***
ON OUR BOOKSHELVES
***
NOVEL: Thing Explainer
AUTHOR: Randall Munroe
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2015
REVIEW:
Randall Munroe is a former NASA employee who draws the comic xkcd and is the author of one previous book, What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.
His latest effort is Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words, which seeks to explain how everyday objects operate using the thousand most common words in the English language (or the “ten hundred” in the parlance of the book).
The volume itself is folio sized and will be enjoyed by any bibliophile, due to its high quality paper and great tactile feel.
Munroe covers topics such as home appliances, the human body, and the physical universe. His dry wit is evident throughout, including his black humor in describing nuclear weapons–known in this volume as “machines for burning cities.” Each page includes multiple detailed illustrations, including stick figure illustrations similar to those in his comics.
The book reminds me of a volume from my childhood, David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work (1988), but in a simpler, more humorous vein. A colleague once told me that if you can’t explain something to a young child, you don’t really understand the subject. Randall Munroe clears that bar easily and provides readers of all ages with a humorous and informative manual to understanding the world we live in. The illustrations and large format make for a conversation piece that can amuse readers of all ages, although I suspect mature readers will get more out of the material.
***
RATING (one to five whistles, with five being the best): 4 Whistles
***
HOW TO PURCHASE: Amazon
***
Lead-In Image Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
***
Jonathan Ells lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Stephanie. In the next few months, they look forward to learning how babies work.
***
ALSO ON OUR BOOKSHELVES:
A Countess Below Stairs, Eva Ibbotson
A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler
A Room With a View, E.M. Forster
An Infamous Army, Georgette Heyer
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anne Of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Blue Highways, William Least Heat-Moon
Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Roz Chast
Cockpit Confidential, Patrick Smith
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
Ed Emberly’s Drawing Book of Animals, Ed Emberly
Endangered Pleasures, Barbara Holland
Envious Casca, Georgette Heyer
Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, & Jack Thorne
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, Laurie Colwin
Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
If on a winter’s night a traveler, Italo Calvino
Madeleine’s Ghost, Robert Girardi
Malice Aforethought, Frances Iles
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, Jon Krakauer
My Life in France, Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Notorious RBG, Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik
One Summer: America 1927, Bill Bryson
Out of the Blackout, Robert Bernard
Parnassus on Wheels & The Haunted Bookshop, Christopher Morley
Plotted: A Literary Atlas, Andrew DeGraff
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Carlo Rivelli
Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
The Dancer of Izu, Kawabata Yasunari
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., Adelle Waldman
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, Oliver Sacks
The Monogram Murders, Sophie Hannah
The Mother & Child Project, Hope Through Healing Hands (ed.)
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories, Saki
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
The Women in Black, Madeleine St John
They Call Me Naughty Lola, David Rose
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
Up At the Villa, W. Somerset Maugham
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
— # —