Published by Empire Studies Press in both formats Kindle and paperback, Tom Durwood’s the Adventures of Ruby Pi series involve two books. Each book has five short stories to offer to readers that enjoy historical fiction with a touch of detective genre. The first in the series is Ruby Pi and the Geometry Girls and the second one is Ruby Pi and the Maths Girls. In both books at the forefront are teen heroines that use mathematics and geometry to solve big problems in their society, mostly for the sake of humanity. In both books the first stories feature an intelligent girl with Indian roots named Rupa aka Ruby Pi. She outshines in her detective endeavor…whether it was about investigating a murder case of a renowned Indian mathematician or dredging up a secret buried in a cathedral of a school.
The author is a history professor. It’s his unique venture to blend maths and detective aspects in world’s famous historical events. His selection of events range is not only world popular but also diverse and taken from various timelines. The idea behind these books is to raise the interest level of students (especially high school teenagers) about maths-related subjects. For this effort, the books have been felicitated with awards by some literary firms like Literary Titan. The books have been receiving raving reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, owing to its rising popularity.
“Math is not only about formulas and graphs. It’s about its applications and illustrations. Tom has delivered 10 stories which ingeniously weave math into adventure stories. This intriguing book breaks the glass ceiling which prevents our young female students from pursuing STEM studies.”
–Darshan Maheshwari, Math and Physics Teacher
“Ruby Pi and the Geometry Girls” is one of a collection of must -read stories for readers of all ages who want to understand the value and some of the magic of mathematics. Tom’s writing will keep you engaged. To especially those young readers who ask why we study STEM, get ready for a most surprising read. I was not expecting the cipher!! Teaching is my passion, and story- and game-based education are very near to my heart. Your storytelling is good. The footnotes at the end of the story are very helpful. It is a nice addition.”
— Aditya Soni, Game developer and Educator
Buy the book from Amazon.
About the Author:
Tom Durwood is a teacher, writer and editor with an interest in history. Tom most recently taught English Composition and Empire and Literature at Valley Forge Military College, where he won the Teacher of the Year Award five times. Tom has taught Public Speaking and Basic Communications as guest lecturer for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the Dam’s Neck Annex of the Naval War College.
Tom is editor of an online scholarly journal, The Journal of Empire Studies (www.empirestudies.org). Peter Suber, Berkman Fellow at Harvard University, an advocate of the open access movement, praises the journal as “a new opportunity for overcoming access barriers to knowledge and research.” Dr. Julian Fisher of Scholarly Exchange has also applauded Tom’s efforts. “Creating valuable academic content and then hiding it behind financial firewalls – the traditional scholarly publishing model – runs counter to the essence of scholarship, learning and sharing,” according to Fisher. “To see a journal such as the Journal of Empire Studies breaking that mold is exciting.”
Tom’s newspaper column “Shelter” appeared in the North County Times for seven years. Tom earned a Masters in English Literature in San Diego, where he also served as Executive Director of San Diego Habitat for Humanity. Tom earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard, where he edited an undergraduate arts journal and studied with David McClelland (Roots of Consciousness).