'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' by Carlo Rovelli

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Carlo Rovelli (3.0)

This book should have been called ‘Seven Very Brief Lessons on Physics’. Though oddly, at 81 small pages, it is still one of the pithiest books I’ve read. Each chapter is a ‘lesson’ which ranged from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to Black Holes. I’m not sure who the intended audience for this book was, but it certainly is not someone completely unfamiliar with Physics. While Rovelli seems to want to make these subjects approachable to everyone, one still needs a fundamental grasp of the concepts in order to understand his points. I think it’s a good primer for someone like me – someone familiar with the topics, but whose hold on the understanding is tenuous at best and who’s hard pressed to explain them to anyone else! I feel as if I could read this book every couple of years and hopefully my understanding would eventually stick

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (4.0)

I had forgotten how fun this book was. My second reading after many years was a true delight. It even made me want to see the movie again (though it was not nearly as entertaining as the book). While this may be ‘sci-fi lite’ for die-hards, it’s remains a whimsical, far-fetched, enjoyable story. The protagonist, Arthur Dent, is a British gent who wakes up one day to find his house is about to be demolished to put in a new highway. Ironically, what he soon realizes is that Earth is about to face the same circumstances. Luckily, his friend, Ford, whom he thought came from another town, is actually a traveller from space who is able to hitchhike a ride on the alien craft seconds before it obliterates the planet. Ford, as it turns out, was temporarily stranded on Earth while updating the ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’, a helpful guide to the places and peoples of rest of the galaxy. Arthur and Ford then embark on a journey driven mainly by survival. During their short travels they meet quite a few memorable characters – from the depressed robot, Marvin, to Slartibartfast, the famed builder of fjords. I could say that name over and over again! My favorite parts of the book are the numerous times Mr. Adams pokes fun at the hubris of humans (i.e. earth is a one-liner in the Guide; humans not the most intelligent species on the planet – we are below dolphins and mice), nothing is too sacred for him. If you haven’t read this book and like screwy British humor (think Monty Python) you ought to give it a try.

'The Space Trilogy' by C. S. Lewis

The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength), C.S. Lewis (3.0)

In catching up on my C.S. Lewis reading, I tackled his Sci-Fi trilogy, written in the 1940’s. While I enjoyed the first book, I have given the series a ‘3.0’ as the second and third books were very preachy and hard to take. The religious zeal of those books took away from the freshness of the first. I don’t want to give away too much – since I am recommending the first book, whose elements are more delightful as surprises. Suffice it to say that Lewis has written a novel about a journey – both fantastical and precarious – that involves non-humans as we know them and illuminates possible origins of the planets. He links the planets’ relationship to humans and to each other. The good and evil represented in the first book are interesting and feel more realistic than the cartoonish representations of the other two books. More than once I was reminded of H.G. Wells’ novels. As with his books, the imagination, given the state of technology at the time is impressive. Besides the issues with religion, my other criticism of the trilogy has to do with its English centric mentality. In the 40’s I would have thought a writer would be more global in his story telling.

'Heat' by Bill Buford

Heat, Bill Buford (3.5)

I read this book years ago and remembered it fondly. Rereading it now had some major pluses and minuses. The book follows the journalist, Mr. Buford, along 3 major cooking adventures: working in the kitchen of a Mario Batalli restaurant, traveling to Tuscany to learn how to make homemade pasta, and returning to Tuscany to apprentice with a butcher. Given our recent interest in cooking – particular all things Italian – I loved the kitchen and pasta sections. Given my pescatarian/vegetarian predilections (I was a carnivore during the first reading), I found the butcher section almost unreadable. Mr. Buford has a somewhat annoying habit of bending towards the superlative (i.e. everything is the best, most wonderful, only possible….you get the drift) that gets a bit tiresome. That being said, the characters he meets along his journey come alive in his writing and are extremely likable and interesting. I will add that many of his passages made me worry about Mr. Batalli’s health (can anyone eat and drink that much and stay out till 4am???). If you like meat, cooking and Italy – this is probably a 4.0 book. It’s also worth reading if you are just interested in a behind the scenes look at a famous restaurant in New York City.

'Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter' by Mario Vargas Llosa

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa (3.5)

This book took a bit for me to latch onto, but as it progressed, I found it very charming and couldn’t put it down. A semi-autobiography written in 1977, it is the story of a young man (Mario) in Peru going to law school and working at a local radio station. The two characters in the title are the big influences on Mario during that time: his divorced aunt-by-marriage and the passionate Bolivian scriptwriter brought in to write serials for his radio station. By far, the most interesting character in this book is Pedro, the scriptwriter. His odd proclivities (Argentinians are horrible, man’s best age is his – 50) show up humorously in each story. The book intersperses Mario’s life (becoming crazy as he falls in love with his aunt) with the emotional stories of the serial. As Mario’s life runs out of control, the scriptwriter’s stories do as well. The beauty of this book is in the language, the creativity of the stories and the humor spattered throughout (loved the naked stowaway with 1 tooth!). The characters are a bit cartoonish and the serial stories can be quite confusing, but it you stick to it, the reading experience can be quite entertaining. I found the ending brief and relatively sad, though that did not appear to be the intention.

'The Screwtape Letters' by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis (3.0)

Why ‘Screwtape’, ‘Wormwood’, ‘Slubgob’ and other odd names used throughout this book? C. S. Lewis says he brainstormed nasty words such as tapeworm, scrooge, thumbscrew, slob, etc. and used them to form the names of his devils. The main devil is Screwtape and the book is comprised of letters he writes to his nephew, a demon in training. Throughout the story, Screwtape is advising Wormwood how to capture a soul for their team and not His. Lewis has cleverly made the Devil a boss micro managing his Dilbert-like nephew as if they were selling paper in Slough. He set the time during World War II, but advises not to let their charge die during the war, as he is leaning towards the other team and they could lose his soul forever. I was most surprised by the prescience of Lewis with several subjects, such as the Devil’s advice on lowering women’s self-confidence (one of his many suggestions to Wormwood to turn people to the dark side). Though published in 1941, he could have been talking about the body image issues we face with the media and girls today. Given his transition from atheism to Christianity, some of the devil’s irony and sarcasm were a bit much for me, but I could understand given the author’s journey. The book is quite short, but rather difficult to read and digest, mainly due to the language. I would have given it a ‘4’ had it been more accessible.