Not everyone is cut out to win a Nobel Prize for Physics. The math required sets me on the sidelines. But Dr. Lederman doesn't let my mathlexia hinder my understanding of humanity's search to discover What Matters. Or, more precisely, What Is Matter? Using a variety of narrative approaches, the reader experiences major scientific advancements throughout history that have led us to our current understanding of what the universe is made of... and through it all, Lederman's legendary sense of humor shines through. I often recommend this book. It's not something to be read through in a single sitting. Rather, it's worth taking some time to chew on the concepts and digest them. With or without a clear understanding of the math.
"What Stephen Hawking did for cosmology, Leon Lederman does for particle physics" (Dallas Morning News) in The God Particle, a funny and fascinating look at the universe from the Nobel Prize–winning physicist.
In this extraordinarily accessible and enormously witty book, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Leon Lederman guides us on a fascinating tour of the history of particle physics. The book takes us from the Greeks' earliest scientific observations through Einstein and beyond in an inspiring celebration of human curiosity. It ends with the quest for the Higgs boson, nicknamed the God Particle, which scientists hypothesize will help unlock the last…
Marie Kuipers' writing style puts me in mind of "The Bloggess." This memoir of collected topical essays of the emotional fallout from being born into a privileged but severely dysfunctional New Jersey family is the funniest book I've read in *ages.* Voicey, foul-mouthed, hilarious, and unexpectedly endearing, "We're All Mad Here" is not for the easily offended, but I dare you to read it without laughing.
Fiercely opinionated and unapologetically peculiar, Marie Kuipers points to her New Jersey upbringing for her no-f*cks-given philosophy. As for why she spent most of her adult life underemployed, she credits her mom-who believes she knows better than God Himself-for that.
As if ties to the Dirty Jerz and Ol' Sky Dad weren't enough, add a psychotic catfishing ex-husband, a lifesaving Solo cup, heaps of grief, and a dash of Lyme, and you've got the recipe for a (mostly) hilarious roller-coaster ride of a read.
This is one of my favorite of Ackerman's books. I found myself thinking about some new aspect of the world that I learned from it days after I'd read the relevant passage. I also confess to highlighting and underlining various sections in my hard copy while making notes in the margins of thoughts the essays evoked. Not only is the book a fascinating treatise on the five senses, but Ackerman's writing is so beautiful that many essays invite you to stay and revel in the prose just for the sheer joy of it.
Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth.
“Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.” —The New York Times
Jera Fowler is hardly excited about having to keep a journal for ninth grade English class. “What can happen in a day?” she grumps as she chronicles the 1984-85 school year.
She doesn’t realize that a single day can be the dividing line between life and death.
Forty years later, while Jera is in the hospital facing an uncertain future, her teenage granddaughter Rayna discovers the journal and reads all night long.
What do words written long ago have to say today?
*Everything.*
The epistolary novel Dear Alderone spans generations, exploring those moments in life when—for good or for ill—everything changes in an instant.
A love-letter to the written word and a testimony to the power of preserving personal history through journaling, Dear Alderone embraces the experiences that define our friendships, our families, and ourselves.
