No comments about Benjamin Franklin, Genius of Kites, Flights and Voting Rights.

1 comments about Art Smith: Pioneer Aviator.

1. Art Smith Pioneer Aviator is an excellent read. The account not only portrays Smith as a 'free spirit' leader in the evolution and exploration of aviation, but also considers his many personal experiences along the way. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in this area of history; from the beginner novice up to and including self-proclaimed aviation fanatics! Also makes for a great gift idea..

No comments about Lindbergh Looks Back: A Boyhood Reminiscence.

5 comments about Angles of Reflection: A Memoir of Logic and a Mother's Love.

1. I want it for my mom she is and angle and she should be in this book!!!



2. I have read this book twice, and recommended it to several friends, and find it a most complex and multi-faceted tale. On the one hand a poignant account of a sick child,and an examination of the difficult decisions everyone has to make under uncertainty, it is much more than that as it weaves Newton, Leibniz and Augustus de Morgan and the choices they made into the story. It was in many ways a brave decision of Joan Richards to write and publish this book, and those who read it can judge for themselves her success--I found it riveting, and even better on the second reading.



3. I found this book to be very well written, and at the beginning I had high hopes that I would like it very much. However, I found that as the book went on, I was less and less sure what point the author was trying to make and just what the focus of the book was supposed to be. What the author's son Ned went through with two unrelated and severe medical problems was compelling to read about, but not really enough to carry the book. The math history parts of the book often seemed quite unrelated to the main tale. Perhaps the book was a way to expose the many uncaring or distant medical professionals the author encountered, but this was not tied together into a real message. Or perhaps the author was telling her story to justify her decision not to return to the States with her son once he ran into medical troubles in Germany---which in my eyes didn't really need justifying---I would not see Germany as having less competant medical care than the US. In any case, I found the ending a bit unfinished---I didn't really see how all of a sudden Ned's elbow was fixed, and we were not told much about the final outcome of his seizures or his brain surgery, although the book was published at least 3 years after these problems started. I feel there could have been a much better book here with more focus and more of a unified point. However, I did finish the book and am still thinking about it--a sign of something worth reading.



4. I just spent the past Saturday afternoon reading _Angles of Reflection_ by Joan L. Richards and was quite moved by it. For anyone who has had to grapple with balancing work and family -- including in academics where one's schedule is flexible but at times consuming and unpredictable -- this book is a must read along with other similar volumes, such as _Divided Lives_ and _True North_. Richards's depictions of "mother's time" and "professional time", as well as the conflict between the two, could very well have been a chapter in Alan Lightman's _Einstein's Dreams_. German culture is not a very hospitable environment for working mothers, but Richards navigates skillfully through maternal care, professional meetings, and daily annoyances like sharply abbreviated hours for grocery shopping. Her depiction of the German medical system, a form of socialized medicine, might be looked upon as idiosyncratic and Byzantine by all except those of us who have to deal with American HMO's on a regular basis. Past and present, as well as life and art, overlap in this deliciously engrossing volume: as she cares for her son, Richards works through the intricacies of her biographies of Augustus and Sophia De Morgan and finds in their child, Alice, a parallel story of parental concern. Richards's story reminded me of a statement attributed to Jackie Kennedy Onassis: when asked about raising her children, she is supposed to have said, "If I fail at this, nothing else matters." Above all else, Richards's love and care for her two boys shine through this volume, even on pages dense with Newton, the De Morgans, and probability theory. This book, written in the tradition of Jill Ker Conway, is required reading for anyone, but especially for those curious about how the thinking lives of academics intersects with the practical and emotional lives of the everyday world. Highly recommended.



5. I read "Angles of Reflection" for a graduate course on untraditional history at Brown University, and as Joan Richards is our graduate advisor, she came to a class to discuss the book with us. The thing that struck me the most was that she said, "I just HAD to write this book". After you read it, you realize this book is a healing process, a way to come to grips with the whirlwind of drama that faced the Richards family as Ned's two medical mishaps came to light, and Richards' struggles as an academic and as a devoted mother. This book identifies the hardships academics face when the responsibilities of work and the devotion of family clash head on. I too highly suggest this book for those seeking careers in the academic field, but it is also a superb read for all. By the way, Ned is doing great, we too wondered about this :)

No comments about Egbert Havinga: Enjoying Organic Chemistry 1927-1987 (Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams).

No comments about More Letters of Charles Darwin. Volume 1.

No comments about Great Maritime Achievers in Science and Technology.

No comments about American Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies 1900-2000.

No comments about Thomas Alva Edison: The Man Who Illuminated the World : A Pictorial Biography.

1 comments about Adele Marion Fielde: Feminist, Social Activist, Scientist (Women in Science).

1. My thanks to Dr. Leonard Warren for this absorbing biography of a woman I personally had never heard of and who is, I believe, unfamiliar to most readers. Set against the intellectual, religious, and scientific climate of the second half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, this recounting of the life of the awesomely brilliant Adele Marion Fielde should be required reading for anyone interested in such wide-ranging subjects as: missionary work in China, political and cultural life in western and eastern Europe, the early feminist movement, late-19th-century scientific thought and research....and more, more, more. And then there is the fascinating Ms. Fielde herself, a woman of extraordinary intellect, humanism, insight and energy, who not only survived an extraordinary tragedy but turned enforced self-reliance into the driving force of a most remarkable life. Why doesn't someone turn it into a movie?