THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS by Paolo Giordano

THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS is written by Paolo Giordano, an Italian physicist who is also the youngest winner of the Premio Strega, a prestigious literary award. Currently he is working on a doctorate in particle physics and resides in Italy. It is not every day that a physicist writes a beautiful and stirring novel such as this one.

March 18, 2010 ¡ Judi Clark ¡ No Comments
Tags: ,  Âˇ Posted in: Contemporary, Debut Novel, italy, y Award Winning Author

THE IMMORTALITY FACTOR by Ben Bova

THE IMMORTALITY FACTOR was first published in 1996 as BROTHERS. It is now presented, according to Bova, not as a science fiction novel, but as a contemporary novel. Due to advancements in the field of cellular regeneration, it is no longer science fiction.

December 29, 2009 ¡ Judi Clark ¡ No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  Âˇ Posted in: Speculative (Beyond Reality)

THE CORAL THIEF by Rebecca Stott

Well before Charles Darwin presented the theory of evolution in 1859, there were scientists who thought along similar lines—who believed that species “were mutable and that Nature was on the move.” Much like scientists who came even earlier and set forth what were considered equally radical ideas, these people too—many of whom were in France—were labeled godless heretics.

When Daniel Connor, a freshly minted medical student, travels to Paris in July 1815, his professor in Edinburgh had already warned him about these “heretics”—also known as transformists. “Paris is riddled with infidels, Professor Jameson had warned me back in Edingburgh. ‘They are poets, those French transformists, not men of science,’” Connor recalls.

November 1, 2009 ¡ Judi Clark ¡ No Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Âˇ Posted in: Facing History, France

GENEROSITY: AN ENHANCEMENT by Richard Powers

There are many reasons why Thassadit Amzwar should not be the way she is—always happy. For one thing, she has lost most of her family in the ongoing Algerian civil war. Her father is killed and her mother dies soon after from pancreatic cancer. She has left her home behind and is now a refugee studying in a mediocre college, Mesquakie, in Chicago. It is here that she runs into Russell Stone—who is teaching the creative writing course she is enrolled in…

October 18, 2009 ¡ Judi Clark ¡ No Comments
Tags: , , , , , ,  Âˇ Posted in: 2009 Favorites, Contemporary, Literary, US Midwest, y Award Winning Author