Top | I,Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov. Arguably the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived, Isaac Asimov also possessed one of the most brilliant and original minds of our time. His accessible style and far-reaching interests in subjects ranging from science to humor to history earned him the nickname "the Great Explainer." I. Asimov is his personal story--vivid, open, and honest--as only Asimov himself could tell it.
Here is the story of the paradoxical genius who wrote of travel to the stars yet refused to fly in airplanes; who imagined alien universes and vast galactic civilizations while staying home to write; who compulsively authored more than 470 books yet still found the time to share his ideas with some of the great minds of our century. Here are his wide-ranging thoughts and sharp-eyed observations on everything from religion to politics, love and divorce, friendship and Hollywood, fame and mortality. Here, too, is a riveting behind-the-scenes look at the varied personalities--Campbell, Ellison, Heinlein, Clarke, del Rey, Silverberg, and others--who along with Asimov helped shape science fiction.
As unique and irrepressible as the man himself, I. Asimov is the candid memoir of an incomparable talent who entertained readers for nearly half a
century and whose work will surely endure into the future he so vividly envisioned. Top |
Top | I Can't Remember if We're Cheap or Smart by Scott Adams. Whether avoiding pointless meetings with the clueless pointy-haired boss or angsting over insanely impossible sales goals, meaningless performance objectives, and a mind-numbing cubicle environment, Dilbert and his fellow corporate victims soldier on, providing a great humorous release for the great brotherhood of office drones. For more than 20 years, Dilbert has connected with the great unappreciated, making one and all wonder, "Has Scott Adams bugged our offices?" In I Can't Remember If We're Cheap or Smart, Scott once again demonstrates that through the dot-coms to the mortgage bubble burst to the new normal, Dilbert knows that the stuff of work is really funny business! Top |
Top | I, Robot (The Robot) by Isaac Asimov . Collection of short stories by the master of robot law. Good reading. Inspired an excellent movie by the same name. Asimov's stories are not action oriented but the movie provides that. Top |
Top | I will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein. The complete Bible quote is: I will fear no evil, because thou art with me. This is an exploration in sexual identity. Too much sex, but it was written in the sixties. It does make the reader explore latent homosexuality. Top |
Top | In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece. Good movie too. Top |
Top | In Joy Still Felt by Isaac Asimov. This is a wonderful book and a great insight into a man whose passion for the positiveness of the human race was, I felt, equal to none. There are moments when Asimov turns a brief, yet discerning eye to himself and admits his flaws such as his failed marriage which he acknowledges he had a major part in its dissolution. He only briefly touches on the lives of his children preferring to keep those portions of his life, and theirs, private. I did not mind these exclusions at all because Asimov makes up for it with a wide range of details in his life from his many speeches, his travels and his interactions with fellow writers, celebrities and other noted figures. He may not be a Shakespeare and some of his non-fiction works may not hold out the test of time but this was an amazing and insightful man whose positiveness about the human race and its limited potential has certainly earned him a place in history. Top |
Top | In Memory Yet Green by Isaac Asimov. It is claimed that Isaac Assimov is the only author that has at least one book in every major classification of the Library's Dewey decimal system. Mr. Assimov was a prodigious workaholic author. In this book, Isaac tells of his early life as the son of Russian-Jewish emigrants living in Brooklyn. Work and study became his regiment early on in life. I would recommend this book only if you have enjoyed his regular fare. One can see the seeds of his future books as he goes about trying to select a career path. Assimov goes onto explain his activities during WWII and surprisingly the struggle he had to become an author. Even a budding author with his talent needed mentoring. This is definitely a low-key verbose book that will appeal mainly to his fans. This book includes only his early career. One of his memories was his father's look of surprise when he saw the ocean after they stood on their apartment building roof for the first time. His family had been so intent on running their candy store business that years after arriving in New York they had never realized the ocean was so near. The book is a series of these types of memories, no blockbusters, some would even say "its nothing to write about " but he did and it makes for passable entertainment. Top |
Top | In Search of Excellence by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. The "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table. Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management -- action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices -- that made these organizations successful. I read this long before it was a best seller and was deligted to discover that my success in management had been documented. You manage by walking around, building trust, employees are smart-smarter than their managers usually. You want them to share their successes and failures with you. They will only do that if they trust you to do the right thing. Once you establish trust, you will get great imformation that will let you lead your company/department in the right direction. Top |
Top | Independent People by Halldór Laxness is an epic novel originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935; literally the title means "Self-standing [i.e. self-reliant] folk". It deals with the struggle of poor Icelandic farmers in the early 20th century, only freed from debt bondage in the last generation, and surviving on isolated crofts in an inhospitable landscape.
The novel is considered among the foremost examples of social realism in Icelandic fiction in the 1930s. It is an indictment of materialism, the cost of the self-reliant spirit to relationships, and capitalism itself. This book, along with several other major novels, helped Laxness win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. I only recently read this book. I liked it even though there were no real characters to cheer on. I kept wanting to yell at them to move south. I do want to visist Iceland. Top |
Top | Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christophr Moore. Take a wonderfully crazed excursion into the demented heart of a tropical paradise—a world of cargo cults, cannibals, mad scientists, ninjas, and talking fruit bats. Our bumbling hero is Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy's body, who makes a living as a pilot for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation. But when he demolishes his boss's pink plane during a drunken airborne liaison, Tuck must run for his life from Mary Jean's goons. Now there's only one employment opportunity left for him: piloting shady secret missions for an unscrupulous medical missionary and a sexy blond high priestess on the remotest of Micronesian hells. Here is a brazen, ingenious, irreverent, and wickedly funny novel from a modern master of the outrageous.I sent Chris an email, which surpirsingly he responded to quickly, about his writing of this delightful tale. He told me he picked up someone from Kwajalein then spent a month diving on Truk doing research for this novel. I think it is time to revisit Roberta and others from this book. Top |
Top | Island Victory: The Battle of Kwajalein Atoll by S. L. A. Marshall a great book for a serious student of WWII. A bit tedious to the casual reader, but he does document the method of getting the truth of what happens in battle. There are a number of maps to help the reader. Top |
Top | It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It by Robert Fulghum. In his first phenomenal best-seller, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum reminded readers everywhere of some plain and still-true truths. Now, picking up where he left off, Fulghum turns our eyes to show-and-tell, weddings, his own ten commandments, and more insightful and unique observations on what our world is and was. Top |
