I would like to suggest the following books for the summer book group: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and The Oath, A Surgeon Under Fire by Khassan Baiev with Ruth and Nicholas Danioff. These books are both non-fiction. I have enjoyed looking over the list and have found some interesting reading

.

By  andy behrman First, "The Glass Castle" is a real page turner - - I couldn't put it down and finished it in about four hours - - a record for me! It's probably the most thoughtful and sensitive memoir I can ever remember reading - - told with such grace, kindness and fabulous sense of humor. It's probably the best account ever written of a dysfunctional family -- and it must have taken Walls so much courage to put pen to paper and recount the details of her rather bizarre childhood - - which although it's like none other and is so dramatic - - any reader will relate to it. Readers will find bits and pieces of their own parents in Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Her journey across the country, ending up in a poor mining town in West Virginia and then finally in New York City, is a fascinating tale of survival. Her zest for life, even when eating margarine and sugar and bundled in a cardboard box with sweaters, coats and huddling with her pets, is unbelievably beautiful - - and motivating. If I could give a book ten stars, it would be "The Glass Castle."

Clint notes: The science and math Rex Walls lays on his kids reads pretty soundly it seems to me. On one point I don't agree--the reason stars 'twinkle.' Many stars and other star-like objects pulsate, but on a longer time scale. Stars, even though huge, are so far away they act like point sources of light and can be blocked out by a dust particle in our atmosphere floating across. Just as your finger can blot out a whole house if the house is a distance away. This is what makes stars 'twinkle' sometimes.

Can't believe his laying 'binary number theory' on his daughter but it could be done. For fun (my own) and the remote chance anyone's interest here's a

Binary Number Primer

Binary numbers is a ‘place value’ system just like decimal numbers. The value of ‘places,’ however, go up (right to left) by powers of 2 instead of powers of 10. So, instead of having one’s place, ten’s place, hundred’s place, etc., one has one’s place, two’s place, four’s place, eight’s place, etc.

Example: (Binary) 11101 = (Decimal) 16 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 29

To convert a decimal number to binary (as apparently Jeanette’s Dad taught her to do), choose the highest power of two contained therein and place a ‘1' in the corresponding binary place. Subtract that much and repeat with the remainder.

Example: 653:

512 is largest power of two therein so put a ‘1' in the 512 place. That leaves 141 and that’s smaller than 256 so put a ‘0' in the 256 place. Put a 1 in the 128 place. That leaves 13, too large for the 64, 32 and 16 places so put zeroes in these three places. Put a ‘1' in the 8's place. That leaves 5 so put a 1 in the 4 place. That leaves 1 so put a ‘0' in the 2 place and a’1' in the 1 place. Result, a ten-place number instead of three as in the decimal version. (Note: All even binaries end in zero and all odd ones end in one.)

1010001101 (Decimal check: 512 + 0 + 128 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 653)

Addition

Remember having to learn ‘addition facts’===1+2=3...6+7=13...etc. all the way up 9+9=18? I think that’s some 55 ‘facts.’ In binary arithmetic there are only three:

0 + 0 = 0
1 + 0 (or 0 + 1) = 1
1 + 1 = 10 (‘carry’ the ‘1' to the next column)

Example: Adding 16 to 61

Decimal     Convert to binary         Decimal check
        16         010000           0 + 16 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 16
        61         111101         32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 61
Add   77       1001101         64 + 0 + 0 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 77

Other binary arithmetic operations, even subtraction, are more complicated for us, brainwashed in the decimal system, but easy for computers.