How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
This book sat on my bedside table for six months. I looked at it every day, tucked it into my work bag on multiple occasions, and brought it with me on several trips but I was unable to open the cover. I was paralyzed by the guilt of being wrapped into the attention economy, and I did not feel like I was ready or able to give my meager time to “nothing” quite yet. I was wrong. I wish I had cracked it open the […]
A Dream of Flight: Alberto Santos-Dumont's Race Around the Eiffel Tower by Rob Polivka
#cbr11bingo #TrueStory A Dream of Flight: Alberto Santos-Dumont’s Race Around the Eiffel Tower is one of those powerful books that gives you a piece of history you might not be familiar with. Though not an all-encompassing/text-book look, it is a complete and general look at the history of flight in its early years. And it also gives you the story of one person who did much to get it to what we know as aviation today. Years before the Wright Brothers, a young Brazilian man-made history […]
In Made by Maxine by Ruth Spiro
Builder Brothers: Big Plans by Jonathan and Drew Scott
In reverse alphabetical order, this review covers two different books about building, about trying and not giving up. In Made by Maxine by Ruth Spiro, we see our heroine trying to figure out how to make things bigger and better. When she gets a pet fish (who she thinks is waving at her), she builds it the biggest, funniest, craziest fish tank as the bowl she had for him was just too dull. And how proud both are of it! That is until the class […]
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science - and the World by Rachel Swaby
From Goodreads: Fifty-two inspiring and insightful profiles of history’s brightest female scientists. In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” It wasn’t until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites […]
Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants by Andrea Beaty
Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants is a continuing of the picture book series Andrea Beaty and David Roberts started with Iggy Peck, Architect, and Rosie Revere, Engineer and of course, Ada Twist, Scientist. And this chapter book is book two in The Questioneers series for the strong second to third grade reader. There are a few bumps for adult readers, but the age it is aimed at should love. Especially if they are into science, asking questions and funny friendship stories. Like her picture […]
