When author Michael Powell talks about how George Washington really didn't lie about chopping down a cherry tree, much less actually cut such foliage down to sizes, Powell is great. I learned a lot of inside detail about the midnight 'ride' of Paul Revere, that Mount Everest is NOT the tallest mountain in the world and baseball wasn't invented in the US of A. However, I felt completely lost when Powell attempted to explain how certain mathematical theories such as '2+2=4' have been taught in error.
You know, that's kinda the danger when you write a book that covers a myriad of all topics. No matter how well you might understand a subject, that doesn't mean that you were meant to explain it to others. I think if Powell had stayed away from the complexity of the sciences and focused more on the human element, (and general fun facts debunked) I would have enjoyed this book more thoroughly. He had me when talking about how that apple probably never fell onto Sir Isaac Newton's crown. But when the author tries to explain the science behind the theory of relativity, I was begging for a chance to turn the page.
There will probably be some of you readers who prefer Powell's explanations of equations instead of the truth behind whether Mussolini made the trains on time. However, if you are like me and you can't visualize math without a step-by-step graph on how to solve for X, then you may not enjoy this book completely. This is a book that has a little bit of everything. I just don't think it's a book that will appeal to everyone.
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.
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