Obsessive Genius

Title: Obsessive Genius - The Inner World of Marie Curie

Author: Barbara Goldsmith

Pages: 257

Genre: Biography

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This book is a biography of the famous scientist/physicist Marie Sklowdski Curie. Against all odds the poor Polish girl, Marie, finds a way to gain an education under Russian suppression of the Polish and women. Eventually she moves to Paris to study physics at the Sorbonne Institute. She becomes on of the very first women to obtain a degree from the institute. While in Paris, Marie meets Pierre and together they embark upon their obsessive research. Marie discovers radioactivity and uses it to discover the new elements of plutonium and radium. The Curies and Henri Becquerel share one of the first Nobel Prizes and later in life Marie becomes the first woman to win one outright.

My Review: This was a fantastic biography that was very easy to read and enjoy. The difficulties that Marie Curie faced as a woman in science are incredible. Nobody took her serious and very few people even believed that she made her own discoveries due to the fact that she was a woman. I enjoy books like this that bring famous historical figures to life that I studied in school (I took two Nuclear Engineering courses that were greatly shaped by the discoveries of Marie Curie). The number of famous physicists in Europe in the early 20th century is incredible - the Curies, Henri Becquerel, Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Ernest Rutherford, Max Planck, H. A. Lorentz and Henri Poincare among others. Also amazing is how long Marie Curie was able to live and work, working as closely as she was with highly radioactive substances without any protection. In many ways, her and her husband literally sacrificed themselves for knowledge that greatly benefitted all future generations.

A Million Little Pieces

Title: A Million Little Pieces

Author: James Frey

Pages: 9 discs

Genre: Fictional Memoir

Grade: B

Synopsis: James Frey awakes on a plane with major facial injuries not knowing what happened or where he is going. He is picked up at the airport by his parents who then check him into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic. This is the story of his battle with his demons as he tries to get clean.

My Review: The book was the center of a controversy between Oprah and the author a few years ago. Oprah had picked the book as her book club book and espoused its greatness. Before too long, thesmokinggun.com uncovered that the book that was billed as a memoir actually contained quite a bit of fiction (see the original piece on thesmokinggun.com, A Million Little Lies) I'm glad I went into the book knowing of it's questionable history or I would have felt as duped as Oprah did. The book gives amazing insight into the battles that a drug addict faces and was very eye-opening for me. The book was very powerful and motivational, but was docked a few points in my grading due to its foul language (see below).

Disclaimer: I will never recommend this book to anyone due to its foul language. In fact, the language in this book is far worse than any other book that I have ever read and possibly worse than all previous books that I have read combined together.

American Wife

Title: American Wife

Author: Curtis Sittenfeld

Pages: 558

Genre: Hypothetical Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The book is loosely based upon the life of the former first lady, Laura Bush. In this book, the protagonist is the smart and clever girl of Alice Lindgren from the small town of Riley, Wisconsin. Alice is not without trials and difficulties growing up, many of which end up shaping her opinions and political leanings later in life (which are often quite a bit different from those of her husband, the fictional Charlie Blackwell, based loosely upon a Wisconsinite George Bush). When Alice meets Charlie Blackwell, she is a successful and passionate librarian at an elementary while Charlie works for his father's meat-packaging business. Once they are married, she plays important roles in her husband's life as he buys the Brewers, serves for 8 years as governor of Wisconsin and finally is elected president.

My Review: The beginning and middle of this book is fantastic. The end (which takes place while the Blackwells are living in the White House) is somewhat anti-climatic and almost becomes a political statement. I especially enjoyed that the writing style of the book made the stories very believable and made the president and first lady come to life as real people. I give an A- to the first 75% of the book and a B- to the last 25%.

Disclaimer: The language in the book can get slightly shady.

From the Book: "(p. 114) Dena seemed about to respond, but instead, she belched again, a smaller belch that seemed unequal as a harbinger to the monstrous chunky gush that erupted from inside her. I held her hair back and looked away as she finished retching. Working with children had made me less squeamish--they were constantly presenting their grubby hands to your, having accidents--but at some point, disgusting was still disgusting, Especially with an adult woman."

"(p. 540) "See, I always forget this about you," he says, and even now, long after we first lost our privacy, I can't help wondering who's overhearing him. "Every decade, you like to pin me to the ground, pull open my mouth, and take a sh** right into it.""

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Author: J. K. Rowling

Pages: 17 discs

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: A

Synopsis: Harry Potter is back at Hogwarts where the Triwizard Tournament is taking place for the first time in over 100 years. Oddly, the Goblet of Fire spits out Harry Potter's name as a fourth champion from the three wizarding schools competing in the tournament. The champions have to compete in three tasks over the course of the school-year in order to be crowned champion. All the while, Harry Potter's scar continues to hurt as Voldemort continues to gain power.

My Review: My only beef with this book is its length. I appreciate J.K. wrapping up all the loose ends before the close of the book, but it often means that after the story's climax there are still two or three discs to listen to. I always love losing myself in Britain's wizarding world as I drive to and from work.

A Brief History of Time

Title: A Brief History of Time (Illustrated Version)

Author: Stephen Hawking

Pages: 248

Genre: Science

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This book covers complex topics that are typically discussed in college courses on Modern Physics (such as the course I took at the University of Utah). The famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), has a knack for explaining difficult topics in a way that the general population can understand (or at least grasp an idea of the concept). Topics covered in the book include Galileo and gravity, Newtonian physics, Maxwell's equations (which govern the study of electromagnetics), the Doppler effect, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Einstein's theories of relativity, black holes, wormholes, time travel and lengthy discussions of the origin and fate of the universe.

My Review: While I've taken various classes that have covered many of these topics, I found Hawking's explanations and the diagrams to be very helpful in understanding everything. I don't think that I would have enjoyed the non-illustrated version of the book as much as I enjoyed the illustrated version. The book can get a little boring at times, but for the most part it held my attention fairly well.

From the Book: "(p. 2) A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At teh end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever, " said the old lady. "But it turtles all the way down!"

"(p. 48) In this way, Edwin Hubble worked out the distances to nine different galaxies. We now know that our galaxy is only one of some hundred thousand million that can be seen using modern telescopes, each galaxy itself containing some hundred thousand million stars."

"(p. 62) Many people do not like the idea that time has a beginning, probably because it smacks of divine intervention. (The Catholic Church, on the other hand, seized on the big bang model and in 1951 officially pronounced it to be in accordance with the Bible."