Welcome to Litsy!

That feeling when the book you're reading references the next in your stack ...

I don't remember hearing that d'Alembert's birth mother was Mme de Tencin, but if I did it didn't stick with me because who the heck is Claudette de Tencin? I only encountered her earlier this year through her proto-gothic Memoirs of the Count of Comminges -- and my next read, her historical novel “The Siege of Calais.“

In Aczel's story she does not seem pleasant

(2011) It's a popular history of Western mathematics light on mathematical detail and heavy on biographical anecdotes. Some favorite stories are included: the Cardano-Tartaglia and Newton-Leibniz feuds, Galois's stupid and romantic death at 20, the Bourbaki pranksters and Grothendieck's reclusiveness. But for me the stories were familiar and Aczel's retelling didn't add much. I'd have liked more math, but that's not the kind of book this is.

Finished paper 1 at 2 am
& now I sit here yet again
to write another line and verse;
I hope this essay isn‘t worse
than this poem.

I‘m halfway through comps exams & enjoying the heck out of the process even if I am tired. Today I get to write about microscopic worlds, affective ecocriticism, & The Secret Garden.

Highly recommend the tagged book even if you are not writing for scholarship. It‘s so cool! This illustration is one of my favorites🧚

Don‘t listen to them —
knowledge is power — may your
thirst never be quenched. 🦉

Knowledge is definitely power. Important to keep this in mind when trying new endeavors and somebody wants to rain on your parade. Example: me learning French. I‘ve been learning for 6 years now & I‘ve had a couple of people ask “why”, like it‘s some huge waste of time. I say, why not?

#haikuhive #haikuaday #poetry

#bookmail
Came home after work to discover lots of packages on my front porch from Thrift Books and Blackwells. What fun! #porchlife

New products. I picked up TJ‘s new body sunscreen gel. They have a new mineral sunscreen too.

Each chapter in this impressive, informative read follows a female scientist influenced by Marie Curie while also sharing her astounding story. Marie's love of science still influences young scientists today, and her dedication to learning is infectious.

This book is well written and the perfect mix of science and personal reflections.

#dynamicds #discovery
@eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I waited 14 years to read this not-difficult book. Sigh.

This tries to capture a transitional era in the sciences, ~1800, when science and the arts were closely linked and science was a wide-open field for adventure, but was also becoming formalized, and a far more stringent field. (The steampunk era? 🙂) But Holmes approach is pure biography (of people instead of ideas). I was entertained. This is an easy, wonderful listen.

I've seen this quote before, and I love it, but I love this framing of it even more!

Also, I think I need this quote on a t-shirt. For those non-great days.