the negative space

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

2008-06-24T13:28:00.001-05:00

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Seife tells the “story” of zero in an interesting and fun way, tracing the history of mathematics, numbers, and various civilizations along the way. It’s written with the lay person in mind, and the proofs and equations presented are easy to understand and work through on one’s own. (I particularly enjoyed the proof in appendix A, that Winston Churchill was a carrot!) It begins with ancient civilizations most basic use of the numbers and continues through modern day as scientists hope to unravel the mysteries of time and universe. Here’s my favorite passage:

"Zero might also hold the secret of what created the cosmos. Just as the nothingness of the vacuum and the zero-point energy spawn particles, they might spawn universes. The froth of quantum foam, the spontaneous birth and death of particles, might explain the origin of the cosmos. Perhaps the universe is just a quantum fluctuation on a grand scale—an enormous singular particle that came into existence out of the ultimate vacuum. This cosmic egg would explode, inflate, and created the space-time of our universe. It may be that our universe is simply one of many fluctuations. Some physicists believe that the singularities at the center of a black hole, where time and space have no meaning, is constantly creating countless numbers of new universes that bubble off, inflate, and create their own stars and galaxies. Zero might hold the secret to our existence—and the existence of an infinite number of other universes." (Seife, p.208)

Highly recommended!

How Doctors Think

2008-05-12T00:17:00.002-05:00

How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman

An interesting book, exploring the reasoning and thoughts behind doctor's thoughts, diganoses, and mistakes. The closing paragraphs of each chapter have useful summarizations and tips about preventing medical errors, choosing the correct doctor and/or specialist, etc. Groopman is honest and articulate about many taboo issues (for example, that mood can strongly affect a diagnosis). Definitely a must-read for anyone facing a serious or chronic illness, though it would serve even better if one had this information beforehand.

Kabul Beauty School

2008-05-12T00:13:00.002-05:00

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez

This book was interesting to read, especially since I read it just after finishing A Thousand Splendid Suns. The author describes her struggles and joys in creating a beauty school (one of the only places women are allowed to work and socialize) in Kabul. Rodriguez’s passion for her work and for the women she is helping is admirable, especially given the difficulties she encounters from the Afghan government and the dangerous conditions she works in. Her willingness to journey from the United States to Afghanistan is quite astonishing. In some ways, however, reading this book reminded me of an article I’d recently read describing the literary differences between memoirs and works of fiction. The author of the article felt that works presented as memoirs were held to a different literary standard, as “raw” and “gritty” writing was somehow more permissible from an untrained writer, while true works of fiction are expected to be more refined. This book definitely falls in the former category in terms of writing style and narrative flow.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

2008-05-01T09:02:00.002-05:00

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

This book chronicles the life of Kingsolver’s family as they live solely from food grown on their farm and local food for a year. The delicious descriptions of heirloom fruits and vegetables made me hungry (and strengthened my resolve to visit the farmer’s market more often), and there were many tips and recipes throughout the book for seasonal eating. I didn’t appreciate the arguments against vegetarianism (for example, she contends that we don’t feel guilty for mowing our lawn and killing the grass…) or the callous way in which she describes her daughter’s decision to kill chickens instead of selling the eggs to make more money. The judgmental tone of the book bothered me enough that I probably wouldn’t read anything by this author again. I imagine that the type of people who are drawn to this book are already doing their best to live an eco-friendly lifestyle, and don’t require additional preaching.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2008-05-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

At first I wondered if all the clamor about this book was worth it. However, I enjoyed this book even more than the Kite Runner (partially, I think, because the main characters were women). The story is well written and flows smoothly. I was quickly drawn into the lives of the main characters, though the more tragic details of their lives were a heartrending read. This book is worth checking out from the library, especially given current world events.

Jhumpa Lahiri

2008-04-07T11:48:00.002-05:00

Just a plug for both The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies (a collection of short stories) by this author (although I haven't seen the movie for The Namesake, and probably won't...). In The Namesake, I was especially moved by Ashima's quiet struggles and loneliness in America as it put into words what my own parents must have gone through when they moved here. Looking forward to reading her next story collection (on hold at the library!).

Stradavari's Genius

2008-04-07T11:41:00.002-05:00

Stradavari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection by Toby Faber.

Read this a while ago, but wanted to post since I had really enjoyed it. There was enough technical and "violinistic" information to keep me engaged, but was definitely written with the layperson in mind. I had fun reading about the lives of the famous musicians who had owned these instruments throughout the past few hundred years, and how the instruments changed their lives (or vice versa!). I think most musicians or music-lovers would enjoy this book. (And I also wrote it off as a tax deduction...)

Short Posts...

2008-04-07T11:38:00.004-05:00

Short Posts = Less Writing Time =
Less Procrastination = Regular Posts!

The Family That Couldn't Sleep

2008-03-28T10:47:00.003-05:00

The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery, by D.T. Max

An extremely interesting book about rare and often fatal prion diseases which are caused by proteins in the body that are folded the wrong way. The book traces one type of disease (which causes fatal insomnia) through an Italian family, discusses mad cow disease, and talks about cannibal tribes in Papua New Guinea. The author explains all the medical and scientific terminology well, and book flows smoothly from one portion to the next. May turn you vegetarian!

The Faith Club

2008-03-28T10:23:00.002-05:00

The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding, by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner

These three women initially got together after the 9/11 attacks to write a children's book that explored the common heritage of their three religions. These meetings turned into an honest and deep interfaith dialogue through which they shared their insecurities about their own faiths and talked about stereotypes and prejudices they had against other religions. As a Hindu, I certainly learned concepts about each of these religions which I had previously been unfamiliar with. It would be great to hear a similar dialogue which also included other major religions (like Hinduism, Buddishm, Bahá'í, Taoism, etc.).

Nickel and Dimed

2008-03-28T10:18:00.003-05:00

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

Great book written by a courageous journalist, as well as a very illuminating and shocking read. I hope that someone will publish some sort of follow-up with workable ideas of how to stop this cycle (including practical suggestions for those of us who are more privileged and want to help).

From Publishers Weekly
In contrast to recent books by Michael Lewis and Dinesh D'Souza that explore the lives and psyches of the New Economy's millionares, Ehrenreich (Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, etc.) turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce's bottom rung. Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, she left behind her middle class life as a journalist except for $1000 in start-up funds, a car and her laptop computer to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker for a month at a time. In 1999 and 2000, Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Fla., as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, Maine, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minn. During the application process, she faced routine drug tests and spurious "personality tests"; once on the job, she endured constant surveillance and numbing harangues over infractions like serving a second roll and butter. Beset by transportation costs and high rents, she learned the tricks of the trade from her co-workers, some of whom sleep in their cars, and many of whom work when they're vexed by arthritis, back pain or worse, yet still manage small gestures of kindness. Despite the advantages of her race, education, good health and lack of children, Ehrenreich's income barely covered her month's expenses in only one instance, when she worked seven days a week at two jobs (one of which provided free meals) during the off-season in a vacation town. Delivering a fast read that's both sobering and sassy, she gives readers pause about those caught in the economy's undertow, even in good times.

The Jungle

2008-03-28T10:11:00.002-05:00

I finally got around to reading this classic by Upton Sinclair in December. I think it would turn most people into vegetarians! Despite its length, I read the book rather quickly--one can't help moving forward to see what will happen next to the protagonist Jurgis. Overall, the book does what one expects by unveiling the meat-packing industry's disgusting sanitary practices and wretched treatment of its workers. I didn't care for the ending though; I felt that it suddenly became very political and preachy. Yet I would still recommend reading this at least once.

Middlesex

2007-11-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Gorgeous writing... here's an overview (not by me!)

From Library Journal
Eugenides's second novel (after The Virgin Suicides) opens "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl...in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy...in August of 1974." Thus starts the epic tale of how Calliope Stephanides is transformed into Cal. Spanning three generations and two continents, the story winds from the small Greek village of Smyrna to the smoggy, crime-riddled streets of Detroit, past historical events, and through family secrets. The author's eloquent writing captures the essence of Cal, a hermaphrodite, who sets out to discover himself by tracing the story of his family back to his grandparents. From the beginning, the reader is brought into a world rich in culture and history, as Eugenides extends his plot into forbidden territories with unique grace. His confidence in the story, combined with his sure prose, helps readers overcome their initial surprise and focus on the emotional revelation of the characters and beyond. Once again, Eugenides proves that he is not only a unique voice in modern literature but also well versed in the nature of the human heart. Highly recommended.
- - Rachel Collins, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mozart's Women

2007-10-21T22:30:00.001-05:00

Mozart's Women by Jane Glover

This is a biography about Mozart which focuses on the important women in his life--especially his sister Nannerel, his mother Maria Anna, and his wife Constanze Weber--but also the sopranos he wrote many of his opera arias for, his cousin Blase (to whom he wrote many of his "bawdy" letters), Constanze's sister Alyosia, and other members of the Weber family.

This book is divided into four sections: Mozart's Family, Mozart's Other Family, Mozart's Women, and After Mozart.

I especially enjoyed the first and the last sections of the book. Reading about Mozart's life, his letters, and entries from his sister's diary greatly humanized the composer. It was touching to read his affectionate letters to his sister, mother, and wife. I felt I was able to view him as a person who lived an actual life--a complicated, full, exciting, and difficult life--instead of seeing him as simply a great monolith of a composer.

The last section described Constanze's life after Mozart's death. I found it interesting that her second husband, Georg Nissen, helped compile letters and memories about Mozart, and was a cardinal force in writing a biography about Mozart. I also enjoyed reading about Mozart's sons and the life of his sister in her twilight years.

The middle section largely dealt with opera arias that Mozart had written for different women. He liked to know the singer he was writing for and tailor the arias to his/her specific strengths, weaknesses, and vocal range. While this section was well-written, I felt that it would be better
for an opera aficionado or a theory buff. It went into great technical detail about the construction and theory of each aria. This section also discussed many of early operas, which are not as well known.

Overall, an interesting, well-written biography.

The Botany of Desire

2007-09-30T19:15:00.001-05:00

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

I admit that this is the first book I've read about gardening/plants/botany.

I think the main theme of the book is best summed up in this quote, "We automatically think of domestication as something we do to other species, but it makes just as much sense to think of it as something certain plants and animals have done to us, a clever evolutionary strategy for advancing their own interests." The book is divided into four sections--Apple, Tulip, Marijuana, and Potato--with each section tracing the evolutionary history and the story of these plants. As in Monkeyluv, the later sections were better than the first; in the "apple" section, I felt the author was rehashing the same points over and over. However, I did find amusing that Johnny Appleseed's (Chapman's) seeds produce apples suitable only for making hard cider, and that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was probably a pomegranate! I did enjoy the book immensely, and will probably want my own copy. (One caveat--reading about all the pesticides the potato crop receives, I will be buying more organic produce from now on!)

Some more favorite quotes/ideas:

"But the fact remains that, because of people's idiosyncratic notion of tulip beauty, for several hundred years tulips were selected for a trait that would sicken and eventually kill them." (Based on a virus which changes tulips to "break," making them more beautiful to the Dutch.)

"Far more than a rose, say, or a peony, an actual, specific tulip closely resembles our preconceived idea of a tulip."

"The Greeks believed that true beauty (as opposed to mere prettiness) was the offspring of these two opposing tendencies [symmetry and chaos], which they personified in Apollo and Dionysus, their two gods of art."

meme, "a unit of memorable cultural information... Hell is a meme; so are the Pythagorean theorem, A Hard Day's Night, the wheel, Hamlet, pragmatism, harmony...and of course the notion of the meme itself."

A quote from Huxley, "In one way or another, all our experiences are chemically conditioned, and if we imagine that some of them are purely 'spiritual,' purely 'intellectual,' purely 'aesthetic,' it is merely because we have never troubled to investigate the internal chemical environment at the moment of their occurrence."

The Last Empress

2007-09-30T11:52:00.000-05:00

The Last Empress by Anchee Min

Unfortunately, I was not impressed by this book. Though the story was compelling, I thought the book was poorly written. The narration did not flow smoothly; there were even several points in the novel where I was confused about the timeline. I only read about half the book, and then decided to move on to something else.

In Her Shoes

2007-09-05T23:13:00.000-05:00

In her Shoes, Weiner

A fun candy book I read through in one day.

Monkeyluv

2007-08-30T12:57:00.001-05:00

Monkeyluv: and other essays on our lives as animals by Robert M. Sapolsky

I've just begun reading this book. The sarcastic and funny writing styles reminds me of Genome by Matt Ridley (one of my non-fiction favorites!). The book is divided into three sections: Genes and Who We Are, Our Bodies and Who We Are, and Society and Who We Are. The author's main point of the first section seems to be, "Genes influence behavior, environment influences behavior, and genes and environment interact." I especially like the "notes" after each essay. These notes update the essays (some are several years old) when necessary and provide an interesting bibliography as well. By the time I'm finished with this book, I'll probably have a list of another twenty books!

9/3
Stayed up late last night to finish reading this. The second and third sections are even more interesting and compelling than the first! I'm definitely going to buy this book. Here are a few favorite quotes:

"...one of the classic features of science--in explaining something, you've merely redefined the unknown."

"...here's all of us forgoing immediate pleasure to get good grades to get into a good college to get a good job in order to get into the nursing home of our choice."

Favorites

2007-08-30T12:43:00.001-05:00

Here's a short list, complied from my head (not the bookshelf!) I read through most of these at least every year or two.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Bonesetter's Daugher by Amy Tan
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
The Little Prince
The Four Quartets by T.S. Elliot (poetry)
Watership Down by Richard Adams
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
Sophie's World by Josteen Gardner
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Science Fiction/Fantasy favorites:

The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman
Songmaster by Orson Scott Card
Enemy Mine by Barry Longyear (novella)

Library List

2007-08-30T12:24:00.002-05:00

In no particular order...

As I read through these, I'll delete them from this list and make a separate post for each book.

Non-Fiction
The Age of Turbulence (Alan Greenspan)
Testimony
Fast Food Nation
Why Zebras Don't Get Uclers
The Fate of Africa (Meredith)
The Weather Makers
An Imaginary Tale--The Story of the square root of -1 (Nahin)
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (Seife)
A World Without Time (Yourgrau)
A Long Way Gone
Stealing Lincoln's Body
The Last Mughal
Supreme Conflict
How Doctor's Think
Crashing Through
Send
The Black Swan

Fiction
The Dancing Girl of Lahore (Brown)
The Color Purple
East of Eden
The Savage Detectives
Sacred Games
Then We Came to the End
No One Belongs Here More Than You
The God of Animals
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears

In the beginning...

2007-08-30T12:21:00.001-05:00

I've begun this blog as an online literary journal for myself. I would like to organize my thoughts about what I'm reading, and to use the blog as a tool to record what books I've read and my opinions about them. Feel free to post comments about books you are currently enjoying (or not enjoying!), list your favorites, or anything else literary-related.

aasheeta