I had my right knee replaced on Thursday, May 22. My activities since then have been very limited, doing PT, elevating my leg, taking painkillers.
I have been catching up on my reading a bit. In anticipation of my downtime I have accumulated a number of e-books in my Kindle account that I have been rotating through as my whim takes me. Here are some short descriptions of my current books:
The African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe. Many years ago, upon the recommendation of others, I used Things Fall Apart as one of my readings when teaching our university's first-year Global Experiences seminar. It covered a lot of good themes and not just the prominent colonialism. Recently I saw a reference to the fact that Things Fall Apart was only the first book in a chronological trilogy and have enjoyed rereading it prior to getting to the next two books.
The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. It has been many years since I last taught our university's first-year Global Experiences seminar. Even then the internet had turned the information stream into a fire-hose for my students, and I began each term with the authors' Blur to discuss what we need to expect of ourselves in evaluating the veracity of sources of information. It really helped to start the conversation on that for a couple of weeks and probably was the most important module of the course as I taught it. Sadly Blur has not been updated and is badly out of date. I have read that this fourth edition of The Elements of Journalism has sizable overlap with Blur and thus my interest.
Jack by Marilynne Robinson. This is the fourth book in the Gilead quartet. I had read Gilead when I was younger, too young to appreciate all the beauty in a book that takes spirituality seriously enough to see it as a lifetime struggle and not a platitude. The quartet pulls apart the parable of the prodigal son; this fourth book finally addresses his perspective on the events. Unfortunately (for me) the style of this books is very different from the previous three, almost all dialogue (internal and external). A disappointment so far. I highly recommend the other three books.
LaTeX Graphics with TikZ by Stefan Kottwitz. One of the pleasures of my early adult life was reading good technical manuals, with perspectives drawn from experience, illustrative examples, and clear exposition. In the past decade so much of this has transitioned for me to online material inherently shrinking the picture. I have loved creating computer graphics that serve my needs as a mathematics instructor. Much of my early work used MetaPost but I have made the switch in recent years to TikZ as being a best practice when authoring in LaTeX. A few years ago I put effort into teaching how to construct diagrams in Abstract Algebra and spherical trigonometry in Modern Geometry using TikZ. I learned a lot of what I needed to know and this has been a nice look back, several years later, trying to see discipline in how to use TikZ. Highly recommended for that small niche who care.
Nixonland, by Rick Perlstein. The second work (after Before the Storm) in a quartet of histories about conservatism in the US in the second half of the 20th century. This is material I've read elsewhere but Perlstein offers pearls along the way that shift my perspective.
On Freedom, by Timothy Snyder (in many ways a sequel to his On Tyranny from Trump's first term) is deep and I am trying to give it the attention and time it takes. The biggest takeaway for me is that freedom is defined through usage and not through permission; it is not enough to be legally allowed to speak in opposition to the government if you do not do so out of fear of repercussion; the freedom of speech lies in actually speaking your mind.
The Path to Power by Robert Caro is his first volume of biography of LBJ. I have read the series to date (he's still working on it) when I was younger but again feel better able to learn from it as I am older. LBJ was such a powerful presence, and it is hard to let go of my youthful linear scale of good/bad to deal with someone who mixed so many characteristics at once.
The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I read this biography of Robert Moses in my youth; this past year one of my favorite podcasts discussed it in its depth and breadth and I was overjoyed to learn that an electronic version was available on its 50th anniversary; the paper copy is huge and heavy and hard to carry around. I spent much of my formative years using the infrastructure that Moses created in the NYC/LI area; in recent years I have begun to understand how much systematic racism goes into such infrastructure and how it is used to isolate and cordon the poor away from the affluent. Again, a huge tome worthy of the rereading.
There and Back by Michael Palin. This is his fourth volume of his memoirs in journal form. As someone who has journaled myself for half a century I enjoy seeing it done well by Palin; the fact that I love his work from Monty Python and all that he has done since then is an added bonus.
There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe. I have never read any Achebe except for Things Fall Apart and am aware of my ignorance of Biafra, and so am giving a try to his personal history with Biafra.
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