Books read

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon: Kurson, Robert

Jovan Stosic March 5, 2023

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Men-Odyssey-Astronauts-Journey/dp/081298871X/ref=d_pd_sbs_vft_high_sccl_3_3/138-9546383-6513267?pd_rd_w=i7NdU&content-id=amzn1.sym.3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_p=3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_r=8NSF51QP8N6VY5QTYC6Z&pd_rd_wg=rV7lU&pd_rd_r=c414118b-0e49-42d7-84e3-23bef7f7785b&pd_rd_i=081298871X&psc=1

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon: Kurson, Robert was last modified: March 5th, 2023 by Jovan Stosic

I, Robot

Jovan Stosic January 15, 2022

I, Robot is a fixup novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book for stand-alone publication by Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies. The stories are woven together by a framing narrative in which the fictional Dr. Susan Calvin tells each story to a reporter (who serves as the narrator) in the 21st century. Although the stories can be read separately, they share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality, and when combined they tell a larger story of Asimov’s fictional history of robotics.

Several of the stories feature the character of Dr. Calvin, chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots. Upon their publication in this collection, Asimov wrote a framing sequence presenting the stories as Calvin’s reminiscences during an interview with her about her life’s work, chiefly concerned with aberrant behaviour of robots and the use of “robopsychology” to sort out what is happening in their positronic brain. The book also contains the short story in which Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics first appear, which had large influence on later science fiction and had impact on thought on ethics of artificial intelligence as well. Other characters that appear in these short stories are Powell and Donovan, a field-testing team which locates flaws in USRMM’s prototype models.

The collection shares a title with the 1939 short story “I, Robot” by Eando Binder (pseudonym of Earl and Otto Binder), which greatly influenced Asimov. Asimov had wanted to call his collection Mind and Iron and objected when the publisher made the title the same as Binder’s. In his introduction to the story in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories (1979), Asimov wrote:

It certainly caught my attention. Two months after I read it, I began ‘Robbie’, about a sympathetic robot, and that was the start of my positronic robot series. Eleven years later, when nine of my robot stories were collected into a book, the publisher named the collection I, Robot over my objections. My book is now the more famous, but Otto’s story was there first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot

I, Robot was last modified: April 10th, 2022 by Jovan Stosic

The Symphony Prof. Greenberg-Fine Arts & Music

Jovan Stosic December 28, 2021

Average 45 minutes each

1
Let’s Take It From the Top!

2
The Concerto and the Orchestra

3
The Pre-Classical Symphony

4
Mannheim

5
Classical Masters

6
Franz Joseph Haydn, Part 1

7
Franz Joseph Haydn, Part 2

8
Mozart

9
Beethoven

10
Schubert

11
Berlioz and the Symphonie fantastique

12
Mendelssohn and Schumann

13
Franck, Saint-Saens, and the Symphony in France

14
Nationalism and the Symphony

15
Brahms, Bruckner, and the Viennese Symphony

16
Gustav Mahler

17
Nielsen and Sibelius

18
The Symphony in Russia

19
Charles Ives

20
Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber

21
Roy Harris and William Schuman

22
The Twentieth-Century British Symphony

23
Olivier Messiaen and Turangalila!

24
Dmitri Shostakovich and His Tenth Symphony

 

Source: The Symphony Prof. Greenberg-Fine Arts & Music

The Symphony Prof. Greenberg-Fine Arts & Music was last modified: December 28th, 2021 by Jovan Stosic

TTC – Chamber Music of Mozart – Online Study of Mozart

Jovan Stosic December 28, 2021

1
A Blessing of Inconceivable Richness

2
“The Hunt”

3
“The Hunt,” Part 2

4
The Flute Quartet in D Major

5
Vienna

6
Haydn and Inspiration

7
Exclusively For His Friends

8
Duos For Violin and Viola

9
Not Just a Pretty Face

10
Blowin’ in the Winds

11
The Piano Trios

12
The Piano Quartets

13
String Quartet in A Major, K. 464

14
The String Quintets

15
Dissonance—Musical and Financial

16
Basset Horns and Harmonicas
Source: Chamber Music of Mozart – Online Study of Mozart

TTC – Chamber Music of Mozart – Online Study of Mozart was last modified: December 28th, 2021 by Jovan Stosic

The Door into Summer

Jovan Stosic July 31, 2020

The Door into Summer is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November, December 1956, with covers and interior illustrations by Kelly Freas). It was published in hardcover in 1957. The novel is largely hard science fiction, but includes elements of fantasy and a romance.

Its title was triggered by a remark which Heinlein’s wife Virginia made when their cat refused to leave the house: “He’s looking for a door into summer.” Heinlein wrote the novel in 13 days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_into_Summer

The Door into Summer was last modified: July 31st, 2020 by Jovan Stosic

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Jovan Stosic September 28, 2019

Benjamin Franklin is the Founding Father who winks at us. An ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than of marble. In bestselling author Walter Isaacson’s vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin seems to turn to us from history’s stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. By bringing Franklin to life, Isaacson shows how he helped to define both his own time and ours.

He was, during his 84-year life, America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist, and he was also one of its most practical—though not most profound—political thinkers. He proved by flying a kite that lightning was electricity, and he invented a rod to tame it. He sought practical ways to make stoves less smoky and commonwealths less corrupt. He organized neighborhood constabularies and international alliances, local lending libraries and national legislatures. He combined two types of lenses to create bifocals and two concepts of representation to foster the nation’s federal compromise. He was the only man who shaped all the founding documents of America: the Albany Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the peace treaty with England, and the Constitution. And he helped invent America’s unique style of homespun humor, democratic values, and philosophical pragmatism.

But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America’s first great publicist, he was, in his life and in his writings, consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity.

Through it all, he trusted the hearts and minds of his fellow “leather-aprons” more than he did those of any inbred elite. He saw middle-class values as a source of social strength, not as something to be derided. His guiding principle was a “dislike of everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people.” Few of his fellow founders felt this comfort with democracy so fully, and none so intuitively.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, from his days as a runaway printer to his triumphs as a statesman, scientist, and Founding Father. He chronicles Franklin’s tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. He also shows how Franklin helped to create the American character and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10883.Benjamin_Franklin

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson was last modified: September 28th, 2019 by Jovan Stosic

Concert Masterworks by Robert Greenberg

Jovan Stosic September 28, 2019

Have you ever thought about the creative process that boiled inside geniuses like Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorák, Strauss, Brahms, Mendelssohn, or Liszt – or any composer, for that matter?
What goes through a composer’s mind when a musical composition is being set to paper? Are those magical weeks or months spent in an agonizing creative blur of ideas first tried and then discarded, or is it a matter of pure inspiration? Does the composer hear the music in his head before even picking up a pen, or does the music in fact begin on that blank sheet of staff paper? Most important, can lay listeners like us, untrained in music’s technicalities, learn how to open our ears to a composer’s creative intentions?
Happily, the answer is a resounding “yes!” And in this series of 32 lectures, a professional composer and accomplished teacher will give you a new level of sophistication as a music listener – using as his teaching tools some of the most memorable works in all of music, by geniuses whose work has not only withstood time, but transcended it.
Through listening to these lectures, you’ll gain a new grasp of the intricacies of musical purpose, structure, and narrative content that you will then be able to hear in any piece of music. And though this is a demanding course, with a deeper look into musical structure than untrained listeners are likely to have experienced, it is not an intimidating one. Professor Greenberg vividly positions each composition and its composer in the social and musical fabric of its period, so you can understand the music in its proper societal and artistic context and feel its emotional power in the same way as did its original audiences

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40032224-concert-masterworks

Concert Masterworks by Robert Greenberg was last modified: September 28th, 2019 by Jovan Stosic

The Symphonies of Beethoven by Robert Greenberg

Jovan Stosic September 28, 2019

Why is Beethoven one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music? Professor Robert Greenberg answers: “Beethoven possessed a unique gift for communication. He radiated an absolute directness that makes his music totally accessible. The sheer emotional power of his music is readily understood. His revolutionary compositional ideas are easily appreciated. “And his nine symphonies are among the greatest achievements of the human spirit. “They were revolutionary on every level: harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, formal, dramatic, self-expressive, and emotional. Beethoven led the charge to a totally new era. He threw out the restraint of 18th-century classicism and ushered in romantic self-expression. His symphonic offspring were the first statesmen of this new, musical democracy.” Beethoven’s artistic progress is historically measured in three periods: The Viennese period, 1792-1802. Symphonies nos. 1 and 2 are composed in this decade. In them, Beethoven innovates within the Classical style. The Heroic period, 1803-1815. Symphonies nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are composed during this time. With these symphonies, Beethoven makes revolutionary breaks away from the Classical style. The Late period, 1820-1826. This period is dominated by the most revolutionary and influential composition of Beethoven’s career: Symphony no. 9. Here Beethoven fuses all art forms into one monumental work and heralds a new era of unfettered musical expression. Over the course of these 32 lectures on the history and analysis of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, we see how he revolutionized musical composition and created works of unique beauty, power, and depth.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6235403-the-symphonies-of-beethoven

The Symphonies of Beethoven by Robert Greenberg was last modified: September 28th, 2019 by Jovan Stosic

The Life and Works of Beethoven (Audible Audio Edition), Jeremy Siepmann, Naxos

Jovan Stosic January 31, 2019

 

For many people, Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever lived. In this portrait-in-sound, actors’ readings combine with his music to reveal a titanic personality, vulnerable and belligerent, comic and tragic, and above all, heroic, as he comes to grips with perhaps the greatest disability a musician can suffer. No man’s music is more universal; few men’s lives are more inspiring. In every sense but one – his modest height – he was a giant.

The Life and Works of Beethoven (Audible Audio Edition), Jeremy Siepmann, Naxos was last modified: January 31st, 2019 by Jovan Stosic

Isaac Asimov – Marooned off Vesta

Jovan Stosic July 19, 2018

“Marooned off Vesta” is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was the third story written by him, and the first to be published.[1] Written in July 1938 when Asimov was 18, it was rejected by Astounding Science Fiction in August, then accepted in October by Amazing Stories, appearing in the March 1939 issue. Asimov first included it in his 1968 story collection Asimov’s Mysteries, and subsequently in the 1973 collection The Best of Isaac Asimov.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marooned_off_Vesta

 

Isaac Asimov – Marooned off Vesta was last modified: July 19th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

Isaac Asimov – Best of Isaac Asimov

Jovan Stosic July 19, 2018

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Isaac-Asimov/dp/044920829X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531994107&sr=1-2&keywords=1973+-+The+Best+of+Isaac+Asimov

 

Isaac Asimov – Best of Isaac Asimov was last modified: July 19th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

Nightfall (Asimov novelette and novel) – Wikipedia

Jovan Stosic July 5, 2018

“Nightfall” is a 1941 science fiction novelette by American writer Isaac Asimov about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily illuminated by sunlight at all times. It was adapted into a novel with Robert Silverberg in 1990. The short story has been included in 48 anthologies, and has appeared in six collections of Asimov’s stories.[citation needed] In 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted “Nightfall” the best science fiction short story written prior to the 1965 establishment of the Nebula Awards, and included it in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.

Source: Nightfall (Asimov novelette and novel) – Wikipedia

Nightfall (Asimov novelette and novel) – Wikipedia was last modified: July 5th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

Nineteen Eighty-Four – Wikipedia

Jovan Stosic July 5, 2018

Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel published in 1949 by English author George Orwell.[2][3] The novel is set in the year 1984 when most of the world population have become victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation.

In the novel, Great Britain (“Airstrip One”) has become a province of a superstate named Oceania. Oceania is ruled by the “Party”, who employ the “Thought Police” to persecute individualism and independent thinking.[4] The Party’s leader is Big Brother, who enjoys an intense cult of personality but may not even exist. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a rank-and-file Party member. Smith is an outwardly diligent and skillful worker, but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother. Smith rebels by entering a forbidden relationship with fellow employee Julia.

As literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot, and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, and memory hole, have entered into common usage since its publication in 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian, which describes official deception, secret surveillance, brazenly misleading terminology, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.[5] It was awarded a place on both lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 13 on the editor’s list, and 6 on the readers’ list.[6] In 2003, the novel was listed at number 8 on the BBC’s survey The Big Read.[7]

Source: Nineteen Eighty-Four – Wikipedia

Nineteen Eighty-Four – Wikipedia was last modified: July 5th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

C-Chute

Jovan Stosic July 5, 2018

“C-Chute” is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the October 1951 issue of Galaxy Magazine and later appeared in Asimov’s collections Nightfall and Other Stories (1969) and The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973).

One of the few Asimov stories that feature aliens, the story deals with a group of people imprisoned by an alien race when their spaceship is captured. The emphasis of the story is on the interactions and group psychology of the prisoners, all of whom have differing backgrounds and motivations.

An argument between Asimov and the editor Horace L. Gold over this story was the inspiration for Asimov’s story “The Monkey’s Finger”.

Source: C-Chute – Wikipedia

C-Chute was last modified: July 5th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

The Quantum Universe – Wikipedia

Jovan Stosic January 6, 2018

The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen is a 2011 book by the theoretical physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.

The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen
The quantum universe - bookcover.png

Hardcover edition
Author Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject Physics, quantum mechanics
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Allen Lane

Publication date

 29 October 2011
Media type Print (hardcover)
Pages 272 pp.
ISBN 978-1846144325
Preceded by Wonders of the Universe
Followed by Wonders of Life

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quantum_Universe

The Quantum Universe – Wikipedia was last modified: January 6th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

Norwegian Wood (novel)

Jovan Stosic January 6, 2018

Norwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森 Noruwei no Mori) is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.[1] The novel is a nostalgic story of loss and burgeoning sexuality.[2] It is told from the first-person perspective of Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a college student living in Tokyo.[3] Through Watanabe’s reminiscences we see him develop relationships with two very different women — the beautiful yet emotionally troubled Naoko, and the outgoing, lively Midori.[4]

Norwegian Wood
NorwegianWood.jpg

First English-language edition
Author Haruki Murakami
Original title Noruwei no Mori
ノルウェイの森
Translator Alfred Birnbaum
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Genre Coming of age novel
Publisher Kodansha

Publication date

 1987

Published in English

 2000
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 296 (US Paperback)
400 (UK Paperback)
ISBN 0-375-70402-7 (US edition)
ISBN 0-09-944882-3 (UK edition)

ISBN 4-06-203516-2 (JP edition)
OCLC 42692182

Dewey Decimal

 895.6/35 21
LC Class PL856.U673 N6713 2000

The novel is set in Tokyo during the late 1960s, at a time when Japanese students, like those of many other nations, were protesting against the established order.[5] While it serves as the backdrop against which the events of the novel unfold, Murakami (through the eyes of Watanabe and Midori) portrays the student movement as largely weak-willed and hypocritical.

Murakami adapted the first section of the novel from an earlier short story, “Firefly”. The story was subsequently included in the collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.[6]

Norwegian Wood was hugely popular with Japanese youth and made Murakami something of a superstar in his native country (apparently much to his dismay at the time).[7][8]

A film adaptation of the same name was released in 2010, directed by Tran Anh Hung.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Wood_(novel)

Norwegian Wood (novel) was last modified: January 6th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

Dance Dance Dance (novel)

Jovan Stosic January 6, 2018

Dance Dance Dance (ダンス・ダンス・ダンス Dansu Dansu Dansu) is the sixth novel by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. First published in 1988, it was translated into English by Alfred Birnbaum in 1994. The book is a sequel to Murakami’s novel A Wild Sheep Chase. In 2001, Murakami said that writing Dance Dance Dance had been a healing act after his unexpected fame following the publication of Norwegian Wood and that, because of this, he had enjoyed writing Dance more than any other.[1]

Dance Dance Dance
Dancedancedancecover.jpg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Dance_(novel)

Dance Dance Dance (novel) was last modified: January 6th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Jovan Stosic January 6, 2018

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science-fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony‘s revolt against rule from Earth. The novel expresses and discusses libertarian ideals. It is respected for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the moon.[1]

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress cover

Cover of the first edition
Author Robert A. Heinlein
Cover artist Irv Docktor
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction
Publisher G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Publication date

 1966
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 382 (1997 Orb books softcover ed.)
ISBN 0-312-86355-1 (1997 Orb books softcover ed.)
OCLC 37336037
Preceded by The Rolling Stones (shared character)

Originally serialized in Worlds of If (December 1965, January, February, March, April 1966), the book was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1966.[2] It received the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1967.[3]

Contents

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was last modified: January 6th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Wikipedia

Jovan Stosic January 6, 2018

A Short History of Nearly Everything by American author Bill Bryson is a popular science book that explains some areas of science, using easily accessible language that appeals more so to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was one of the bestselling popular science books of 2005 in the United Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies.[1]

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill bryson a short history.jpg
Author Bill Bryson
Language English
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Black Swan (UK)
Broadway Books (US)

Publication date

 2003
Media type Print (Hardcover, Paperback, E-Book)
ISBN 0-7679-0817-1
OCLC 51900381

Dewey Decimal

 500 21
LC Class Q162 .B88 2003

A Short History deviates from Bryson’s popular travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology.

Contents

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Wikipedia was last modified: January 6th, 2018 by Jovan Stosic