A genially written book that will appeal to general readers with an ear for music.
The universal languages of math and music.
Darling (Equations of Eternity, 1993) tackles the history of music through a scientific lens in his latest book, which he says “explores how something that, ultimately, can be reduced to mere equations and wave patterns conspires to have such a powerful emotional impact upon us.” He begins with a look at the Divje Babe flute, possibly “the world’s oldest surviving musical instrument,” found in a Slovenian cave in 1995. This kicks off a discussion of how music began. “Did language or music come first, or did they develop together?” he asks, noting that a recent theory suggests “that language evolved as a subset of music.” Further chapters cover the concepts of harmony, scales, and musical notation and the efforts of musicians such as Henry Cowell and Brian Eno to challenge prevailing musical convention. An especially fascinating section looks at the introduction of electricity to musical performance, which may have begun in 1748 with the “clavichord-like” Denis d’or. (Or maybe not. As Darling writes, “In fact, it seems far more likely, if the strings were electrified at all, that the intent was to spring a practical joke on the unsuspecting player rather than enhance the quality of sound.”) The author examines musical dissonance and its “sense of tension” (exploring theme tunes of Jaws and West Side Story), while a chapter about music and the brain cites musicians who continued to perform after being diagnosed with dementia. This is a wide-ranging book; its breadth of subjects alone proves Darling’s assertion that “music is part of the fabric of reality, an inherent component of the world around us.” Readers without a background in advanced mathematics might struggle to understand a few parts, but this is a mostly accessible—and quite interesting—work of science and history.
A genially written book that will appeal to general readers with an ear for music.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780861549856
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A remarkably thorough and thoughtful case for the reconciliation between science and faith.
A duo of French mathematicians makes the scientific case for God in this nonfiction book.
Since its 2021 French-language publication in Paris, this work by Bolloré and Bonnassies has sold more than 400,000 copies. Now translated into English for the first time by West and Jones, the book offers a new introduction featuring endorsements from a range of scientists and religious leaders, including Nobel Prize-winning astronomers and Roman Catholic cardinals. This appeal to authority, both religious and scientific, distinguishes this volume from a genre of Christian apologetics that tends to reject, rather than embrace, scientific consensus. Central to the book’s argument is that contemporary scientific advancements have undone past emphases on materialist interpretations of the universe (and their parallel doubts of spirituality). According to the authors’ reasoned arguments, what now forms people’s present understanding of the universe—including quantum mechanics, relativity, and the Big Bang—puts “the question of the existence of a creator God back on the table,” given the underlying implications. Einstein’s theory of relativity, for instance, presupposes that if a cause exists behind the origin of the universe, then it must be atemporal, non-spatial, and immaterial. While the book’s contentions related to Christianity specifically, such as its belief in the “indisputable truths contained in the Bible,” may not be as convincing as its broader argument on how the idea of a creator God fits into contemporary scientific understanding, the volume nevertheless offers a refreshingly nuanced approach to the topic. From the work’s outset, the authors (academically trained in math and engineering) reject fundamentalist interpretations of creationism (such as claims that Earth is only 6,000 years old) as “fanciful beliefs” while challenging the philosophical underpinnings of a purely materialist understanding of the universe that may not fit into recent scientific paradigm shifts. Featuring over 500 pages and more than 600 research notes, this book strikes a balance between its academic foundations and an accessible writing style, complemented by dozens of photographs from various sources, diagrams, and charts.
A remarkably thorough and thoughtful case for the reconciliation between science and faith.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9789998782402
Page Count: 562
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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