Three Stars

If you’ve been in a bookstore in the last few months, you’ve probably seen this book. Or maybe I’m the only one who kept noticing it. The cover shows two white girls, probably ten years old, with their heads together, half of each face outside of the frame. It was part of a ‘buy two, get one free’ sale at Powell’s (the same one that resulted in me reading The Martian, so I’m forever thankful for it), and the back looked like it might be good. And it was, mostly.

The book is set in St. Louis, and is told from the point of view of Kate, who has an identical twin sister Violet (Vi). According to the back cover “…in junior high, Kate makes a fateful decision that drives the sisters apart.” Eventually the sisters “find themselves drawn together again.”

I don’t think that really adequately captures what this book is about. Maybe it’s a good thing, because I’m not sure I would have read it if I’d actually known what it was about. I’m not spoiling anything that you don’t learn ten pages in – these sisters are psychic. Yeah, I didn’t get a supernatural vibe from that description either, but that sixth sense is kind of a giant part of the book, and since it is introduced in the first chapter, it’s kind of odd it isn’t mentioned in the blurb. Or maybe they rightfully thought it might turn off people who would otherwise enjoy it. The ‘fateful decision’ also isn’t, really fateful. Or nearly as dramatic as the description would describe.

But the book is really interesting because it follows a woman who is otherwise what we’d likely describe as ordinary. Educated woman not working outside the home because she’s raising two young children; husband with a decent job. She also has a less than ideal family, and had a much less than ideal childhood. The author does, I think, a good job of creating a very vivid world, and showing that not everyone who we think is ‘ordinary’ is as they appear. I’m not thrilled with the ending, although it seems fairly true to the characters involved. I say add it to your library list.

Two Stars

Hmmm. This book could have been fantastic. Sadly, it was closer to mediocre. There is a lot of good information in it, and I am taking the message to heart. But it was not presented well, and so I can’t really recommend it to others. The author does have a website, however, which might be better (I haven’t checked it out yet).

The book takes quite a while to get going. The entire first chapter felt like filler. I think much of the information could have been shared in two or three pages, not 19.

In that intro, the author attempt to protect his ideas from criticism by saying that he abides by four principles, and if you don’t, that’s fine, but then this book is not for you. Those principles are:
1. You must be open to new ideas
2. You must be dissatisfied with the status quo
3. You must be willing to take personal responsibility
4. You must be willing to work hard

I am absolutely on board with 1, 2 and 4 as they are. And I’m on board with what I hope is the concept behind number 3. However. I find, based purely on my own experience, that “personal responsibility” is often the code privileged people use to blame other people for not doing what they do. I think the concept of taking control makes sense – I’m not a fatalist, and I don’t think people are just stuck wherever they are – but I’m also not so naïve as to think that a white dude living in the U.S.A. might have a bit of an easier time taking ‘personal responsibility’ than others.

But let’s move past that. As I said in the beginning, there is a lot of good stuff in here, but the way it is presented isn’t the best. Also, the author fills the book with anecdotes to illustrate his points (good) and little relevant quotes (also usually good). However, you might recall if you read my review of “Start with Why,” I’m quite aware of the gender and race of the examples authors choose to use. In this book, there were by my count 88 quotes and anecdotes; 73 were men and 13 were women. And most were white. It’s hard to view someone as a harbinger of non-conformity when so much of what he finds inspirational comes from such a homogenous group.

Is that entirely fair? Probably not. Especially because, as I’ve said a couple of times, there is a lot in here that is useful. It’s just not a good book.

Five Stars

Do you like maps? Infographics? Data? London? Do you think Edward Tufte is a genius? Then do I have a book for you…

I love maps. I think they are my favorite form of decoration. They are also fascinating to me – the idea that someone figured out and then drew to scale where every little bit of a place is. One of my favorite episodes of the West Wing involves a discussion of how maps can both show data and distort it, and how that has implications for much more than just visual aesthetics.

This book takes all manner of data to create 100 maps and infographics that do, as promised, ‘change how you view the city.’ I was lucky enough to live in London for a year, so some of the maps might mean a bit more to me than someone who has never visited, but I think that a similar book for a city I’ve never visited (say, Mexico City, or Chicago) would still be just as fascinating.

The authors break the maps down into five broad categories: where we are, who we are, where we go, how we’re doing and what we like. In a couple of the sections, the authors take very old maps, and overlay velum with new information so you can view how things (such as the distribution of poverty) have changed. At other times they use sparklines to show how death rates have changed by each of the 32 boroughs and by cause of death. They take a survey that measured four different components of happiness and created a system so that by looking at the eyes, mouth, shading and lines tell how those components all interact, on average, by borough.

Some of the graphics are quirky and, while interesting, are worth a quick read; others I could have spent an hour pouring over. Some are also just stunning; in fact, as a birthday present my husband ordered one of the graphics, and it is being framed as we speak. Like I said, I love maps.

This book is a snapshot; it was published in fall 2014 so the information should be thought of as a glimpse in time; some of the information came from the 2011 census (the data just having been released in 2013). I hope that they will revisit this concept after the 2021 census, creating new but related infographics so we can see how the diverse city is changing.

One star

I’m known for being quite sarcastic. I know that some people find sarcasm to be the lowest form of communication; I’m okay with that. So it isn’t surprising that, as part of a trio of joke gifts (the other items being a screaming pickle and a Jesus refrigerator magnet set), my husband and I were gifted this book by our friends.

It is so bad. I don’t know what they were going for, but unless it was unoriginality, they missed the mark. I know that it is odd to call out a book about insults and comebacks as being too mean … but it is. It’s not clever, it’s extremely lazy. There are certainly things that people should be insulted for – cruelty, racism, bigotry – but that doesn’t really comprise any of the insults in this book. Instead, the authors go for the insults that uphold the status quo. There’s nothing subversive about mocking people who are fat, or ugly, or mentally ill. It doesn’t require any cleverness. I’m guessing that literally anyone reading this review can come up with a (completely unfunny) fat joke at the drop of a hat, because society thinks fat people should be mocked.

For a book of insults to be worth reading, I think it should include the type of insults that really cut to the bone. Figure out insults for the people who mock fat people. Come up with some comebacks to when someone marks on another person’s mental health status. If you’re wanting to joke about hygiene, do something better than offer “you must be a feminist” (like, what?).

You’ll notice this book is available on Amazon for $.01. Save your money – it’s not worth that.

Three Stars

This is the third of Dr. Gawande’s books I’ve read and reviewed for Cannonball Read, and it’s probably my least favorite. However, it’s still a decent book that I’m glad I read.

The book is ostensible about ‘how success is achieved in this complex and risk-filled profession,’ talking about medicine. And there are certainly many really compelling stories about medicine. But I wasn’t really able to follow any sort of coherent theme to the stories. I almost felt like I was reading a collection of interesting essays as opposed to a book that was seeking to make a strong point about how to improve the field of medicine (and, in turn, other field).

Dr. Gawande splits the stories into three sections: diligence, doing right, and ingenuity. There are three-five stories in each section that purport to demonstrate the benefits of diligence, doing right or ingenuity. I think the strongest, most interesting section for me is the Doing Right section, especially in areas such as the ethics of physicians participating in the death penalty. And as I said, all of the stories are interesting to read, but I don’t think Dr. Gawande does a great job connecting them or really telling the ready what point he’s looking to make.

The book ends with a few pages that seem to come out of nowhere but that I think could have been woven into the book to create that theme that I felt was missing. Dr. Gawande proposes five things to do to improve in your field: ask an unscripted question, don’t complain, count something, write something, and change. I can see applying these to my current work, and would have enjoyed reading more about them in relation to the stories he has told throughout the book.

Five Stars

“Tears. I’m not going to say whether they are tears of joy or sadness, but just know. Tears.”

I said that to my husband about five minutes ago, when I finished this fucking fantastic novel. I loved it. I started it last night around 7:30. I finished it five minutes ago. During that time I slept, worked a nine-hour day, and read this book.

I don’t really read science fiction. And I don’t even know if that’s how I’d categorize this book. Yes, it is fiction, and yes, it is all about the science. And it is set some days in the future, enough days that we can already be sending a third mission to mars. But it’s not, I guess, how I pictured science fiction could be.

The Martian is the tale of Mark Watney. He was left behind when the other five members of his crew had to make an emergency evacuation from Mars. They thought he was dead. But he’s not. The story is mostly told from his entries into a computer log. The first lines of the book, in fact, are: “I’m pretty much fucked.” And indeed he is. Six days into a 31-day mission. So he’s got, what enough food for that long, for six people? That’s about it. He doesn’t have any way to communicate with Earth, or the crew that left him back.

What would you do?

Mark is amazing at keeping his sense of humor. He’s a guy I’d want to know. And his will to figure out a way to first, survive and then to get off the planet is amazing. It’s a nearly 400-page book, so you can imagine that shit happens. Not every second, but often enough to keep the book believable but totally engaging. And the science! Oh the science. It’s just a joy to read. So fun. So captivating. I’m sad it’s over.

However … apparently it is being turned into a movie. DO NOT look at IMDB until you’ve read the book, but I can say that I think the casting is perfection.

Five Stars

My first five-star book of 2015! I was a little worried about picking up a long, dense, science non-fiction book after so much young adult reading the past week or so. But this book was fantastic. I found it at Powell’s in the health and medical section and I’m just so glad I did.

Ms. Ravage does a really excellent job of describing what really goes on when someone is burned. I imagine that when most of us think about a burn injury, we picture a sunburn, or a blister on an arm that bumped up against the oven when pulling out a tray of cookies. Some of us might think about tragic events like the Rhode Island nightclub fire, or perhaps people who have jumped from burning buildings. But how many of us really know what goes on when someone is seriously burned? It’s likely that if you or a close loved one hasn’t experienced it, you don’t know much about it.

This book focuses on the burn unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which is unique in some ways. For example, they don’t use water tanks for debridement (the cleaning and scraping of wounds), whereas most other units across the country do. But the unit is an amazing, close-knit community of nurses, burn techs, doctors, psychiatrists and others offering support for those who are burned and their family members.

I knew a little bit about burns – that they can leave scars, that large wounds need to be cleaned and that it is excruciating. But I didn’t really know about the physiology of burns. Like the fact that the first week isn’t actually the worst; many can survive the first days but then die from the injuries. The impact on the respiratory system is can be huge if smoke or other chemicals are inhaled; the burns themselves trigger all sorts of haywire reactions, like the rushing of fluid to the site (causing major swelling), and metabolism that can start eating through lean muscle. The book also described what shock actually is which, frankly, I didn’t really understand until now.

Through all of this, Ms. Ravage is telling two stories: one of Dan O’Shea (not his name) and one of Mike Parent. Dan was burned while passed out after a night of drinking and was kept sedated for a couple of months; Mike was injured when a pot caught fire, creating burns on his arms. Their stories are interesting and provide a way to apply the knowledge Ms. Ravage is imparting to real people.

If you have any interest in medicine, or in quality science writing, I just cannot recommend this book enough.