“Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.” A fascinating, inspiring story of how a boy, by industry, frugality, reading and writing, constantly striving to improve himself daily, attending to the service of others and the community, and cultivating meaningful friendships, became a great statesman, entrepreneur and one of the most influential figures in […]
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“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
This book can be summarized in two sentences. Opportunities, personal drive and efforts, family upbringings and cultural background are important factors in a person’s life. He is likely to succeed if those factors have a compounding, positive effect.
Read more“A Slot Machine, A Broken Test Tube” by Salvador E. Luria
Judging a Book by the Cover What stuck me the most before opening this book was Dr. Luria’s photo on the back cover. His alert eyes behind dark rimmed glasses, thin, pressed lips with an ironic upward curl in the left corner, his head tilting slightly backward in an air of aloofness. I thought perhaps he was not as communicative as some of the other scientist-authors whose autobiographies I had […]
Read more“The Double Helix” by James D. Watson
Comparing this book with Francis Crick’s “What Mad Pursuit”, which covers the discovery of the structure of DNA from a different perspective, I enjoy reading Crick a lot more. While this book provides a more colorful account of the lives and characteristics of the scientists involved in the work, I find Crick’s insightful and humorous commentaries on scientific discovery more stimulating and refreshing.
Read more“Joys and Sorrows: Reflections” by Pablo Casals
Casals and Bach’s Cello Suites About a week ago I got interested in Bach’s cello suites. I started with Rostropovich’s EMI 1995 recording. The sound was beautiful, but the music was bland, entirely not what I expected from Bach as interpreted by Glenn Gould on piano and Jascha Heifetz on violin. Then I listened to Yo Yo Ma, Pablo Casals, and Pierre Fournier. That’s when I discovered Casals for myself. […]
Read more“In Search of Memory” by Eric Kandel
A Good Mystery Novel Kandel tells the story of how fascination with memory has led him to a life-long search for the biological underpinning of memory and consciousness. It’s part autobiography and part textbook, but reads like a good mystery novel. I could hardly put it down until I finished it. His writing is very fluid and concise, and he inserts figures at just the right junctures to illustrate and […]
Read more“No Ordinary Genius” by Richard Feynman and Christopher Sykes
This book complements Feynman’s autobiography “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” and sequel “What Do you Care What Other People Think” very well. It includes interviews from Feynman’s colleagues, family and friends, as well as himself, and gives the reader a more complete picture of the man and a life fully lived. Genius “Feynman’s great secret in solving the problem of quantum electrodynamics was that he developed this way to do […]
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