The Smithsonian Castle is one of the most striking buildings on the National Mall in Washington, DC. One reason for this is its distinctive architecture, but a second reason is its color: a bright, deep red. This color comes from the rock from which the Castle constructed: the Triassic-aged “Seneca Sandstone,” a part of the … Read more
Another week, another audio book. In this case, it didn’t even take a day – the two and a half hours of philosophizing lectures from celebrated physicist and oddball Richard Feynman make excellent listening. One of the reasons it works so well, I think, is that the material was originally delivered as a series of … Read more
This very short narrative (hardly even a proper “book” in the modern sense of the word) is by the survivor of a wretched ordeal, as the title suggests, off the coast of Newfoundland in 1908. I consumed the audiobook version, as a free download from my public library, and finished it in a single day’s … Read more
The week before last, I finished a fun adventure novel, The Road to Samarcand. This is the first book I’ve read by Patrick O’Brian that’s not part of his epic (21 books!) Aubrey-Maturin series. I chose it because it was available as a (free) download from my public library, which meant I could “read” it … Read more
Last week on the flight to and from Denver, I consumed (via audio book, freely downloaded from my public library system) the 2004 microhistory Coal: A Human History, by Barbara Freese. It’s light on the geology, and heavy on the historical implications of coal. As with many of these sorts of books, it’s basically a … Read more
One thing I got out of reading (listening to) Atlantic, by Simon Winchester, was a recommendation to read a classic story of adventure: Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World. As you might suspect, it’s an account of Slocum’s solo trip sailing his small boat, the Spray, around the world. He was the first person … Read more
I finished Simon Winchester’s book Atlantic the other day. I consumed the audiobook version (this is one major positive aspect to my long commute: plenty of listening time), which was pleasantly read by Winchester himself. He’s got a good accent and a nice way of speaking – I recommend that medium. Atlantic is a book … Read more
Today, I finished a book about earthworms. It wasn’t the greatest natural history book I’ve ever read, but it was the first one I’ve read specifically on the subject of worms. I’ve gotten interested in soil ecology and chemistry. Now that I own some land, I’m curious how to manage it for maximum productivity (both … Read more
A few weeks back, when I posted a few book reviews in a post on this blog, a reader recommended a book by Bernd Heinrich, The Snoring Bird. I checked my local library, which did not have it, and so I requested that they buy a copy. In the meantime, I thought back to the … Read more
How do we get sick? Let’s make a list… Genetic disorders; those we inherit from our parents Injuries Environmental issues (obesity, diabetes) Infection by bacteria Infection by fungi Infection by viruses Infection by animals (tapeworms, etc.) Infection by protozoans (ameobae, dysentery, etc.) Infection by carcinogenic cells (e.g. Tasmanian devil contagious mouth cancers) That last one … Read more
Periodically, I review books here. Usually, I do them one at a time, but at this point, I’ve been delinquent enough in my book reporting that I’ve got a big backlog. So I intend to just bomb through them, clearing out my backlog of unblogged books in one fell swoop post. This consolidation is probably … Read more
Last week, I got a great new book from Amazon. I had pre-ordered it months ago, so when it finally arrived, I was delighted, and dove right in. Within 24 hours, I had finished it. It’s the story of how my friend Forrest Pritchard re-made his family’s farm into a sustainable enterprise by going organic. … Read more
The week before last, on the flight home from Texas, I finished reading Dark Star Safari, Paul Theroux’s 2004 account of traveling overland through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. I’ve enjoyed Theroux’s traveling writing very much over the years, and although he’s written some great novels (I’m thinking of Mosquito Coast), most of them … Read more
A new video book review! Under discussion today are two new books from Mountain Press: Geology Underfoot Along Colorado’s Front Range by Lon Abbott and Terri Cook, and Arizona Rocks! by T. Scott Bryan. Enjoy! [youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n82EJwZ6c_o”]
Previously, I’ve hinted that I was working on a top secret special project for Pearson Education. Now that the books have been published, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the details of the project. In the newest editions of both Earth: An introduction to Physical Geology (Tarbuck, Lutgens, & Tasa, 2014) and Foundations of … Read more
Callan & his students visit an outcrop on the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, showing a variety of white veins cutting dark rock.
I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel Flight Behavior over the weekend. It’s certainly cut from the same cloth as Kingsolver’s other work. If you liked Prodigal Summer and her many Arizona novels, you’ll probably like this one, too. Similarities include: beautiful writing, a focus on the relationships women have to their families, friends, and … Read more
I got The Planets from the Fort Valley library a few weeks ago, because Dava Sobel wrote it. She wrote the excellent Longitude, and that was enough for me. Also, I’ve been really into astronomy lately. Watching the meteor shower earlier this week was stunning, and I loved training my binoculars on nebulae and stars … Read more
The cover story in the November issue of GSA Today was by David Montgomery, MacArthur “genius” award winner and author of Dirt. Montgomery has a new book out on creationism and “flood geology,” and the article is a précis of the historical roots of creationism that appears in that book. The article is titled “The … Read more
Callan reviews a new book by Doug Macdougall: “Why Geology Matters.”