Awesome Science, Awesome Earth

From the European Space Agency

The Story of Earth: the first 4.5 billion years, from stardust to living planet by Robert Hazen
New York, N.Y. : Penguin Books, 2013.
306 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. 

I love a good science book, and this one did not disappoint.  As Nancy Curtis of Library Journal writes, "Hazen has a gift for explaining science in lay terms."  He is able to convey a lot of rather intricate and tricky scientific knowledge and concepts about the formation of the earth and its features, but in ways that get the reader to visualize and contemplate the vast changes that our planet has undergone.  His book helps explain the way in which earth's familiar geology is intricately tied up with the existence of life - in other words, without life, the earth would be a very different place geologically. Specifically, Hazen posits that most of the minerals found on earth would not exist without the chemical changes in the land, oceans, and atmosphere that life sets in motion.

For me the most exciting part of reading The Story of Earth is how it provokes thinking and imagining the nearly incomprehensible stretches of time that make up both earth's history (that 4.5 billion years) and its future (about another 4 billion years).  I think I must be like most humans and feel that a lifetime of 75-100 years is a long time, or that ancient  history (human, that is!) 2,000-3,000 years in past is immense.  But the extent of deep time really is breathtaking - the thought that life was present by the 1 billionth year of earth's existence and yet carried on for another billion year before getting the knack of photosynthesis is really incredible. Of course it was the recognition of deep time that helped Darwin see the potential for truly radical changes of organisms - given only minute changes at any one time.

I will definitely be recommending this book for any students looking for a good science read.

Appetizer With Chopsticks

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral
New York : Razorbill, c2012.
1 v. (unpaged) : ill.(chiefly col.) ; 25 cm.

I really like a lot about this genre-blending novel.  It combines evocative photography/images/drawings, scrapbook-like formatting, links to YouTube videos, and IM shots to create a novel/pastiche of a teen piano prodigy's disappearance, mental troubles, family backstory, and passionate love affair with a mysterious and elusive teen from Argentina.  (The flavor of the book can be sampled at its Tumblr website.)  The story is told with sparse text and the "novel" can be read in about 30 min to 1 hour - and it is compelling.   So far so good! 

But for me the novel has significant shortcomings.  The idea of unreliable narrator is carried to the next level in this book by making the visual narrative itself (images of photos, plane tickets, menus, invitations) very unreliable.  After finishing the book and wondering about the ending, I found myself looking more closely at the visual text of the book.  Contradictions and incorrect documents and dates are taken to such a point as to render the very images potentially false.   At a point I came to be so aware of being manipulated by the authors that I couldn't really enjoy the narrative of the book.  Ultimately the book seemed more interested in its technique and appearance - and lacking in heart.

All this is in some ways all right with me.  This is a book that would be fun to have several readers read and then discuss (and argue about what they think happened - or didn't happen for that matter).  I also like that the book is easy to read and yet can really get readers to question what it means to trust the narrative of a book - fiction or non-fiction.

When I checked out reviews of the book, they seem to fall into two general camps: people love the book (see Kirkus and Reading Rants) or they like the book, but ultimately find it lacking (see Oops and Never Ending Bookshelf [note spoilers]).  I'd have to say I fall into the latter camp.  I find the novel to be more of a intriguing appetizer, but not a main course that satisfies.  Nevertheless, I'll be curious to see how students react to this book.

The Intoxicating Now

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
New York : Knopf, c2008.
294 p. ; 22 cm.

This novel made its way to the movie screens late this summer - after receiving critical praise at Sundance 2013.  After seeing the positive reviews of the film, I wanted to read The Spectacular Now, and I'm glad I did.

Sutter Keely is the hero/antihero of this well written novel. He's a senior in high school who loves having fun, going to parties, having and not having girlfriends, telling good stories, drinking, and hearing himself talk.  In spite of his growing dependence on alcohol, and in spite of being a bit of a fast-talking, self-satisfied goof-off - Sutter has a lot of heart and really wants to do right by those he cares about.

The novel avoids easy plot events that seemed to be coming, and instead deals with the very real and often difficult emotional life of its characters - all while entertaining the reader with humor, sparkling dialogue, and an interesting plot.  The only really tricky thing about the book is its matter of fact acceptance of Sutter's alcoholism - but even there, the novel allows events and the reactions of others to get the reader really thinking about the complications of substance use.

Tharp has a wonderful ear for dialogue and makes a novel that young people can just enjoy for its humor and easy-to-relate-to situations, while really going deeper into the complicated process that a young person will face if they are trying to be authentic, decent, true to themselves, and caring toward those they love.  Definitely a novel worth reading.