Jeffy's Lookin' at Me by Bil Keane
The humor in Family Circus involves the actions of the parents with 4 small children. Much of it is still relatable today. However, some aspects are just not as prevalent. (4 kids would not be common. Kids would not respond on the land line to a boss.) But kids do still say crazy things that seem "correct" to them. There is even a cartoon about a kid sucking all the flavor out of their thumb.
A kid mentions everyone he will invite to his party, but not Hooper Humperdink. There is something for every letter of the alphabet and a huge load of kids. Then finally at the end, he decides Hooper is ok. It is not the best Dr. Seuss writing.
An ebook is available from libraries. Audiobook is available from audible and we have a paper book. I listened to the text to speech of the ebook. The simple thesis of this book is that "genes" are the primary unit of genetic propagation. Organisms are the vehicle for this propagation to get carried out. The author also admits that "cooperative gene" would also be a valid title for the book.
The text provides examples and additional stories to carry out these points. Having errors in the replication is key to the process. This lets new things appear and change. There is a long discussion of the "prisoner's dilemma" and how that is related to genetic propagation. People may have many descendents. A 20th generation descendent many not have any genetic material that came from this ancestor. However, social knowledge and changes could be passed down.
Though the book has been updated in recent years, some of the original content is present. There is some mention of computer power and resources which is totally out of date, but still makes it's point. (It can be a bit jarring when it is followed by mention of the author getting his genome sequenced.) The book seems fairly long for the points made.
This early Bob book has simple text about Mat and Sam. Most of the text is similar to "Mat Sat". It is something that early beginning readers could easily pick up. The catch is that they could also guess the text just by looking at the illustrations. Maybe that helps? Or maybe that gets in the way of learning to read.
Mississippi in the great depression is heavily segregated. The whites go to a high school named after a Confederate. They have a bus that takes them to school. The blacks go to a mediocre school. New textbooks go to the white students. Only after the books have deteriorated to poor condition do the blacks get them. Violence is still present. Whits are seen as superior to blacks. Officials won't prosecute whites for crimes against black. The black families farm as an attempt to get by. Some walk great distances from farm to school (and thus there is not a whole lot of education of older black children.) The protagonist's father goes away to work. There are various conflicts and threats to people, land and livelihood. It feels like the fairly common tale of racism in the segregated south.
Seattle, Past to Present by Roger Sale
This history of Seattle written nearly 50 years ago seems remarkably current. Many of the concerns and politics seem familiar today. We've gone from Boeing to Microsoft to Amazon. Seattle has continued to grow in part because it was there. It grew during the Yukon gold rush because it was already of sufficient size to support those coming through. It has grown during the tech boom because it already had a tech economy present.
Seattle is less than 200 years old, with the politics different than many east coast cities. Seattle has never had a "boss". Initially everybody lived close together. Rich and poor would intermingle. Then things started to change. Places like the Highlands were built to keep the rich away from the poor. Things moved towards a "separate" culture. Cars, freeways and suburbs came to exacerbate this situation. Progressive good government advocates came to be replaced by more left-wing socialist tendencies.
Seattle was initially in competition with Tacoma. Seattle did manage to get the University, while Tacoma got the railroad first. However, Seattle was persistent, and got its own railroad. It was also able to keep growing, while Tacoma stagnated.
Seattle has a history of remaking itself. Tide flats were filled in. Hills were leveled. Canals were dug. Some of these changes may not have been so useful. There have also been plans that have never been carried out. There was the Bogue plan which would have created a system of parks and subways and made a great city ahead of its time. Alas, it was defeated at the polls, thanks in part to "anti-elite" writing. (Ironically, the "elite" had not mobilized enough behind it because they did not have enough to gain individually.) There were also plans for leveling many hills and bulldozing areas to make more freeways. We are probably much better off that these never came to be.
When this was written in 1976, the future of Seattle did not look strong. There were concerns about Seattle not growing and innovating as it should, though there was still potential. It appears that some of the potential has been exercised, though plenty of concerns remain.
I really thought I was getting into this Dune book. I was grokking the political intrigue and the environmental debates. Then I started to lose it and the novel ended. There are people that are in power. Others seem to know their position on life. The environment has changed in a way that seems to benefit most people. However, this change has also caused negative impacts that may lead to future destruction. There does seem to be a lot of potential in this book, but I couldn't quite absorb it.
The book targets a more general audience than just mathematicians. However, it does not skimp on rigor. The opening chapter starts with an introduction to "pure mathematics". The author desires that we can find the joy in math that mathematicians find, and not get bogged down with mechanics. There are plenty of detailed proofs and exercises in the book. At times the book gets pretty deep into the nitty-gritty. However, it will often then bounce back out to more easily acceptable prose. I found it to be a good introduction to graph theory. It contained enough detail to fill in basic understanding gaps and seems to have a good chunk of problems to go through on a re-read.
A River Runs Through is a collections of experiences growing up in rural Montana. Fishing is covered in great detail as are experiences logging. I had trouble getting engaged in the work. Though it has garnered awards and been turned in to a movie, so it must have its audience.
You can save the world with a rock song. Or at least you can try. Radio Free Albemuth is a trippy voyage exploring an "extra-terrestrial deity". Aliens have sent a satellite to orbit the earth in order to help save the world from itself. This satellite sends special messages to people to help them to do its will. These feelings sometimes help get them out of quandaries, while at other times leading them on to do things that they would not have considered.
