Longitude - Dava Sobel and William Andrewes

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Category: Biography Acquired: Borrowed from Dennis O'Brien Read: July 2008 Briefly: the subtitle says it all: "The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time".

Comments: In the middle of the 18th century, one of the greatest scientific problems facing humankind was navigation - finding your location on the globe. Without an accurate way to determine latitude and longitude, sailing across oceans would continue to be a risky proposition.

Latitude wasn't the problem, because it could be easily calculated from the sun's position. Longitude, on the other hand, perplexed the most brilliant scientific minds. Why? It, too, was calculated from the sun's position, but that had to be done at a precisely-known time. If you were a minute too late, your calculated location would be off by dozens of miles. The problem was that clocks built in the 1700's could gain or lose many seconds per day - completely inadequate, when multiplied by a 40-50 day transoceanic voyage.

So, while longitude was the great problem, the desperately-sought solution was a clock that could stay accurate through the jarring motions and temperature changes of an ocean voyage. The need was so great that, in 1714, the British Parliament offered a 20,000 pound reward for a suitably accurate device.

This book tells the story of John Harrison, who spent most of his life developing a series of five such clocks. It's a story of brilliant engineering (he pioneered techniques still found in clock mechanisms today), of famous people (Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley have roles), and of political intrigue (due to conflicts with the head of the reward committee, it took him over 40 years to receive his money).

It's a good read, with plenty of photos and diagrams, and just enough technical detail. You'll come away appreciating how something we take entirely for granted today - accurate time-keeping - was once a seemingly impossible dream.

Oh, and you'll also learn what the word horology means.

In His Image - Paul Brand (with Philip Yancey)

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Category: Medical, devotional Acquired: Smokey Point Comm. Church Library Read: July 2008 Briefly: Humanitarian doctor shares some of the scriptural truths that have become more real to him over the years as he has observed the workings of the human body.

Comments: Amazing guy, amazing book. Dr. Brand spent most of his life in India as a medical missionary, working almost entirely with lepers - because nobody else would. Working year after year to reconstruct damaged limbs, he's responsible for greatly advancing medical knowledge on the workings of the human hand, and is known for his pioneering techniques in restorative surgery.

This book isn't his biography, though - for that info, you might start with the chapter about him in Yancey's book Soul Survivor. Instead, it's more like a devotional - each chapter begins with a discussion of some aspect of the human body, and then develops that background to illustrate a spiritual theme.

For example, there's a fairly indepth discussion about blood - its composition, its functions, its roles within the body, etc. (One thing I liked about the book is how simply he describes incredibly complex processes - even with no medical background, the concepts are completely understandable). After presenting those topics, he then talks about the message of blood in Christianity.

In particular, he takes issue with those who say that blood is primarily symbolic of the pain and suffering that Christ underwent on our behalf. Wait a minute, he says - blood is a far more positive symbol than that. It's responsible for bringing nourishment to the other cells. It facilitates the healing of sick or damaged parts. It's also the primary mechanism by which the immune system protects the body from attack. Starting to see the point? When Christ's blood becomes a part of us, we are likewise nourished, healed and protected, by virtue of having received a transfusion of His blood. Cool.

For insights like these, and many more, I can heartily recommend this book. Incidentally, it's actually a follow-on to the original Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, which I understand was written along much the same lines. Too many lessons for just one book, I guess. Hopefully my favorite church librarian can scare me up a copy of that one, too.

The Call of the Wild & White Fang - Jack London

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Category: Books that everybody else read in high school. Acquired: Half-Price Books, Everett Read: July 2008 Briefly: Two stories, one about a domesticated dog that returns to his wild roots, and the other about a wild dog that ends up domesticated. Does that mean they cancel each other out?

Comments: I didn't pick this up for any particular reason, except that I've never read anything by London and sort of wondered what the fuss was about. I'm not even a particular fan of animal stories, but do have some interest in the historical setting, namely the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1904.

Anyway, being the last person on earth to read these books, I don't have much to say about the stories themselves. What I did find interesting about this particular edition was the introduction, written by a professor of American literature at Vassar. She discusses London's (well-known) interest and support for Socialism, and then proceeds to cite passages from the books that (to her way of thinking) illustrate and even validate the Socialist world view. Example: the wolf pack that stalks and eventually overwhelms the two dog sledders at the beginning of White Fang demonstrates that workers who organize (i.e. the wolf pack) will have greater success than those enslaved by the ruling class (i.e. the mushers, who are carrying a cargo for a rich family). What foolishness, as she totally misses the point. She doesn't even see the irony in the Jack London letter she quotes later, where he pitches his idea for White Fang to his publisher, raving about how many copies it's going to sell. Ahhh... Socialists make such good capitalists.

So, check this book off my list of books I should have read long ago. What's next? Who knows, maybe it's time to pick up some of the Shakespeare plays that went straight over my head in high school.

Moneyball - Michael Lewis

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Category: Sports, non-fiction Acquired: Suggested/loaned by Ben Z. at work Read: July 2008 Briefly: Unique ways of judging player talent keep the Oakland Athletics perennial contenders in the AL West, despite having one of the smallest payrolls in the Major Leagues.

Comments: I've always been a little skeptical of baseball statistics, particularly the ones popularly used to compare players, but which clearly don't tell the whole story. For example, a pitcher's W-L ratio can have as much to do with his team's offensive performance as it does his own pitching skill. A player's batting average fails to reward those who get on base in other ways - walks, in particular - which are just as useful as hitting singles.

This book, written by a Bay area author, describes how A's GM Billy Beane developed his own ways of judging talent, ignoring traditional metrics and even setting aside the traditional wisdom of his scouting staff. He shocked the Major Leagues by drafting and trading for players who were unimpressive by conventional standards. As a result, he was able to get maximum mileage from his salary budget, for which the numbers are impressive - typically half that of most teams.

While there's no doubt that the A's have been a team to reckon with for the past 10 years or so, it's a little hard to say that it's been specifically because of this approach. The proof just isn't there. Nonetheless, this book is an interesting read because of the insights it gives into how teams choose players, and how they wheel and deal in their back rooms when it's time to trade. There are also a few nice character studies of players who were chosen against all odds, and who did indeed become the contributors that Beane predicted.