Scott's Book Review – Page 51 – The Lanark Website

Dreams of a Final Theory

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE - Science & Technology

Steven Weinberg (born May 3, 1933, https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~weintech/weinberg.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_weinberg) is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. He holds the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, […]

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The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE - Science & Technology

David Deutsch (http://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch) is Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation (CQC) in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of quantum computation by formulating a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to

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The Risk of Reading by Robert P. Waxler

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think

In promoting this title by Robert P. Waxler (http://www.umassd.edu/cas/english/faculty/robertpwaxler/) the risk is that I’m preaching to the converted. After all, this is a book review page. Its readers are presumably already convinced of the value of the written word. We should never, though, tire of the assertion that long and deep reading leads to a quality

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The Shut Eye

CRIMINALLY MINDED - Tales of the behaviourally challenged

Belinda Bauer (http://www.belindabauer.co.uk/)grew) grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter and her script The Locker Room earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters. She lives in Wales. Her sixth novel The Shut Eye was published this year (2015). The summary is as follows. Ever since

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European Intellectual History by Frank M. Turner

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think

Frank M. Turner (1944–2010) was John Hay Whitney Professor of History, Director of the Beinecke Library, and University Librarian, all at Yale University. Turner delivered a landmark lecture course on European intellectual history that drew hundreds of students over many years. His lectures were lucid, accessible, and beautifully written. With a notable lack of jargon they distilled

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Introducing the Ancient Greeks by Edith Hall

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, PAST PRESENT - What's new in History

In the period 2013-2015 The European Union has been desperately trying to prevent Greece from crashing out of the Euro. Bailout follows bailout. Why? It is a basket case of an economy saddled with a 320 billion Euro debt, a society mired in corruption from top to bottom, and with a hopelessly divided political class. For every

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The Liars’ Club

LIVES WELL LIVED? A pick from biography and memoir

In this funny, hard-edged memoir, Mary Karr (http://www.marykarr.com/bio.php), a prize-winning poet and critic, looks back at her upbringing. The setting is a swampy East Texas refinery town in a volatile, defiantly loving family. She recalls her painter mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip into psychosis. There is her violent father who spins tales with his

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In Bitter Chill

CRIMINALLY MINDED - Tales of the behaviourally challenged

Sarah Ward (http://crimepieces.com/about/) has followed the oft heard advice for budding authors which is to ‘write what you know’. She has set her debut novel in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. The summary is as follows. The scene is a small town in the idyllic English countryside of Derbyshire in 1978. Local people have been traumatized

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The Hemlock Cup by Bettany Hughes

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, PAST PRESENT - What's new in History

Bettany Hughes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettany_Hughes) has been gracing our TV screens since 2012 presenting the history of the classical world. Her programme ‘Genius of the Ancient World – Socrates‘ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/32/socrates-genius-of-the-ancient-world) was broadcast on 12 August 2015 on BBC 4. Whether to follow up the programme or in preparation for a second viewing I would recommend her 2010 book The

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