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malcolm_eckel 's review for:
Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything
by Jordan Ellenberg
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Ellenberg twice now, with this and How Not To Be Wrong, has brought a disarming, conversational style. I love how he peppers these mathematical excursions with stories about the people that first made them, humanizing the field from both directions.
This one, though, is a bit scatterbrained; so many different things in math can be called "geometry" by some connection or other, and so there doesn't end up being much of a throughline here. He also often doesn't quite come to a particular conclusion - many explorations open interesting questions, but then don't really bring them back to reality. He discusses modeling the spread of pandemics in many different ways, for example, but doesn't end up giving any advice that might help someone determine which models/advice to trust as a layman.
Still, by way of joyously opening a door into topics that are crucial to understanding our world and yet often feel esoteric and unapproachable, Ellenberg's books are delightful and important. Anyone who finds the topics this book covers interesting will absolutely enjoy the read and come away with new connections and ideas to explore.
This one, though, is a bit scatterbrained; so many different things in math can be called "geometry" by some connection or other, and so there doesn't end up being much of a throughline here. He also often doesn't quite come to a particular conclusion - many explorations open interesting questions, but then don't really bring them back to reality. He discusses modeling the spread of pandemics in many different ways, for example, but doesn't end up giving any advice that might help someone determine which models/advice to trust as a layman.
Still, by way of joyously opening a door into topics that are crucial to understanding our world and yet often feel esoteric and unapproachable, Ellenberg's books are delightful and important. Anyone who finds the topics this book covers interesting will absolutely enjoy the read and come away with new connections and ideas to explore.