Category Archives: Books

Livewired

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Harry Katz

Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain left me feeling both awed and comforted by the astonishing capabilities of the human brain. Consider this: Your brain can listen to music, learn to play the violin, read sheet music, translate … Continue reading →

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The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy

Posted on June 6, 2021 by Harry Katz

This is the first book in a long time that I DNF – did not finish. I was attracted to the book by its title: The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens – and … Continue reading →

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The Code Breaker

Posted on May 30, 2021 by Harry Katz

If you think the digital revolution is having profound effects on human society, buckle up because the biotech revolution is just getting underway and it will redefine, even redesign, our species. Ever since the early 1950’s when James Watson and … Continue reading →

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Whereabouts

Posted on May 22, 2021 by Harry Katz

Whereabouts is Jhunpa Lahiri’s first novel in ten years. I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve read a couple of Lahiri’s earlier books: Interpreter of Maladies, her debut collection of short stories for which she won a Pulitzer … Continue reading →

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Think Again

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Harry Katz

I’m a big fan of Adam Grant’s WorkLife podcast. I even blogged about one of his episodes last year. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know is his latest book and the first one I’ve read. It’s … Continue reading →

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Sapiens

Posted on May 2, 2021 by Harry Katz

Last year, I read 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari, which I reviewed here. Several friends recommended I read Harari’s earlier book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Now I know why. It’s an excellent book. As the … Continue reading →

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Posted on April 10, 2021 by Harry Katz

You’ve probably had the experience of being completely absorbed in an activity, totally focused, losing track of time, your body moving effortlessly, your mind clear of all distractions and worries. You were “in the zone.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this state … Continue reading →

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The Sum of Us

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Harry Katz

In the 1920’s and 30’s, towns and cities across the United States built large, beautiful public swimming pools for their communities. Montgomery, Alabama was one such town. Its Oak Park pool was one of the largest in the region. It … Continue reading →

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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

Posted on March 14, 2021 by Harry Katz

Around the world we humans are adding an average of fifty-one billion (51,000,000,000) tons of greenhouse gasses to Earth’s atmosphere every year. To avoid a climate disaster, we need to get to zero. 51 billion to zero. That’s how Microsoft … Continue reading →

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The Good Ancestor

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Harry Katz

We were warned. Lots of people warned us about the possibility of a global pandemic years before the outbreak of COVID-19. But we didn’t listen and we didn’t prepare. We’ve known for decades about the catastrophic effects of greenhouse gas … Continue reading →

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