The Disappearing Spoon

 The Disappearing Spoon - and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (#926)(What a mouthful of a title!) is another book which has been languishing on my "To Read" List for far too long.  Sam Kean is a science writer who was well reviewed when this book originally appeared.  Since my days in chemistry class are only a distant memory, I have to admit I nearly gave up on this book after struggling through the first couple of chapters,  The author may think he was laying out the concepts of the periodic table in a simple, straightforward manner, but honestly, I had a much easier time digesting the concepts in Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (See my post of  8/18/2016.).  I expected more of an anecdotal approach to the subject from the title, and in the latter chapters, I found that to be true.  Being a long-time fan of The Big Bang Theory on TV, at least I recognized some of Kean's references to famous scientists and even a few key equations!  (Thank you, Drs. Hoffsteder and Cooper!)

I'm not sorry I read this book, but I really think it's aimed at the science geeks among us, not the average reader.