Book 24: The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

I'm back around to non-fiction again and this time we're going for some science.  The Fabric of the Cosmos is an exploration of the basics of the universe, basically what is it?  Through theoretical physics, cosmology and string theory he attempts to define the nature of spacetime.  If you know anything about me you'd know this is right up my alley.

It's 493 pages but 536 pages including the more detailed Notes section, which I'll probably read.  So that makes about 80 pages per day.

REVIEW:  Brian Greene does a nice job of laying down the basics in this book.  He starts with explaining the history of our knowledge of space.  Meaning: what is space?  From there he goes through more of the big questions: what is time?  How did the universe begin?  How will it end?  What makes up the fundamental particles and forces in our universe?

I've read enough of these kinds of books to have basic understanding of these concepts already and my own studies have fleshed those concepts out pretty thoroughly.  But Greene does an excellent job of describing all of these difficult ideas.  He explains things in a very understandably way and, if you desire, there is a "notes" section at the end which explains things in more depth for the mathematically and scientifically inclined reader.  He also does a good job of explaining that most of these concepts are just theories, hypotheses, really.  At the fundamental level, we still don't know most of the answers to the basic questions.

Reading through another science book, I typically judge them by whether or not I learn anything from them.  This book had a couple of large sections that I came away from feeling that I understood things better than before.  Entropy was a big one.  There was a large section on time and whether or not it can be shown to have an "arrow", a direction, from a scientific point of view.  I had a basic understanding of these ideas, but his explanations and the math in the notes section, really taught me something.

There was some rehashing; basic, history-of-science stuff at the beginning.  But he quickly moved on to more of the latest findings and theories, so it never really bogged down.  I found this book quite an interesting read... those without a love of science, physics and/or astronomy may not enjoy it quite as much.  8 out of 10.

Book 23: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

My schedule was slipping for a couple weeks, but we’re back on now.  Next up is Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.  It’s a bit of a mystery/conspiracy theory novel from what I understand, as well as historical fiction.  I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose when I read it a number of years ago, but wasn’t as impressed with some of Eco’s more recent novels.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Eco’s writing and all of his books that I’ve read have been good, but I’m hoping that this is a great one.

623 pages means 89 pages per day.

REVIEW:  This is the third Templar conspiracy book that I've read.  The first was Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln which was very fun and very interesting.  The second one was Dan Brown's  The Da Vinci Code which was a blatant rip-off of Holy Blood, Holy Grail and basically just dramatized the book.  This one takes on the same subject material, basically, but adds a new twist.  

Eco is a phenomenal writer, his prose is very dense and he tends to incorporate tons and tons of historical material into his writing.  There are two basic types of chapters in the book.  One part tells the story of the protagonists and those are quick and interesting.  There is lots of drama and things happen quickly.  The second type is building the historical conspiracy of the Templars and, because it's a world-encompassing conspiracy, it tends to get very, very arcane.  I wouldn't say that you could just skim through the historical material either, because he tends to build on it from chapter to chapter and he refers back to different groups constantly.  

The other thing about this book is that he uses a lot of foreign languages.  The main characters are obviously well versed in Latin and French at the least and a smattering of other languages when necessary.  With my linguistic background it wasn't much of a problem, but if you do not know at least Latin and French you may need a dictionary, or Google Translate.  I don't think that there was anything critical that wasn't in English, but you might miss some of the flavor.

All in all, I found this to be a very enjoyable read.  I still prefer Eco's The Name of the Rose but this is probably my second favorite of his novels.  It did get a little arcane with all the occult knowledge that he included, but that knowledge is critical to the plot and really is the point of the book so it's something you have to wade through to really appreciate whole product Eco presents at the end.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Book 22: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I should have started this one on Monday, but I'm a little behind.  This time around I'm reading some World Literature, which is what I'm calling literature in any language but English.  I learned Russian specifically to read Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Pushkin in the original and I'm glad I did.  I always felt that something was missing in Russian literature in translation and I find that the works are far richer in their native language.

Clocking in at 735 pages, I should be able to finish in a week at 105 pages per day.

REVIEW: The Brothers Karamazov was a very interesting novel.  I usually feel a bit of dread going into Russian Literature and Dostoevsky in particular because it can get rather depressing.  Dostoevsky is very fond of delving into the depths of desperation, madness and tragedy.  This novel had a bit of that but was well rounded in other ways that had me pleasantly surprised.

It begins as a standard 19^th century family drama.  The story revolves around the Karamazov patriarch, his sons, their servants and their love interests.  The father is a bit of a scoundrel but wealthy.  The eldest son is also a scoundrel, but is more of a playboy.  The middle son is an atheist and a Socialist, practical and serious.  The youngest son is a pious, truthful novice monk and is the main point of view character.

As the novel changes gears the role of the youngest son, Alexei, becomes more important as Dostoevsky explores the role of religion in about 100 pages of pretty dense philosophy.  It’s here that the book bogged down a bit for me.  He has a lot of good things to say, but it’s pretty dense and scholarly.

The novel picks up again, however, as the eldest son, Dmitri, begins to take over as the main character.  Dostoevsky loves to write about manic characters behaving irrationally and this is Dmitri to a tee.  Not to spoil things but the book changes into a bit of a crime/mystery novel at this point as the reader tries to figure out the details of one fateful night.

Then the book changes gears again at the end of the novel and becomes a courtroom drama.  The last 200 pages or so deal with a trial and evidence given on both sides.  What was most interesting about this to me was that the author was able to effectively show how the available evidence was able to be interpreted, realistically, it two very different ways, neither of which was entirely the true series of events.

Overall, this was a very rich reading experience.  I’m not a big fan of Crime and Punishment because it was very far into the psyche of a madman but this book really showed Dostoevsky’s range as an author.  It was very engaging for most of it’s 750-ish page length and I have to put it pretty high on my list of best novels.  It did bog down in a couple of places and I don’t really like some of the characteristic traits that Dostoevsky characters tend to have (overly anxious women, manic, passionate men) but it was a very good read.  9 out of 10.

Book 21: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

I'm getting started late on this one due to a mixup with the library.  I found that the library had a compilation of The Walking Dead comics and had a very clever scheme allowing me to keep the book over the holidays but it didn't turn out as intended.  When I checked out the book and flipped it open I found that it was actually volume 3 of the set and the library didn't have volumes 1 and 2.  Bummer.  Oh well, I said, back to the book I was originally intending to read, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I have a couple of Potter-philes at work that say that this is their favorite of the series.  Mine, so far, is still The Prisoner of Azkaban but we'll see.

This volume has 870 pages which would be about 125 pages a day, but since I'm getting a late start I'll have to do better than that.

REVIEW:  With this book, the transformation from Children’s Literature to something more mature is in full swing.  Harry is now 15 years old and Ms. Rowling does a great job of writing a teenage boy.  Unfortunately, this also makes Harry a bit of a jerk.  He’s short-tempered with his friends, he’s frustrated with authority figures and he always thinks that he knows more than those around him.  A teenage boy to a tee.

With a darker theme pervading the book there is little room any more for some of the fun stuff.  It’s a good 200 pages before Harry gets to Hogwarts.  Then with everything that’s going on in his life, tests, girls, Voldemort and the new, authoritarian teacher, Prof. Umbridge, even the previous fun parts like classes and friends become more serious and less whimsical.

It’s not entirely a bad thing, however.  I’m very impressed with Ms. Rowling’s ability to alter her world as Harry (and his readers) get older.  The first book was written for a younger audience and it shows, especially, with names like Dumbledore, Hogwarts and Hufflepuff.  As the audience gets older and the theme gets darker, some of the more innocent things about Harry’s world get darker as well.  A good example of this is the self-drawn carriages from previous books.  It was assumed that they were self-driven somehow, but now, Harry can see what is pulling them: skeletal horses with leathery wings.  It turns out that you cannot see these horses, called Thestrals, unless you have witnessed death.  Pretty dark, huh?

It was still a good read and the world and events are still interesting, but the more mature, darker mood of the books has taken some of the whimsy and fun out of the story.  Also, Harry is a bit less likable than he is in previous books.  7 out of 10.