February 2013

Yonatan:
Dissolution: J. Sansom
This book spent a long time on my wish list, several years in fact. It was a real revelation when I got around to reading it. It is a book of a genre which I am sure has existed for years but which I have only recently discovered, historically accurate fiction. This is a detective story set in Tudor England. The protagonist is a hunchbacked lawyer and it involves a number of historical figures and incidents. Later in the series there is even a fleeting Jewish interest. When you finish the first you will ask for the rest.

Noam:
The mind body problem: Rebecca Goldstein

I know you enjoyed the Boltzmann book so I thought you might enjoy this which is a philosophy book wrapped in a novel. Indeed a Jewish philosophy book in a novel. The author is a Professor of philosophy and the daughter of a Rabbi. She has written a book about Spinoza which you might like to read later. The title is a clue that yopu are about to hear a discussion of Descarte's philosophy that there is a distinction between body and mind, something that materialists like me don't really accept.
I throughly enjoyed this and I am sure you will as well.