Book reviews – Shaun Ling

Book review: Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century by Masha Gessen

This is a book about the mathematician, Grigori Perelman. Grigori Perelman is known for solving the Poincaré conjecture. Poincaré conjecture is one of the Millennium Prize Problems. Millennium Prize Problems are seven problems that are stated by Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000 including the Poincaré conjecture, P vs NP problem, etc. These are some of … Continue reading Book review: Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century by Masha Gessen

Book review: Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton

This book reads like a self-help book but more philosophical in nature. Like all self-help books, it may sound logical and transcendental which provokes the feeling of “This is a new way of looking at life I have never look before”, but time will tell if the philosophy is sound, at least for now, it … Continue reading Book review: Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton

Book review: Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

The novel is an archaeological and witchcraft thriller. The novel protagonist, Nora Kelly, an assistant professor at Santa Fe Archaeological Institute receives a letter from her father whom dissapeared sixteen years ago from an archaeological trip. The letter prompts Nora to go on a journey to discover what had happened to her father and an … Continue reading Book review: Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Book review: The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World by Kishore Mahbubani

Kishore Mahbubani is the Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore, former Singapore diplomat, and former ambassador of Singapore to the United Nations (UN). This book is about the reemergence of Asia (China and India), threats to USA and the importance of multilateral organization such as United Nations. … Continue reading Book review: The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World by Kishore Mahbubani

Book review: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

This is a book by Ashlee Vance, a famed tech writer. Initially I thought the writer is a female! Elon likes to think from the first principle. The whole space rocket can be boiled down to the physics. Instead of improving the existing rockets, his company built everything from scratch, minimizing cost of each component, … Continue reading Book review: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Book review: Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective by Carl Sagan

I knew about the book from the documentary Cosmos: A Space Odyssey (2014) hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson. It was a book given by Carl (the author) to Neil during their meeting as a teenager. The book talks about the gold plaque aboard the spacecraft Pioneer 10, which was designed by Carl Sagan and his … Continue reading Book review: Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective by Carl Sagan

Book review: The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction by Gregory Harms, Todd M. Ferry

This is the first book I read on the Palestine-Israel issue. At least I get the gist of the issue now amid the emotions, hatred, violence, and news media. Its a complicated and interesting issue indeed. Contrary to some views, the issue does not go back very far, only 100 years, not thousands of years, … Continue reading Book review: The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction by Gregory Harms, Todd M. Ferry

Book review: Fermat’s Last Theorem – Simon Singh

I had just finished a mathematics book called Fermat’s Last Theorem by mathematics and science writer Dr. Simon Singh. I am impressed that the author has a PhD in Particle Physics, I thought he is just a journalist! The book is about Fermat’s Last Theorem. Pierre de Fermat was an “amateur” mathematician, also called the … Continue reading Book review: Fermat’s Last Theorem – Simon Singh

Finished Quiet by Susan Cain

I had bread for breakfast and lunch. I did inner pages for travelsmarter and validate kana form. I finally finished reading Quiet by Susan Cain. The book is the first bestseller on the topic of introvert, I highly recommend it. I finished the book on my kindle paperwhite, by taking every free time to read, … Continue reading Finished Quiet by Susan Cain

Book review: The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and The Search For The Impossible

While reading Scott Aaronson’s blog here, I was introduced to a book called The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible by Lance Fortnow. It is a book explaining the most important question in Computer science and Mathematics, is P = NP? Alternatively, you can watch Scott Aaronson talk about P = … Continue reading Book review: The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and The Search For The Impossible