*Ellen Ullman
a software engineer and consultant, and author of* Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents.
Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem, by Amir Aczel.
"This little paperback describes the history of solving Fermat's Last Theorem. I'm reading it for a sense of how you tell a highly technical story in a way that an educated reader could understand. It follows the unraveling of a mathematical puzzle, a mystery solved over centuries by hundreds of scholars. People think of programming as a solitary endeavor, but, like mathematics, it's really a collaboration of thinkers over years."
The Reader: A Novel, by Bernhard Schlink.
"This is a gem of a novel. The writing is exquisite, the descriptions of human interaction are so vivid and so particular that they resonate. In the first part of the novel, the narrator, ill with tuberculosis, has an affair with an older woman. We see her through his eyes, again with very particular details. Then he runs into her years later. The story turns on who she has become, on her role in German history. He's horrified by the past relationship, yet still finds himself attracted to her. The leap from exquisite personal story to the sweeping historical novel is so smooth. It's a wonderful book."
*Aliza Sherman
president of the media company Cybergrrl and author of* Cybergrrl: A Woman's Guide to the World Wide Web.
The Angel of Darkness, by Caleb Carr.
"This sequel to The Alienist is set in New York City in the 1800s. In every era, people say how terrible things are. Reading history, I find the same problems have always existed. The Angel of Darkness is a murder mystery about a serial killer and a motley crew of detectives. The victims are children, and the suspected killer is a woman. The story delves into the role of women, the role of the mother. And the themes that emerge are the same ones we hear today in reaction to Susan Smith and other criminal women. Society is still unable to believe in female serial killers. It goes against our notion of femininity."
Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age, by Esther Dyson.
"This book discusses how we as a society should integrate technology into our lives. I had thought of Dyson as a policy advocate and was expecting a dry dissertation on XYZ. But the style was conversational and filled with personality. In the chapters on community, I found a warmth that I wasn't expecting. For me, the book said that everything I've been doing with Webgrrls is viable, that community is just as important as individual privacy, that community is the cornerstone - it's the heart of the matter."
*Idit Harel
founder and CEO of MaMaMedia* (www.mamamedia.com/), and one of the first graduates of the MIT Media Lab, where she studied technology and learning.
Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds, by J. C. Herz.
"Herz offers a good overview of the history of videogames and of the generation that grew up playing them. Videogames are wonderful spaces where children learn on their own, driven by their own curiosity. At MaMaMedia we want to create an educational environment that is more like a videogame than a school worksheet."
Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism, by William Rubin.
"This is my secret: I love coffee-table books. Most are not intellectually satisfying, but Picasso and Braque, published by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is fascinating. Over a period of years, the two artists worked together, and you can see how they would take a common theme and then move in different creative directions. Together they launched a movement, a style, a community. Yet each needed his own canvas. When you think about the computer as a canvas, you realize that five children cannot share a single computer, as many educators suggest. Each child has a different creative style."
STREET CRED
Age of Interpretation Online Synergy
ReadMe
