The Best American Science Writing 2001 Edited by Timothy Ferris

I touched on this lightly in a previous post, which I’ll reproduce here:

I also read a couple essays from The Best American Science Writing 2001, one about the effects of testosterone and the other about how the catholic church and the inventor of the pill really screwed women over by insisting on the “natural” 28 day cycle, which turns out to be not-so-natural after all. Apparently, pre-industrial women have an average of 100 periods during their lifetime (due to repeated pregnancy and extended breast-feeding), compared to the modern woman’s average of around 400. The increased number of cycles is the catalyst for diseases(such as cervical cancer) that happen very rarely to women in non-industrialized cultures. Had the inventor of the pill not been so all-fired driven to appease the catholic church’s desire for a”natural” cycle, many women might have had access to the types of birth controls that are just now coming into vogue where they’re on the drug for 3 months or more without break, reducing the total lifetime ovulations and accompanying risks. Interesting stuff.

Also of note:

– Decoding the human genome and the story behind the public sector vs. private sector companies involved.

– The use of DNA in trials

– The attitudes of South African government that are hurting the battle against the AIDS epidemic

– An unsettling piece about SV40, a simian virus, a possible culprit in some cancers, that has made its way into the human population, possibly because of the polio vaccine many years ago.

– How and why the Roswell UFO legend got started

Ironically, one of my favorite authors, the late Stephen Jay Gould, wrote a piece about Syphillus that I got bored with and skipped. They can’t all be gems.

The Best American NonRequired Reading 2004 Edited by Dave Eggers

My guilty favorite of the Best American series, filled with pieces chosen by high schoolers. Mixture of essays, stories, comics, whatever they feel like putting in there.

Highlights of this one are:

We Have a Pope!: An imagining of a marketing master trying to manipulate the system to get the first American pope. Funny.

The Hidden Lives of Lakes: People of a small, wintry village notice that underneath the ice of their lake, all of the people who ever died in their town seem to be living a watery second life.

The Fifteen Year Layover: I thought that Tom Hanks movie was based on a true story, but here’s another one about a man who has lived in an airport for 15 years.

Transmissions from Camp Trans: The story of the alternative protest camp (Camp Trans) that happens on the outskirts of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in the wilds of Michigan each August. MWMF prohibits trans women from attending, and this is the story of one summer fighting the good fight.

Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner

A delightful and witty tale of the adventures of Newman and Hotchner in starting and running Newman’s Own. At least, purportedly so.

You never know about autobiographies… how much of this is spin or exaggeration? By the accounts I’ve heard, Mr. Newman is a down-home, grounded sort of guy with a good sense of humor. I want to believe they furnished their offices with pool furniture, and that later, when it looked like the business was going to make it through the first year, they bought new pool furniture for the Newman house.

At any rate, this is an entertaining and interesting story, and the letters from purchasers of their product and recipients of the proceeds are funny and poignant. You can’t help but get a little teared up at times.

I feel like travellight recommended this one many moons ago… if so, thanks. If not… uh… then you should read it, travellight.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Thanks to galbinus_caeli for reminding me of Project Gutenberg, which has made a number of improvements since last I had a Palm, making it much easier to transfer those books to a ebook format.

I really enjoyed the first 4/5 of this book. It’s got a Harry Potter/Oliver Twist sort of beginning, and the language is very enjoyable¹. The last fifth dragged a bit, and I sped read the last few pages.

I picked it up because I’ve been reading the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series, which began with The Eyre Affair. There was much plot of that book based upon the changing of the plot in Jane Eyre, none of which I understood. So now it all makes sense.

¹ It should be noted that I find Jane Austen’s writing enjoyable as well. So… there’s your reference point.

All the Myriad Ways by Larry Niven

If you ever recommend me a book, and I say I’ll check into it, rest assured that though it may take upwards of 8 years, I will get around to it.

Way back in the days before Internet Messenger, I had an email conversation with a friend about the Back to the Future trilogy and time travel movies in general. In that conversation, he referenced an essay from All the Myriad Ways about time travel.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I was pondering my excessive number of credits on paperbackswap.com, and I remembered that book. Someone had it, and it arrived in time for my latest trip to Juarez.

It’s a mixture of sci-fi short stories and essays, and includes one of the more famous and wittier essays in sci-fi history, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, a frank and logical discussion of Superman’s potential sex life. One imagines that the writers of Superman II had read this essay.

Ironically, the weakest essay of the bunch was the one on the various (fictional) theories of time travel. It was good to be sure, but missed some of the things we discussed in emails in 1999. Of course, the book was written sometime before 1971, but neither of the 1999 writers were purporting to be career science fiction writers describing an overview of all time travel theories.

The short stories were also well written and engaging, which almost makes up for the later Ringworld books.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

Okay, it was free. It came with my Palm Z22. I was stuck in a lab in Mexico with nothing to do, my books were elsewhere, my internet connection failed… it was just me, a Palm Z22, and several guys who didn’t speak english.

So, I read a romance novel.

It started off a little Jane Austinesque, sort of, but then deteriorated. My expectations were low, and they were met.

But it was a little interesting to think about what makes a book “bad”, aside from an uninteresting plot. This one was a textbook example of constantly, constantly telling instead of showing.

“Really?” Violet asked, trying not to look interested.

And how, exactly, does one try not to look interested? Show me.

Though, I supposed the author simply doesn’t have the motivation to work at it. I mean, apparently this book has 6 sequels or something like that, so Julia Quinn ain’t hurtin’.

Now, I’ve got to figure out how to get some more eBooks on my Palm, ’cause all that’s left is the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Superheroes Edited by John Varley and Ricia Mainhardt

Like most folks of my ilk (and here I mean geeky), I’m a sucker for superheroes.

Not all, but most. I don’t care for the Green Lantern¹ or The Hulk.

I was optimistic but ultimately disappointed by Mystery Men, as I like the idea of alternate superheroes. So this book, purportedly a series of essays about alternate superheroes, sounded good to me.

It was okay. As an Amazon reviewer noted, a couple sharp pieces, and the rest just so-so, one-joke stories.

She Who Might Be Obeyed was so convoluted as to be almost unreadable.

Truth, Justice and the Politically Correct Socialist Path the story by the editor that hypothesized Superman’s life had he landed in the USSR (which served as the inspiration to do the collection) was somewhat predictable but very witty.

Others were arty and pushed the margins of what one would define as a superhero.

But, all in all, fine mind candy.

¹ My sole contribution to Free Parking, a Dad’s Garage sketch show of some years back, was a piece called The Green Lantern Buys A Stamp where I itemized the lameness of GL when he fails to convince the citizenry that he needs to cut in line at the post office as a matter of life or death. He ends up being bludgeoned by the crowd, saved from death only by the sudden appearance of the Wonder Twins.

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman

The first point I should make is that I read this on my new (refurb) Palm Z22. It came as a sample book with the eReader software, along with Never Eat Alone and some romance novel. I used to read stuff all the time on my old Palm IIIe, and it’s nice to always have a book or two on me, wherever I go. The interface is greatly improved as well.

Previously, I’ve read a Sandman, Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), American Gods and, recently, Neverwhere. Good Omens is much beloved by many and I am no exception. But the other three works, done solo, were just OK by my estimation. I didn’t plan on going out of my way to get another Neil Gaiman piece.

But there it was in the Palm. And I’m glad it was.

I really enjoyed these short stories. In fact, the shorter the better. He had a whole collection of two paragraph stories about vampires that were very funny.

Honestly, though, I skipped most of the “poetry”. If it didn’t grab me in the first couple stanzas, I was off to the next thing. I’m a plebe that way.

There’s a funny story about a woman who finds the Holy Grail in a junk store. And one about a guy who looks for bargain priced assassinations. All very creative and fun.

The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them Edited by Roxanne J. Coady & Joy Johannessen

71 essays about life changing books. Many were interesting, some were funny, some I just skimmed. Several folks mentioned To Kill A Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye. Amy Bloom cited The Most of P.G. Wodehouse, which I dearly love and read again and again, so I shall pick up some of her stuff at some point.

If the internet comes back. Where is it tonight? Livejournal is working. Lots of other major sites aren’t. Weird.

But I digress.

This is one of the Xmas gift books, for which I thank her again, as it helped pass part of the time happily on my 3.5 hour flight back and forth to El Paso.