pickA 2021 Manbooker shortlist contender. Einstein, Grothendiek, Mochizuki, the Nazis. Each has a dark history of contributing to the destruction and bleak dystopia of human discovery via science and mathematics in two world wars. Author Labatut details the rise of human innovation, invention, and uncovering knowledgeable secrets, but provides a sinister reality of how these wonders can be abused. This nonfiction read is jarring but eye-opening.
pickHow to explain this book? Imagine Werner Heisenberg discovering his Uncertainty Principle. What must have been going through his mind? What external circumstances might have aided his discovery? As a work of fiction, this book fills in the blanks.
pickI was happy this finally came in at the library so I could read it, and was glad it made the first #ToB cut. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It sucked me in and I liked the blurred lines between fact and story. The ending was pretty phenomenal.
pickThis was an unusual book, to say the least. Each section tells of scientific discovery, blending fact with fiction. The first is fairly straightforward, relating the discovery of the color Prussian Blue & the history of Zyklon B. Later sections become increasingly surreal, grotesque & fantastical. I'll classify this as a pick: it was fascinating & unlike anything I've ever read, but some elements were over the top, especially toward the end.
so-soI... don't think I know what I just read. It reads like a nonfiction science book like Caesar's Last Breath or Napoleon's Buttons, which I like, but it's fiction, so I feel like I have to be on guard not to believe it all, which leaves me uncertain how to read it at all. If it read more like historical fiction than like nonfiction, I think I wouldn't be so confused. Or maybe I should have read the book-book instead of the audiobook. #ToB2022
When We Cease to Understand the World | 
