Oddly structured. After an interesting introduction, Randall goes for a little 250-page diversion. She discusses matters various and sundry regarding particle physics, but barely skims the surface of each topic, leaving the reader to wonder, “why do I care?” Then, ‘round page 300, she picks up the interesting “extra dimension” topics once more. In her defense, she encourages us to skip around and only read the bullet lists at the end of each chapter if we feel that’s a good idea. Unfortunately, that shouldn’t be the default mode, and it’s hard to tell if a chapter’s worth reading until you’ve done so.
Also, I’m a little worried about her need to define several everyday phrases in American and British and her failure to mention whether billion means “a million million” or “a thousand million”. At one point, she gives a hint by explaining that a billion seconds is a thousand years – it seems a billion is “thirty one and a half thousand million” – I guess she split the difference.
Overall, this is not a bad book, and Randall’s a little amusing at times, but I do think you’re best off reading the first 50 and last 150 pages. Rely on the summaries for the bulk.

This made what Dava Sobel claims is the list of candidates for the LA Times’ annual Science Book Prize. She brought a stack of candidates to class and had us each pick one to review. First course I’ve taken where I’m offered a book instead of having to buy one.

Way too frivolous, doesn’t convey grandeur of fundamental physics. I’m giving it up about halfway through.