Something about how the story is presented keeps the reader at a certain remove and dilutes the immediacy of the action, and that is why I struggled to engage with it, no matter how much I wanted to.
Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire Review
From a scientific sense, though, there are far better means by which to learn about thermodynamics and the theory of heat engines.
On the Bondage of the Will Review
This is a piece of philosophy praised for its insight, lauded for its clarity of composition…and quite disappointing to a reader like me.
Euclid’s Elements Review
If I were ever teaching a geometry class, I would not go to McDougal-Little or Pearson or the other big-name textbook publishers, but would instead direct my students to obtain a copy of Euclid’s Elements, and build my curriculum around it.
Luther the Reformer Review
After purporting to tell the story of “the man and his career,” Kittelson instead provides a dry, biased history that barely even scratches the surface of the complexity of Luther and his times.
Grant Review
Grant lived up to my exospheric expectations for a Chernow biography in spectacular fashion, and my biggest challenge reading it was not inhaling it in three-hundred-page binges.
Relativity Review
Many misunderstandings exist surrounding the theories of relativity, and after you read Relativity, you might wonder why - Einstein renders the special theory’s claims and precepts so self-evident.
Mastering Bread Review
In my mind, cookbooks were just binders of recipes you keep on a greasy shelf somewhere that may or may not be close to the kitchen, from which you might have one or two go-to recipes you follow for nostalgia’s sake, and otherwise they serve little useful purpose. That is, until I received a copy of Mastering Bread as a gift.
War: How Conflict Shaped Us Review
I was interested to see what insights I might glean from MacMillan’s War: How Conflict Shaped Us, but the answer, sadly, was ‘not many.’
Two Treatises of Government Review
After spending the first treatise lambasting a proponent of absolute, unlimited monarchy, Locke turns in the second treatise to what I would consider the more productive exercise of defining, deriving, and justifying for himself the source of political power in any commonwealth.
