Bookshelf

Dedicated to the proposition that not all books are created equal.

An interesting journey through the strange and wonderful world of the numbers 1 through 10. Includes many interesting connections from nature and history. Does not go very deeply into mathematics itself.

A Hacker Manifesto deftly defines the fraught territory between the ever more strident demands by drug and media companies for protection of their patents and copyrights and the pervasive popular culture of file sharing and pirating. This vexed ground, the realm of so-called "intellectual property," gives rise to a whole new kind of class conflict, one that pits the creators of information--the hacker class of researchers and authors, artists and biologists, chemists and musicians, philosophers and programmers--against a possessing class who would monopolize what the hacker produces. (Also available from Harvard University Press.)

Generally considered flawed due to Russell's strong bias toward logical positivism which led to a slight prejudice against the romantic philosophies, it's still a major achievement and well worth reading. We don't have to agree with every idea to consider it, and perhaps even learn from it.

A research mathematician who has devoted his career to teaching, reveals math to be creative and beautiful and rejects standard anxiety-producing teaching methods. Witty and accessible, Paul Lockhart’s values are very close to those of creative Waldorf-inspired teachers. The Mathematical Association of America posted an excerpt of Lockhart's Lament that is free to download.

Those indoctrinated to believe that history is about wars and victors, and generals and presidents may be in for a surprise. Real history is everyone's story, including those who can not fund the self-serving drivel of "offically" sanctioned histories.

A great reference handbook for students and parents. Algebra to Go, demystifies algebra for students by explaining key and often complex math topics in a way that's clear, friendly, and understandable. It is also a good refresher for parents who may have forgotten some Algebra.

Kinzer reconstructs the U.S. CIA's 1953 overthrow of the elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, who was wildly popular for having nationalized his country's oil industry. The coup ushered in the long and brutal dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Shah, widely seen as a U.S. puppet. A veteran New York Times foreign correspondent, he shows that until early in 1953, Great Britain and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company were imperialist baddies. Intransigent in the face of Iran's demands for a fairer share of profits from their oil and better conditions for workers, British Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison exacerbated tension with his overt racisism. Before the crisis peaked, a high-ranking employee of Anglo-Iranian wrote to a superior that the company's...

Abu-Jamal, considered by Amnesty International and millions around the world to be wrongly convicted and imprisoned, calls to us from behind death row prison bars with an eloquent voice of reason that decades of institutional racism and comforting bigotry can not silence. Abu-Jamal may never gain his well-deserved retrial and freedom. He may even be murdered by the state before the truth is uncovered, but his eloquent writings will live on long after the thugs who framed him are forgotten.

A beautifully crafted book with hundreds of detailed color photos. You can' t build a guitar only from reading this book (or any other book), but this one will take you a long way in the right direction. I appreciated the detailed information on wood, tools and jigs.

The biologist Edward O. Wilson offers an imaginative and intellectually stimulating romp through many aspects of modern science and society. He's not afraid to clearly express his opinions and let the chips fall where they may. I appreaciate this courage to speak his mind in a time of rampant intellectual relativism and ethical cowardice.

The disinformation campaigns with which health insurance companies hide misdeeds and manipulate public policy are laid bare in this searing expose by one of their own. Potter, a former CIGNA public relations "spin-meister" whose whistle-blowing congressional testimony made a splash, takes us into the war rooms where he and his fellow flacks battled bad publicity--their counter-attack against the documentary Sicko included employee training in how to weather a Michael Moore ambush--and fought to stymie health-care legislation. (He helped formulate the rhetoric of socialism and death panels that thundered from Republican podiums.) He exposes the PR pros' propaganda tricks--fake grass-roots organisations, bogus scientific studies--and recounts his...

One of the best books by a North American writer. Read it again and again. Each time its meaning will grow, and you will understand your country better. Perhaps the only thing better than reading this book is to find your own piece of solitude somewhere in our rapidly shrinking wildlands. Leave behind the cell phone. Bring a journal. Nothing else matters.

An insightful and balanced look at the conflict of ideas in Newton's Optiks and Goethe's Farbelehre. This book explains the background and rationale of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's notorious attack on Isaac Newton's classic theory of white light and colors. Though the merits of Goethe's color science, as advanced in his massive Zur Farbenlehre, have often been acknowledged, it has been almost unanimously proclaimed invalid as physics. How could Goethe have been so mistaken? In his book, Dennis Sepper shows that the condemnation of Goethe's attacks on Newton has been based on erroneous assumptions about the history of Newton's theory and the methods and goals of Goethe's color science. By illuminating the historical background...

Hailed by Guitar Player magazine as 'perhaps the finest book on guitars ever produced,' and by Booklist as 'a Rolls Royce of construction guidebooks,' this impressive volume is the first book of its kind to describe in depth how both steel-string and classical guitars are actually designed and built. Over 450 photographs, drawings, and diagrams reveal in exquisite detail the hows, whys, and how-to's of the traditional craft of guitarmaking, all accompanied by fascinating historical and technical notes. A comprehensive bibliography; a list of tools, materials, and supply sources; and a full index complete this uniquely authoritative reference -- and essential acquisition -- for guitar and craft enthusiasts, woodworkers, and students of instrument making everywhere.

North Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past.

In the revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's political climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic...

Written by an experienced Waldorf teacher, this book provides a clear overview of a typicalWaldorf middle school math curriculum. Filled with detailed examples and clear explanations. Unfortunately, it's somewhat dated due to ever increasing state pressures to teach complex skills at inappropriately young ages. This is an excellent book for home schoolers and others who are free to teach to the students rather than to politically-motivated  mandates.

Frankl, who survived the concentration camps, writes that suffering is inevitable and that avoiding suffering is futile. Rather, one should be worthy of one's suffering and make meaning of it instead of surrendering to nihilism, bitterness or despair. He uses poetic, moving anecdotes from the concentration camps to illustrate those who find a deeper humanity from their suffering and those who become animals relegated to nothing more than teeth-clenched self-preservation. This books serves as a quiet warning of the dangers ahead and a clear promise of hope as our world sinks into an age of global barbarism, lead inexoribly along by those amoral legal personhoods formerly known as corporations.

Many books by Chomsky are anthologies of articles, interviews and lectures on some current event or conflict. Manufacturing Consent is not one of these. It's a real book on a topic of vital importance to those living at the heart of the global corporate empire where simple-minded nationalistic propaganda is so effectively trumpeted by political and media elites.

Most of Mark Twain's most important works have been systematically ignored due to their uncompromising truthfulness and passion. This collection contains many of the best.

Another great anthology is, Mark Twain in Eruption, which is no longer in print. My own copy disappeared many decades ago. I hope used copies can still be found, somewhere.

One of the best mathematics reference books. It covers a wide range of topics, including number theory, algebra, geometry, fractions, probability, statistics, and ratios in a clear, straight forward, and well illustrated format. An excellent index helps students solve most problems encountered in elementary mathematics courses.

A great companion book to Thinking Mathematically, Mathematical Puzzling is filled with interesting challenges and just enough hints to keep you going when you think you're stuck. Great teacher resource when seeking quick, challenging and interesting problems to stretch student's imaginative problem solving and logical reasoning skills. Appropriate for students and adults.

To understand what leads societies toward fascism (an alliance of elite business and political interests), it's important to understand the fears, frustrations, hopes, and dreams of those who fall under the spell of simplistic dogmas. Ignorance is no defense against the approach of night.

An important book, by a thoughtful statesman, about a tough conflict. As the oppressor's mask falls and the horendous occupation and illegal, colonial settlement of Palestinian lands continues, US complicity in this imperialistic interprise is increasingly difficult to ignore. Perhaps Rachel Corrie, and many thousands of others who died in this sorry conflict will not die vain.

Should be required reading for all educators.

The best book by far on developing complex websites using the Drupal application framework. Required reading for serious Drupal developers.

Is the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely exchanged information or a regulated, highly structured virtual bureaucracy? In Protocol, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding principle of the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling power lies in the technical protocols that make network connections (and disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a textual medium that is based on a technological language, code. Code, he argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Written for a nontechnical audience, Protocol serves as a necessary counterpoint to the wildly utopian visions...

Bertrand Russell was a philosopher, agnostic, mathematician, and renowned peace advocate. In this book he offers a brief yet insightful study of the conflicts between science and traditional religion during the last four centuries. Examining accounts in which scientific advances clashed with Christian doctrine or biblical interpretations of the day, from Galileo and the Copernican Revolution, to the medical breakthroughs of anesthesia and inoculation. Russell points to the constant upheaval and reevaluation of our systems of belief throughout history. In turn, he identifies where similar debates between modern science and the Church still exist today. Michael Ruse's new introduction brings these conflicts between science and theology up to date, focusing on...

In this 164-page compact guide, Rick Steves covers the essentials, including Oslo, Gudbrandsdal Valley, and Bergen. I appreciate the firsthand advice on the best sights, eating, sleeping, and nightlife, as well as the maps and self-guided tours.

Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off a growing environmental awareness in North America that continues today. Rachel Carson's book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous levels of chemicals in the food supply. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of justifying unbridled greed and ignorance in a narrow-...

Small is Beautiful launched a global humanistic movement in economics. It's a wholistic approach containing ethical, ecological, and metaphysical components that are missing from mainstream statistical models that focus solely onmeasurements, such as the GNP. Schumacher sounded the alarm regarding globalization by asking "how much further 'growth' will be possible, since infinate growth in a finite environment is an obvious impossibility". He was critical of economic models that assumed unbounded materialism and advocated greed and envy as the primary human motivators.

Essays include: "Peace and Permanence", "The Role of Economics", "Buddhist Economics", "The Greatest Resource - Education", "...

The tone of this book is outdated. There is a sexist emphasis on boys to the exclusion of girls that is inappropriate today. Its naive patriotism and hyper-nationalism is typical of imperialist empires during their periods of primary expansion. On the other hand, the book is filled with practical ideas from what seems to be a simpler age. It is ideal for parents and teachers who work to preserve the best of childhood--wonder, imagination, free exploration, discovery and adventure.

Batchelor angers many with this honest and heartfelt book. His ideas make good sense to me, but then again I anger many with my ideas as well. Don't read this book if you are uncomfortable with having your cherished assumptions thoughtfully challenged.

Great book with plenty of breadth, depth and detail. The projects are a little simple, but they are good starting points.

This collection of essays displays the inner balance of someone who has lived long, observed well, and thought carefully. The selections are thoughtful yet quietly light-hearted, concerned yet stubbornly hopeful, deep yet surprisingly accessible, comprehensive yet intensely focused, intellectual yet never pedantic. This is my first introduction to the ideas of Arne Naess. It has inspired me to visit Norway this summer where I hope to learn more about the culture and people. Hoping to also learn a little Viking boat building along the way.

Haven't read this book yet, but heard the author, David Shenk, give an interesting interview on KQED.

Despite the odd book title and even worse subtitle, if the interview is any indication, this is a well-researched and thoughtfully written book. It explores the impact of the latest discoveries and theories in genetic on our conventional ideas about talent, innate ability and intelligence.

An easy introduction to many of the lost books of the early Christians. Shows what Christianity might have become if it's early history had not be so brutally controlled by gangs of bitter old men.

Math’s infinite mysteries and beauty unfold in this follow-up to the best-selling The Science Book. Beginning millions of years ago with ancient “ant odometers” and moving through time to our modern-day quest for new dimensions, it covers 250 milestones in mathematical history. Among the numerous delights readers will learn about as they dip into this inviting anthology: cicada-generated prime numbers, magic squares from centuries ago, the discovery of pi and calculus, and the butterfly effect. Each topic gets a lavishly illustrated spread with stunning color art, along with formulas and concepts, fascinating facts about scientists’ lives, and real-world applications of the theorems.

Contrary to the distortions of the corporate media, the sixties generation stood for much more that "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll." The counterculture they devised, was first and foremost an intellectual, philosophical, and even spiritual movement against the bankrupt morals, ideas, and lifestyles of dominant society. One of the predominating characteristics of the counterculture was its sense of moral outrage at blatant racism.

Philip Slater details how and why the two cultures clashed, and what the likely results would be. Unlike his younger admirers, Slater understood the power of the dominant culture, and just how perilous the position of the counterculture was growing to be. In this sense, he anticipated the kinds of events--such as the shootings...

A tragic story told in a surprisingly engaging and readable style. Although the book lacks footnotes and source citations, the overall story still rings true. Should be required reading among the denizens of North America.

Since September 2001, the United States has "undergone a transformation from republic to empire that may well prove irreversible," writes Chalmers Johnson. Unlike past global powers, however, America has built an empire of bases rather than colonies, creating in the process a government that is obsessed with maintaining absolute military dominance over the world, Johnson claims. The Department of Defense currently lists 725 official U.S. military bases outside of the country and 969 within the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases). According to the author, these bases are proof that the "United States prefers to deal with other nations through the use or threat of force rather than negotiations, commerce, or cultural interaction." This...

Includes original essays by Einstein, Hawking, Dillard, Updike, Heisenberg, Planck, Russell, Mandelbrot, Neumann, Asimov, Goethe, and many more. Eloquent and inspiring.

A well-designed guide for those in recovery from drill-and-kill indoctrination. If you were taught to fear or hate math, this book may be your cure. Rather than expecting you to memorize and regurgitate meaningless formulas invented by others, you are offered various interesting challenges to explore. As you progress through the book, your problem solving skills expand and you begin to think like a mathemetician.

Covers Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. Grady, one of our previous star students, introduced me to this book, and it may be among the best of the lot. Small format, jam-packed, full-color, richly illustrated, and with clear explanations. A very well organized book with inspiring examples and illustrations.

A great romp through the history of one of the most unusual of the known numbers. Shows how political, religious, dangerous, and crazy such topics can become. Best of all, gently teaches math along the way.