Einstein: His Space and Times / Steven Gimbel 191 pp.

One doesn't have to be a genius to make Einstein's story interesting, but a writer has to be skilled to distill its many events, both scientific and personal, into 191 pp. while conveying the sense of a flesh and blood human being.  It's my near-constant complaint about biographies; most give you a lot of information about the person without making you feel that you know the person.  Gimbel scores high on my biographo-meter, using judicious details about Einstein's appearance, habits, and opinions to color events many of us are familiar with on the page in black and white: the world-changing papers produced by the Zurich patent clerk, the science wars over relativity and quantum mechanics, and Einstein's ambivalence over Judaism, Zionism, and pacifism.  I can't say whether Gimbel's explanations of Einstein's theories are entirely apt, but they are certainly as clearly written as others I've read for the non-scientist, and admirably concise.

The Third Policeman

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien  200 pp.

I had a tough time getting into this novel at first and it's a tough one to explain/review since I'm pretty sure I didn't quite "get" all of it.  In rural Ireland, the narrator has committed robbery and murder with an accomplice. Then he encounters the odd policemen who at first seem inexplicably obsessed with bicycles. He is to be sent to the gallows without a trial but they have to be built first. Interspersed through the story are the theories of a scientist/philosopher De Selby who believes the earth is sausage-shaped instead of round.  Atomic theory, bicycles and the existence of eternity in a house down the road all play a part in this convoluted tale. The ending is surprising...or not.