Where is your nonfiction section please.
October is upon us! (But we're almost hitting 80 degrees in New York City this weekend, so it does feel a bit...less than autumnal.) Still, that means it's time for the annual celebration of all reads spooky and scary from Molly @ Silver Button Books: Frighteningly Good Reads! I'm not much for reading challenges because... Continue Reading →
I'm still slowly trying to get back into the writing-about-books swing of things! Did I mention we moved New York apartments the month before moving German apartments? Yeah, I'm still fucking exhausted. And I've been reading a lot more slowly but still reading, and although I have no brainpower for full reviews, here are some... Continue Reading →
Programming note: It's been a long, inadvertent break; oops! I'm in Berlin, where my husband is working, and we're moving from a little temporary apartment into our own. I've been trying to work as normal while dealing with the move, buying every piece of furniture, houseware, appliance, etc. (a nightmare), and taking time for bike... Continue Reading →
Isn't science grand? Let's look at some very different recent releases in pop science. Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection, by Sam Apple Did you know that Hitler was obsessed with both sugar and cancer? He was! He was also consuming the former in the worst possible proportions if... Continue Reading →
Is there anything I love more than a best-of list? Maybe, but when a year's half-over and it's time to recap favorites, I can't think of anything better. Here are my favorites of the year's new nonfiction so far. The Soul of a Woman, by Isabel Allende - Allende's short but mighty powerful memoir (in... Continue Reading →
With the year half over, let's see what new and wondrous upcoming nonfiction we have to look forward to in the coming months! Here's what I'm excited for: The Icepick Surgeon : Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science, by Sam Kean (July 13) - Beginning "with Cleopatra’s... Continue Reading →
Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, by Michael Moss Food resonates so large in our memory because food looms so large in our lives. The act of eating touches everything we experience, everywhere we go, everyone we know, and everything we feel. As much as we are what we... Continue Reading →
Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients, by Robert Pearl My desire [... ] isn't to castigate the culture, belabor its shortcomings, or embarrass individual doctors. Instead, my hope is to improve healthcare delivery in our nation, evolve physician culture, and restore the joys that have been stripped from the profession. Robert... Continue Reading →
Psychiatry, prison-camp manufactured Chinese goods, and racist tales from Nebraska. What a grab bag today. Let's dive in! Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness, by Roy Richard Grinkerpublished January 26, 2021 by W.W. Norton Only recently did mental illnesses brand the whole person, not just his or her behavior, with what['s...]... Continue Reading →
Interestingly, three new books are out this month addressing scientific definitions of life and its hazy boundaries in some way. I've read them all. (What a contemplative time it's been, for better or worse.) Let's discuss! Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher: A Monkey's Head, the Pope's Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul, by... Continue Reading →
Book review: Gory Details, by Erika Engelhaupt Beyond satisfying my own weird inquisitiveness, the larger goal of Gory Details has always been to create a place where it's OK to talk about gross, taboo, or morbid topics -- and then to examine them, up close, through the lens of science. Science writer and editor Erika... Continue Reading →
Book review: Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez I use gender data gap as an overarching term because sex is not the reason women are excluded from data. Gender is. [...] The problem is the social meaning that we ascribe to that body, and a socially determined failure to account for it. Caroline Criado Perez's... Continue Reading →
