It's hard to think of a more wonderful science writer than Tony Rothman. I first discovered his prose several years ago, when he wrote a cover story for Discover Magazine about the "direction" of time--a subject that may sound metaphysical, even silly. Actually, it's one of the cutting-edge topics in cosmology and thermodynamics, and his article not only made it clear but entertaining. He achieved the same feat in his books "Sciene a la Mode" and "A Physicist on Madison Avenue," which tackled themes as grand as "nuclear winter" and the fate of the universe. So I highly recommend his latest book, "Instant Physics", which endeavors to explain all of physics in lay terms, and in 242 pages--and succeeds!--Keay Davidson.