I have to add to my initial assessment of Heller's book that she does list her sources, though not in foot- or endnotes which is why I overlooked it at first. An extended list of references is provided for all quotes and some statements at the end however.

Besides, I'm enjoying the book more than I was at first. As far as I can tell, it's very honest biography of Rand's life that mixes her philosophy perfectly with her life story.

I'm currently reading a book by my first-year philosophy professor, Mark Kingwell. It's called The World We Want: Virtue, Vice and the Good Citizen. It's all about exploring the concept of global citizenship in the modern world, and just the rather forgotten concepts of civility and public duty as major parts of life. Really interesting and I always love his writing style.

Not really steampunk, but I am currently reading "Le Sabotage amoureux" by Amelie Nothomb.  It's a semi-autobiographical description of the author's experiences moving to Communist China at the age of 7 with her diplomat parents and is sort of a mix of fact and fairytale.

while I'm still reading "Fatal Lies" by Frank Tallis and "Tales of the First occult War" is coming up next, I just bought "Operation Red Jericho" and I'm excited looking forward to read it.

A german amazon customer described it like "Indy meets Enid Blyton meets Jules Verne meets Karl may"

It's Part 1 of 3 from the so called "The Guild Specialists" and I hope it will be as awesome as it sounds:

Excerpts from 15-year-old Becca's diary interspersed with third-person narrative combine to produce a tale of high adventure, intrigue, and science fiction along the China coast in 1920. Following their parents' mysterious disappearance in the remote Sinkiang region, Becca and her younger brother, Doug, are sent from their home in India to live with their sea-captain uncle, whose research vessel they board in Shanghai. Through their inquisitiveness and spying, they learn of a secret society that may have had something to do with their parents' fate and of a very volatile substance called zoridium that their uncle is trying to retrieve from an evil warlord.

and what makes it even more interesting and beautiful:

over-the-top characters and an often unbelievable plot are united with fascinating sidebars and graphics, such as short biographies of people like Bohr and Einstein, archival photographs of old Shanghai, vintage newspaper clippings, a chart of the Morse code, diagrams of inventions, or Doug's sketches of the action scenes. Several confidential full-color pull-outs provide detailed descriptions of the various vessels and of an ancient fighting order, the Sujing Quantou.

example:

Last edited by Beauregard (2010-02-25 11:06)

Dr Damon Molinarius wrote:

As usual, reading a number of novels at once...

Asimov's Robots of Dawn, which is (the third?) of the Daneel thread which runs through many of Asimov's.

Stephen Hunt's Kingdom Beyond the Waves, second in a new SP series.  I've blogged it and the two other books in the series here

I really enjoyed Asimov's Robot and Foundation books. He pulls them together, using R. Daneel, in Foundation and Earth.

My favorite Asimov novels are the first three Foundation books. I painted a portrait illustration of Magnifico Giganticus, in a harlequin costume holding his Visi-Sonar, using Bill Nye as a model. I thought he was perfect.