Book Review: The Disappearing Spoon By Sam Kean

I recently received a copy of the book, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean.


Poll for my readers: How many of you had Chemistry kits as a child? I had several - but each one, my poor parents had to hide the frog that came with it, because there would be no dissecting here. I left Biology in high school with a D+ because I refused to dissect one. (I also almost failed Health because I refused to do mouth to mouth CPR on the dummy that wasn't sanitized properly. Seriously, I knew my fellow students; it was a small town - I don't even want to think about what was lurking on that dummy! For what it's worth: I did take CPR on my own though and keep it up to date.)

Ahh... what a fun trip down memory lane that was. LOL To get back to the book, they had me at the first line of the book description: "Why did Ghandi hate Iodine?" My first though, he did? And then I realized my brain cells are going to mush. Really. Ghandi led a march against the British last century because of a salt tax. Salt = Iodine, although table salt - which is really what they were protesting that tax on - isn't the strongest form of Iodine. (In all fairness for me, this happened about 200 years too late for me.)

You see, for all my love of brainless reading to zone out in lately, I love me some books that make my brain work. The Disappearing Spoon could be considered a light read - if you're a science geek, that is. While I'm not a huge science geek - I'm a history geek when you get down to it - knowing how things explode and foam make me giddy with great joy. (I am after all, the girl who sent Barbie to the moon on a rocket for history class. We never did find the rocket afterwards... LOL)

Mr. Kean is definitely a science geek himself, but he shares the science with fun and sarcasm. If the The Disappearing Spoon was a Science teacher, we'd all want this Science teacher in every school because kids would pay attention without falling asleep in class... or writing notes to the cute girl two rows down.... Instead of just reciting what elements can do, he tells you with examples from real life. Think of it as Mythbusters in book form, only all the myths have already been proven as real.

Bottom line: if you like to read non fiction where you actually learn something - self help books do not count - or you're one of the aforementioned science geeks, you'll enjoy The Disappearing Spoon. If reading things like The Disappearing Spoon make you zone out like you're back in high school, leave it on the bookstore shelf. It definitely makes a good gift for any science geeks, or even for college students and teens taking Chemistry classes.

By the way, you do learn the tale of the disappearing spoon. It's a good trick... but I'll make you read the book to find out how it happens. I'm mean like that. ;)

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean is a hardcover book that retails for $24.99. You can find it at your favorite local bookstore, or online via places like Amazon, where it's on sale for just $14.61 as of this posting. It's also available as an e-book for your Kindle or other favorite e-reader.

I was given a copy of this book in order to share my thoughts on it.