Genre: Non-fiction

Review – For the Love of Mars

Posted November 6, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

Review – For the Love of Mars

For the Love of Mars

by Matthew Shindell

Genres: History, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 247
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Mars and its secrets have fascinated and mystified humans since ancient times. Due to its vivid color and visibility, its geologic kinship with Earth, and its potential as our best hope for settlemen, Mars embodies everything that inspires us about space and exploration. For the Love of Mars journeys through the red planet's place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement.

This book isn’t really about the science of Mars — though that comes into it — but is more of a cultural history: an attempt to understand what Mars has meant to people, the framework in which people have understood it in different ages, and how that has shaped how we understand Mars now and the kind of assumptions we hold about it.

I found it a surprisingly slow read for the length, comparatively speaking; it was perhaps a bit drier than I expected for a book about Mars (which just goes to show how we think about Mars, I suppose), and spent rather a long time recounting the stories that people told about Mars, e.g. a detailed explanation of Dante’s Paradiso.

did expect a cultural history from the blurb (though it seems other people were misled), but I suppose I’d expected something focusing more on the modern part of it. I did really enjoy the chapter that discusses the Mars rovers and people’s intense, surprisingly emotional reactions to them.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Man Who Tasted Words

Posted November 4, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 3 Comments

Review – The Man Who Tasted Words

The Man Who Tasted Words

by Guy Leschziner

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 326
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning—the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance—is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves and, in most cases, completely out of our control.

In The Man Who Tasted Words, neurologist Guy Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have played havoc, not only with their view of the world, but with their relationships as well. The cases Leschziner shares are extreme, but they are also human, and teach us how our lives and what we perceive as reality are both ultimately defined by the complexities of our nervous systems.

The Man Who Tasted Words sounds like it’s going to be about a lexical->gustatory synaesthete, and the blurb also calls out that part, so I just want to say up front that it’s not really like that. There’s one chapter that discusses synaesthesia, and it doesn’t give it an especially long consideration or something.

In the end, it’s a book in the vein of many other similar books: the author’s a neurologist, and he draws stories from his practice to illustrate how the brain works, and how it fails to work. It’s always fascinating to read that kind of thing, but at the same time, this isn’t new at all. It has all the predictable beats (here’s the patient he failed, here’s the worst thing he’s ever experienced as a doctor, here’s the fascinating case), and the stories don’t particularly illustrate anything surprising and new.

So if you don’t read a lot of these, or conversely if you absolutely love them and read every single one you can get your hands on, this might be worth some time. I thought it was just OK, though.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Kraken

Posted November 1, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Review – Kraken

Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid

by Wendy Williams

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 223
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Kraken is the traditional name for gigantic sea monsters, and this book introduces one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants of the sea: the squid. The pages take the reader on a wild narrative ride through the world of squid science and adventure, along the way addressing some riddles about what intelligence is, and what monsters lie in the deep. In addition to squid, both giant and otherwise, Kraken examines other equally enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly abilities, such as camouflage and bioluminescence.

Kraken was okay, but I felt the lack of numbered footnotes and felt it was all pretty slight, relying on personal interview and recounting of encounters between people and squid, rather than focusing on squid directly. There are endnotes with a few pages of sources, but it’s impossible to match up anything said in a specific chapter with the sources, which are just alphabetised.

It’s pretty readable, and there are some interesting anecdotes, but it feels like the author didn’t really had enough material — even padding out the book with a chapter on octopodes, instead of staying focused on squid. (Of course they are related, but the chapter wasn’t about the similarities/differences so much, just spent time describing a specific encounter with an octopus and such.)

So overall, it was okay, and there was some new-to-me information, but… ultimately, nothing too surprising, and no moments where I wanted to turn to someone and say “hey, did you know…?”

Rating: 2/5

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Review – A History of Rome in 21 Women

Posted October 31, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A History of Rome in 21 Women

A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women

by Emma Southon

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 336
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Here’s how the history of the Roman Empire usually goes… We start with Romulus, go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin, bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls, before emerging into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. From there, it runs through all the emperors, occasionally mentioning a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, until Constantine invents Christianity and then Attila the Hun comes and ruins everything. But the history of Rome and empire is so much more than these Important Things.

In this alternative history, Emma Southon traces the story of the Roman Empire through women: Vestal Virgins and sex workers, business owners and poets, martyrs and saints. Each gives a different perspective on women’s lives and how they changed, across time and across class lines.

Received to review via Netgalley

Emma Southon has a particular style that I imagine some people really hate: conversational, chatty, often even flippant. When she doesn’t know something, because no one knows, she says so. When she’s painting a picture from imagination to fill in the gaps, or choosing one interpretation of many, she says so very frankly. I find it very readable, and I appreciate how clear she is about when she’s using sources, how she’s using sources, and when she’s just having to make things up — or choose one option above others because there’s nothing particular to tell them apart. She’s interested in telling a story here, and it shows.

That said, I can understand why those who are just looking for facts would rather she stop it; for all that she’s clear about sources vs imagination, it’s really not formalised. Don’t let that fool you, though: there’s an extensive bibliography at the back.

I really liked Southon’s plan to discuss events through women: I was kind of surprised Livia wasn’t a choice, for example, or Cleopatra, or Agrippina (who Southon has written a whole biography of!) — but instead Southon makes a harder decision, and often picks less well-known women.

I found it really enjoyable, though I still prefer her book on murder in Ancient Rome.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid

Posted October 28, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid

by Thor Hanson

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 304
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

In Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, biologist Thor Hanson tells the remarkable story of how plants and animals are responding to climate change: adjusting, evolving, and sometimes dying out. Anole lizards have grown larger toe pads, to grip more tightly in frequent hurricanes. Warm waters cause the development of Humboldt squid to alter so dramatically that fishermen mistake them for different species. Brown pelicans move north, and long-spined sea urchins south, to find cooler homes. And when coral reefs sicken, they leave no territory worth fighting for, so aggressive butterfly fish transform instantly into pacifists.

A story of hope, resilience, and risk, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is natural history for readers of Bernd Heinrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David Haskell. It is also a reminder of how unpredictable climate change is as it interacts with the messy lattice of life.

I found this surprisingly optimistic, given that the topic is the way animals and plants are adapting to changing climates and ecosystem upheaval. Hanson presents a fairly hopeful picture, though he tries repeatedly to temper the hope with reality — the refugia that allow species to survive in tiny slices of microclimate aren’t going to save species forever, and even those species which can move to a new place are causing immense disruption wherever they arrive.

I still fear that people will read this and come away with the feeling that everything will, somehow, be fine, because species are extraordinarily resilient and changeable. But as Hanson takes some pains to point out, that’s only some species. The examples he gives are just a handful.

It’s a very readable book, and fascinating: it ranges through a number of very different habitats, making its points.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The First Fossil Hunters

Posted October 22, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The First Fossil Hunters

The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths and Myth in Greek and Roman Times

by Adrienne Mayor

Genres: History, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 400
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Griffins, Cyclopes, Monsters, and Giants--these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact -- in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.

I really enjoyed this exploration and analysis of what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought of ancient fossils that they found and clearly noticed, collected and wondered about; the idea that they were “too big to be noticed” never sat right with me, even though it did seem weird that mostly the major philosophers didn’t comment on the subject (despite that well-known commentary on seashells demonstrating the presence of a long-lost sea in a given location).

I think that sometimes Mayor does go beyond her evidence — we just can’t be that certain, though she lays out some good evidence that tales of the existence of gryphons could’ve been sparked, in Greece, by second-hand travellers’ tales. I found that aspect of her discussion a bit thin, because there’s stuff in Greek mythology that is equally well or better explained by someone making stuff up.

That said, her discussion of “heroes’ bones” makes a lot of sense, and I do think it’s likely that stuff in Greek mythology references aspects of the world the Greeks didn’t understand, or didn’t properly understand anyway.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Fevered Planet

Posted October 21, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Fevered Planet

Fevered Planet

by John Vidal

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 352
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Covid-19, mpox, bird flu, SARS, HIV, AIDS, Ebola; we are living in the Age of Pandemics - one that we have created. As the climate crisis reaches a fever pitch and ecological destruction continues unabated, we are just beginning to reckon with the effects of environmental collapse on our global health.

Fevered Planet exposes how the way we farm, what we eat, the places we travel to and the scientific experiments we conduct create the perfect conditions for deadly new diseases to emerge and spread faster and further than ever. Drawing on the latest scientific research and decades of reporting from more than 100 countries, former Guardian environment editor John Vidal takes us into deep, disappearing forests in Gabon and the Congo, valleys scorched by wildfire near Lake Tahoe and our densest, polluted cities to show how closely human, animal and plant diseases are now intertwined with planetary destruction.

From fossil fuel use raising the global temperature to increased logging polluting our landscapes, Fevered Planet exposes the perils of reckless environmental destruction - not just to our planet but to ourselves. As Vidal expertly argues, unless we transform our relationship with the rest of the natural world, the pandemics we are facing today will just be the tip of the iceberg.

If you’ve read books like David Quammen’s Spillover (the book which once nudged me toward my current studies!) then the premise of Fevered Planet comes as no surprise: habitat destruction through human agency is driving animals into closer contact with humans, leading to more and more spillover events of zoonotic diseases.

The details are a little more nuanced: there’s more emphasis here than I remember from Spillover on climate change as a causative issue here, which only makes sense because of the expansion of viable territory for mosquitos, the way temperatures favour the reproductive cycle of some pathogens, the way that habitat destruction/change leads to movement of animals… And Vidal points the finger less at wet markets, claiming that there was never any real evidence that COVID-19 originated from one — in fact, if anything, Vidal gives quite a bit of credence to the idea of SARS-CoV-2 being a manufactured disease that slipped loose from a lab.

Now and then, Vidal does slip and write something abjectly silly, like claiming that Ebola and Marburg “cells” are going to be mixed into smallpox viruses. That’s not possible because Ebola and Marburg “cells” simply don’t exist: it’s an impossibility, because they are viruses, obligately intracellular rather than possessing any cell body of their own. Perhaps he meant genes, or specific virulence factors of some other type, but what he wrote is an absurdity. It shows that either he doesn’t understand the science or he isn’t paying attention to detail — and either makes me question his ability to present other concepts accurately (and whether anyone properly proofread the whole book).

For the most part, it’s well-written, and what he writes accords with what I know and with what the sources I checked seem to suggest. Nonetheless, handle with care, and check any source you’re planning to quote or otherwise make use of to ensure that his presentation of the facts is correct.

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