Sue Hubbell - Waiting for Aphrodite: Journey into the Time Before Bones (1999). This is part nature book, part narrative of life changes. She has intriguing account of a number of 'less-studied bugs' (such as rolly pollies and centipedes.) Parts of the book get a little slow. However, it does open up interesting questions about the interrelations in the ecosystem and the presence of 'superfluous' living things that are not needed for the survival of other species. She guesses that there may be very few of these, with perhaps man being the most notable. I would think otherwise - man's absence would surely have a negative impact on many of the domesticated plants and animals that would not be able to survive without his intervention. (Not to mention the many microorganisms and bugs that depend upon him.)
Louis Rekeyser - Karl Marx: Das Kapital.(1992) This purports to be a brief summary of Marx's key work. However, it is more a critique of Marx himself and the shortcomings of his economic philosophy.
Douglas Adams - The Salmon of Doubt. (2002) The intro states that this book is essentially a posthumous dump of Douglas Adams' hard drive. The contents span a couple decades and include many great short essays. Most memorable are ones detailing the absurdity of driving law enforcement and critique of the multitude of "little dongly things (power supplies)". About half the book is devoted to the actual incomplete "Salmon of Doubt" book. This is easily the weakest part of the whole collection. Though it has funny parts, it is obviously not in a complete state and doesn't stand up to the great essays.
( These below are added to another post)
Voltaire - Candide. Life is a Journey, not a destination. Everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong, yet Candide remains an optimist. He even gives up on the city of gold and peace to try to find and marry the girl of his dreams. Through it all, he keeps on a face of naieve optimism. Alas, even that starts to go wrong, but he remains happy until he finally sinks in to a dull life on the farm. Finally the "lack of something bad" becomes the one thing that makes him question the "best of all possible worlds". It turns out that bad things actually kept life interesting. It is monotony that is the true bad.
Voltaire takes hilarious jabs at royalty, church hierarchy, society, and just about everybody. Its amazing that it survived all these years. As I was going through it, I kept hearing Bernstein's Candide overture in my head. So, I listened to the CD and ... well, I still don't have anything more than the overture going through my head.
Stephen E. Ambrose - Undaunted Courage. This is primarily a biography of Merriweather Lewis, with extensive coverage of the Lewis and Clark exploration. The superlatives and endless complements of Lewis get tiring. It reads more like a family tale, attempting to place the family member in the most positive light, with his adventures being the most important in the world. The laudatory prose gets very tiring.
Orson Scott Card - Speaker For the Dead
This is much better than Ender's Game. The story telling is much more "together" and riveting. It presents some interesting questions. Humans secure intergalatic peace, and in doing so bring their technological and social evolution to a veritable 3000 year stand still. When they do encounter other intelligent life, they look at it through there own condescending eyes. They don't realize that the others may have many abilities that they don't recognize. Furthermore, they also expose the futility of an "observe, not disturb" mantra in science. Any observation will lead to some change in the observed, even if the observer does not notice them.
Then there is the human interaction aspect. A quest to eliminate potential harm may bring about many external damages - while still letting the undesired harm take place.
Tom Stoppard - Arcadia
This funny play is filled with mathematical references, while at the same time taking jabs at literary critics and biographers. History is storytelling through the eyes of the historian. Their biases and time period can have a significant impact on the story that they tell. I think I'll be exploring other Stoppard plays.
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