This week, I give you an overview of some science, maths, modern art and nature books that I've been reading.
Below the jump, I mention the books that I received recently, either as gifts or as review copies, or that I purchased somewhere. These are the books that I may review in more depth later, either here or in print somewhere in the world.
When I get new books, I like to share them with people. Unfortunately, you are all so far away, so I cannot host a book party in my crib where you can look then over, so I'll do the next best thing. I'll host a book party on my blog each Friday of the week when I either purchase books or when they arrive in the mail. In this New Book Party, I will try to be your eyes by presenting my quick "first impression" -- almost as if we are browsing the shelves in a bookstore -- and I'll also provide relevant videos about the book and links so you can get a copy of your own.
*Books that arrived recently:*
Booze for Free by Andy Hamilton [Eden Project Books, 2011; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
*Publisher's synopsis* A guide that contains over 100 recipes including beer made from hops and also yarrow, mugwort, elder and other foraged plants, great tasting wines from fruit, vegetables and the hedgerows, cider and perry from apples and pears, cordials from the leaves of a range of trees, and teas and fizzy drinks from herbs and wayside flowers.
*My first impression:* I've helped hobbyist wine makers make dandelion wine and master beer brewers with their award-winning beers but I've never actually done it myself -- except that one time when I brewed "wine" in my university chemistry class. (Or was it a microbiology class?) This book is my first step towards creating alcoholic beverages myself in my kitchen that are safe to drink (the chem lab "wine" was deemed unsafe because it was created using lab glassware, alas) and that I might actually enjoy drinking, too. I purchased this particular book after looking through it because it is just so interesting; not only is it a no-nonsense how-to guide -- describing equipment, ingredients and how to cultivate, forage and properly store them, and recipes grouped by the season -- but it also features drawings and provides a short history of booze. Further, the author is funny, too. Here's one amusing quote:
This recipe for Nocino was given to me by Gilly Wright, who rightfully states that it should have a health warning attached as it is so moreish.
Nocino is an Italian liqueur made from underdeveloped walnuts. It was once thought to be a digestive aid and was once popular among monks in northern Italy. Tradition states that you must use an odd number of walnuts when making Nocino.
Green walnuts must be picked early in the season so they can be easily cut with a knife.
Be warned, Nocino is hangover-inducing and may well reduce your brain to the size of a walnut. [p. 200]
I am eagerly looking forward to trying out the recipes in this book!
Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That: Modern Art Explained by Susie Hodge [Thames and Hudson Ltd., 2012; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
*Publisher's synopsis* Why Your 5 Year Old Could Not Have Done That is Susie Hodge's passionate and persuasive argument against the most common disparaging remark levelled at modern art. In this enjoyable and thought-provoking book, she examines 100 works of modern art that have attracted critical and public hostility from Cy Twombly's scribbled Olympia (1957), Jean-Michel Basquiat's crude but spontaneous LNAPRK (1982), to the apparently careless mess of Tracey Emin's My Bed (1998) and explains how, far from being negligible novelties, they are inspired and logical extensions of the ideas of their time. She explains how such notorious works as Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII (1966) the infamous bricks occupy unique niches in the history of ideas, both showing influences of past artists and themselves influencing subsequent artists. With illustrations of works from Hans Arp to Adolf Wölfli, Susie Hodge places each work in its cultural context to present an unforgettable vision of modern art. This book will give you an understanding of the ways in which modern art differs from the realistic works of earlier centuries, transforming as well as informing your gallery visits for years to come.
*My first impression:* When visiting modern art museums, I can't tell you how many times I've heard or overheard people proclaim: "That's art? My five-year-old could have done that!" Sometimes, I silently agree. Since I am passionate about the fine arts, I was disappointed in myself: what was I not seeing? What was I missing? So of course, when I ran across this book in Tate Modern's shop during my recent visit to London, I had to purchase it. The book focuses on 100 works of modern art, including photographs, and describes what the artist's intentions are in those particular works. It is divided into five chapters devoted to five themes (objects/toys, expressions/scribbles, provocation/tantrums, landscapes/playscapes and people/monsters). The book is well-written and although it's brief, the parts I've read are quite enlightening.
Number Theory: A Historical Approach by John J. Watkins [Princeton University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
*Publisher's synopsis* The natural numbers have been studied for thousands of years, yet most undergraduate textbooks present number theory as a long list of theorems with little mention of how these results were discovered or why they are important. This book emphasizes the historical development of number theory, describing methods, theorems, and proofs in the contexts in which they originated, and providing an accessible introduction to one of the most fascinating subjects in mathematics.
Written in an informal style by an award-winning teacher, Number Theory covers prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, and a host of other essential topics in number theory, while also telling the stories of the great mathematicians behind these developments, including Euclid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, and Sophie Germain. This one-of-a-kind introductory textbook features an extensive set of problems that enable students to actively reinforce and extend their understanding of the material, as well as fully worked solutions for many of these problems. It also includes helpful hints for when students are unsure of how to get started on a given problem.· Uses a unique historical approach to teaching number theory
· Features numerous problems, helpful hints, and fully worked solutions
· Discusses fun topics like Pythagorean tuning in music, Sudoku puzzles, and arithmetic progressions of primes
· Includes an introduction to Sage, an easy-to-learn yet powerful open-source mathematics software package
· Ideal for undergraduate mathematics majors as well as non-math majors
· Digital solutions manual (available only to professors)*My first impression:* I've always been deeply interested in number theory and in fact, I applied to the mathematics department for my undergrad university degree. (Despite having excellent grades, I was turned away because I am female.) So I have a lifelong personal interest in this topic. This textbook looks really interesting because it not only presents number theory, but the theorems are presented in their historical context, too. Unlike other mathematical subjects, such as calculus, which are independent of the individuals who developed them, the author notes that "number theory has had a wonderfully quirky evolution that depended heavily upon the particular interests of the people who developed the subject over the years." [p. xii] This book has 15 chapters, the first ten of which present core concepts, problems (many with solutions). Perhaps surprising for a mathematics textbook, the writing is clear and conversational in tone. I look forward to studying this book on my own over the coming months.
Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved by Robin Wilson [Princeton University Press; Revised Color edition, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
*Publisher's synopsis* On October 23, 1852, Professor Augustus De Morgan wrote a letter to a colleague, unaware that he was launching one of the most famous mathematical conundrums in history -- one that would confound thousands of puzzlers for more than a century. This is the amazing story of how the "map problem" was solved.
The problem posed in the letter came from a former student: What is the least possible number of colors needed to fill in any map (real or invented) so that neighboring counties are always colored differently? This deceptively simple question was of minimal interest to cartographers, who saw little need to limit how many colors they used. But the problem set off a frenzy among professional mathematicians and amateur problem solvers, among them Lewis Carroll, an astronomer, a botanist, an obsessive golfer, the Bishop of London, a man who set his watch only once a year, a California traffic cop, and a bridegroom who spent his honeymoon coloring maps. In their pursuit of the solution, mathematicians painted maps on doughnuts and horseshoes and played with patterned soccer balls and the great rhombicuboctahedron.
It would be more than one hundred years (and countless colored maps) later before the result was finally established. Even then, difficult questions remained, and the intricate solution -- which involved no fewer than 1,200 hours of computer time -- was greeted with as much dismay as enthusiasm.
Providing a clear and elegant explanation of the problem and the proof, Robin Wilson tells how a seemingly innocuous question baffled great minds and stimulated exciting mathematics with far-flung applications. This is the entertaining story of those who failed to prove, and those who ultimately did prove, that four colors do indeed suffice to color any map.
This new edition features many color illustrations. It also includes a new foreword by Ian Stewart on the importance of the map problem and how it was solved.
*My first impression:* Those who are fascinated by mathematics will absolutely love this book. It tells the long and colourful history of a deceptively simple problem: how to create a colour-coded map so regions that share boundaries can each be distinguished with a different colour. Not only is the problem engaging, but the writing is beautiful, clear and personable.
The editors must have loved producing this revised paperback edition because it is aesthetically pleasing; includes black-and-white photographs, numerous colour diagrams, and it is printed on heavy yet silky-smooth paper that is more fun to touch than a Kindle ever could be.
No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn by Charles A. Kupchan [Oxford University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
*Publisher's synopsis* The world is on the cusp of a global turn. Between 1500 and 1800, the West sprinted ahead of other centers of power in Asia and the Middle East. Europe and the United States have dominated the world since. But today the West's preeminence is slipping away as China, India, Brazil and other emerging powers rise. Although most strategists recognize that the dominance of the West is on the wane, they are confident that its founding ideas -- democracy, capitalism, and secular nationalism -- will continue to spread, ensuring that the Western order will outlast its primacy.
In No One's World, Charles A. Kupchan boldly challenges this view, arguing that the world is headed for political and ideological diversity; emerging powers will neither defer to the West's lead nor converge toward the Western way. The ascent of the West was the product of social and economic conditions unique to Europe and the United States. As other regions now rise, they are following their own paths to modernity and embracing their own conceptions of domestic and international order.
Kupchan contends that the Western order will not be displaced by a new great power or dominant political model. The twenty-first century will not belong to America, China, Asia, or anyone else. It will be no one's world. For the first time in history, an interdependent world will be without a center of gravity or global guardian.
More than simply diagnosing what lies ahead, Kupchan provides a detailed strategy for striking a bargain between the West and the rising rest by fashioning a new consensus on issues of legitimacy, sovereignty, and governance. Thoughtful, provocative, sweeping in scope, this work is nothing less than a global guidebook for the 21st century.
*My first impression:* This thought-provoking and carefully-argued book departs from the usual ideas about the evolution of modern society because, basically, the West took a unique path -- a path that the Middle East cannot possibly follow, even if they wanted to. Also includes data graphics. Definitely worth reading.
The Nature Tracker's Handbook by Nick Baker [Bloomsbury Natural History, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
*Publisher's synopsis* Every animal leaves some kind of trace as it passes and the art of tracking is very much like learning to read. If you learn to read the signs left by footprints, leftover food, droppings and scrapes in the earth you will soon be able to tell the story of an animal's life, packed with fascinating details and hidden meanings
This new book shows readers how to find and interpret the evidence that animals leave behind, from a footprint, a bent blade of grass, a soil disturbance or a chewed nut or leaf. Combined with other signs, tracks and trails they will soon be able to build a profile of a huge range of creatures. Readers will not only learn the difference between a poo and a pellet; but will be able to spot the differences between pellets regurgitated by a variety of bird species.
Written by popular nature presenter, Nick Baker, and beautifully designed and illustrated, the book is a brand new approach to the curious science of nature tracking.
*My first impression:* This lovely field guide is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of full-colour photographs and drawings, and informative tables. The book covers everything you'll need to track animals, from tooth marks, shed skin, egg cases and foot prints to poo. Also includes interesting projects such as dissecting owl pellets, aging an herbivore by examining their teeth, and cleaning and whitening bones.
What book(s) are you reading? How far are you along in the book? What do you think of it so far? Do you think your book is worth recommending to others?
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She's very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.
Below the jump, I mention the books that I received recently, either as gifts or as review copies, or that I purchased somewhere. These are the books that I may review in more depth later, either here or in print somewhere in the world.
When I get new books, I like to share them with people. Unfortunately, you are all so far away, so I cannot host a book party in my crib where you can look then over, so I'll do the next best thing. I'll host a book party on my blog each Friday of the week when I either purchase books or when they arrive in the mail. In this New Book Party, I will try to be your eyes by presenting my quick "first impression" -- almost as if we are browsing the shelves in a bookstore -- and I'll also provide relevant videos about the book and links so you can get a copy of your own.
*Books that arrived recently:*
Booze for Free by Andy Hamilton [Eden Project Books, 2011; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
*Publisher's synopsis* A guide that contains over 100 recipes including beer made from hops and also yarrow, mugwort, elder and other foraged plants, great tasting wines from fruit, vegetables and the hedgerows, cider and perry from apples and pears, cordials from the leaves of a range of trees, and teas and fizzy drinks from herbs and wayside flowers.
*My first impression:* I've helped hobbyist wine makers make dandelion wine and master beer brewers with their award-winning beers but I've never actually done it myself -- except that one time when I brewed "wine" in my university chemistry class. (Or was it a microbiology class?) This book is my first step towards creating alcoholic beverages myself in my kitchen that are safe to drink (the chem lab "wine" was deemed unsafe because it was created using lab glassware, alas) and that I might actually enjoy drinking, too. I purchased this particular book after looking through it because it is just so interesting; not only is it a no-nonsense how-to guide -- describing equipment, ingredients and how to cultivate, forage and properly store them, and recipes grouped by the season -- but it also features drawings and provides a short history of booze. Further, the author is funny, too. Here's one amusing quote:
This recipe for Nocino was given to me by Gilly Wright, who rightfully states that it should have a health warning attached as it is so moreish.
Nocino is an Italian liqueur made from underdeveloped walnuts. It was once thought to be a digestive aid and was once popular among monks in northern Italy. Tradition states that you must use an odd number of walnuts when making Nocino.
Green walnuts must be picked early in the season so they can be easily cut with a knife.
Be warned, Nocino is hangover-inducing and may well reduce your brain to the size of a walnut. [p. 200]
I am eagerly looking forward to trying out the recipes in this book!
Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That: Modern Art Explained by Susie Hodge [Thames and Hudson Ltd., 2012; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
*Publisher's synopsis* Why Your 5 Year Old Could Not Have Done That is Susie Hodge's passionate and persuasive argument against the most common disparaging remark levelled at modern art. In this enjoyable and thought-provoking book, she examines 100 works of modern art that have attracted critical and public hostility from Cy Twombly's scribbled Olympia (1957), Jean-Michel Basquiat's crude but spontaneous LNAPRK (1982), to the apparently careless mess of Tracey Emin's My Bed (1998) and explains how, far from being negligible novelties, they are inspired and logical extensions of the ideas of their time. She explains how such notorious works as Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII (1966) the infamous bricks occupy unique niches in the history of ideas, both showing influences of past artists and themselves influencing subsequent artists. With illustrations of works from Hans Arp to Adolf Wölfli, Susie Hodge places each work in its cultural context to present an unforgettable vision of modern art. This book will give you an understanding of the ways in which modern art differs from the realistic works of earlier centuries, transforming as well as informing your gallery visits for years to come.
*My first impression:* When visiting modern art museums, I can't tell you how many times I've heard or overheard people proclaim: "That's art? My five-year-old could have done that!" Sometimes, I silently agree. Since I am passionate about the fine arts, I was disappointed in myself: what was I not seeing? What was I missing? So of course, when I ran across this book in Tate Modern's shop during my recent visit to London, I had to purchase it. The book focuses on 100 works of modern art, including photographs, and describes what the artist's intentions are in those particular works. It is divided into five chapters devoted to five themes (objects/toys, expressions/scribbles, provocation/tantrums, landscapes/playscapes and people/monsters). The book is well-written and although it's brief, the parts I've read are quite enlightening.
Number Theory: A Historical Approach by John J. Watkins [Princeton University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
*Publisher's synopsis* The natural numbers have been studied for thousands of years, yet most undergraduate textbooks present number theory as a long list of theorems with little mention of how these results were discovered or why they are important. This book emphasizes the historical development of number theory, describing methods, theorems, and proofs in the contexts in which they originated, and providing an accessible introduction to one of the most fascinating subjects in mathematics.
Written in an informal style by an award-winning teacher, Number Theory covers prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, and a host of other essential topics in number theory, while also telling the stories of the great mathematicians behind these developments, including Euclid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, and Sophie Germain. This one-of-a-kind introductory textbook features an extensive set of problems that enable students to actively reinforce and extend their understanding of the material, as well as fully worked solutions for many of these problems. It also includes helpful hints for when students are unsure of how to get started on a given problem.· Uses a unique historical approach to teaching number theory
· Features numerous problems, helpful hints, and fully worked solutions
· Discusses fun topics like Pythagorean tuning in music, Sudoku puzzles, and arithmetic progressions of primes
· Includes an introduction to Sage, an easy-to-learn yet powerful open-source mathematics software package
· Ideal for undergraduate mathematics majors as well as non-math majors
· Digital solutions manual (available only to professors)*My first impression:* I've always been deeply interested in number theory and in fact, I applied to the mathematics department for my undergrad university degree. (Despite having excellent grades, I was turned away because I am female.) So I have a lifelong personal interest in this topic. This textbook looks really interesting because it not only presents number theory, but the theorems are presented in their historical context, too. Unlike other mathematical subjects, such as calculus, which are independent of the individuals who developed them, the author notes that "number theory has had a wonderfully quirky evolution that depended heavily upon the particular interests of the people who developed the subject over the years." [p. xii] This book has 15 chapters, the first ten of which present core concepts, problems (many with solutions). Perhaps surprising for a mathematics textbook, the writing is clear and conversational in tone. I look forward to studying this book on my own over the coming months.
Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved by Robin Wilson [Princeton University Press; Revised Color edition, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
*Publisher's synopsis* On October 23, 1852, Professor Augustus De Morgan wrote a letter to a colleague, unaware that he was launching one of the most famous mathematical conundrums in history -- one that would confound thousands of puzzlers for more than a century. This is the amazing story of how the "map problem" was solved.
The problem posed in the letter came from a former student: What is the least possible number of colors needed to fill in any map (real or invented) so that neighboring counties are always colored differently? This deceptively simple question was of minimal interest to cartographers, who saw little need to limit how many colors they used. But the problem set off a frenzy among professional mathematicians and amateur problem solvers, among them Lewis Carroll, an astronomer, a botanist, an obsessive golfer, the Bishop of London, a man who set his watch only once a year, a California traffic cop, and a bridegroom who spent his honeymoon coloring maps. In their pursuit of the solution, mathematicians painted maps on doughnuts and horseshoes and played with patterned soccer balls and the great rhombicuboctahedron.
It would be more than one hundred years (and countless colored maps) later before the result was finally established. Even then, difficult questions remained, and the intricate solution -- which involved no fewer than 1,200 hours of computer time -- was greeted with as much dismay as enthusiasm.
Providing a clear and elegant explanation of the problem and the proof, Robin Wilson tells how a seemingly innocuous question baffled great minds and stimulated exciting mathematics with far-flung applications. This is the entertaining story of those who failed to prove, and those who ultimately did prove, that four colors do indeed suffice to color any map.
This new edition features many color illustrations. It also includes a new foreword by Ian Stewart on the importance of the map problem and how it was solved.
*My first impression:* Those who are fascinated by mathematics will absolutely love this book. It tells the long and colourful history of a deceptively simple problem: how to create a colour-coded map so regions that share boundaries can each be distinguished with a different colour. Not only is the problem engaging, but the writing is beautiful, clear and personable.
The editors must have loved producing this revised paperback edition because it is aesthetically pleasing; includes black-and-white photographs, numerous colour diagrams, and it is printed on heavy yet silky-smooth paper that is more fun to touch than a Kindle ever could be.
No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn by Charles A. Kupchan [Oxford University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
*Publisher's synopsis* The world is on the cusp of a global turn. Between 1500 and 1800, the West sprinted ahead of other centers of power in Asia and the Middle East. Europe and the United States have dominated the world since. But today the West's preeminence is slipping away as China, India, Brazil and other emerging powers rise. Although most strategists recognize that the dominance of the West is on the wane, they are confident that its founding ideas -- democracy, capitalism, and secular nationalism -- will continue to spread, ensuring that the Western order will outlast its primacy.
In No One's World, Charles A. Kupchan boldly challenges this view, arguing that the world is headed for political and ideological diversity; emerging powers will neither defer to the West's lead nor converge toward the Western way. The ascent of the West was the product of social and economic conditions unique to Europe and the United States. As other regions now rise, they are following their own paths to modernity and embracing their own conceptions of domestic and international order.
Kupchan contends that the Western order will not be displaced by a new great power or dominant political model. The twenty-first century will not belong to America, China, Asia, or anyone else. It will be no one's world. For the first time in history, an interdependent world will be without a center of gravity or global guardian.
More than simply diagnosing what lies ahead, Kupchan provides a detailed strategy for striking a bargain between the West and the rising rest by fashioning a new consensus on issues of legitimacy, sovereignty, and governance. Thoughtful, provocative, sweeping in scope, this work is nothing less than a global guidebook for the 21st century.
*My first impression:* This thought-provoking and carefully-argued book departs from the usual ideas about the evolution of modern society because, basically, the West took a unique path -- a path that the Middle East cannot possibly follow, even if they wanted to. Also includes data graphics. Definitely worth reading.
The Nature Tracker's Handbook by Nick Baker [Bloomsbury Natural History, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
*Publisher's synopsis* Every animal leaves some kind of trace as it passes and the art of tracking is very much like learning to read. If you learn to read the signs left by footprints, leftover food, droppings and scrapes in the earth you will soon be able to tell the story of an animal's life, packed with fascinating details and hidden meanings
This new book shows readers how to find and interpret the evidence that animals leave behind, from a footprint, a bent blade of grass, a soil disturbance or a chewed nut or leaf. Combined with other signs, tracks and trails they will soon be able to build a profile of a huge range of creatures. Readers will not only learn the difference between a poo and a pellet; but will be able to spot the differences between pellets regurgitated by a variety of bird species.
Written by popular nature presenter, Nick Baker, and beautifully designed and illustrated, the book is a brand new approach to the curious science of nature tracking.
*My first impression:* This lovely field guide is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of full-colour photographs and drawings, and informative tables. The book covers everything you'll need to track animals, from tooth marks, shed skin, egg cases and foot prints to poo. Also includes interesting projects such as dissecting owl pellets, aging an herbivore by examining their teeth, and cleaning and whitening bones.
What book(s) are you reading? How far are you along in the book? What do you think of it so far? Do you think your book is worth recommending to others?
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She's very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.