Sunday, December 21, 2008

2008 book 202

Emma Darwin's The Mathematics of Love
This has been in my to-read pile for over a year, and I've taken it on my last three trips, but somehow it never seemed appealing until today. And guess what, it's really good! It's two stories in one: half takes place in 1819, centering on a man who lost his leg in the Napoleonic wars, and his friendship with a woman, and the other half takes place in his estate in 1976, when a teenage girl is sent to live with her uncle. Both stories and both protagonists are compelling and likable. I did have one major beef, and this is not the author's fault (she's Darwin's great-granddaughter btw)--but the description on the back describes the teenager as "promiscuous" which is both sexist and wildly inaccurate. Screw you, Harper Perennial blurb-writer! A-.

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