What a wild read this book is. The muse on fire, on wind, on helium. A weird and wonderful journey through the continuous month of August, with the lovely real variety of four original voices. I keep it by my bedside and read it daily!

I reveiwed this book to use in a college science writing class and found that it is--as the book's preface says--"addressed to secondary school teachers who are interested in developing good student writing in the areas of science and math." The book is filled with sound instruction on Instruction--literally how to teach this course, or implement some of the ideas involved in science writing into a high school curriculum. It has workshop ideas, some lesson plans, ideas. What's really fantastic about it is the number of sample essays in the book from student essays to (mostly) professional samples. These samples range from Jane Goodall and Stephen Jay Gould to William Carlos Williams and Robert Louis Stevenson--opening the art of science writing to fields outside of "strict" science. It allows students (and teachers) who want to write about/teach science choose from many different styles and genres. If I were a high school teacher--I would definitely think about using this book if I wanted to introduce an element of science writing into the classroom.

Utopia is the book I read when I need to remember how amazing and hopeful a mind, the world can be. Utopia is the funniest book in the universe, from the Utopian no copyright to the Utopian address book and astonishing index. Everyone should read this book. It is a TEXTBOOK of wonder. If everyone could write like Bernadette there would be no more wars and hunger.