2001 Books Read This page is the gateway to my ramblings. Occasional essays and book reports will appear here. I expect the subject matter will be varied.

Books recorded Previously	Early year entries
History of the Low Countries, J.C.H. Blom and E. Lamberts, 1999	Thorough but written in boring academic style.
Galiieo's Daughter, A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love, Dava Sobel,1999	Excellent storytelling.
The Bride of Science, Romance Reason, and Byron's Daughter, Benjamin Wooley, 1999	Nobody is more interesting than the romantic Byron. His daughter turned to science.
April 1865, The Month that Saved America, Jay Winik, 2001	The Union was probably saved during the events of this month. Good writer
The Multiple Identities of the Middle East, Bernard Lewis,1998	A good starter to help step out of the cultural binders that we all have to evaluate the Middle East of Islam.
A Bishop's Tale, Craig Harline & Eddy Put, 2000	The historical crosscurrent in Europe of the early 16th Century as told through the eyes of a Low Country Bishop.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto, 1953	I picked this up after I visited the Lewis and Clark Center in North Dakota. The primary writer in this volume is Clark.
Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball,1998	I re-read this one before I visited Charleston, SC in June. The writer traces his family, black and white, through the historical records and interviews. Great read.
Open Society, Reforming Global Capitalism, George Soros, 2000	This quintessential capitalist argues against "Market Fundamentalism" using the philosophy of Karl Popper.
The Coming Collapse of China, Gordon G. Chang 2001	The structural weakness of the Peoples Republic will inevitably lead to collapse according to Chang.
The Botany of Desire, A Plant's-Eye View of the World, Michael Pollan, 2001	One could say humans selected plants or that plants selected humans for their wide genetic distribution. The story of four plants are told: potato, tulip, marijuana, and the apple.
Climbing Mount Improbable, Richard Dawkins,1996	From simple to complex organisms seems an impossible cliff to climb based merely on random chance of mutations. Dawkins takes us to the backside of the mountain which rises slower and steadier.
Genome, The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley	Ridley tells a little about each chromosome via a genome that resides on it. Good read.
Moral Animal, Why We are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, Robert Wright, 1994	Wright is a journalist and a big thinker. He talks of a Darwinian explanation for human psychology.
Non Zero, The Logic of Human Destiny, Robert Wright, 2000	Important book by Wright. See review.
River Out of Eden, A Darwinian View of Life, Richard Dawkins, 1995	The best short explanation of Darwinism that I've come across.
The Elegant Universe, Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Reality, Briane Greene, 1999	A pretty decent explanation for the lay reader. You can tell this guy is a good teacher.
Thought Contagion, How Belief Spreads Through Society, The New Science of Memes, Aaron Lynch, 1996	Richard Dawkins (see above) came up with the concept of memes, units of culture which can be copied analogous to genes in the physical organic world. Don't bother with this book.
Eve's Seed, Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History, Robert S. McElvaine, 2001	This was the worst book that I couldn't even finish. Horrible misuse of evolutionary science. "Notawoman"?
The End of Days, Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, Gershom Gorenberg, 2000	The Struggle for the Temple Mount (al-Aqsa) is both symbolic and actual. This is a must read.
Bin Laden, The Man Who Declared War on America, Yossef Bodansky, 1999	This was written before 9-11 and was widely read immediately after. The book is detailed. It has a political agenda (anti-Clinton I guess), but is an excellent back grounder.
Terror in the Mind of God, The Global Rise of Religious Violence, Mark Juergensmeyer, 2000	This discusses terrorism through the lens of religious fundamentalism. I have long felt the perpetrators of violence are driven because they know the truth (religious and secular). Beware of those who profess to know the truth. The author interviews Christian, Jewish, Islamic terrorists. Good read.
Usama bin Laden's al-Quaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network, Yonah Alexander and Michael S. Swetnam, 2001	This includes bin-Laden's directives in his own words. It's always good to go to the source.
Holy War, Inc. Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden, Peter L. Bergen, 2001	This is the best written of the UBL books. It was at print on 9-11 and updated before publishing. Written by a CNN journalist, this is the one to read.
One Palestine, Complete, Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, Tom Segev, 1999	The history of Palestine under the British Mandate (1918-1948), or how Britain got tired of it's Empire and pissed everybody off. Great read. Thorough and told through the eyes of the participants on all sides.
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx,1993	I had a hard time getting through this one that is set in Newfoundland. I didn't like the characters and nothing happened. It's a movie now. Pulitzer Prize hey. She writes in more incomplete sentences than I do.
Traveling Mercies, Some Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott, 1999	An interesting memoir type work, but I still don't understand her leap.

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