I'm kinda failing at finishing books lately, not sure why... possibly I'm sleeping instead.
I did finish a few though, so here goes...
"Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson chronicles both the period in G. Marconi's life when he single handedly pushed through the idea of using wireless transmissions to reach across the ocean and the detective story and chase of a murderer across the ocean waves as wireless transmissions effectively made the world a much smaller (and more transparent) place. It wasn't as good as his previous book about the devil and the white city (hmm, he has a penchant for murder and invention) but it was worth reading if only for the historical context regarding the hard parts of innovation (hint it has very little to do with the technology sometimes).
"A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines" by Janna Levin is a little bit of fiction about two of the giants of math from the 20th century. Kurt Godel and Alan Turing had very different views and contributed to the shape of our current understanding about math and thinking. In other books I've caught a glimpse of Alan (cryptonomicon for one) but in this one you get a pretty good sense of his perspective on the world. He was a major code breaker during world war 2. This book gives you a taste of his private life and his motivations and thoughts. Kurt gave us the notion that math could be incomplete (not solvable) which turned quite a bit of thinking on its head. Janna is a scientist and this book is her first novel. She's written other books though, so I'm off to find them (yes that means this was good).
"Autograph Man" by Zadie Smith was one that I picked up a while ago, she's pretty good and this was a solidly entertaining read about a boy who grows up obsessed with collecting autographs and ultimately tries to track down one of the people that is represented (questionably) as one of his prized possessions. A glimpse into English life and this particular subculture.
"The Zero" by Jess Walters is set on September 12th 2001 and is a tragicomic take (from the point of view of a cop who is slowly losing his eyesight and possibly his mind) on the social aspects of 9/11. In particular it deals with the blunting of emotions, the marketing of tragedy, and the inflated and misguided hunt for enemies within. A tight book.
Heavy Rotation?
Red Hot Chili Pepper's new 2 cd set is not "new" music in that it sounds just like the last RHCP album but if you like the sound, its more of the same.
"The Inside Man" soundtrack. Great indian/hip hop song and some really nice and moody arrangements by Spike Lee's longtime musical collaborator.
"Love" by the Beatles. A new remix by the Beatle survivors of some of their classics. Octopuses (pi?) garden is my favorite on this one...
Sean Lennon has a new album and I like it. The first track is my favorite thus far. He's got a bit of his dad in there somewhere and it is starting to come out.
