More Books

Here are some more books that I read recently.

I am Malala: The Girl who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb is truly a tale of courage. Some people in Pakistan say that her fight for the education of girls and women shows a western influence. I do not think that this is true. She is speaking out against what she sees as a misuse of the Quran. She wrote that nowhere in the Quran does it say that women should not be educated or that women should be submissive to men. Malala's father founded schools where boys and girls were educated. He spoke out against extremist Muslim organizations. At the age of 11 Malala wrote a journal telling about the situation in Pakistan. She used a pseudonym when writing this journal. She later started using her real name when speaking out. The Taliban wanted to silence her, and she was shot by someone in this organization. Instead of silencing her they gave her a larger audience for what she was saying. She continues to fight for the causes that are important to her. This is a book from which we can all learn.

Naked Genius by George Moses Horton is a book of poems that was published in 1865. George Moss Horton was born a slave in North Carolina in the late 1790s. He taught himself to read using spelling books. This was his third book of poems. At times he made money writing poems for students at the university in Chapel Hill to give to their girlfriends. He remained a slave until after the end of the Civil War. In later years he supported himself by writing for Sunday School publications. This book was published to demonstrate that "God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, created the black man for a higher and nobler purpose than to toil his life away under the galling yoke of slavery." It is a shame that so little attention is given to the life and writings of this writer.

A Renaissance in Harlem: Lost Voices of an American Community is a collection of writings that was edited by Lionel C. Bascom. There are essays by Ralph Ellison, Frank Byrd, Vivian Morris, Dorothy West and others. The writers of the essays were employed by the Work Projects Administration. The writings were forgotten for a number of years. These essays deal with what really happened in Harlem during the "Harlem Renaissance" as opposed to what was seen by the white people who frequented the night clubs of Harlem. According to the book's dust jacket African Americans of the time stopped writing for members of their own community and started writing to entertain a largely white audience. They started omitting things that would offend this audience. This is a collection of well-written essays that are entertaining and educational.

The Whistler's Room: stories and essays is a collection of writings by Richard Selzer, a physician who became a writer after retiring as a surgeon. The title piece is a retelling of a novella by a German writer, Paul Alverdes. The original novella was published in 1929. It is about three soldiers who "Each had been shot in the throat and sustained a more or less identical wound, destruction of the larynx." The author of this adaptation said that he wanted to adapt the novella for a modern audience. I would like to be able to read the original version of the novella. There seems to be a hint that at least one of the characters may have been gay. This adaptation is tender and moving. In this book there are lectures on art, painting and sculptures. I do not agree with all of the author's views of the pieces of art about which he wrote, but I do enjoy his style. There are also selections from Selzer's diaries from journeys to cities in Italy. Other topics include birdwatching, writing and the Bible. Reading this book was time well spent.

The Perfect Wave:With Neutrinos at the Boundary of Space and Time  by Heinrich Päs is definitely an entertaining and educational book. I will read it again in order to get a better understanding of the subject. My knowledge of physics is not strong enough to fully grasp it after one reading. There are a couple of statements that stood out for me. (1) "Our universe is a weird place." (2) "Actually, nobody has the faintest clue what time really is."Time travel, "extra dimensions," string theory and neutrinos, of course, are among the topics of this book. Learning about physics can be fun.