All I knew about Feynman was that he was a great physicist but I didn’t know how eventful of a life he lived. Richard Feynman gives the reader a first hand look into the experiences that made him into one of the most successful physicists of all-time. He gives a glimpse into fixing up radios as a youngster, experimenting in his college years, and working with other physicists in his older days with such humor mixed with an obviously enormous amount of knowledge. Besides making a significant contribution to the Manhattan Project at Los Alomos, and receiving a Nobel Prize, Feynman constantly developed many varied interests and pursued them passionately. Don’t worry if you aren’t a physics major for Feynman spends relatively little time on physics and instead concentrates on his many other interests – his interpersonal relationships (he was married three times, and also wrote quite a bit about his efforts to meet women in between), and his scuffles with government and university bureaucracies. In one amusing anecdote, he agrees to give a talk for a government program only on the condition that he will not sign his name more than thirteen times in the required paperwork… and sure enough a 14th signature is required and the aftermath is hilarious.

There were some elements that were interesting – his attitude and experiences towards women, how he tormented a waitress by giving her a tip in a very unique manner which probably resulted in her yelling expletives at him.  He is amusingly curious, taken either way. I’m not sure if he’s likable, but he is certainly brilliant and I enjoyed his stories.

This book is light reading. As mentioned earlier, you won’t get a much deeper understanding of physics from reading it. I did fee that it was a lesson on how to think about things colorfully, from first principles. To get an idea of the man, I highly recommend seeing “The Pleasure of finding things out“, which can be seen on YouTube. It’s an interview from 1982 and would help paint an image of what his childhood experiences, personality and quirky essence was all about.  This is definitely a book I see myself re-reading simply because of the number of times it made me laugh and that its all based on, at times, very serious reality.

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For those of you who are not familiar with the Archy McNally series by Lawrence Sanders – Archy is the son of a prominent Palm Beach, FL attorney and is the sole member of the Department of Discreet Inquiries. These “discreet inquiries” allow you to lose track of time and imagine the life of dashing about in his red Miata, hanging out at the Pelican Club and in his spare time solving sensitive cases for his father’s richer-than-God clients down in Palm Beach, Florida. Archy loves wine, women, and song–not necessarily in that order. In fact, he eats too much, drinks to much, and always seems to get in trouble with the wrong sort of gal, much to the dismay of his unofficial girlfriend Connie Garcia.

Lawrence Sanders, is extremely well acclaimed within the mystery genre having other award winning series – Commandment and Timothy Cone books – to his resume. Sanders’ ability to use foreign language words now and then is a treat, as they usually add some humor as well his ability to spend time describing Archy’s attire and menu. Never before have I enjoyed reading such descriptive narratives that really do paint a full picture in my head of the life Im absorbing through words. I would also like to add that it was a major personal win when I realized after reading my first book (Archy’s Puzzle) that I realized there were almost a dozen more books waiting for me. I came across the first book during a pretty dark period in my life, perhaps the sarcastic and extroverted Archy was partly helpful in keeping my chin up. This series is definitely a fun easy read to pass the time away, not by any means a ‘book club’ novel, but good for easy reading/ mystery lovers.

RIP Lawrence Sanders!

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