Dante’s famous The Divine Comedy lies at the intersection of art and theology. I love artful renditions of theology. Further, it is known as the best work of poetry ever to grace the language of Italian. Therefore, I decided to look for a good translation. I’ve enjoyed Longfellow’s poetry in the past, and when I saw that he undertook an adaptation, I chose to give it a go. Unfortunately, Longfellow seemed to stick a little…
The Plague seems like an appropriate title of a book for a coronavirus-stricken world. Set in modern (1940s?) North Africa, this book reimagines a world where the plague mysteriously makes a recurrence. The work is told from the point of view of a doctor. As with COVID-19 paralyzing the world, the disease paralyzes an entire town for several seasons. Many die over many months. This work provides moving portrayals of individual death and of massive…
Brian Kernighan is most known for writing the definitive work on the C computer language. He worked for most of his career at famous Bell Labs from AT&T and worked among those who developed the UNIX operating system. UNIX powers much of the Internet and served as the basis for computer operating systems like Linux and MacOS. These all have influenced technological history, and he enlightens us as to how. He writes in a light,…
Pandemics, Research, Writing, Visualizations, and Mental Illness The Plague by Albert Camus Given our current COVID-19 pandemic, this classic by a Nobel Prizewinner seems appropriate to re-read. This work explores the meaning of life amongst an fictionalized new outbreak of the plague in North Africa. Camus is one of my favorite writers and thinkers of all time, so I should immensely enjoy my time in this tale. Managing the Research University by Dean O. Smith…
Have you ever wondered how grammar and vocabulary have evolved over time? This book is for those (like me) who wish to understand the history of the English language. This textbook is perhaps the greatest work of its kind. It covers the evolution from Old English to Middle English, from the Renaissance to modern usage worldwide. Baugh and Cable’s tale is not simple, but then again, neither is English’s. The language, rooted in the British…
Upon reading the title of this book, many non-specialists might rightly ask, “What is bioinformatics? And why does it deserve its own history?” For the first question, bioinformatics is the application of computer technology to biological studies, and I hope that reading this review will answer the second question. Many of us were taught hypothesis-driven biology in school – that is, we were taught to ask a well-formed question, perform an experiment, and confirm/deny the…
Old English contains the oldest literature written in the English language. As such, it is key to understand not only historically but also linguistically. Many educated people are familiar with the epic poem Beowulf, but for most, that poem is the only source material studied before Chaucer (who writes in Middle English). This anthology fills in the gap with entertaining and enlightening poems. One cannot help but picture Anglo-Saxons sitting around the fire and sharing…
Anne Lamott is a writer most known for her writings on spirituality and contemporary life. Based in San Francisco, California, she has also written a work that addresses writers’ lives. Although that work (Bird by Bird) is not prerequisite reading, this work follows up on that book and is set as a live, taped speech at a writers’ conference in 1999. This audio recording shares insights from that book and from other elements in her…
The art of good writing is dying in America. It seems that every fan of good language says that about their culture in their era. In our era, we face the challenge of the Internet, where media is changing how we communicate. The web facilitates quick interactions best and discourages deep thinking. It bursts forth a never-ending stream of alerts and posts. Its structure does not enhance our ability to reflect, dialogue, and develop linguistic…
This story of adoption operates on the premise that adopted children have an adopted family and a birth family (the other family). The protagonist is adopted shortly after birth into a family which raised her. As an adult, she has a daughter who, in an all-too-common tale, comes down with severe peanut allergies. The lack of progress of treatment lead the duo to an allergist who practices “holistic” approaches to treatment, such as meditation and…