This reviews the audiobook, that was free with Audible membership. And it caught my attention with "physics." Rovelli is a thoughtful physicist, and nThis reviews the audiobook, that was free with Audible membership. And it caught my attention with "physics." Rovelli is a thoughtful physicist, and not a total weirdo as my husband warned me could be possible. He has interesting thoughts on where war came from, Mein Kampf, and the positive aspects of LSD. This reminded me that in the 1980s I had said that when I turned 70 I would drop Acid. At least I think I said 70. Might have been 75. I have now turned 70 and the shakiness of my memory is coming on as I would have predicted. In the 1980s my parents would have been in their 70s and they seemed to have all their eggs in the basket. Not sure what made me think that my marbles would be loose at that age so dropping Acid wouldn't matter. Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's no one going to come up to me now and offer me any. Anyway, interesting essays covering famous people, early humans, the power of fear, the serenity of a mosque - even to an atheist. As for the reader - I'm just too used to BBC now. Amurrikin accents sound weird. ...more
This is a book of essays, free online! It's about the land that used to stretch from continental Europe to Britain ... until the ice melted. Oh, and tThis is a book of essays, free online! It's about the land that used to stretch from continental Europe to Britain ... until the ice melted. Oh, and that landslide in Norway. The North Sea is hugely important today as the land beneath was tens of thousands of years ago. Reading this my poor little mind boggled at the information and thoughts of having to go through it again and work up a timeline danced like sugarplums in my head. But then I thought, there might be a timeline at the end! And there is! Phew. I'm envious of the Brits and Dutch and their beaches full of archaeological material. I'd love to find something, photograph and GPS locate it and post it to the Facebook page - and then tell all my friends that I found a baby mammoth molar - or something. DNA has been found in these remains and tests can reveal what was being eaten. It boggles the mind. So much can be learned from so little. The difficulty is that most of the finds are no longer in situ. Must was dredged up and just scattered near the shore to replace natural erosion. They have been able to core in places, but most of the material turns up in nets or from dredging. Still, scientists are able to search through this spoil for artifacts and bones. A worthwhile pursuit. Purchase or read online here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/dogge......more
Had to look up words like henotheistic and cathectic. Didn’t learn anything useful until page 384: “No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attemptHad to look up words like henotheistic and cathectic. Didn’t learn anything useful until page 384: “No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attempts to keep winter from descending; on the contrary: the rites all prepare the community to endure, together with the rest of nature, the season of the terrible cold.” Etc. And on the next page: “…anyone in exile from the community is a nothing. From the other point of view, however, this exile is the first step of the quest.” Which made me think of my trans friends. Robert Graves was easier to read, if less plausible. ...more
This is probably a bad time to be reading anything as intense as this book. But I have to. I complain all the time about novels featuring dysfunctionaThis is probably a bad time to be reading anything as intense as this book. But I have to. I complain all the time about novels featuring dysfunctional families and when someone finally recommends non-fiction I have to read it. It was fine until I got to the part where the ship sank. I was reading it waiting for a doctor's appointment and decided to skip to the notes, which I do read anyway. I thought I'd catch up to where I'd stopped reading, but this was one of those offices that overbooks and I ended up waiting over two hours and therefore finished reading all the notes. I don't mind the cannibalism, it's the making decisions that gets to me. So I started reading the chapters in reverse. I read the last chapter. Then the penultimate chapter. Still in the waiting room. Then I read the ante penultimate chapter. And so forth until finally I got to see the doctor. Later I was able to start again where I left off, but I could only handle bits at a time. This a quite well-written, interesting, and thoroughly researched story of the wreck of the Essex whaling ship and the fate of its crew. Herman Melville used it as inspiration for Moby Dick, which I read about 40 years ago and don't remember anything except how annoyed I was that Melville kept calling whales "fish." I'd have eaten this book raw back then and bored anyone stupid enough to come within six feet of me with the details. So the low rating is merely reflection of where my head is at nowadays. If I took anything of importance from reading it, it would be disdain for those Nantucket Quakers and the fact that, once you give in to cannibalism, all the brakes of civilization come off. The Nantucket families cared for none but their own. Non-islanders were as much toast as the negro shipmates, the latter who made up the majority of the earliest victims. The Quaker ship owners and whalers used the virtues of simplicity and thrift as excuses for mistreatment of the sailors (which, to be honest, was not all that different than, say, the navies of that time) in their relentless pursuit of profit. This is an adventure story, a true one, but not one of the triumph of the human spirit. It's about the dark side of humanity and how even the best of us make mistakes and can turn into beasts. And somehow live with ourselves afterwards....more
I loved drawing the little hieroglyphs, but I think this book needed better editing. I made some notes on perceived errors on Goodreads while reading,I loved drawing the little hieroglyphs, but I think this book needed better editing. I made some notes on perceived errors on Goodreads while reading, but now I can't access them. In learning something like this, I recommend doing a half an hour a day. I set a timer. Well, I set it for ten minutes, but I find I get so involved that I go the full 30 all at once. I draw all the hieroglyphs as they are introduced and the ones in the exercises and then pencil translations around them. I think the most useful hieroglyphic sentence I learned was: Reed leaf, quail chick, seated man, mouth, walking hobble, walking man with stick, bowtie (belt really) vulture head, viper. "I will wring his neck." This will fit in with my only Latin: Hoc salsum esse putas? So now that I'm done, what do I do? Back to Greek? Back to German? Or go through this whole hieroglyphic thing again? ...more
Littered with similes and a refrain of "just the influenza" but interesting especially through the lens of the current pandemic. What do you need? LeaLittered with similes and a refrain of "just the influenza" but interesting especially through the lens of the current pandemic. What do you need? Leadership. And honesty. And science. They did the best they had with the science bit, but the problem was exacerbated by Wilson's entry into the Great War and his Sedition Act which downplayed the seriousness of the situation in the face of what the public could actually observe and eroded public trust. The military refused to listen to their own doctors and spread the disease throughout the country and overseas. The death toll seemed medieval, with bodies literally stacking up, peripheral deaths from neglect and starvation, and rampant fear. Barry brought the men (and women) of science to life, only to have them fail to understand the virus. They based their work on one false lead. It's possible they wouldn't have been able to do anything about it even if they had isolated the virus, but starting in the wrong direction was no help. Not a book for sissies. ...more
Free ebook from University of Chicago press - found two amusing typos: "weeldong" for "weeklong" and "arroz con polio" The two I found in the footnotesFree ebook from University of Chicago press - found two amusing typos: "weeldong" for "weeklong" and "arroz con polio" The two I found in the footnotes weren't nearly as amusing. This is a history of America's dysfunctional relationship with food, not an advice book. He may have other books on that. I enjoyed this because it fits in with my worldview. Should probably cop to being raised in a *Prevention* magazine and Adelle Davis household, but even I find it darkly amusing that J. I. Rodale keeled over on Dick Cavett's show. Mom shopped at a health food store in the 60s and 70s, and we took all sorts of supplements. While my mother died at age 87 (beating out her own mother by four years), my dad was 101. In his case it looks like genes, though. I take a multi-vitamin now because I know I don't eat properly. I eat what I enjoy. But that seems to be the message of this book: eat what you enjoy because no one, not even the so-called experts know what sort of diet is best for you. The food mania in this country is driven, according to Levenstein (and I believe him), by force of personality, politics, and commerce rather than science. Oh, they pay lip service to science, but there are too many other factors to consider in how food gets from nature to our table. And there's too much to know about what foods/chemicals do to or for us to get a sensible idea of what is best for us. You certainly can't trust what you read/hear so, Levenstein suggests we wait ... and wait some more. Dietary advice keeps changing, swinging wildly in some cases. Just eat what you like in moderation. ...more
Read this on the strength of how much I had enjoyed The suspicions of Mr. Whicher. Mrs. Robinson is unhappy in her marriage and tries to find love outRead this on the strength of how much I had enjoyed The suspicions of Mr. Whicher. Mrs. Robinson is unhappy in her marriage and tries to find love outside it, documenting her feelings and actions in a series of diaries. When she falls ill, her greedy, boorish husband reads her diary and decides to divorce her. The lives of even upper and middle class women in the mid-1800s were heavily circumscribed. Men had all the power and the double standard was in force. It meant nothing that Isabella's husband had children with a mistress while her adultery was all that was needed to banish her from the household and withhold their children from her. Why she would document her affair or attempted affairs remains a mystery. Summerscale's research is extensive and her writing sucks you right in. The narrative is peppered with appearances of the famous of the period as well: Darwin and Dickens. The medical profession was developing and phrenology and homeopathy popular. The legal issues of divorce were in flux at this time and this particular case had its effects. Interestingly, there is a mention of a Mr. Bastard who ran a secular school in Dorset (pg 188), which put me in mind of St. Bastard's School in "Bleak Expectations." Henry Robinson sends his sons to a school with a form of all-in football reminiscent of "Bastard Ball" in the same radio series. It never ceases to amaze me how fiction authors don't make these things up out of whole cloth. Don't miss the footnotes. Lots of interesting information there....more
I was a huge fan of Oliver Sacks' The man who mistook his wife for a hat so when I saw this book, I was hoping for maybe an update on the brain sciencI was a huge fan of Oliver Sacks' The man who mistook his wife for a hat so when I saw this book, I was hoping for maybe an update on the brain science or a duplication of the experience - which really wasn't that comfortable. I still recall the uneasy feeling I got from that book about how tenuous our hold on reality is. I didn't get the unease with this book and it was a quick read. Thomson interviews people with unusual brain disorders: remembering every detail of one's life, total personality change, hallucinations, various disconnects with one's body (including belief that one is dead), inability to navigate, unrelenting empathy, and being easily startled. She also includes some familiar historical cases, such as Phineas Gage, Simonides of Ceos, etc. I had a bit of trouble relating to the cases of people who experience a disconnect with their bodies. I found those a bit hard to read and maybe the discussion of the biology behind it was beyond me. The brain concerns me after watching both of my parents sinking into their own variations on dementia. My mother experienced difficulty separating her imagination from reality. My dad merely seemed to have been forgetful. Reading the book coincides with the death of my favorite neurologist: Jonathan Miller. I was lucky to meet him on a visit to London, when I thought we were just going to listen to him talk and instead he introduced himself having heard that there were some visitors from a great distance. At first I thought he meant our hostess, who is originally from Australia. It was quite a thrill to find out he meant me and my husband - despite his bad impression of a southern American accent (which I don't have, y'all). Anyway, back to Helen Thomson and her book. Liked it. Especially enjoyed the cases of Tommy and Joel. I'm horrified by the treatment of Basse by his friends and colleagues. I don't care for being startled (brought on mostly by my sister who liked to jump out at me during breaks in horror movies on tv) and I can't imagine provoking it for fun. Glad I read it, although it doesn't quite come up to my expectations after reading Oliver Sacks for years....more
I was looking for.something more cheerful than Malcolm Gladwell 's new book to read on vacation and this fit the required parameters. Love Monroe's inI was looking for.something more cheerful than Malcolm Gladwell 's new book to read on vacation and this fit the required parameters. Love Monroe's internet cartoons and some appear in this book, along with his inimitable stick figure illustrations. Taking the view that science can provide answers to even the silliest questions, Munroe looks into them, solving them with science and math as well as humor. Along the way he enlists experts in their field to help him ... like Serena Williams. This was delightful. But maybe it's because I'm a nerd. Not sure if I will get around to Gladwell. If you know it will get positive and uplifting, let me know. I'm a bit cross w with the Overdrive version of the e-book because the footnotes didn't work and, as my regular readers know, I LOVE footnotes. Reading them out of context at the end was frustrating. But I'm also really annoyed with the Kindle library e-books because they are tricky to download and they used to interfere with my Audible books even though they were not of the same book....more
Written in a modern, gossipy tone, this is a quick read about people who should've known better. No one told Nero he shouldn't jump up and down on a pWritten in a modern, gossipy tone, this is a quick read about people who should've known better. No one told Nero he shouldn't jump up and down on a pregnant woman's abdomen. I doubt he'd have listened if they had. Most of the couples and their high jinks are fairly famous: the Borgias, Eleanor of A. and Henry, Henry VIII and any of his wives, Caroline Lamb and Lord Byron, John and Effie Ruskin, Oscar Wilde and Lord "We Were Just Pals" Alfred, Edith Wharton and her one-night stand ... but Timothy Dexter's story and Anna Ivanovna's I hadn't. And Wright also writes about the one man of Alma Mahler that Tom Lehrer left out. I don't remember anything about Norman Mailer and I'm sort of glad Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor got back together, although that might not have been the break-up Wright intended writing about. The book is meant to make people (probably women) feel better about their own break-ups, so I had to look back on mine. I don't recall mine being particularly messy and so not really worth writing about, so I missed out on the Schadenfreude here. Still, light and entertaining....more
I was putting away the Ehrenreich book (Bright-Sided) on the large print shelf and this was sitting right next to it. I had heard Alda speak about it I was putting away the Ehrenreich book (Bright-Sided) on the large print shelf and this was sitting right next to it. I had heard Alda speak about it on the "Hidden Brain" podcast and when I saw it in a bookstore, I almost bought it but another book I had been looking at was scooped up by a friend and I didn't buy anything that day. It hadn't occurred to me that it would be at the library. And in large print! I can still read regular print, but with the cfc bulbs in the living room and cats all over me, it's difficult. This was a quick and entertaining read wherein Alda takes his own advice. He begins with a story that's an example of what he's talking about. He has used his experiences in improvisation (as regards theatre) to show other people, mostly scientists, how to engage their lay listeners, be they patients, students, or just government officials in charge of grants. The improvisation exercises, which have sod-all to do with science or even words, develop empathy in people used to talking to other people who know exactly what they're talking about. It has helped jargon-spewing intellectuals and kids on the autism spectrum as well as Alda in his acting. Alda also realizes that empathy has a dark side to be abused by bullies and torturers, but it's still a valuable tool in communicating effectively. It can even help communicate math to math-haters. In communicating, he recommends keeping to one point - never more than three. Start with a personal anecdote or a story. Story is a great communicator. Be aware of your listeners' body language (see title). Find common ground/experiences to make connections. And dip your listeners in ice water so the stress will help them remember what you said. Or something like that. ...more
Ehrenreich starts with her own experience with breast cancer, a world where positive thinking was mandatory and other ... patients (never "victims") wEhrenreich starts with her own experience with breast cancer, a world where positive thinking was mandatory and other ... patients (never "victims") would jump on you if you spoke of it as anything less than a "gift." Positive thinking was touted as helping to prevent cancer or other illnesses, so therefore if you did get cancer or succumbed to it, it was your own fault for not being positive enough. This style of victim-blaming has spread through the business world. If you get laid off, you weren't thinking positive enough. If you don't get rehired, ditto. Positivity "experts" recommend not reading/watching bad news and eliminating "negative" people from your life or business. All of this serves to remove the person from reality. Naysayer in your company? Ignore them! Think positive! What do you care about facts? Worse, in the calvary charge to be all about return on investment for stockholders, Corporate America has used the positivity vibe-thing to bludgeon the remaining employees into working harder, faster to make up for the huge amount of employees laid off. Ehrenreich even goes so far as to lay some of the blame of the real estate bubble and subsequent crash on this self-imposed exile from reality. Ehrenreich even highlighted that part of the video "The Secret" that appalled me: the one where the woman looks at a necklace in a window and later wears it. This reminded me of the confused Buddhists who accosted me in Cambridge MA and told me I should chant "om mani padma hum" and it would bring me whatever I wanted. Is this what religion has come to? Praying for material goods? Ehrenreich also writes about the Prosperity Gospel megachurches that look more like corporate offices than churches. They don't even have crosses in them. I definitely can't see Jesus looking down from his last hours on earth listening to preachers talk about how God wants you to be rich, so maybe leaving him out is a kindness to Him. As horrifying as it sounded to me, at least if you backslide from a church you don't get fired. Skepticism no longer seems to be in our tool chest. Instead we have the Swiss Army Knife of positive thinking we can use to excise doubts and negative thoughts and beat ourselves up in other ways. Positive thoughts about available food would not have helped us on the savannah nor would blissfully discounting the concept of predators. This book has quickly led me to the conclusion that negativity is not all bad, that people who complain might actually have a point (sort of self-serving that), and that it's okay to be sad sometimes. In fact, I think it's sheer bloody-mindedness that's kept one of my friends with breast cancer going in the face of metastasis and ruinously expensive treatments. F*ck cancer! Stay angry, girl!...more
I always enjoy Ehrenreich's books. This one seems to wander a bit, although I can see the progression. Ehrenreich studied macrophages when they were cI always enjoy Ehrenreich's books. This one seems to wander a bit, although I can see the progression. Ehrenreich studied macrophages when they were considered to be the heroes of the immune system. It was only later she learned that they can consort with the enemy and cause inflammation that enables illnesses like arthritis and Alzheimer's as well as the spread of cancer. Ehrenreich asks if it's really worth what we go through to stay healthy. I've always thought that diet and exercise only make your life seem longer. And she asks what is medical "science" anyway? How much do we really know? It all seems to be based on tradition and what a patient expects. One day fat is bad for you, which leads to sugar dependence, and then it's sugar and refined starches that are bad. Didn't anyone research this stuff thoroughly? The fates of health gurus ... that die young(ish) are analyzed. Pancreatic cancer seems to predominate. There are people who actually want to live forever - in good shape, of course, but I still recall my dad in his 90s and up until 101 asking how old he was and then commenting, "That's old enough." The medical profession not enough, Ehrenreich goes on to explore the sense of self, the soul, and the universe. I started getting a bit depressed until she mentioned how helpful psilocybin was for the dying. Okay, now I want drugs. And to continue to eat delicious foods and get just enough exercise so that I can continue to do the fun things I enjoy doing now: digging up rocks. ...more
Lupton requires those who want to be charitible to allow the served their dignity, to distinguish between emergency and chronic needs, and to listen tLupton requires those who want to be charitible to allow the served their dignity, to distinguish between emergency and chronic needs, and to listen to the people they want to help. It's a short book with a couple of salient points he reiterates and illustrates with mistakes of his own. There's a bit too much God in there for my taste, but the lesson carries over to secular aid as well. He promotes food co-ops over food pantries, resale shops over church closets, and micro-loans over cash hand-outs. All of this takes more effort and runs counter to the needs of the giver to feel good about themselves. Too bad! He doesn't have nice things to say about missionaries/Religious tourism. They take work away from the people they're trying to help. Challenging....more
This sort of book really is up my alley, as my friend said. I enjoyed The Professor and the Madman, which apparently had a different, less exciting, tThis sort of book really is up my alley, as my friend said. I enjoyed The Professor and the Madman, which apparently had a different, less exciting, title as originally published in England. Simpson covers not only his history at the OED, but his personal life - which wasn't exactly necessary but ironic in that he has a daughter who never spoke, and lexicography in general and the OED specifically. I own that two-volume miniaturized version and love it. Like the others he mentioned, I had a certain amount of pride in being able to read the teensy print without the provided magnifying glass. This did not last. I now need bifocals just to read the normal sized print in this book. Simpson tells the story of the OED and certain words with spritely humor and and clarity. I know some of my friends have fallen asleep trying to read this, but not me. As soon as I learned to read I was reading a dictionary. I would start looking up a word and that word would lead to another word and that to another and then next thing I knew, I was reading a string of definitions down a whole page. The history of English (and, in fact, many other languages) enchants me. The idea that there is an online version with graphics and timelines, singing and dancing their information at me like Way Forward's Anthem software makes me long to play with it. We clearly don't have a link to it from our library. Not that I'm surprised. I imagine the subscription is something outrageous and only affordable by large institutions. Simpson covers how the OED handled (badly at first) words like the "F" word and "gay" and how difficult a simple word like "marriage" can be to define ... in today's political climate. The OED offices were even picketed, humorously, by a potato company on behalf of the potatoes who had been insulted by the entry "couch potato." "Clearly," he writes, "the demonstrators were people, not potatoes, as the potatoes were far too idle to get off their sofas in their own support." The book is liberally sprinkled with such delights. There is barely enough about Simpson's life to give this a sort of a plot, so if you're looking for plot or dysfunctional families - turn elsewhere. If you love language, delve in and have fun!...more
I had to turn this in because another patron wanted it and I wasn't getting anywhere in it. I get it, I get it. We need to sleep.I had to turn this in because another patron wanted it and I wasn't getting anywhere in it. I get it, I get it. We need to sleep....more
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