Recommended Reads, Third in a Series
Some of my faves from the past three months:
* Out of the Saltshaker (Pippert). I never actually read this classic after all of these years of being a Christian, so I thought it would be good to actually read. A little too chipper and suburban for my taste, but still a good read.
* Woe is I (O'Conner). A helpful and witty little primer on grammar. I found myself saying, "oops, I've been saying it wrong all these years" a lot.
* Neither Here Nor There (Bryson). Bryson consistently makes me laugh out loud. This account of his jaunt through Europe, a retracing of a previous trip he did when he was much younger, was no different.
* Silent Spring (Carson). The "Inconvenient Truth" of the 1960's. She sure does pound on the issue of pesticides. (I think I was hoping for broader coverage on environmental issues.)
* Sexual Personae (Paglia). Her unified theory of art and lit is deliciously sharp. Sadly, most of it went way over my head; I am simply not at all well-versed when it comes to the classics like Dickinson and Blake and Shakespeare and Wordsworth.
* Taming the Tiger (Rybcynski). It was apt to read this book, about whether we control technology or technology controls us, right before I became a smart phone owner.
* Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (Balmer). This look at evangelicalism in the US is insightful, although too often skeptical, dismissive, and unbalanced.
* Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn). Think "Tipping Point," but not as smoothly written as Gladwell and applied solely to the advance of science. If I knew more about basic science (I drew a blank on physics) and scientists (I should know more about Newton and Galileo than what I do), I think this book would have been more pleasurable to read.
Comments
He had good things to say, too, but there's a lot that shows how desperate the city was then. Lately though, with all of the news this summer about corruption and incompetence in city government, I have been wondering how far we have really come.