Dafan

​This radio play is not bad.  It is a little short and the pacing is very inconsistent but the "lotus eaters" story is a good one.  3/5 stars.

Der Zahir

I was a little disappointed by this self-indulgent, introspective philosophical monograph.  The details of the Kazakhstan Steppe were interesting.  And I enjoyed the depth into the values and culture of the characters.  The book it is very-well written.  Coelho is a fantastic writer.  But the petulant, egotistical, self-aggrandizing characters' melodramatic first-world problems seemed silly. And the bizarre, mystical superstitions  of the Kazakhs are just plain dumb.  2/5 stars.

I am considering writing a separate, German blog since I started reading a lot of German books; however I think most people who might look at this blog are not German speakers.
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Zadig ou la destinee

Another great story by Voltaire, 4/5 stars.

Candide ou l'optimisme

This play or the story summary version I read on the plane today is fantastic! I was laughing frequently all during the flight. 5/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Kaffir Boy

My daughter must read this book for her class at school so I wanted to see if the pornography law suit against school districts had merit.  The beginning is quite horrific.  And I suspect conditions in the region have not changed much since the book was published, despite the fact that Apartheid has been abolished.  The book is not well written; it is dated, extremely melodramatic, but important for the historical context.  2/5 stars

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

max the demon vs entropy of doom

It's a graphic novel (comic book) to make thermodynamics approachable by non-physics majors.

I sponsored the kickstarter project because I selfishly want to buy and read the graphic novel.

The kickstarter page is here:

http://kck.st/2sL36PG

7/24 - 7/26/17 Photo updates

Gabriella's camera "saw Internet" when it came home to our house and uploaded the rest of the photos I had not secured previously, so we have updates to a few of the albums as well as photos from the trip home

She captured some amazing pictures out of the window of our plane rides, Zurich, Los Angeles, Seattle.

• Monday 7/24/2017:  Flights home

Hunkelers Geheimnis

The flight from Zurich to LAX had a good selection of audio programming​ and I listened to this excellent radio play.  The story, characters, acting, etc. were very good. 4/5 stars.

Microcosmos: Le people de cosmos

Fantastic documentary about bugs in the meadow.  Great close-up footage. 4/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Fwd: The rise and fall of D.O.D.O

I really like Neal Stephenson's books and also enjoyed his collaboration _Cobweb_.  This collaboration is not as good but is still ok. Time travel stories cannot be self-consistent always make it extremely difficult for me to suspend disbelief. The characters are fun and the plot is ok. 3/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936