Review 94: Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table

Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table by Kit Chapman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great science book! I kid you not, it is a book you don’t want to put down, it’s just that fascinating. Chapman writes a fascinating history of chemistry. I kept wanting to know, what happened next? I am by no means a chemistry expert or anything like that, and as a lay person this was an easy to follow book. Chapman layers the information so by the later portions of the book you can understand what is being said without being overwhelmed by the terms.

The book contains humor and little bits that make the stories and people fascinating. You learn about more than just how the superheavy element discovery takes place, but who made that possible, and how. And there is drama in the book. There are only a few labs around the world hunting for new elements, and when they created just a few atoms, it becomes difficult to say with certainty that yes this is a new element. So competing labs have competing claims, and naming rights. This was a captivating read!

Review 93: Ohio

Ohio by Stephen Markley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was not an enjoyable read. I thought it was a bit of a mystery, but that part didn't show up until very late into the book. I mean very late. So do not go in thinking this is a typical mystery. The book is very dark and gritty.

Too much of this book was looking back at high school, with the jocks and the popular girls, yet not in your typical teen-bopper sort of way, but bleak, tends towards sadistic way. And the book got even darker as the secrets are revealed. Is this how people in small towns live now? At least the youth in these days post great recession? I didn't know what was going down this road, where the book was leading, and just wanted it to end and quickly powered through.

There was a moment, an aspect that was curious, the layers in the book. The way the stories were layered. We have four different points-of-view with the current day to flashbacks. I appreciated the different sections, adding to each layer their own part of the overall story.

Overall the book felt like something that appeals more towards guys. Of course, all books for all people, but it felt like it was written by a guy that other males would enjoy more than women.

I don't like giving low ratings on books as there is such time and efforts by the authors going into these works they give to readers. Yet this is not to the three star level for myself. Not all books are wonderful, and these lesser books raise up others that are more enjoyable. And of course, each to their own.

Review 92: The Giver of Stars

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable book about the pack-horse librarians in Kentucky during the depression era. Having read earlier this year another book on a similar topic I had a little concern that the two would be similar. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson focus was upon one of the librarians and dealing with poverty and racism towards the librarian as a blue person.

This book, in contrast, was more about the beginning of the library and all of the women librarians working in it, particularly a British woman, Alice, and the main organizer, Margery. Alice is recently married to the son of the town’s mine owner and finds herself in complete contrast with her father in law. The book is about the library, and more so about the women running it and how much they change and learn about themselves as being the bringer of books to the rural community.

This book didn’t have the rural, and poverty feel to it as one may expect. It felt more like town and middle class women. Even though Margery was living a distance away, it was still easy walking distance.

This is the first book I've read by Moyes, so I didn't know what to expect from her writing. It seems her books are generally more romance related, which isn’t the type of books I tend towards. Since that is her writing tendency it makes sense that this book is more concerned with relationships than the social structures.


I listened to the audiobook and found the narration was superb and a great way to read this book.

Review 91: The 33 1/3 B-Sides

The 33 1/3 B-Sides: New Essays by 33 1/3 Authors on Beloved and Underrated Albums by Will Stockton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These are short essays each by a different author on a favorite album that wasn’t one that was popular with the masses, the “B sides.” The small book features 55 different musicians (counting the introductions.) If you enjoy music these essays will remind your favorite album and how it affected you.

Many, or at least the ones I read, seem to feature the author reminiscing back to their youth, when music first started taking hold, and the album they listened to over and over, that became a constant.

I didn’t read this entirely, just dabbled here and there with the artists I’m familiar with. I tried reading one or two of ones I don’t know and it didn’t do much for me. I love the concept of the series and will be looking for one of the full-length books dedicated to a favorite artist.


Thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 90: Influx

Influx by Daniel Suarez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What if our technological inventions were way more advanced than was commonly known? What if these inventions were being controlled by a secret organization that ensures these innovations are kept secret and out of public knowledge? This is the premise of this book. John Grady discovers a way to control gravity, "invents" an anti-gravity mirror, then falls into the rabbit hole of this secret organization. What happens keeps you guessing.

There are moments of explaining the technology, and other moments of pure thriller chase type scenes. I loved the premise and how the book wasn't predicable for most of the book, until it was with some aspects that seem to occupy many other books. Have to say the chase scenes were slightly unique due to the technology enlisted, but same premise. Still, the book is a decent read.