The Disappearing Spoon

This one was a very fun and interesting read. It's a non-fiction book written by a scientist about the periodic table of the elements. Basically, the author takes all of the elements, and tells the interesting stories about how they were discovered, what's made them famous, how they all fit together, etc. The only chemistry class I remember taking during my education years was a class in seventh grade taught by the biology teacher. I don't think I've had anything more than that. (Although, the periodic table is on the wall in almost every classroom I teach in at BSU!)

I'll have to admit, reading this book sometimes made my brain hurt. It'd be much easier to understand the stories if I had a litle more knowledge of the elements themselves, and how the table is organized, etc. But, the author "dumbs" it down enough for someone like me (educated, fairly smart, extremely humble) to understand. (Although, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not at least a little interested in science.)

The stories were usually pretty funny. I actually came out of this one thinking that I needed to find a used chemistry textbook to learn a little more about the elements that make up our world. I guess that's a sign that the author did his job!