[Note: Please see the other five [1] collections of short reviews on short books.]

An A-Z Of British Culture, by Nicky Stuart Verra

This short but entertaining guide gives readers an alphabetically organized guide to certain distinctive elements of British culture in a way that is designed to inform people about British life and some of its more notable quirks. The subjects discussed range from drinking (beer or tea) to queuing, from an examination of the British obsession with talking about the weather to sports, from religion to X-rated novels and movies, from banks to government. The book is not particularly deep, but it is deep enough to teach a few new tidbits of knowledge to many readers who share an appreciation of British culture from its dark history of imperialism to the nobility of the British sense of fair play, from notable inventions and universities to the ubiquity of British movies and music. This book will not take long to read, but it will provide most readers with at least some enjoyment and learning, and in so doing the book certainly succeeds at its purpose of providing a short but informative guide to certain aspects of British life and culture.

The Einstein Theory Of Relativity, by H.A. Lorenz

This slim book provides a discussion of the initial experimental confirmation of the Special Theory of Relativity from a calculations taken during a brief solar eclipse shortly after WWI. This essay (for it is an essay and not a full-sized book) reminds us that before E = MC^2 became a well-known equation (the equation itself appears nowhere in this work) and before Einstein himself became well known, it was necessary to justify his complicated mathematics in order to account for the absence of the ether in Einstein’s conceptions of the cosmos. While it is strange to think that Einstein’s works and the man himself were long obscure in the English speaking world, it is worthwhile that this work helped to familiarize the world of scientifically-inclined Englishmen and Americans to one of the most striking and notable thinkers of the 20th century. Although not as interesting as the (translated) essay from Einstein himself, this is a worthy historical artifact as a work that introduced English speakers to Einstein before he was famous, at the very beginning of the time when he began to draw the attention of contemporary thinkers despite the fact that his daring was initially thought to be immensely eccentric.

Nikola Tesla: Imagination And The Man That Invented The 20t Century, by Sean Patrick

This particular book takes more than a quarter of its length to introduce its subject, the impossibly fertile and productive genius of Nikola Tesla. Whether one is looking at his goals at preserving world peace (ultimately unsuccessfully) to his brave championing of alternative current despite the lies and manipulations of Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan (both of whom come off extremely badly here), to his often forgotten invention of radio, Tesla was a compelling intellect who nonetheless did not end up wealthy as a result of his numerous brilliant insights. Despite technological innovations that led to the creation of radar and the design of a vertical takeoff and landing plane, and even the ironic tribute of video games to his Tesla coil (which originally had peaceful implications), Tesla had a mind of amazing creativity and imagination. That life, which ended up somewhat tragically as he died alone and destitute, serves as the vehicle for the author to make the point that genius comes from a mix of qualities that includes persistence and the ability to make unusual connections. The points are a good one, but sometimes it feels as if Tesla’s life is merely a case study used to support an idea rather than the subject of a genuine biographical sketch. It would have been better to start from Tesla and then go out from there rather than start from a given second-hand view of intellect and genius and then read that into Tesla’s life and contribution to the world.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/fragmented-book-reviews-part-five/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/fragmented-book-reviews-part-four/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/fragmented-book-reviews-part-three/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/fragmented-book-reviews-part-two/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/fragmented-book-reviews-part-one/