Monday, August 2, 2010

The Disappearing Spoon Giveaway

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.


We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground. Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history
From the Big Bang to the end of time, it's all in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON. 
My Review:  Chemistry was never my strong suit but I have to admit that I found the anecdotal stories of the elements fascinating.  There are part of of Lewis and Clark's poo, POO, PEOPLE, along the trails of exploration.  The stories along the way include explosions (of course), insanity, lies, betrayal, and scandal.  And it all surrounds that poster on the wall from Chemistry 101.

Loved it.  5 stars.

Want it?  2 copies up for grabs.  Enter by commenting with email address.  Extra entries with separate comments mentioning how you social networked giveaway. For an extra entry, please provide any entertaining story regarding chemistry.

Giveaway ends August 22nd.

A copy of book was provided in exchange for review.

35 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the contest--this sounds interesting!

kaitlynkline (at) gmail (dot) com

Anonymous said...

I would love to read The Disappearing Spoon :) *Thanks* for the giveaway!
theluckyladybug[at]gmail[dot]com

Anonymous said...

Tweeted the giveaway
theluckyladybug[at]gmail[dot]com

Vidisha said...

Great giveaway!!
Follower
vidishamun@gmail.com

Audrey said...

Yay!
acg@gaggle.net

degood said...

This looks like a very interesting book. Thanks for the review and giveaway.

kerrie@mayansfamily.com

Sue said...

Thanks for the chance.

s.mickelson at gmail dot com

karenk said...

thanks for the opportunity to read this novel :)

karenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com

belgd said...

belgd@live.com

Jolee said...

I'm a librarian and I saw a review of this in a pre-pub. I'm not normally a "science reader," but this sounds like a good one. Thanks! joleehamlin [at[ comcast [dot] net

CountessLaurie said...

I think I might be suffering from deja vu...

l.moore.j (at) gmail.com

CountessLaurie said...

Two (not so) funny chemistry stories:

1) Teacher was demonstrating how certain chems burn in different colors. He asked the first young man in the class what color he saw. Young man was colorblind. He asked second and only other young man in class. You guessed it, colorbling. (And they weren't lying... bizarre.)

2) I hated chemistry. I wrote a song about how much I hated it. I still remember it to this day.

But this book sounds like a fun read. I like to read.

Teresa said...

Count me in!

teresasreadingcorner at gmail dot com

Ordinary Reader said...

Stopping in from the blog hop to say Hi and enter your giveaway. This sounds like a book I would love so if I don't win it I'm going to put it on my tbr list and find a copy. I have this "thing" about the table of chemical elements. If I could, I'd have one hanging in my house just to look at. Weird, but true.
Have a great weekend,
Dianne

Ordinary Reader said...

Sorry for the double post. I'm not sure my email will show up on the last one. It's ddmcf@rogers.com.
Thanks!

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

This looks good - please include me in your giveaway

journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

I am a follower of your blog

journey through books @ gmail dot com

Amy DM said...

I'd love to add this to my homeschooling library. Anything to get the kids (and me) through chemistry!

laiah1773@gmail.com

Misha said...

Please enter me if this is international.

Misha
mishamary@gmail.com

sharon54220 said...

This book definitely sounds interesting and I would love a chance. Science was not one of my favorite subjects growing up.

sharon54220@gmail.com

sharon54220 said...

I am also a follower.

sharon54220@gmail.com

Patricia N said...

I heard a radio interview with the author and have wanted to read the book ever since -
PMNSL95 at triad dot rr dot com

Marjorie/cenya2 said...

Sounds like a very interesting read to me.

cenya2 at hotmail dot com

Egle said...

I would love it.

egle dot mane at gmail dot com

traveler said...

Thanks for this interesting giveaway. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

Keep Your Sunny Side Up said...

It sounds like an interesting book! This is my chemistry story and the reason I became a social worker instead of a nurse. I had to cry my way through high school chemistry. I just did not get it and would stay after for help sessions. About 45 minutes into it when everyone else was gone and I still did not get it, the teacher would do it for me and give me credit as I sat there with tears dripping off my face.

Benita said...

Please count me in.

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

Benita said...

I was an honor's student in high school, a member of arista and I just didn't understand chemistry. My mom finally had to get me a tutor. I was so bored, and didn't understand him either. What a difficult course of study!

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

Anonymous said...

This book has gained my interest from the first I've read about it.
Would love to win it.

Eileen
wiseowlreviews@aol dot com

Anonymous said...

Would love to read this!

rhoneygtn at yahoo dot com

Jenny Bolech said...

This sounds like a very interesting book! I'd love to win :)
jenny.maurer84 at gmail dot com

Jenny Bolech said...

One of the only things about my high school chemistry class I remember is that our teacher was good-looking. All the girls had crushes on him and didn't pay attention to what he was saying so we were always pretty clueless when it got time to do our labs. Also, because of this, it probably explains why my lab group was known as "the group that always sets their experiment on fire"... oops!
jenny.maurer84 at gmail dot com

Allison said...

Thanks so much for this giveaway!

allisonsbj3(at)gmail(dot)com

Allison said...

My mother-in-law only passed her 11th grade chemistry class because the exams were compromised state wide. ;-)

This would be a great book to read with my husband!

allisonsbj3(at)gmail(dot)com

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I'd love to read this - please enter me!

nbmars AT yahoo DOT com