rkaufman13's reviews
501 reviews

Fascinating! Judith Matloff impulsively plunks down cash for a former crackhouse in West Harlem, and then has to deal with the consequences (crackheads trying to break in, to dealers pissing on the stoop, to a nest of termites in the kitchen). Somehow she and her husband survive being literally the only two white faces on the block and find themselves part of a vibrant community--"one of the last places in New York where kids can play on the street" and where neighbors help each other out.

Great read. Made me miss my Sunset Park, Brooklyn sublet.

Ahem.

If this is what physicists work on all day, I got ripped off in high school.

Okay, so half of this book is dedicated to "things we might be able to do in a million years IF we don't blow ourselves up before then and IF our math is correct" (that million, by the way? not an exaggeration). But before this book I didn't understand how a theory can become a theory just "because the math works." Frankly, I still don't--entirely--but my understanding is closer. I would have liked to see a few of the equations that go into string theory, in an appendix perhaps or just scattered through the text. (I say this, but this is coming from a woman who found "Six Easy Pieces" too daunting. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for.) What I'm saying, I guess, is that Michio Kaku does a wonderful job explaining the theoretical components of the, er, theory, but when he gets to the point of explaining why the math works out or, his favorite device, showing how string theory encompasses relativity and the Standard Model like a jigsaw puzzle, he lost me. I can't figure out how mathematical equations become spatially linked (read the book, look at the diagrams, and you'll see what I mean).

It helps if you've read Flatland before this, and if you have a basic idea of physics--though Kaku does patiently explain the Big Bang, etc, for those who need a refresher.

All in all, a fascinating look at one possible way our universe is constructed. Now, my personal opinion--and I'm no mathematician, but I hope I'm getting this right--is that Kaku is right: Nature likes simplicity. And any theory that has as many kinds of subatomic particles as string theory (which encompasses the Standard Model, which predicts the existence of many strangely-named bits of matter) is still lacking something, so perhaps the theory still needs refining.
Get rid of the squarks and winos and we'll talk.

(P.S. I read a passage from here to Chris and he just looked at me, horrified. "I would NOT read that for fun." So sue me, it's definitely not the most fun book. you've been warned.)

Amazing! The authors dedicate 2 or 3 pages each to 50 different common-sense ways to persuade, sell, manage, or get people to like you. Each is backed up with experiments (though some of the research is peer-reviewed and some is more just the authors mucking around). You may find yourself realizing that you know this stuff without knowing why you know it...for people like me who need all the social coaching they can get, this book is a godsend.

Edited August 3: I put this book down in June and when I picked it up again, I'd totally lost momentum. I originally thought this was great, but I'm now thinking you need more of a "salesman" mindset to get the most out of this book.

Clever! Very slow start, but once you get deep enough into it to realize how intricately twined the plot strands are...mesmerizing.

This collection of essays read all together is almost overwhelming; Wolfe captures the spirit of an age perfectly...or so I think, having not been there the first time around. Amazing to remember that some of the things we take for granted--like in the first essay, the Vegas Strip--were new and exciting just a few decades ago.

Wolfe has a few pet vocabulary words that become quickly overused, but that's my only quibble with this fantastic collection.