Hanneli Tavante

PL and Math

I like reading :) Here are some of my favourite picks. Do you like any of these? Let’s chat about these books, send me an email! Also, in the list below, I’ll leave out a few general comments (don’t worry, no spoiler about the books; the comments are about general reading facts).

Warning: the list below contains titles in multiple languages. Titles are not listed in any kind of order; I genuinely enjoyed all of them (maybe some more than the others, but these details won’t matter to you).

Books (General picks)

  1. Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Machado de Assis) - EN The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
  2. Capitães da Areia (Jorge Amado) - EN Captains of the Sands
  3. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
  4. Quarto de Despejo (Carolina Maria de Jesus) (I don’t know what is the official EN title for this, but hell, this is a very good book.)
  5. Immer derselbe Schnee und immer derselbe Onkel (Herta Müller); I read the Portuguese translation, “Sempre a mesma neve e sempre o mesmo tio”. I am a big fan of Müller’s work. Her books showed me how to look at freedom with poetry. I am unaware of the EN translation of this book.
  6. 1984 (Orwell)
  7. Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira (José Saramago) - EN Blindness
  8. O Pêndulo de Foucault (Umberto Eco) - EN Foucault’s Pendulum - Note: Can you read in any Latin-derived languages? (Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, etc)? Read Umberto Eco in these languages. Umberto Eco “tastes” differently outside English. It gets much denser, richer and fabulous. (Sorry if you can’t read in these languages…)
  9. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway)
  10. Perto do coração selvagem (Clarice Lispector) - EN Near to the Wild Heart - I really like books where I can be in the person’s mind. This book is brilliant.

(More titles to come)

Books - science (entertaining)

Below, multiple titles I read during my undergrad years (more than a decade ago; yes I am old) and maybe 1-2 years after completing it.

  1. The Lady Tasting Tea (D. Salsburg) - Very entertaining! I read it a long time ago, in 2008, when I was an undergrad. My statistics prof. noted I enjoyed reading (she was a very supportive woman) and recommended this book to me, during the first week of classes. <3
  2. Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities - (Ian Stewart) I am glad I read this book because I ended up knowing Martin Gardner’s books (he’s not very famous in South America) and that changed my relationship with mathematics during my undergrad years (see item below).
  3. Mathematical Carnival (Martin Gardner) (and honestly many of his books) - during anxiety, those are the best. Procrastination? Yes, also true. I still like the puzzles.
  4. Calculus Made Easy (S. Thompson) - I love the author’s style. I remember saying to myself I’d copy it every time I could. This book (funny) taught me a lot about pedagogy too.
  5. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (R. P. Feynman) - Opinion: Feynman was an excellent communicator. Young Hanneli wanted to be be like that too.
  6. Six Quantum Pieces (V. Scarani)

Entertaining Authors (not necessarily my top picks, but worth reading)

  1. Agatha Christie Books - I find them relaxing.
  2. Clarice Lispector.