome, and can be traced along a person's maternal line to a specific prehistoric woman. Sykes refers to these women as "clan mothers", though these women did not all live concurrently. All these women in turn shared a common maternal ancestor, the Mitochondrial Eve. The GoodReads review is here. Available from the Seattle Public Library. ~z

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lookout bob
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PostTue Nov 12, 2019 4:10 pm 
[i]Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter/i] A totally awesome look at history and the industry of these wonderful critters. How the environment can benefit from their existence and how to live with them. Ben Goldfarb did a grand job here. cool.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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