Symmetry has two points of focus. One is the symmetry in nature and its relationship to mathematics. Second is the history of mathematical symmetry and the people behind the exploration.
The mathematics is expressed in simple terms, the only equations are simple that anyone can recognize, a few diagrams, and the digits of large numbers. Much is in the descriptions of bizarre objects in muti-, as in more than 20, dimensional space. The author describes them in terms of their numbers of symmetry, no imagery is required.
The main issues with the book are it can be redundant and slow. I felt some of the historical stories on people should have been left out or shortened.
On the positive side, it flows well and is easy to read. It does a good job of tying different areas of math together, and it does mention by name a few more complex topics as he covers them. I think the book would have done better by providing more math, since that was the focus of the book, it feels like an important part was omitted.
If you have an interest in math, you will probably find the book of interest. Otherwise I’d pass it up.
![How Music Works by John Powell](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0316098302.01._SX140_SY225_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg")
Reading Like a Writer is a description of writing. It focuses on the use of the word in literature, and makes excellent use of examples for well-known books to illustrate her points. Francine Prose describes the strengths of her selected passages and why the wording is important.
Fast Sketching Techniques provides technical instruction on how to sketch quickly without sacrificing a lot of quality.
