Snezana Lawrence - A Little History of Mathematics (Yale, 2025) ****

In one of the first chapters of this book, the story is told about Greeks in the 5th Century BC who consulted the oracle of Delphi to appease the god Apollo after the plague rampaged across the country. The oracle said that "in order to assuage the god, they should double the size of Apollo's altar, an ornate then-foot-high cube. That didn't sound very difficult to do. Double the cube? How hard could it be? (...). This problem, known as the Delian problem, 'rested on how to find the cube root of 2, and was eventually proven - not until the 19th Century - to be an impossible task using only Euclydian tools of geometry available in the fifth century". (p. 31). 

This little example illustrates the book well. It's a historical overview of new challenges and solutions in mathematics from the earliest ages to today. Math was definitely not my thing in school, and I only realised that integrals could be used to calculate volumes when on the exam we had to calculate the volume of a flat tyre. I never knew what it was actually used for. In retrospect, a lot of math could have been made more attractive by using some of the challenges in this book. It requires some basic knowledge of math, but not exceptionally so. 

The example also demonstrates the weird thing that is relatively unique to mathematics: on a very abstract form, there are many riddles that have no other apparent function or relationship with reality other than keep very smart minds busy for centuries, yet other times, the link with reality becomes obviously clear, and most of our current technology would not be possible without it. 

Lawrence takes us step by step through the creative processes of mathematical geniuses who solved ancient and new problems with sometimes completely creative approaches, opening new vistas for other scientists to go even a step further. This includes the amazingly long time it took to have a symbol for zero or for the equation, things which are so obvious today. 

Maybe in stark contrast to other sciences, discoveries in math have usually been the result of the stubborn passion of individuals to find solutions for mind-boggling problems. I have used the approach of Kepler in some of my presentations: to make people understand that the earth is revolving around the moon, he forced his audiences to imagine they were looking at the earth from the moon, which gave a totally different perspective on how the planets rotated. This sudden change in perspective clarified everything. 

From the early use of numbers to calculating in 24 dimensions, her story is accessible as it is fascinating. Her explanations and examples are sufficiently well explained for non-mathematicians to also enjoy the book, even if many will have trouble understanding how you can work in 4 or 5 dimensions, let alone in 24, but yes, today's math is capable of that. 

Mariana Enriquez - A Sunny Place For Shady People (Granta, 2024) ****

What a wonderful book! So well written, so real and human in its starting situation, so supernatural in its always surprising plot ending. In this collection of twelve short stories, Mariana Enriquez tells us about the lives of ordinary people, usually women who are confronted with everyday problems or issues, but they always come with a twist. Her stories are realistic, and often it's hard to tell whether the supernatural events that take place are literally true or whether they are just imagined by the protagonists who are pushed beyond the limit of their rational powers. 

The supernatural is eery, but not always malicious. It's a presence, or even just the possibility of a presence. In one story an obese girl gets dumped by her parents in their motherland Argentina - where almost all the stories take place - with her aunt and cousin who are the main characters. The obese girl gets literally touched by ghosts who manage to sexually satisfy her. The imprints of their hands are visible on her skin: "If only you could see it: there are fingers that press her body. There are hands that squeeze her breasts! Invisible hands!"

Yet the style of writing is very direct, very concrete, situational, with a tone of voice by the narrator that is often sarcastic and even cynical, commenting and judging about other people, about injustice and lack of understanding. The "horror" or "ghost stories" description of her art should not a deterrent not to read her work. These are not fantasy novels or horror stories in the traditional sense. 

It's really well written, entertaining and surprising. That's all we hope for!