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Johnnie B

Johnnie B

I'm a professor of mathematics at the University of Montana. Every morning, I spend an hour or so reading. I particularly like poetry, but find myself occasionally dipping into spiritual books (Meister Eckhart, the Tao Te Ching, ... ) when my mental state goes a bit south, which it does more often than I'd like to admit.

I'm married... more »
  • member since December 28 2007

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 38 reviews
  • The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
    • Rated 5 stars

    I don't think that you can go wrong with this guy!

    Johnnie B wrote this review Friday, May 15 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Outliers
    • Rated 4 stars

    I recently read Gladwell's The Tipping Point. I think that Outliers is better written, and I was most impressed with the book on those grounds. I found the subject matter somewhat less compelling than that of The Tipping Point, however. Still I gained some good insights from it. Mainly, Gladwell was successful in arguing that success can't be explained in simple (or mythological) terms. It is as complex as human relationship. Others have said that it gives insight into parenting, but I'm not so sure, other than that one should strive to give their kids the best opportunities possible, which is obvious to the extreme.

    I guess I'm left more confused after reading the book! Nonetheless, it was fun.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Wednesday, May 6 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Alive Together: New and Selected Poems
    • Rated 0 stars

    This is a fine book of poems: accessible, understated, true to life.

    Mueller's story is an interesting one: born in Germany, she moved to the U.S. with her parents around the time of the second world war.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Wednesday, April 22 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Into the Wild
    • Rated 5 stars

    I had listened to this as a book on tape many years ago and loved it then. But I really liked the additional material in the book focusing on other, similar examples (Krakauer himself as well as others). This material was central to Krakauer's argument that McCandless and his actions aren't unprecedented; that there have been, and will continue to be, such figures; and that they aren't insane or suicidal, just extreme embodiments of certain human archetypes. In fact, I had the thought while reading the book that in every walk of life there are those who take it to the extreme and they are the ones who serve as examples to the rest of us.

    Anyway, it's a messy story and Krakauer is an immensely ambitious author for taking on what he did in its telling. There are no clean answers to the "problem" of McCandless. All the better. It makes for better discussion and challenge for the reader. Awesome book!

    Johnnie B wrote this review Wednesday, March 25 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry
    • Rated 3 stars

    Well, finally a book of poems I didn't really like. And it's not because Dugan isn't a great poet. I really liked a few of his poems, and his mastery of the art is without question. But his subject matter is such that the poems, taken as a whole, don't speak to me: city and dark side of relationship and day-to-day living focused, and also on the obscure side of the tracks. Undoubtedly his work speaks to a large swath of people. But as a glass-half-full, outdoor oriented resident of Montana, his poems just aren't my style.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Sunday, March 15 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz
    • Rated 5 stars

    It's strange how you can read the collected works of a great poet and come away with some intangible feel.

    With Kunitz, though many of his poems went over my head, I was left with as pleasant a feeling at the end of the book as with any I've read.

    And then there were a few poems that I know I'll return to again and again -- as good and deep as any I've read.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Friday, March 13 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Window Poems

    Window Poems

    by Wendell Berry
    • Rated 5 stars

    If you're a Wendell Berry fan, as I am, this collection won't disappoint, though it's largely observational. So if you especially like his human-centered poems you won't find much of that here. Still, as I said, great stuff.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Wednesday, February 18 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Danger on Peaks: Poems
    • Rated 5 stars

    I am a biased Snyder fan, so my reviews of his work should be taken with an extra grain of salt. (I am also an unproven and unqualified poetry critic.)

    I really like this book. It's certainly not as ambitious as Mountains and Rivers Without End--not even close--but it contains what I like best in poetry: clean, straightforward poetic observation--stuff that a relatively large audience can relate to.

    There's a section late in the book in which he writes simple prose poems ended with a few lines of verse. They are all very fine.

    The early prose poems about his time on and connection with Mt. St. Helens were inspiring as well.

    My heart was widened by this book, like every one of Snyder's works.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Monday, February 9 2009. ( reply | permalink )
    • Rated 5 stars

    Wendell Berry never disappoints. This book is small and deep. I especially like the poem, "A Meeting" in which he describes a meeting in a dream with a dead friend. At the end he asks the friend, "How you been?" and the friend smiles and replies, "I've been eating peaches off some mighty fine trees". I can't explain it, but for me it doesn't get any better than that.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Thursday, February 5 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Mountains and Rivers Without End
    • Rated 5 stars

    If you look through the ratings I've given to the books I've read here on Shelfari, they're typically high. I guess I'm easy to please. After reading this book, however, I wish that I would have saved a star for only the very best books I've read, of which there are only a handful.

    This is a great book in the way that some spiritual classics are great. It is mysterious, deep, complex, beautiful, and about the earth, humanity, and the western U.S. It feels to me like the bible of the time and region of the earth in which I live.

    I see myself reading this book again and again.

    Johnnie B wrote this review Wednesday, January 28 2009. ( reply | permalink )
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