A History of Pi, by Petr Beckmann

Despite its title, A History of Pi recounts more than the evolution of a geometric constant.  In this case, moving beyond the core topic of the book turns out to be a bad thing.  Yes, there is quite a bit of mathematical history, but the author simply uses that history as a platform to share his extremely biased view of government, religion, and society.  At first it is distracting, then quickly becomes irritating.  If you can make it past the first few chapters, you start to laugh at the off-topic rants.  Once you reach that point, you can brush off the irrelevant bull and pay attention to the math history that motivated you to pick up the book in the first place.

For example, a chapter on Archimedes includes a figure with the following caption:

"Archimedes screw or helical pump.  It is still used 23 centuries later by the Egyptian felahim, whose rulers think it more important to destroy Israel than to provide their people with modern irrigation."

Never mind that the chapter never once mentions the helical pump.  Never mind that Egypt's position toward Israel has nothing to do with the history of pi.  The author takes advantage of the most tenuous of links, leveraging a supposed compliment of the longevity of the ancient engineer's inventions and twisting it into a political statement, one which undermines the so-called compliment.

If I wanted a book on politics, I'd pick up a book on politics.

But the book isn't all bad.  It does present the history of pi in the context of the societies which influenced its evolution.  There are some mathematical insights I particularly appreciated.  His explanation of the importance of proofs clicked for me, and his arguments were strengthened by a later discussion of the value of not-yet-proven theorems.  The implications of the five Euclidian axioms was another highlight.  Someone with more formal mathematical training than I have might find the mathematical treatise too light, but I thought it was just about the right length and the right level of detail.  It isn't meant to be a scholarly work, so don't expect one.

But unfortunately the math is overshadowed by the hogwash.  For a man that places so much importance on logic and proof in mathematics, it surprises me that he does not apply the same rigor to the political biases he espouses with such fervor.  The poppycock can be partially excused once you realize the author lived in Czechoslovakia until he fled to the United States in the sixties; his life was shaken by Nazis and communists.  His portrayal of WWII-era Germany shows how skewed the author's bias really is.  While I do not support Nazi Germany in any way, his portrayal of the Germans as technologically inept, unable to come up with anything better than giant bells which use sound to kill, is unquestionably false.  He condemns war, then arbitrarily selects acts of war and aggression and glorifies them.  His absolute confidence in his positions makes no sense to me.  Perhaps the inability to boil down history to a set of provable theorems has left the author with nothing to fall back on other than unjustified certainty in a misguided interpretation of history.

Most of the author's assertions make you roll your eyes, but there was one that I found particularly offensive.  To demonstrate that a computer doesn't possess true intelligence, he compares the computer to an idiot savant.  He says that both are "moron[s] whose total imbecility can often be quite exasperating."  This is an ugly, insolent statement.  It is clear that he believes the contemporary definition of idiot completely applies to an idiot savant. The author is the idiot here, placing absolute confidence in an opinion based on pure ignorance, just like many other of the author's assertions.  I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with a so-called idiot savant, a man I am proud to call my friend.  My friend clearly has some serious cognitive defects, and it is true that he doesn't understand how he comes up with answers to certain types of questions, but he is NOT an empty shell with no intelligence whatsoever.  To focus solely on the unusual pieces of an idiot savant, both positive and negative, is to ignore the majority of who he is.  The absence of certain skills lets the intelligence he does possess shine through, and helps you appreciate just how amazing human intelligence really is.

This book gets 4 stars for the parts that deal with the evolution of pi, but only 2 stars for making you wade through so much manure.  Overall I give it three stars.  Now I just need to decide whether to place this review in the fiction or non-fiction category.

3 Stars

Sleeping Well: The Sourcebook for Sleep and Sleep Disorders, by Michael J. Thorpy and Jan Yager

This is a resource book for the sleep deprived. It covers the basics of normal and abnormal sleep, then provides a comprehensive review of sleep disorders and their treatment. The book really is thorough, covering all kinds of disorders. The book is easy to read, avoiding unnecessary medical jargon.

As someone with chronic sleep problems, I was already familiar with the general sleep information. I also knew about the specific conditions pertinent to me. The rest of the book's information just wasn't relevant to me.

I would recommend this book to someone who is just starting to learn about sleep, sleep hygiene, and sleep disorders. I would also recommend this book to medical professionals who could use an informal reference book. The book didn't do much for me because I'm somewhere in the middle of those two targets. The book is what it is, a casual but complete sleep sourcebook. It fills that niche well, but it's not the book I needed. I'm not going to ding the book for that though.

Four stars

Making Peace with Autism, by Susan Senator

The full title of this excellent book is Making Peace with Autism: One Family's Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts. The author, Susan Senator, relates the experiences of her family, which includes herself, her husband, and their three sons. The oldest of these three sons, Nat, has autism. Ms. Senator gives us an authentic, honest view of her family as they learn to cope with – and love – their autistic son and brother.

What I most appreciate about this book is that it neither sugar coats nor sensationalizes the difficulties they have faced. I'm also glad that Ms. Senator gives equal emphasis to the happiness they have experienced. She shares feelings of depression and self-doubt (which must be difficult to do as openly as she does), but also shares feelings of hope and even triumph as she, Nat, and the rest of their family reach milestones and move past them. By faithfully describing both the joy and the pain, she has avoided writing a flat history. Instead, she has created a credible, emotional memoir with substance and depth, one that feels real.

Yet another great aspect of this book is that, despite the atypical struggles autism has forced upon them, Ms. Senator and her family seem very normal (although I wonder how she'd react to hearing her family described as normal - as a compliment, I suspect). The author isn't on a crusade for any particular miracle cure, doesn't preach any specific treatment, doesn't impose shame on the reader for not following a particular autism dogma. After so many books with an agenda, it's refreshing to read something not written by an extremist.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what it feels like to parent a child with exceptional needs. For those who already know how it feels, you'll see yourself in this book's pages again and again.

An enthusiastic 5 stars