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Book Review: 'Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words'

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On November 24, 2015,  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published cartoonist Randall Munroe’s “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words,” a clever mix of science and humor in which the ex-NASA scientist behind the webcomic “xkcd” explains some of the most interesting topics in existence using only the “ten hundred” words that people use the most.   Munroe, who also wrote last year’s best-selling “What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions,” explains over 40 things that range from the “shared space house” (International Space Station) to the “tree of life” using simple terms like “mouth water maker” (saliva gland) and “sky boat” (airplane). He even uses this style to describe parts of “Thing Explainer” itself; the Index becomes “Things in This Book Page By Page,” and the foreword is “Page Before the Book Starts.” Here are a few of the topics readers will find in “Thing Explainer”: ·   food-heating radio boxes (microwaves) ·   tall roads