A.H. Derman

The One I should Have ‘Read’ Instead

Revisado: 07-23-24

Excellent demystification and debunking of the romantic image of pirates, piracy and the plight of both slaves and non-slave on the open sea. He gives every detail of the way men suffered as sailors and why many became pirates. So much good naval detail that I will read the book with my eyes next.

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Sometimes The Yawn of Everything

Revisado: 07-22-24

This work is extremely valuable and important for its masterful research, humor, structure and its tremendous busting of sociocultural myths. It presents the best and most complete history of the forgotten splendor, complexity and variety of Native American civilizations that crisscrossed the United States when the European settlers first arrived (and even before). However, the authors illustrate their points ad nauseam with repeated use of examples and information. They often flesh things out so that interesting observations end in maddening minutia, losing their intellectual profundity. It is as if they mistake their audience for pedantic hair-splitting bean-counters incapable of making inferences or extrapolations. The level of needless detail comes across transparently and irritatingly as intellectual ass-covering. This makes even unique evidence and observations seem disingenuous or paranoid rather than passionate. I would still recommend this book if you are interested in or studying anthropology, archaeology, history or sociology. It will keep you on guard for harmful, underlying imperialist assumptions about cultures different to your own. I also suggest keeping and using it as a reference book for its research content.

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Poetree in Slow Motion

Revisado: 07-18-24

Beautiful, poetic and scientifically supported. One of the best, most extensive ecology related works I’ve read as a writer and as a budding Earth scientist. It is also soothingly read, so that it is the perfect escape from the rigors of a city commute.

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Glorious

Revisado: 07-16-24

Lovely, glorious science writing on an intriguing topic, written passionately, poetically yet extremely erudite in its dealings with scientific concepts and explanations. A masterpiece!

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Magma-nificent!

Revisado: 07-14-24

This book has everything good science-writing needs. It starts with a great subject matter, has colorful, vivid and cleverly humorous language, and tells clear, clean, tight stories every chapter. A must-read for fans of earth processes whether they’re beginners or experts!

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More Sluggish than Hawaiian Lava

Revisado: 07-08-24

Disappointing to say the least. HOW THE MOUNTAINS GREW is such a beautiful work of geology, deep time and storytelling, I was expecting a similar volume on volcanoes! Though Dvorak’s research, eye for detail and prose are exceptional, the focus of this book left a lot to be desired. I expected a yarn about the Earth, volcanoes, paleogeography, disaster science and seismology. I would have settled for a history of early geology and its smart, important and ruthless characters. What I got was the biography of a forgotten geologist whose life was delivered by Dvorak with all the passion of a tedious 19th-20th century packing list, and I like Dvorak as an author!!

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Serendipity

Revisado: 07-08-24

Loved the passion and story-telling in this book. As a commercial geologist, I have sold and bought whole gallery quality minerals for at least a decade. Their shapes, colors and chemistry have always been fascinating and entrancing. However, the toil and suffering that brought them to the surface is tragic and terrible. When we look at gems and minerals, what we see is the result of endless lattices of odysseys made concrete. Finlay captures these complex realities masterfully, though I would have liked a bit more science in this work. She does wax a bit overly poetic. But it’s out of passion, not pretentiousness.

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Paranoid Trashfire

Revisado: 06-25-24

This book reads like a paranoid trash fire. If you can stomach ridiculous extrapolations and dementedly feeble theories, it might be fun to listen to as a work of fiction. As yet another Charlie Manson crack pot book, it’s unbelievable and unbearable.

The reader doesn’t help. Listening to his flat, soulless voice reminded me of Cold War propaganda torture broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain, or the infamous brainwashing scene in A Clockwork Orange.

Just don’t do it….

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Total Eclipse of the Ahhhhh!

Revisado: 06-25-24

I loved the eclipse prediction and lore calendar research. I am a sucker for planetary science and three-body hi jinx, so those parts were enjoyable.

However, the needless tedium, retelling of the same story and restatements of facts already covered could drive one to pull out their hair! And I tend to like John Dvorak’s books!

The monotonous male voice of this volume’s reader only exasperates this aspect of the book. If you’re an insomniac, the reader and this tedium might be your cure.

I recommend just shy of half this book. Beyond that, since there is no real continuity once he gets to anecdotes about people watching eclipses, you’re free to continue only if you are a masochist.

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What Tangled Cloth We Weave…

Revisado: 06-25-24

I loved the way the author connects the acts of spinning and weaving to arithmetic, algorithms, metaphors in language, and how she demonstrates that we (in the age of fast fashion) take this entire process from raw material cloth for granted. Here, her narrative approach and her research shine and are truly eye-opening.

However, when she delves into sumptuary laws, the fabrication process and the extensive written descriptions of weaving techniques, the work becomes tedious and difficult. She loses the childish passion she showed for weaving and cloth. It is as if she has written these parts as homework rather than inspiration. This could be because something gets lost in the audio medium for this volume, or because she had to expand her work as per her contract.

All in all, I do recommend this book. I caution the reader and listener, though: beware tedium.

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