Exploring Extreme Programming
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. 2020. The premise of this book is that America has a literal caste system, in the same sense as India or Nazi Germany have had. The system sorts people by attributes Continue reading Review – Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Japanese Inn. By Oliver Statler. This book tells the story of Minaguchi-ya, a (real) inn on the road between Kyoto and Tokyo, the old capital and the new. It ranges from 1569 to the 1950s. Each chapter tells about the Continue reading Review: Japanese Inn
Washington: The Indispensable Man, by James Thomas Flexner. My wife is on a quest to read biographies of each president. I don’t feel the same urge, but I did read one: George Washington.This treatment by James Thomas Flexner is a Continue reading Review – Washington: The Indispensable Man
It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis, 1935. ISBN 0451465644. This story tells how fascism could come to America. Lewis wrote it in 1935 – before Hitler attacked Poland in 1939. It shows that it was not too early to predict Continue reading Review: It Can’t Happen Here
Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times, by Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean. Avery, 2009. Ralph Stanley was part of the Stanley Brothers until his brother Carter died in the 1960s; then he performed without him for many years. Continue reading Review: Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times (Ralph Stanley)
Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?: The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music, by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg. Simon & Schuster, 2014. The Carter Family was one of the biggest stars of early country music, after Continue reading Review: Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?: The Carter Family
Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer (3/e), by Michael Swaine and Paul Freiberger. 2014. ISBN 1937785769. What was involved in the creation of the personal computer? It was more than just Apple ][ and IBM Continue reading Review: Fire in the Valley, by Swaine and Freiberger
Electronic and Experimental Music (5/e), by Thom Holmes. Routledge, 2015. ISBN 113879273X. Holmes gives a full tour of electrical and electronic instruments, from the Teleharmonium and Theremin, tape recorders (for musique concrete), analog synthesizers, and digital and computer synthesizers. He also Continue reading Electronic and Experimental Music, by Thom Holmes (Review)
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, by Peter Seibel. ISBN 978-1-4302-1948-4. Peter Seibel interviews 15 programmers on a variety of topics. I liked the interviewing style: he asks a little biographical information, sprinkles in some standard questions Continue reading Coders at Work (Review)
Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa. Kodansha International, 1995. Swordplay, true love, and a man climbing up the side of a cliff. It’s not the Princess Bride; it’s the story of Musashi, the most famous swordsman of Japan. This is a romanticized, historical fiction novel. Continue reading Review – Musashi