Being Shelley: the poet's search for himself by Anne WroeHaving read a good bio of Byron, I decided I needed to find a good one of Shelley. Sadly, I found this one instead. Wroe seems to have written with intent as much poetic as informational; now that I've finished I don't think I'm any the wiser about Shelley's life or personality. In fact, ( Read more... )

The Age of Wonder: how the Romantic Generation discovered the beauty and terror of science by Richard HolmesBasically, the pre-Darwin era was an exciting time in all the sciences, and pretty much all the romantics were involved. Hughes begins with a botanist going on a long sea voyage: Joseph Banks going to Tahiti with Lt. (later Captain) Cook, ( Read more... )

My Father's Son: memories of war and peace by Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat is quite well-known in Canada as a writer; I don't know how much y'all in the greater world know about him. You may know him best as the guy who wrote the book that the film Never Cry Wolf was very loosely based on. Or not ( Read more... )

Only A Theory: Evolution and the battle for America's soul by Kenneth R. MillerSo basically, Miller takes on the "Intelligent Design" people and argues that ID is in no way a scientific theory. This is probably no surprise to anyone reading here, but he also argues why it's important to argue against ID. Well-writtten, and not hard to follow. ( Read more... )