The Selfish Gene

#949
Title: The Selfish Gene
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1976/2006
384 pages

Perhaps the best use of the audiobook medium I've heard for non-fiction, with Dawkins and the narrator switching back and forth to indicate quotes and footnotes.

The central motif is the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS), which Dawkins explains and explores throughout. It reminded me very much of the only perpetual SimLife scenario I was ever able to construct, which included only wolves and sea turtles but ran indefinitely.

Some sections seemed oversimplified; there is what seems like an over-reliance on game theory modeling, which is highly stripped of other variables and makes some assumptions that seem to conflate money with procreation as a reductive explanation of all evolutionary behaviors. These may be useful preliminary models, but seem lacking in real explanatory power.

I'd have liked to hear Dawkins's thoughts about left handedness and homosexual/bisexual behavior, both of which are present in animals as well as humans, and persist over the history of species.

Sweet Promised Land

#948
Title: Sweet Promised Land
Author: Robert Laxalt
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Year:1957/1997
Country: Basque Country
198 pages

A very sweet, poignant memoir/travelogue about Laxalt's father and a trip they took together back to Basque Country, where his father grew up. Well-written in deceptively simple language considering the complex emotional experiences depicted.

Could be used for Nevada or Basque country in geographical challenges.

[The Hobbit: Pocket Edition]

#947
Title: [The Hobbit: Pocket Edition]
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 1937/2011
276 pages

This is an attractive little hardback pocket edition. The type, though small, is very clear, and there's something fun about a hobbit-sized book.

This was a re-read of The Hobbit, which I first read at 7 years old. It was the second chapter book I read, and my first adult novel in terms of vocabulary and themes. I reread it several times as a child and adolescent, then not again in its entirety until now. Having read better books in subsequent years--for example, books with any female characters whatsoever--I still admire its role in the genre, the shadowy evidence of Tolkien's scholarship in philology and northern epics, and the ways in which this is a bildungsroman about going to war and longing for home. The return home elides over larger problems, such as what Bilbo might do with this Ring. Fortunately, Tolkien took care of that little plot element elsewhere.

Rolling Thunder (Red Thunder, #3)

#946
Title: Rolling Thunder (Red Thunder, #3)
Author: John Varley
Publisher: Ace
Year: 2008
344 pages

The plot picks us slowly in this third of the series, but I thought it was worth it for character development and world-building. The threat to Earth in this installment seemed more Niven than Heinlein. The conclusion, which acknowledges the unresolved arcs, points to a fourth novel, and indeed, Varley is apparently busy writing Dark Lightning. Varley's extra-story fun here is to weave in the titles of a number of Heinlein's juvenile and transitional novels, as well as something of the tone and character style. The character "Jubal" is joined by protagonist "Podkayne."

Varley's recent writing has the feel of a movie treatment, so it's not a surprise to read on his website that he is indeed working on a couple of novel-based screenplays.

From Darkness to Darkness (Loka Legends, #2)

#945
Title: From Darkness to Darkness (Loka Legends, #2)
Author: Jay Bell
Publisher: Smashwords
Year: 2012
290 pages

**SPOILERS**
The sequel to Bell's first loka book, The Cat in the Cradle, set in the same universe and with most characters returning. In a story that is thematically similar to the previous book, a young man, Cole, is manipulated by a powerful, malevolent force, which must be fought though it is seemingly invulnerable. This force is again opposed by a coalition of loka wielders and their allies. Bonus for fans of giant talking cats: Kio gets it on. 

The Republic of San Marino: The Oldest and Smallest Republic of the World

#944
Title: The Republic of San Marino: The Oldest and Smallest Republic of the World
Author: Giuseppe Rossi
Publisher: Governmental Tourist Body, Sport and Spectacle, of the Republic of S. Marino
Country: [San Marino replacement]
Year: 1976
64 pages

See that tag in the upper left of the image? Thanks for the book, Inter-library Loan!

San Marino, replacement for or adjunct to Guida fotografica di San Marino.

An oversized photo "tour" of San Marino that provides a much better sense of the country's history than did the Guida fotografica, though it is still scant.

The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of Wa

#943
Title: The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War
Author: Anonymous & Barbara Stoller Miller
Publisher: Bantam
Year: 500 BCE/1986
176 pages

A philosophical treatise presented as a discourse between Arjuna, a reluctant archer or the brink of war, and his chariotman, who turns out to be Krishna. Krishna gets most of the air time. The Bhagavad Gita was probably a separate discourse that was interpolated into the Mahabharata.

On the positive side, the Bhagavad Gita provides some religious/philosophical context for the Buddha's teachings, and shows why they were such innovations. On the down side (and I'm not criticizing anybody's beliefs but speaking for myself), its emphatically stated and restated tropes include the impossibility of change and the futility of trying to do so, because your fate is sealed; that you should keep to your place in the social hierarchy and that doing your ordained job poorly is better than doing a job you weren't assigned well; shut up and kill those other guys already, Arjuna, because they're bad guys (so forget your scruples that they're your friends and relations) and anyway both you shooting them and their deaths are preordained so do as you're told. The main "action" of this discourse, such as it is, could be used as an illustration of Milgram's findings in his obedience studies: Do as you're told because I'm the Big Guy and I say it's the right thing to do. Your empathy is an impediment and based on false premises. Even though you think you know your compatriots, I gave them lots of chances to be good guys and they blew it, so shoot already, Arjuna.

All this fixity begs the question of why one should strive to be better--is it simply a matter of snagging a better reincarnation? It can't be enlightenment, because it's made clear that only really great men can get off the wheel, and you aren't one of them.