yellowpigs.net

Books

This is a mostly-complete list of books I have read. Starred items are strongly recommended.

  • Feb 2012
    • Margolis & Fisher, Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing
  • Jan 2012
    • Rickford & Rickford, Spoken Soul
    • Ridley, The Rational Optimist
  • Dec 2011
    • Barrett, Ship Fever
    • Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason
    • de Swart, Introduction to Natural Language Semantics
  • Nov 2011
    • McWhorter, Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English
    • Durrow, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
    • Furman (ed), The Pen / O. Henry Prize Stories 2011
    • Grossman, The Magicians
  • Oct 2011
    • Tucker, Linear Algebra
    • Van Valin, Jr., An Introduction to Syntax
    • Diamond & Robinson (ed), Natural Experiments of History
    • Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
  • Sep 2011
    • Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics
    • Payne, Exploring Language Structure
    • Yanoshak, Educating Outside the Lines
  • Aug 2011
    • Pariser, The Filter Bubble
    • Lutz & Ascher, Learning Python
  • Jul 2011
    • McWhorter, Defining Creole
    • Kouwenberg & Singler (ed), The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies
  • Jun 2011
    • O'Grady et al, Contemporary Linguistics
    • Fromkin et al, An Introduction to Language
    • Grenoble & Whaley, Saving Languages
    • King et al, Sustaining Linguistic Diversity: Endangered and Minority Languages and Language Varieties
    • Carr, Phonology
    • Spencer, Phonology
    • Bailey et al, African-American English: Structure, History, and Use
    • Katamba, Morphology
    • Devonish, Language and Liberation
    • Chambers & Trudgill, Dialectology
  • May 2011
    • Graves, The Present State of the Dutch Creole of the Virgin Islands
    • Emanuel, Surviving Africanisms in Virgin Islands English Usage
    • Highfield, The French Dialect of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
    • Schrader, Kallaloo: A Collection of Crucian Stories
    • Dillard, Black English
    • Bickerton, Roots of Language
  • Apr 2011
    • Sebba, Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles *
    • Oldendorp (trans Highfield & Barac), A Caribbean Mission
    • Valls, What a Pistarkle!
    • Seaman, Virgin Islands Dictionary
  • Mar 2011
    • Farrow, Lang, & Frank, Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery
    • Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  • Feb 2011
    • Chambers, Having It All?
    • Garton, Robertson, White, & White, Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem between the Wars
    • Ford, The Hotel Between Bitter and Sweet
    • Hofstadter, Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language
  • Jan 2011
    • Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
    • Boyer, America's Virgin Islands: A History of Human Rights and Wrongs *
    • Pitti, The Devil in Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans
  • Dec 2010
    • Bickerton, Adam's Tongue
    • Díaz, Drown
  • Nov 2010
    • Lang, A First Course in Calculus
    • Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons
    • Wolf, Proust and the Squid
  • Oct 2010
    • Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    • Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
    • Holmes, The Age of Wonder
  • Sep 2010
    • Maguire, Wicked
    • Waldstreicher, Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification
    • Wise, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
  • Aug 2010
    • Arana, American Chica
    • Drake (ed), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo
    • Gordimer, Jump: And Other Stories
  • Jul 2010
    • Newitz & Anders (ed), She's Such a Geek
    • Frayn, Copenhagen *
    • Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society
    • Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific
    • Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it *
    • Furman (ed), The Pen / O. Henry Prize Stories 2010 *
    • Chabon, A Model World and Other Stories
    • Bickerton, Bastard Tongues *
  • Jun 2010
    • Todd, Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis *
    • Elliott, The Little Prisoner
    • Gaiman, Odd and the Frost Giants
    • Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
    • Wizner, Spanking Shakespeare
    • Sewell, I'd Rather Eat Chocolate
    • Fisichella, Seven-Tenths: Love, Piracy, and Science at Sea *
    • Singer (ed), Tales of St. John and the Caribbean
    • Beals, Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High *
    • Lennertz (ed), Pacific Northwest Reader
    • Auburn, Proof *
  • May 2010
    • Darwin, On the Origin of Species
    • Barry, I'll Mature When I'm Dead
  • Apr 2010
    • Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven
    • Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
    • Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle *
  • Mar 2010
    • Chapman, 40 Days and 40 Nights
    • Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
    • Dookhan, A History of the Virgin Islands of the United States
    • Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies *
    • Ali, I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
  • Feb 2010
    • Jacoby, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism *
    • Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (video tour readings)
  • Jan 2010
    • Pollan, The Botany of Desire
    • Alvarez, ¡Yo! *
  • Dec 2009
    • McCourt, Teacher Man
    • Rezende & Walbom, St. Croix: Historic Photos
    • McNeely, Reinventing Knowledge
  • Nov 2009
    • Eaves, Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping
    • Doxiadis & Papadimitriou, Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
  • Oct 2009
    • Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth *
    • Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth
  • Sep 2009
    • Bodanis, Passionate Minds *
    • Gore, Garrote
    • Belle de Jour, Secret Diary of a Call Girl
    • Herschel, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy
  • Aug 2009
    • Bohjalian, Trans-Sister Radio
    • Ojito, Finding Mañana *
    • Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg *
    • Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
    • Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    • Alvarez, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents *
    • Angelou, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
    • Lahiri, The Namesake *
  • Jul 2009
    • Bennett, Dennett, Hacker, and Searle, Neuroscience and Philosophy
    • Kittle, The Kindness of Strangers
    • Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?
    • Oates, Black Girl/White Girl
    • Conway, True North *
    • Dumas, Funny in Farsi
    • Baingana, Tropical Fish *
    • Kinzer, Overthrow *
  • Jun 2009
    • Fitzgerald, Babylon Revisited and Other Stories
    • Furman (ed), The Pen / O. Henry Prize Stories 2009
    • Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor
  • May 2009
    • Twain, Who Is Mark Twain?
    • Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies *
    • Merla (ed), Boys Like Us
    • Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day
    • Gladwell, Blink
    • Sagan & Hofstadter, That Mad Ache / Translator, Trader *
  • Apr 2009
    • Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    • Switzer (ed), This and That: The Lost Stories of Emily Carr *
  • Mar 2009
    • Bell, Lavoisier in Year One
    • Leicester, The Historical Background of Chemistry
  • Feb 2009
    • Edmonds & Eidinow, Wittgenstein's Poker *
    • Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road
    • Leavitt, The Indian Clerk *
    • Woodward, Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation
  • Jan 2009
    • Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night
    • Fermi, Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi
    • Russell, Marriage and Morals *
    • Sterns, Say It in Crucian!
    • Danielson, The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution *
    • Babcock & Laschever, Women Don't Ask
    • Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
    • Hart & Honoré, Causation in the Law
    • Walker, The Color Purple
  • Dec 2008
    • Von Humboldt, Jaguars and Electric Eels
    • Jardine, The Curious Life of Robert Hooke *
  • Nov 2008
    • Pinker, The Stuff of Thought
    • Kaplan & Kaplan, Out of the Labyrinth: Setting Mathematics Free
    • Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings *
  • Oct 2008
    • Stewart, Letters to a Young Mathematician *
    • Gaiman, The Graveyard Book *
  • Sep 2008
    • Easterly, The White Man's Burden
    • Crump, Headless Males Make Great Lovers
    • Stephenson, Anathem
  • Aug 2008
    • Bechdel, Fun Home
    • Pesic, Abel's Proof
    • Braun, Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine
    • Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
    • National Geographic, Collegiate Atlas of the World
    • Robinson, The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young *
  • Jul 2008
    • Beale, I Am Not Esther
    • Stein, How the States Got Their Shapes
    • de Waal, Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape
    • Porizkova, A Model Summer
    • Wallner, April in Paris
    • Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh *
    • Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello
    • Bageant, Deer Hunting with Jesus
    • Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology
    • Dangor, Bitter Fruit
    • Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee
  • Jun 2008
    • DeMarco & Lister, Peopleware
    • Brod, Tycho Brahe's Path to God
    • Pinker, The Language Instinct *
    • Bender and de Gramont (ed), choice
  • May 2008
    • Hofstadter, Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies
    • Baker and Elliston (ed), Philosophy and Sex
    • Stewart, Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry *
  • Apr 2008
    • Williams, From Columbus to Castro *
    • Lavender, Obedience
    • Bellow, Collected Stories
  • Mar 2008
    • Boghossian, Fear of Knowlege
    • Ettlinger, Twinkie, Deconstructed
    • Barnes, Orbital Resonance
    • Jackson, The New Encyclopedia of American Animals
  • Feb 2008
    • Hall, Slave Society in the Danish West Indians
    • Cleary, Ramona's World
    • Pretor-Pinney, The Cloudspotter's Guide
    • Ragan (ed), Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters
    • Hathout, Crimes and Mathdemeanors *
    • Guedj, The Parrot's Theorem *
    • Kasman, Reality Conditions: Short Mathematical Fiction *
    • Hawking, A Brief History of Time
  • Jan 2008
    • Searle, MiND *
    • Moore, Fluke
    • Wilson (ed), The Indigenous People of the Caribbean
    • Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities *
    • Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
    • Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor
    • Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's
    • Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek
  • Dec 2007
    • Searle, Freedom & Neurobiology
    • Rowling, Harry Potter y la camera secreta
    • Crane (ed), 50 Great Short Stories
    • Levin, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines *
  • Nov 2007
    • Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present *
    • Ridley, The Red Queen *
    • Kurklansky, A Continent of Islands *
  • Oct 2007
    • Derbyshire, Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra *
    • Thorne, Gender Play
    • Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
    • Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
  • Sep 2007
    • MacKenzie & Curran, A History of Russia, The Soviet Union, and Beyond
    • Bardi, The Calculus Wars *
    • McKellar, Math Doesn't Suck
    • Gaiman, Stardust *
  • Aug 2007
    • Rowling, Harry Potter 1-5
    • Le Guin, The Earthsea Trilogy 1-3
  • Jul 2007
    • Wilson, Four Colors Suffice
    • Diamond, Collapse *
    • Taleb, The Black Swan
    • Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    • Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  • Jun 2007
    • Ridley, The Agile Gene *
    • Schnee (ed), Words without Borders
    • Delbourgo, A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders: Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America
  • May 2007
    • Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization
    • Gunst, Born Fi' Dead
  • Apr 2007
    • Fagan, The Little Ice Age
    • Ouellette, The Physics of the Buffyverse
    • Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop *
  • Mar 2007
    • Irons, A People's History of the Supreme Court
    • Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
  • Feb 2007
    • Kehlmann, Measuring the World
    • Martínez, Negative Math *
  • Jan 2007
    • Dennett, Sweet Dreams
    • Mann, 1491 *
    • Roberts, King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter
  • Dec 2006
    • Mahfouz, Voices from the Other World
    • Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
    • Atwood, Surfacing
    • Kawabata, Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
    • Wilson, The Future of Life
  • Nov 2006
    • Dawkins, The God Delusion
    • Gaiman, Fragile Things *
    • Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors *
  • Oct 2006
    • Livio, The Golden Ratio
    • Baggini, The Pig That Wants to be Eaten *
    • Gaiman, Coraline
    • Caudron, Who Are You People?
  • Sep 2006
    • Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel *
    • Cuomo, Ancient Mathematics
    • Card, Shadow of the Giant
  • Aug 2006
    • Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale *
    • Hutchinson, In Search of Nella Larsen
    • Dennett, Breaking the Spell *
    • Cohen, The Triumph of Numbers *
  • Jul 2006
    • Gould, The Mismeasure of Man
    • Eco, Name of the Rose
    • Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
    • Olson, Count Down
    • Greenblatt, Will in the World
  • Jun 2006
    • Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow *
    • Dawkins, A Devil's Chaplain
    • Gould, Dinosaur in a Haystack
  • May 2006
  • Apr 2006
    • Goldsmith, Obsessive Genius
    • Hansen, From These Shores
    • Guirty, Harlem's Danish-American West Indies
    • Westergaard, The Danish West Indies Under Company Rule
    • Watson, The Double Helix
  • Mar 2006
    • Atalay, Math and the Mona Lisa
    • Ferguson, Tycho and Kepler *
    • Goldstein, Incompleteness
    • Gingerich, The Book Nobody Read *
    • Sobel, Galileo's Daughter
    • Doxiadis, Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture