Considered to be the most prolific mathematician in history, Erdös co-authored nearly 1500 scientific papers.  During most of his adult life, he traveled from university to university, or conference to conference, living out of two suitcases.  He never owned other possessions, did not have a home, and gave away money he didn't need.  Often, he would simply show up on a colleague's doorstep unannounced, spending a few days or weeks solving research problems before moving on to another city.  

Hoffman's interviews in the math world uncovered some great stories.  Later in his life, Erdös apparently needed an operation to correct his dimming vision, but delayed surgery because he was reluctant to lose precious work time.  He finally agreed to the procedure only when he mistakenly believed that he would be able to work during surgery.

In honor of his work and life, mathematicians humorously developed the Erdös number.  Erdös himself was awarded the number 0.  Erdös co-authors are awarded the number 1.  Co-authors of co-authors, the number 2.  And so on.  A low Erdös number is considered to be a great distinction (Steven Hawking, Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky and J. Robert Oppenheimer are 4's; Einstein a 2).  Hank Aaron jokingly has a 1 after co-signing a baseball with Erdös.  And, of course, a few mathematicians have tried to auction their Erdös numbers on Ebay.

In 1946 Mr. Nichols longed to escape post-war London, so he went looking for a small Georgian House, not too far from the city, with about 5 acres of land where he could create a garden.  He found Merry Hall.  It fit all his requirements, and he bought it, even though the Georgian lines of the building had been ruined by remodeling and additions, the interior was in shambles, the five acres were mostly weeds and nettles, and the gardener who came with the house was devoted to all the mistakes of the former owner.  With the help of his incredibly efficient factotum, Gaskin; the reluctant but expert aid of the gardener; the company of his cats, One and Four; and the occasional interference of neighbors, he turned Merry Hall into his dream house and garden.  He tells the story with classic deadpan British humor.

You don't have to be a gardener to enjoy this book.  (My favorite garden activity is to recline gracefully in the shade on a hot day with a cool drink and a good book.)  You do need to be prepared for strong prejudices, mostly about plants, but also about women and what Nichols considers the lower classes, and accept that he was a creature of different times.  He brings the best of those times alive most enchantingly.

I did not grow up in England, rather here in Maple Valley, but I did meet my English husband at a Dungeons and Dragons party, and I feel a strong connection to this book on a few levels.  I'm an anglophile and a geek and rather proud of it now, although it caused pain earlier in life when I didn't fit in, so I can vividly relate to this biography of another fantasy misfit.

Growing up in England, Mark Barrocliffe was smitten at the age of twelve by the allure of the new fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, a game in which you can create the character of your dreams and destroy the enemies of your nightmares, but almost assures you'll never get a date.  The enthusiastic boy immersed himself in the worlds of elves and orcs, wizards and warriors, of magic light and dark; of gaming sessions that would last anywhere from hours to days and where the final goals were to kill the Goblin King, save the fair maiden, and loot an amazing Frost Wand, to be used in the next game.  Barrowcliffe speaks with uncompromising clarity of the choices he made as a teen and why, of the odd, lonely, and equally strange young men he met through gaming (very few girls play), and the effect such a youth had on later life and his relationships.  The game consumed him to the point it drove his parents to distraction, drove some real friends away, and surrounded Barrowcliffe with other slightly broken people with the same goals; occasionally cruel boys who'd sit in a damp basement for hours eating junk food and rolling twelve sided dice, rather than going on a beach holiday with friends.  If you've lived the nerdy life of fantasy role-playing before it was popular, have been in situations where you haven't fit in but long to, or are just curious about that crazy D & D you've always heard about, this book will lure you into one young man's world of obsession and adventure, and what some might call his subsequent escape.

Cheney is conflicted between her desire to be with Wright, and societal expectations placed upon her. Critics of their relationship were open in their distaste for her ethical decisions. Because she was the other woman, Cheney was vehemently accused of homewrecking, more so than Wright. Her narration reflects her guilt and eventual acceptance of her choices

This novel is part historical fiction, part biography, and reflects a dedication on Horan's part to research a relatively unknown part of Wright's romantic past. Beautifully written, Loving Frank exudes a graceful flow, introducing the reader to the beauty and complexity of their illicit affair.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University is not an attack on the many friends Roose met during his semester; rather it's an attempt to understand a culture that was completely foreign to him. The kindness of the students and faculty helped him feel at home at Liberty, and it was interesting to see how the author's own beliefs changed during his evangelical immersion. His attempt to bridge the God Divide in our country is a welcome break from the shrill voices on our radios and televisions.

Even if I wasn't interested in the Asian culture, the cover of this book would have caught my eye:  a Chinese monk, clearly in deep contemplation, strolling along carrying a Burger King bag.  However, having been to China several times and read many books about it, it was fascinating to see another perspective on a country of such contrasts.

In his book American Shaolin, Matthew Polly is adept at capturing these interesting juxtapositions.  For example, he is just a skinny kid from Kansas who is forced into a challenge match with a kung fu master and a Princeton dropout who ends up living with Shaolin monks and sharing their brutal physical workouts.

When Polly decided to leave school and pursue his dream of studying at the Shaolin Temple, no one thought it was a good idea.  When he arrived in China and couldn't even find the Temple at first, he didn't think it was such a good idea either.   However, as he overcomes aching body parts and cultural miscues, Polly discovers more and more about the mysterious group of monks who invented Zen Buddhism, as well as the individuals in the group, and he discovers even more about himself.

His experiences are at times funny, at times shocking, at times frustrating, and at times downright scary, but his telling is always readable and he makes you appreciate the Chinese proverb, "Talk does not cook rice."  A lot of people say they are going to drop everything and pursue a dream, but instead they stay put and become emotionally starved.  Matthew Polly didn't just talk about his dream, he lived it, Burger King and all.

Betty MacDonald Moved to Seattle when she was 10 (or 11) years old in 1918. She was married and moved out to a chicken farm in the Olympics in 1927.    The Egg and I is a wonderfully funny account of her years as a new wife on the chicken farm (she later remarried and moved to Vashon Island). 

The racist comments aside, you'll find her writing very funny.  It's also fascinating to read about the Pacific Northwest as a wild frontier in the 20s and 30s... an interesting piece of history.

You might also enjoy Betty Macdonald other memoirs: Anybody Can Do Anything (about her time as a single parent during the Great Depression), The Plague and I (about her time in a sanatorium with tuberculosis), and her famous Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series for young readers.

Chris Gallucci (AKA Elephant man) was untamed.  At age 12, he left home and became involved in the rough biker culture of Los Angeles of the late 1960s. 

Timbo (AKA "the most dangerous elephant in North America") was also untamed.  Although not wild enough to be free, Timbo was dangerous enough to kill.

Chris first met Timbo in 1975.  Chris had wandered into the Mojave Desert on his chopper looking for a job. He found one on the set of the movie Roar starring Tippi Hedren and her daughter Melanie Griffith and over 100 wild animals.  When the movie was over, the land became a willife sanctuary and Chris stayed.

30 years later, Chris and Timbo were still there.  They had tamed each other. 

Full of fabulous photographs by Nomi Baumgartl and journal entries from Chris Gallucci's diary, this touching book will teach you about love, devotion and taming the wild animals in us all.

When I told many of my friends that I was going to blog about Katherine by Anya Seton, they all sighed and said it was one of the best historical romances that they had ever read.  Yes, ALL of them sighed and said it was the best.  Why is it so "sighable?"  Katherine was a fourteenth century woman, born in 1350 to a poor family; at a young age she married Sir Hugh Swynford, a rather boorish extremely jealous man.  Because her sister married Geoffrey Chaucer and was part of the court of the Edward the III, Katherine caught the eye of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt.  After the Duchess of Lancaster's death, Katherine became the mistress of the Duke.  She was called a witch and a whore, but she was with the Duke, through his second marriage to Constance of Castile and after Constance's death, she became his third wife which caused a bigger scandal than when she was his mistress.  Katherine was at the center of the most turbulent times, and she was a strong woman who held the Duke's love and attention for more than twenty-five years.

Anya Seton brings the English medieval times to life, in all the filth, disease, superstition, royal pageantry, intrigue and of course Katherine's love story, mistress and wife to a Duke and the ancestress of Kings.

I read Katherine many years ago and had almost forgotten about it. But then I spied the Mistress of the Monarchy; The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, by Alison Weir.  When I read the introduction and discovered that Alison Weir enjoyed reading Katherine and the book had a large impact upon her, I had to read it again. (Ms Setons's book that is, although I have read Alison Weir's introduction more than once too).  Ms Weir states that she wanted to write Katherine Swynford's biography for forty years. Although Ms Weir enjoyed Anya Seton's book, she said, "Do not forget it is fiction."  Anya Seton wrote accurately but from a twentieth century perspective; this does not lessen the quality of the story, but it might change your vision of Katherine.   I suggest you read Katherine first and then read Mistress of the Monarchy, because sometimes the facts could lessen the impact of this classic romance.  On the other hand why should the facts bother you when you are reading a great love story?