The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science Audiobook

" Again, I honestly love the way she writes...read it again and again! "

" a pure delight and a must-read for an aspiring science writer. "

" Did precisely what it needed to. "

" It's informative, but Angier's writing style got on my nerves pretty quickly. As a general science primer, though, it does its job. I think it would be fun to incorporate in a class with middle or early high school-age kids. "

" Natalie Angier has a gift for explaining complicated things in really simple terms. Her prose is snappy, though often verging on cutesy, and I agree with the initial argument of this book, that all the joy and wonder we derive from science as children is slowly beaten out of Americans as we age, and that's a damn shame. "

" I finally buckled down and finished this book. I certainly appreciated getting a review of all of all of these topics and concepts learned (or glossed over) throughout school. It was a great refresher course. However, in her effort to make is "accessible" to the masses, she ends up going over the top, being annoyingly condescending and talking down to the reader. It is not something to be read on consecutive nights of reading, but it is a great reminder of basic scientific principles that it is important to understand. "

" A good, light, quick review of basic science stuff. "

" Parts were really good, but for the most part I thought it was a little to whimiscal. Strange, most of the time I think the science books could do with more whimsy. "

" There is some excellent content in this book (the sections on cells and on plate tectonics were very good) but as many others noted the authors insistence on adding supposedy clever phrases every pther paragraph was extremely annoying and really detracted from the otherwise interesting content. "

" If I could give this book negative stars, I would. I had to read it for a class and it is close to the most painful thing I have ever done. "

" Great book for lay person wanting to know the rudiments of science. I thoroughly enjoyed it. "

" Again, love Angier. I have to admit though, I had to cherry-pick this book a little; just didn't have time to read it cover to cover. I'll get back to it, though, for sure. It makes me want to learn EVERYTHING! "

" I wish I could write the way that Angier writes - she makes even the most complex ideas accessible. Love her. "

" Quite interesting at first, but then it gets boring. I couldn't put myself to finish this book. "

" Very good book on science by a New York Times Science reporter. "

" Three stars because its heart is in the right place, but did there really need to be chapter full of nothing but analogies<br/>about the size of the solar system? We got it the first, okay- admittedly the second time. :p "

" Loved this book. Her humor felt to me to be a little too much at times, yet i wouldn't change any of the book for the world. The kind of book you want to read with a highlighter near at hand so you can mark the parts you want to read more about later. "

" Light enough to be enjoyable, but still informative. I didn't learn a great deal about any of the disciplines covered here, but the goal was to highlight how the disciplines apply to everyday life and why the average person should care. On that goal, it mostly succeeds. "

" I couldn't finish this. It was interesting, but halfway through I stopped, and realized I don't want to pick it up again. It's not the subject matter, but her prose is too flowery and wandering. "