Kimmy is so excited to go on a field trip with her class to the natural history museum for dinosaurs. She can’t wait to explain to her classmates all the things that she loves to learn about such as fossils and feathers and shells and [...]
In the mid-1950s, when Daniel Taylor was a schoolboy growing up in the Himalayas of North India, he was assigned to write a paper on any subject of his choice. “At first,” he says, “I thought I’d do tigers―tigers were the ultimate quarry for [...]
If you’ve ever wanted to take a crash course in the sciences, then Astronomy & Natural History Connections: From Darwin to Einstein may just be the book for you. Barry Boyce’s book makes a bold attempt to teach readers about the wonders [...]
Thankfully the author of this book has chosen to write about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a manner that is understandable to those of us without a significant background in physics, mathematics, or computer science. Additionally he has [...]
How to Fix the Future is an interesting book and worthwhile, though somewhat limited in scope. The focus is on the digital world and how it impacts our humanity: Brave new world a’ La Aldous Huxley or a new world for the brave (and educated). [...]
It would be easy to presume that Will Storr’s book is as cutesy as its title, Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us, but that would be a mistake. Storr, a renowned long-form journalist, takes the reader on a journey [...]
Most of us know there is oxygen and carbon dioxide in our air (atmosphere). Sam Kean makes a book about the makeup of the atmosphere interesting and entertaining. This book is actually about the atmosphere of the earth and the air we breathe. As [...]
Any technology can be problematic if it’s not used correctly. Whether it’s automobiles, guns, or the internet, careless or uninformed use can have serious consequences beyond those intended. Social media is one of those with results ranging from [...]
There is certain to be a goodly amount of violence, as commonly understood, associated with climate change. However, as defined by the author, you and I are certainly doing violence by just living our comfortable lives as the world’s [...]
How a path traveled by one becomes the path traveled by a few, and to later emerge as a recognized trail, is the heart of the matter in On Trails by Robert Moor. As a thru-hiker of the Appalachian Trail, Moor writes a strong and compelling [...]
Readers should know that this book is thorough and well written and while categorized as young adult audience, would be enjoyed by readers of many ages. The author posits that life = locomotion, starting with walking and how we then leveraged [...]
I read this well-written, fast-paced historical documentary in (almost) one sitting, with (near the end) Tchaikovsky’s great Fifth Symphony surging along in the background (on Oregon Public Radio) towards its dramatic conclusion. Both the [...]
Simon Winchester’s When the Sky Breaks: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and the Worst Weather in the World is a fascinating account of all types of turbulent weather. An ardent weather watcher, Winchester has experienced stormy weather around the world, [...]
Drawdown is a wonderful, impressive book, both in form and content. It’s sized appropriately for a coffee table, features heavy, satin finished paper and is lavishly furnished with photographs. While that’s very nice, the content is where it [...]
Grace Hopper was an early computer programmer – one of the earliest, back when code had to be written by hand on paper. She was a professor, a Navy engineer, and developed groundbreaking programming techniques that we take for granted today, [...]
Having previously written a book about literature and the Civil War, wherein he briefly mentions Charles Darwin in a section about abolitionism, Randall Fuller provides in his new book a fuller account of the influence of Darwin’s On the Origin [...]
In 1987 Billy, Clark, and Alf discover the photograph publication of “the pride of our nation” (Vanna White) in the primer men’s magazine, Playboy. Thus begins the quest by the 14-year-old best friends to obtain a copy of the [...]
Joel N. Shurkin has created a thorough narrative of the life and impact of Richard Garwin, a pivotal physicist of modern life. This biography captures great detail in terms of world events, thinking, competing ideas, and changing cultures during [...]
We’ll start with a disclaimer and a reproof. Reproof first: the title is missing a couple of words and is, therefore, misleading. It should read “White Male Haters” since most of the hating begins with that group. The disclaimer is obvious. I am [...]
The Magic Tree House Incredible Fact Book, by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, is great fun for kids! The book is filled with snippets of information on a variety of subjects. The photographs are beautifully done, drawing the reader [...]
