Two And Two Together

Putting Two and Two Together is a humorous and quirky collection of unusual, ingenious, and beautiful morsels of mathematics. Authors Burkard Polster (YouTube's Mathologer) and Marty Ross delve into mathematical puzzles and phenomena in engaging stories featuring current events, sports, and history, many flavored with a distinctive bit of Australiana. Each chapter ends with “puzzles to ponder” that will spur further reflection. These stories were written for a general audience, and originally appeared in the Maths Masters column in The Age newspaper. The book offers mathematical entertainment for curious readers of all ages, and assumes a minimum of mathematical background. Polster and Ross are masters of the genre this book represents: a cornucopia of offerings, from across the mathematical spectrum. Their articles are entertaining, captivating, and informative, and will appeal to everyone from interested amateurs to old pros. On top of all that, the prose is clear, concise and a lot of fun—happily with a charmingly Aussie flavo(u)r. Crack the spine and enjoy! —Michael Berg, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles The American Mathematical Society must be congratulated on publishing a singularly amusing synthesis of cultural anthropology coupled with mathematical entertainment. —Tushar Das, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse Polster and Ross are as good as the original master, Martin Gardner! They are also as good as that other great popularizer of mathematics, Ian Stewart, who took up Gardner's mantle, and as good as Douglas Hofstedter, who also followed in Gardner's footsteps as popularizers of mathematics within regular columns in “Scientific American”, and elsewhere. I recommend this new book very highly! Like Poster and Ross's first collection of columns, it is one that you can happily read from cover to cover, or dip into at any random point, and find treasures. You will then often return, savouring, and often laughing, while also learning, and responding to thoughtful challenges! —John Gough, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

A disgruntled comic book artist, his formerly estranged sister, and the man they both love (Oh yeah, and a rumpled teddy bear) Two and Two Together is the story of Tommy Hanson, a comic book artist with a security bear and fixation on a certain fictional man of steel. As the play opens, Tommy is reeling from traumatic news about his childhood friend-something for which Tommy blames himself... and his father. To further complicate matters, Tommy soon meets-and is attracted to a mild-mannered stranger named David Sharpe... who happens to be dating Tommy's sister Rachel. David's entrance into Tommy's life is the first step on the road to forgiveness, and to the acceptance that the past could not have been any different. What do you get when you put two and two together?

Juliet was nearly eighteen. Almost a woman. She was very rich. Her mother and half-sister were slim and attractive, but Juliet was rather plump. Her mother's attempts to find her a husband had failed, and Juliet was miserable. Juliet lived in her own private world of music, art, and dreams... a world she was unable to share with anyone. Then one night at a concert, she caught the intense, probing gaze of the dark-eyed young stranger seated next to her. No man had ever looked at her like that. The woman inside Juliet stirred for the first time. She smiled back. And so it began. Romero, the young Italian shared her love of music. But she did not know then the shocking and violent drama that lay in wait for her. Or that from the moment of their first embrace she had moved into a world from which there was no return.

Remarkable for their sensitivity and humour, and replete with vivid descriptions of major personalities and events of their times, the letters chart Indira Gandhi's developments from a shy school girl into a charismatic political leader.

For one, I have never been one of those who apologize for my frank and never-ending delight in mystery stories. Their mazes have led me unwearied through miles of printed pages, and if only the problem has been worth while, and its pursuit has led along surprising ways, past shuddery thickets and over fearsome bridges, my soul has returned to sober affairs refreshed and content. In a word, here is a remarkable volume which shows us how the wheels go round, not by dogmatic statement, but by an amazing breadth and variety of citation and quotation, showing not only what great mystery writers have thought of their art, but illustrating by apposite examples how they secured their effects.

An account of the author's experience of her father's illness, primary progressive aphasia, in graphic novel format.