Nicole’s Boat by Allen Morgan and Jirina Marton

As a father tells his daughter a bedtime story, his lyrical words lead her on a whimsical journey “sailing away to the end of day, down the long winding river that goes to the sea.” The illustrations, charming in their child-like simplicity yet rich with detail, are washed with white, giving them a dreamlike quality. Soothing, gentle, hypnotic–a lovely bedtime book!

Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death by Rita Cosby

I was a big Anna Nicole fan before reading this book. I had heard a few stories about her darker side and bad judgment before reading this book, but I was shocked by how she was described by the author Eric Redding. Redding describes her life and personality in a very unflattering way. (…)I felt very bad for Anna Nicole from the moment I started reading to the end.
The book was written by the playboy scout Eric Redding, who discovered and represented her for a year. I think there are some bad feelings on behalf of the author. None the less, Anna has lead quite a life. The writing was OK. The imformation was interesting and some of it down right amazing. Just a little gritty for me. My impression of the sweet small town Texas girl was smashed in the first few pages. I read the whole book in 2 days. I would recomend it. Just be warned it is a sad story of a girl who has lead a hard life.

The Best of Nicole Routhier by Nicole Routhier and Martin Jacobs

This book is a Vietnamese recipe book. It contains the author’s favorite Vietnamese recipes. Many of the recipes are new, and many of them are also found within Foods of Vietnam.

Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story by Eric Redding

… Eric and D’Eva Redding’s Great Big Beautiful Doll exposes the dark side of the playmate, from her humble beginnings as Vickie Lynn Hogan of Mexia, Texas to Vickie Lynn Smith, to Anna Nicole Smith, the latter name she got from Guess? Jeans president Paul Marciano. From there, Redding details someone who vulgarly flaunted sex, who was under a cloud of booze and drugs, and who wasn’t above having sex with other women in front of the authors and even her own son.

Yet there is an incident in which both sides of the story are told. It involves Maria Ceratto, a former Honduran housekeeper who claims Anna Nicole forced her to have sex with her and basically held her captive by changing the phone number and not telling her. Anna Nicole on the other hand claims it was Maria who was doing the harassing.

There’s even an entire chapter dedicated to Jay Leno’s punches on her in his monologue, mainly concerning her marriage to Marshall. Two of the funniest: “I don’t want to say he’s old, but yesterday she told him to act his age–and he died.” “She said they’re two peas in a pod. … It’s more like two cantaloupes and a prune.” Ouch and double ouch!

There are photos in the book, pictures as a child, nude ones, and a not-so-flattering police mug shot for a DWI.

So is this book credible? Well, let’s see, Redding took the Polaroids that led to Anna Nicole’s jump to fame. Both he and his wife were around her during that time, plus Anna-Nicole hasn’t sued the Reddings. And Reddings portray themselves as being simultaneously disillusioned and feeling sorry at what she’s become. To quote from the intro: “It would be easy to make fun of Anna, but we can’t. Maybe it’s a case of ‘we knew her when,’ but we did–and we liked her then.” Yet at the same time, the bio comes off as being sensationalistic and somewhat exploitative.

For Anna-Nicole Smith sycophants, this book truly trashes their idol, so don’t bother. If you totally loathe Anna Nicole, this book is ammunition for you. If you’re ambivalent about her, well, maybe it’s worth a read.

Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted by Faye D. Resnick and Mike Walker

People who thrash and despise this book fail to understand something–Faye Resnick wrote it in order to warn other women involved in violent and demoralizing relationships about what CAN happen to them if they remain in these tragic relationships. The stories about O.J.’s viciousness and cruelty toward Nicole and his ruthless manipulation of her family are (in retrospect) 100% true. I admire Ms. Resnick very much because of her courage and willingness to tell and talk about truths that many were not prepared to face or accept. This book is as real as can be and highly recommended for anyone wanting to know more about the painfully tragic relationship between Nicole and O.J. and the events that led up to this horrific double-murder.

Train Wreck: The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith by Donna Hogan and Henrietta Tiefenthaler

“Train Wreck” is a biography written by Anna Nicole Smith’s half-sister (on her estranged biological father’s side), Donna Hogan. The book tells the life-story of world-wide sex pot, Anna Nicole as seen through her half-sister’s eyes. Ms. Hogan isn’t very flattering to Anna Nicole and I often have to wonder if she was envious of her older half-sister? I also have to question Ms. Hogan’s intentions in writing this book. The book comes out two months after Anna Nicole’s tragic death and offers very little (or no) new information. Donna Hogan was not in Anna Nicole’s life prior to her death; I read somewhere that Anna Nicole had a knack for chasing away everyone close to her. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I am certain that many people are making money off this poor woman, everyone has dollar signs in their eyes, and no one looked out for Anna’s best interest. I guess, sometimes money is thicker than blood. I hope Anna Nicole finally has the peace that was never afforded to her when she was alive.

Nicole Routhier’s Fruit Cookbook by Nicole Routhier

A friend of mine was buying this particular book for another friend as a Christmas gift. He was asking my advice, since I do far more around the kitchen than he; was it a good enough book for a fellow kitchen-dweller? Well, after a brief examination and a flip-through, I gave him the okay and snuck off to buy a copy for myself! What an incredible book!

For those of you who are visually inclined, the bad news is, there are no pictures in this book. However, that is greatly outweighed by the sheer amount of recipes, tips, and useful information. There are notes about fruits (obviously) and many more about non-fruit foods (not quite so obvious). For example, in the meats section, there is a great tip on cooking and preparing pork products.

The recipes range from original and well-found, to the similar and familiar, to the exotic and delightful, and of course the stand-by fruit recipes that are so essential (i.e. jams, jellies, spreads, and the like).

If you are a kitchen-dweller, too, or know someone who loves to cook, with or without fruit, this is a must-have. Oh, let’s be serious, this book is a must-have for any kitchen. Make no mistake, this book is loaded with facts and incredible recipes, some that will do in a pinch for quick dinners, some that can assist in preparing that Sunday feast. A superior buy and a necessary addition to any kitchen library!

Wet: True Lesbian Sex Stories by Nicole Foster

I wonder how many copies of this book has found its way under the bed of “straight” women. Hmmmm… This is definitely wetness at its hottest. I particularly liked the extra attention paid to the more aggressive lesbian. I mean how can two passive lesbians have any fun? Somebody has to take the initiative.

One more thing: nipple clamps rule!

Anna Nicole Smith: Portrait of an Icon, Signature Edition by Pol’ Atteu and Patrik Simpson

No, this book is not meant to be a long story. It’s Anna’s life in pictures. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of Anna and this book actually had a few I had never seen before. I did like this book and it took me around an hour to look at it and read the captions and short stories. If you want a long read on Anna’s life, choose something else. If you’d like a book of nice big pictures of Anna, Dannielynn and Daniel, this is the book for you. Why fuss over “gross” pictures? Did you completely miss who Anna was and what she did? Duh! Yeah!..she loved her some “manhood” and she let people know. If you don’t like that sort of thing, best to stay away from anything Anna Nicole Hope this helps some people in their decision on this book. Rest in Peace Anna!

Living with Diabetes: Nicole Johnson, Miss America 1999 by Nicole Johnson

Forget everything you thought you knew about the Miss America Pageant. After reading Nicole Johnson’s Book “Living with Diabetes,” it’s clear this independent-thinking reformer immediately stepped off her pageant runway and into the trenches as a hands-on activist, lobbying for more comprehensive medical funding as well as raising both public consciousness and millions of dollars for diabetes research, forever metamorphosing public opinion along the way.

Without pandering or reverting to classic ‘pageant Pollyannaism,’ Nicole honestly and openly weaves a theme of conviction, hope and often painful realism. Particularly gratifying was how she consistently overcame obstacles and utilized the Miss America crown as a means to achieve diverse objectives as opposed to the title being the ultimate objective unto itself.

There she it…advocate, nonconformist, scholar, survivor. While perhaps altering the ‘perfect ideal’ of the Miss America dream, by giving the reader the opportunity to walk in her footsteps, Nicole conveys a sense of what the ‘job’ of Miss America is realistically like, made more complex by her constant struggle with an all too often debilitating disease.

Explaining, in easy to comprehend layperson’s terms, the symptoms, causes, effects and potential cures for diabetes, Nicole provides an invaluable and potentially lifesaving public service in a format that is both sincere and heartwarming.

“Living with Diabetes” is classic American autobiography at its finest–candid, funny, introspective and inspiring–and is destined to become the great American success story of this decade.

Nicole Kidman (Vintage) by David Thomson

It’s always difficult to write a current bio of a famous personality as there seems to be breaking news on an almost daily basis. Case in point - the arresting bio of Nicole Kidman by David Thomson. The world recently learned that the mega star and husband Keith Urban are expecting their first child. That may be the only detail overlooked in this in depth study, and that omission was only due to time constraints.

Thomson who has taught film studies at Dartmouth College and is on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival is an astute observer of cinema and all its ramifications. Thus, he brings an added dimension to this particular book in which he explores the influence of film on the observers, saying “….acting and being at the movies are mirror images.” So, while his book is most definitely about acting and Nicole Kidman, it is also about “what happens to anyone beholding an actress.”

Before launching into a description of Kidman’s life and films, the author describes how he sees the actress today. Noting that there are thousands upon thousands of hits on the mouse every day from those who want to know more about Kidman, he says that she has lived up to the celebrity demand of being on public display whether she is posing for upscale perfume ads, sitting for countless glossy covers, or dropping ” her clothes if only to air out that elegant Australian body.” In later years he envisions her as being rather like Katharine Hepburn, a proud older woman, a mistress of her craft.

Meanwhile, Kidman is in her prime and Thomson takes an expansive look at her films to date beginning with a TV movie for children in 1983 to Birth, The Stepford Wives and The Interpreter, which he calls “three duds in a row” - a fate to be avoided at all costs. Nonetheless, she prevails.

Thomson’s book is both intriguing and a scholarly analysis - it is always fascinating.

Highly recommended.

Raging Heart: The Intimate Story of the Tragic Marriage of O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson by Sheila Weller

I just read this book. I had already read Faye’s book after the trial, then I just read OJ’s If I did it book, I then re read Fayes and now this one. Its really a great compilation seeing everything fit together.

I really like a lot of the backdrop and various accounts on stories, more detail to stories already told or some that I never knew.

Such as Nicoles Breasts being slashed not being mentioned, or that Nicole kept Dr. Susans Forwards Obsessive Love Book around the home and met with her twice for counsel on her situation.

Accounts from various friends in their lives and Nicoles own family, this one has more bio on Nicoles life and family as a child and up until OJ entered the picture.

You can see where a woman was trapped by control, by expectations from friends and family, by lack of help from the police the numerous times she phoned them.

How Nicole had a mixed up sense of Love with OJ, and how young she was when she met him(how she came home with her pants torn and held them shut after their first date) He tore them to have sex with her.

Nicole was truly formed as a teen and was now trying to find her own identity but also deal with the insanity that was OJ. A quote in the book I think sums it up….

“It was precisely that charm, alternating with rage, precisely that Jekyll-Hyde quality, Dr. Forward explained to Nicole made OJ so dangerously hard to deal with. As she observed: “The switching from charm to rage leaves you totally off balance. Everything thats right on Monday is wrong on Tuesday. So your always watching- your on emotional alert all the time.”

I recommend this book if you devour info on this case! And a good book for those dealing with Domestic Violence because you can see Nicoles back and forthness on trying to reconcile vs getting him out of her life, she never really could get him away.

Awakening the Virgin by Nicole Foster

This book is exactly what the title says, a collection of short stories about first time lesbian experiences. The stories are written by women, usually in the first person, and are filled with flowery imagery. This title takes a deep look, mostly through repetition, at the sensual and emotional sides of lesbianism.

Each story left me with a sense of admiration and respect for the virgins at the leaps of faith they made in order to live out their first experience. Certainly in light of the social taboo and potential rejection a journey into homosexuality has the potential to be a devastating occurrence. The women all know this but follow their hearts into relationships to intensely rewarding ends.

This book allowed me a window into my own wife’s past as an experimental teenager. I thought it was amazing how closely her story mirrored some of the stories in this book. I would recommend this collection to anyone who thinks they are a lesbian or anyone who is in a relationship with a lesbian/past lesbian.

One last note of warning, this is not a hardcore/pornographic novel; if you are looking for something like that I would recommend “Penthouse Forum” magazines.

Killing Time: The First Full Investigation into the Unsolved Murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman by Donald Freed and Raymond P. Briggs

This book was written after the media circus came to a close. The authors do a great job of starting with a timeline based on eyewitness and earwitness accounts. I believe that they did get a close “fix” on the time of death.

This book sheds a lot of light on the investigation and prosecution of the crime. It’s hard to fathom why a forensics team wasn’t called to the crime scene a lot sooner! The impression one gets from the book is that the prosecution had their killer in O.J. Simpson and any evidence or witness that didn’t fit this theory were discounted. The two things that helped immensely in Simpson’s aquittal were the gloves that didn’t fit and the timeline. “The Source” in law enforcement is quoted throughout the book. This source gives some insight into the police and prosecutors’ mistakes,shortcomings and strategy.

The theory that Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman were confronted rather than ambushed makes a lot of sense in light of the physical evidence.
Another aspect of the murders was the use of two knives likely by two killers. It also makes sense that the victims were moved around at knife-point.

The “Leads to Pursue” section was very good. Among the interesting points-
A 14 year old boy who claims that he saw three Caucasion men in the alley near Nicole’s house at 10:30 PM. This was very close to the time of the murders.
A waiter friend of Ron Goldman’s from Mezzaluna was mudered shortly before he was.
Nicole may have believed that she was pregnant.

The lifestyle of the victims may have had a connection to the killings.
Could the murders have been related to narcotics? Faye Resnick? Or motivated by jealousy?

After reading this book I am convinced that the case could have been investigated better. There are a multitude of scenarios that should have been investigated. I recommend the book as an unbiased investigation into the murders. The authors don’t arrive at a verdict,that’s left to the reader to determine after assessing the facts in the book.

Kato Kaelin: The Whole Truth : The Real Story of O.J., Nicole, and Kato by Marc Eliot

This book originally was a collaboration between Kato Kaelin and the author. Eventually the two men had their differences and this book was issued without Kato’s approval. Also, the book came out in 1995 before the verdict was reached in the criminal trial. Mr. Eliot does a good job of demonstrating how Kato when questioned by Marcia Clark gave a much different version of reality than he did to the author. Fear, gratitude to O.J. and self promotion appear to have won the day with Kato.

This book has much information which is not common knowledge. From this book a person gets a much more accurate view of life with Kato, O.J. and Nicole than press reports provided. Nicole’s day to day life is portrayed and her various likes and dislikes. Kato’s life with O.J. is also shown. Kato accompanying O.J. to film shoots, football games and other activities is documented. Various confessions of both Simpsons to Kato are recorded here. Some information is given about each of the four Simpson children. In short, if one is looking for little known personal information about the Simpsons and Kato, this book provides it.

Beyond Cellulite: Nicole Ronsard’s Ultimate Strategy to Slim, Firm and Reshape Your Lower Body by Nicole Ronsard

I’ve dabbled occasionally with Nicole Ronsard’s philosophy for over 20 years but didn’t take her approach seriously until now. Something to do with turning 50. I wanted to be in shape again. Walking five times a week helped a little but still didn’t get rid of my riding thighs, lumpy legs, and thick knees. The cellulite was beginning to appear on my stomach also. At 5′10″ and 165 lbs I didn’t look overweight but after the first 6 weeks of following her plan I lost 14 lbs. My legs and rear end are sleeker, pants fit better and I am able to wear shorts without embarrasment. My knees are thinner, I look healthy and feel great! To those people who tell you that you can’t lose cellulite, they are wrong. If you follow this plan you can show them it really can be done. Then you can reap the rewards of feeling great and knowing you look great! Good luck !

Nicole Kidman: The Biography by Lucy Ellis and Bryony Sutherland

I have been following Nicole’s career for a while and have always been fascinated by the fact that she breaks all the rules and goes for quirky arty films rather than surefire box office hits. Unlike other reviewers here, I think this biography put those desires into context with her struggle as being labelled Mrs Tom Cruise and the break up of her marriage.
I found it a really interesting read with some different takes on the usual stories. There were also some great tales from her early days back in Australia which I have never heard before. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know a bit more about this wonderful actress and mother.

Nicole Scherzinger:

Anna Nicole Smith:

Nicole Richie:

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Lapin:

Nicole Linkletter

Nicole Hiltz:

Nicole Appleton:

Nicole Newman:

Crista Nicole:

Lisa Nicole Carson

Nicole Ari Parker:

Nicole Delma:

Nicole Marie Lenz:

Nicole Narain

Nicole Paggi

Nicole Sanderson:

Nicole Theriault

Nicole Trunfio:

Nicole Vaidisova

The Eurovision Song Contest by John Kennedy O’Connor

One of TV’s greatest phenomenon’s and longest running show’s, The Eurovision Song Contest reaches it’s 50th edition in 2005 and (ironically for a BBC show) Carlton Books are publishing this remarkable book to mark the occasion, in conjunction with the European Broadcasting Union.

Author John Kennedy O’Connor has wonderfully captured the spirit of this annual tele-visual kitsch fest in a lavishly illustrated book spanning the entire history of this much maligned show that started as a one off event in a small Swiss theatre in 1956, with just seven competing nations, and is now a two-day event featuring upwards of forty countries, some from well beyond Europe’s borders.

Covering all the highs and lows of the competition and including intriguing and little-known backstage gossip and anecdotes, O’Connor’s style is wonderfully entertaining and provides a genuinely interesting and slightly ironic tribute to the contest and the stars and songs that have featured in it over the years. The book is divided into two distinct sections. The monochrome era of the show from 1956-1967 is covered in double page chapters; whereas the colour broadcasts from 1968 all get four pages each. The entries and results for every year are included alongside numerous and very rare colour and black and white photographs of the artists as well as artwork for all the winning singles, together with their international chart history. Most fun of all, O’Connor has compiled a fascinating “Eurofacts” section that covers all of the trivial statistics that fans crave and that intrigue the general viewers. If you want to know what colour scheme is best to wear if you want to win - you’ll find it here! Most people know which nation won the most contests, but which country finished 16th most frequently? Which nation is best at choosing the winner, or worst for that matter? Who conducted the most number of entries and for the most number of nations? It’s all here and a lot more.

I really enjoyed the style and wit of this author. He has successfully managed to produce an in depth look at the contest without taking it all too seriously and yet write a genuinely enthusiastic and fascinating history of the competition that everyone loves to hate. His flair with words is wonderful and makes for a very entertaining read. Here’s to another 50 years of fun!

Complete Eurovision Song Contest Companion by Paul Gambaccini

It’s taught me everything I know. A growing number of my mates around Europe have now got it and love it. It’s an absolute must for any true ESC fan. They are also becoming increasingly hard to find, so grab one while you can!

THIS IS SWEDEN CALLING: EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST BUT WERE LAUGHING TOO HARD TO ASK!

The book is good and quite enjoyable to read, I mean, any Eurovision fan will enjoy it, especially because of the very valuable apendixes with all the participants up to 2003, the scores and so on. All this data is included and commented with more or less detail throughout the chapters. The problem is that the author really abuses of using too many (far too many!!) reports of funny lyrics to fill up the chapters with some relevant content. I think including some of these translations is okay since the book is supposed to have a major comic component but after repeating the same pattern for every chapter (each chapter is an Eurovision year) plus the unavoidable repetition of the story of how the rules for participation changed, I think the author could have focussed a little bit more on other fun data about the contest since every year the event is packed with anecdotes and interesting stories among the participants. Also, the translations are more or less okay but writing the titles of the songs in different languages is another thing (for instance, some titles are supposed to be in Spanish but they are rather in that type of Spanish anglo-speakers love to include in their books). So, in general, is a fun book, very entertaining with valuable statistics but it’s a pity that lacks of many stories that could have been easily included leaving some of those translations I mention for another occasion. Since this could be a personal preference of mine, I gave four stars to the book.

THE WORLD’S LISTS OF BEST AND WORST by Maximillien De Lafayette

This book has it all; all the imaginable and possible lists! Thousands of names and hundreds of lists. From the world’s top 100 people, most influential persons in the United States, the most beautiful women in America, to the best and worst books, politicians, celebrities, music, novels, leaders, fashion and those who are screwing up America today.
What caught my eyes are two sections; A survey on what Americans and people from around the world love and hate most. The author, Maximillien de Lafayette who wrote over 100 books, and visited so many countries gathered a fleet of researchers to conduct a survey worldwide on the most important, funniest and silliest things in our life. Almost one million people were interviewed. It is so interesting to learn about the similarities and differences that exist between people around the globe. The survey is magnetizing. It covers so many territories ranging from “talking during intercourse” to “the greatest minds and inventions of our time.”
Other section on people who have shaped our world is astonishing, because it appears -always according to book’s survey - that stars and famous singers managed to alter our way of life and how we function in our environment. The author gives many examples. The book contains at least 300 extensive lists in almost all the important fields. It is a huge book in 2 volumes. Each is around 740 pages. So much to learn about the world we live in, from this book. It is like a huge encyclopedia but fun and hilarious. Don’t think for a moment it is gossipy. Not at all, it has lots of substance, in-depth articles and so much information. The author has a great sense of humour. He is hilarious, yet so deep and analytical. You will love this book. It is so wonderfoooooooooooooooooool. Perfect!
I am sure this is the best book ever written about lists.

girl getting massage from Silvio Berlusconi:

sexy girl in evening dress with Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

Sexy Lady With Barack Obama. Evening Dress: Christian Dior, Ear-Ring: Golconda Privee. Clutch: Nancy Gonzalez

Girl In black with Nicolas Sarkozy, Evening Dress and Hat: Carici. clutch bag:Borbonese. pumps: Azzedine Alaia. Diamond Ring: Diamond Tree

lady in red and Vladimir Putin, Evening Dress: Laurel, Earring: Golconda Privee

wonderful woman and Dmitry Medvedev Russian President. Blouse and skirt: ARSENICUM. Casquette: Celine

Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard by Richard Brody

This book is a must-have for any fan or person interested in the work of Jean-Luc Godard. It is a comprehensive critical biography detailing the working methods and conditions surrounding each film in Mr. Godard’s ouvre. It is a massive and lengthy tome filled with erudition.

I break my rating down as follows:

Skipping the childhood and parental history: 5 Stars (because his childhood and parental history does not interest me… and was already covered in MacCabe’s book.)

Late 40’s/Early 50’s background on French critical theory: 5 Stars (for the Astruc/Bazinian/etc. cinema theory… mixed with Satrean/etc. existentialism… along with a dash of vermouth named Brecht)

The financing/producing of the films and a history of various working methods: 5 Stars (great for any cinephile)

The Karina/Godard relationship: 5 Stars (not enough can ever be said about one of the true goddesses of cinema!)

May 1968: 5 Stars (some exciting stuff that I lived through at the time)

Comprehensively talking about every short, middle and feature-length film or video that has even been publicly seen in a movie theater, on television, or at various screenings: 5 Stars (`nuff said…)

Critical Taste in the analysis of films: 2 Stars

I find this to be Mr. Brody’s only failing but his taste is somewhat different than mine in the appreciation of the relative merits of Mr. Godard’s individual films. To wit:

Brody speaks much more highly of King Lear than Band of Outsiders. He rates Prenom: Carmen much more highly than the film that immediately preceded it (Passion). He is not much of a fan of Two or Three Things yet raves about A Married Woman. He doesn’t have much use for Les Carabiniers. Or British Sounds.

(Huh?)

King Lear over Band of Outsiders? Band of Outsiders was poetic AND fun at the same time. Looks easy but hardly anyone can do it.

Les Carabiniers is a dadaist masterpiece and includes one of the high points of cinema… (and I paraphrase the dialogue…) … “You mean we get to steal, rape and kill and get away with it?” “Yes.” “SIGN US UP!”

(Isn’t this as good, if not better, than Bergman’s God-is-a-spider-crawling-on-the-wall??) (!!)

I liked Prenom: Carmen very, very much. But I liked Passion very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. I guess I preferred the ecstatic/epiphanal shots of art tableux in Passion to the repeated shots (in Carmen) of Ms. Detmers’ pubis.

Mr. Brody can’t see the forest for the trees on this one! As Chuck Heston once said when confronted with wooly beasts, “Get away from me you d–n dirty ape!”

(Apologies to Ms. Detmers who more than proved her acting chops/oral skills in Marco Bellocchio’s DEVIL IN THE FLESH. A fine lass, she…!) (And I did very much enjoy Carmen as well as her performance… but Passion is a superior work of art.)

The best cup of coffee in the history of the world was Godard’s Two or Three Things… and even Hamlet never faced the poetic quandary Godard did when he wondered “Should I speak of Juliette… or the trees?” as an Edenic shot of creation is framed within the 1.66:1 ratio. Or was it 2.35?

And if you’ve ever worked on a factory line… you’ll admire the perfectly chosen perfection of the ear-drone-hammer-industrial-noise soundtrack in British Sounds.

Perhaps Mr. Brody never was an industrial wage-slave or he would have more admiration for the truth in much of what Godard/Gorin expressed in their Vertov films. Sometimes the truth ain’t pretty. And sometimes the truth may hurt your ears.

IN SUMMARY, though you may disagree with Mr. Brody on his critical analysis of individual films… (taste in their relative merits may simply be akin to taste in ties)… the reading of his critical biography was sometimes fascinating, and almost always interesting. Well worth each capitalist penny spent!

Godard On Godard by Jean-luc Godard

Godard displays all his unimaginable masterful in this set of reviews originally written for Les Cahiers du Cinema in the far Fifties .
The charm , of this enfant terrible is present all alnog the text .
The reviews about Orosn Welles , Ingmar Bergman , Francois Truffaut , Mizoguchi and his favorite western Seven men from now of Budd Boeticher (I have not watched it) are specially revealing .
Acquire this book , because despite the fact you may argue these reviews are dated , constitute - and who denies? - a crucial period in the cinema story .

The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible by David Sterritt

Godard is a hard nut to crack open and dissect his aims and thoughts.
I think Mr. Sterritt has accomplished all that.
Sometimes (the last two chapters) it’s hard to proceed when the text is hard to grasp, but eventually after a couple of reviews one finally gets it (I think). Anyway it’s a very rewarding experience !

Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews (Interviews With Filmmakers Series) by Jean-Luc Godard and David Sterritt

i can very simply sum up how i feel about this title: one cannot possibly go wrong with the words straight from jean-luc “cinema” godard’s mouth. made up of interviews with godard over the decades of his career, this book illuminates godard’s various phases and his astounding ideas on cinema and art and life in general. the man is an amazing artist, and if you are at all familiar with his films, you owe it to yourself to read some of what he has to say. his insight into filmmaking and his personal output greatly increases any understanding of his cinematic works. i recommend this book to any student of cinema, academic or just curious, or to anyone who has ever watched a godard film and still had many questions after the screen turned dark. and of course, if you’re a godard nut like myself, you should buy this right now and thank me later; this is required reading for godard devotees.

Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou by David Wills

Thank God for university presses that publish books about little known or even unavailable films. Godard’s Pierrot le fou (France, 1965) was recently released on DVD, and if any film ever needed footnotes, this is it. Now one can read Cambridge Film Handbooks’s Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou, edited by David Wills, and enjoy the book as a supplement to an almost-forgotten masterpiece. Pierrot le fou is a cinematic work that nails the ’60s in 110 minutes. The plot is quite simple: A bored man portrayed by ultracool Jean-Paul Belmondo goes to a party with his wife, at which everyone converses in advertising slogans. He leaves and runs off with his baby-sitter, played by the beautiful Anna Karina, and they go on a crime spree. Ridiculous? Well, this is a Godard film. The baby-sitter is named Marianne, and she symbolizes the French republic, as she is consistently clothed in the colors of France. Marianne thinks she is in a movie (which she is) and wants emotion and movement. The Belmondo character, Pierrot, wants to leave civilization, live on an island, and read books — a character with whom I fully sympathize. He wants to live in words and thoughts, and she wants emotion and action. The film is about role-playing, the nature of cinema and its audience, Vietnam (where the French had difficulties before the Americans did), and the dynamics between reading and action.

The book contains five essays, each focusing on specific aspects of the film. The writings form a critical study, rather than just including gossip about the film shoot and about its participants. The most interesting essay is the last one, “Pierrot le fou and Post New Wave Cinema,” by Jill Forbes. The essay focuses on the complexity of Pierrot le fou: Since the characters know they are acting out their dramas in a film, Forbes discusses how this relates to their world in terms of audience. Forbes also writes about Godard’s use of the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, who invented a poetic language “that will be used by all the senses.” Godard plays with film genres, such as the musical, and incorporates literature into his cinema as well. Not only are there literary chapters named after Rimbaud’s poetry in the film, but his use of color and quotations gives the work layers of meaning. One could argue that his films are really open-ended essays on the nature of language, images, and life. I recommend this book, only as a supplement to this fantastic film, which is a sort of book in its own right.

All along his life, Jean-Luc Godard has looked for interlocutors, partners. The form of the speach, discourses and specifically dialogues (exchanges, dialectics, maieutic…) is a seminal research in his work and his global practice. Several of his best films are only dialogues, as “France Tour Détour” to name only one. But he rarely met people who dare to act as full interlocutors, not as disciples or as simple fans. Ishagpour, a very acurate, cultivated, elegant French-Aegyptian critic, expert on Welles and modern cinema, is one of these rare persons, and the result is excellent.

Pierrot Le Fou by Jean-Luc Godard

“When you begin to get into his universe, when you’ve seen a lot of Godard, you find yourself liking him more and more. One day something clicks, and Godard comes together. And then, perhaps, you decide that if he is not the greatest living director he is certainly the most audacious, the most experimental, the one who understands best how movies work.”–Roger Ebert, 1966.

Criterion has now released my three favorite Jean-Luc Godard films: Breathless (1960), Band of Outsiders (1964), and Pierrot le fou (”Pete the madman”) (1965). Pierrot le fou was Godard’s tenth feature movie, released between Alphaville and Masculin Feminin. Dissatisfied with his marriage and his life in Paris, television producer Ferdinand Griffon aka Pierrot (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves his wife and children to live with the babysitter, his former girlfriend, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina). She has killed a man, and is perhaps a gun runner. They leave their lives behind by taking a road trip (and crime spree) from Paris to the Cote d’Azur in the dead man’s car, before living as bohemians on a beach together. Meanwhile, as their relationship deteriorates, Ferdinand starts reading books, philosophizing, and writing in his diary. By contrast, Marianne prefers the local night clubs. Although Godard called Marianne and Ferdinand “the last romantic couple,” by the end of the film it is clear they do not belong together. In fact, considering the inevitable issues arising out of intimacy, Ferdinand wonders if men and women can coexist in a relationship at all. Colors of red, white, and blue (the colors of the French flag) saturate the film.

Godard’s films are known for their memorable scenes, and Pierrot le fous is no exception. (Memorable scenes in Band of Outsiders, for instance, included the minute of silence in the crowded cafe, Karina’s “Madison dance” in the same cafe, and the scene where the characters run through the Louvre in exactly nine minutes and 43 seconds.) In Pierrot le fous, there is a charming scene where Ferdinand wakes up in Marianne’s apartment. He is in bed smoking, and she is in the kitchen. The camera follows her into the bedroom and then back to the kitchen as she sings a song to him. It is one of the most endearing moments in all of Godard’s films. In another scene, Marianne says to a gas station attendant, “wait, I know a trick from Laurel and Hardy.” She points up. When he looks up, she punches him in the stomach.

The lushly-featured, crystal-clear Criterion double-disc edition of Pierrot le fous includes a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, a new video interview with Anna Karina, a “Pierrot” Primer, a new video program with audio commentary by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin, “Godard, l’amour, la poésie,” a fifty-minute French documentary about director Jean-Luc Godard and his work and marriage with Karina, archival interview excerpts with Godard, Karina, and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, the theatrical trailer, and a booklet featuring a new essay by critic Richard Brody, a 1969 review by Andrew Sarris, and a 1965 interview with Godard. Highly recommended.

Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard

It should not surprise anyone that a film from Jean-Luc Godard will invariably attract the usual assortment of Post-Modernist, ethically and politically retarded, anti-Western afficionados. Some of that can be seen in the reviews for this film, both on this page and throughout the Internet. The truth however, is that while Godard was a borderline socialist and critical of the supposed decadence of “America”, he was more of a heroic individualist than anything else and his pre-1970 films all demonstrate this fact.

Alphavile is without a doubt, his greatest achievement and it is a work that speaks of an artistic sensibility all but lost in the France of today, which is overun with rampant anti-intellectualism and a worship of un-reason.

Godard takes the Bogart-like “Lemmy Caution” character out of his former slew of 40/50’s French spy thrillers and puts the very same character into a future where a technocratic dictatorship exists. In doing so, the very best idealism of American pulp-fiction is given back its soul by a French director, Godard, who truly was interested in the world of ideas.

This film not only shows why a totalitarian state must be destroyed, it also demonstrates some key philosophical concepts in the process. Through Godard, we learn that it is language that first must be assaulted before one can enslave man, then mathematics, then history and finally, the human mind itself. We can see parallels to this line of thinking through the world today and yet, how ironic that it is today’s France that probably best embodies Godard’s nightmare come to life (for a Western democracy of course).

The cinematography of Alphaville is superb, as is the musical score by Paul Misraki which is one of the finest I have experienced, for it reaches its crescendo with the most important line in the film, almost as an answer to a question. The theme of Alphaville is simple enough - the Individual against the State, but the soul of Alphaville reaches higher to a level where Man is sanctified against all intrusions on his life, liberty and happiness.

Anna Karina plays the part of the Ideal Woman still capable of feeling and understanding the value of love and that immortal word that may still one day save humanity - “I”. It is a rare thing to find a work of art that speaks so eloquently to the sublime beauty of Man, Humanity and Individualism. Godard does this and more in Alphaville and for that, he should go down in history as one of Europe’s finest artists.

Note - One would need to watch this film about 3 times to completely grasp every important nuance. Also, Anthem and 1984 are good reads along the same vain.

George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking and Lucy Hawking

I read this book before sharing it with my children…and I learned a lot! It’s a beautiful book with an eye-catching cover and fantastic illustrations. A very likable adult character explains scientific concepts to a child character, so it’s easy for the reader to understand. More information is in sidebars, so the reader can choose whether to delve deeper into the subject.

I’ve since shared this book with my children. They did not find the ‘lessons’ tedious; they found them fascinating. The adventure is gripping. The message is a good one. I applaud Stephen and Lucy Hawking for sharing their knowledge and theories with a broader audience.

A child whose idea of an interesting story is “Captain Underpants” may not appreciate this book. It’s intelligent and well-written, and it takes some thought to absorb the science in the first few chapters and apply it to what happens in the interstellar adventure. For me, that’s not a bad thing; that’s part of what makes this book great! Middle-schoolers, and younger children who read at a higher level, will enjoy this story.

A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein by Stephen Hawking

The most highly celebrated and recognized scientist alive today, Stephen Hawking has assembled, in this volume, highlights of Einstein’s groundbreaking scientific works, such as his Special Theory of Relativity (1905) and his General Theory of Relativity (1915).

Also included are Einstein’s thoughtful views on politics, religion, the history and development of physics, and the interplay between science and the world.

In a chapter titled “Selections from Out of My Later Years,” Hawking discusses Einstein’s reservations concerning quantum mechanics: “Einstein pointed out that if we were able to investigate microscopic phenomena on the smallest scales, we would be able to find deterministic relations.” In other words, Einstein had serious doubts about the validity of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, and rejected the fundamentally probabilistic nature of reality espoused by those who held to the workings of chance and randomness at the quantum (microscopic) level. “God does not play dice with the universe,” he famously opined; “God is subtle but he is not malicious.” He held adamantly (some would say stubbornly) to his belief that physical reality is, at bottom, deterministic.

Hawking gives brief introductions to each of Einstein’s papers, thereby providing helpful historical and scientific perspectives.

Einstein once said, “Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.” Yeah, right! Einstein is much too modest.

In a sense, however, Einstein is correct. Although this volume is replete with mathematical equations, one can read between the lines and gain an improved understanding of his revolutionary theories of spacetime and gravitation.

Einstein makes us smile with his wry humor: “Today I am described in Germany as a ‘German savant,’ and in England as a ‘Swiss Jew.’ Should it ever be my fate to be represetned as a bete noire, I should, on the contrary, become a ‘Swiss Jew’ for the Germans and a ‘German savant’ for the English.”

The book’s title of comes from another Einstein quote, “People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Stephen Hawking’s Universe: The Cosmos Explained by David Filkin

I’m not a cosmologist, but Stephen Hawking’s Universe was so simply written it is essentially condescending. The language is akin to the level one would read in a newspaper. Moreover, the pictures are second rate pre-contact lense Hubble knock-offs (despite being published in 1997), and the book has very little to do with Stephen Hawking. Sure, he wrote the foreward and did some editing, but it lacks the wit and wonder of a Hawking work. Naming the book after him and putting his picture on the front is misleading. I AM a chemist, and despite this, Filkin’s descriptions of Chemical discoveries left even me guessing because he was attempting to dumb-down ideas that aren’t dumb-downable, and didn’t include diagrams which would be helpful for anyone trying to understand the concepts (like neutrino capturing or particle acceleration). If you want to learn some cosmology, read “A Brief History of Time” or “A Short History of the Universe”. These are simply written but informative works that won’t leave you waiting for substance.

Stephen Hawking: A Biography by Kristine Larsen

Kristine Larsen’s STEPHEN HAWKING: A BIOGRAPHY comes from a physicist and astronomer who examines noted physicist Stephen Hawkins’ personal and professional life, emphasizing his contributions, his life, and his special physical challenges. From Hawking’s early lack of focus as a college student to the evolution of his groundbreaking work, this biographical coverage is key reading for any interested in correlating his science with his life.

God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History by Stephen Hawking

513 years ago this week, a group of sailors found another continent, new to them and the European world, and full of surprises. The group of mathematicians in this book also found other continents of a different nature, new to them and full of surprises. One can only imagine the excitement when both groups found these new frontiers. One can no longer be a sailor and discover a new continent of land, but one can choose to be a mathematician and discover new continents of knowledge. The good thing about mathematics is that it is limitless: there are always problems that need resolution, and there are always new frontiers to open up. How far one goes in one’s travels depends on the degree of creativity and ingenuity one chooses to exhibit. And in this way, mathematics is very akin to art: the path chosen depends on the taste of the mathematician, on the particular hedonic function that he/she chooses.

The mathematicians in this book exhibited a lot of ingenuity and creativity, and the author has given the reader a look at their contributions as they themselves wrote them down, thanks to the efforts of the translators. Assuming the accuracy of the translations, the reader gets a view of mathematics through a representative time-window of the thoughts and personalities of some of the major players throughout the history of mathematics. The reader learns of the arrogance of Isaac Newton and Pierre Laplace, the shyness of George Boole, the extreme creativity of Georg Riemann, the computational prowess of Carl Gauss, the politics of Jean Fourier, the self-absorption of Archimedes, the encyclopedic mind of Euclid, the arithmetic of Diophantus, the polymathic nature of the mind of Rene Descartes, and the prolific mind of Augustin-Louis Cauchy.

When reading the brief life histories of these individuals with all of their variability and disparate life histories, one is tempted to believe solely in a genetic origin of mathematical talent. Their personalities were very different but their aptitude in mathematics was profound. A great deal of their personal conduct could be viewed as reprehensible from a moral or ethical point of view, and the infighting that occurred among some of them was extremely juvenile. If the biographies of these individuals were rewritten to purposely omit their contributions to mathematics, a neutral reader would probably characterize them as being highly unintelligent. This again raises the debate over the concept of `general intelligence’ versus that of `specialized’ or `modularized’ intelligence. These individuals certainly had a talent for mathematics, but does this talent, indeed the talent possessed by all mathematicians, find its origin in specialized regions in the human brain? If so, is there a correlation between mathematical skills and other types of specialized skills?

One is also struck by the difficulty that some of these individuals had in finding suitable employment. The difficulties they faced in finding employment did not discourage them from performing research in mathematics. Too often these days many aspiring and talented young mathematicians complain of not being able to find suitable employment, and even feel they have a right to a tenured position at a major research institution. A reading of this book should put their beliefs in proper perspective and dissuade them from blaming the academic establishment for their failures to obtain employment.

When reading the book, one can see the growing tension between applied and pure mathematics in the nineteenth century. Most, if not all of the mathematicians in this book were also very practical people: they could build bridges and design military hardware for example Contemporary (pure) mathematicians rarely have these abilities, and frequently pride themselves on not having them. In addition, some of the mathematicians of this book did not hesitate in indulging themselves in “experimental mathematics”. When reading their papers in the book, one is struck by how much they used natural language, in how “wordy” their articles are. The proofs they gave explained the mathematics and did not just expound on them. They did not hesitate to use diagrams or pictures. This is to be contrasted with the manner in which contemporary mathematics is reported in the literature: it considers pictures an anathema, and strict, formalist “Bourbaki” language is to be used (although natural language of course still appears to a large degree).

One can only speculate on what would have happened if some of these mathematicians had access to modern technology. What would have happened if Gauss had a calculator? What if Fourier had a music synthesizer? One can only admire their willingness to indulge themselves in difficult and time-consuming calculations, especially in the field of celestial mechanics.

The list of the mathematicians in this book does not include any female mathematicians. One cannot blame adversity for this, but one could perhaps blame the unwillingness of the academic community to accept their contributions. This rejection though should not be thought of as directed only to female mathematicians. The individuals in this book had their own subjective preferences on what constituted interesting mathematics. They rejected the ideas they did not prefer and accepted the ones that they did, and they did so independent of the sex of the individual mathematician.

The mathematicians of this book definitely set the tone for most of the mathematics that was done in the twentieth century and is being done in the twenty-first. But there is also a huge body of mathematics that was not influenced by them, and these contributions are just as interesting and important. The seventeen mathematicians in this book would no doubt be astounded by some of these developments, for they are very exotic if compared with the content of their mathematical constructions. One of the most fascinating of these developments (influenced to a small degree by George Boole) is automated mathematical discovery. If a book like this is rewritten at the end of the twenty-first century, the list of seventeen mathematicians will probably include some that are not human.

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays by Stephen W. Hawking

An event horizon is the boundary of a black hole, defined by the light that can reach out that far and no further. Hawking himself sometimes uses pictorial metaphors to illustrate abstruse mathematical concepts, and this one occurred to me by way of an analogy of the brilliant illumination that I am trying to persuade to shine out far enough to reach my own dim wits hovering hopefully in the outer darkness.

The whole `feel’ of Hawking’s discourses reminds me of the stories I have read about Einstein at work - placid, orderly and without excitement (or should I say `perturbation’?). Genius of this kind seems to be a kind of glorified knack - such minds just operate naturally with concepts of this kind, and there is no sense of effort or struggle. Sandwiched between some biographical material and a radio interview, the main material in this book is a collection of essays and lectures. They include Hawking’s inaugural lecture at Cambridge where he occupies the chair of mathematics once held by Newton, and all are intended in the first place for an audience of his peers. On the other hand, where Newton and Einstein did not try to address the general public, Hawking, like Russell, seeks to do just that, and he does it superbly. The style of writing is both literate and unpretentious, and the occasional jokes are very good. Readers who, like myself, are intensely interested in the subject-matter but entirely lacking in natural aptitude for it, ought to find this book enormously helpful. There is a certain amount of repetition inevitably, but the more of that the better so far as I’m concerned. Any amateur trying to get a handle on mathematical concepts like these has to get into a mathematician’s way of thinking as best he can and stop thinking as a layman. We can all understand the basics of gravitation without being Newton, but if we are still struggling with the general idea of the General Theory of Relativity in 2006 it’s worth remembering that it was propounded in 1915 and that physics and astronomy have came on a long way since then, so we had better get our minds round it at last.

At least as astounding to me as Hawking’s triumph over his physical paralysis is the fact that this professor of mathematics at Cambridge never graduated in that subject. His degree subject was physics, allegedly on the grounds that the Oxford physics course was easy. Not easy enough to tempt me away from Latin and Greek, I must say, but doubtless for him. Mathematics is just a technique that Hawking invokes as a tool in his quest for a grand unified theory of the entire cosmos. This, said he 20 or 30 years ago, is something he hoped and largely expected could be achieved in 20 or 30 years. I’m sure we would have heard if he thought by now that he had got there, but he honours us with his ideas at the time of writing on the origin and future of the universe. The main obstacle to the final resolution of the issue is apparently that no one has yet successfully integrated old Newton’s gravitation with the rest of it. However he also helps us with some more `back-at-the-office’ theory concerning black holes, on which topic he appears to be the leading thinker, and that gives him the opportunity to remind us of the outlines of the most important advances since Einstein, namely quantum mechanics and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

The latter principle enunciates that the better the position of a particle can be predicted the less well its velocity can be predicted, and conversely. Since it is necessary to predict both, all we can do is predict the combination on a `smeared’ statistical basis. It seems to come into everything, and Hawking invokes it to try to comfort us with the belief that although everything (and everyone) actually is determined by particle physics, the extent of the unpredictability is such that we might as well consider ourselves to be free agents. For once, I would dare question him. In the first place such a view doesn’t seem to require Heisenberg - simply viewing the story of the cosmos as a chain of events constituting causes and effects would surely get us that far, as the permutation of these is incalculably large and therefore only to some extent predictable. Secondly, when we talk about `free will’ and `determinism’ what are we even talking about? I’m often told in arguments that I can think what I like. On the contrary, I wish I could, but my own observation and reason, such as they are, leave me unable to. When I exercise `free choice’, e.g. in choosing from a menu, I can quite understand that my choice might be determined by physical causes (whether that is the truth of it or not). However when I change my mind about something factual or theoretical, which is taken as a sign of free intelligence, I do so because I feel that the evidence leaves me no choice, and evidence is not an `event’ or a `cause’ or any matter of particles or physics. Where does all this leave `free will’?

Those seeking God or a Creator will find that Hawking hedges his bets, so that any capable by nature of thinking what they would prefer to think remain, I suppose, `free’ to do so. The issue is beyond me, and my own quest is for a better understanding of the cosmos I have been born into and will have to leave before too long. May I wish Professor Hawking a long and productive further career. We are much the same age, and his 20-30-year estimate for solving the riddle of the cosmos is up around now. If he finds it, I hope I can recognise it when I see it.

The Theory Of Everything by Stephen W. Hawking

This is a collection of seven related lectures by Hawking originally published in 1996 under the title, The Cambridge Lectures: Life Works. He does not cover as much ground here as in did in A Brief History of Time, but what he does cover he does so in a charming and engaging style. There are some few statements here that could be interpreted as less than modest–although not by me–and a mistaken prediction or two, which may be a reason that Hawking is not pleased with this book’s publication. He might also object to the title, since neither a “Theory of Everything” nor a conclusive answer to the origin and fate of the universe are presented.

However, Hawking does address these questions, and his expression is interesting to read and has the agreeable characteristic of being laconic. There are no equations in the book, no mathematics as such, and everything is explained in language that would be intelligible to a high school student. There are the usual droll Hawking jokes about God and His intentions, facetious, epigram-like understatements (I have done a lot of work on black holes, and it would all be wasted if it turned out that black holes do not exist. p. 66) and witty asides about the convergence of politics on physics, as when he mentions a particle accelerator the size of the Solar System that “would not be funded under current economic conditions.”

A good chunk of the book is devoted to black holes (about which Hawking is or was the world’s foremost authority) and whether they have “hair” and “sweat” or not. Hawking avers on page 92 that if a primordial black hole is discovered “emitting a lot of gamma and X rays,” he will get the Nobel Prize. This is an ironic lament since, as he explains later on, it is most likely that even if these very difficult to observe and very ancient black holes do exist, they are mostly evaporated by now, and so it is probable there will be no Nobel for Hawking.

He also discusses a “no boundary condition” (p.119) of the big bang universe which seems to begin and end in a singularity in real-time while in imaginary time there are no singularities, just beginning and ending poles, like the north and south poles of the finite, unbounded surface of the earth. (p. 139) I especially like this idea since it does away with the infinite singularity and the theological implications that some draw from such a beginning of the universe. As Hawking asks rhetorically, in a “completely self-contained” universe with no boundary or edge–a universe “neither created nor destroyed”–what place would there be for a creator? (p. 126)

He also addresses string theory, and I was pleased to read that he is no more enamored of all those little curled up dimensions than I am. He says the theory has several other problems that need to be worked out, not the least of which is that we still don’t know whether all the infinities will cancel out. (p. 159)

Hawking closes with his ideas about the prospect for a Theory of Everything. He gives three possibilities: (1) There is a “complete unified theory which we will someday discover…” (2) There’s no ultimate theory, “just an infinite sequence of theories that describe the universe more and more accurately.” (3) There’s no theory, period: “Events…occur in a random and arbitrary manner.” He seems to like (1) believing “that there is a good chance…[for] a complete unified theory by the end of the century…” Apparently–since he is speaking from circa 1996–he means the twentieth century. In that case he’s wrong since we haven’t yet gotten such a theory.

For the record, I like (2). I think that our present “laws” are approximations that we will continue to improve on. I believe we develop the ability through science to better and better order our environment and to increase our knowledge. I don’t believe we are actually discovering “ultimate truth.”

Hawking asks here as he has elsewhere, “Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?” Why is there anything at all? He believes that if we do discover a complete theory, we will then be able to answer this question, and then we would “know the mind of God.”

Stephen Hawking Quest for a Theory of Ev by Kitty Ferguson

I really liked this book at times, but found Kitty tries to hard to explain Hawking’s theories. If you are not one of the Mensa crowd then it gets a little meaningless like similar to reading Greek, can you speak or read Greek? not me! Some of Hawking’s theories are explained well and are pretty straight forward, such as the singularity theory and how many believe the universe has expanded and then retracted back to a singularity and then expanded and retracted over and over. Also it goes into detail about his belief that particles can escape black holes, once it reaches the event horizon it splits the negative may fall directly into the black hole past the even horizon and the positive falls away from the event horizon freeing it.This aside what I really wanted to read more about was the man Hawking himself. I mean come on, I’ve already read “A brief history of time”. In short this book is short on explaining much about Stephen and tries to hard to explain some of his many theories.

A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

I’ve heard it said that Stephen Hawking’s 1988 bestseller A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME is the book everybody owns but hardly anyone has read. In this 2005 book Hawking adds an “er” to the title and makes the content much more accessible to a lay audience while bringing them up to date with the latest developments in string theory and the discovery of dark energy. In 150 pages everything important in the field is discussed from the work of early astronomers to the possibility of time travel. Helpful color pictures/diagrams are included as well as a glossary of terms related to the content. The writing may be a little dry in a few places but when the book is finished the reader will have a much better understanding of the difficult but fascinating concepts addressed.

One of the most fascinating non-fiction titles that I have ever read in my entire life and, believe me, I have read some very good ones.

Written by Alan Weisman, an award-winning journalist, who imagines what the world would be like if all of a sudden humans vanished from the face of the earth …. but not without a trace. He uses this hypothetical scenario to talk about the changes man has brought about to earth and how long would the human creations last without us (yes, the ‘trace’ I was talking about).
He takes this wonderful premise as a vehicle to discuss such diverse topics as human and animal evolution, air and water pollution, animal and plant extinction, natural disasters, Mayan history, NASA’s Voyager and Pioneer spacecrafts, the fascinating history of Cyprus, the fate of 441 active nuclear reactors of the world, the history of the Panama Canal, the ecology of the uninhabited demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the ramifications of the Chernobyl disaster, the future of human art, among other things.

The book discusses too many disciplines of science to name here.

Breathtaking in its scope and meticulous in research, this book is definitely a great intellectually stimulating read.

It’s a hugely informative, highly readable, immensely entertaining read which is breath-taking in its concept and has been called ‘one of the grandest thought experiments of our time.’

Alan Weisman interview:

Ed: This book addresses what on the surface seems to be a pretty far-fetched hypothetical: that humanity might suddenly disappear. What drew you to this premise in the first place?

Alan: Well, precisely that. Most great environmental writing does not get read by a lot of the people who ought to be learning about it because the nearer-term possibilities just seem sometimes so frightening, or so depressing, that nobody really wants to pick up a book to read it.

By structuring the book the way that I did, I disarm the automatic fear that repels a lot of people from reading about the environment. People don’t want to read something that seems too threatening. On a subconscious or even a conscious level, they don’t want to be worried we’re all going to die. In my book, killing us off in the first couple of pages means people don’t have to worry about dying because we’re already dead, and that’s a relief in a sense. The idea of glimpsing the future is irresistible to all of us and I establish pretty quickly that is not going to just be me speculating, it’s going to be some hard science writing based on a lot of reporting, of talking to experts or eyewitnesses whose guesses will be far more interesting than most peoples’.

The fact that it is far-fetched is really useful because on the one hand really it’s a remote possibility that we would leave, that we would disappear tomorrow. So people don’t go into a panic over this book, and it really gives people enough time to think about these things without panicking about it. So that’s how this device works, and I think it’s been proven to be very effective. I’m getting a lot more people to read it than just people who are hung up on the environment.

Ed: It’s amazing what an expansive book, what a great read it is. How did you organize and manage such a sprawling project, and how did you work out the structure of the finished book?

Alan: Well, thank you. I had no idea how to organize it. I didn’t even know where to go. The Korean DMZ was suggested by a magazine editor-it was a great idea. The idea of the Białowieża Puszcza, I can’t even remember how I came up with that. I was going to Europe for a conference and I started looking around for interesting stuff, and somehow I stumbled on this thing, that there was an original forest left. ‘I need to go see ruins, do I need to see new buildings, old buildings.’ I was just flailing and somebody in an almost offhand comment mentioned that in Cyprus there was something really interesting, this abandoned resort. That got my attention. So I thought if you go to Northern Cyprus, you have to go to Turkey. Well, there must be something in Turkey-maybe I could get the antiquities out of the way in Turkey.

Everything that’s ever gone on on Earth that we’ve had anything to do with-you scratch it and you find some great human beings to hang the story on. The sneaky thing about this book is that it’s about the world without people but there’s all kinds of interesting people in it.

Ed: You do a really nice job of creating characters with the stories you tell.

Alan: Well, it’s important. One of the subtexts, one of the themes of this book, is how important human beings are on the planet, to the planet, and certainly to my readers. It’s really critical that you give readers whatever you can, something human to follow because we are humans and we’re emotionally interested in humans.

Actually, I wrote several drafts and I always knew I wanted to start in that forest. You know, I wasn’t even sure why. I didn’t really understand it until I did it. After that I had no idea where to go. I didn’t have any structure in mind and, as my wife can attest, I would just sit there for hours and hours and hours, figuring ‘what do I do? What do I do?’ I was just in a total panic. This literally happened all the time until the very end, when I started to say ‘ok, now I see where it’s going.’ I would just say ‘ok, write anything. Don’t worry about the order. Later on you’ll figure out the order.’ And of course, the subconscious mind is really what does the writing. You sit there and you try to visualize the whole thing and it’s impossible because a book is too big to fit in a conscious mind all at once. My subconscious figured it out. The book was virtually written in the exactly order you see it. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing!

Ed: Wow, that’s remarkable! Well, speaking of people, at the end of The World Without Us you make an impassioned argument for population control, for limiting every woman to having one child. Why do you call this ‘the intelligent solution’?

Alan: Well, we pride ourselves on being a species unlike any other species that can envision the future, that can envision the consequences of our action. Well, let’s take that intelligence and apply it. So in that way, it would be the intelligent decision. I don’t like the idea of one child per family at all. I think big families are beautiful. In my own family I’m child number two. Everybody alive right now, except for the complete, total jerks, I value.

I don’t want anyone alive to die, but I think that if we’re reproducing at the rate of a million every four days, and already, just with the numbers that we’re at, the way we’re using energy, there are a hundred more parts per million of carbon than there were at the beginning of the industrial revolution. If we increase our population by nearly fifty percent by the middle of this century, it would be astronomical. We don’t have enough mature, renewable energy right now. We just don’t know how to do it. So I figure we’re going to have to do something to limit our population, because if we don’t do it, nature’s going to do it for us. Every population suffers a crash when they reach the limits of their resources. That kind of sucks!

Now, do I expect that people are going to actually do this? Well, I don’t know. It’s a real hard one to undertake, to change the world to get them do this. You know, I didn’t expect them to do much about global warming before, before it got really scary, but now they’re actually paying attention. The whole population thing got pushed off the table by the right-to-lifers and all that. A lot of people have just been scared away from taking a stand on population, which is just really wrong. We have to be thinking about this. You can’t find a zero-population growth movement in the U.S. anymore. I think this has to be part of what we are considering because we’re going to have to try everything we can to keep this planet a habitable place for us and for other things that either we really depend on or just make life very beautiful.

Ed: Well, it’s a good answer, and I think it’s important to talk about that. One of the points that I really liked that you made throughout the book was that it’s not the high-profile disasters that we hear about that have the most impact on the ecology of our planet, it’s everyday human life, urban life-trash, plastic, the incremental transformation of the landscape.

I wanted to ask you one more question in a different vein. We’re blogging about open culture and new media. One thing that we’re interested in is how the media landscape is changing, and I was interested in your take on how that’s taking place. It seems like every week we hear another story about newspapers cutting their staffs. As a journalist who has worked extensively in print and radio, how do you think the Internet is changing the business?

Alan: Well, it’s having a very positive effect and it’s having a very frightening effect. You know, just like television can be such a neat medium and it can be just so damned awful, it could be a force for the good. One good thing about the Internet is that it’s just terribly convenient. The problem that has to be dealt with is the fact that when you get your news on the Internet, whether you realize it or not-you’re reading a lot of reports that come from, generally, newspapers. Either by clicking around or by going to Yahoo or Google News, you’re seeing a digest of something that the San Jose Mercury News reported, or the New Delhi Times, or the London Independent.

It’s really, really important that everybody who uses the Internet understand this. Google is not sending correspondents out into the field. Neither is Yahoo. It’s the newspapers. And if they go under, then we’re going to have no news. As it is right now with all this cost-cutting, we don’t have anywhere near as many correspondents in the field as we used to have, and that is extremely dangerous. That means our access to what is going on is limited and it’s coming through fewer and fewer sources, and most of them are corporate, and most of them stink. It’s really bad how bad some of the reporting is out there. I mean, why do you think we’re still stuck in Iraq after all these years? Seriously-it’s a terrible idea and it’s been covered really poorly for the most part.

We are just not being served by the press as the press gets smaller and there are fewer and fewer correspondents. This isn’t necessarily the Internet’s fault, but the Internet magnifies the situation since the news media got so corporatized. There are unlimited budgets, relatively, for public relations and for advertising. And there are, every day, more limited budgets for news. It’s absolutely outrageous and it’s got to stop. We’ve got to turn this thing around. We need journalism out there. Blogs have done an interesting thing by filling in some of the cracks. But there are limitations to what bloggers can do because they are generally not reporting from the field. They are editorializing from their homes. It’s nice to have more opinions out there than some that are just managed by corporate America, or Europe, or Japan. We really need news reporters in the field.

Get A Free Copy of the NY Times Bestseller:

The World Without Us is a great read. And now some of our readers can get their hands on a free copy. We have 10 copies to give away, and here’s how we propose doing it. We’ll give a copy to the first 10 readers (living in North America) who add a quality piece of ‘open culture’ in the comments section of this post. That is, you will need to post a link to an enriching video, podcast or mp3 that fellow readers will enjoy, and tell us a little about why. When we get ten quality clips, we will then package them in a post and share them with the larger community. In short, think of it as you get as you give. How nice. Very Kumbaya. (Watch Joan Baez sing it). Now let’s see what you’ve got.

NOTE: We can only ship to readers in North America. And, yes, that includes Canada this time, and Mexico too. To our many international readers, I apologize for the geographical limitation. And we’ll try to make things up to you down the line. We do appreciate you.

Also please note that if you’re selected, I will also eventually need your name and mailing address.

Bing West is one of the foremost military authors about the War in Iraq.

His new book, The Strongest Tribe, is about the history of the Iraq war. It begins and ends, very appropriately with Major Doug Zembiec, whom, if you don’t know, you should.

The path of The Strongest Tribe takes us through the invasion to the point in 2006 where we essentially were losing the war, then figured out how to win and implemented the Surge strategy. Bing West was there dozens of times and he chronicles the good, the bad, and the ugly - straight up, neat, no ice.

The best part about this book is that it is the book that Cobra II wanted to be (and many others). Bing West is not afraid of offending and his sources speak for themselves (and he is highly critical of LTG Sanchez and L. Paul Bremmer). The only part that I disagreed with was West’s assertion that we could have somehow kept the Iraqi Army together after the invasion. Certainly, some units would have remained but, for the most part, I didn’t see many Shia conscripts returning to serve Sunni Officers in most situations. I had spoken with a lot of soldiers about this - COL (ret) Greg Gardner, in particular, who was the Army’s representative at the CPA’s Ministry of National Security.

From a tactician’s point of view (and an expert in COIN), Bing West gives you the perspective to see what went wrong and what went right. [Edit Note: This is the first book that I've read that also correctly describes John McCain's fight against Secretary Rumsfeld, Congress and the administration to see a Surge strategy put into place.]

There is much talk of tribes in the book. You can’t discuss Iraq and not talk about the tribal system. In the end, the strongest tribe wins. The strongest tribe is the one that is the most flexible and willing to do whatever it takes to win and gather the other tribes to it’s fold.

It turns out that the American military is the strongest tribe.

Interspersed amongst the stories of the CPA, the State Department, the CIA and the Bush Administration, Bing West shows that our military men and women were making amazing sacrifices and valiant efforts that made success possible. That’s the first half of the book.

And, the second half, from our lessons learned, our generals AND our corporals and sergeants developed an effective strategy and are winning the day - despite a uninformed and uninvolved public. West ends the book where we are now - on the edge of victory, and he includes a series of myths or OIF urban legends that are a must read.

If you read one book about the good and the bad of our five years in Iraq, you should pick up The Strongest Tribe - it has my highest recommendation.

Peter Kropotkin was a Russian prince who lived during times of great flux in his country. He was born to nobility during the “last hurrah” of the tsarist regime. He witnessed the disintegration of that regime through the early decades of the 20th century, and before he died, he watched as the Bolsheviks consolidated their power, substituting one authoritarian system for another. It would have been easy for Kropotkin to maintain his aristocratic life, which would have brought him tremendous privileges even after the fall of tsarism, but he renounced his title and became one of anarchism’s foremost theorists.

The Conquest of Bread is one of Kropotkin’s contributions to anarchist theory. Kropotkin posits, like Marxists, that the concentration of wealth which is the basis of a capitalist economy is the root cause of poverty. Unlike the Marxists, however, Kropotkin does not suggest a centralized state as the solution to workers’ exploitation. His solution is autonomous collectives in which produce what they can and barter for what they need and want. In essence, Kropotkin is suggesting an anarchist market economy.

This market is not profit driven, as it would be in a capitalist market, having no regard for the basic needs of the individual. Kropotkin believed, instead, that the productive system is efficient enough to produce not only the needs of the population, but also enough of the luxuries that make life pleasant. What prevents the general enjoyment of these goods is not lack of production or inability to distribute them, but the determination of production by profit motives rather than social consumption motives.

Kropotkin’s divides his book thematically, looking at basic human needs and wants. He examines why despite the ability to produce enough for everyone, people live in want. He looks at the need for luxury and sees it as an understandable and necessary part of being human. And despite being written over 100 years ago, his analysis is still fresh and relevant. The same problems that limit the lives of the working class in 2008 limited them in 1905. The difference is in scale and scope.

Charles Weigl’s Introduction is well-researched and gives important insight into Kropotkin’s life and context for his work. For someone unfamiliar with Kropotkin, it will prove invaluable. Weigle takes the reader through the ideas and critiques of Kropotkin without the pedantic idealizing of many who write about the people they admire.

The Conquest of Bread is an important contribution to anarchist economics and anarchist theory in general. This edition by AK Press is well presented and of high quality. I highly recommend it.

Zip file of the entire book195 MB

Cicadas by Ann O. Squire

I loved the book. It was just what I needed. I had ordered the book for a child and the pictures were good, too Thank you. The author did a great job.

Cecily Cicada by Kita Hlmetag Murdock and Patsy Helmetag Murdock

What a sweet and wonderful book. The rhythm of the text is so very pleasant to hear, and the words are so delicately chosen. The illustrations are textural watercolors. They are lively and colorful and a perfect complement to the fun text.

I was inspired to buy this book as a result of the recent emergence of the 17-yr cicadas where I live. After seeing them in my yard, and watching them hatch from their shells in their lovely brilliance, it is hard not to appreciate these critters as they follow their destiny.

This books celebrates the life cycle of the cicadas - and symbolically the cycle of life for every being. I highly recommend this book!!

Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty

11-year-old Lily has a secret she has to protect at all costs, which is easy because she doesn’t talk anymore. This sweet story tackles heavy topics–guilt, crime, grief–but also has a good dose of humor in some parts. I liked it, but I can’t say that anything in particular stood out to me as great.

Listening to the Cicadas: A Study of Plato’s Phaedrus (Cambridge Classical Studies) by G. R. F. Ferrari

For twenty-five hundred years we assumed Phaedrus was a badly put together dialogue, an early work, a botched job. Only recently have we decided to take a different tack and think about it as though it were a Masterwork. This is probably the result of literary criticism which places Phaedrus, on the basis of it’s literary similarity to other works of that period, not at the beginning of Plato’s career, but at the end of the middle period when he was at the height of his powers. It seems ironic that a book that claims that one of the deficiencies of writing is a book’s inability to defend itself against misinterpretation should suffer such a fate.

When we assume that the Phaedrus is well written and the author is cogent, then we get commentaries on it like this one that takes the imagery, myth and eroticism of the Phaedrus seriously and explicate it brilliantly. Ferrari covers all the various aspects of the Phaedrus, showing that the parts do make a consistent whole, even a beautiful and profound one. Plato’s aim is to show how rhetoric and philosophy differ from each other, as do their practitioners. This he does by having the two interlocutors present three speeches and then speak about the speeches. The speeches are about love, authentic and inauthentic.

What Plato does in Phaedrus cannot be called psychology, it must be called psychomythology. The problem is to comment without demythologizing (Socrates denounces demythologizing as activity for the wise man with nothing better to do). Rather, Ferrari respectfully explicates the myth as myth (unlike Pirsig in Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance), achieving a clarity and fertility of interpretation that is very persuasive. It has to be persuasive because in the end he takes on Jacques Derrida and his famous interpretation of Phaedrus “Plato’s Pharmacy” (In his book “Dissemination”).

Because of the profoundity of its subject matter, this book is no easy read. But Ferrari helps us out by avoiding academese and writing in a clear, even elegant style. One seldom reads a book so completely satisfying as this one

Cicada by Mark Nickels

In a poem entitled “Shells,” Mark Nickels says, “I’ve been praying without knowing it.” In this we catch an intimation of his poetry’s incantatory power and synthesizing force. However, what we cannot guess from this quote is the massive grandeur that comes through even his shortest of poems. With a sweep like a Mahler symphony, it is hard to quote his work in brief, although, at times, his poems have beautifully quotable lines, such as, “The oranges are a refinement of everything the dirt knows.”

The mystical undercurrent of his work comes to us under the peculiar banner of the confessional. Unlike other poets whose mystical explorations are distanced by scholarship or stylization, or are simply a cultural impulse, Nickels’ interest is from natural affinity, which means from the most personal point of view. It is this fusion of a confessional voice with a natural mystical affinity that I find unique to his poetry. It is as if self-examination discovered the universal at its center. For instance, he opens the poem “Ludlow Café,” with the line, “A voluptuary of unknowing, I huddle/in a vast wool coat.” I can think of no other poet who conjures such an image, it’s as if the anonymously written mystical text “The Cloud of Unknowing” had actually been authored by Oscar Wilde. A witty tack to take, but also quite profound.

Consequently, the speakers of Nickels’ enchanting poems shift and change, as in his poem “Cicada” where the speaker, in one section, is in the present, and in another section, is in the year 1669 untying a woman’s bodice. Or, time itself shifts as in “Astor Place Opera House Riot” or “Spiral Maneuver” where the poet tells us,

. . . last Tuesday
rhymes with the same day
in 1124, because the moment
is adjacent, contiguous to the other
on a clear, winding helix of days.

Here we find another theme peculiar to Nickels-at least, peculiar for a modern poet-for in spite of his obvious fascination for the multiplicity of things, he does not share the modern faith in the fragmentary.

In “Waterfall Effect,” he tells us, “A poem is a record of the way the world rhymes with itself.”

Certainly in a world which the poet George Oppen called, “The shipwreck of the singular” we need to hear the message that, in fact, the world rhymes with itself, and we have a record of that rhyming in Nickels’ poetry: musical, mystical and integral.

The Cicada’s Song: A Novel by Matthew V. Johnson Sr

As a student of African American History, I consider Cicada’s Song to be a classic piece of literature on social life among African Americans, particularly in the South. Dr. Johnson’s unique portrayal of life in the African American community touches upon all facets of life, i.e., family, religion, hopes, tragic losses, and aspirations of humanity. Having read this book, I believe that Dr. Johnson’s work sheds some needed light on particular social conventions and attitudes, which are often considered taboo in the South. I highly recommend this book to all persons who desire to be entertained, informed, and inspired.

The cicada by Ross E Hutchins

This book was designed for younger readers but educates both the child and the adult about the life cycle of the 17 year cicada (Magicicada). It is nicely illustrated by Arvis L. Stewart for anyone who has an eye for fine details. If you want to learn the basics about the cicada, then this is a must read for you. For the book explains the hardships of the insect’s nymphal life, it enemies, and about its brief existence above the ground. The author also explains some of his scientific notes as the book’s conclusion as well as explaining the “Brood” which the book’s story evolves. I first read this book at the age of 11 which opened my eyes and ears to summer’s little tree musicians. Up until then, I never truly knew what they were or what those odd shells were that I found clinging to the side of tree trunks. Had I never found this book in my local library, I would have probably never gave a second thought to nature’s best orchestra.