Review: Women In Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky

Title: Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
Author: Rachel Ignotofsky
Source/Format: Blogging for Books; Hardcover (review copy)
More Details: Nonfiction; Science
Publisher/Publication Date: Ten Speed Press; July 26, 2016
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Synopsis from Goodreads...

A charmingly illustrated and educational book, Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world. Full of striking, singular art, this fascinating collection also contains infographics about relevant topics such as lab equipment, rates of women currently working in STEM fields, and an illustrated scientific glossary. The trailblazing women profiled include well-known figures like primatologist Jane Goodall, as well as lesser-known pioneers such as Katherine Johnson, the African-American physicist and mathematician who calculated the trajectory of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Women in Science celebrates the achievements of the intrepid women who have paved the way for the next generation of female engineers, biologists, mathematicians, doctors, astronauts, physicists, and more!

Last year, I read Rachel Swaby’s Headstrong, which turned out to be a great introduction to many women scientists I was unfamiliar with. I enjoyed learning about their major accomplishments, many of which I had no idea were discovered or invented by women despite being a part of everyday life. So, when I saw Rachel Ignotofsky’s Woman in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers who Changed the World, I was pretty excited. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

I really liked this book. It had a lot going for it. This book is a lot like Headstrong with neat profiles about each scientist; although, limited to just two pages. Women in Science mentioned women like Barbara McClintock (pioneer in corn genetics) and Patricia Bath (invented the Laserphaco Probe which is used to treat cataracts). Some of the women mentioned I already knew about, but that didn’t detract from how much I enjoyed this book since there were others still unfamiliar to me. Women in Science also acknowledged the struggles many of these women faced as it did their accomplishments. It offered a brief summarized glimpse into their work life.

One of the main things I enjoyed was Ignotofsky’s use of information and illustrations to build the profiles. The profiles were informative and accompanied by fun illustrations that were colorful and eye-catching. They depicted the subject of the profile, as well as things that directly concerned their field in science and their respective accomplishments—this was everything from corn to telescopes.

Women in Science was a fun book to read. I think it’s a great way to get introduced to some of the women pioneers in science.

Some of my other favorite profiles…

Sau Lan Wu “Made important contributions in the discovery of the Gluon.”(p.102).

Annie Easley “Helped to create software for the Centaur Rocket.”(p.88).

Vera Rubin “Discovered real proof that Dark Matter exists.”(p.86).

Alice Ball “Helped to cure Leprosy with her chemical treatment.”(p.44).

Wang Zhenyi “Accurately recorded Lunar Eclipses & Equinoxes.”(p.12).

This copy of the book was provided by Blogging for Books (Publisher) for this review, thank you!

About the author...

Rachel Ignotofsky is an illustrator and author based in beautiful Kansas City, MO. She grew up in New Jersey on a healthy diet of cartoons and pudding. She graduated with honors from Tyler School of Art's graphic design program in 2011. Now Rachel works for herself and spends all day and night drawing, writing and learning as much as she can. Her work is inspired by history and science. She believes that illustration is a powerful tool that can make learning exciting. Rachel hopes to use her work to spread her message about education, gender equality and scientific literacy...

Netflix and Books Tag

To start out this week, I’m going to do a book tag instead of Musing Mondays. Recently, I was tagged by Gennifer Eccels @Ready, Set, Read to participate in the Netflix and Books tag. It seemed kind of fun, so, I thought I’d give it a try. So, thanks for tagging me Gennifer!

This tag was created by Erica from Novel Ink and Lauren from Bookmark Lit. You can find the original posts HERE and HERE. You can also find the rules for the tag on the original posts, so, if this seems like something you want to participate in, definitely check those out. And, with that out of the way, let’s get started.

Sleepy Hollow: series that should have ended earlier

Technically, Sleepy Hollow is still going but with all the recent changes I’m pretty much done with the show. Anyway, for this one, I picked the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the opening installments of this series. But eventually, I just sort of stalled on this one. I haven’t continued on past the last book I have on my shelf.

Doctor Who: long series you loved

Looking back, I realize that I haven’t read many series that are too long. I’ve started some, finished a few, but the majority of them were trilogies. The two that I can think of off the top of my head are Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep and the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. I liked Kagawa’s spin on the fey, and I enjoyed Estep’s take on mythology.

Friends: best cast of characters/friendships

I seriously loved the characters from The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. I was a little sad when the series was over, but the adventures of the Grace siblings are still some of my favorites ever.

Supernatural: favorite paranormal/fantasy

For this one, I’m choosing The Cambion Chronicles by Jaime Reed, specifically the first book, Living Violet. I read that book a while ago, and it’s still one of my favorite paranormal novels.

Freaks & Geeks: left you wanting more

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett was thought provoking. It was a satisfying read, but I wanted more. I could read about the environment all day if it was approached in the same style that Barnett brought to the table for Rain.

Parks and Recreation: made you laugh out loud

Oh, this one is easy. Recently, there was one book that really made me actually laugh out loud. It was Wintersmith by Terry Prachett. Wintersmith had some genuinely funny moments that were unexpected and highly entertaining.

The Bernie Mac Show: best family or parents

Angel Seriki’s parents from Michelle Johnson’s Oleah Chronicles were definitely some of the best I’ve seen. Johnson did a fantastic job of setting up the relationship between Angel and her parents in a way that seemed ordinary despite the extraordinary—and supernatural—circumstances.

Liv and Maddie: should have a spin-off

I really enjoyed the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, the ending was a good one. It basically wrapped up the story in a way, but it was still a little open-ended. It left the characters at another beginning, and only hinted at more possibilities. I wouldn’t mind another book or two to see where the main cast ended up.

Mythbusters: couldn’t stop reading

Illuminae by Amie Kaufam and Jay Kristoff was one of the best books I read last year. I literally read it in one sitting and immediately wished I had the next book. Speaking of Gemina, I can’t wait for it to come out in October.

I only picked a couple of the prompts to do since there were a lot of them. Anyway, as usual, I’m not going to tag anyone specifically. If this seems like something you want to do, well then go for it, because I tag you….

The Friday 56 (73) Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Ares, God of War, is leading the other dying gods into battle. Which is just fine with Athena. She's ready to wage a war of her own, and she's never liked him anyway. If Athena is lucky, the winning gods will have their immortality restored. If not, at least she'll have killed the bloody lot of them, and she and Hermes can die in peace. Cassandra Weaver is a weapon of fate. The girl who kills gods. But all she wants is for the god she loved and lost to return to life. If she can't have that, then the other gods will burn, starting with his murderer, Aphrodite. The alliance between Cassandra and Athena is fragile. Cassandra suspects Athena lacks the will to truly kill her own family. And Athena fears that Cassandra's hate will get them ALL killed. The war takes them across the globe, searching for lost gods, old enemies, and Achilles, the greatest warrior the world has ever seen. As the struggle escalates, Athena and Cassandra must find a way to work together. Because if they can't, fates far worse than death await...

"They'd have to bend their heads to go inside. 

"It isn't much," he said. The wind from inside was cold, and spoke of large, black caverns.

Aphrodite squeezed his hand, and they went in."--Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake

Comments: Mortal Gods was the first book I've read by Kendare Blake. It was a fun read. 

What are you reading this week? 

Review: The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee

Title: The Traitor in the Tunnel
Author: Y.S. Lee
Source/Format: Purchased; Hardcover
More Details: Young Adult; Historical; Mystery
Publisher/Publication Date: Candlewick Press; February 28, 2012

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Queen Victoria has a problem: there's a thief at work in Buckingham Palace. The Agency - the secret all-female detective unit - assigns quick-witted Mary Quinn to the case. Posing as a palace maid and fending off the attentions of the Prince of Wales are challenging enough, but when the prince witnesses a murder, Mary's case becomes anything but petty. Engineer and former flame James Easton has an assignment in the sewers, where someone is making illicit use of the tunnels. Mary will need James's help if she's going catch a thief, solve a murder - and avert disaster...

Whenever I pick up a Mary Quinn mystery I know I’m always in for a fun adventure set against the backdrop of historical London. And The Traitor in the Tunnel was no different. All my favorite characters were back and better than ever, and Mary has once again been dispatched by the Agency. Only, this time her case had landed her in the position of a maid in Buckingham Palace rather than at a dangerous construction site like the one from The Body at the Tower.

Y.S. Lee knows how to write convincing characters and has continued to develop them across the series so far. The Traitor in the Tunnel was as much about the mystery as it was an emotional journey for Mary, and Lee managed to skillfully intertwine these elements into a single story. The Agency remains one of my favorite aspects. I really like how Lee structured the organization as an all-female agency, which used the stereotypes of women during that time period as an advantage for their operatives.

Across three books, I’ve seen Mary go from giving up on life altogether—which was a pretty grim and gloomy beginning—to finding a place and occupation that suited her, and wanting to live life to the fullest. In The Traitor in the Tunnel, she had to face some hard truths and come to understand herself and her emotions. And really, it was kind of awesome. James was also back in the picture, albeit working on projects of his own. But really, they were best together. I really like his interactions with Mary. They make such a great team! They have good chemistry and the best banter.

The plot was also good and featured solid straight-forward storytelling. The mystery was intriguing and started out with a fairly mild beginning but quickly transitioned into one with higher stakes. As such, there were moments of tension and even some action thrown in. The writing was consistently good. Lee’s style is descriptive, yet gets to the point without beating around the bush with unnecessary information.

So, The Traitor in the Tunnel was an engaging and super fun novel to read. It was great to get caught up with the old characters and even those  new to the scene.

Musing Mondays (58) Favorite Fictional Friendships

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at Books and a Beat, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My musings for the week...

Random weekly question: Name a book that you hope to re-read some day...

Well, I've kind of already somewhat accomplished that. This year, I've reread many of my favorite books from back before I started blogging. So, there was just never a review for them. However, there is one book I hope to have time to reread in the near future: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. The Iron King is the start of one of my all-time favorite series that centers on faeries.

Other Musings:

I’m always looking for those relationships beyond the love interests. It’s always great to see the main character interact or have some kind of established connection to the secondary characters. So, to start out this week I want to discuss some of my favorite fictional friendships. This can include anything from magical unicorns to dogs—just as long as it’s a close friendship of some kind. Although, secondary characters are preferred for this list, I’m willing to make exceptions.

Tuesday, Baxterr, and Blake Luckhurst from Finding Serendipity by Angelica Banks: Baxterr is Tuesday’s faithful dog who was kind of magical to a certain degree, so it’s pretty easy to understand why they’re so close. But then there’s the friendship between Blake and Tuesday. They went from total strangers to close friends. Their friendship is one my favorite parts of the Tuesday McGillyCuddy series.

Fallon, Anais, and Nico from Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius: They behaved like normal friends—concerned for each other when one of them happened to be down because of…well, circumstances, and supportive when necessary. It was the kind of easy friendship that seemed to fit naturally in the story.


Iko and Cinder from the Cinder by Marissa Meyer: There’s so much I could say about this fictional friendship, and most of it would be a spoiler for those who haven’t started the series yet. So, I’m just going to leave it at that for today.

Zara and Isabelle (Issie) from Need by Carrie Jones: In Need, one of my favorite parts of the story was the friendship between Zara and Issie. They met pretty early on in the novel when Zara moved to the area after a personal loss, and got along great throughout the rest of the story.

Gwen Frost and Daphne Cruz from the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep: These two were so different that they were the least likely characters to end up as friends. But, yeah, they ended up being friends and their friendship was one of the best I’ve seen, and remains as one of my favorites. They go through some tough times, changing circumstances, emerging magic, and even a ridiculous number of life or death situations in a war against an evil god and his equally evil minions. But through it all, their friendship persisted.

Karou and Zuzana from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy by Laini Taylor: Despite Karou’s circumstances—and frequent absences—she remained as a close friend to Zuzana, and vice versa. This friendship was just great. End of discussion.

So, that was just a few of my favorite fictional friendships, there are others, but then it would be pretty impossible to fit them onto one post and keep it a decent length. So, what are some of your favorite fictional friendships?