books and cleverness
I read books of all sorts, but mostly kids' lit and young adult literature and speculative fiction for all ages—usually from a feminist perspective.
I've adopted a personalized version of the CHOICE reviews approach to recommendations/star ratings:
***** = Essential, a.k.a. truly love, absolute must-read, buy it now
**** = Highly Recommended, a.k.a. this is a really good book; I would buy it as a gift
*** = Recommended, a.k.a. pretty good; worth reading
** = Optional, a.k.a. meh
* = Not Recommended; a.k.a. this is not a good book
 Nothing: A History of the Noble Gases - David E. Fisher)
Much Ado About (Practically) Nothing: A History of the Noble Gases
I was disappointed by this book. The title is misleading; I would call it a memoir rather than "a history" of anything. Chapters kept ending with the sentiment, "Our results were inconclusive and we couldn't really figure out what to do instead to get useful results...oh well, it was fun!" Which may be true and how science works, but it's not very satisfying, narratively speaking. I probably wouldn't have finished it if it weren't the only thing I had with me while traveling.
