Divya Manian

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Book Reviews for August 2010

Eeks! I forgot to review books I read for August and now I have way too many! I shall hopefully not read as many in September and can space the reviews better. Anyways, onward!

Palestine

Thanks to Adrianna, I managed to read this awesome book. In Palestine, Joe Sacco documents what Palestinians go through every day. It is not a pretty picture and the violence against Israel is understandable in that context. It seems like the only way to end this issue would be to abandon Palestine and migrate elsewhere (like our ancestors).

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Logicomix is a fantastic introduction to logic and part-story of Bertrand Russell who was instrumental in creating this field. What is awesome is that it is understandable and interesting to anyone who is interested in rational thinking. All of the logicians featured in the book have a link to schizophrenia, which makes me wonder if the edge of rationality also the edge of madness?

Ways of Seeing

This is a slim but insightful book on art and how indelibly it is linked to our perception of it. The book talks about art appreciation as merely a signaling mechanism at the most and how interpretation of art in a time other than when it was created is a doomed venture.

It also has a great essay on the rise, in western societies, of objectification of women which has continued to this day and is spreading in other cultures.

This book is the result of a BBC mini-series.

Skim

Jillian Tamaki’s art work in Skim is amazing. Her illustrations are quite like Ukiyo-e paintings but also frame the story quite well. It is a beautiful piece of work.

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

I have finally caught up to all the back issues. Now I have to wait for the english translations from Vol. 11 onwards. It is a hilarious series (I don’t seem to get tired of mentioning this), well worth a read!

The Art and Science of CSS

I discovered this in my “toread” folder of e-books. The title vastly overestimates what the actual content is, which is a set of tips and tricks to get some popular Web Design patterns of that time (2007). Not something worth referring to.

That is that! As usual, I beg you to leave your recommendations in the comments. I already have another 6 books to review, which I should hopefully do so by end of next week. Meanwhile, there is Bumbershoot to look forward to!

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