The Brilliant Calculator by Jan Lower

 I am sad to say I was not familiar with Edith Clarke before coming across this book. She is a brilliant mathematician who was interested in electricity and ultimately designed (on paper!) the first functional graphing calculator! (Literally, the calculator was on a piece of graph paper… and it worked!)

 This book is presented in a biographical format, informing readers how she grew up, how she was educated, and how she plowed through the wall of men in her way to become the first female electrical engineer in the United States. Her work was instrumental in bringing telephones and lights across our nation.

I love discovering brilliant women in STEM fields. This book is a must in any school library or classroom.

 Available 14 March 2023.

Thank you @netgalley and @astrahousebooks for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Young Katherine Johnson by William Augel

 This book is awesome! It is a unique look at the genius mathematician Katherine Johnson. The book is presented as a graphic novel depicting Johnson as a young child and each page is all about numbers and how she saw the world through the lens of mathematics. Some pages even have challenges for the reader to solve math problems discussed on the page (solutions are included in the back of the book). There are fun activities at the end of the book also.

 Katherine Johnson is one of my heroes (first black woman to work at NASA) and I’ve reviewed books about her before. If you or your children aren’t familiar with her, I highly recommend this book. Everyone should know about Katherine Johnson.

 This book is available 7 March 2023.

Thank you @netgalley and @HumanoidsInc for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

#katherinejohnson #emilyclarke #youngkatherinejohnson #Thebrilliantcalculator #graphingcalculator #electricalengineer #stem #stembooks

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean #Bookreview

🥄 While I am not a chemistry whiz by any stretch of the imagination, I am an engineer and my work involves radium, thorium, and uranium (among other radioactive elements). I also love history. So, when I found a book that touted “fascinating tales” of all of the periodic elements and how they “play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine” and the scientists who discovered them, I was sold!

🥄 I really liked this book. I didn’t find it to be particularly difficult to understand or too “scientific”. As a matter of fact, I think it was written in a way that anyone with even a passing interest in science, chemistry, or history would enjoy it. And much of it is actually humorous! Did you know that Lewis & Clark’s route to the Pacific Ocean was confirmed by archeologists by following the trail of mercury left behind in their latrines? Mercury pills were a thing back then and Lewis & Clark’s team used them frequently. So, the mercurial poo left behind provided insight to their route to the West. 💩

🥄 The stories for the elements are quirky, informative, and sometimes surprising. Not all elements are equally interesting, particularly for the more obscure ones, but I still enjoyed learning something about each of them. And the historical aspects were particularly interesting to me – including how they were discovered, used, and sometimes misused throughout history.

🥄 I truly enjoyed reading this and I learned something, too! Win win!!

Sorry I have been absent for so long. I am much more active on Instagram now and I encourage you to follow me there at @kayckay_bookreviews. I will continue to post reviews here from time to time.

Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams ★★★★☆ #bookreview #bookblog

★★★★☆

⚠️ Boy does this author like to write crazy stories involving women and cars!

⚠️ I will start by noting that this book has some issues in my opinion. There are some confusing storylines (too many unreliable narrators), some extremely convenient situations, and more than a few ridiculous occurrences. Do I care? No! Because this was an explosive read with a bad*ss heroine who took care of business!

⚠️ Once the action started it didn’t stop! I read this in one sitting!

⚠️ If this book doesn’t end up on the big screen, I’ll be shocked.

⚠️ Not all enjoyable reads have to be great literature or have an epic plot. Sometimes it is simply fun to race through an exciting/claustrophobic/tense situation, well beyond anything I’d ever experience in real life (hopefully), and get through it to a satisfying conclusion. This author does that well… at least for me. I will continue reading his books!

Thank you @NetGalley and Joffe Books for an eARC of this book, which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.