Narrator: Michael Jackson

Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated,
even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer
for the New York Times, resides in this exclusive category. In Chaos, he takes on
the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random
patterns that characterize many natural phenomena.

This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists
studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader
meets dozens of extraordinary and eccentric people. For instance, Mitchell
Feigenbaum, who constructed and regulated his life by a 26-hour clock and watched
his waking hours come in and out of phase with those of his coworkers at Los
Alamos National Laboratory.

As for chaos itself, Gleick does an outstanding job of explaining the thought
processes and investigative techniques that researchers bring to bear on chaos
problems. Rather than attempt to explain Julia sets, Lorenz attractors, and the
Mandelbrot Set with gigantically complicated equations, Chaos relies on sketches,
photographs, and Gleick's wonderful descriptive prose.

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