56. Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nora Jacobs

read on my iPhone
2018, Touchstone
337 pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished 6/21/18
Goodreads rating:  3.63 - 3205 ratings
My rating:  3.5
Setting: Contemporary LA

First line/s:   "On the morning he was to die, the old man woke early and set about making breakfast."

My comments:  An in-depth look at one screwed up family, The Last Equation of Isaac Severy comes at you from many directions.  Told distinctly from two different points of view and less distinctly from one or two others; mystery, reality of a gritty world, and some scientific/fantastic mathematics combine to make quite an interesting tale.

Goodreads synopsis: The Family Fang meets The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in this literary mystery about a struggling bookseller whose recently deceased grandfather, a famed mathematician, left behind a dangerous equation for her to track down—and protect—before others can get their hands on it.
          Just days after mathematician and family patriarch Isaac Severy dies of an apparent suicide, his adopted granddaughter Hazel, owner of a struggling Seattle bookstore, receives a letter from him by mail. In it, Isaac alludes to a secretive organization that is after his final bombshell equation, and he charges Hazel with safely delivering it to a trusted colleague. But first, she must find where the equation is hidden.
          While in Los Angeles for Isaac’s funeral, Hazel realizes she’s not the only one searching for his life’s work, and that the equation’s implications have potentially disastrous consequences for the extended Severy family, a group of dysfunctional geniuses unmoored by the sudden death of their patriarch.
          As agents of an enigmatic company shadow Isaac’s favorite son—a theoretical physicist—and a long-lost cousin mysteriously reappears in Los Angeles, the equation slips further from Hazel’s grasp. She must unravel a series of maddening clues hidden by Isaac inside one of her favorite novels, drawing her ever closer to his mathematical treasure. But when her efforts fall short, she is forced to enlist the help of those with questionable motives.

The Boy Who Loved Math - Deborah Heiligman

The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Roaring Brook Press, 2013

HC$17.99
Ellsworth Library 

40 pages

Goodreads rating: 4.46

My rating: 5 - Awesome book on many counts

Endpapers: prime numbers on a greeny/brown

Title Page:  Double pages, the same greeny/brown with 4 Erdos-as-a-kid, writing those prime numbers...

Illustrations:  Colorful, fun, the actual NUMBER (8, 1, 2....) incorporated as often as possible.

1st line:  "There once was a boy who loved math.  He grew up to be 1 of the greatest mathematicians who ever lived.  And it all started with a big problem..." 

My reaction:  What an incredibly fascinating person. I'm so glad I've found some picture book biographies that lessen my ... dislike ... of nonfiction, and that someone had the insight to write about Paul Erdos. The books and illustrations complement each other in such a way that it seems like one person might have created a book on her own. And Erdos (AIR-dish) was ultra-interesting. Especially to a math lover (me). Prime numbers, the sieve of Eratosthenes, and my new favorite discovery:(Erdos's, actually), that there is always another prime number between a prime number and its double. Fascinating, interesting, and fun! I will definitely be purchasing this book for my classroom to use both with my author studies AND math.

Goodreads:  "Most people think of mathematicians as solitary, working away in isolation. And, it's true, many of them do. But Paul Erdos never followed the usual path. At the age of four, he could ask you when you were born and then calculate the number of seconds you had been alive in his head. But he didn't learn to butter his own bread until he turned twenty. Instead, he traveled around the world, from one mathematician to the next, collaborating on an astonishing number of publications. With a simple, lyrical text and richly layered illustrations, this is a beautiful introduction to the world of math and a fascinating look at the unique character traits that made "Uncle Paul" a great man."