At first glance, two things stand out about this book. First, the featured two brothers are great-grandsons of the famous JRR Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although this fact will attract much attention, it is fairly tangential to the unfolding of this tale. The author Royd’s journey takes him on the movie set of The Lord of the Rings, and some characters play small roles in this tale. The book is…
This story contains themes from many strands of life: race, grief, family, sexuality, LGBTQI+ issues, authenticity, estrangement, speaking lies or truth, and self-determination. None of these predominate in the narrative; rather, they seem to dwell together in just the right amount. Perhaps that’s why it’s won so much acclamation since being published a year ago. Bennett’s tale begins in a small town in Louisiana with an African-American family under Jim Crow. The father was lynched…
Splunk is familiar to those in the IT world who need to search the massive amounts of data that a computer, particularly a web server, generates. The software – available in a downloadable, free format from their website – epitomizes the definition of Big Data. The old way of searching logs involved opening up text files manually, searching for certain words, and compiling results in a spreadsheet. To replace it, the Splunk team created Search…
What does it take to rise to the top of one’s profession or any other domain in life? Through artful storytelling of historical and contemporary figures, Greene offers us a plethora of examples to follow. He tries to tie each case to principles of how the individual mastered her/his own environment. In so doing, he offers us a self-driven manual for how to command a sector in life. Greene’s contemporary exemplars include figures from many…
Why develop a detailed history about something as ubiquitous as water? Salzman shows why in this well-written inspection of a resource without which humans could not survive. He covers contemporary legal issues as well as (in the revised edition) the 2016 debacle in Flint, Michigan. He discourses about science, economics, human history, and public policy at length. Through adept writing, he makes the mundane and overlooked to become interesting and critical. To the curious reader,…
To the casual observer, it has become obvious that America needs more and deeper racial education and reconciliation. Many of the efforts focus their literature on social topics like being anti-racist. In this book, Gates offers a different take – a history of African-American religion. Religion and social justice understandably intermix in this tale. He provides us with a beautiful, cogent expression of how America got to its present situation. He also offers us hope…
Research and development (known colloquially as R&D) is an inevitability of capitalist markets. New innovations usually outpace yesterday’s technologies. However, many R&D products fail to transition from development to the marketplace. In this work, Ramanujam and Tacke suggest that many of the failures can be avoided by proper management of pricing prior to the start of the project. In truth, this work is an in-depth look at how to set the price of an innovation.…
Undergraduate scientists and engineers must master complex mathematics to rise to practice their professions. Once they understand the fundamental mathematics, they must learn to calculate the results on their own using a computer and a program like Matlab (or the free version Octave). In this book, these two Norwegian scientists offer a friendly (or, in their words, “gentle”) introduction to this domain. By providing a clear guide, they help ease the burden of learning for…
This work is misnamed. Its main contents are the mathematical foundations of scientific computing, not scientific computing itself. The actual computer code in Matlab/Octave is sparse throughout the book, with the exception of the last two chapters and the appendix. Again, the main subject is mathematics. This book is suitable for a mid-level undergraduate course in mathematics about how to approach scientific and engineering problems. A short yet comprehensive overview of the field, it provides…
Not many books on topics related to the Internet are in their fourth edition. Around since the 1990s, Web Style Guide is an exception, and its contents illustrate why. It offers in-depth examinations of various elements of user experience. Much like traditional style guides like the Chicago Manual of Style, this work provides a comprehensive, one-stop treatment of what designers need to know to make use of websites. While being comprehensive, this book profoundly offers…