Weekly Blogging Challenge: Non-fiction

Posted September 30, 2020 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

I’ve decided to take part in a new blog hop, hosted by Long and Short Reviews. This week’s topic is “the non-fiction book you think everyone should read, and why”.

So the answer is David Quammen’s Spillover. It’s a little old now, I guess, since it’s what kinda set me on my current trajectory (just about to start my MSc in Infectious Diseases!) — but the points he makes about how “spillover” events occur and why are still as valid as ever, and it’s a good survey of some emerging infectious diseases which could cause huge problems. It basically predicts the current situation with COVID-19, which has burst out of its bat reservoir and become pandemic shockingly swiftly.

The gist is that, due to destroying habitat, increasing usage of land, and climate conditions… we’re increasing the contacts between humans and animals we previously didn’t come into contact with so much. Every species has their own share of diseases, and some of them can be transmitted to humans too. When that happens, that’s “spillover”, and we should expect to see that happen more and more.

So I think everyone should read that, to really understand what’s currently happening and why, and what should be done about it.

Tags: books, David Quammen, non-fiction, Weekly Blogging Challenge

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for a Younger Me

Posted September 8, 2020 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

It’s Tuesday, and I’m joining in with Top Ten Tuesday for the first time in a few weeks! The theme this week is “books for your younger self”, and I can think of a whooole bunch of different ways to interpret that. I’m going with a list of books I wish I’d read sooner than I did!

The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin. Okay, maybe this one’s cheating, but I’m reading this at the moment and being so annoyed at my slightly younger self for not jumping right on that.
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. This book has been such a comfort to me; teenage me could’ve really done with it.
Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart. Or really any Mary Stewart book; I was so snobby about romance novels, but reading Stewart and Heyer made me see. How much awesome could I have read if I started sooner?!
Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi. I feel like I’d have appreciated this even more if I’d read it when I was closer to the age it’s aimed at. I liked it now, but… I’d have liked it more then, I think.
An Unsuitable Heir, by K.J. Charles. Also one of the books that properly pulled me into romance, but this one is extra special because the existence of Pen as a character, as a person it was possible to be, would’ve possibly sped up figuring out some stuff for me.
Spillover, by David Quammen. Because it helped me figure out that staying curious about stuff really does help with anxiety — and maybe if I’d read it a couple of years earlier, some of my anxiety would have hit less hard. Or maybe it’d have chosen a different path, who knows.
Feet in Chains, by Kate Roberts. Or pretty much any Welsh classics, the existence of which I only discovered at the age of 21, having been told that Welsh people didn’t write anything worth reading.
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey. I needed Hero. Much like Pen, they’d have taught me a bit more about what’s possible. Also, hippos.
Strange Practice, by Vivian Shaw. This is just so much fun, I’d have liked it to be in my life way before now.
Strong Poison, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Or the whole series, of course, but I can’t believe I only picked these up in my twenties. Though that’s partly because they were out of print, I think? I can’t imagine my mother wouldn’t have bought me them sooner if they were in print.