Review
Those who have an interest in psychology - we who are obsessed with why people do the things they do, all the inner workings of humans - will find much to like here. Virtually all of this book happens inside someone's head (mostly Alice and Mattia, but we do get a glimpse of parents and other characters). The tiny instances that become founding principles in a person's actions; the thoughtless word or action that ruins a relationship - these things are laid bare in the lives of two children as they grow to adulthood. I completely forgot that the story was set in Italy until more than halfway through the book. Maybe that's an artifact of the translation, but I don't believe so. There is little exterior detail and an abundance of interior landscape to be explored.
It took me until the third chapter to really warm up to this book. Not because the writing isn't great, or the...
Beyond the Book
Prime numbers are apparently a big deal in the math world - a place I have visited but not inhabited often. Most of us probably remember that prime numbers are numbers only divisible by themselves and 1, but otherwise don't know (or care) much about them.
The ancient Greeks were the first to give serious study to prime numbers, as far back as 500 BC. After much math excitement, it seems that not much was learned from about 200 BC until the Renaissance. New strides were made again with the advent of computers that could do millions of equations to prove or disprove the presence of prime numbers yet to be discovered.
Currently, the largest known prime number has 1209780189 digits. And there are websites with lists of the largest known prime...
