Numero uno 1
The Grapes of Math, but not the children's book 😀
This one is by the author Alex Bellos, (as I was able to do find) a prominent math-book writer. The official name is : "The Grapes of Math, How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life", 2014
The Grapes of Math is not for the average reader. It may leave the first impression as a unserious or light book, but if you dive deeper, you will see that is mathematically weighty. You need to have some passion for science at least, it doesn't has to be specifically for math. I would that say it requires math maturity.
Maybe, the best audience will be:
- math and science college students,
- science and math teachers, or
- engineers.
This book contains many of the famous stories and covers a lot. What I find unique about this book is that in every chapter, on almost every page you can find names, places, theorems, which you can search upon and then delve into your own direction of research.
Number two
The Magic of Mathematic, by Theoni Pappas.
The official name of the book is "The Magic of Mathematics: discovering the spell of mathematics", 1994, by Wide World Publishing/Tetra. At first glance, I thought it will be "just another math book" introducing the ancient Egypt math, then Ancient Greeks, and so on. However, this book has done that...and much much more. The chapters are wonderfully covered with plenty of information. That's the niche of this book. If you want to know the detailed stuff, you need to read this book. And make sure that you have a notebook with you to keep and practice the explained methods.
I think that I can literally make a course inspired by this book. (If that happens I will let you know 😀 )
The style is not literally, and even has some typos, but we need to have on mind that this book was printed in 1994, almost 30 years ago, so the illustrations and the text are quite fine.
Talking about the best audience, I think that the comparing with the "The Grapes of Math" is more inclined toward the general audience. I would even probably recommend this book to a high school student. The topics are wrapped up in the following chapters: Mathematics in Everyday Things; Magical Mathematical Worlds, Mathematics & Art; The Magic of Numbers; Mathematical Magic in Nature (loved this one!) ; Mathematical Magic from Past; Mathematics Plays its Music (excellent springboard-content); The Revolution of Computers(the book was published in '94, so if you observe this chapter as History of Revolutions of Computers will be fine and logical to read in 2021); Mathematics & the Mysteries of Life; Mathematics and Architecture and The Spell of Logic, Recreation &Games. Some chapters could be definitely discussed even in middle school setting, or math clubs. Nice, nice, nice! (applause)
The third book
The (fabulous) Fibonacci Numbers by Posamentier, Alfred S.
In search for more pop math books, and easily digestive chapters (which I can later eventually recommend to some students) I found this book. As its title states, it talks a lot 😀 about Fibonacci numbers, and the pure consequence of the Fibonacci numbers- the golden ratio.
So, golden ration, Fibonacci, golden rectangle, Fibonacci, golden triangle, Fibonacci,... hahah this would be the sequence by which I would describe it. Oh, I'm just exaggerating, don't mind me. The book is just sweet. It's like the vanilla ice cream that goes well in everything and is fine for everyone. The reading went smoothly (much easier than the first one mentioned in this vlog "The Grapes of Math"). The book consist of 10 chapters. I liked the most the one explaining the golden triangle concept.
Here I learn more, or it's better to say, in this book I first get to know the Lucas numbers, whose properties apparently are similar with the Fibonacci number's properties.
The book is definitely written for the general audience, slightly inclined towards the audience that prefer exact sciences. There is one chapter about music, which I thought I would understand, since I have formal musical education, but to be honest I didn't. Nevertheless, I didn't skip the chapter, and according to the author, the ones that didn't skip the chapter were brave haha, so yeah, thank you!
Regarding the audience, let's say that myself, as a math teacher, would loved this book as a gift. It would be perfect present for math student or even high school student as well.
Número quatro
The Joy of Mathematics : Marvels, Novelties, and Neglected Gems That Are Rarely Taught in Math Class by Alfred S. Posamentier
If there is one word/phrase to describe this book with it will be "it was not taught in school", or this is not taught in school". I understand the author, I do really respect him(them) I love their books, however so many negations in one book regarding the school curriculum? Really? The aim of this book is to reach out to teachers and shout out to them: "Spicy it up your classes". That's fine, but the critics are not so objective and realistic. For instance, how on earth is possible to teach advanced power's concepts and binomial formula when the students are yet learning how to perform multiplication? I support the authors in spreading the word for fun math, but saying that something wasn't taught in school on levels where there is absolutely no chance for that is too much. Some teacher would like this book, I liked it as well, but some chapters I found a bit of irritating. This book is perfect for someone who hated his/her math teacher, and who believed he /she would had different carrier if his/her math teacher was more fun. So, when I state like this... yeah, now I better understand the authors; this book has its audience definitely.
Number five
Double the dinosaurs, by Diana Murray,
The book's publisher is Random House. It was published in 2020, that says "fresh from the oven".
Easy to read, as it is for beginner reader. On the description it says is for age four or six, but if we consider the poem solely, I would go with students aged up to twelve with no problem. The book is basically a poem, with catchy rhymes, centered around dinosaurs counting, or to be precise - doubling. Great source for patterns-searching skill, and moreover can be used on classes introducing geometric sequences. To be honest, I wasn't impressed by the illustrations, (I appreciate the illustrator's work, this is just my taste); however, the poem is wonderful, and I recommend this book 100%. 😀
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