Because of a great deal of personal chaos in my life — such as remodeling our kitchen and dining room — and the substantial additional effort it took to research, calculate, write and deliver Solar Express, I haven’t done as much personal reading as I usually do. One of the books that did stand out, not so much for its content as its presentation, was actually a non-fiction book entitledThe Island of Knowledge, by Marcelo Gleiser. The book’s subtitle (“The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning”) is as good a summary as any. I also enjoyed, as much as a guilty pleasure as anything, the latest Alex Benedict novel, Coming Home, as well as an older book, The Crown Jewels, by Walter John Williams. I also read a quite a few fantasies by new authors, with none of which did I find worth mentioning.