Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur, July 2016

Attention conservation notice: I have no taste.

Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Wood's thesis is that the revolution's radicalism wasn't so much in class struggle as it was in over-throwing the idea of a society of orders, of hierarchical chains of dependence and patronage descending from a monarch through aristocrats all the way down. I am not sure I find this fully convincing; Wood shows lots of examples of hierarchical-dependence before the revolution, lots of examples of its dissolution after, and lots of attacks on it during, but how hard would it be to find comparable anecdotes which don't fit his scheme? Similarly, how hard would it be to find anecdotes which fit Wood's scheme, during these periods, for England, or for that matter for the British colonies in the West Indies? If the answer in both cases is "very hard", then I'd be more persuaded; but that's not something I am competent to assess.

Elsa Hart, Jade Dragon Mountain

Mind candy historical mystery: one part imitation of Judge Dee (from the early Qing, rather than the Tang, and from a lower point of view on the social scale) to one part Arabian Nights; more enjoyable than it has any right to be.

Linda Nagata, Deception Well

This is one of Nagata's republished novels from the 1990s, when she was, quite simply, one of the best hard-SF writers going. It shows all her virtues: elegant writing, rigorous large-scale imagination, a story growing naturally from the setting, and a certain emotional detachment from her characters which does not interfere with the narrative drive. (I have my suspicions as to why Nagata's writing career went into hiatus.)

Peter Sis, The Conference of the Birds

There is something incredibly charming about the thought of a Czech-American illustrator adapting a 4500-line medieval Pesian Sufi epic poem as, essentially, a comic book. It becomes even more charming when it's pulled off very well, as it is here.

Stephen M. Stigler, Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom

Stigler is, it's fair to say, the pre-eminent historian of statistics from an "internal", technical-development-of-the-field perspective. This is him explaining where seven key principles came from. I enjoyed it, but I am going to be a jerk and say that this book narrowly but decisively misses being great. The reason is that Stigler's implicit reader is someone who already knows modern statistics. The text goes along happily explaining (for example) why randomized experiments are such a great idea, and then will make references which are incomprehensible unless you've done analysis of variance, remember what "interaction" means in that context, and recall what kind of experimental designs let you get at interactions. I think that with a little more work Stigler could have produced a book which would have actually explained our ideas to non-statisticians, which would have been a triumph. Instead, this is just one for consumption within the tribe.

Ruth Downie, Vita Brevis

Mind-candy historical mystery novel, in which moving from Britannia to Rome to seek one's fortune results only in plot. Enjoyable separately from the rest of the series.

Charles Stross, The Nightmare Stacks

Mind candy contemporary fantasy, in which England is invaded by the Unseelie Host; also in which a nerdy vampire boy meets a manic pixie dream girl with a very evil step-mother, depicted under the light of Stross's take on common notions of romance... This is a really fun book, on multiple levels, and I endorse it strongly as mind candy. Stross has clearly tried to make it an alternate entry-point to the series, though I don't know (having been enjoying the series since the beginning) how comprehensible a new reader really would find the book, especially Alex's situation.