Adulting is hard; laugh and learn. If you've ever wondered what astrophysics can teach you about the dating pool or how quantum particles can show you how to ignore the haters, look no further. From a Nerd-of-All-Trades comes Full-Frontal Nerdity, a collection of personal essays about applying all that “useless” book learning toward the more practical pursuits of life, love, and releasing your inner quantum. Long before “The Big Bang Theory” made geek scientists cool, there have been Sheldons trying to navigate the world of Pennys. It isn’t always pretty, but it makes for great stories. Full-Frontal Nerdity is a collection of some of those stories—like the time the author got into a debate about the nature of addition with a Time Warner Cable representative or used the many-worlds theory to cheer herself up after a bad day. Full-Frontal Nerdity explores the struggles of being a thinking adult in an often-irrational world, taking inspiration from many subjects—statistics, mythology, physics, poetry, and even the nature of pi—to gain insight into the everyday mysteries of living. What can a decades-old math problem teach us about biological clocks and the pressure to marry? Why is the history of Leap Day a cautionary tale about traditional gender roles and asserting power? How can Bayesian reasoning stop us from writing off a potential partner too early or letting a dud stick around too long? In a series of short, light-hearted pieces, Full-Frontal Nerdity will introduce readers to some fascinating nerdy concepts, explore the more practical lessons to be gleaned from those subjects, and provide a newfound depth of understanding about living, loving, and simply being in a humorously complex world.

font-size="+1" 'Made me go Hydrogen Argon, Hydrogen Argon, Hydrogen Argon.' Rufus Hound As featured in Best stocking-filler books of 2017 - The Guardian 'Witty and clever writing, every topic is engaging, fun and in some cases laugh-out-loud funny...there are too many highlights to mention' - How it Works Why is it impossible to spin your right foot clockwise while you draw a 6 with your right hand? Can you extract DNA from a strawberry daiquiri? Would you make love like a praying mantis? Should you book a holiday on Earth 2.0? The Element in the Room will take you on a rib-tickling, experiment-fuelled adventure to explain everyday science that is staring you in the face. If you are sci-curious, pi-curious or just the-end-is-nigh-curious then this is the book for you. Steve Mould and Helen Arney are two thirds of science comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd. As a trio they have appeared on QI, created their own experimental* comedy show 'Domestic Science' for Radio 4, toured their stand-up science shows to over 50,000 nerds (and non-nerds) and accumulated millions of views on YouTube. 'These nerds are the real deal' - Ben Goldacre, author of BAD SCIENCE 'They make science fun and understandable which is a great combo.' Sandi Toksvig 'MIND BLOWN.' Tim Harford 'Science was never such hilarious explosive fun.' Richard Herring 'This book is 37% better than mine. But it took 100% more nerds to write it.' Matt Parker (the other third of Spoken Nerd)

A book from the stand-up mathematician that makes math fun again! Math is boring, says the mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. Part of the problem may be the way the subject is taught, but it's also true that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, find math difficult and counterintuitive. This counterintuitiveness is actually part of the point, argues Parker: the extraordinary thing about math is that it allows us to access logic and ideas beyond what our brains can instinctively do—through its logical tools we are able to reach beyond our innate abilities and grasp more and more abstract concepts. In the absorbing and exhilarating Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as fourteen-year-olds. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school (numbers, geometry, and algebra), he reveals how it is possible to climb all the way up to the topology and to four-dimensional shapes, and from there to infinity—and slightly beyond. Both playful and sophisticated, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension is filled with captivating games and puzzles, a buffet of optional hands-on activities that entices us to take pleasure in math that is normally only available to those studying at a university level. Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension invites us to re-learn much of what we missed in school and, this time, to be utterly enthralled by it.

A young music prodigy goes missing from a hotel room that was the site of an infamous murder-suicide fifteen years earlier, renewing trauma for a bridesmaid who witnessed the first crime and rallying an eccentric cast of characters during a snowstorm that traps everyone on the grounds.

You have reached a milestone in your life when the fire department is on standby as you blow out your birthday candles. If you have pondered going to heaven but without dying, this book is for you! As Father Ralph Pfau said, “You can’t be a good egg all your life. You either have to hatch or go bad.” Adventure into one courageous woman’s journey through later life as seen through her daughter’s eyes. Unique in every way, this woman operated completely without filter, remained in denial about her cancer diagnosis, and challenged the prognosis and thoughts of doctors, nurses, family, and friends. Written from the heart, Ann Marie Hancock shares her experiences in loving and caring for her mother through the heartaches and the joys and the times of laughter and sadness.