Sad news for astronomy buffs: The famous radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico — the largest of its kind on planet Earth, it was featured in the film Contact — is in danger of being shut down. Oh, it still works just fine, but the National Science Foundation, a U.S. federal agency, is considering cutting its funding. As Wired notes, the Arecibo facility “recorded the first planets beyond the solar system and helped detect lakes of hydrocarbons on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.”

Arecibo has contributed tremendously to our understanding of the univserse, but for a look at what our knowledge of the stars was like before radio astromy came along, check out A History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler, by Danish astronomer and a historian of astronomy J.D.E. Dreyer. More than a century after its first publication in English, this remains a helpful and readable introduction to historical astronomy. Beginning with humanity’s first attempts to understand our place in the universe and continuing through the age of Isaac Newton, Dreyer connects modern astronomers to those who laid the groundwork before them.

(Also check out The Story of the Stars, George Frederick Chambers’ 1895 primer on skywatching; its Victorian charm and poetical bent will remind you of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, and it’s a treat for fans of the night sky.)

(Technorati tags: Arecibo, A History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler, JDE Dreyer)

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It’s Science Day here at Cosimo. (We’ll do religion another day.) Of course, we are bemused and aghast — as all thinking folk are — at the warm welcome the new Creation Museum in Kentucky is receiving. (We’re all for diversity of opinion, of course, but diversity of “fact” is another matter entirely.) We like what Media Bistro had to say about the museum: it’s “a great place to visit if you wanted to take a look at $27 million dollars worth of crazy.” But of course, we at Cosimo are overeducated Eastern liberals just like the wags at Media Bistro.

But we are book people. So we counter things like the Creation Museum with books. Like Island Life, by Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace, an English naturalist, developed a theory of natural selection independent of his contemporary Charles Darwin, and in this 1880 classic of scientific literature, he examines a variety of biospheres to determine whether species are immutable (as was long thought), regardless of changing conditions in their surroundings, or are in fact capable of adapting in order to survive. Based on his years of global travel observing fauna and flora and his ponderings on whether the environment in which they lived affected their development, Wallace offer case studies from islands as diverse as the Galapagos, Great Britain, and Madagascar to support his argument.

In the book, Wallace says:

Not only does the marvelous structure of each organized being involve the whole past history of the earth, but such apparently unimportant facts as the presence of certain types of plants and animals in one island rather than in another are… dependent on the long series of past geological changes; on those marvelous astronomical revolutions which cause a periodic variation of terrestrial climates; on the apparently fortuitous action of storms and currents in the conveyance of germs; and on the endlessly varied actions and reactions of organized beings on each other.

Funny how 127 years later, there are still some people who cannot accept this simple reality.

(Also check out The Wonderful Century, Wallace’s history of the marvelous scientific advances of the 19th century.)

(Technorati tags: Creation Museum, Evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace , Island Life)

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Today, December 15, is the last day to order from Amazon.com using free Super Saver Shipping and still receive books in time for Christmas giving. So I’m putting aside my regular look at the New York Times bestseller list this week and instead pointing out some matching sets of books perfect for readers of your list.

Monday: books for conspiracy buffs
Tuesday: celebrating the season
Wednesday: armchair traveling
Thursday: on the lookout for UFOs and strange creatures
Today: lost classics of literature

continue reading »

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This Friday, December 15, is the last day to order from Amazon.com using free Super Saver Shipping and still receive books in time for Christmas giving. So I’m gonna put aside my regular look at the New York Times bestseller list this week and instead point out some matching sets of books perfect for readers of your list.

Monday: books for conspiracy buffs
Tuesday: celebrating the season
Wednesday: armchair traveling
Today: on the lookout for UFOs and strange creatures
Friday: lost classics of literature

continue reading »

no comments »

This Friday, December 15, is the last day to order from Amazon.com using free Super Saver Shipping and still receive books in time for Christmas giving. So I’m gonna put aside my regular look at the New York Times bestseller list this week and instead point out some matching sets of books perfect for readers of your list.

Monday: books for conspiracy buffs
Tuesday: celebrating the season
Today: armchair traveling
Thursday: on the lookout for UFOs and strange creatures
Friday: lost classics of literature

continue reading »

no comments »

This Friday, December 15, is the last day to order from Amazon.com using free Super Saver Shipping and still receive books in time for Christmas giving. So I’m gonna put aside my regular look at the New York Times bestseller list this week and instead point out some matching sets of books perfect for readers of your list.

Monday: books for conspiracy buffs
Today: celebrating the season
Wednesday: armchair traveling
Thursday: on the lookout for UFOs and strange creatures
Friday: lost classics of literature

continue reading »

no comments »

This Friday, December 15, is the last day to order from Amazon.com using free Super Saver Shipping and still receive books in time for Christmas giving. So I’m gonna put aside my regular look at the New York Times bestseller list this week and instead point out some matching sets of books perfect for readers of your list.

Today: books for conspiracy buff
Tuesday: celebrating the season
Wednesday: armchair traveling
Thursday: on the lookout for UFOs and strange creatures
Friday: lost classics of literature

continue reading »

no comments »

One of the things I love about working at Cosimo is that I’m constantly discovering wonderful (and sometimes wonderfully weird!) old books that I’ve never even heard of before, as well as getting regular reminders of great classics that I either haven’t read since school or have never read at all (and should). But even more surprising is that the more I look through books published 50, 100, 150, even 200 years ago, the more I see that the topics that fascinate readers today are, in many instances, the same ones that booklovers were gobbling up decades and centuries ago.

Every week, I take a look at the current New York Times best-seller lists and point out a few Cosimo Classics that connect to today’s hottest books. Cuz all true readers know that too much of a good thing is never enough.

Frank McCourt of Angela’s Ashes fame is back on the Times paperback nonfiction list with his Teacher Man: A Memoir, at No. 8. His concerns seems a bit less philosophical than what legendary and influential educator Maria Montessori was dealing with when she developed her groundbreaking The Montessori Method, but her ideas continue to be urgently necessary today as “traditional” methods of early-childhood schooling seem to be failing us. Published in Italian in 1909 and first translated into English in 1912, these revolutionary theories focus on the individuality of the child and on nurturing her inherent joy of learning to create schools and other learning environments that are oriented on the child. Eschewing rote memorization and drilling, Montessori’s method helps to foster abstract thinking and to fulfill a child’s highest potential, emotionally, physically and intellectually, and parents and teachers today still find the ideas herein immensely valuable.

Over on the Times paperback fiction list this week at No. 16 is The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream, by Paulo Coelho, which features a journey to mystical Egypt. That fabled land has long inspired travelers and seekers after wisdom, as in Pierre Loti’s mesmerizing Egypt. Called one of the finest descriptive writers of his day, and certainly one of the most original, Loti, a French writer and sailor, traveled the world in the late 19th century and painted what he saw in prose acclaimed as extraordinarily rhythmic and lyrical. This 1909 novel is a dreamlike reverie of travels through Egypt just before it became overrun by Western tourists. For readers today, it serves as a window into a world forever lost.

(Technorati tags: Frank McCourt, Teacher Man, Maria Montessori, Montessori Method, Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, Egypt, Pierre Loti)

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One of the things I love about working at Cosimo is that I’m constantly discovering wonderful (and sometimes wonderfully weird!) old books that I’ve never even heard of before, as well as getting regular reminders of great classics that I either haven’t read since school or have never read at all (and should). But even more surprising is that the more I look through books published 50, 100, 150, even 200 years ago, the more I see that the topics that fascinate readers today are, in many instances, the same ones that booklovers were gobbling up decades and centuries ago.

Every Monday, I take a look at the current New York Times best-seller lists and point out a few Cosimo Classics that connect to today’s hottest books. Cuz all true readers know that too much of a good thing is never enough.

Travel to strange and distant lands — by fictional characters and real people alike — has always been an adventure to expand the heart, soul, and mind. The queen of escapist soap opera, Danielle Steel, puts the plot to good use in her new book H.R.H., at No. 11 on the Times hardcover fiction list, about a spoiled European princess who journeys to Africa to work with the Red Cross. Evangelist and teacher Emma Hillmon Haviland wrote of her real-life experiences as a missionary in late-19th-century Zulu country in Under the Southern Cross: Or, A Woman’s Life Work for Africa… though her travels seem to have done little to widen her horizons. Privately published, this is one woman’s account of her Christian work in Africa, from her childhood on farms in Iowa and Kansas, where she had a youthful brush with death that led to her conversion to an active Christianity, to her return home after long years doing the Lord’s work. The time in between is fraught with culture shock: her difficulties in learning the Zulu language, her disdain for Zulu tradition and mythology, even a particular scorn for the food she found unpalatable. Stolid and unbending, this is a curious document of a less enlightened time, a firsthand look at the mindset of a bygone time.

Erik Larson’s Thunderstruck sits at No. 9 on the Times hardcover nonfiction list. A tale of intrigue fueled by modern science, it’s about the attempts, at the turn of the 20th century, to bridge the Atlantic with wireless communication… and how it took a sensational murder to bring the success of the endeavor to public prominence. One of the first great business and technology journalists, Herbert N. Casson, covered the development of a wired communication device in his 1910 book, The History of the Telephone. This charming and highly readable overview of the impact of the telephone in its first quarter-century discusses not only the scientific innovators and business pioneers involved in its creation, but also the social impact of the new technology. Writes Casson:

With the use of the telephone has come a new habit of mind. The slow and sluggish mood has been sloughed off. The old to-morrow habit has been superseded by “Do It To-day”; and life has become more tense, alert, vivid.

(Technorati tags: H R H, Danielle Steel, Under the Southern Cross, Emma Hillmon Haviland, Thunderstruck, Erik Larson, Herbert Casson, History of the Telephone)

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One of the things I love about working at Cosimo is that I’m constantly discovering wonderful (and sometimes wonderfully weird!) old books that I’ve never even heard of before, as well as getting regular reminders of great classics that I either haven’t read since school or have never read at all (and should). But even more surprising is that the more I look through books published 50, 100, 150, even 200 years ago, the more I see that the topics that fascinate readers today are, in many instances, the same ones that booklovers were gobbling up decades and centuries ago.

Every Monday, I take a look at the current New York Times best-seller lists and point out a few Cosimo Classics that connect to today’s hottest books. Cuz all true readers know that too much of a good thing is never enough.

It’s way too early to be thinking about Christmas as far as I’m concerned, but it seems that many other readers don’t feel that way: the Times hardcover fiction list this week features two sentimental holiday selections: Christmas Letters, by Debbie Macomber, at No. 13, and at No. 15, Finding Noel, by Richard Paul Evans. Washington Irving might be best remembered for a story revolving around another holiday, but his Old Christmas, first published in 1896, deserves to be a holiday tradition alongside Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in the celebrations of the winter solstice. Warmly convivial and delightfully festive, this charming and long forgotten holiday classic was inspired in part by Dickens and other celebrations of oldtime Yule. Splendid suppers and rural churches, cheerful dances and hearty spirits imbue this short novel with the magic of the season. If you’re one of those insufferable shoppers who has her Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving (the rest of us are secretly terribly jealous of you), consider this for an unusual stocking stuffer for the bookworm on your list.

Over on the Times hardcover nonfiction list, it’s much more serious business with two books about the selling of the American war in Iraq: Bob Woodward’s State of Denial is at No. 3, and The Greatest Story Ever Sold, by Frank Rich, is at No. 12. Philosopher Bertrand Russell was pondering how leaders coerce men to war back in 1916 in Why Men Fight, which grew out of the devastation of World War I. Russell explores ideas of war, pacifism, reason, impulse, and personal liberty and argues that when individuals live passionately, they will have no desire for war or killing. Eminently relevant to our modern world, Russell provides critiques of war and social institutions such as marriage and the state, and offers his thoughts on what we can do to rid our world of violence.

(Technorati tags: Christmas Letters, Finding Noel, Washington Irving, Old Christmas, State of Denial, Bob Woodward, Greatest Story Ever Sold, Frank Rick, Why Men Fight, Bertrand Russell)

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