Maybe there is a royal road to mathematics, after all. If so, Paulos is motoring on it in the driver's seat with this wide- ranging follow-up to his best-selling Innumeracy (1988). In the course of 320 pages, Paulos introduces the reader to mathematics ancient and modern: from Euclid to chaos, pi to probability theory, the Fibonacci series to fractals. And all in truly short-takes (one or two pages per entry), which, one discovers, are presented in alphabetical order. This makes it easy to use the book as a reference while calming the mathematically anxious who might fear taking longer or deeper plunges into any subject. Yet Paulos does not trivialize. His clearly stated objective is to right the wrongs that drill, formulas, and endless exercises have wrought in high-school classrooms. Mathematics is a language with structure and logic, elegance and beauty. Its interpreters can be purists who deplore finding any use for math or practical-minded thinkers who apply its tools and techniques to physics and engineering. Bridging the two are those mathematical excursions into number theory, set theory, or non-Euclidean geometry that turn out to be models of the natural world-of the way flowers grow, quarks interact, or how the universe is shaped. Paulos tells it all like the gifted teacher he is, combining the mathematical lore with asides on culture and personalities. Galois died at age 21 in a duel over a prostitute; Gîdel died of malnutrition occasioned by ``personality disturbances.'' And so on and on in what one would like to see become an infinite series.
Pub Date: April 28, 1991
ISBN: 0-394-58640-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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