Recent Reading

• The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine. This is a neuropsychiatrist's view of physiological features of the female brain, especially with respect to hormones throughout one's life span. It's a fun read, with lots of real-world cases and examples. I particularly like her evolutionary perspective on how these hormonal characteristics provided a survival advantage in the classic Darwinian sense. The interplay of brain functions and social behavior is very interesting. A few times the work is mildly biased: for example, several time the word "you" is used to indicate that her main audience is women. Perhaps only a few men would be interested? It does help to understand differences, which for me is the main lesson of the book (at least for men). Her new book, The Male Brain, is due out this year; it should be interesting to see the same perspectives applied to male hormones and brain evolution.
• Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest, by Gerard J. DeGroot. A socio-political view of the race to the moon, Here's a summary quote: "The lunar mission was a historical accident. It didn't make sense financially, as previous voyages of exploration had. But for a brief moment in the twentieth century, money didn't matter. The Cold War was not a good time for accountants; the important thing was to score points against the Russians, and to do so was priceless. At the very moment when financial scruples were temporarily abandoned, it also happened that the technology was available to provide a way to get to the Moon. But now, even though technology has progressed, the political reasons for such expensive ventures have disappeared and justification is difficult to find." Because people couldn't get excited about robots and unmanned probes in outer space, the program became an order of maginitude more expensive and safety-conscioius. This account is probably not very popular in Huntsville, which without Apollo would stil be a sleepy mill town a few miles off the interstate.
• John Adams, by David McCullough. A deep and rich portrait of John Adams, 2nd President of the U.S. What makes the book so completely interesting is Adams' legacy as a letter-writer. He and his wife exchanged thousands of well-crafted, intimate letters; there were hundreds more to and from his friends and family members. Since he spent so much time away from them, the only way to keep in touch was by letter. In today's mobile-phone-email culture, it's hard to imagine the slow and unreliable communication that our ancestors dealt with. Adams was an intellectual, a statesman, a lawyer, and a diplomat, as well as a family man, farmer and devoted husband. He embraced the joy of life through all his 90 years. I particularly liked the details of his relations with Jefferson, who was once an ally, then a rival, and finally in their old age a friend again. They both died on July 4, 1826 on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I fought back tears when reading of his death at the end. It was sad to see him go.
• Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil, by Hannah Arendt. On the surface, it is a journalist's view of the trial of Adolph Eichmann, who managed the Nazi death camp apparatus during World War II, and was abducted in Argentina in 1960 and brought to Israel for trial. It shocked readers by its premise that Eichmann was clearly quite normal, displaying none of the "evil" expected of him. He was simply a bureaucrat, with a job to do, and problems to solve getting it done. He was always more worried about his career and his relationships with co-workers than with what he was doing.
  "..It would have been very comforting indeed to believe that Eichmann was a monster... The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal."
• On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt, A thin pocket-sized book (really an essay) with a massive and profound message. His central point is that, unlike an outright liar, the bullshitter does not care at all whether what he/she says is true or not -- the statement is only made to accomplish some objective. This differs from the liar or truth-teller who both really do care about the truth; one is intentionally saying something true, while the other is intentionally stating something false. The bullshitter is just saying something for effect.
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The ideas are Levitt's, and they are both clearly stated and very thought-provoking. He views economics as a set of rewards and punishment to which we respond in our daily lives. He has the numbers to back up a number of claims, such as why teachers help their students cheat on standardized tests, and why most drug dealers aren't really making any money. It's got statistics in it, but it's not about statistics -- it's about how intuition often misleads us. There's a good description of how baby names are correlated with socio-economic status over time. It's got some case studies that he runs the numbers on, and when you do the math, there are some rather surprising results. For example, the chances of a Chicago drug gang member being killed is higher than the chances of a Texas death row inmate being executed! Strongly recommend -- it's a very provocative book.

  My past reading...