Category Archives: Book Notes

Michel Onfray, ATHEIST MANIFESTO, post 2

Posted on Friday 29 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Finishing my summary and comments about this book. (From here on I’m preserving the author’s chapter section breaks, with titles, to illustrate the structure of the book…)

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Michel Onfray, ATHEIST MANIFESTO, post 1

Posted on Thursday 28 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here is the most recent nonfiction book I’ve read this year; except for one, all the nf books I’ve read this year are now written up on this site. This book was published in French in 2005, and in English … Continue reading →

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Closing Out Prothero

Posted on Saturday 23 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I didn’t quite finish my write-up of Prothero’s GOD IS NOT ONE yesterday. So a few more comments. With a lagniappe.

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Stephen Prothero, GOD IS NOT ONE (2010)

Posted on Friday 22 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here is a book I’ve mentioned a couple times, having read portions of it over the years since it was published. Only last month did I read it all the way through. Mixed review. The book makes some excellent points … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins: THE BLIND WATCHMAKER (1986)

Posted on Tuesday 19 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This now 35-year-old book was Dawkins’ third, following the famous The Selfish Gene (summary here) and the less-famous sequel The Extended Phenotype (which I still have not read). If the first two were relatively straightforward explanations of evolution and natural … Continue reading →

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More on Bookstores

Posted on Sunday 17 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Quick post for today. Here’s an item in today’s paper about Barnes & Noble, which makes some points similar to my discussion here on the 11th. NYT, Elizabeth A. Harris, posted 15 April 2022, in print today: How Barnes & … Continue reading →

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David Wallace-Wells, THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH, post 2

Posted on Wednesday 13 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Resuming my summary outline from yesterday’s post.

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David Wallace-Wells, THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH, post 1

Posted on Tuesday 12 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Opening lines: It is worse, much worse, than you think. The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn’t happening at all, and comes to us bundled with several others … Continue reading →

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Carl Sagan, PALE BLUE DOT (1994), post 2

Posted on Wednesday 6 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I posted about my favorite two parts of this book a week ago, in this post, and today will post a complete outline of the book based on my notes as I read, somewhat edited and slimmed down.

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Carl Sagan, PALE BLUE DOT (1994), post 1

Posted on Wednesday 30 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This was one of Carl Sagan’s last books, published in 1994 (by Random House) just two years before his death in 1996. It’s subtitled “A Vision of the Human Future in Space,” though on the inside flap it’s referred to … Continue reading →

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