cover image Accidental Inventions: The Chance Discoveries That Changed Our Lives

Accidental Inventions: The Chance Discoveries That Changed Our Lives

Birgit Krols. Insight, $16.99 (168p) ISBN 978-1-60887-073-8

Filled with amusing pictures and quotes, this coffee-table book purports to give the background on dozens of inventions now in common use. Krols (Bimbos and Machos), a film journalist and magazine editor, has collected tales that span the millennia about unintentional lucky results of experiments. The stories of tea, cheese, and maple syrup are admittedly more legend than fact, while others, such as dynamite and Viagra, are easily substantiated elsewhere. While entries for LSD, the popsicle, and the hot-air balloon are entertaining and informative (to the extent that they provide fodder for fun facts), the lack of citations, or even a bibliography, means that the reader must do further research to verify their accuracy%E2%80%9417th-century abstract tantric painters of Rajasthan, India would likely take issue with Krols' dubious assertion that Wassily Kandinsky invented "Abstract Art" in 1910. A fun starting place for further inquiry, Krols' latest will be best suited to curious kids whose parents can help them sort fact from fiction. Photos. (Apr.)