This book is not really one I’d pick up, except for the rave reviews I was reading about it. So I decided to give it (and soccer lit) a go. Is that a thing? Soccer lit? Well, it is now. I liked the narrator. Sal Casillas is strong, funny, and swears appropriately. But she’s also a bit annoying, in a righteously indignant way. And let me tell you, she. has. done. nothing. wrong. If there is a takeaway from this book, let it be that. Because […]
It’s flu season, let’s talk about all the diseases that can kill you…
Now that flu season is in full swing, and our flu shots aren’t doing us much good this year, it’s a good time to talk about all the disgusting diseases that can kill you. But let’s up the stakes and focus on diseases that spread worldwide, we’re talking cholera, Ebola, SARS…pandemic level contagions. Sonia Shah’s book, Pandemic, focuses heavily on cholera, tracking its meager beginnings to its reemergence today. Shah believes that by studying cholera, many other world diseases can be understood. But she doesn’t […]
Give Me Liberty! And two book reviews.
Give me liberty! And two book reviews damn it! Yes, I’m reviewing (more) textbooks. Why American History? Well, my instructor asked me the same question, and here was my answer to him: Why History? Because it’s everywhere. It’s in the events that lead to a new technology, it’s in old pictures I see of myself, as I laugh at the fashion trend of the time. It’s in the changes in popular culture, or in our search to understand why something happened the way it did. […]
Surgery with no pain relief? NBD.
It’s hard to think that there used to be a day when people would willingly go into surgery without anesthesia of any kind…without sterile procedures in place…and without a formally trained doctor. But that’s just a taste of what people faced in the 19th century, when Thomas Dent Mutter practiced medicine. And the marvels that form part of his legacy are more than tangible curiosities in a cabinet. Dr. Mutter was born into a loving family, but he lost both his parents at a young […]