Sam Kean is my favorite science writer, for a few reasons. For one thing, he is a complete mad man about research. In chapter 2 of The Disappearing Spoon, Kean records the longest word in the English language. This champion of all English verbiage turns out to be a word that describes a protein on the first virus ever discovered and measures 1185 letters. (I’m not going to record it here because proofing that shit would take up the rest of my day.) What impresses […]
If Celebitchy and the Daily Mail had existed in the Middle Ages
Oh man, I am SO far behind on writing up my books. I’ve read good ones, I’ve just been lazy about talking about them. I picked up Get Well Soon after reading Caitlin_D’s review. I have been reading a lot of fluffy, historical murder mysteries so far and I felt the need to try something different. I really enjoy what I call “accessible non-fiction” which is basically non-fiction books written in a more casual, conversational style. Mary Roach is probably the best known example […]
It’s true that they don’t make good romantic comedies anymore
This was the most recent book club entry in the Cannonball Book Club, where the theme was movie related non-fiction. It wasn’t the book I voted for, but book clubs are all about expanding ones horizons and reading things you wouldn’t necessarily pick yourself, so I downloaded it from the library and started reading. Sadly, on the day of the actual book club discussion, I was feeling unwell, and not really able to take part as much as I would have liked. Of course, now it’s […]
In Which I Was Tormented By Alliteration
I should have stopped reading this book at this sentence: “The plain, practical Puritan and the gin-nipping flapper; robust Rosie the Riveter and waifish, wraith-like Twiggy; the billowing, buxom Gibson Girl and the beaded, barefoot earth mother…..” I’ll just stop there because I’m already angry and my brain hurts. I DNFed this book after page 100 because I just couldn’t take the alliteration anymore. It was like Dr. Seuss decided to leave children’s books behind and take on feminist non-fiction. Although I think Dr. Seuss […]