DNA of a Female Scientist.

Book Review for “Her Hidden Genius” by Marie Benedict. Summary: "Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider―brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is … Continue reading DNA of a Female Scientist. →

What Bugs Margery?

Book Review for "Miss Benson's Beetle" by Rachel Joyce. Goodreads Blurb: "It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that … Continue reading What Bugs Margery? →

Ghosting Science.

Book Review for “The Man Without a Shadow” by Joyce Carol Oates Imagine having such sudden memory loss that anything that happens to you after that incident can only be retained by your brain for just over one minute, and then it is forgotten? When Elihu Hoopes gets encephalitis at the age of 37, it … Continue reading Ghosting Science. →

The Tint and the Taint

Book Review of “The Blue” by Nancy Bilyeau. In the author’s notes of this book, Bilyeau calls this “a spy story set amid the rivalry of eighteenth-century porcelain factories,” in which the author tells the story of Geneviève Planché, who becomes entangled in the intrigue behind discovering a new shade of blue that is also … Continue reading The Tint and the Taint →

The Beauty of Genius

Book Review of “The Only Woman in the Room” by Marie Benedict. The name Hedy Lamarr might not mean much to many younger people these days, even less so will the name Hedwig Kiesler, with or without the additional names of her many husbands. But Hedy Lamarr was a very popular screen and stage actress … Continue reading The Beauty of Genius →

A Calculating Woman

Book Review of "Enchantress of Numbers" by Jennifer Chiaverini This is the fictionalized story of Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace. In real life, not only was she the only legal child of the famed poet Lord Byron, but she was a talented mathematician and scientists, who made huge contributions to those worlds during the … Continue reading A Calculating Woman →

The Scale of a Family

Book Review of "Moonglow by Michael Chabon. Readers of Michael Chabon's novels know that he has a wonderful way of mixing reality and fiction, to the extent that the lines can feel very blurred. I noticed this in his "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," which won him the Pulitzer. Although that novel, (which … Continue reading The Scale of a Family →