Late Fall Book Reviews

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jarrod Diamond
I loved the previous two book by Jarrod Diamond that I read -- "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and, especially, "Collapse."  The book was not as good as either of those classics, but I still enjoyed it.  It looked at changes that happen in societies when the transition from Traditional to Modern.  Specially, the book explores the treatment of children and elderly, warfare, justice, multilingualism, diet, etc.  The book is pretty long, and, personally, I thought the first half was pretty slow (and could have been condensed), but the second half was much more interesting to me.  A very good book, but not a classic.  Grade: B

The App Generation by Gardner Howard and Katie Davis
This book examines differences between the current "App Generation" (i.e., my kids) and other recent generations.  It was interesting at times, but I thought most of the observations were relatively obvious and I was frustrated by the reliance on observational and interview data rather than broader, quantitative data. Grade: C-

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
A very interested biographical look at an series of important events in both the life of Thurgood Marshall and also US race relations in general.  I learned a lot from this book.  It was disturbing, moving, and provocative. Highly recommended.  Grade: A-.

Final Review Solutions

4.69) y_CO = 4100 ppm
6.27) m_H2O = 0.26 kg/h and V_feed = 13,500 L/hr

Midterm #3 Review solutions

1. dew pt = 72.7 C, superheat = 17.3 C, condensed water = 0.325 mol H2O/mol feed 
2. exit stream: y_benz = 0.166, y_tol = 0.064, y_N2 = 0.77, 1.3 mol total/min 
3. mol in = 0.021 mol/breath, mols out = 0.0223 mol/breath, H2O lost = -0.0013 mols/breath

215 Midterm #2 review solutions

2. f_HBr = 75%, %_excess = 20%

3. n_C2H4,in = 46.1 moles, n_H2O,in = 47.4 moles

4. ratio = 0.86 m^3 diluting air / m^3 fuel gas

Fall Book Reviews

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell Gladwell is the master of the anecdote. Anytime he want to argue a perspective, he always has a pithy story that supports that argument. As a result, he writes books that are incredibly interesting to read. Sometimes I wish he would construct stronger arguments from broad, population level statistics, but I'll take what I can get. Grade: B+

The Fall of the Faculty by Benjamin Ginsberg A book about changes in the administration of colleges and universities in the U.S. Interesting. A little overly angry, but interesting. Grade: B+

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson et al Boring, uninteresting, and not compelling. The book did contain some valuable insights, but, overall, I wouldn't recommend it. Grade: D

ECHM 215 Exam #1 Review --- Solutions

(#2) Dilution: 3595 mol/s is minimum molar flow of dilution air

(#3) Unit Conversions: (a) 0.525M, (b) 144 sec., 23.6 lb_m H_2SO_4, (c) 88s

(#4) X_methanol = 0.276 in bottom stream

August Book Reviews

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink A very interest book that looks mostly at what motivates us to create and build and work. One of the major story lines in this book is the open-source software movement and what causes someone to create software and give it away for free (see: Linux). The take-home-message, in my mind, is that we all require a 'minimum' salary to do a job, and, beyond that, we need to feel that the work has value and is appreciated. (If that sentence doesn't make sense, just read the book, Mr. Pink is a much better writer than I.) Great book; highly recommended. Grade: B+

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni Last month I read another book by Mr. Lencioni, Death by Meeting. This book has a similar style -- teaching a series of lessons through a narrative, and is another book that I really enjoyed. In fact, I would recommend this book over Death by Meeting because it covers some of the same material on meetings and goes beyond it in many other important ways. Great book; also highly recommended. Grade: B+

The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery by George Johnson It is difficult to describe this book, but I guess my description would be that this book summarizes and highlights the history of cancer research and the history of cancer as a disease. I learned a fair amount about cancer and even a little about medical research. A good book about a difficult topic. I think this grade would be higher if I hadn't read so many great books this past month. Grade: B

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein It takes guts to write a book on this topic, and I thought Mr. Epstein did an excellent job. He basically summaries most of the relevant research that looks at the role of genetics and train in sports -- i.e., nature vs. nurture in determining athletic performance. The book is very interesting and filled with fantastic anecdotes. Great book; also highly recommended. Grade: A-

Summer Book Reviews

I have struggled to find good books to read this summer. Interestingly, the best stuff I've read has been Kindle Shorts -- Is this the future? Short interesting books as opposed to longer drier books? Maybe.

The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book by Andrew Richard Albanese As an owner of the original Kindle (it doesn't work anymore but I still have it), I fondly remember the day when every E-book was $9.99. I did not appreciate how much this price upset book publishers, even though they still earned 80% of the hardback whole-sale price and Amazon sometimes lost money. Along came Apple with a new model that did away with the $9.99 price ceiling but also violated anti-trust laws. Very interesting book and a Kindle short. Grade: B

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) by Chuck Klosterman Chuck Klosterman is one of my favorite writers, especially when he is writing about hair bands from the 80's. In this book, he gives his perspective on individuals that either are bad or are perceived as bad. The best chapters involve music -- the Eagles, etc., but the whole book is pretty good. My favorite thing about this book is that you can find a Spotify channel with the music that inspired the book. Not Chuck's best work, but still good. Grade: C+

The Upstream Doctors:Medical Innovators Track Sickness to Its Source by Rishi Manchanda Another Kindle short, this book advocates for having doctors and healthcare workers focus more time and energy on the homes and communities in which their patients live because these places have such a significant impact on health. I generally agree with the thesis of the book and found it very persuasive. I'm less optimistic about the prospects of changing a virtually unchangeable healthcare system. Grade: B

Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores by Greg Palast A book about the supposed super-evil of petroleum companies. I found the book unconvincing, the author extremely arrogant, and the book poorly written. Just so you know, Greg Palast is fully convinced that he is the only thing between us and world domination by big oil. I couldn't finish the book. Grade: F

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn One of the many Star Wars books set in the time period after Return of the Jedi. The book was pretty good, but I felt like the author invented too many gimmicks to tell the story -- for example, the little critters that repel the force? Whatever. Grade: C-

The Pioneer Detectives: Did a distant spacecraft prove Einstein and Newton wrong? by Konstantin Kakaes Another Kindle Short and easily the best book I've read in a month. This book is a must read for any scientist. I describes an interesting set of data, and the careful use of the scientific method to understand that data. Great, easy read. Grade: B+

Book Review: "And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini

In my opinion, Khaled Hosseini is the greatest living author that I have read. His books are moving, breathtaking, and the characters are deep and rich. His stories make me uncomfortable and depressed, which is unfortunate -- I love the author but dislike the stories, somewhat. His stories contain so much sadness, and this story is no exception. In this book, he has one character, a daughter, that asks a set of interesting questions about another character, her mother, who is an author. The daughter says, "The power and beauty of her writing was undeniable. But if the account Maman had given of her life in the interview was a lie, then where did the images of her work come from? Where was the wellspring for words that were honest and lovely and brutal and sad? Was she merely a gifted trickster? A magician, with a pen for a wand, able to move an audience by conjuring emotions she had never known herself? Was that even possible?" Clearly, we could ask the same about Mr. Hosseini. How can he write such moving stories that contain so much pain, sadness, and heartache? Personal experience? The biographical information I could find gives no hint of such heartache in his past. Regardless, this is a sad, moving, and extremely well written story. Grade: A

June Book Reviews

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

I bought this book because David Sedaris books are typically well reviewed and appear on many best seller lists. It was also suppose to be funny; containing anecdotes about Sedaris' life. This book was okay, especially the second half, but I cannot recommend it in general. It just wasn't funny or interesting enough. Grade: C-

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan

I generally love anything that Michael Pollan writes, and this book is no exception. A fantastically interesting book about the 4 major categories of cooking: cooking over fire (e.g., whole hog barbecue), cooking with hot water (e.g., stew), cooking bread (yum), and fermentation (e.g., beer, pickles). I'm not a big 'food' person and I don't cook much, but I still enjoyed this book and recommend it to just about anyone. Grade: A-

Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future by John MacCormick

While I'm not a computer scientist, I do know a fair amount about the subject. This book discusses (roughly) 10 important algorithms and describes how they work. Some algorithms focus on encryption, others focus on error correction or compression. I enjoyed the book and felt like I learned some new things while reading it. I was familiar with many of the algorithms described in the book, and that probably dampened my enthusiasm some, but I may not be the target audience. Grade: B-

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I read this because I saw that the movie was coming out soon. I haven't read too much science fiction before (although this is already my second science fiction book this year), but I absolutely loved this book. It was one of those books that I couldn't stop thinking about even when I wasn't reading it. When I stopped reading, I'd have to remind myself that I was back in the real world. The story was a little disturbing since it focused on the manipulation of a gifted, preadolescent kid, but it made me think... a lot. I would describe it as a "gripping story." Grade: A-

Spring Book Reviews

A few quick reviews of recent reads.

14 by Peter Clines A rare fiction book for me that ended up being pretty good. It would fall into the science fiction genre, another rare area for me. The science was a little too out there for me to call it a great book, but I enjoyed it and had trouble putting it down. Grade: B-

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach Another great book by one of the best main stream science writers alive. This book focuses on eating, digesting, and getting rid of food waste. I found it fascinating and highly recommend it. Grade: A-

Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar by Kelly Oxford I read this because Jimmy Kimmel tweeted that it was incredibly funny. It's not. It was okay. Grade: C-

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina I have read a lot of books about experiments that explore how people think (e.g., Thinking Fast and Slow, Habit, etc.). This book is different in that it is written by a neuroscientist and it explores the biochemistry and cellular biology of the brain, and then discusses the impacts that research on how we learn. In some ways this approach is more interesting, but I don't know if it is more useful. Grade: B-

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Extremely long book that looks at different strategies (i.e., the '48 laws') that individuals from the past 1000 years or so have employed to obtain power. It was very interesting, but I wonder how much or how little it has impacted my actions? Grade: B

Chromebook Review

I have a gadget addiction. However, that addiction makes me a fairly informed reviewer. Here's my musings on some computational gadgets that I've used extensively in the last year.

I started with an iPad (generation 1). I loved how convenient it was for email, reading the news, and playing simple games. I loved how fast it turned on. I hated how expensive it was so I was always really careful with it.

Then, Google came out with the Nexus 7, which I liked much better than the iPad for 3 reasons. First, it had much better integration with the Google services I used like gmail, calendar, and Drive. Second, I loved the much cheaper price, which meant I had to worry much less about how I handled the device. Third, I loved the smaller size, which allowed me to keep the device in reasonable sized coat pocket.

Now, I've moved on to the Chromebook. Like the Nexus 7, it integrates really well with Google services and it is really cheap ($250 in my case for the model with the SSD drive -- a must). It boots in less than 10 seconds, and the full size keyboard is simply wonderful. I also find the larger screen to be really nice. It weighs only 2.4 pounds! The only downside is that it doesn't fit in my pocket. That really doesn't bother me once I realized I take my Timbuk2 bag almost everywhere. I cannot image using the chromebook as my only computer today, but as more stuff moves online, I can image using it exclusively in 3-5 years. That will be awesome.

First Book Review of 2013

I've read a few good books in 2013. Here are the short summaries and grades.

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum An interesting book that takes a look at the history and current layout/infrastructure of the internet. I really enjoyed the book, but wished it had been a little more technical. More information about packet switching and the TCP/IP protocol would have benefited the book -- IMO. Still, worth the read. Grade: B

Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas A very lengthy biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian that was killed near the end of World War 2. It was interesting, but I wish it had been condensed some. I learned a lot about Germany from 1910-1945, however. Grade: B-

Life of Pi by Yann Martel It was good, but I guess I had unrealistic expectations. The real brilliance of the book was the way Martel made it seem, superficially, like non-fiction even though it was fiction. It was a nice way of demonstrating the power of a good story. Grade: B

An Unexpected Twist by Andy Borowitz This is a kindle short that can be read in less than 30 minutes. I loved it. It was funny while communicating the appreciation we should have for each and every day we are given. Grade: A-

Final Book Reviews of 2012

I ended 2012 with a string of really good books. Reviews below.
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough I've read a lot of parenting books, and they all seemed to say the same things and not be as empirically based as I would like. This book was clearly the most research-based book I've read on helping children learn and is the only book that I would recommend to others for help with both parenting and teaching. Very interesting and well written. Grade: A-
The Success Equation by Michael J. Mauboussin A good book about the balance of luck and skill in our lives. The book does a good job of helping us to appreciate that luck plays a bigger role than most of us would like to acknowledge. The book is good, but it covers a lot of the same material as other books that I have read. For example, it covers a lot of the material in Outliers by Gladwell and The Signal and the Noise by Silver, and both of those are better written. Grade: B-
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Another extremely interesting book that tackles how important habits are to our everyday lives. It does a good job of covering the various aspects of our lives that are largely controlled by habits, how to overcome bad habits, and how to develop good habits. I think most people could benefit from reading this book. Grade: A-
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings trilogy is probably the best fiction book I've ever read so I had unrealistically high expectations here. The book is good, but it did not live up to my impossible expectations (I suspect the movie will be the same). It just didn't have the suspense of LOTR. Grade: B
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline I used to judge the quality of fiction books by how late I was willing to stay up to finish a book. I'd stay up to midnight for a really good book. One or two AM for a great book, and 3 or 4 am for the best books (LOTR by Tolkien or Sphere by Crichton). Ready Play One is forcing me to reconsider that measure. It was so good that I did not want to stay up late because I did not want it ever to end. It was easily one of the 3 best fiction books I've ever read, and maybe the best.
The book is set in the future, but it really focuses on pop culture and video games from the 1980's. Hence, the book is really written for people born in the early 70's that went through childhood in the 80's and were into video games. That's pretty much me, but I am definitely on the younger end of that spectrum and I grew up in a very rural area and it took longer for pop culture to diffuse to me. I think anyone would enjoy this book, but if you grew up in the 80's and played video games -- it is a must read.
Overall, just an incredibly enjoyable and well written book. Please Mr. Cline, write more books! Grade: A+