Tag: non-fiction

Review – The Good Virus

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

Cover of The Good Virus by Tom IrelandThe Good Virus, Tom Ireland

This is one of those popular science books that got me excited by teaching me new things — something that you wouldn’t think is easy when it comes to things like viruses, which I’m studying during my MSc at LSHTM. The “good viruses” of the title are bacteriophages, though: viruses that specifically target bacteria as their natural hosts, and surprisingly little is sad about those when you’re studying viruses in general, despite the fact that — as Ireland makes clear — they’re absolutely ubiquitous. If anything rules the world by sheer numbers, it’s bacteriophages, and they’re absolutely everywhere, from the icecaps to the deep ocean to the human body.

It’s likely that Ireland is a little hyperbolic at times here about the potentials of bacteriophages, though he does sound a note of caution here and there about his own enthusiasm. But it’s also true that bacteriophages offer us some answers to knotty problems, like antimicrobial resistance, and we’d be stupid to keep turning away. I had no idea that bacteriophages were being used to treat bacterial infections in clinics in places like Georgia, and I had no idea that “the West” was so pathetically behind and completely unable to legislate in ways that would make clinical trials possible. It’s exciting, and vital, and I have so many questions about why we’re not in a hurry to do more.

If you’re in my position, where you study this stuff, then obviously this book — absolutely riveting as I found it — isn’t the end: you’ll need to read papers, ask further questions, and maybe get in the lab. But as a starting point, it’s a good read, informative and enthusiastic, and full of titbits I couldn’t wait to share with… well. More or less everyone who stayed within earshot for long enough, actually.

This is the best kind of popular science, shining a light on something that is wrongly obscure, and it has plenty of resources in the footnotes to guide you to where the info comes from. (That said, more footnotes would’ve been good. I wasn’t always happy with statements that didn’t have references.)

So glad I picked this up.

Rating: 5/5

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Review – Fans

Posted July 23, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Fans by Michael BondFans: A Journey into the Psychology of Belonging, Michael Bond

Michael Bond discusses fandom with an amount of sympathy that I found a little surprising, since (as a member of multiple fandoms) I’ve experienced a fair bit of hostility to that type/level of nerdery. Even when it comes to furries and otherkin, the tone is sympathetic, and he honours their identities by referring to them in the way they want to be referred to.

Nothing in this book was terribly surprising to me, nor did it really constitute a description of rigorous research — it comes out more like a collection of fandom-related anecdotes and explanations, highlighting the experiences of some fans and describing what fandom can be like (e.g. Jane Austen fandom, or Michael Jackson fandom). It touches on some dark stuff, like being a fan of Michael Jackson despite the accusations made against him, and especially the stuff about fans of serial killers and mass murderers… but it maintains a pretty light, non-judgemental tone.

It basically mildly puts across the message that fandom is enriching for many people, even restorative, and can help you find your “people”. I think most fans could tell you that!

Rating: 3/5

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Review – A History of Reading

Posted July 19, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of A History of Reading by Steven Roger FischerA History of Reading, Steven Roger Fischer

A History of Reading is an interesting look at reading throughout history. It’s not just the history of books, or stories, but about the place that literacy has generally in society, and a bit of what that meant for society — e.g. how it affects things as reading spreads away from the elite.

Some of the suggestions it has about ereading are very of its time: in reality, our ebooks have been very like our pbooks, without the wild branching of possibilities and jumping around in texts that the author suggests may come next. Likewise, pbooks don’t seem to be going away at  the rate people expected back then: we’re all still very fond of our codices.

Still, on the historical stuff it’s fascinating, if a bit slow.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Hidden Heritage

Posted July 7, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Hidden Heritage by Fatima ManjiHidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s Lost Love of the Orient, Fatima Manji

Hidden Heritage attempts to bring some hidden gems to life, along with their history and context. It’s not just a game of spotting bits of ‘Oriental’ architecture and influence in Britain, but digging into what they meant at the time and what they might mean now. Much of it was new to me — not necessarily surprising, because I knew these influences existed, but new to me in the specifics, in someone actually bothering to point them out.

Fatima Manji’s writing is clear and easy to read in and of itself, but I especially enjoyed getting to read some bits of history that we’re usually less aware of.

Note: the book uses the term “Oriental”, even though it conflates a whole bunch of different cultures, because that’s how it was perceived at the time, and those cultures were conflated and viewed as one (or at least, as very, very closely related), and thus must be understood in that context.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Pathogenesis

Posted May 29, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Cover of Pathogenesis by Jonathan KennedyPathogenesis, Jonathan Kennedy

Pathogenesis was less absorbing for me than I’d hoped; I love non-fiction about diseases, even though I’m already studying for my MSc in the subject and thus most of it is not new to me. Still, often there are titbits I didn’t know, and that seemed like it was going to prove true here too when I read the introduction: did you know that viral genes are involved in the formation of the mammalian placenta?

But overall, the rest of it was much less scientific, less based on… well… pathogenesis, and much more about history. How diseases affected armies and governments, and how changes like capitalism (of which the author seems to be a huge fan) changed the approach to public health. Which is to say, created a demand for it, since there was no such thing under feudalism.

For someone who is interested in the history of infectious diseases in relation to humanity, this is probably still fascinating. For me, it was just a bit to starboard of my real interests, and I found it far too simplistic in discussing how diseases work. (Plus, there was definitely a lot more room to consider the impacts of the current pandemic and what it means for the future. Consider the impact on the treatment of tuberculosis, for example — deeply negative.)

It was alright, but not what I wanted, ultimately.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Premonitions Bureau

Posted May 3, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Premonitions Bureau by Sam KnightThe Premonitions Bureau, Sam Knight

The study of things like psychic powers and premonitions is always fascinating. There’s a sense that so many of us want to believe in this sort of thing — the way the human brain insists that there must be a pattern behind circumstances. One can be fairly intellectually sure that there’s no such thing as precognition per se, and yet find it a little freaky that (say) a young girl would dream of her school being swallowed up by black stuff a couple of nights before she dies in the Aberfan disaster…

This book is all about digging into that, mostly through looking at the investigations and interests of John Barker, a British psychiatrist who tried to gather up premonitions and test them scientifically. He was sometimes a bit too credible, a bit too inclined to influence the data — but then, two of his clairvoyants (percipients, as he called them) predicted his death fairly accurately, and had a number of other surprisingly specific hits (such as predicting a train derailment).

The book mostly follows Barker, along with a few of his colleagues, trying to understand his attempts to study premonitions, and why he was so fascinated by the subject. Knight doesn’t attempt to come to any conclusions, just presents the facts as best as they can be known — though of course there’s always a chance someone massaged the facts to make a better story, whether it was Barker, one of his colleagues, or Knight himself.

There’s quite a bit of detail on the Aberfan disaster in the first 50 pages, by the way, which hit me where I live. If that disaster is particularly evocative for you, then read with care.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Sex: Lessons from History

Posted April 19, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Sex: Lessons from History by Fern RiddellSex: Lessons from History, Fern Riddell

A comprehensive history of sex would be a tall order: sexual behaviour doesn’t fossilise, after all, and it’s so often been a taboo subject that even in written history, it can be hard to find evidence. Riddell doesn’t try too hard to find evidence far back in the past, but works with what records we have, reminding us all of the lies we keep telling ourselves about the Victorians being total prudes about sex, about the historical treatment of queer people, etc. She dips into court records and ad copy, so it’s not just contemporary accounts that specifically aimed to discuss sex and attitudes toward it, but also additional evidence.

Riddell’s prose is really readable and full of anecdotes and illustrations from the records, which means it’s not dry at all. It does focus on sex and people who have sex, but touches on gender identity as well, with caution about applying modern labels and concepts to people who never wrote about what they felt or intended; asexuality is referenced, but not really discussed.

There’s quite a range of topics here (homosexuality, masturbation, orgasms, contraception), so it doesn’t go into too much depth on any one thing; rather, it’s a bit of an overview.

Referencing is fairly clear, using footnotes rather than end-notes (so more specific than many popular non-fic books), and there’s an index. There are a few editing issues that I really think should’ve been caught — typos and such.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Blurb Your Enthusiasm

Posted April 16, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Blurb Your Enthusiasm by Louise WillderBlurb Your Enthusiasm, Louise Willder

I didn’t find Blurb Your Enthusiasm hugely surprising or enlightening in the way it spoke about blurbs and the process of preparing books for publication. Back in high school, my favourite teacher told us to read everything and think about it in terms of the audience, the intent, what it was trying to do — and that’s always stuck with me. I don’t remember if he had us analysing blurbs, but we did look at various different kinds of copy, and as a result much of what Willder writes here sounds like common sense to me. It might be quite illuminating for others, but that’s hard to judge.

That said, I really enjoyed writing the book anyway. Writing something really short like a blurb requires crisp writing, with attention to sound and feel, and in the case of a blurb to very specific purposes as well; that practice has honed Willder’s own writing. She’s let herself get a little wordy here, but nonetheless, I could tell that she wrote attentively, choosing the right words.

The little mouse doodles are cute, too, and her writing is light and easy to read and sometimes funny — but mostly I was captured by the crisp feel of it, the way I wanted to hang on every word even when they weren’t at all surprising.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Lady Sapiens

Posted April 14, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment

Cover of Lady Sapiens by Thomas Cirotteau, Jennifer Kerner, Eric PincasLady Sapiens, Thomas Cirotteau, Jennifer Kerner, Eric Pincas

There was less information that was new to me here than I’d hoped: in part, probably at least in part because this isn’t that recent, and I’ve read some more recently published books that touch on the same subjects. That said, if you’re not that familiar with what we know about prehistoric humans, then this is a good catch-up — whether you’re interested specifically in understanding prehistoric women or not.

In fact, a lot of this isn’t really that specific. While they look to the evidence where possible, trying to discern whether women ever hunted or could’ve hunted, or if women made flint tools or not, etc, often they can only say general things, or speculate. Often it’s like they want to be bold and say women could’ve played an active part in hunts, and then they dial it back and only say “women could’ve been involved at hunting camps”. There is some scant evidence (only men showed one-armed strength enhancements suggesting spear-throwing) but mostly it’s guesses.

It’s a readable summary, but not groundbreaking. Despite the ‘Venus’ figurine on the cover, and frequent references to them, it doesn’t actually dig very deeply into what they are, for lack of evidence.

It also lacks critical engagement: it briefly mentions that women may have made figurines that looked like bodies from their own perspective, looking down at their bodies. It then responds to that saying most in the field think that’s silly, because women would’ve known what women looked like by looking at other women. Well, so? Take another step: why should we always represent what other people look like? The fact that women have usually seen other women doesn’t actually mean they want to sculpt other people. Self-portraits are a thing.

This book doesn’t go so far, just saying “some people say this, some people say that’s silly” without digging into it. I know it’s a popular science book, but still. C’mon. You can dig in a bit deeper than that.

It also, of course, assumes that anyone who appears female based on their bones or burial circumstances had a female role in society, which we know isn’t always the best guide.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Museum of the Wood Age

Posted April 12, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Museum of the Wood Age by Max AdamsThe Museum of the Wood Age, Max Adams

The Museum of the Wood Age sounded like a fascinating concept: a thought experiment about how to gather together the proof of mankind’s use of wood, what kind of exhibits should there be? How would you make people understand the importance of wood throughout the ages? How can we preserve the ways of working with wood that have been passed down to us?

In practice… it was kind of slow. I don’t usually mind obscure details about things outside my usual field of interest, so it’s not that I wasn’t interested. In the end, perhaps it was just too detailed — or Adams’ writing just isn’t engaging enough.

Overall it was a bit of a slog, sadly, and things I was really interested in (like Seahenge!) were more touched upon than really discussed. If you’re fascinated by wood and the things you can make with it, the ubiquity of it in our society, I think there are definitely bits you’ll enjoy. It’s just all a bit long-winded.

Rating: 2/5

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