Advantages: Incredibly accessible introduction to science Disadvantages: None
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
What a good idea this book is. Take one of the most engaging writers around today and say "you know all this complicated science stuff out there; go and have a look and then come back and explain it to us." The result is a cracking book that fizzes along and manages to tell you more than you ever thought you needed to know.
The book is divided into sections, each roughly assigned to a particular discipline. These cover physics, particularly the study of the universe. Geology, including the history of the Earth as a physical entity, and then moving into chemistry. And finally a history of life on Earth and evolution. Each topic is given ample room to be discussed and Bryson moves at an agreeable pace throughout.
Bryson mixes history and exposition easily throughout, depending ...
Advantages: The da vinci code for grown ups? Disadvantages: forensic in its description of dead bodies
The first half of this archeological thriller is based in Montreal, Canada, where Dr Temperance Brennan lives and works as a forensic anthropologist (ie. analysing bones and skeletons for the police). It opens as a fairly straightforward police procedural, when Brennan is called to attend the autopsy of orthodox Jewish businessman, Avram Ferris, to determine if the gunshot to his head that killed him was suicide or murder.
Interlinked with this story is her relationship with Ryan, her tall, commitment phobe longtime lover - and also a police detective. All is par for the course until a man thrusts a photograph of a skeleton into her hand, claiming it to be the reason why Ferris was killed. Thus we are led further into the antechamber of the mystery. An archeologist friend identifies it as coming from an excavation in Israel ...
Advantages: Accessible introduction to science Disadvantages: Still difficult to understand in parts
I've recently read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything as part of an online bookclub I sometimes take part in. The book had been on my reading list for ages, and since it's recently out in paperback (on 1 June 2004), it seemed the ideal opportunity to give it a go.
I'm familar with Bill Bryson's writing through having read many of the other books he's written, not only the well-known travelogues (Notes from a Small Island, Walk in the Woods etc) but also from his book on the English language, Mother Tongue. So I was aware that he's much more than just a travel writer, but was curious to find out just how he'd manage to deal with scientific theory in a way that remained accessible to "the masses" (ie, me!). Given that the book has just won the Aventis science book prize, I was somewhat dubious, but took heart from ...
Product Information for "History Mystery - Bill Frisell" »
Product details
Title
History Mystery
Performer
Bill Frisell
Genre
Jazz Instrument
Sub Genre
Guitar
Release Date
12/05/2008
Original Release Year
2008
Label / Distributor
Nonesuch / Cinram Logistics
Pieces in Set
2
Studio / Live
Mixed
Stereo
Stereo
Format
Performer
EAN
75597994377
Catalogue Number
7559799437
Additional notes
Album Notes
Bill Frisell. Personnel: Jenny Scheinman (violin); Eyvind Kang (viola); Hank Roberts (cello); Greg Tardy (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Ron Miles (cornet); Tony Scherr (bass instrument); Kenny Wollesen (drums). Recording information: Lisner Auditorium, Washington, DC. Guitar maestro Bill Frisell outdoes himself in ambition and diversity on the two-disc HISTORY, MYSTERY. Performing with a rich string-laden octet, the artist threads together 30 tracks, some of which derive from his collaboration with cartoonist Jim Woodring entitled "Mysterio Sympatico," and others drawn from the music Frisell composed for the NPR series STORIES FROM THE HEART OF THE LAND. As always, Frisell's eclectic style freely blends genres together, mixing chamber music with free jazz, front porch Americana with high-minded atmospherics. Three covers-Thelonious Monk's "Jackie-ing," Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," and Boubacar Traore "Baba Drame"-complement Frisell's originals. By turns moody and celebratory, playful and soulful, challenging and eminently listenable, HISTORY, MYSTERY is another fine entry in this singular artist's excellent discography.
Album Reviews
JazzTimes (p.101) - "Bill Frisell's spare, mysterioso chordal voicings are as evocative and haunting as the intriguing black-and-white Farm Security Administration photos from the '40s that grace the front and back covers of HISTORY, MYSTERY."
Titles on disc 1
1.
Imagination
2.
Probability Cloud
3.
Probability Cloud (part 2)
4.
Out Of Body
5.
Struggle
6.
Momentary Suspension Of Doubt
7.
Onward
8.
Baba Drame
9.
What We Need
10.
Change Is Gonna Come
11.
Jackie-ing
12.
Show Me
13.
Boo And Scout
14.
Struggle (part 2)
15.
Heal
16.
Another Momentary Suspension Of Doubt
17.
Probability Cloud (reprise)
Titles on disc 2
1.
Monroe
2.
Lazy Robinson
3.
Question #1
4.
Answer #1
5.
Faces
6.
Subconscious Lee
7.
Monroe (part 2)
8.
Question #2
9.
Lazy Robinson (part 2)
10.
What We Need (part 2)
11.
Waltz For Baltimore
12.
Answer #2
13.
Monroe (part 3)
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since
17/05/2008
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