DAY 21: FAVORITE BIOGRAPHIES

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Here are ten of my favorite biographies

DAY 20: PENDERGAST SERIES

First ten books of one of my favorite ongoing mystery-thriller series of the 21st century.

DAY 19: MATHEMATICIANS

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Here are ten of my favorite biographies of mathematicians.  The top row provides biographies of women mathematicians from different eras, who achieved great things despite the great obstacles thrown in their path for being women.  The bottom row provides entertaining biographies of five groundbreaking 20th century mathematicians.

 Emmy  Noether

 A fun and illuminating video on Noether's Theorem...

Emmy Noether: The Greatest Forgotten Mathematician in History

Shortly before her death, Emmy Noether was a member and lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and they did a fascinating and moving Celebration of Emmy Noether... 

Emmy Noether was an inspiration to contemporary theoretical physicist Lisa Randall: 

The connections that Noether forged are “critical” to modern physics, said Lisa Randall, a professor of theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard. “Energy, momentum and other quantities we take for granted gain meaning and even greater value when we understand how these quantities follow from symmetry in time and space.” Dr. Randall, the author of the newly published “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” recalled the moment in college when she happened to learn that the author of Noether’s theorem was a she. “It was striking and even exciting and inspirational,” Dr. Randall said, admitting, “I was surprised by my reaction.”  - from the New York Times Article below:

The Mighty Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of

Noether's Theorem and The Symmetries of Reality

DAY 18: THE FAR SIDE

When I saw my first Far Side comics, I thought here at last was a worthy successor to Kliban (best known for his Cats book) and I was glad to hear later that Gary Larson has named Kliban as one of his major influences in a New York Times article:
 

‘The Far Side’ Is Back. Sort Of. Gary Larson Will Explain.

I was an assiduous collector of Far Side galleries until I finally broke down and got the Complete Far Side and I never tire of perusing its pages!

The Complete Far Side

Gary Larson published a fascinating and hilarious memoir:

The Pre-History of THE FAR SIDE  

In this book (page 170), Larson includes a letter he received from an entomologist wanting to name a newly discovered species of owl louse after him:

Larson, an ardent nature lover was thrilled, and wrote in his memoir: 
 

"I considered this an extreme honor. Besides, I knew no one was going to write and ask to name a new species of swan after me. You have to grab these opportunities when they come along."

The PreHistory of THE FAR SIDE, p.171

Larson louse (Strigiphilus garylarsoni)

And so the entomologist Dale H. Clayton named a new variety of owl louse for Gary Larson in his paper: "Host Specificity of Strigiphilus Owl Lice (Ischnocera: Philopteridae), with the Description of New Species and Host Associations"

In this paper Clayton writes:

This species is named in honor of cartoonist Gary Larson, in appreciation of the unique light he has shed on the workings of nature. 


I was also an avid collector of Kliban books and have five of his collections, other than Cats. 

DAY 17: THE SAGA OF ROLAND INNESS

The Saga of Roland Inness - Historical fiction series by Wayne Grant

Have enjoyed all seven of the Roland Inness series about a young master of the longbow in Britain during medieval times. 

Since there have only been seven books so far, I have filled out the ten with Ken Follett's great Kingsbridge series which begins in medieval times and continues into Elizabethan times, though each book leaps ahead a few centuries or so from the previous one!

DAY 16: BACH

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Nine of my favorite books on Bach, along with special guest star Nina Simone (with her daughter Lisa) and her autobiography, which supplies the great quote.

Nina Simone began her music career as an accomplished classical pianist who attended Juilliard. She wanted a career as a concert pianist, but believed that this was denied her by racial prejudice. Nina Simone didn't want her talented daughter Lisa to go into show business, so Lisa spent over ten years in the air force before starting her own successful music career.

DAY 15: JOSEPH CAMPBELL

The first Joseph Campbell book I read was A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. Joycean scholars were somewhat annoyed that Campbell was barging into their territory, but I think that he is actually the ideal tour guide for Finnegans Wake, which absorbed stories and myths from many different cultures , many different times. His opening paragraph is still one of the best summaries of the Wake that I know of:

 

Running riddle and fluid answer, Finnegans Wake is a mighty allegory of the fall and resurrection of mankind. It is a strange book, a compound of fable, symphony, and nightmare-a monstrous enigma beckoning imperiously from the shadowy pits of sleep. Its mechanics resemble those of a dream, a dream which has freed the author from the necessities of common logic and has enabled him to compress all periods of history, all phases of individual and racial development, into a circular design, of which every part is beginning, middle, and end.

 

 And believe it or not, that is a real cosmic object, in fact it is...

Hoag's Object